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Multiple-period market risk prediction under long memory: when VaR is higher than expected
|
[
"GARCH",
"Hurst exponent",
"Long memory",
"Multiple-period value-at-risk",
"Square-root-of-time rule",
"Volatility scaling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Various periods of financial market stress - including for example the market crash of October 1987, the burst of the internet bubble at the beginning of the new millennium and the recent financial crisis which began in 2007 - have increased both the regulatory as well as the industry demand for effective risk management, where value-at-risk (VaR) has become a standard in determining the level of risk capital. While financial institutions have to assure that their capital cushion is adequate in advance of a stress period such that institutions do not run into liquidity demands during a downturn, too conservative levels of risk capital lead to unnecessarily high and hence unproductive capital provisions[1].\n1 LM review: Long memory (LM, or long-range dependence) is a stylized property of the time-series behavior of financial market volatility. In this section, we provide a brief review.\n2 Forecasting market risk: 2.1 Single-period returns\n3 Empirical analysis: This section considers the predictive performance of the alternative VaR estimation models M0-M3, which were introduced in Section 2.5. We study the models' performance in the assessment of equity market risk. We additionally consider the robustness of our results in several directions.\n4 Conclusion: The prediction of multiple-period market risk relies on adequate volatility forecasts. While GARCH models perform quite well for one-day ahead volatility forecasts even during the recent 2007-2009 financial crisis (Brownlees et al., 2012), longer term volatility forecasts are more demanding. When risk forecasts are extrapolated to longer prediction horizons, the square-root-of-time rule is inappropriate for obvious reasons. We propose a straightforward asymmetric GARCH approach which addresses LM in volatility as well as skewness and fat-tails in the return innovations. We obtain superior forecast results as compared to other models of multiple-period volatility forecasting. While our results confirm the importance of LM for VaR prediction, we would suggest that other refinements may of course also prove to be important in adequate market risk prediction (see, for example, robust estimation as in Mancini and Trojani (2011), extreme value statistics as in Harmantzis et al. (2006) or nonparametric kernel estimation as in Huang and Tseng (2009)).\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The paper aims to model multiple-period market risk forecasts under long memory persistence in market volatility.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper proposes volatility forecasts based on a combination of the GARCH(1,1)-model with potentially fat-tailed and skewed innovations and a long memory specification of the slowly declining influence of past volatility shocks. As the square-root-of-time rule is known to be mis-specified, the GARCH setting of Drost and Nijman is used as benchmark model. The empirical study of equity market risk is based on daily returns during the period January 1975 to December 2010. The out-of-sample accuracy of VaR predictions is studied for 5, 10, 20 and 60 trading days.\nFindings: The long memory scaling approach remarkably improves VaR forecasts for the longer horizons. This result is only in part due to higher predicted risk levels. Ex post calibration to equal unconditional VaR levels illustrates that the approach also enhances efficiency in allocating VaR capital through time.\nPractical implications: The improved VaR forecasts show that one should account for long memory when calibrating risk models.\nOriginality/value: The paper models single-period returns rather than choosing the simpler approach of modeling lower-frequency multiple-period returns for long-run volatility forecasting. The approach considers long memory in volatility and has two main advantages: it yields a consistent set of volatility predictions for various horizons and VaR forecasting accuracy is improved.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
International marketing and the internet: a research overview and the path forward
|
[
"Internet",
"International marketing",
"Internationalization",
"Competitive advantage"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The internet is continuing to cause unprecedented and lasting shifts in consumer and business markets. However, despite its ubiquity and tremendous influence in business and especially in marketing over the last 25 years, global information technology (IT)-related topics did not constitute a key knowledge node in a holistic examination of the international marketing (IM) literature (Samiee and Chabowski, 2012). Another recent comprehensive review of 1,722 IM works notes that under 4 percent of the published articles include some aspect of IT and the internet, without any apparent developmental pattern (Leonidou et al., 2018). Furthermore, an internet-focused literature review study of 29 peer-reviewed journals examining the medium's influence on relational approaches to foreign market entry, identified only 94 published works since 1994 that leveraged digital platforms in some fashion (Watson et al., 2018). Although this volume of scholarly works conveys a reasonable momentum in research activity involving the internet and IM, it represents only 3 percent of all published articles in the authors' targeted domain, which is about the same as the overall proportion reported by Leonidou et al. (2018). Over a decade ago, Samiee and Walters (2006) also found the scarcity of research in IM involving the internet surprising given its critical importance in global communications and channel management. The low level of scholarly activity in this domain is further surprising given the significant cost-saving, opportunity-seeking and relationship-maintenance advantages of internet-based platforms for engaging in IM and in light of the massive IT-related investments borne by firms.\nEarly developments: Initially, internet-driven IM contributions were largely conceptual in nature and offered a much-needed knowledge for developing a better understanding of the technology and ways in which the internet might impact IM (Hamill, 1997; Paul, 1996; Poon and Jevons, 1997; Quelch and Klein, 1996; Samiee, 1998a). These early articles were helpful in informing and priming readers with respect to technical aspects, as well as patterns of internet diffusion and penetration in various markets (e.g. Quelch and Klein, 1996). Later works offered more conceptual and functional connection between the internet and IM (e.g. Samiee, 1998a).\nInitial views about the internet and IM: Two early beliefs about the benefits of the internet were frequently noted following its initial debut. First, the firm can gain a competitive advantage by securing some form of internet presence. The second view centered on the belief that by mere access to the internet, any firm can catapult from a domestic market competitor into an IM juggernaut, thus enabling firms to go \"international\" virtually overnight! Simply put, internationalization for a firm was as easy and cheap as gaining connectivity. Since these concepts continue to play a role in integrating the internet in IM, it is useful to revisit the basis for these views and the role they now play as means of charting an ecologically valid internet-based IM approach.\nThe internet and exporting: In general, the internet can assist with the internationalization of two groups of firms: the purveyors of B2C goods and services and B2B suppliers. Marketers of consumer goods, including manufacturers and distribution channel members can, in theory, seek to secure export orders from their home-market base. These firms can use their home base websites or develop new ones aimed at export markets. As with conventional means of internationalization, internet-based exporting entrants to the international marketplace experience significant knowledge gap, which they gradually overcome as they accumulate the necessary knowledge and experience for processing international orders. A more serious issue facing local firms' internationalization drive via the internet is creating sufficient buzz and recognition internationally (or in specific targeted markets) to be noticed in a cluttered global internet marketspace. Consumers abroad are unlikely to be familiar with new brands or firm identities (non-local market entrants), except when offers involve known international/global brands (e.g. foreign retailers seeking to establish a foothold in markets abroad via the internet). Differing product standards, foreign exchange related issues and local regulations, as well as language and cultural differences clearly create hurdles that need to be overcome to succeed. These and other impediments point to the necessity for identifying a competitive advantage(s) that can motivate consumers in targeted host countries identify with the exporting firm and make an effort to become familiar with its unique features and offerings. Regardless of the firm's competitive advantage, its lack of host markets presence will always serve as a (perceived or real) disadvantage for consumers in markets abroad as the time required for shipping and associated costs, paperwork and potential customs duties, in addition to currency conversion costs and risks serve as deterrents for consumer marketing across borders. Providers of services (e.g. digital products) are generally better off in this regard as they bypass at least some of the hurdles faced by the purveyors of tangible products. As shown in Figure 2, local firms wanting to internationalize via the internet may engage in direct (to consumers) or indirect (listings on host-market and international consumer meta markets such as Amazon, eBay). Consumer payment arrangements are more complicated where standard payment systems (e.g. credit cards) are not widely used or available. Although a range of digital payment methods maybe available in local markets, they require the firm to adopt and accept such locally common payment methods (e.g. Tenpay, Weixin, and QQ Wallet in China). Some internet purchases in markets such as China involve cash-on-delivery which is indicative of payment system challenges new internet-based market entrants may face in many developing and emerging markets.\nConclusions: The internet's contribution as a triggering mechanism to internationalize strictly domestic firms remains uncertain. The scant literature addressing the internet and IM offers no evidence that the medium has served a major role in the internationalization of firms more so than would have been organically expected. It is also evident that internationalization via the internet may prove to be no less complex than through conventional means. On the one hand, the many challenges facing local firms wanting to export are unlikely to disappear and, on the other, while the internet offers low cost and quick access to information for undertaking a range of export-related activities and functions, it introduces new technology adoption and use challenges. A key internal challenge in many domestically-oriented firms is management's own domestic orientation. An international (or global) mindset (in contrast to a domestic managerial perspective), plays a pivotal role in the internationalization drives of non-exporters. In the absence of a change agent or triggering mechanism to internationalize, these firms will likely remain domestically focused (Douglas and Craig, 1989; Samiee and Walters, 1991). For these reasons, current exporters (in contrast to new entrants) that have exhibited ongoing interest in exporting are more likely to benefit from the internet for accelerating and expanding their exporting activities and, in some cases, transition to other market entry forms. Consequently, public resources dedicated to assisting existing small- and medium-sized exporters to expand their international engagement are likely to yield more immediate and larger payoffs.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the intersection of research into international marketing (IM) and the internet, seeking areas where knowledge is developing, and where further research is required.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study utilizes an integrative review of the extant literature.\nFindings: The study identifies the role of the internet as a tool for competitive advantage and internationalization. In considering these aspects of the internet within IM, the necessity for establishing a foreign market presence is also examined. Further, it is asserted that the internet's influence on internationalization is largely through exporting of products and digital services.\nOriginality/value: The paper offers a new perspective on the issues emerging in the literature in terms of IM and the internet, and identifies new avenues for future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Church leaders' opinions about tobacco prevention
|
[
"Tobacco",
"Churches",
"Health services",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Churches and other faith-based organizations (FBOs) are a natural place for many members of the community to turn for support and guidance. Churches and other faith-based organizations are popular because they are an appropriate, and relatively personal, vehicle for health promotion. Evidence in 2005 of important role of churches and other faith-based organizations in health education can be found in President Bush's faith-based initiative (Bush, 2001), the essence of which is that successful government social programs work in fruitful partnership with community-serving and faith-based organizations.In addition, FBOs may be able to reach those who are hesitant about consulting with official agencies or professionals (Olson et al., 1988). For example, in one survey, 635 churches in the northern USA reported that they provided not only basic needs (food, shelter, and care), but also counseling and education on issues such as addictions, pregnancy, disease, and other health concerns, to never-before-reached parts of the community (Thomas et al., 1994). Not surprisingly, then, FBOs continue to broaden their spectrum of services by undertaking formal healthcare agendas, aiding people in acquiring new health behavior skills while equipping them emotionally, spiritually, and socially (Turner et al., 1995). Indeed, FBOs across the country provide innovative and creative tactics to encourage health promotion on a variety of topics (Chatters et al., 1998; Ransdell and Rehling, 1996; Thomas et al., 1994). As established institutions within the community, FBOs provide an infrastructure commensurate with successful health promotion campaigns, access to hard-to-reach populations, and provide credible health messages. Therefore, they are aptly suited to be a vehicle for tobacco prevention and control campaigns.However, FBOs face many challenges in implementing tobacco control programs. These challenges may include necessities such as materials and money, but almost always include finding the people to implement programs. One people challenge is volunteers. FBOs need volunteers to teach classes, lead discussion groups, and so on. Churches see the dearth of volunteers as one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome as it also relates to other barriers such as shortage of funds and lack of time (Lasater et al., 1986). A congregation that is lukewarm about a health campaign will keep the health program from accomplishing its goal of being a provider to the community (Olson et al., 1988). FBOs need people to implement health campaigns.Another people challenge for FBOs is the need for a dedicated, positive, and energetic leader. Including health education in a FBO cannot happen unless ministers or lay leaders within the organization promote and popularize the programs by motivating the congregation to take the initiative as well as support the efforts that will benefit the health of the community. Furthermore, leaders must be knowledgeable in health promotion and wellness if they are going to advocate and direct health campaigns in their organization (Miller, 1987). FBOs need someone to lead the people implementing health campaigns.In a southern, rural state such as Mississippi, FBOs are a cornerstone of many communities (Church of the Nazarene Research Center, 1992). Therefore, a grassroots, community-based approach to tobacco prevention that included a faith-based initiative could reach at-risk populations and hard-to-access groups and address the strengths, challenges, and socio-cultural influences in Mississippi localities. Furthermore, anti-tobacco lessons delivered in a religious setting such as Vacation Bible School might have unique impact because of the emphasis on health in this setting. Knowing these volunteers' and ministers' opinions and attitudes could aid in understanding the people challenges of implementing a faith-based tobacco control program.\nMethods: This project compared faith-based volunteers in different positions on questionnaires gathered from the research literature measuring respondents' opinions about their expertise in delivering anti-tobacco initiatives, the impact of such initiatives, and their burnout in delivering anti-tobacco initiatives. A further questionnaire inquired about their attitudes toward other health initiatives.Respondents\nResults: Most respondents answered all questions, but a few omitted one to two questions (see Table I). Present results were calculated only from those who actually answered the specific questions, so degrees of freedom vary slightly.Significantly more men were ministers than were in all other positions, kh2 (1, N=142)=29.91, p<0.001. Analyses of covariance, with sex as the covariate, indicated that ministers, officers, teachers, and other church leaders were not significantly different on expertise or impact. On Tobacco Expertise, the overall mean of 2.21 (SD=0.80) indicates that present FBO respondents generally agreed that they had the expertise (knowledge, skills, materials, volunteers, hotline, and familiarity with PHM, SWAT, and training) to deal with a tobacco prevention initiative. On impact, the overall mean of 1.53 indicates that they strongly believed that tobacco prevention would positively influence youth.However, on burnout, the ANCOVA indicated that sex covaried significantly, F(1,121)=4.12, p=0.045, eta2=0.03, and was significant, F(3,121)=4.69, p=0.004, eta2=0.104. Thus, the effect size, though statistically significant, was small. Follow-up post hoc tests on adjusted means indicated that ministers were significantly lower (M=3.03, which means that the average response was \"don't know\") than teachers and others (M's=4.02 and 4.06, respectively, which means that the average response was \"disagree\"), but not significantly different from FBO officers such as deacons or committee chairs (M=3.59). Thus, ministers were neutral about tobacco prevention being inappropriate for religious organizations, a thankless job, leading to burnout, and designed to prevent something that is only natural, whereas teachers and others disagreed.On other health initiatives, the ANCOVA made no significant adjustment for sex, but was significant, F(3,118)=2.87, p=0.04, eta2 =0.068. Thus, the effect size, though significant, was small. Ministers were significantly lower (M=1.34, which means that the average response was \"strongly agree\") than teachers (M=1.70, which means that the average response was \"moderately agree\"), but not officers (i.e. deacons, committee chairs) or others (i.e. choir leaders). The means were 1.50 and 1.56, respectively, for officers and others, which means that the average response was between strongly agree and agree. Thus, everyone was very positive about offering other health programs, ministers even more so than teachers (see Table I). Also, a repeated measures analysis of variance indicated that present FBO leaders were significantly more positive about offering other health initiatives if PHM provided program materials than if PHM provided a stipend, F(1,128)=7.50, p=o.007, eta2=0.055. Thus, the effect size here, though statistically significant, was small as well.Although gender was a significant covariant in the analysis of burnout, men and women overall were not significantly different on tobacco expertise, impact, burnout, or attitudes toward other health initiatives. Also, there was no significant correlation between age and expertise, impact, burnout, or health initiatives. In addition, African American and European American respondents were not significantly different on expertise, impact, burnout, and health initiatives. Note that most (89.2 percent) of the present respondents were African American.Not surprisingly, the three tobacco scales correlated significantly with each other, but not with the other health initiatives scale (see Table II).\nDiscussion: The present 149 mostly African American FBO leaders rated themselves as having expertise in tobacco prevention; and, they strongly believed that tobacco prevention has a positive influence on youth. These strongly positive attitudes are consistent with other research reporting successful partnerships between health initiatives and FBOs in African American communities (McRae et al., 1998; Olson et al., 1988; Olson, 1989), Southern communities (Johnson et al., 2000; Winett et al., 1999), and Southern African American communities (Sutherland et al., 1997; Turner et al., 1995). The African American faith-based community is fertile ground for health initiatives in general, and an implication of present results is that African American FBOs are fertile ground for tobacco prevention specifically.Ministers as well as teachers, officers, and others in the present sample described themselves as having the expertise to deal with tobacco prevention. Among California tobacco prevention coalition leaders in the early 1990s, expertise correlated significantly with satisfaction, outcome efficacy, and member organization commitment (Rogers et al., 1993). Note that the present tobacco expertise rating focused on personal preparation for dealing with a specific tobacco initiative, whereas Rogers et al. (1993) focused on coalition skills such as community organizing. The high self-ratings of the present FBO leaders indicates that they expect to be satisfied, efficacious, and committed to tobacco prevention.Present FBO ministers, teachers, officers, and others also strongly believed in the positive impact of tobacco prevention on youth. This result is consistent with another group of FBO leaders (Reinert et al., in press), who held similar strong opinions about the value of a tobacco prevention health initiative. At least in a southern, primarily African American sample, the faith-based community strongly endorses the value of anti-tobacco messages to their young people.Present ministers, however, were neutral about whether tobacco prevention is inappropriate for FBOs, a thankless job, something that leads to burnout, and designed to prevent a natural phenomenon, whereas teachers and other congregation leaders disagreed with these burnout items. In juxtaposition with organizational evidence that job demands and lack of resources predict burnout (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004), this result implies that ministers may be more aware of both job demands and lack of resources than teachers. Though neither group reported that they were burned out, the fact that ministers responded in a neutral way to the burnout questions may mean that they are more vulnerable to burnout in delivering tobacco prevention initiatives than teachers or other leaders.Despite their neutral stance on burnout, present ministers very strongly endorsed offering other health initiatives in their church. All the present church leaders were positive on other health initiatives, but ministers were even more so than others. Further, among FBO leaders, PHM providing materials was a stronger factor in offering future health initiatives than a stipend, which would provide money to pay a leader. The amount of money was unspecified in the present questionnaire, but might make a difference in future research. Also, this result may reflect wariness of outsiders. If so, stipends to FBOs to pay someone to lead health initiatives may make a difference if they go to members of the community rather than those outside the community, even if the outsiders are experts.It is not surprising that among the present FBO leaders, the three tobacco scales correlated with each other, but not with the general health initiatives questions. The correlations were modest (about 0.2), however, which suggests that the scales are tapping distinct factors.Among the present FBO leaders, women and men, of various ages, and Blacks and Whites were similar in their answers on expertise, impact, burnout, and attitudes toward other health initiatives. Although this sample could have been more diverse, demographics apparently did not enter into how the present FBO leaders felt about tobacco prevention.A limitation of the present project was that most respondents were African American. Though partnerships between public health and faith-based communities are more readily identified within African American rather than other populations (Chatters et al., 1998), a more diverse sample of faith based organizations would have increased the generalizability of the current results. Another limitation was that the present leaders applied for, and received, a grant to incorporate tobacco prevention materials into a Vacation Bible School or other FBO program. FBOs that did not apply for this grant may represent people who have different ideas about incorporating tobacco prevention into the offerings of their religious organization.In this study among primarily African American church leaders, all believed that they had the expertise to present an anti-tobacco program, and that such a program would have an impact. Further, sentiment was strongly in favor of obesity, alcohol prevention, substance abuse, and sexually transmitted disease initiatives incorporated into their church outreach activities, with the typical respondent moderately or strongly agreeing that their FBO would be interested in offering these different initiatives. Staying in contact with the people who actually conduct the training may be difficult (Reinert et al., 2003), but present results indicate that FBOs provide fertile ground for tobacco prevention and other health initiatives. In fact, their attitudes are strongly in favor of such outreach activities. Ministers may be slightly more susceptible to burnout than volunteers, so may need extra assistance in overcoming obstacles. One type of help that might be useful for FBOs would be to highlight the spiritual benefits of tobacco abstinence, and to pinpoint the scriptural supports for a healthy lifestyle. Further, present results imply that health initiatives striving to take advantage of how FBOs are embedded in the social fabric of the rural community would be wiser to direct their resources into developing appropriate health education materials that FBOs could use rather than into paying health professionals to deliver the programs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To assess what volunteers- and ministers of faith-based organizations (FBO) think about their own expertise in delivering a tobacco prevention initiative, the impact of such an initiative on youth, their potential for burnout in doing so, and their interest in other health initiatives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 149 volunteers and ministers attending a tobacco prevention workshop anonymously answered questions about its impact, and their own expertise, potential for burnout, and interest in other health initiatives.\nFindings: - Respondents strongly endorsed their personal expertise and the impact of tobacco prevention on youth. On burnout, ministers were significantly lower (an average answer of \"don't know\") than teachers and others (an average answer of \"disagree\"); on other health initiatives, ministers were significantly more interested (an average answer of \"strongly\") than teachers (an average answer of \"moderately\"). All were significantly more positive about offering other health initiatives if they had materials than if they had money.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Most respondents were African-American, a higher percentage of ministers were men than among those in other positions, and all respondents came from a church that applied for, and received, a tobacco-prevention grant - points that limit generalizability.\nPractical implications: - Those responsible for health initiatives would be well advised to direct their resources into developing appropriate materials rather than into paying people to deliver the programs.\nOriginality/value: - Although FBOs provide fertile ground for health initiatives such as tobacco prevention, ministers may be more susceptible to burnout than volunteers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Examining consumers' anti-consumption tendencies towards food products: A case study from the Turkish food industry
|
[
"Fast-moving consumer goods",
"Boycott",
"Anti-consumption behaviour",
"Consumer complaining behaviour",
"Consumer well-being"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Consumers may become unhappy due to various unfair marketing practices such as deceptive products, unclear advertising and poor services during their shopping process (Filip, 2013; Passarini et al., 2017). These practices have a high potential to cause dissatisfaction, make consumers feel foolish and disappointed (Krishnan, 1979) and decrease their purchase volumes by decreased loyalty (Withey and Cooper, 1989). This dissatisfaction leads consumers to adopt several types of responses including complaint, legal action and boycott (Crie, 2003). According to the study of Hirschman (1970), dissatisfied customers may respond in two ways which are exit and voice. Exit implies that the customer stops buying the company's products/services. Conversely, voice refers to consumer complaints expressing their dissatisfaction with the company (Andreassen, 1999). In this study, by means of examining the consumer complaints, we focus on \"voice\" reactions.\n2. Method: This study constitutes a multiple case study. As a research strategy, a multiple case study is used in many situations to contribute to our knowledge of individual, group, organizational, social, political and related phenomena (Yin, 2003). In the case study method, a researcher can use questionnaire, interview, observation and document analysis techniques to gather data (Altunisik et al., 2010). In total, 16 firms were selected as the cases of the present study and qualitative content analysis was administrated. In the selection of the cases, complaint rates were accepted as the criteria. And the above-mentioned 16 firms were obtained from sikayetvar.com. During this process, four categories, which are beverage group, food preparation group, junk food group and delicatessen group, were detected as the top complained sectors among the food category in the aforementioned website. In this sense, November 13, 2017 and 2016 were selected as the timespan for the complaint research. Four firms were chosen from each group with the highest complaint rate and 50 complaints were obtained from every group, a total of 800 consumer complaints for the analysis, which were enough to reach literal replication according to the approach of Yin (2003). According to Yin (2003, p. 47):The replication logic is analogous to that used in multiple experiments (see Hersen and Barlow, 1976). For example, upon uncovering a significant finding from a single experiment, the immediate research goal would be to replicate this finding by conducting a second, third, and even more experiments. Some of the replications might have attempted to duplicate the exact conditions of the original experiment. Other replications might have altered one or two experimental conditions considered irrelevant to the original findings, to see whether the finding could still be duplicated. Only with such replications would the original finding be considered robust and worthy of continued investigation or interpretation. The logic underlying the use of multiple-case is the same. Each case must be carefully selected so that it either (a) predicts similar results (a literal replication) or (b) predicts contrasting results but for predictable reasons (a theoretical replication). The ability to conduct 6 or 10 case studies, arranged effectively within a multiple-case design, is analogous to the ability to conduct 6 to 10 experiments on related topics; a few cases (2 or 3) would be literal replications. Whereas a few other cases (4 or 6) might be designed to pursue two different patterns of theoretical replication.\n3. Results: In Figure 3, we coded cases' AC/Boycott tendency discourse as emoticon and six codes are used which are disappointed, astonished, devil, pouting, confounded and angel. Among all the cases, three emoticon codes which are pouting, devil and disappointment have the highest rank. All these emotional discourses are the indicator of the existing level of buying the brands which were mentioned in the study before. To distinguish between these three codes, in the content analysis, a semantical approach was administrated for the coding. In this context, if the complainant used \"unconfident, do not buy, misleading\" and similar statements to state the consumer's dissatisfaction, these expressions were coded into the pouting code. And if the complainant used \"exactly, never buy, and I will tell the others not to buy\" and similar expressions, the customer's anger was coded into the devil code. Also, if the complainant reveals his disappointment with \"sadness, regret, disturbance\" and similar expressions, the customer's disappointment was coded into the disappointment code.\n4. Analysis: In this study, a single visual map with MAXQDA software was prepared for the whole cases. In Figure 6, general code dispersion of all cases can be found. In the map, highly sequenced codes represented with the bold lines and relationship between codes and other categories represented with dotted lines. To make a clear view, a detailed analysis was administrated into the circles and their relational situations are keynoted with titles which are \"reason\" and \"result.\" Among all cases, there is a literal replication which is identified by Yin (2003).\n5. Discussion and conclusion: Figure 6 displays the code distribution of the whole cases. All cases have concentrated on eight hotspots which are pouting, loss of brand trust, deceptive camping, devil, disappointed, AC behavior tendency due to the DP, spoiled products and AC behavior due to the CS/BH/DA codes. These hotspots were grouped into three main categories which are result, emotional result and reason. The reasons can be seen as the router of the diverse AC behaviors. Some consumers exhibit their AC behaviors on CS code as they are parents, while others exhibit their AC behaviors on BH and DA codes. On the other hand, some consumers show all codes as the reasons for AC behaviors. Some codes have bilateral relations, such as bad taste and spoiled products - bad taste and loss of brand trust or product and content divergence and deceptive campaign. All these bilateral relations fortify the reason hotspots as the router of the AC behaviors. Besides, these reasons reveal consumers' emotional results and empowered their emotional statement about AC behavior. Most of the consumers reveal their emotions with three emoticons which are pouting, disappointed and devil code. Except for devil code, both pouting and disappointed codes have the same two supportive codes which are loss of brand trust and spoiled products. The reason for these differences is based on the fact that people who think that they are deceived by the companies show stronger reactions than the others and they reveal their AC statement in the devil code.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how consumers' reactions lead to anti-consumption (AC) behavior and provide some important clues for the practitioners in the Turkish food industry. The reactions are based on consumer complaining behavior in the Turkish food industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 16 brands from the food industry with the highest complaint rates were selected as cases of the study. The consumer complaints from these brands were analyzed through a qualitative content analysis. In this analysis, four categories which are beverage group, food preparation group, junk food group, and delicatessen group were observed as the top complained sectors.\nFindings: The authors made up five semantic categories and one emoticon category which are AC/boycott tendency discourse, bad hygiene, bad servicescape, deceptive advertisement and defective products based on consumer complaints and disappointed, astonished, devil, pouting, confounded, angel. The results imply that especially unfamiliar objects in food products, unconcerned customer services, deceptive campaigns and spoiled products make consumers exhibit AC behavior. In addition, consumers coded with emoticons as pouting, devil and disappointed are more inclined than others to stop purchasing, respectively.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to the qualitative nature of the study, the authors do not make a generalization for the field. AC behavior, deceptive campaign, spoiled products, brand lose confidence and children sensitivity can be investigated with a quantitative study. And a new scale for this field can be developed. Through this scale development, researchers can reach new dimensions and expand the literature about the AC behaviors.\nPractical implications: An important implication which the authors got from the cases of the study is Hygiene. Although all cases have hygiene standards such as hazard analysis and critical control point, International Organization for Standardization (ISO 9001), etc., BH and spoiled products codes have high ranks among the cases. Due to this reason, companies should pay attention to their hygiene standards and increase the control period of the production process. Through the empowerment of the hygiene standards, they can fix their bad image on the customers and increase their dependability among the consumers.\nSocial implications: In the context of this case study, customer service emerges as an important problem and concept. Insufficient customer service infrastructure should be developed and their institutionalization processes should be empowered by the firms. The authors believe that the deficiency of the institutionalization plays an important role on these problems. And the institutionalization level on the field among the cases of the firms particularly should be investigated by the researchers. Furthermore, companies can increase their complaint management efficiency by joining new complaint websites. Through this manner, they can learn how to deal with different problems and increase their problem-solving skills.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a comprehensive insight into consumers' AC behavior. It reveals detailed drivers which may lead to AC behavior and contributes to the existing literature by determining the possible antecedents of AC behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Implementing internal environmental management and voluntary environmental disclosure: Does organisational change happen
|
[
"Environmental accounting",
"Environmental management accounting",
"Organisational change",
"Environmental management",
"Voluntary environmental disclosure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is an increasing demand for sustainability-oriented change. Companies are central to this challenge. They undertake internal and external environmental actions in many different ways in order to respond to the requests for change. Companies, however, often propose very biased and self-serving external accounts and struggle to change their internal plans, processes and instruments, showing several difficulties in implementing these two dimensions in a coherent way (Boiral, 2013; Bouten and Hoozee, 2013; Delmas and Cuerel Burbano, 2011; Frost and Seamer, 2002; Graafland and Smid, 2016; Hawn and Ioannou, 2016; Laine et al., 2017; Larrinaga-Gonzalez et al., 2001; Lyon and Montgomery, 2015; Michelon et al., 2015; Tilt, 2001; Wickert et al., 2016). This research investigates to what extent the implementation of internal environmental management and voluntary environmental information is related to organisational change.\n2. Internal management and voluntary disclosure: a review of the literature: Organisational change has been a key issue since the seminal work of Gray et al. (1995). In the last 20 years, it has attracted a great amount of attention, with mixed and inconclusive findings in terms of whether and how companies change their processes, instruments, policies and interpretative schemes, and which factors drive or hinder the changes (Adams and McNicholas, 2007; Contrafatto and Burns, 2013; Egan, 2015; Fraser, 2012; Larrinaga-Gonzalez et al., 2001; Da Silva Monteiro and Aibar-Guzman, 2010). As revealed by Bebbington and Fraser (2014), organisational change is not a linear path because changes are required in practice and in the ways of thinking. An important question is to what extent the implementation of internal environmental management and voluntary environmental disclosure represents organisational change in favour of sustainability (Bouten and Hoozee, 2013; Larrinaga-Gonzalez and Bebbington, 2001).\n3. The organisational change framework: The model elaborated by Tilt (2006) underlines that change is associated with a high (low) level of implementation of internal environmental activities and a high (low) level of external disclosure. The core idea is that \"there is a link between the level of environmental activities undertaken by organisations and their subsequent reporting and that this link is bound up with the process of organisational change\" (Tilt, 2006, p. 9). Tilt identified three links: change-internal activity; external reporting-internal activity; and change-external reporting. Tilt then incorporated them into Laughlin's (1991) model of organisational change.\n4. Research design: This research followed a quantitative-qualitative sequential design to collect and analyse data. The adoption of a mixed method facilitates a more inclusive understanding of the problem than using a single method. It is important that the different methods be used in a complementary manner to ensure that \"the end product is more than the sum of the individual quantitative and qualitative parts\" (Bryman, 2007, p. 8). Integration between the different methods is thus essential to support the theoretical prediction (internal validity) and generalisation of the research findings (external validity) (Turner et al., 2017). A two-step process of research was implemented. The first concerned the collection of quantitative data through surveys and the disclosure index and their classification according to Tilt's model. The second, based on a set of interviewees, was used to extend and illustrate the quantitative findings.\n5. Research outcomes and discussion: 5.1 Descriptive analyses at sample level\n6. Conclusions: This research investigated the extent to which the implementation of internal environmental management and voluntary environmental information was related to organisational change. A two-phase study was carried out following a quantitative-qualitative sequential approach. The results indicated that companies focus more on internal activities than on external disclosure. Environmental planning and operational practices were the most important changes carried out. When EMA and environmental disclosure were also implemented, environmental aspects were more integrated within companies, thus revealing that a more structured integration of sustainability within organisational values had taken place. In addition to industry environmental sensitivity and regulatory pressure, the influence of the local community impacted on changes such as the implementation of environmental planning.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent the implementation of internal environmental management and voluntary environmental information is related to organisational change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Organisational change literature provided a framework for the analysis of the materials which were collected through a mixed method. Data on internal environmental management were collected through a survey, while a quality disclosure index was used to assess the quality of the environmental voluntary disclosure. Interviews were used to enhance the quantitative results interpreted according to the four pathways proposed by Tilt (2006) and characterised by several levels of internal environmental management and voluntary disclosure.\nFindings: The results indicated that companies implement more internal activities than external disclosure. Environmental planning and operational practices were the most important changes carried out. When environmental management accounting and environmental disclosure were also implemented, environmental aspects were more integrated within companies, thus revealing that a more structured integration of sustainability aspects within organisational values had taken place. The results underline the importance of primarily establishing a set of internal changes, driven by environmental planning, to promote organisational change.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study presents a larger empirical analysis of the organisational change pathways followed by companies, showing similarities and differences among the four pathways. The results underline the importance of both dimensions for studying organisational changes. The framework of Tilt has been enriched, considering a more precise explanation of the internal aspects and adding the concept of the quality of disclosure as proxy to assess organisational change.\nOriginality/value: Organisational change is investigated through an extensive analysis of internal and external aspects and collecting quantitative and qualitative evidence. The analysis complements previous sustainability accounting literature focussed on the analysis of internal environmental management and external disclosure.\n",
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Whatever happened to leadership?
|
[
"Leaders",
"Leadership",
"Managers",
"Continuous improvement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nRevisiting leaders: Recently I was asked to prepare a presentation on the difference between a manager and a leader. It prompted me to look at various reference books and articles on leadership and I found it interesting to re-read these. I hadn't referred to them for quite some time and in revisiting \"leadership\", it occurred to me that the whole subject of developing leaders has declined considerably. There was a time when many organisations seemed to have leadership development programs and people like John Adair even had chairs in Leadership in Surrey University (interestingly in the Engineering rather than the Management school).As I read through the supposed differences between a manager and a leader, there were some clear indications as to why this decline might have occurred. The manager, it seems, administers while the leader innovates; the manager is a copy, the leader is an original; the manager maintains, the leader develops; the manager focuses on systems and structure, the leader focuses on people; the manager relies on control, the leader inspires trust; the manager has a short range view, the leader has a long term perspective; the manager asks how and when, the leader asks what and why; the manager has his eye always on the bottom line, the leader has his eye on the horizon; the manager imitates, the leader originates; the manager accepts the status quo, the leader challenges the status quo; the manager is the good soldier, the leader is his own person; the manager does things right, the leader does the right things, and so on.\nThe problem with developing leaders: Apart from the obvious sexism implied in this comparison (that is that all leaders are men), there are other problems. The first problem is that no-one could possibly live up to the full leadership competencies. This was revealed in the experience of a major engineering consultancy who conducted an extensive assignment to define the competencies of a leader within their industry and their own organisation, presumably with a view to highlighting the future leaders?A small team laboured on this problem for 18 months and eventually came up with a list of competencies, not dissimilar to the ones I have just presented. The problem was, of course, that they could find no-one in their organisation who had all, or even most, of these competencies. They were in the position of reporting back to their senior management that none of these people could be considered as leaders. In true consultancy fashion, they managed to change this rather negative situation into a second assignment that would involve them working for a similar period of time to try to define how these competencies might be developed in normal human beings. My own view is that they may be wasting their time just as much as they did in their first assignment. I question, for example, whether someone can be trained to be \"original\", \"inspirational\" and \"their own person\". What, in fact, do these things mean in the first place?The second problem is one, therefore, of definition. When does \"administration\" end and \"innovation\" begin? Does the manager never focus on people or the leader never focus on systems and structure? Are there no managers who inspire trust? Don't most managers want to know why they are doing something? Are there no far-seeing managers with original thoughts? Do all managers accept the status quo? And finally, do all leaders always do the right things? Surely history is full of so called great leaders who made the most disastrous mistakes, often at the expense of the people they were supposed to be leading. Books continually appear showing that so-called great business leaders had feet of clay, often failing to practice for themselves what they preached for others.A third difficulty must lie with the problem in training for leadership competencies. The leadership competencies I have described seem to me to be the result more of the individual's life experience rather than formal training. I would be interested to hear, for example, of an organisation that has programs which are designed to develop the leadership qualities described. The leadership development programs that I have seen and experienced could be better described as high-level management rather than leadership development as defined earlier.This leads to a fourth problem. I would argue that most organisations do not want the kind of leaders that are described in many leadership texts. They prefer predictability and stability to originality. They wish to maintain their systems and relationships - not question and change them. They do not like people who keep asking \"why\" something should be done because ultimately there is no satisfactory answer to this question. They do not like people who challenge the status quo all the time and they certainly do not like individuals who walk to the beat of their own drum.It is not just politicians who find that the apparent demand for change is strongly resisted when someone tries to implement it. Questioning the status quo, exposing inadequacy, telling the truth and failure to show respect are often perceived as signs of disloyalty rather than of leadership. Tom Peters talked of the development of many of the major commercial organisations that we know today. In the beginning, he noted, most were created by a stubborn, self-centred, megalomaniac with an all-consuming mission. Most had failed to fit into the organisations that had previously employed them. They were what today we might call \"loose cannons\" and, my view is that such people will always be unacceptable to major organisations.Why then would they want to create programs to develop them? Compare, for example, how major organisations may spend millions in research and development, but the real leap forward comes from a lonely individual working in his garage or back bedroom?\nWhy not consider organisational leadership?: For many companies, far more acceptable than developing individual leaders might be the idea of developing a leadership organisation. Michael Porter talked about this with his idea of developing competitive advantage - that is, the means by which one company may differentiate itself and develop leadership in the marketplace over its competitors. This idea, however, is not new and some will look back to the work of W. Edwards Deming as an originator of this view.Up to the last war, most western businesses were hierarchical structures with managers and directors reporting ultimately to a single chief executive whose family had often founded the company. Others around the world emulated this system. After the war, however, the Japanese sought an alternative method to facilitate their rapid redevelopment and economic growth. They discovered Dr Deming who promoted the concept of kaizen which simply means \"good change\". As is so often the case, Deming's views were largely dismissed in his own country, the USA.\nKaizen leadership approaches: The kaizen approach offered ten basic principles. These were: focus on customers, make improvements continuously, acknowledge your problems openly, promote openness of rank and status, create working teams (quality circles), manage through cross functional teams (no-one has all the skills necessary), nurture the right relationship processes (develop harmony between all employees), develop self discipline in all staff, inform every employee of what is happening with the company from the moment they join, and finally, enable every employee - which means not only continuous training and development for staff but also acting upon their ideas and suggestions.Put simply, the kaizen approach was that when an employee doesn't know what to do, there must be communication. When an employee doesn't know how to do something, there must be training. When an employee doesn't want to do something there must be motivation and when an employee wants to participate, there must be empowerment. What it promotes is very different to the ideas of a traditional leadership driven organisation.In kaizen organisations, all employees belong to inter-linked quality circles - small, motivated and dedicated work teams. Within these, the individuals may choose to have different roles. For example, the creator/innovator may have the capacity for original ideas and thoughts. The explorer/promoter may be suited to finding out what other people have done in similar situations. The assessor/developer prefers to analyse and test ideas and products. The thrustor/organiser likes to roll up their sleeves and get things done. The concluder/producer likes to see things finished and completed properly. The controller/inspector likes to work with statistics and numbers, checking and analysing performance. The upholder/maintainer is a staunch team member while the reporter/adviser is happy collecting information and structuring it so that the team can make better decisions. There is no leader in the team but, collectively, the team presents all of the competencies described for leadership. Progress is achieved through consensus of the people who understand and do the work.The major success factors in this approach were a thorough selection process for all staff, a comprehensive and motivational induction period, a sophisticated mentoring system, membership of a motivated team, ongoing training and development both from the organisation and by the individual concerned, regular comprehensive appraisals both top down and bottom up and a comprehensive system of acknowledgement and reward. Some people argued that the group-centred society of the Japanese lent itself better to the kaizen approach than the more individualistic attitudes so prevalent in western society. This may be so but the outstanding success of Japanese business and the incredible speed with which the country developed soon led western organisations to consider this approach, and try to copy it.\nConsidering the kaizen professional firm: Many professional firms are still run by an autocratic leadership (the partners) in a fairly rigid hierarchical structure. Age, experience, seniority and power are all closely linked and the partnership could probably give very good reasons why this should be so. They are probably similar reasons to those given by commercial organisations before the benefits of a kaizen approach were made. It may be that many professional's ideas about what leadership is hinders the potential development and growth of their firm. Often professionals are struggling to become a leader rather than working to develop a leadership organisation. I am not suggesting complete anarchy but in this rapidly changing world, a more bottom-up approach might allow the people who are often most in contact with the marketplace to have more input into the organisation. In kaizen organisations, for example, every employee is expected to make at least one, considered suggestion a week as to how their job could be done better. Major organisations get enormous numbers of suggestions, some of which turn out to be real winners. The process also helps all employees to take a more active role in the organisation - providing their ideas are considered and implemented, of course\nLast reflections: During the writing of this article I attended a presentation organised by the CIPD - the premier association for the HR profession. The guest speakers included Prof. John Adair and the Director General of the CIPD Geoff Armstrong.Their message was clear: the HR/Training function has largely failed to produce leaders within organisations and HR personnel have failed to promote their own leadership qualities to the senior executives of their companies. Adair's challenge was for HR professionals to understand and speak as bottom line contributors to their employing organisations - to justify their position and role as direct, key contributors to the development, growth and profitability of their organisations. It seems ironic that the group most likely tasked with developing leadership, in any form, should be criticised in this fashion for significantly failing to move themselves from day to day administration and skills training to real strategic leadership. The question raised was how can a person with limited leadership qualities themselves, help to support another to a higher level of leadership? Another questioned whether the natural leaders - the ones with get up and go - simply got up and went, leaving the rest of us to talk about it.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - Proposes to provide a summary of ideas with regard to leadership and management with the author's interpretation of these and some of the issues these raise.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Discussion of the manager versus leader debate followed by a discussion of organisational leadership (as opposed to individual leadership) with specific reference to the kaizen (Japanese) approach.\nFindings: - That leadership programs have frequently failed to produce leaders and that groups tasked with leadership development often do not produce leaders either for their organisation or within their own group.\nResearch limitations/implications: - No real statistics or research evidence is provided. The conclusions are subjective and anecdotal.\nPractical implications: - It should cause readers to consider their own organisational development and whether leaders can be created.\nOriginality/value: - The recent views of the CIPD and Prof. John Adair are included.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Visualisation of the organisation knowledge structure evolution
|
[
"Knowledge evolution",
"Knowledge structure visualisation",
"Network analysis",
"Orgnisational knowledge",
"Recursive email analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Effective management and utilization of intellectual capital is a key competitive factor for organizations in today's global and information-driven economy (Walcak, 2005). Organisational knowledge management is not really about managing knowledge, but rather fostering a corporate culture that facilitates and encourages the generation, sharing, and effective utilization of knowledge. In particular, while substantial knowledge is generated in different forms within organisations on a daily basis, leveraging it effectively for improving organisational productivity, efficiency and innovation is far from trivial. This is because the substantial volume of data and information available within the organisation in various forms inhibits the adaptation of the right information at the right time for actual business process needs. One approach that helps provide some visibility into the interconnections of data and information produced within different contexts is the visualisation of complex organisation information. This paper will provide a methodology by which organisational knowledge can be extracted and visualised dynamically over time, providing a glimpse into the knowledge evolution processes that occur within organisations.\n2 Organisational knowledge networks: In many organisations, knowledge sharing among members is primarily sustained through a range of asynchronous communication technologies such as email lists (Wu et al., 2004), news portals (Jones et al., 2004), and organisational discussion groups (Wasko and Faraj, 2005) among others. In such networks individuals congregate based on shared interest and use the asynchronous nature of the technology to overcome the same-place same-time limitation inherent in face-to-face settings, which is necessary for successful collaboration in global organisations. Activities such as the exchange of best practice advice link different individuals who lack previous familiarity, physical proximity, and are unaware of each other's' demographic characteristics, organizational setting, or even national culture (Faraj et al., 2000).\n3 Organisational knowledge structure: An organisation's knowledge structure is a reflection of the basic composition and relationships among its different knowledge assets (Qiu and Nian, 2010). Organizational knowledge structure usually plays the role of a semantic skeleton for effective knowledge organisation and access. It contains meta-information on what knowledge assets are available in the knowledge repository, what is the meaning of the available knowledge assets, how knowledge assets are related to each other, and where knowledge assets are stored (Sulin et al., 2008). As such it allows knowledge workers to correctly understand and interpret existing knowledge and reuse it in the right context. In order to support management of different types of the knowledge assets described previously, semantic skeleton should not only help to map different resources that evolve in organisations (content), but also should support capture of the activities on related resources to maintain understanding of knowledge evolution process (context).\n4 Email as a knowledge artifact: Converting personal knowledge into useable organisational knowledge assets is a critical issue in the field of knowledge management (Sanchez, 2005; Wasiak et al., 2011; Chatti, 2012). Such formalisation of knowledge is particularly challenging in geographically distributed collaborative environments (Eckert et al., 2005). In such environments, where organisational productivity takes priority over knowledge codification email is still the generally preferred communication tool of the knowledge workers (Wattenberg et al., 2005). The reason for such practice is that email is embedded in communicative processes:\n5 OrganicViz: an organic approach to knowledge visualisation: Knowledge visualization can provide a narrative for understanding the dynamics of knowledge dissemination, synthesis and redistribution in organisations. The interactions between various knowledge artefacts is more than cumulative, it spawns new knowledge artefacts that can in turn generate new knowledge. While this organic process cannot be controlled, understanding its dynamics through visualisation can identify patterns of knowledge asset interactions that can lead to innovation and success or conflict and failure.\n6 Case study: knowledge dynamics in an INGO: The aim of this case study is to show how the formation, dissolution, and rewiring of the email-based knowledge structure shape the organisational body of knowledge in an INGO. By analysing the dynamically changing knowledge structure configurations the paper explores shifts within the organisational discourse on particular topics over time and identifies the influence of individuals within the network on this shift. By linking the knowledge structure and dynamics, the research proposes knowledge growth not as an invariant process affecting all participants equally, but highlights the contextual and geographic influences of individual contributors in the overall evolution of the practice network's knowledge structure.\n7 Discussions and findings: Single case studies are limited in their applicability beyond their particular contexts. This study is no exception. However, the results of this study indicate that content structure of electronic knowledge networks exhibits hierarchical and centralised tendencies when is considered through the evolving body of the emails exchange on discussion list of INGO. Many other organisational practice/knowledge networks also work based on issue/problem-response/solution dynamics and it can be expected that the knowledge structure may have the form of the thematic communities and growth dynamics that were observed in this case study. Content hierarchy in this case was not seen as necessary harmful. It allowed more efficient knowledge exchanges due to self-selection among the members of the organisation. That is, participants subscribed to a specific knowledge network will be able to follow the knowledge structure evolution even if not actively involved in the discussions. Knowledge structure visualisation allows for an aggregate dynamic analysis of the knowledge that is created through discrete contributions in a network. It also sheds light on what factors were influencing the knowledge growth specific for the particular domain of discourse. Considering the number of emails exchanged during the observed time period which represent less than one third of the total emails exchanged on INGO lists during that time, it is easy to see the benefits of the approach applied to improving the performance of the organisational knowledge management.\n8 Conclusions: In this paper, the authors presented an approach for visualising the dynamics of email-based organisational knowledge networks. In addition, the relationships between the organisation members based on the topical exchanges were analysed in order to understand the pattern of informal virtual groups or \"communities of practice\" established during the observed period.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The paper aims to provide a methodology by which organisational knowledge can be extracted and visualised dynamically over time, providing a glimpse into the knowledge evolution processes that occur within organisations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Recursive analysis of email interactions is offered as a case to account for the knowledge structure evolution related to the different programs of international non-governmental organization (INGO). Several methods are used: analysis of the network expansion to see whether the process is random or uniform is performed, visualisation of the network configuration changes throughout studied time period; and the statistical examination of network formation.\nFindings: The results of the presented study indicate that content structure of electronic knowledge networks exhibits hierarchical and centralised tendencies. The social network analysis results suggest that INGO exhibits non-hierarchical and decentralized structure of the individuals contributing to the discussion lists.\nResearch limitations/implications: By providing the means to carry out network evolution analysis of content structure dynamics and social interactions, the presented work provides a means for probabilistically modelling patterns of organisational knowledge evolution.\nPractical implications: The approach allows the exploration of the dynamics of tacit to explicit knowledge, from individual to the group and from informal groups to the whole organisation.\nOriginality/value: By displaying the large collection of the key phrases that reflected the evolution of the organisational knowledge structure over the time, organisational emails are placed in meaningful context explaining the language of the organisation and context of knowledge structure evolution.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Competitive intelligence: a multiphasic precedent to marketing strategy
|
[
"Competitive intelligence",
"Marketing strategy",
"Market intelligence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The formal exploration process of the marketing strategy paradigm has been linked with the environmental scanning literature as a basis for gathering and processing the information and the information processing theory paradigm. In fact, the importance of environmental scanning has often been linked to firm performance (Daft et al., 1988). Perhaps the marriage of environmental scanning and information processing for effective strategic decision making was best summarized by Belich and Dubinsky (1999), who wrote that:The ability to develop adequate organizational mechanisms for information acquisition, dissemination, and effective utilization may be precursors to identifying and effectively adapting to major market shifts.\nIntroduction: what is intelligence?: The concept of intelligence has a rich history of over 2,000 years (Juhari and Stephens, 2006). The intelligence concept of intelligence as part of marketing strategy has long been proposed as an effort to increase the firm's competitiveness and its strategic planning process (Guyton, 1962; Montgomery and Urban, 1970; Pearce, 1976; Montgomery and Weinberg, 1979; Porter, 1980). In 1966, William Fair proposed the formation of a corporate \"Central Intelligence Agency\" within the firm whose function it would be to \"collect, screen, collate, organize, record, retrieve and disseminate information\" (Fair, 1966). Since that time, this proposition has grown to become an emerging business construct with delineated job functions directly responsible for intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination (Kahaner, 1996).Theory in the intelligence process has been proposed by many authors under many different labels, including environmental scanning (Aguilar, 1967; Fahey and King, 1977; Fahey et al., 1982; Hambrick, 1982; Sashittal and Jassawalla, 2001; Saxby et al., 2002), business intelligence (BI) (Cleland and King, 1975; Benjamin, 1979; Pearce, 1976), strategic intelligence (SI) (Aaker, 1983; Montgomery and Weinberg, 1979), competitor analysis (CA) (Ghoshal and Westney, 1991; Rothschild, 1979), competitive technical intelligence (CTI) (Albagli et al., 1996; Brockhoff, 1991), and market intelligence (MI) (Chonko et al., 1991; Guyton, 1962. Maltz and Kohli, 1996). Day and Shoemaker (2006) have brought forward the concept of peripheral vision, which is also very similar to the competitive intelligence concept, as was Davenport and Harris's (2006) competitive analytics concept. Most of these works have positioned intelligence as the necessary (and sometimes assumed) prerequisite for strategic planning (Ansoff, 1965; Porter, 1980). Of these, the one area that has received the most academic attention has been that of market intelligence, a logical extension of the market research discipline (Walle, 1999).It is believed that \"competitive\" intelligence (CI) may imply the true purpose of intelligence - that is, to gain strategic advantage (Porter, 1980). Therefore, competitive intelligence includes competitor intelligence as well as intelligence collected on customers, suppliers, technologies, environments, or potential business relationships (Fair, 1966; Gilad, 1989; Grabowski, 1987; Guyton, 1962). A review of the literature related to intelligence suggests that it is a marketing discipline focused on gathering information on the competition (Schollhammer, 1994). However, a broader examination of the literature shows that intelligence is about not only monitoring competition, but also the entire business environment. A more appropriate definition of intelligence is:... actionable recommendations arising from a systematic process involving planning, gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information on the external environment for opportunities, or developments that have the potential to affect a company's or country's competitive situation (Calof and Skinner, 1998).Recently, Calof has revised the definition to include the objective of intelligence:Intelligence helps your company sustain and develop distinct competitive advantages by using the entire organization and its networks to develop actionable insights about the environment (customers, competitor, regulars, technology ...). It uses a systematic and ethical process involving, planning, collection, analysis, communication and management (Calof, 2008).Researching intelligence and the proposed hypotheses\nMethodology: Several efforts have been made to evaluate companies' intelligence capabilities (Antia and Hesford, 2007; Cartwright et al., 1995; Daft et al., 1988; Fahey and King, 1977; Gelb et al., 1991; Ghoshal and Westney, 1991; Keegan, 1974; Maltz and Kohli, 1996; Montgomery and Weinberg, 1979; Prescott and Smith, 1987; Sawka et al., 1995; Zinkhan and Gelb, 1985). Table I looks at a few of these from the perspective of size of sample and focus of the study. For a more complete list of studies conducted in intelligence, consult the Journal of Competitive Intelligence and Management bibliography articles (Fleisher et al., 2003, 2007; Dishman et al., 2003).The instrument used for this study is based on that used by Sawka et al. (1995). They conducted an extensive sampling effort jointly with the Industrial Research Institute (IRI) and the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP).For this study, membership lists were obtained from a variety of industry associations primarily related to technology. This was done in order to better investigate the model as environmental scanning and information processing activities have been more evident in these types of firms (Egelhoff, 1982). From this list, a population of 3,080 firms was identified. Questionnaires were sent to all 3,080 and 1,280 were returned. In total, 255 were incomplete and unusable. In all 1,025 completed surveys were used in this study, for a valid response rate of just over 33 percent. Prior to sending out the questionnaire, it was pre-tested to a sample group of firms. The focus of this procedure was to ensure questionnaire clarity and interpretability by the respondents. Because of this procedure, a terminology section was added to the cover letter. In addition, question language was modified substantially. Each of the 1,025 respondents represented a unique firm. Some 64 percent of the respondents were executives of the firm. Although the response rate was a satisfactory, a non-response analysis was also conducted. Information on the size of the company, geographic location, and industrial classifications had been obtained prior to survey mailing. No significant differences were evident using any of these dimensions.\nStudy results: There are two elements regarding the study results. Firstly, the overall averages within each of the construct areas are reported to provide a better understanding of the competitive intelligence environment within the responding firms. Simple means analysis was used for this purpose. Secondly, the study established the robustness of the constructs and their measures. The underlying validity was established by drawing upon past research in the competitive intelligence field and, in particular, using a modified and pre-tested version of an industry-wide accepted questionnaire. To establish construct reliability Cronbach's a was generated for each construct. Reliability was further established by using factor analysis with Varimax rotation and eigenvalue cutoffs of 1.00. Analysis produced six factors, which have been labeled \"Planning and focus\", \"Collection\", \"Analysis\", \"Communication/dissemination\", \"Process/structure\", and \"Awareness/culture\". Each of these constructs is presented below.Planning and focus\nConclusion: Many companies reported a good internal culture to support intelligence but are not really practicing it as has been recommended by previous authors. Low responses were evident in Planning/focus, Analysis, Communication and Systems/procedures, but, generally, very high scores in Awareness/culture. What was most disturbing was that only 36 percent of the responding companies communicate intelligence needs to employees, yet in the collection phase, twice this number indicated that employees regularly reported information. Taken together with the results from the planning section, this suggests that many firms have employees regularly contributing information without being informed about management's information needs. Further, for those few that informed the employees as to what to collect (36 percent), less than half (44 percent) actually interviewed senior management regularly to understand management or strategic needs.A model of the intelligence process is thus proposed (see Figure 1). This provides additional insight as to significant factors related to the various phases. The intelligence process and structure as well as the organizational awareness and culture are seen as having direct impact on all of the various phases in the intelligence course. From the intelligence process and structure, two factors have arisen:1. the existence of a formal infrastructure; and2. the level of employee involvement.It is believed that these factors contribute to the effectiveness as well as the efficacy of the intelligence effort within the firm. Within the planning and focus phase, two factors were recognized:1. the existence of intelligence; and2. the focus of intelligence.Although some firms did report that they conducted intelligence, but in an informal and non-structured manner, it was clearly found that the existence of an intelligence effort (or formal unit) and a clear and well-communicated definition and mission of that effort was contributory to the initial phase in the intelligence process.During the collection phase three factors arose:1. source variety;2. competitive technical intelligence; and3. using secondary sources as the principal information resource.It is clear from the study that a variety of information sources are utilized, including internal and external sources, sources that are both qualitative and quantitative in nature, as well as using both textual and human information sources. Of particular note was the usage of competitive technical intelligence collection. Although the respondent sample was skewed toward technology firms, clearly this is an important sub-factor in the various types of information collected among other informational types such as financial, strategic, or sales/marketing related.In the analysis phase, three factors emerged:1. competitive technical intelligence analysis;2. competitive analysis; and3. the usage of advanced analytical techniques.The discovery of competitive technical intelligence analysis is logical as it corresponds with the competitive technical intelligence collection factor. The existence of competitive analysis was also detected as this is the predominant activity of competitive (or competitor) intelligence efforts. The activities under this factor may include competitor profiling, product line comparisons, war-gaming and competitive move prediction.However, before the results of the study are generalized, further study is necessary. More detailed case studies are needed to aid in the development of an intelligence \"best practices\" guide to help firms become more aware of accepted and successful practices. These case studies are also needed for validating the results of previous assumptions made about intelligence structure and implementation. The idea of an integrated intelligence scheme is proposed my many authors but its proposed or actual structure is unknown. How can it be designed to be effective? While this study represented organizations in the technology sector, more research is needed to understand whether the results hold true for other industries.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper seeks to explore competitive intelligence as a complex business construct and as a precedent for marketing strategy formulation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In total, 1,025 executives were surveyed about their companies' usage of competitive intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination as well as their perception concerning certain organizational characteristics.\nFindings: - This research develops and tests intelligence as a precedent to marketing strategy formulation, revealing multiple phases and contributing aspects within the process. It also discovers that the practice of competitive intelligence, while strong in the area of information collection, is weak from a process and analytical perspective.\nResearch limitations/implications: - While the sample was indeed a census of Canadian technology firms, care must be taken in generalizing the study beyond this industry, and certainly beyond the Canadian borders. Also, the questionnaire used only dichotomous variables (yes/no answers), which limited the testing that could be done.\nPractical implications: - Using these results, competitive intelligence departments and professionals can improve efficacy within their approach and execution strategies.\nOriginality/value: - The contribution of this paper is two-fold. It reveals many of the \"state-of-the-art\" levels of practice within current competitive intelligence efforts, and it proposes a model of the intelligence process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Determinants of willingness to practice medicine in underdeveloped areas: Evidence from a survey on Iranian medical students
|
[
"Health policy",
"Emerging health economies",
"Human factors",
"Emerging healthcare delivery structures",
"Epidemiology",
"Health economics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The shortage of well-trained healthcare workers, especially physicians, in underdeveloped areas is a continuing challenge for health policy makers in all countries, regardless of their socioeconomic status (Chen et al., 2004, Ballance et al., 2009). In fact, appropriate access to formally-trained health professionals in remote and underdeveloped areas is considered as one of the main challenges by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Van Lerberghe, 2008; Hayes and Shakya, 2013; Mbemba et al., 2016; Crump et al., 2018; MacQueen et al., 2018). There were three main issues regarding trained health workers within developing countries such as Iran: low supply of healthcare workers, challenges of recruiting and retaining healthcare workers in the country and unequal distribution of healthcare workers within the country (Kotha et al., 2012).\nMethods and materials: Study setting\nEthical statement: The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Review Ethics Committee of the Deputy of Research of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. Each eligible study participant was involved in the study as per the ethical code of conduct recommendation of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. The verbal consent was obtained from each participant after explaining the details of the study. The data were collected and analyzed anonymously.\nResults: The descriptive characteristics of the participants were presented in Table I. Of the total 735 medical students participated in the study, 50.1 percent (n=380) were male. The average age of students in the study was 21.5 (standard deviation=2.8) years. Approximately 50 percent of the participants (n=379) were living in the student residence and 93.4 percent (n=703) of the students were single. As reported in the table, 58.3 percent (95% confidence interval (CI): 54.5-61.5 percent) of students indicated their willingness to practice medicine in underdeveloped areas after their graduation from medical school. In total, 47.7 percent of female participants had strong intrinsic motivations and the remaining 52.3 percent had strong extrinsic motivations. The proportions of male students with strong intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in the sample were 37.9 and 62.1 percent, respectively.\nDiscussion: This study aimed to examine willingness to practice in underdeveloped areas among medical students in four western provinces of Iran in 2017. Unequal distribution of healthcare professionals, especially physicians, between developed and underdeveloped areas is an important challenge in all countries (Dussault and Franceschini, 2006; Wilson et al., 2009; Rezaei et al., 2015; Sefiddashti et al., 2016). In general, the majority of physicians are more concentrated in urban areas than underdeveloped areas because of factors such as poor health infrastructure and lack of career advancement (Akbari Sari et al., 2015).\nConclusions: Several factors such as low PPES, rural experience and having strong intrinsic contributed to the willingness to practice in underdeveloped areas among medical students in western Iran. Thus, particular attention should be paid to these factors for recruitment and retention of the medical students in underdeveloped areas by health policy makers in Iran. It is therefore recommended to increase the number of medical students with rural and low PPES backgrounds in Iran in order to increase the number of physicians in underdeveloped areas.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Appropriate access to formally-trained health workers for people living in rural and underdeveloped areas is a continuing challenge worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the willingness of formally-trained health workers to practice in underdeveloped areas and its main determinants among medical students in the western provinces of Iran.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 753 medical students from four provinces in western Iran (Kermanshah, Ilam, Lorestan and Kurdistan) were surveyed cross-sectionally in 2017. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics, willingness to practice in underdeveloped areas, intrinsic (e.g. desire to help others and self-interest in medicine) and extrinsic (e.g. the high income of physicians and social prestige) motivations of the study population. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify the main determinants of willingness to practice in underdeveloped areas among medical students after their graduation.\nFindings: The results indicated that 58.3 percent of students were willing to practice in underdeveloped areas. While 59 percent of the study population had a strong extrinsic motivation to study medicine, the remaining 41 percent of the study population had a strong intrinsic motivation to study medicine. The logistic regression results indicated that low parental professional and educational status, an experience of living in rural areas and having strong intrinsic motivation were associated with greater willingness to practice in underdeveloped areas.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to investigate the willingness to practice in underdeveloped areas and its main determinants among medical students in the west of Iran.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Total quality management (TQM) movement in public health
|
[
"Auto correlated time series",
"Average run length (ARL)",
"Common and special causes",
"Multivariate quality control (MQC)",
"Statistical quality control",
"Total quality management (TQM)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Public Health management involves the leveraging of channel wide integration to better serve public needs. Increases in productivity and quality control and continuous improvement follow when public health managers implement and coordinate quality management activities upstream. Public health management should recognize anew the aspects of quality control and quality assurance requires two duties to be undertaken. First, we refer to the process whereby measures are taken to make sure defects in services are not part of the final output, and that the output meets quality and acceptable health standards. Second, one may observe that quality assurance entails overlooking all aspects, including design, development, service, installation, as well as documentation. The quality movement is the field that ensures that management maintains the standards set and continually improve the quality of the output. The quality movement (Lee and Wang, 2003) offers users sound lessons that can be very powerful to address public health lessons. Instead of final, end-service source inspection, the quality movement emphasizes prevention, total quality management (TQM), source inspection, process control and continuous improvement. These are all ingredients for successful and effective ways to manage and mitigate the risks in public health application such as water quality control (see Woodall, 2005 and Papaioannon et al., 2010a, b).\nUnivariate (Shewhart) control charts: A Shewhart control chart which is the central foundation of univariate SPC has one major shortcoming. This control chart is considers only the last data point and does not carry a memory of the previous data. As a result, small changes in the mean of a random variable are not likely to be detected rapidly. Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts improve upon the detection of small process shifts. Rapid detection of relatively small changes in the quality characteristic of interest and ease of computations through recursive equations are some of the many good properties of the EWMA chart that make it attractive.\nMultivariate control charts: Multivariate analyses utilize the additional information due to the relationships among the variables and these concepts may be used to develop more efficient control charts than simultaneously operated several univariate control charts. The most popular multivariate SPC charts are the Hotelling's T2 (see Sullivan and Woodall, 1996) and multivariate exponentially weighted moving average (MEWMA) (Elsayed and Zhang, 2007). Multivariate control chart for process mean is based heavily upon Hotelling's T2 distribution, which was introduced by Hotelling (1947). Other approaches, such as a control ellipse for two related variables and the method of principal components, are introduced by Jackson (1956) and (1959). A straightforward multivariate extension of the univariate EWMA control chart was first introduced in Lowry et al. (1992) and Lowry and Montgomery developed a multivariate EWMA (MEWMA) control chart. It is an extension to the univariate EWMA:\nInterpretation of multivariate process control: Multivariate quality control (MPC) charts (Hotelling, 1947; Jackson, 1956, 1959, 1985; Hawkins, 1991, 1993; Kalagonda and Kulkarni, 2003, 2004; Wierda, 1994 and Jarrett and Pan, 2006, 2007a, b; Mestik et al., 2002) have several advantages over creating multiple univariate charts for the same business situation:\nIllustration of univariate and multivariate control charts: We begin by collecting data in an emergency facility whereby a series of tests produce data on three factors denoted X\nConclusions and suggestions: We discussed the control chart usage and illustrate why better procedures are available to supply chain managers. For example, we illustrated methods developed by Alwan and Roberts' utilizing residual chart analysis. Later we explored methods such as West et al. transfer function application and traditional Multivariate Hotelling T2 chart to monitor multivariate and multivariate serially correlated processes (those with dynamic inputs). The scheme can be viewed as a generalization of Alwan and Roberts' special cause approach to multivariate cases. The guideline and procedures of the construction of VAR residual charts are detailed in this paper. Molnau et al. (2001) produces a method for calculating ARL for (MEWMA) charts (2001). Mastrangelo and Forrest (2002) simulated a VAR process for SPC purposes. However, the general study on VAR residual charts is heretofore not reported. In addition, more recent studies by Kalagonda and Kulkarni (2003, 2004), and Jarrett and Pan, (2006, 2007a, b) indicate additional ways in which one can improve upon the multivariate methods currently available in commercial quality control software such as Minitab(r) and others. These newer techniques provide more statistically accurate and efficient methods for determining when processes are in or not control in the multivariate environment. When these methods become commercially available, practitioners should be able to implant these new statistical algorithms for MPC charts using ARL measure to control and improve output.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to suggest better methods for monitoring the diagnostic and treatment services for providers of public health and the management of public health services. In particular, the authors examine the construction and use of industrial quality control methods as applied to the public providers, in both the prevention and cure for infectious diseases and the quality of public health care providers in such applications including water quality standards, sewage many others. The authors suggest implementing modern multivariate applications of quality control techniques and/or better methods for univariate quality control common in industrial applications in the public health sector to both control and continuously improve public health services. These methods entitled total quality management (TQM) form the foundation to improve these public services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is designed to indicate the great need for TQM analysis to utilize methods of statistical quality control. All this is done to improve public health services through implementation of quality control and improvement methods as part of the TQM program. Examples of its use indicate that multivariate methods may be the best but other methods are suggested as well.\nFindings: Multivariate methods provide the best solutions when quality and reliability tests show indications that the variables observed are inter-correlated and correlated over time. Simpler methods are available when the above factors are not present.\nResearch limitations/implications: Multivariate methods will provide for better interpretation of results, better decisions and smaller risks of both Type I and Type II errors. Smaller risks lead to better decision making and may reduce costs.\nPractical implications: Analysts will improve such things as the control of water quality and all aspects of public health when data are collected through experimentation and/or periodic quality management techniques.\nSocial implications: Public health will be better monitored and the quality of life will improve for all especially in places where public development is undertaking rapid changes.\nOriginality/value: The manuscript is original because it uses well known and scientific methods of analyzing data in area where data collection is utilized to improve public health.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Entrepreneurial orientation and innovation performance: insights from Korean ventures
|
[
"Innovation performance",
"Entrepreneurial orientation",
"Product innovation",
"Technology innovation",
"Curvilinear relationship",
"Sales growth rate"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has attracted growing attention from researchers in the strategic management and entrepreneurship literature. EO, which refers to the firm's strategic posture to be innovative, proactive and risk-taking, is considered an important driver of firm growth, competitive advantage and superior performance (Real et al., 2014). Extant research reports the positive relationship between EO and performance (Rauch et al., 2009). However, research also shows that the performance implication of EO is not universal, but affected by internal and external contingency factors such as firms' resources availability and competencies (Garcia-Villaverde et al., 2013; Wiklund and Shepherd, 2003, 2005; Sciascia et al., 2014), as well as industrial characteristics (Lumpkin and Dess, 2001; Saeed et al., 2014; Wales et al., 2013). Accordingly, several studies found the insignificant or partial impact of EO on performance (e.g. Andersen, 2010; Dimitratos et al., 2004; Slater and Narver, 2000; Walter et al., 2006; Su et al., 2011).\nLiterature review and hypotheses: Theoretical issues in research on EO\nResearch methodology: For this study, we employed the panel data of the Venture Business Investigation Survey (available at: http://data.go.kr/dataset/3043469/fileData.do?lang=en) that has been conducted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Korea. Under the Act of Special Measure for the Promotion of Venture Business, this annual investigation focuses on firms certified as the Venture Business since 1997[2]. We used the 2015 survey data with 2,072 effective responses collected from individual ventures (95 percent confidence level with +-1.91 sampling error). The survey was to investigate their business status including general information, corporate governance, managerial characteristics and performance and business ecosystem, as well as EO levels using the Miller/Covin and Slevin scale. Using panel data with more freedom degrees and sample variability than other data sets allowed us to test hypotheses more accurately and improve the estimation efficiency.\nResults: Prognostic test\nDiscussion: Contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the curvilinear relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and innovation performance in ventures of Korea, where this topic has been unexplored.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used 1,837 ventures' responses in a panel data of the 2015 Korea's Venture Business Investigation Survey. The measurements of EO based on the Miller/Covin and Slevin scale were used from the survey. The author adopted and independently measured three different indicators of innovation performance: technology innovation, product innovation and sales growth.\nFindings: The results of the regression analysis show the significant curvilinear relationships of EO with technology innovation and product innovation, while the relationship between EO and sales growth remains linear. The author also found that multiplicative EO construct explains the changes in R2 better than the summative EO construct for the improvement of innovations in technology and product.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides empirical evidence on the EO-innovation performance relationships from Korean ventures - an underexplored area of research. It also takes into account the curvilinear relationships of summative and multiplicative EO constructs with different performance indicators. Future research can benefit from the use of the multiplicative EO estimation and multiple performance indicators to capture a clearer picture of the causal relationships.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Improving efficiency in roading projects: a New Zealand study
|
[
"Efficiency",
"Risk management",
"Construction",
"Performance",
"Productivity",
"Project management",
"Strategic management",
"Construction planning",
"Road pavement",
"Road maintenance and rehabilitation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It has been acknowledged that a soundly constructed, well-operated and routinely maintained road network is the critical enabler of economic growth (NZTA, 2014), This is because a well-maintained road network enhances and sustains national and regional communications in a more effective, efficient and safe manner, which in turn, helps to support and sustain a thriving New Zealand (NZ) economy (NZTA, 2014).\n2. Research aim and objectives: This research aimed at investigating the challenges that are hindering the productivity and performance of road pavement maintenance and rehabilitation (RPMR) contractors in NZ. The research also investigated some practical and innovative ways of addressing the identified challenges.\n3. Literature review: 3.1 Productivity in context\n4. Research method: A two-stage descriptive survey method involving pilot and structured interviews was adopted for this phase of the study; this is consistent with the exploratory nature of the research goal (Ellis and Kumar, 1993).\n5. Results and discussions: 5.1 Survey responses\n6. Conclusions and recommendation: This study aimed to investigate the priority constraints faced by the RPMR contractors in NZ, as well as strategies for improvement. Preliminary findings of an interview-based qualitative survey of medium- to large-sized roading contractors in NZ revealed 70 productivity constraints; these were aggregated into eight broad categories as follows: finance, workforce, technology/process, statutory/regulatory compliance, project characteristics, project management/project team characteristics, unforeseen circumstances and other/external factors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the key productivity constraints faced by New Zealand (NZ) road pavement maintenance and rehabilitation contractors (RPMRCs) and the associated mitigation measures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Interview-based exploratory research strategy was used to survey senior managers and directors of medium- to large-sized road contracting firms in NZ. Empirical data were analyzed using the multi-attribute analytical technique.\nFindings: Results revealed 70 productivity constraints faced by the RPMRCs in NZ; in diminishing order of influence, these constraints were aggregated into eight broad categories as follows: finance, workforce, technology/process, statutory/regulatory compliance, project characteristics, project management/project team characteristics, unforeseen circumstances and other/external factors. The most important constraints in each of the eight broad categories were presented.\nResearch limitations/implications: The key limitation of the research is that it was based on feedback from a limited number of participants which were less than the minimum required to represent the views of the potential participants in the sampling frame for the study. As a result, the findings may not be reliably generalized beyond the scope of the data used. Further research on the subject is recommended to ensure that the representation of the views of the individuals and companies that comprised the sampling frame is achieved. The current findings could be formulated as propositions or hypotheses to be tested in future confirmatory research.\nPractical implications: At the industry level, the findings could provide the basis for the skill development programs of the NZ RPMRCs. The application of the research findings by the RPMRCs and consultants could result in significant improvement in the productivity of the NZ roading sector and the sector's enhanced contribution to the economy.\nOriginality/value: Currently, there is little research on the priority constraints to productivity and performance in the NZ roading sector. The findings contribute to knowledge by revealing critical factors constraining productivity performance of the NZ RMRCs and the associated improvement measures. New and more enriching viewpoints were provided on how contractors could leverage their limited resources to address the identified key constraints.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The legitimacy of entrepreneurial mentoring
|
[
"SMEs",
"Mentoring",
"Ireland",
"Legitimacy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: When viewed as a garden, mentoring research has patches that are cultivated, in bloom, overwatered and neglected (Ragins and Kram, 2007). This purpose of this paper is to focus upon the neglected areas and to use theoretically rich soil to better understand the phenomenon of small firm mentoring. Specifically our research questions serve to explore how mentorship contributes to small firms with different needs and how and why some processes are critical to success. The importance of small firms to the European Union is beyond question: 99 per cent of all European businesses are, in fact, small, medium enterprises (SME). In Ireland, the context of this study, SMEs account for 72 per cent of private sector employment outside of construction and agriculture (Lawless et al., 2012).\nMentoring and contemporary careers: The twin concepts of career and psychosocial support (Kram, 1983) are pivotal to mentoring theory. Career support involves the mentor acting, for example, as a sponsor to his or her protege, whereas psychosocial support enhances a proteges self worth by offering, among other things, protection. It has been stated that indirect help of a mentor enhances a protege's performance whereas direct help is political in nature (Kirchmeyer, 2005).\nMethodology: Access to mentor relationships was facilitated by Enterprise Ireland (EI), a state agency that supports a Mentor Network (www.enterprise-ireland.com). The genesis for a mentor programme occurred in the early 1980s. SMEs lacked the formal board structures to accommodate non-executive directors and they could ill afford the expertise of specialist consultants. A looser arrangement was needed for small companies that could avail of support without an external person taking part in the formal decision-making processes of a company. For over three decades, EI has managed a voluntary network of mentors and offers the service free to client companies. Mentors are independent business people that include retirees and consultants who receive per diem expenses only. The Network was appropriate for carrying out the research as it supports high-potential start-ups (HPSU) as well as more established firms seeking to develop and grow. Mentors support small firms by listening, guiding and challenging but should not perform the functions of a consultant, i.e. \"do things\" for the mentee. This stipulation is consistent with the role and scope of normative mentoring theory, which promotes non-directive guidance. The stated purpose of the EI mentor network is to \"help companies identify and overcome obstacles to growth\" (Enterprise Ireland, 2012). Our investigation of mentoring in the context of a formal programme is consistent with St-Jean (2012), Bisk (2002), Gravells (2006) and Barrett (2006).\nFindings and discussion: The first research question sought to explore how mentoring relationships support small firms. In order to answer RQ1, four support roles are categorised as follows: opportunity identification, opportunity enactment, business development and business continuity. The four domains reflect different degrees of uncertainty (Figure 1). For RQ2, we describe how the relationships transition between stages of uncertainty and what processes support successful mentoring.\nDiscussion: This paper attempted to better understand how mentoring relationships support small firms, and how mentoring processes differ based on the needs of mentees.\nConclusion: The purpose of this paper was to explore how mentor's support small firms and how the processes of mentoring may differ between small firms with different needs. Using a multiple case design we identified four support roles, which include opportunity identification and enactment as well as business development and continuity. Our findings support previous literature on the relationship between mentoring and opportunity recognition and highlights the contribution of mentoring to opportunity enactment. In addition, and in contrast to best practice our study sheds light on the broad scope of entrepreneurial mentoring, which is consistent with small firms preference for informal development over formal training programmes. We also highlight some shared critical success factors between mentoring and coaching as well as point out the risks of relationships driven by programme goals.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present findings from longitudinal case studies of small firm mentoring relationships in Ireland. The rationale is to explore the gaps between the theory and practice of small firm mentoring.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses a comparative case study design involving interviews, observation and secondary sources of evidence including business plans.\nFindings: In contrast to the literature the paper extends the role of mentors in the small firm context as offering direct and indirect support, which reduces uncertainty in order to increase legitimacy of the business entity.\nResearch limitations/implications: The cases highlight a conflict between the broad theoretical scope of the mentor process vs a narrow role assumed by best practice.\nPractical implications: The research presents an opportunity to enhance the pragmatic vs paternalistic perspective of small firm mentoring. The authors argue that for mentoring theory to be useful then a mentor's role-set in small firms may be wider and should be more direct than mentors in large corporations.\nOriginality/value: The emergent theoretical framework combines organisational learning and decision-making theories. The paper contributes to the theoretical development of mentoring by extending the range and defining the role of mentors in the context of small firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Where less is more: institutional voids and business families in Sub-Saharan Africa
|
[
"Institutional theory",
"Family firms",
"Sub-Saharan Africa",
"Institutions",
"Institutional voids"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Family business literature presents family businesses as a dominant form of organisations in both developed and developing economies (Carney, 2005; Khavul et al., 2009; Estrada-Robles et al., 2018). Further, researchers argue that family businesses contribute to job creation and wealth generation (Feltham et al., 2005) and they outperform non-family businesses (Villalonga and Amit, 2006). However, such scholarly work views family businesses through a narrow lens of the nuclear family influencing business operations (Sharma, 2004). This perspective neglects the topography of family business composition across different institutional spaces, in which extended family members' involvement, brings into the business operation greater access to capital, expertise and information (Leaptrott, 2005). Such involvement may include an appreciation of informal entrepreneurial activity at the family level. As a result, there is a need to refocus attention away from the contours of the \"family business\" to a more inclusive notion of \"business family\" which in turn can act as an \"institution\" with its own set of logics.\nOverview of institutional theory and institutional voids: This paper uses the neo-institutional theory, founded on the notion that organisations, groups and individuals, and their behaviours, are shaped by the institutional environments in which they are embedded (Scott, 2001). According to Scott (2001) such institutional environments comprise three pillars. The regulatory pillar involves formalised rules, laws and associated sanctions promoting certain behaviours and restricting others. The normative pillar refers to wider norms and values present in a society about what constitutes appropriate and acceptable behaviour. The cultural-cognitive pillar relates to how certain behaviours become taken for granted based on shared understandings.\nAn institutional perspective on business families: Within dominant perspectives on family business, a family business exists when ownership and management are concentrated within a family unit and its members strive to achieve and/or maintain intra-organisational family-based relatedness (Litz, 1995, p. 103). Generally, according to Friedland and Alford (1991, p. 248) the institutional logic of the family firm consists of \"a set of cultural rules and assumptions associated with notions of community and unconditional loyalty to family members and their reproductive needs\". This is consistent with the perception portrayed by Miller et al. (2011, p. 4) that the familial logics are that of \"nurturing, generativity, and loyalty to family members\". Within this body of work, some scholars have used family stakeholder perspective, arguing that family logics influence the firm's strategy and performance because stakeholders in family firms pursue economic and non-economic objectives simultaneously (Dyer, 2006, Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007). Farrington et al. (2011) argue that business logics define family businesses, as they are driven by the market dynamics, which is more focussed on economic performance. The existence of multiple logics presents a dilemma for family-based organisations, and we find divergent conclusions about the consequences of logic multiplicity within organisations (Besharov and Smith, 2014, p. 2). There has been a continuous debate on how the two competing logics (family and business) coexist within an organisation and how ownership, management, governance mechanism and strive towards succession are affected by the dominant logic within the organisation.\nConceptual model: This paper responds to calls to examine how institutional forces affect business activities in general (Guler et al., 2002) and particularly business families (Barredy, 2016; Randerson et al., 2015, 2016). Of particular importance is our focus on the Sub-Saharan African institutional context, characterised by a large number of family-owned firms, engaged in informal entrepreneurship (Khavul et al., 2009).\nDiscussion: In this section we discuss how various institutional pressures may influence business families and their participation in business activity within the context characterised by voids within the formal institutional setting, where there may exist misalignments between formal and informal institutions. Within this paper we offer specific insight into why business families in Sub-Saharan Africa have the capacities to benefit from the existence of voids in formal institutional settings. We turn first to discussion of political institutional pressures.\nConclusions and implications: Responding to calls to understand the importance of \"context\" within our understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour (Bruton et al. 2010; Jennings et al., 2013) and in particular the role of institutional contexts in affecting entrepreneurial activity (Bruton et al., 2010; Scott, 1995, 2005; Zahra and Wright, 2011), this paper has explored how the specific contours of the institutional context within Sub-Saharan Africa may impact on business families. Business families represent a much wider notion of businesses owned, managed and governed by families. They include wider extended family members and members of community, who have an influence on what business family is understood as within the Sub-Saharan African context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a conceptual interpretation of the role business families play in the institutional context of sub-Saharan Africa, characterised by voids within the formal institutional setting. Responding to calls to take a holistic perspective of the institutional environment, we develop a conceptual model, showcasing the emergence of relational familial logics within business families that enable these enterprising organisations to navigate the political, economic and socio-cultural terrain of this institutional context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors undertake a review of extant literature on institutional theory, institutional voids, family business and business families and examine the relevance of these theoretical constructs in relation to the institutional environment of Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors offer tentative propositions within our conceptualisation, which the authors discuss in an inductive fashion.\nFindings: The review underlines the relevance of informal political, economic and socio-cultural institutions within the sub-Saharan context, within which the family as an institution drives business families engagement in institutional entrepreneurship. In doing so, the authors argue business families are best positioned to navigate the existing Sub-Saharan African institutional context. The authors underline the critical relevance of the embeddedness of social relationships that underpin relational familial logic within the sub-Saharan African collectivist socio-cultural system.\nOriginality/value: By challenging the assumptions that institutional voids are empty spaces devoid of institutions, the authors offer an alternative view that institutional voids are spaces where there exists a misalignment of formal and informal institutions. The authors argue that in such contexts within Sub-Saharan Africa, business families are best placed to harness their embeddedness within extended family and community for entrepreneurial activity. The authors argue that family and business logics may complement each other rather than compete. The discussions and propositions have implications for future research on business families and more inclusive forms of family organisations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors affecting the psychological distress among unemployed and re-employed individuals
|
[
"Social support",
"Coping",
"Unemployment",
"Psychological distress",
"Re-employed",
"Unemployed"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For most individuals and their families, work is one of the fundamental objects of human existence and basic life requirements are met through employment. However, work does much more than supply the means for meeting physical needs; it is also an important factor that gives individuals the opportunity to participate in society. Employment can satisfy creative urges, promote self-esteem, and provide an avenue for self-realization. It allows people to be a part of the social structure that will make them feel satisfied in terms of personal, familial, and social aspects of life (Witte, 2010; Linn et al., 1985).\nThe aims: Based on the literature reviewed, it has been identified that the limited research (Jackson, 1999; Mantler et al., 2005; Creed and Moore, 2006) with relatively small sample size has been conducted on the relationship between coping strategies, social support, and psychological distress in different employment groupings (unemployed vs re-employed). Therefore, the first aim of this cross-sectional study is to delineate the differences in utilization of coping strategies, social support, and psychological distress across these two groups of unemployed and re-employed individuals in a Turkish sample.\nMethods: The cross-sectional design and the convenience sampling method were used in the study. Cross-sectional studies allow one to compare the psychosocial well-being of different types of groups at a single time point.\nResults: Description of coping strategies, perceived social support, and psychological distress of unemployed and re-employed participants\nDiscussion: This study examined social support and the utilization of both problem- and emotion-focused stress coping strategies and their association with psychological distress among 389 unemployed and 270 re-employed) participants in a Turkish sample. Most of the participants in both groups were younger and single, and the participation rate was very high. Social support and the multiple facets of coping strategies of participants were significantly associated with sociodemographic and employment-related variables and with the psychological distress.\nConclusions and future study: Psychological distress, as the dependent variable of the study, in this sample was found to be related to social support, problem-, and emotion-focused stress coping. That is, the unemployed participants, who reported receiving instrumental social support and perceiving emotional support (especially guidance) from family members and significant others and who used more problem and less emotion-focused coping, reported less psychological distress. The results of our study suggest that there is a significant role for social support and problem-focused coping in relation to lower levels of distress in unemployed people, and strategies that enhance access to these supports are likely to be beneficial to unemployed people. These are the strengths of our study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine coping strategies, social support, and psychological distress for comparable samples of unemployed (n=389) and re-employed (n=270) individuals. The authors hypothesized that problem-focused coping and higher levels of social support would be associated with lower levels of psychological distress for unemployed vs re-employed participants.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The cross-sectional design and the convenience sampling method were used in the study.\nFindings: Although unemployed participants reported poorer coping, higher levels of psychological distress, and lower levels of social support compared to re-employed participants; social support and coping strategies predicted psychological distress. Multiple regression analyses suggest that emotion-focused coping strategies were related to higher levels of psychological distress, whereas social support and problem-focused coping strategies were related to lower levels of psychological distress. Social support accounted for more variance in participants' psychological distress above and beyond all other variables. Single and unemployed participants of the study used less problem-focused, more emotion-focused coping, and perceived lower social support than married unemployed. Gender and marital status of the unemployed were also significantly associated with psychological distress. In addition, older and less educated unemployed participants perceived less social support and used emotion-focused coping more frequently.\nPractical implications: The findings indicated that being female, single, older, and low educated are the potential sociodemographic risk factors for the psychosocial well-being of unemployed people.\nOriginality/value: The favourable effects of certain coping strategies suggest the potential benefits of interventions to reduce reliance on emotion-focused coping and stimulate more problem-focused strategies in order to enhance psychological well-being.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Children and young people: reviewing practice and policies
|
[
"Children (age groups)",
"Communication",
"Youth"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The General Medical Council's (GMC) recently published booklet, 0-18 Years: Guidance For All Doctors (GMC, 2007) is a welcome addition to available and widespread information for professionals working with children and young people. It is the GMC's intention that every registered medical practitioner will be sent a copy. This means that somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 booklets will be despatched. The guidance is available to everyone (accessed through the GMC's comprehensive web site) and is probably of interest to many who, although not registered with the GMC, may be professionally, socially or voluntarily involved with promoting the welfare of children and young people.Hopefully those doctors who regularly work with children will read this new booklet with interest and re-familiarise themselves with the professional, ethical and legal requirements placed upon them. In addition, those doctors who do not see themselves primarily as practitioners who work with children should use this as a resource in situations where advice may be needed. In any event, the GMC (2007) has expressly stated that doctors, \"should also be aware of the needs and welfare of children and young people when they see patients; (a) who are parents or carers (b) who are cared for by children or young people, or (c) who may represent a danger to children or young people.\" In essence, this represents a significant proportion of the patient population that most doctors will encounter and re-establishes the duty that a clinician has to consider whether a child or young person may be vulnerable. Vulnerability can exist for many different reasons and may be difficult to elucidate, but can include, for example, problems with domestic violence; parents who unwittingly neglect their offspring due to the complex nature of their own needs; unreasonable demands made of children who are hampered in their development and the significant numbers of children and young people in society who are have responsibilities as carers.\nCommunication, communication, communication: Effective clinical interactions with children and young people require skills that may be more obvious (or natural) in some doctors than others. Whilst many children and young people in society can display attitudes and behaviours that appear confident, there are an equal number who are less able to communicate or interact socially to their best advantage. Added to this are the co-existing and considerable lifestyle and peer pressures, with attendant high expectations. This, in turn, can lead to or contribute to a natural reticence in some which then affects their ability to discuss problems and concerns with adults in authority. Situations can arise, when through no fault of the doctor's, a child or young person may soon lose or indeed have no confidence, thereby removing or significantly impairing their ability to participate fully in taking important decisions about their health and well-being.If the reader has time only to scan this article, the extract below, taken directly from the GMC guidance (2007, para 14), sets out the steps necessary to try and establish effective communication with children and young people:In particular you should:(a) involve children and young people in discussions about their care(b) be honest and open with them and their parents, while respecting confidentiality(c) listen to and respect their views about their health, and respond to their concerns and preferences(d) explain things using language or other forms of communication they can understand(e) consider how you and they use non-verbal communication, and the surroundings in which you meet them(f) give them an opportunity to ask questions, and answer these honestly and to the best of your ability(g) do all you can to make open and truthful discussion possible, taking into account that this can be helped or hindered by the involvement of parents or other people(h) give them the same time and respect that you would give to adult patientsThis laudable and simple advice, whilst straightforward in principle, may be challenging for some practitioners for different reasons. The practitioner needs a degree of insight to recognise what the communication barriers are, if they exist, and why they experience difficulties in working with some children or families.\nCommunication problems as a feature of complaints in primary care: In a review undertaken at MPS during 2007 (unpublished data), 526 complaints made against practitioners in primary care during 2006 were analysed. Of these, 13 per cent (66) were complaints about care given to a child or young person. As the members had voluntarily contacted MPS for advice in dealing with complaints received, the data analysed therefore was not necessarily representative of the nature of all complaints made in primary care. The members seeking professional advice were keen to ensure that the matter was resolved as swiftly as possible, both for the benefit of the patient (family) and the health professionals involved.Of the 66 complaints made about care provided (or not provided) to patients under the age of 18 years, the main reasons for complaints are set out in Table I.Interestingly, those complaints that involved problems with communication were predominately in the age range of children under 11 years, suggesting that the parents - rather than the children - experienced the difficulties. In only one of the complaints was the complainant the patient, and in that case he was a 16-year-old who was concerned about the perceived failure of the GP to refer for specialist advice in a timely fashion. In addition to the high percentage of problems with communication and attitude, 42 per cent of the doctors had previously notified MPS of other complaints or claims.It is accepted that in some cases, for reasons that are not always obvious, perfectly able doctors who have \"good enough\" communication skills can fall foul of a particular family. The doctor-patient (or in these cases, carer) relationship can be hampered from the outset such that trust is eroded. Despite the doctor reaching (or failing to reach) a particular conclusion or diagnosis in the same way as any other reasonable doctor might have done, the family are not prepared to accept that the care has been good enough. Fortunately, in most of the MPS series of cases, the outcome for the young patient was excellent and the outcome for the doctor in terms of complaint management, satisfactory.Even if scrupulous analysis of the case shows that the care could be supported, there are always opportunities for learning. Review of any complaints made by parents or young people is essential as it may lead to changes or strengthening of procedures and practice in primary-care settings.\nRelevant themes in immunisation practice: With the current screening and immunisation programmes in the UK, MPS occasionally receives requests for advice with respect to the interpretation of consent policies, the role and rights of the young person and the necessity or otherwise to fully engage the parent when the patient has demonstrated competence to give consent.The Green Book (Department of Health, 2007) - the essential document for those with responsibility for immunisation and vaccinations - has a full chapter devoted to consent. For those working in this field, the advice in the GMC guidance complements the Green Book and Department of Health (2001) advice so that most questions pertaining to consent for children and young people can be answered using these three resources (see below):Key messages for immunising children and young people\nImmunisation of younger children: Again, the Green Book, used alongside the GMC guidance, gives those in primary care or community paediatric care the consensus view of how consent should be approached with the younger child. Importantly:For young children not competent to give or withhold consent, such consent can be given by a person with parental responsibility, provided that person is capable of consenting to the immunisation in question and is able to communicate their decision. Where this person brings the child in response to an invitation for immunisation and, following an appropriate consultation, present the child for that immunisation, these actions may be considered evidence of consent (Department of Health, 2007, p. 10).Appendix 2 in the GMC guidance (2007) describes what the current legal position with regard to parental responsibility is in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The language is unambiguous and leaves the doctor in no doubt as to who is able to provide consent for children in their care. Helpfully, the final paragraph in this appendix clarifies the role of those people who may be caring for a child yet do not have parental responsibility. This is particularly relevant to the younger child as they can be in the temporary care of child minders, grandparents, step-parents and other family members when brought to the attention of healthcare services.Reverting to the Green Book guidance, there is helpful advice for situations where there are discrepancies between those with parental responsibility and also suggestions for how to deal with the administration of vaccines if those with parental responsibility are not present.\nRoutine immunisation in schools - using GMC and DH guidance: Doctors have, on occasions, contacted MPS's telephone helpline to discuss consent problems arising from immunisation programmes provided for secondary school pupils. Difficulties can arise due to the failure of the responsible parent to provide consent - or the management of the upset or \"awkward\" schoolchild who refuses to have the immunisation in the face of appropriately provided parental consent. The more specific guidance in the Green Book (Department of Health, 2007, p. 11), taken together with the broader themes in the GMC booklet, allows the clinician to make appropriate decisions to help the young person become a full participant in the healthcare choices. This, of course, includes the withdrawal of consent.With older school children, some may feel that the routes to immunisation involve gentle coercion and tacit acceptance rather than informed choices made by the pupils themselves. A study by Rylance et al. (1995) during the MMR campaign, suggested that of the 851 young people who participated in the study using questionnaires, 71 per cent would accept immunisation because their parents wanted them to, rather then because they made an informed choice as an individual. Whilst mass vaccination campaigns are not the norm, and the engaging of young people in healthcare decisions is becoming more comprehensive, the sentiments expressed in the study are still pertinent. The comment in Rylance et al.'s paper (p. 924) stating that, \"Appropriate and necessary involvement of today's socially aware older children may have secondary benefit in influencing the opinions and actions of tomorrow's parents.\" strikes a chord with what the GMC is striving to achieve with its new guidance.\nSafeguarding principles: Doctors play a crucial role in protecting children from abuse and neglect (GMC, 2007, para 56).If you work with young people you should have the knowledge and skills to identify abuse and neglect (GMC, 2007, para 58).Underpinning all professional involvement with children and young people are the considerations needed for their well-being and safety. In current society, safeguarding matters are paramount. Children can be - and indeed are - vulnerable members of society. There is a legal and professional duty for all doctors to consider the welfare of children and to ensure that advice provided, either to the child or young person or to their parents or carers, is appropriate and has taken into account any impact that this may have on the ultimate safety of the individual.It can be difficult for any doctor to ascertain whether the child or young person they are looking after is at increased risk. This is particularly so in primary care and those aspects of secondary care where paediatric practice is not the usual occupation of the doctor concerned.The GMC guidance is most useful as it is so succinct and adds to the huge body of information available for health professionals relating to child protection matters. It is essential that all doctors recognise what the implications of abuse and neglect are - the obligations of every doctor as set out by the GMC are not in dispute. There can be occasions when risks to children are subtle and the terminology of abuse and neglect in more comprehensive documents can be taken to be more extreme than intended. There have also been increasing professional concerns about the vulnerability of doctors as individuals if they over-interpret or over-report suspicions, and this may subtly influence at what stage they choose to seek advice. The key message from the GMC for all practitioners is to seek advice when in doubt and, of course, at the earliest opportunity.\nListening, learning and reducing harm: The GMC, in establishing its responsibilities for the medical profession, as with all previous guidance, unequivocally states that \"serious or persistent failure to follow this guidance will put your registration at risk\". All practitioners working with children must be familiar with the relevant ethical and legal boundaries and they should know where to turn for advice and guidance. Several pages at the end of the GMC booklet list relevant sources of information and notable documents, most of which are readily available.For the future health of the nation, we need children and young people to feel able to trust the doctors they encounter, allowing them to engage with healthcare, either as part of preventative programmes or ongoing management of acute or chronic illness. Knowing that your doctor respects you and your views must go a long way to building that confidence. It is empowering for young people to make decisions about their healthcare with the help and support of their families (where appropriate), rather than have what may appear to be unpalatable solutions imposed upon them.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to important new guidance from the GMC (General Medical Council) on the care of children and young people and its implications for updating and reviewing existing policies and practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper assesses the applicability of new GMC guidance, 0-18 Years: Guidance For All Doctors, with regard to several aspects of healthcare professionals' responsibilities to children and young people - communication, immunisation and safeguarding children. Its compatibility with existing key guidance from the Department of Health is also examined.\nFindings: - The GMC's new booklet enhances and updates previously existing guidance regarding the care and treatment of children and young people. This is an opportunity for healthcare professionals to review their own practice, update their knowledge and improve their procedures and protocols where applicable.\nOriginality/value: - This paper offers a viewpoint that should encourage healthcare professionals to familiarise themselves with current guidance and examine their own performance and responsibilities towards children and young people.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Online brand community: through the eyes of Self-Determination Theory
|
[
"Internet",
"Internet marketing",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Social networks",
"Community networks",
"User involvement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As of June 2014, more than 277 million Americans spent an average of 32 hours each week online (www.internetworldstats.com). With such a large percentage of internet usage, it is not a surprise that globally Coca-Cola has 90 million Facebook likes, Nike has 4.1 million Twitter followers, and Coach has 504,000 Instagram followers. This online activity has not gone unnoticed by businesses and other like-minded organizations. As more Americans spent time surfing the web, web advertising gradually increased such that, in 2012, internet advertising buys in the USA exceeded those in print for the first time (www.marketingcharts.com, accessed, November, 2014). This marked a systemic shift in brand communication strategies. A key part of the success of these strategies has been the presence and influence possibilities of online brand communities (OBCs). Dholakia et al. (2004, p. 241) define OBCs \"as consumer groups of varying sizes that meet and interact for the sake of achieving personal as well as shared goals of their members.\" Since 2004, OBCs have grown exponentially with almost 50 percent of the top 100 global brands have established an OBC (Manchanda et al., 2015). Some consumers interact with OBCs through brand sponsored social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. For example, many report that they are more likely to buy and recommend brands that they like or follow on Facebook (http://blog.cmbinfo.com/press-center-content/bid, accessed, September 2014). These trends point to the importance of brands using OBCs to build and maintain consumer-brand connections. Patterson (2012) states that, \"computer mediated communication[s] [...] have transformed consumers from silent, isolated, and invisible individuals, into a noisy, public, [this is an] even more manageable than usual, collective.\"\nTheoretical development: OBC\nHypotheses: Consumer innovativeness\nMethodology: Data collection\nResults: The dimensionality, reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity of the scales were examined using confirmatory factor analysis (Amos 18). Following Alden et al.'s (2013) method for item reduction, several items were removed to improve overall construct measurement properties. However, as shown in Table I, removal of these items did not appear to alter the latent construct measured as correlations between the initial scales and revised scales ranging from 0.99 to 0.83 (see Table\nDiscussion and implications: The primary aim of this paper was to demonstrate how SDT can be utilized to understand the impact of brand-related antecedents on BW interactivity in a nomological net. We find that the proposed OBC motivational development continuum framework provides initial support for consumers increased motivations for BW interactivity through the internalization process. Further, by studying several brand-related antecedents of BW interactivity, and making and elaborating on the distinction between brand engagement in self-concept and purposive motives, our model suggests ways to concretize information gathered from OBCs in order to improve brand communications and branding practices at large. In this research, we examined four brand-related antecedents and mediators (brand engagement in self-concept, susceptibility of normative influence, opinion leadership, and consumer innovativeness) and found evidence of the differing roles that brand engagement in self-concept and purposive motives play as mediators. One unexpected finding was that consumer innovativeness negatively predicts BW interactivity. A post hoc analysis was run to investigate consumer innovativeness to BW interactivity path without any other variables in the model. The results found that the path was positive (b=0.11; ns); though non-significant, the sign was flipped from the full model. This suggests that the strength of the mediator had a significant suppression effect on consumer innovativeness and that brand engagement in self-concept plays an integral role in mediating consumer innovators' BW interactivity. In addition, purposive motives also play an important role as a mediator of consumers who are high in susceptibility of normative influence and opinion leadership. Finally, as predicted, higher levels of brand engagement in self-concept and purposive motives lead to more frequent brand website interactivity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper to use Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to explain the online brand community (OBC) identity internalization process through brand website interactivity. Secondary purpose of the research is to explore the role of several individual difference factors and brand-specific constructs in predicting brand website interactivity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study proposes the OBC motivation development continuum of brand website interactivity. Thus, a national panel was collected by a reputable online survey firm and a structural equation model was used to test the proposed model.\nFindings: The authors examined four brand-related antecedents and mediators (brand engagement in self-concept, susceptibility of normative influence, opinion leadership, and consumer innovativeness) and found evidence of the differing roles that brand engagement in self-concept and purposive motives play as mediators to brand website interactivity.\nPractical implications: Marketing managers can use the proposed model as a useful tool for understanding ways to target and motivate segment specific consumers in ways that will increase the effectiveness of managers' OBC building strategies.\nOriginality/value: This study utilized SDT to explain the internalization process of brand website interactivity. Further, several individual difference factors were explored as antecedents and mediators of brand website interactivity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Organizational practices as antecedents of the information security management performance: An empirical investigation
|
[
"SMEs",
"Security organizational practices",
"Information security knowledge sharing",
"Information security visibility",
"Information security education",
"Performance of information security management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Digital interrelations fostered by the internet, IoT, cloud computing and other technologies, in which people and companies act as interconnected and interdependent nodes, have meant that information security has a strategic importance (Doherty and Fulford, 2005; Chen et al., 2008; Cram et al., 2017), especially in business environments, where the competitiveness of organizations depends on their ability to manage the information (Drucker, 2002; Gordon and Loeb, 2006; Preston and Karahanna, 2009; Soomro et al., 2016).\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses: The analysis of the information security is a complex subject due to its multidisciplinary character (Flores et al., 2014; Safa and Von Solms, 2016; Hwang et al., 2017). According to Soomro et al. (2016), a more holistic approach is needed for information security management. Siponen et al. (2014) suggest that information security issues should be considered in a management perspective.\n3. Research methodology: Data and sample\n4. Results: This paper estimated the structural model (SEM) with the EQS 6.1 software package using maximum likelihood estimation techniques to test the model (SEM-ML). The fit of the model is satisfactory (kh2(17)=29.982, p=0.183; RMSEA=0.053; CFI=0.99; IFI=0.99; GFI=0.98), suggesting that the nomological network of relations fits the data and the validity of the measurement scales. Figure 1 shows the standardized path coefficients with their respective significant levels (Table VI).\n5. Discussion: This paper investigates the effects of information security organizational practices (information security knowledge sharing, information security education and information security visibility) on the performance of information security management in industrial SMEs.\n6. Conclusions, limitations and future research: The competitiveness of SMEs depends on their ability to secure management of their main asset, information, and, because of this, they need to have adequate security organizational practices beyond just technological resources.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to expand current knowledge about the security organizational practices and analyze its effects on the information security management performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the literature review, the authors propose a research model together with hypotheses. The survey questionnaires were developed to collect data, which then validated the measurement model. The authors collected 111 responses from CEOs at manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that had already implemented security policies. The hypothesized relationships were tested using the structural equation model approach with EQS 6.1 software.\nFindings: Results validate that information security knowledge sharing, information security education and information security visibility, as well as security organizational practices, have a positive effect on the information security management performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The consideration of organizational aspects of information security should be taken into account by academics, practitioners and policymakers in SMEs. Besides, the work helps validate novel constructs used in recent research (information security knowledge sharing and information security visibility).\nPractical implications: The authors extend previous works by analyzing how security organizational practices affect the performance of information security. The results suggest that an improved performance of information security in the industrial SMEs requires innovative practices to foster knowledge sharing among employees.\nOriginality/value: The literature recognizes the need to develop empirical research on information security focused on SMEs. Besides the need to identify organizational practices that improve information security, this paper empirically investigates SMEs' organizational practices in the security of information and analyzes its effects on the performance of information security.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Gender-segregated labour spaces and social capital - does context matter?
|
[
"Human resource management",
"Career development",
"Social networks",
"Management development",
"Human resource development",
"Investment management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Gender segregation, both vertical and horizontal, remains a persistent feature of the global labour market with many explanators being provided for its existence. In examining the antecedents for its steadfast existence, the role of interpersonal relationships and in particular access to social networks, cannot be overstated (de Janasz and Forret, 2007; Bennett et al., 2010; Mavin et al., 2014; Carr and Kelan, 2016). Using a gender lens, this research seeks to examine the role of social capital and specifically networks in role and career development for women within two occupationally segregated labour spaces, namely, investment management and human resource management (HRM). Examining these two areas in the labour market provides a new dimension to the existing body of literature concerning the role of context in social capital accumulation. Equally, by using a gender lens and focusing on gendered labour market spaces, this research contributes to redressing the current \"gender-blind\" literature discourse concerning social capital (Gidengil and O'Neill, 2013, p. 2).\nTheoretical background: Defining social capital\nThe role of \"context\" in social capital development: McPherson et al. (2001, p. 415) represented social capital as a phenomenon where \"similarity breeds connection\" and networking between like-minded people occur at a higher rate than those who are dissimilar. Within the labour market where contexts and occupations are highly gendered, their networks are in turn homogenous in nature. These networks are often maintained through occupational closure regimes (Weber, 1922) and boundary drawing tactics (Cardona, 2013), which aim to further the collective interest of the dominant group through social capital investment. Within male-dominated fields such as engineering, construction and investment management, occupational closure strategies such as male-only client entertainment or social events inhibit women's development of social capital.\nMethodology: This study is underpinned by an interpretivist philosophical stance with a qualitative inductive research approach wherein participants were \"given voice\" to understand better the role of social capital in two labour spaces, HRM, a traditionally female domain, and investment management, a habitually male environment. At the core of the research is the need for reflexivity both from the perspective of the researcher as well as the participants (Riach, 2009). Such emphasis is essential to recognise the construction of knowledge as a social process. In-depth interviews were selected as the research tool, whereas thematic analysis guided the analysis of data. In-depth interviews allowed participants to explore and reflect on the role of social capital in their development and career progression in two very diverse occupational contexts. The interviews provided an authentic and transparent platform for a \"subjective understanding\" of the lived experiences of these women (Seidman, 2013, p. 17). Specifically, it allowed for understanding to be gained concerning the role of networking and social capital accumulation and whether context leads to different outcomes for women.\nFindings[2]: The findings indicated that while there were some similarities in both how employees in HRM and investment management accessed networks as well as what employees perceived as the role of networks, significant divergences also emerged. These divergences, for the most part, reflected sectoral norms and behaviours associated with the two different labour market contexts. The emergent themes related to:\nSocial capital and career development: The value of networks as a source for building social capital was recognised by participants in both contexts. In investment management, the importance of networks in accessing clients and being privy to investment opportunities was cited, whereas in HRM, networks provided opportunities for ongoing professional development:\nDiscussion and conclusions: This study purposefully used a gendered lens to examine the role of context in social capital accumulation and this is a unique feature of the work. By using a gendered analysis of two polarised labour market spaces, attention is brought to how social capital distribution differs across contexts for women as well as how it is used depending on the occupation under study. This research highlights the inequalities that men and women face in accessing social capital as well as the versatility of networks as a pathway to developing social capital in two significantly different labour contexts. While managers in both contexts regarded the use of networks as beneficial, the focus of their use differed as did their access of same. For investment management managers, networks were a prominent feature in career progression. This is in line with the findings of McDowell (2010), Jones (1998), Ozbilgin and Woodward (2004), Roth (2006), Sealy (2010) and Pryce and Sealy (2013). For HR managers, the focus was upon the development of the broader aspects of social capital, including knowledge development, competence and the identification of potential pitfalls. This fits with Gubbins and Garavan's (2005, p. 189) position regarding the importance of social capital as encompassing both these elements, i.e. career success and job performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This research aims to explore the role of social capital and specifically networks in role, and career development for women within two very distinct gender-segregated contexts of the labour market, namely, investment management and human resource management (HRM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research is qualitative in nature, underpinned by an interpretivist philosophical stance. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the findings from 32 in-depth interviews with HR and investment management managers.\nFindings: The findings advance our understanding of social capital and its development as a social process, which differs according to labour market contexts. The results indicate divergence among participants regarding how they access networks as well as the perceived role and benefits of networking and social capital accumulation in their career and personal development.\nPractical implications: For human resource development (HRD) practitioners, there are implications in relation to the need to tailor development and support structures cognisant of the occupational context. Specifically, the findings of this study indicate the acute need to support network access for those \"outsider\" women in male-dominated spaces. A need to enhance awareness of the benefits of networks to both organisations and employees across the labour market is warranted. For organisations, networks underlie social capital accumulation, which in turn increases efficiency and generates business solutions. For the employee, networks are an important self-development and career advancement tool. Such connections need to be supported and developed. Within patriarchal spaces particularly, HRD professionals need to provide support to women in extending their networks both within and outside the organisation.\nOriginality/value: This research makes an essential contribution to the literature by examining the influence of context in the development of social capital within two polarized labour market locations. The findings highlight the difficulties women face when developing social capital in investment management in contrast to the relative ease, which HRM professionals experience. Such findings also bring to light the essential role of HRD professionals as advocates for change in such contexts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
UK Bribery Act 2010: implications for business in Africa
|
[
"Africa",
"Prevention",
"Anti-bribery management system",
"Bribery",
"Extra-territorial jurisdiction",
"UKBA"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The UK Bribery Act (UKBA) 2010 modernises British anti-corruption laws in order to mitigate the risk of bribery by UK companies around the world. The Act's extraterritorial jurisdiction has far reaching implications for UK businesses, their subsidiaries and supply chains. In addition to criminalising bribery, the legislation creates a new offence of failing to prevent bribery. An organisation can, however, escape prosecution provided that it can prove it had adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery. The UK has a poor record of prosecuting cases of bribery in international business. This raises the question as to whether this legislation exonerates UK businesses while shifting the responsibility of fighting bribery to under-resourced business partners and supply chains in developing countries. This article examines the potential impact of the UKBA 2010 on business in Africa and proposes the development of a bespoke anti-bribery management system (ABMS) in the wake of unenforceable anti-corruption laws. Part 1 provides an overview of the UKBA. Part 2 discusses the extent to which UK companies engage in bribery overseas. Part 3 assesses the impact of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the legislation on business in Africa with particular reference to foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development aid (ODA). Part 4 examines the limitations of anti-bribery laws and other strategies. Part 5 reviews existing ABMSs and the challenges faced by African institutions in implementing them. The article concludes that a bespoke ABMS is required that takes into account the capacity of organisations, social policy objectives and the competence of the institutions necessary to support their implementation and enforcement.\nI. Overview of the UKBA 2010: The UKBA received Royal assent in April 2010 and entered into force in July 2011. The legislation implements the UN Convention against Corruption 2003. It replaces a number of outdated statutes in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland including the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889, Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 and 1916. It also repeals the provisions contained in part 12 of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 relating to bribery of foreign public officials and abolishes the common law offence of bribery.\nII. Bribery of foreign public officials: Section 6 of the UKBA 2010 provides that a person who bribes a foreign public official directly or indirectly with intent to obtain or retain business or an advantage in the conduct of a business is guilty of an offence. The bribe may be offered in the form of a promise, financial or other advantage to induce the official to omit the performance of his public functions or influence the performance of a function regardless of whether or not they are in a position of authority. The Bribe Payers Index (BPI) 2011 ranks UK 8th out of the 28 largest economies whose companies are least likely to pay bribes abroad. The BPI scores countries on a scale from 0 to 10. A high score indicates that the likelihood of companies from that country engaging in overseas bribery is low. The UK's BPI was 7.9, 8.6 and 8.3 during 2006, 2008 and 2011, respectively. Nevertheless, there is evidence to suggest that UK companies routinely use bribes to circumvent national laws and regulations by bribing foreign public officials to win contracts or speed up services. They allegedly pay bribes to officials in customs and tax revenue authorities, police, the judiciary, registry and permit offices (Ernst & Young, 2008; TI, 2005; Carr and Outhwaite, 2009). According to TI (2005) about three-quarters of managers in the UK reported that their companies used intermediaries to circumvent anti-corruption laws abroad. These reports are corroborated by a number of high profile cases involving UK companies including \"British Aerospace Systems\" defence contracts around the world including Saudi Arabia, Tanzania and South Africa, the \"Lesotho Highlands Water Project\" in Southern Africa and TSKJ in Nigeria. The problem is compounded by UK's poor record of prosecuting bribery cases in international business.\nIII. Implications of the UKBA for business in Africa: The UKBA has far reaching implications for business in Africa. Section 12 confers extra-territorial jurisdiction to UK courts over Section 7 offences. These include offences committed outside the UK by British nationals, those ordinarily resident in the UK, businesses incorporated in the UK, Scottish partnership and foreign companies with presence in the UK. Consequently, the legislation is likely to have direct impact on business and governments in Africa especially those involved with FDI and ODA. The legislation catches systemic, discrete and consortium cases of bribery. It has been described as the most draconian anti-bribery law because it sets a standard of commercial integrity which is significantly higher than those found in other jurisdictions. The prohibition of hospitality and gift-giving, facilitation payments and the use of intermediaries will be the main concern for business in Africa. The Confederation of British Industries (CBI, 2011), has expressed concerns that the UKBA will disadvantage British businesses from accessing overseas markets and as a result they will become uncompetitive in the global trade arena. Businesses also fear the risk of prosecution and irreparable damage to their reputation in the event that agents and intermediaries acting on their behalf violate the law.\nIV. Bribery prevention strategies in Africa: The insidious nature of corruption requires a multi-pronged approach to intervention. African governments have adopted various strategies over the last decade ranging from formal rules to voluntary initiatives. All of these strategies have benefits as well as limitations. Legislation has been at the fore front of these strategies often implementing international conventions. Voluntary measures include the use of codes of corporate governance, organisational policies and procedures as well as education and training. The role of the civil society is paramount in offering checks and balances where public institutions have not been successful in enforcing formal rules.\nV. Specifications for ABMS: The literature has shown that transplanting Western style regulatory systems in Africa has failed to deliver desired outcomes (Kapoor, 1994; Mkandawire and Soludo, 1998; Armstrong et al., 2005). African companies must therefore exercise caution about implementing ABMSs that have been developed primarily to protect foreign companies. It is therefore prudent that African organisations draw from this past experience and institute systems that would have a better chance of success. In designing the ABMS it is imperative that existing systems are carefully scrutinised to take into account weaknesses in implementation and enforcement, inherent flaws in the UKBA and the limitations of the existing ABMS specifications. Prior to the UKBA little concerted effort was made to mitigate bribery risks within UK companies. Some of the ABMS guidelines that pre-dated the UKBA were developed piecemeal to address bribery risks within specific industries and sectors most notably construction and financial services sectors which were perceived to be susceptible to bribery (Carr and Outhwaite, 2009). project anti-corruption system (PACS) and the FSA anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) are examples of ABMS used in these sectors.\nConclusion: Africa, as a continent, faces tremendous challenges in addressing the issue of bribery and other corrupt practices which are deeply embedded in everyday operations of public and private business. Notwithstanding national and sub-regional variations, there is a clear pattern of deep seated malaise in tackling the pervasiveness of corruption at institutional and corporate spheres across the continent. This has detrimental effect on economic development. Despite its rich natural resources, Africa is increasingly being overlooked by foreign investors because of the high risk of corruption related offences being brought under the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Western governments. The UKBA is yet another risk averse legislation which may deter UK companies from investing in African markets for fear of prosecution. Various interventions have been tried with little success. Like many other critics, the author suggests that these interventions have failed because they are foreign imports and do not accommodate the cultural needs and capacities of African institutions. Therefore, individuals and businesses tend to shun them because they have no ownership over them. The UKBA has enormous potential. If it works, UK companies will make savings by not having to pay bribes. The outlawing of gift-giving, hospitality and facilitation payments should also pressure African governments to strengthen their laws and enforcement efforts if they are to continue to attract FDI and ODA. African business will need to review their business practices in order to remain competitive as they will bear the brunt of the Act. They will be expected to implement procedures for preventing bribery or lose business. Professional advisors such as lawyers must advice without fear or favour if they are to protect themselves from being caught by the Act in the course of transacting business on behalf of MNC and their business partners. This article proposes the development of a bespoke ABMS for business in Africa that accommodates the capacity of business to implement and effectively enforce preventive measures. To this end an empirical study is needed to gauge awareness of the UKBA among different forms of business enterprises across the four sub-regions of Africa and to reflect on their experience of doing business with companies that fall under the jurisdiction of the UKBA. The outcome of the study can then be used to inform the development of an appropriate ABMS. This should be reflective not only of the size and identity of the business, but should accommodate cultural diversity and national social policy concerns. The ABMS specifications should be basic, easy to understand with low implementation cost and empower organisations to own and apply it diligently.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This article aims to examine some of the implications of the UK Bribery Act (UKBA) 2010 for business in Africa and reviews the effectiveness of strategies African governments have adopted to prevent bribery. The author proposes the development of a bespoke anti-bribery management system (ABMS) based on empirical research. This would help African institutions overcome some of the challenges associated with enforcing regulatory measures formulated in developed countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper takes the form of a literature review and commentary.\nFindings: The UKBA has extra-territorial jurisdiction which empowers UK courts to prosecute cases of bribery committed abroad by UK companies and their associates. The risk of prosecution is likely to affect foreign direct investment and official development aid flows to Africa. However, companies can escape prosecution if they can prove that they have adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery. This raises the question as to whether the legislation shifts the responsibility of fighting bribery to under-resourced overseas business partners and supply chains. While most African governments have adopted robust anti-bribery laws, their enforcement is hampered by weak institutions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Empirical research is required to assess the impact of the legislation over the next five years.\nPractical implications: African organisations must be sensitised about the consequences of violating the UKBA to ensure they adopt appropriate anti-bribery strategies.\nOriginality/value: This article contributes to literature by exploring the development of evidence based ABMS for African organisations which is currently lacking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Reduction in length of hospitalisation for microbial keratitis patients: A prospective study
|
[
"Hospitals",
"Patients",
"Resource management",
"Medical care"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study was carried out in a multidisciplinary tertiary hospital with 1,300 beds. With a high patient load there is constantly a shortage of hospital beds. Much emphasis have been placed on ambulatory care and effective discharge policies for an increasing number of medical conditions to free up these precious resources. However, some ambulant medical conditions require such intensive medication regimes and close follow up that hospital stay will invariably be required.For the specialty of ophthalmology, microbial keratitis is one of the commonest conditions that an ambulant patient requires an inpatient stay for intensive eye drop treatment. In the literature the average length of hospitalisation of microbial keratitis patients can be up to 12 days. This resulted in high utilisation of inpatient bed, together with the cost incurred with prolonged admission.According to Dy et al. (2005) microbial keratitis, which is a disease of negligible mortality rate or the need for intensive care days, would be a condition that could be suitably and effectively managed with treatment protocols.Panella et al. (2003) emphasised that reductions in health care macro-variation (i.e. length of stay, etc.) and in performance micro-variation (i.e. diagnostic and therapeutic prescriptions, protocol implementation) can improve outcome by providing a mechanism to coordinate care, to reduce fragmentation, and ultimately health care cost. Therefore it is important to streamline our practices in the management of these patients. By using tools from CPI (NSW Health Department, 2002) method we conducted this study to analyse the various factors at play.\nMethod: The Deming-Shewhart plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle\nConclusions and recommendations: Improvement in visual rehabilitation and decrease utilisation of resources\nConclusions: This study concluded that a multidisciplinary team approach was effective in reducing the length of hospitalisation for microbial keratitis patients. The increased cross-discipline and nursing coordination is vital to successful implementation of the protocol, and detailed education upon discharging the patient was important in limiting readmission rates. With such a workflow in place, there will be more efficient usage of hospital resources and increased healthcare savings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Prolonged hospital stay in the course of management of microbial keratitis patients has been a burden to the resources of a multi-disciplinary tertiary hospital. The paper aims to evaluate the impact of streamlining the workflow and increased cross-disciplinary interactions on the average length of hospitalisation. It also seeks to study secondary outcomes including the average time for initiation of therapy, microbial culture positive rate, patients' satisfaction and resource savings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors employed the model of clinical practice improvement (CPI) (New South Wales Health Department) methodology for a systematic approach to improve processes of care and service delivery. A team consisting of ophthalmologist, microbiologist, pharmacist and nursing staff was formed to brainstorm and highlight the problems. A new workflow was formulated and data were prospectively collected to evaluate and to identify areas where improvements could be made.\nFindings: - The average length of hospitalisation stay was reduced from 7.43 to 5.93 days with a mean difference of 1.50+-0.63 days (p<0.05). The microbial keratitis culture positive rate increased from 54.6 to 73.0 per cent (p>0.05). The average time taken to initiate antibiotic eye drops after first contact with the doctor was 26.1 minutes (n=28), and 74.4 per cent of the patients surveyed were satisfied with their length of stay.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Intervention was carried out on the top 20 per cent of areas for improvement after voting by the team members.\nPractical implications: - The reduction in average length of hospitalisation can be improved by strict adherence to a formulated workflow and coordinated cross-disciplinary interactions.\nOriginality/value: - The management protocol discussed in the paper for microbial keratitis enables more effective and efficient treatment for the inpatients. Increased cross-discipline and nursing coordination decreases length of hospitalisation of microbial keratitis patients and achieve better care for these patients.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining networked NGO services: reconceptualising value co-creation
|
[
"Service",
"Collaboration",
"Value creation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Against the global backdrop of austerity and the widening gap left by the gradual withdrawal of funding for services historically provided by the state, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are increasingly designing and delivering public services (Bovaird et al., 2012; Glennon et al., 2017). There is a clear focus on scalability in this new environment of public service provision and consequently smaller NGOs are often excluded due to capacity constraints (Thompson et al., 2017; Mills et al., 2013). Further, it is argued that the magnitude and complexity of socioeconomic problems facing societies exceed the capabilities of single organisations and hence collaboration is perceived as essential (Austin and Seitanidi, 2012). Collaborative activity has subsequently accelerated, with partnerships and consortia becoming the \"modality of choice\" between NGOs wishing to work together to share and combine resources to create value by providing services (Hodges and Howieson, 2017).\nConceptual framing: The mutual creation of value is central to VCC (Leclercq et al., 2016). VCC is conceptualised as an emergent process in which actors exchange resources to reciprocally co-create value by performing two sequential roles as provider and beneficiary (Lusch and Vargo, 2006; Payne et al., 2008; Truong et al., 2012). The outcome of VCC is the production of new value, both materially and symbolically (Galvagno and Dalli, 2014). Value creation and, to some extent, co-creation have received increased research attention since the emergence of the \"meta idea\" of service dominant logic (SDL) for social and economic value creation (Lusch and Vargo, 2014; Ekman et al., 2016). Further, improving consumption and usage experiences (Payne et al., 2008) and stimulating innovation (Bitner et al., 2008) have been perceived as important drivers for VCC.\nResearch design: Research setting\nFindings: In mapping the service process and analysing the primary and secondary data we find three illustrative examples to explain how value is co-created in a NGO service delivery network providing economic and societal value. We use these examples to show how during different activities of service provision different sources, types, enablers and mechanisms of VCC are evident. We structure this section to examine each of these examples in turn as: Example 1: development of the value proposition, Example 2: preparing for service delivery and Example 3: service delivery. We show how different enablers support different sources and types of value to be exchanged and received across multiple actors through their involvement in different engagement mechanisms. Table II shows a comprehensive analysis of the sources, types, enablers and mechanisms that were most evident in the three examples and provides details of how these were operationalised in the MTM context.\nDiscussion: The contribution of our paper is twofold. First, we offer a framework and empirical evidence to explain how value is co-created in a MTM setting. We find that whilst sources, types, enablers and mechanisms of VCC are evident in our illustrative examples, these dimensions are differentiated and dynamic. Research acknowledges how actors may have differing motivations for engaging in VCC activities (Frow et al., 2015), may perceive value differently (Ekman et al., 2016) and may hold multiple roles that change over time (Edvardsson et al., 2011). What is less understood are the dimensions supporting the process of VCC. Therefore, our findings take further the work of Austin and Seitanidi (2012), Lessard and Okakwu (2016), Saarijarvi (2012), Saarijarvi et al. (2013) and Gummesson and Mele (2010) by providing empirical examples of the conceptualisations of sources, types, enablers and mechanisms of VCC. Through our illustrative examples we are able to show a nuanced, less linear articulation of VCC than perhaps suggested by service-oriented research that is grounded in the lexicon of goods dominant logic (e.g. Gronroos and Voima, 2013; Vargo and Lusch, 2004). Our conceptualisation of dynamism in the dimensions of VCC complements research by Ekman et al. (2016) on the dynamic role of the generic actor by demonstrating how the processes of VCC are differentiated and may be context dependent, and how sources and types of value are multidimensional.\nConclusions and further research: Our findings offer theoretical and managerial contributions. Towards theory development, we present empirically grounded research that develops understanding of how shared value is jointly created in networked service provision. We extend current thinking on VCC by proposing that dimensions of VCC are differentiated and dynamic in the provision of a networked service. We suggest that our findings offer a reconceptualisation of VCC in a networked setting by considering the notion of context dependency. Our findings show evidence of changing VCC dimensions, which may appear to be contingent on variables including type of service activity, type and number of stakeholders, actor expectations and type and availability of resources. Our study focussed on explaining how value is co-created in MTM settings and did not consider the relationship between particular variables and VCC dimensions, and we see this as an interesting area for future study. Further work could adopt a quantitative approach to examine causal relationships between VCC dimensions in differing contextual settings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain how value is co-created in a many-to-many (MTM) context. The authors use a case study of a non-governmental service delivery consortium engaging multiple actors to examine how value is co-created beyond the buyer-supplier dyad.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An explanatory case study of a consortium of seven UK non-governmental organisations (NGOs) delivering public service contracts is presented. Multiple data collection methods are combined; semi-structured interviews (n=30) and focus groups with internal stakeholders (n=5), participant observations (n=4) and document analysis.\nFindings: The authors use three illustrative empirical examples to show how different sources, types, enablers and mechanisms of VCC are evident during service provision activities. The findings show how different service provision activities utilise different dimensions, leading the authors to suggest that dimensions of VCC may be context dependent.\nResearch limitations/implications: As consortia differ in their context and function, the findings may not be generalisable. Nevertheless, they provide specific examples of sources, types, enablers and mechanisms of value co-creation (VCC) that may be applicable to private, public and NGOs.\nPractical implications: Understanding how value is co-created with multiple stakeholders can offer competitive advantages likely to lead to improved sustainability, impact and performance.\nOriginality/value: The empirical study offers a reconceptualisation of VCC in a MTM context. The paper combines disparate perspectives of VCC to offer a more holistic perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Reverse use of customer data: implications for service-based business models
|
[
"Customer data",
"Service logic",
"Reverse use of customer data",
"Service-based business model"
] |
[
{
"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.\n1. Introduction: As firms shift their attention from the sale of goods to the support of customer value creation, new and innovative service-based business models have emerged as well. These business models can help firms better organize to meet both evolving customer needs and competition because they describe how an enterprise can facilitate customer value creation and capture value in return. What characterizes these models as distinct from goods-based business models - in which firms are organized around producing and selling value-facilitating goods - is that the firm takes a broader role in the customer's value creation process, during which the value potential of the resources becomes actualized as a result of diverse resources being integrated (Gronroos, 2008; Gummesson, 2007). Instead of selling distinct resource bundles in the form of goods, a firm can follow a service business logic, i.e. a business logic based on service perspective, by going further in supporting customers' everyday activities. The role of the firm accordingly evolves from passive facilitator to active supporter of customers' various value-creating processes. Consequently, the locus of attention shifts from the firm's to the customer's sphere.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Service business logic\n3. Illustrating reverse use of customer data: This study is among the first attempts to consider the implications of the reconfigured customer data usage, which is why the authors chose to focus on three service examples to first, illustrate and concretize the phenomenon itself, and, second, to consider its implications for service-based business models. The chosen services are good examples of firms converting customer data into information that directly supports customers' value creation. Using illustrative examples is a good way to capture and address the central characteristics of a research phenomenon (Rubalcaba et al., 2012; Nordin and Kowalkowski, 2010). Furthermore, this approach was chosen due to the fact that although the phenomenon itself is becoming increasingly important and relevant for service business, there are not yet that many real-world examples available for in-depth empirical inquiries. Hence, the study is about discovery rather than justification; through the illustrations the focus is on uncovering possible constructs and relationships between well-accepted constructs (Yadav, 2010). Prior theory, in the form of Chesbrough's criteria for business model (Chesbrough, 2007; Kindstrom, 2011) is used to address the challenges and opportunities of reverse use of customer data (Carson et al., 2001, p. 11). To generate initial insight, we discussed three examples from different industrial environments.\n4. Implications for service-based business models: The case examples characterized by reverse use of customer data demonstrate how customer data can be a source of additional resources for customer value creation. Reverse use of customer data reconfigures the role of customer data. They serve not only to benefit the firm but also to support its customers' processes. Customer data take a redefined meaning in the firm's processes, converted from a firm resource to a resource that is meaningful for customers' value creation. With the help of supportive technology and advanced information infrastructure, customer data become information and something that customers can use. Customer data are embedded with relevance and purpose (Drucker, 1988).\n5. Discussion and conclusions: The purpose of this study was to explore and analyze the implications of reverse use of customer data for service-based business models. Three service examples were used to concretize a phenomenon that has remained underexplored in marketing, but is increasingly addressed elsewhere (Thaler and Tucker, 2013; Chen et al., 2012; McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2012). In terms of the research contribution, as depicted in the contribution continuum by Ladik and Stewart (2008) where the far left axis is illustrated by studies that are purely replications or minor extensions of existing studies and the right axis is characterized by major contributions that shake the very foundations of theories, this study positions itself in the middle by exploring the implications from a new marketing-related phenomenon. Furthermore, it focuses on challenging existing and conventional beliefs about customer data usage, both in theoretical and managerial terms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore and analyze the implications of reverse use of customer data for service-based business models. In their quest for competitive advantage, firms traditionally use customer data as resources to redesign and develop new products and services or identify the most profitable customers. However, in the shift from a goods-dominant logic toward customer value creation, the potential of customer data for the benefit of the customer, not just the firm, is an emerging, underexplored area of research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Business model criteria and three service examples combine to uncover the implications of reverse use of customer data for service-based business models.\nFindings: Implications of reverse use of customer data for service-based business models are identified and explored. Through reverse use of customer data, a firm can provide customers with additional resources and support customers' value-creating processes. Accordingly, the firm can move beyond traditional exchanges, take a broader role in supporting customers' value creation and diversify the value created by the customer through resource integration. The attention shifts from internal to external customer data usage; customer data transform from the firm's resource to the customer's, which facilitates the firm's shift from selling goods to supporting customers' value creation.\nOriginality/value: Reverse use of customer data represent a new emerging research phenomenon; their implications for service-based business models have not been explored.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The quest for organizational flexibility: Driving changes in business processes through the identification of relevant context
|
[
"Strategic management",
"Process management",
"Context",
"Process design",
"Business process",
"Process flexibility",
"Contextual element",
"Internal context",
"Immediate context",
"Context awareness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Supporting business feasibility and competitiveness has been a major challenge in today's corporate world in the face of constant changes that arise within and outside an organization. The traditional strive for operational efficiency has long been replaced by a need for exploiting an organization's ability to flexibly change in reaction to changes in their environment (Monteiro and Macdonald, 1996; O'Reilly and Tushman, 2004). The need for organizational flexibility has become more and more prevalent as, among other aspects, laws, rules, technology, environment, strategies, norms, culture, behaviors and decisions have become increasingly difficult to be monitored, and are continuously affecting business processes and impacting operational and strategic goals. In fact, as early as in 1999 were environmental changes found to be key drivers for business process change projects (Kallio et al., 1999).\n2. Background: Four areas of work are relevant to the development of the ORGANON method. First, we need to understand the mechanisms organizations employ to identify, formalize and analyze their business processes. Second, we need to understand which context of an organization might be relevant to the execution of such business processes. Third, we need to understand how context itself can be modeled and analyzed. Finally, we need to understand the building blocks of context and processes (what we will call the process essence) to be able to relate these notions. We discuss each element, in turn.\n3. The ORGANON method: This section presents the ORGANON method, which we propose for the identification of immediate and internal contextual elements in business processes, through the analysis of available process models. The method is based on the following concepts:\n4. Method evaluation: We conducted a case study following established guidelines (Yin, 2009) in order to apply the method ORGANON in a real setting, and obtain evidence for its validity and applicability. To strengthen the data from the case study, we further obtained data through post hoc interviews with four professionals in the field: three managers and one senior technician who carry out activities related to the process within the case organization. They all work in the business for at least 15 years and thus, may be considered subject matter experts. In general, the interviews lasted about two hours and were supported by a script, which served as a guide to investigate issues about the knowledge modeling process and the process in question. The statements and responses were tabulated and compared in order to be identified coincident relations between: situations where the process does not reach its goal and those attributes identified as immediate/internal contextual elements when applying the ORGANON.\n5. Related work: Context awareness in business process management is now considered one of the leading principles for good practice (Vom Brocke et al., 2014).\n6. Conclusions: This paper presents the ORGANON method and discusses its application to a retirement granting process in a case study. We applied the method and discussed its application and results through interviews with managers and technicians that perform the process. The results showed five elements, which were presented to respondents in order to assess whether they have any relationship with the situations they identified as impacting the process goal. We identified some evidence that it was possible to identify the contextual elements of a given business process through ORGANON.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for identifying business process-relevant contextual information that is likely to impact on the process goal. The ORGANON method describes a semi-structured procedural guide alongside with a set of criteria and a matrix for analyzing ontological transactions, which can be used to identify which context information can be considered relevant to a business process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors report on an evaluation of the ORGANON method through a case study conducted in an organization that works in the social security domain.\nFindings: The results provide evidences of the feasibility of the method application in this scenario.\nOriginality/value: Our research contributes to the literature on business processes flexibility, specifically through a proposal for context identification that can be extended to current techniques for business process modeling and in turn forms the basis for existing approaches for making business processes more flexible. The work has implications for the strategic management of organizations, by suggesting a method that provides informational support to decision makers about when, where and why business processes need to be adapted.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Online and offline information seeking behaviours of people living with HIV in a clinic-based setting
|
[
"Internet",
"Information services",
"Health care",
"Information searches",
"Tanzania",
"East Africa",
"HIV information seeking",
"Information seeking behaviour",
"Online information seeking",
"Sub-Saharan Africa"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is still a global health problem affecting over 35 million people worldwide (World Health Organisation, 2018). In Tanzania, approximately 1.5 million people were HIV positive and about 32,000 people died from HIV in 2017 (UNAIDS, 2017). The use of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has increased life expectancy, shifting mortality causes among people living with HIV (PLHIV) from opportunistic infections to a chronic infection and non-communicable disease (Bor et al., 2013). Approximately, 68 per cent of PLHIV were receiving ART in Tanzania as of 2017 (UNAIDS, 2017). There are multi-sectoral initiatives to lower the HIV pandemic, including PLHIV's access to relevant information for effective disease management and preventing new HIV infections transmissions. It is documented that, effective treatment, management and prevention of HIV rely on the PLHIVs' capacity to seek, understand and use health information (Kvasny and Payton, 2018; Stonbraker et al., 2018). In the context of this study, information seeking behaviour refers to the \"purposive seeking for information as a consequence of a need to satisfy some goal. In the course of seeking, the individual may interact with manual information systems (such as a newspaper or a library) or with computer-based systems (such as the World Wide Web)\" (Wilson, 2000).\nTheoretical framework: Although there are several models on information seeking behaviour, this study was guided by Wilson information seeking model of 1996 (Wilson, 1999) because it was relevant to the present study. The Wilson model of 1996 is an update of an earlier model of information seeking behaviour of 1981 (Wilson, 1997). In the 1996's model, Wilson explains how needs (context of information needs) prompt people's information seeking behaviour, source preference and why some pursue a goal more successfully than others, and information use (Wilson, 1999). Information needs may be divided into physiological needs (e.g. need for shelter, food, etc.), affective or emotional needs and cognitive needs (e.g. need to learn a skill, etc.) (Wilson, 1997). The \"information-seeking behaviour\" takes place as passive attention, passive search, active search and ongoing search (Wilson, 1999). Passive attention can be listening to the radio or watching television programmes, while passive search refers to the situation when one type of search results to acquisition of information that is relevant (Wilson, 1997). Active search is when an individual actively searches information, while ongoing search is when the active search has been established and the individual continues the search (Wilson, 1997).\nMethods: Setting and participants\nResults: Demographic characteristics\nOnline human immunodeficiency virus information seeking and its associated outcomes: On the use of internet to search HIV information, the results indicate that one-third of the online information seekers sought HIV information from general internet websites (34.3 per cent, n = 23) and online newspapers (32.8 per cent, n = 22), while 26.9 per cent (n = 18) obtained HIV information from online books. Other online sites visited by PLHIV in the online group were social media (20.9 per cent, n = 14) and forums (6 per cent, n = 4). Of the 67 online information seekers, 87.2 per cent sought online HIV information by using mobile phones, while 36.2 per cent used desktop computers, 24.4 per cent (n = 11) used laptop and 8.5 per cent (n = 4) used tablets. Most PLHIV (73.1 per cent, n = 49) in the online group spent less than 1 h per week on the internet to look for HIV information as demonstrated in Table IV.\nDiscussion: This paper is a modest contribution to the ongoing discussions about the HIV information needs and contribution of internet on empowering PLHIV to seek and use HIV information. The study findings indicated that the major information needs for both online and offline groups were information on diet, disease symptoms, disease prevention and treatment. Therefore, these information needs were more related to cognitive needs as categorised by Wilson (1997). However, online HIV information seekers were more likely to require information on physical fitness, diseases effects/complications, where to find health care workers and information on nutrition/diet as compared to offline HIV information seekers. The information needs of PLHIV varied between the two groups because of their socio-economic characteristics. Online HIV information seekers were better educated and worked as petty traders, while PLHIV in the offline group were older, married/co-habiting with a partner, and with less income. These results are in good agreement with other studies, which have indicated that people have varied information needs because of their demographic characteristics, and socio-economic activities (Lwoga and Chigona, 2016; Mtega, 2012). It is, therefore, imperative to consider these disparities when designing intervention for PLHIV.\nImplications of the findings for practice and policy: The study findings have several implications for practice and policy. First, several institutions [i.e. Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children together with hospitals and health sciences universities and research institutions, Tanzania Library Service Board (TLSB), development agencies and Non-government organisations (NGOs)] should collaborate together to develop appropriate and authoritative online health content in local language (e.g. Swahili). Further, health care workers and librarians in collaboration with website designers need to put in place patient friendly-online information services at health facilities, which could also access using mobile phones. These initiatives will enable patients and general public with low level of education and income to access reliable and relevant health information.\nConclusions: One in every five survey participants sought online HIV information (19.6 per cent, n = 67), and even among them, they spend 1 h per week in doing so. Although, there was low use of internet for seeking HIV information among the surveyed PLHIV, a large percentage of respondents used mobile internet to seek HIV information. PLHIV in the online group also reported to have gained knowledge and health promoting behaviour as a result of seeking online HIV information. The offline HIV information seekers did not use internet due to lack of information seeking skills and lack of access to internet connectivity. The study also shed light on the factors that differentiate online from offline HIV information seekers. It was evident from the findings that better educated PLHIV, and those with intentions to use internet were more likely to seek online HIV information. It is, therefore, important for any HIV intervention or health promotion initiative to develop and implement strategies that aim at diminishing these inequalities. The study provides empirical findings that are essential to assist health promotion initiatives and health information services to design and provide appropriate patient-centred information services. From this investigation, you could extrapolate that interventions to improve online access to HIV information will empower PLHIV and probably positively improve their health knowledge and behaviours.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study sought to determine the characteristics that distinguish online from offline information seekers among people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) in selected regional hospitals of Tanzania.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 341 adults with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection attending the HIV clinics in the regional referral hospitals in Mwanza, Mbeya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The study used multivariate logistic regressions to determine factors that distinguish online HIV information seekers from offline HIV information seekers.\nFindings: One in every five survey participants sought online HIV information (19.6 per cent, n = 67). Both higher level of education (odds ratio (OR) = 1.765, 95 per cent confidence interval (CI) = 1.208-2.58) and intention to use internet in future (OR = 1.566, 95 per cent CI 1.148-2.136) were predictors of online HIV information seeking behaviour at multivariate analysis. Respondents who sought online information reported to have gained knowledge such as; to understand their conditions better (77.4 per cent, n = 41) and understand information received from health care workers (66 per cent, n = 35), as well as acquisition of health promoting behaviour such as; asking questions during doctor's visit (55 per cent, n = 35) and consulting a clinician when they have problems (64.3 per cent, n = 33). The offline HIV information seekers (n = 274) did not use internet due to lack of information seeking skills (44.3 per cent, n = 113) and lack of access to internet connectivity (30.2 per cent, n = 77).\nOriginality/value: This is a comprehensive study that differentiates online from offline HIV information seekers in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. The results suggest that interventions to improve online access information will empower patients and probably positively affect their health knowledge and health promoting behaviours.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Multistage market segmentation: an exploration of B2B segment alignment
|
[
"Business-to-business segmentation",
"Market segment alignment",
"Multistage market segmentation",
"Multistage marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concept of \"derived demand\" as a driver of industrial and business-to-business (B2B) activity has been of concern to economists since the early considerations of Marshall (1891, p. 430):\n2. Multistage markets and market segmentation: Most studies in B2B markets have focused primarily on two stages: multiple suppliers that compete for multiple customers (Simkin, 2008; Powers and Sterling, 2008). When a third stage is added - the \"customer's customers\" - the potential complexity of relationships begins to unfold (Geiger et al., 2015). For example, Wuyts et al. (2004) studied the complexity of multiple stages and found that two-stage (or dyadic) relationships were considered essential but not definitive in characterizing the potential overall network of relations defining market structure. In their view, at least three stage (or triadic) relationships ought to be the focal units of analysis under study. A study by Narayandas et al. (2002) supports this view from a case study. They found that the successful survival of a B2B distributor of electronic components in the face of some 50 internet competitors could be explained by studying the buyer-distributor-seller three-stage market unit of analysis instead of just the buyer - seller relationship. The various components of the complex relationships (information, services, contracts, etc.) provided a superior cost-benefit outcome relative to the new entrants.\n3. The concept of segment alignment: In its most basic sense, the concept of segment alignment is defined as the similarity between a need-based segment at one market stage and a need-based segment at another market stage. This can be generalized to third, fourth and additional market stages. As a managerial concept, segment alignment can be \"practiced\" by at least one firm (and it managers) at one market stage with respect to other market stages. The term \"multistage market champion\" will be used to identify the firm and its team of managers that desire to \"champion\" a multistage market segmentation approach. This term is somewhat analogous to the term \"channel captain\", often used to denote the firm that may exert the most influence in the channels of distribution to direct the flow of goods and services through it. The multistage market champion may approach the segmentation challenge alone, or in collaboration with firms at other stages of the market that see benefit in developing and pursuing a multistage approach. The multistage market champion can occupy any one of the various market stages. Kleinaltenkamp et al. (2012) address many of the complexities concerning who gets involved in various \"key\" and \"target\" stages of the market, but the intent here is to keep the focus narrow to better understand the segment alignment challenge.\n4. Methodology: The basis for this exploratory study involved a policy group representing a joint effort between two industry associations with objectives to improve education in America. The policy group was in effect a \"multistage market champion\" that desired to enhance innovation in educational technology, including the development of more cost-effective solutions. Their approach to the challenge was to study two important stages of the market for educational products: educational technology vendors who developed products and services for K-12 educational institutions (henceforth \"vendors\"), and superintendents of school districts (henceforth \"superintendents\") who were responsible for purchasing from these vendors. The purpose of this pilot study was to use it as a basis for a larger scale one. Consequently, the data collected were not designed to test specific hypotheses, nor were they originally intended to be used to align segments as developed in this paper.\n5. Analysis and findings: The structure of the specific market under study can be roughly characterized as a three-stage market structure. It included the governmental policy group (Stage 0) that funded the research and sought to better understand and align the offers from the educational technology vendors (Stage 1) to the school district superintendents (Stage 2). The analysis that follows considers:\n6. Discussion: The primary purpose of this exploratory paper was to consider the possibilities of identifying segments in multistage markets and evaluating if there is a basis for identifying their alignment for managerial purposes. Not all markets or marketing situations require the consideration of multistage markets or multistage marketing, but when managers have a need to better understand one's \"customer's customer\", few practical approaches based on segmentation have emerged to identify and deal with the challenges involved. Given access to two databases from different multistage markets in this pilot project, the process of linking them based on a common set of needs provided the basis for the analyses presented in the preceding section of this paper. The analysis showed that using fairly fundamental segmentation tools, it is possible to discern if downstream multistage markets can be segmented on the basis of needs, and subsequently aligned for strategic advantage.\n7. Conclusions: The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of identifying multistage market segments and assessing whether this could be a useful approach to find a competitive advantage or at least to better understand market structure. A review of the literature revealed few studies directly addressing this topic. The data from a pilot project were analyzed to determine whether two multistage markets could be aligned from the perspective of a third multistage market \"champion\" (a public policy group). The analysis showed that such segments based on a common set of customer needs could be identified and potentially aligned.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of identifying market segments in multistage markets and assessing whether their alignment could provide a useful managerial approach to find competitive advantage and better understand market opportunities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using data from a pilot project, need-based market segments from different market stages were identified and their potential alignment evaluated. The data were not designed to test hypotheses, nor were they originally intended to be used to align segments. Nevertheless, they provided a unique opportunity to explore multistage segmentation and segment alignment in a business-to-business (B2B) setting.\nFindings: Overall, the findings of this exploratory study should encourage both academics and practitioners to continue to explore the possibility of studying and aligning multistage market segments. The possibility of aligning segments was demonstrated using visual alignment based on managerial judgment of data and alignment based on a combined cluster analysis of customers across the multistage markets.\nResearch limitations/implications: First, the market research was not specifically designed to formulate and test hypotheses about the feasibility of aligning segments in multistage markets - it is an exploratory study. The research was based on a pilot project, and the survey-derived databases were conveniently available for analysis. While sample sizes were small, they are typical of many B2B markets. Second, to more effectively study complex relationships in multistage markets, it would have been desirable to include a more comprehensive set of needs. Each market stage has not only a set of their own perceived needs but also a set of perceptions of the needs of other stages. Third, as in many B2B studies, the data used in this pilot project were based on single informants.\nPractical implications: A common complaint among firms is that B2B market segmentation does not really work that well for them. An unexplored reason for this may be that true market segmentation does not stop with one's direct customer, but should also include the customer's customer and so on, in a multistage market segmentation structure. One implication of the research presented here suggests that better understanding the segmentation structure in a multistage market can enlighten the opportunities and risks of implementing such a strategy. Multistage market segmentation alignment may lead to innovative positioning and message levers for the sales force to use as an argument to gain advantage according to common and unique aligned segment needs.\nSocial implications: The process may be applied to social institutions in addition to commercial organizations.\nOriginality/value: While it is obvious that market segmentation can be applied to any single market of customers, the question of applying it to complex multistage markets needs additional exploration. The original idea in this paper is that the potential for strategically aligning multistage markets and segments can have both conceptual and managerial implications for establishing competitive advantage and more efficient and effective resource allocation. The paper shows that that such alignment is possible; however, research and research methods in this area are nascent and will require continued step-by-step learning about these complex market structures to build up to a more definitive understanding of the processes involved to guide future research and managerial thinking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Surgical services efficiency by data envelopment analysis
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Data envelopment analysis",
"Health services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years providing health services to patients has becoming increasingly important and countries spend an average number of 8.4 per cent of their GDPs on health services (The World Health Report, 2007). In this environment application of managerial approaches will led to the more efficient use of resources. The health services efficiency is one of the most important issues in the current societies. It has been considered that big savings can be achieved by improving hospitals' efficiency. The evaluation of health care efficiency has lagged behind the measurement of health care quality. Providers, payers, purchasers, consumers and regulators all could benefit from more information on efficiency in health care. Hospitals absorb a large share of public health expenditures; therefore, considerable savings in health cost can be achieved through the improving their efficiency.\n2. Literature review: DEA has proven to be an effective method for health care efficiency measurement. In the last two decades DEA is used widely in evaluation of hospital technical efficiency all around the world at different levels of decision making units. Efficiency analysis has usually been allied to performance evaluation of decision-making units (DMUs). Farrell studied the measurement the efficiency of a production unit considered by a single input and a single output (Farrell, 1957). His study involved the evaluation of price and technical efficiencies and the derivation of the efficient production function. Farrell's model is unsuccessful in providing a way to recap all inputs and outputs into a single virtual input and single virtual output.\n3. Research method: In this research the input oriented variable return to scale model of DEA has been used to determine the efficiency score for each service. The choice of the input oriented model is justified by the fact that managers in health care services tend to have greater control over inputs rather than outputs. Zhu has provided an easy-to-use and powerful DEA software, DEA Excel Solver, which is used in this study (Kontodimopoulos and Niakas, 2005). DEA Excel Solver is an Add-Ins tool for Microsoft Excel and provides a custom menu of DEA approaches.\n4. DEA efficiency scores for surgical services: In this section the relative importance of the sub-attributes, efficiency and super-efficiency scores are reported, although the number of surgical services is not sufficient to discriminate their efficiency. It is actually the individual surgeons in different services to whom the OR blocks is allocated. Therefore, the efficiency of the surgeons in the operating theatre are also reported based on the same attributes.\n5. DEA efficiency scores for the surgeons: In practice, the OR supervisor of the hospital allocates the OR block to the surgeons within a group. Almost all attributes' data had been collected for the surgeons separately, except for surgery outcome, over-utilization time and number of students (as teaching index). Removed these attributes, Figure 2 shows the input and output variables for the efficiency measurement of individual surgeons. There is no need to aggregate the attributes, because the number of surgeons as DMUs is sufficient to discernment between them. Table VI gives the efficiency scores for the surgeons.\n6. Conclusion: Lessons from benchmarking activities in other sectors suggest that - when applied to health systems - benchmarking will be most effective if it focuses on practice as well as performance and carefully considers how performance is linked to resource allocation (Smith and Papanicolas, 2012).This paper considers the aspects of efficiency (based on the utilization and resource efficiency) beyond the traditional evaluation of check list for the hospitals. This study has evaluated the performance of the surgical services at one large hospital in Isfahan, Iran using the input oriented and variable returns to scale(VRS) model of DEA. Previous studies have described how DEA can be employed to calculate the technical efficiency of similar departments in different hospitals. Driving separate benchmarks for possible reductions in resources is used. Considerable savings are possible on this account suggesting the potential and significant improvements. Results have been shown in Tables II-IV shows the optimal benchmarks for different attributes, especially for the number of allocated OR blocks, has been reported for each surgical service. Neurosurgery and pediatric surgery are the best and the worst services.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Different surgical services demand operating rooms (OR) to treat elective patients, each competing for a limited supply of OR time. The purpose of this paper is to obtain empirical measures of performance in the management of OR. The current research compares technical efficiency of 11 specialties in elective operating theatre of Alzahra Hospital in Isfahan, Iran in autumn of 2009.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data envelopment analysis (DEA) can be used as tools in management control and planning. First, the input oriented and variable returns to scale model of DEA technique has been applied and separate benchmarks for possible reductions in resources used has been derive, and significant savings are possible on this account.\nFindings: The efficiency scores of inefficient specialties are between 0.62 and 0.96. Neurosurgery and general surgery are the best and the worst units. DEA results determine by how much hospitals can increase elective inpatient surgeries for each specialty.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this study is to obtain empirical measures of performance in the management of OR. DEA has not been applied to measure the efficiency of different department in an organization. The measures are common in different units and have been collected in a similar way.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Alternative measures of satisfaction and word of mouth
|
[
"Word of mouth",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Recursive system of equations",
"Seemingly unrelated regression"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In large and competitive service industries, much emphasis is placed on customer satisfaction, which is viewed as a key driver of customer loyalty and new customer acquisition (Zhang et al., 2013). Customer satisfaction is in essence an overall post-consumption evaluation from the customer's point-of-view (Mano and Oliver, 1993). It is viewed as a key driver of positive business outcomes and has been associated with brand repurchase, share-of-wallet, cross-buying, improved return on investments and improved stock returns (Anderson et al., 1994; Mittal and Frennea, 2010). Customer satisfaction or lack thereof acts as a feedback mechanism for companies to identify attributes that could potentially enhance or undermine consumer experience (Woodruff and Gardial, 1996).\nConceptual development: Overall satisfaction versus relative satisfaction\nMethods: Study 1: Data collection\nStudy 2: Data collection\nStudy 3: Data collection\nRobustness checks: We conducted six tests to check the robustness of results. Notwithstanding the results of Lagrange multiplier test, one could argue that specification errors in SUR can seriously affect the interpretation of estimates in Stage 1. Hence, we followed two additional estimation procedures to validate the results. First, we separately estimated each equation in Stage 1 using OLS regression. Results indicated that the coefficients retain their statistical significance though, as expected, with smaller standard errors. SUR approach thus is more conservative. Second, we also estimated the equations using multivariate multiple regression - results again were substantively similar.\nDiscussion: This paper considers two alternative measures of customer satisfaction - overall satisfaction and relative satisfaction - and explores if drivers of customer satisfaction affect these measures differently. The results demonstrate that, although related, these are distinct measures that have some distinct associations with drivers of customer satisfaction. Furthermore, they also have distinct associations with WOM, which is a proxy for attitudinal customer loyalty.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Scholars have conceptualized and measured customer satisfaction in several different ways such as overall satisfaction and relative satisfaction. This paper aims to study if how one conceptualizes customer satisfaction matters. The authors study if key attributes of customer satisfaction differ in their impact based on how satisfaction is conceptualized. Furthermore, they examine the effects of these alternative measures of satisfaction on word of mouth (WOM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conduct three survey studies: at a single independently owned restaurant (n = 248); across restaurants using a national sample of respondents (n = 208); and across apparel retailers using a local sample of respondents (n = 214). The authors analyzed data using iterative seemingly unrelated regression and recursive system of equations with correlated errors.\nFindings: The core offering (food quality or merchandise quality) and service influence overall satisfaction about equally; however, influence of the core offering on relative satisfaction is more than that of service. Furthermore, while overall satisfaction influences WOM, relative satisfaction does not. Thus, focusing solely on the core offering to improve relative satisfaction may not be enough. Positive WOM is generated when customers are overall satisfied with the brand which demands both a superior core offering as well as high service. Firms should aim for overall best performance rather than merely better relative performance.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to simultaneously study these two alternative measures of customer satisfaction along with their antecedents and influence on WOM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does culture matter in effectiveness of social media marketing strategy? An investigation of brand fan pages
|
[
"Interaction",
"Facebook",
"Social media marketing",
"Social networking sites",
"Online engagement",
"Post contents"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The intensity of following brand on social media is increasing gradually. Half of the social media users are addicted to following brands on social media (Hutchinson, 2015) and the investment of companies in social media is also increasing rapidly. The increasing investment in social media is for the purpose of enhancing the interactive relationship with customers. To attain this objective, companies are using different ways such as blogs, electronic word-of-mouth and microblogs (e.g. Facebook and Twitter).\n2. Related studies and hypotheses development: Recently, numerous investigators have conducted research on the content analysis of brand fan pages on Facebook to social media content effectiveness in consumer responses. Details are available in Table I about the variety of studies conducted on social media content analysis and also provide details on content dimensions or metrics, social platforms used and variable(s). Organizations are using engagement metrics to track their activities on social media but the measurements remain a challenge (Moorman et al., 2015). Numerous researchers (e.g. Ashley and Tuten, 2015; Yang et al., 2016) demonstrate how social media (e.g. Facebook) can be leveraged to increase engagement behaviour of consumers. Available literature focussed on traditional advertising frameworks for media orientation classification. A little effort has been made addressing distinctive traits of social media as an interactive channel (Labrecque, 2014). The effectiveness of different types of social media content for the generation of consumer response has been discussed in the recent literature, for example, comparison of social media contents effect with different orientation types (e.g. information-oriented vs entertainment-oriented contents) (Cvijikj and Michahelles, 2013; Swani et al., 2013). According to them, content effectiveness depends on product type. Some studies have compared content effectiveness across different brand categories or products in anticipating consumer response. No literature is available that highlights the content effectiveness in the context of cultural differences. Therefore, in its current state, a gap is seen with regards to the effectiveness of social media metrics with respect to cultural differences.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data and coding\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Discussion and managerial implications: Brand fan page moderators can get guidance from our research to formulate their social media marketing strategies to decide which post determinants (post characteristics, contents, top position of the post and CSR-related posts) to place on fan pages. Current research shows that all determinants are not equally suitable for enhancement of number of likes, comments and shares. Furthermore, their impact varies across different cultures.\n6. Limitations and future work: Our study contributes to advancing knowledge about current practice of social media marketing, specifically social media brand engagement, which may provide a fruitful avenue for future research. We have chosen to use only one product category, and data collection was limited to a specific time period, and only a single social media platform was used, which could reduce the generalizability of the findings to other social media platforms and product categories. Thus, future research with extended time periods, a greater number of product categories and multiple social media platforms is needed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Along with traditional marketing channels, social media outlets are integrated as a part of the marketing mix. Social media has changed the dynamics of interaction between companies and consumers that foster this relationship. Managing brand fan pages on social networking sites is a specific way the companies are using. Customers can become brand fans on these pages and indicate that they like the brand posts, share on their wall or simply comment. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of cultural differences on the effectiveness of social media metrics and scientifically tested brand engagement in terms of commitment, loyalty and brand recommendations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors analysed 1,922 brand posts from five different brands of a single product category in three different countries. Ordinary least square and hierarchical moderation regression was used to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: Results show that all determinants are not equally suitable for enhancement of number of likes, comments and shares. More specifically, vivid and interactive brand post determinants enhance the number of likes. Furthermore, interactive brand posts enhance the number of comments while vivid brand posts enhance number of shares. Moreover, impact and intensity vary across different cultures.\nOriginality/value: Brand fan page moderators can obtain guidance from the research in formulating their social media marketing strategies in order to decide which post determinants to place on the fan page.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evaluation of sanitation knowledge and practices of restaurant kitchen staff in South Korea
|
[
"Service",
"Food safety"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last few decades, the rise in single-person households and nuclear families, the five-day workweek system, and the increased economic activity of women have led to an increased standard of living and higher levels of leisure pursuits among South Koreans. Accordingly, their dietary pattern has changed, and the restaurant industry has become one of the fastest-growing industries in South Korea (Jang et al., 2003). At the same time, concerns about food safety in restaurants have risen among consumers, and in fact, there have been a number of outbreaks of food poisoning in recent years. Between 2005 and 2009, 1,460 such outbreaks were reported, and 43 percent of these cases were associated with products served in restaurants (Korean Food and Drug Administration, 2010).\n2. Subjects and methods: A pilot study was conducted among 20 restaurant kitchen staff members working in restaurants in Seoul from February 3 to February 12, 2007 of each other to ensure that the items selected had acceptable validity. The restaurants selected for this study were located in the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas of South Korea. A restaurant specialist group including hospitality professors and restaurateurs was consulted in order to revise the questionnaire to better suit the conditions of restaurants. The survey was conducted from March 15 to April 20, 2007. The survey respondents were selected from among kitchen staff working in 65 restaurants that were both at least 198 m2 in size and listed in the Korean Foodservice Information (2006) database. This database provides information on restaurants in South Korea, such as region, restaurant type, business type, size, number of employees, and number of customers per day. The questionnaires were sent to the restaurants listed in the Korean Foodservice via mail and distributed to the kitchen staff. The average number of kitchen staff per restaurant was five. After removing incomplete and unusable responses, a total of 140 usable questionnaires out of 300 distributed were coded for data analysis, resulting in a response rate of 47.3 percent. The descriptive results of this study were reported to a chief supervisor of each restaurant.\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1. Demographic information\n4. Conclusions: The purposes of this study were to evaluate the levels of sanitation knowledge and practice among kitchen staff working in restaurants in South Korea and, ultimately, to generate recommendations for possible methods to enhance these levels.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the sanitation knowledge and practice of staff who work in restaurant kitchens and to suggest sanitation management plans and efficient ways to enhance sanitation knowledge and practice in the restaurant industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The survey research was conducted using a questionnaire composed of 73 questions in three areas of general information, sanitation knowledge, and sanitation practices. The respondents were selected from among kitchen staff working in restaurants that were both at least 198 m2 in size and listed in the Korean Foodservice Information database. The collected data were analyzed to identify the differences between sanitation knowledge and practices.\nFindings: The results showed that the respondents were well aware of the importance of sanitation during food preparation and cooking whereas they had a relatively lack of personal hygiene. Age and education level of kitchen staff correlated with sanitation knowledge and practices, and kitchen staff working less than 12 hours per shift scored significantly higher in terms of sanitation knowledge than those who worked more hours per shift. Also, kitchen staff working in restaurant franchises showed higher levels of both knowledge and practice than those working in independent restaurants.\nResearch limitations/implications: A more diversified sanitation-training program should be developed on the basis of the characteristics of kitchen staff members and restaurant characteristics. As kitchen staff members themselves have identified change in perspectives on sanitation as the most important factor for improving practice levels, the training should not only transmit information but should be developed into a training method.\nOriginality/value: This research provides suggestions for how restaurant kitchens in South Korea can make progress in a situation where sanitation implementation is limited to the transfer of knowledge.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The influence of economic crises on network behavior
|
[
"Perception",
"Business relationships",
"Economic crisis",
"Relationship strategy",
"Network behavior",
"Relational outcomes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A crisis is an abnormal event that modifies behavioral patterns (Grewal and Tansuhaj, 2001) and requires sustained attention from those involved. Crises are neither inherently good nor bad (Penrose, 2000), as they provide companies with an opportunity to rethink their strategies, resources and relations. The precise impact of crises on firm performance is influenced by the attitudes of managers. The important issue here is that a crisis situation is always perceived in different ways. Despite the interest in the strategic and organizational consequences of crises in the management literature, there has been no theoretical discussion of the influence of crises on business relationships (Grewal et al., 2007) and relationship management. Although the importance of managerial perceptions is commonly accepted in the business network literature, interestingly, there is still relatively little research about the possible role of perceptions of crisis.\nTheoretical foundations: In this section, based on industrial network theory (Hakansson et al., 2009; Axelsson and Easton, 1992), network behavior is first discussed. Second, from the perspective of this study, we outline the nature of the crisis and the role of crisis perception. The third part of this section brings together these concepts in an FCNBM. This FCNBM serves as the theoretical framework of the article, which seeks to combine an analysis of crisis perception and firm network behavior.\nResearch design, data collection and measures: The analysis is based on a survey carried out within the framework of the \"In Global Competition\" research program conducted in 2013 by the Competitiveness Research Centre (CRC) at the CUB. CRC was founded in 1999 by the Institute of Business Economics, the Institute of Marketing and Media and the Institute of Management at CUB to coordinate research projects that commenced in 1996, and it strives to be an internationally recognized centre for research into competitiveness at the Hungarian micro-sphere and enterprise level. The Centre cooperates with national and international academicians and professionals from academic, governmental and non-governmental organizations. A similarly structured survey has been undertaken five times, whereby four managers (chief executives, financial, manufacturing and commercial/marketing managers) from 300 (or more) firms responded to a comprehensive questionnaire that covered every phase of the competitiveness research program. The questionnaires were designed by multidisciplinary teams of researchers (more than 100 researchers participated at every phase of the research), and the response scales were validated by academicians, managers and through several iterations of competitiveness research. The results of the previous surveys justify the validity of the research methodology. However, it is important to emphasize that the survey and its results reflect the opinions of executives, not objective truth (Chikan et al., 2002).\nResults: Model validation\nDiscussion: In this section, the empirical evidence from the sample of the 300 Hungarian companies is discussed from the perspective of network behavior and the effects of the crisis. Based on the structural model presented in Figure 1, we first discuss the companies' network behavior; second, we highlight the effects of the perception of the crisis, showing how the perceptions about the intensity of the crisis influence the behavior of companies in the network. The discussion of results highlights their continuity with the concepts and statements from the literature earlier presented as theoretical background.\nConclusions: The paper presents the results of an analysis of some empirical data about the intersection between perceptions of crisis and company network behavior; an area that is still relatively poorly researched (Thornton et al., 2015). How does the perception of crisis influence the network behavior of companies? This question was investigated from the company perspective using a huge sample from a survey administered in Hungary in 2013.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Following industrial network theory, this paper aims to address network behavior from a focal company's perspective. Special attention is paid to examining the effect of perceptions of the economic crisis on network behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is built on a quantitative analysis of an empirical database of 300 companies based on a survey completed in 2013 in Hungary. A focal company network behavior model was developed and applied to investigate the link between variables (valuable customer relationships, valuable supplier relationships, relationship strategy and relational outcomes) and the effect of managers' perceptions about the intensity of the crisis. To obtain a deeper understanding of the effect of the crisis, structural modeling methodology was applied during data analysis.\nFindings: How crises are perceived has a moderating influence on companies' network behavior. In a context in which a crisis is strongly perceived, valuable customer relationships are considered more important than valuable supplier relationships; relationship strategy becomes more intensive; and performance is increasingly focused on operations and less on innovation. The main difference in network behavior is found with the management of the supply side. A different level of attention is paid to supplier relationships in a high crisis-perception context than when a crisis is perceived as being less critical.\nResearch limitations/implications: Results emphasize the importance of perceptions as a key factor in managerial attitudes, behavior and, ultimately, decision-making. This finding merits more attention from both researchers of business relationships and networks.\nPractical implications: From a managerial point of view, the results emphasize the existence of potentially new opportunities in network management. The reinforcement of attention to the customer during a period of crisis implies the importance of the customer orientation, but also suggests that firms may have unexploited opportunities and more potential resources on the supplier side.\nOriginality/value: The paper combines an analysis of network behavior and perceptions of crisis, helping to explain managerial decisions and attitudes. Analysis was undertaken from a focal firms' perspective and differences were investigated in attitudes concerning both supplier- and customer-side relations. How crises are perceived is a moderating variable of network behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Competitive strategies and firm performance: the mediating role of performance measurement
|
[
"Competitive strategy",
"Performance measurement",
"Firm performance",
"Performance management",
"Thailand"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Performance measurement plays a key role in developing, implementing and monitoring a strategic plan. It enables managers to evaluate whether organizational objectives have been achieved, and is further used to develop and compensate managers. It helps managers monitor whether the company is moving in the direction they want it to go. However, to the authors' knowledge there has been no study on the relationship between competitive strategy, performance measurement, and firm performance. In particular, no relevant evidence exists in Thailand.Literature review of existing studies shows that there are different performance measurement systems (Chenhall and Langfield-Smith, 1998). Thus, it is important to ask what the most appropriate performance measures are which should be aligned to competitive strategy. Managers still face the issue of effective performance measurement, and may be overwhelmed with performance data (Maltz et al., 2003; Moullin, 2007). In this paper, we argue that a competitive strategy can help a firm achieve its competitive advantage only when appropriate performance measurement is used and that a good fit between the competitive strategy and performance measurement will lead to higher firm performance.This study examines the relationship between competitive strategy and firm performance as well as the mediating role of performance measurement. Previous studies only analyze the indirect effect of performance measurement on the relationship between differentiation strategy and firm performance (Spencer et al., 2009). Our study adds to the existing theoretical discussion and analyses by investigating specifically the mediating effect of performance measurement on the relationship between two main types of strategies proposed in Porter's model, namely, cost leadership and differentiation strategies, and firm performance through performance measurement.We develop a theoretical framework that hypothesizes the mediating effect of performance measurement on the relationship between competitive strategy and firm performance. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding on which characteristics of performance measurement are appropriate to each type of competitive strategy proposed in Porter's model. It also aims to investigate the impact of such performance measurement on firm performance in the context of Thai industries. In addition, we offer managerial implications with respect to choosing appropriate performance measurements to align with formulated competitive strategy in order to enhance firm performance. It is our assertion that performance measurement has a significant role and is a significant tool in implementing competitive strategies that can lead to improved firm performance.This paper is structured as follows. It first reviews the relevant literature and develops the theoretical framework and hypotheses. Then, the research methodology and data collection are described. Finally, data analysis and discussion of results as well as a conclusion are provided.\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: 2.1 Competitive strategy and firm performance\n3. Method: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4. Measures: 4.1 Competitive strategy\n5. Results: Table I reveals that about 58.4 percent of the companies are from manufacturing industry. 75 percent of the companies have operated for more than 20 years. About 55 percent of the respondents are male and 77 percent are within the age group of 31-50 years. The majority are directors and managers of the firm.Table II shows the descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) and reliability coefficients for all variables, and the correlation matrix among the variables. There are significant correlations for all variables of competitive strategy, performance measurement, and firm performance except for cost leadership and firm performance. The correlations between the variables in Table II are generally <0.6, indicating the absence of multi-collinearity. Further diagnosis of collinearity among the variables using variance inflation factors (VIFs) suggests very low VIFs for all the variables. Because each of the VIFs is substantially <10, there is little reason to suspect multi-collinearity among the variables (Hair et al., 2006).The reliability of the measures was assessed through Cronbach's a coefficients. The items of each variable were developed based on previous studies. The Cronbach's a for each measure are shown on the diagonal in Table II and range from 0.54 to 0.91. Although one is slightly below 0.60, many researchers noted that a's of between 0.50 and 0.60 are generally acceptable for exploratory research (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994; Gupta and Somers, 1996).Ordinary least squares regression-based path analysis was adopted to test the hypotheses. This technique allows a dependent variable in one equation to become an independent variable in another equation, and it is often employed to test relatively simple relationships (Schumacker and Lomax, 1996). We used this technique to show the relationship between strategy and performance measurement, the relationship between performance measurement and firm performance, and the indirect relationship between strategy and firm performance via performance measurement.The use of multiple regressions requires certain assumptions about the data, especially in relation to distributional characteristics. Data screening was conducted to ascertain that the data satisfied the relevant assumptions for multiple regressions. Two conditions were met. First, no evidence of multi-collinearity was found by considering the VIF for each variable, which was found to be lower than two and well below the benchmark. Second, the data approximately followed a multivariate normal distribution based on kurtosis and skewness analyses. As a rule of thumb, a variable is reasonably close to normal if its skewness and kurtosis have values between -1.0 and +1.0 (Hair et al., 2006).Four main models were developed to test the study hypotheses shown in Table III. The regression results for competitive strategy and performance measurement are reported for Model 1. Models 2, 3, and 4 report the regression results for performance measurement and firm performance (Model 2); competitive strategy and firm performance (Model 3); and competitive strategy, performance measurement, and firm performance (Model 4). Each sub-model is presented in Figures 1 and 2. In each case, the regression results were used to compute the magnitudes (standardized b coefficients) of the direct effects in the path models, and the method was also used to test the significance of the mediating effects.5.1 Result of hypotheses testing\n6. Discussion and conclusions: The results offer further insights into the relationship between competitive strategy and firm performance by exploring the mediating role of performance measurement. Consistent with the literatures, this study finds an indirect effect between competitive strategic priorities and firm performance through the use of performance measurement (Spencer et al., 2009; Joiner et al., 2009). However, the result contradicts the study of Verbeeten and Boons (2009) which finds no support for the claim that performance measurement of the strategic priorities of the firm positively affects performance. Verbeeten and Boons (2009) conducted their research on medium- and large-sized firms operating in the Netherlands and they consider strategy in term of specific strategic priorities such as the importance of market/customer orientation, innovation, and personnel development. Joiner et al. (2009) and Spencer et al. (2009) examined Australia's largest manufacturing companies and considered strategy in term of flexible manufacturing strategy and differentiation strategy, respectively. The results of this study support those of Joiner et al. (2009) and Spencer et al. (2009). This is possibly because this study also deals with large listed firms while Verbeeten and Boon's (2009) study deals with medium- and large-sized firms. This study suggests that in the Thai context, firms use financial measures with any type of competitive strategy in order to enhance firm performance. Thus, most firms would still behave more like defender firms as defined by Miles and Snow (1978).Our results fully support the importance of using both financial and non-financial performance measures for firms pursuing a cost leadership strategy and a differentiation strategy, consistent with the conventional theories (McAdam and Bailie, 2002; Maltz et al., 2003; Gosselin, 2005). Differentiators tend to place a high emphasis on the use of non-financial measures (Govindarajan and Gupta, 1985; Ittner et al., 1997) while cost leadership firms place a greater emphasis on financial measures (Simons, 1987; Olson and Slater, 2002; Gosselin, 2005). Our empirical results also provide support for the surprising findings of Simons (1987), which reveal that differentiators also use financial measures, and for Olson and Slater (2002), who find that defender firms use non-financial measures less frequently.In line with previous research (Dixon et al., 1990; Neely et al., 1996; Bititci et al., 1997; Neely and Adam, 2001; Moullin, 2007; Fleming et al., 2009; Joiner et al., 2009), this study finds that performance measurement has a positive influence on firm performance. Firms use financial measures to enhance performance while non-financial measures are not often used to enhance firm performance, supporting the studies of Perera et al. (1997), Neely et al. (2004), and Gosselin (2005). However, these results contradicts the findings of Kaplan and Norton (2001) and Hoque (2004) which conclude that non-financial measures are better predictor of firm performance.Financial measures are direct reflections of current profitability and operating efficiency functioning as a \"dashboard\" to monitor and continually enhance the firm's financial performance (Simons, 1990). Financial measures can also be used as indicators for future earnings potential, which publicly-traded firms cannot afford to neglect when reporting to their stakeholders in order to attract more capital and increase public confidence. However, non-financial measures are also important because they are more actionable and future-oriented, and their use can improve an organization's capabilities for future planning and strategy implementation (Perera et al., 1997). In this study, financial measures are significantly associated with non-financial measures, with the correlation coefficient of 0.52 presented in Table II. Therefore, financial measures such as sales revenues, operating income or profit before tax, cost of goods sold, and non-financial measures, such as customer satisfaction, number of customer complaints, on-time delivery, employee health and safety, are important for firm performance.Effective performance measures should provide a map that guides managers' behaviors toward critical firm outcomes such as profit, cash flow, new product development, and personnel development. Hence, the study findings support the idea that the use of performance measures can enhance firm performance. Additional statistical analyses were made and we found that the measures firms prefer to use, as indicated to a great extent in the questionnaire and chosen by more than 50 firms including sales revenues, cost of goods sold, operating income, sales growth, and customer satisfaction. The findings suggest that only one non-financial measure, customer satisfaction, is related to firm performance.The study also provides evidence of the relationship between a competitive strategy and firm performance in the Thai context. Differentiation is significantly associated with firm performance, contrary to the findings of Power and Hahn (2004), Allen and Helms (2006), and Dess and Davis (1984), which find a positive association between cost leadership and firm performance. This is because differentiation can be a way of achieving a low-cost position. When such a position is not available, a firm may have to base its sustainable competitive advantage on the simultaneous and continuous pursuit of both low cost and differentiation (PIMS study by Phillips et al., 1983).Our study demonstrates that competitive strategies with appropriate performance measurement can improve the competitiveness of Thai listed firms.An important aspect of strategy development is the translation of firm-level competitive strategies into performance measures. We demonstrate that even in less developed economies, performance measures represent a way that firms can achieve their strategic objectives. We find a significant relationship between competitive strategy and performance measurement. Our findings confirm that performance measurement allows firms to implement their competitive strategies. Of the two performance measures components, our findings indicate that only financial measures appear to significantly influence firm performance. In addition, financial measures are more important than non-financial measures in mediating the relationship between competitive strategy and firm performance especially in the context of Thailand.This study finds that a differentiation strategy has a significant direct relationship with firm performance while cost leadership does not. However, both cost leadership and differentiation strategies influence firm performance through financial measures. These findings are not only interesting but also unexpected. The underlying assumption in the literature is that aligning both financial and non-financial measures with competitive strategy will lead to enhanced firm performance. As the result of the study is inconclusive, we therefore cannot refute those assumptions.Although the alignment of competitive strategy with non-financial measures do not lead to significant improvements in performance, the alignment of competitive strategy with financial measures leads to significant improvements in firm performance. Thus, it appears that firms in developing economies faced with increased competition brought about by trade liberalization and other reforms will benefit greatly from an emphasis on financial measures in combination with their selected competitive strategy.There are a few limitations in this study. Since we designed our study specifically to examine Thai listed companies, interpreting our results beyond that domain should be done with caution. Both the competitive strategy and PMS instruments used here are still relatively new in the literature and could be refined in future studies. A limitation associated with the measurement of PMS was the use of performance measures. It is possible that the reported lack (or low level) of use could mean either that the measures were not available, or were available but not useful. Further research is required to improve this measure. Another limitation is that the use of self-assessed performance has been criticized due to the potential for bias, and therefore the results must be interpreted in light of this caveat. Further, there may be variables omitted from the model in this study that may also moderate, or mediate, the relationship between different performance measures and firm performance. Anecdotal evidence suggests that not all organizations experience improved performance through the development of performance measures. However, this is the first time this model is tested. There is no other evidence to support that the implications of our model would be similar or applicable to other countries. Since our model is derived from the relevant literature review, we believe that it can apply to other economies to some extent, particularly developing economies similar to Thailand. Finally, the path model implies causality.The results of this study contribute in many ways. It extends the existing research and findings on the mediating role of performance measurement on the relationship between two types of Porter's competitive strategy model, namely, differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy, and firm performance. The findings challenge the assertion of the previous studies such as those of Govindarajan and Gupta (1985) and Ittner et al. (1997) that differentiation strategy tends to emphasize the use of non-financial measures.However, our findings are consistent with others studies such as Spencer et al. (2009) which find that financial and non-financial measures act as mediating role on the relationship between differentiation strategy and firm performance. Moreover, this study provides useful insights into the significant role of performance measures as a tool for managers in implementing competitive strategies that can lead to improved firm performance. Managers and designers of performance measurement tools should pay particular attention to financial measures in implementing both types of Porter's competitive strategies.6.1 Agenda for future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role performance measurement plays in the relationship between competitive strategies and firm performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study conducted a mail-survey of Thai listed companies in 2009. A total of 101 Thai listed companies' executives, each representing their company, participated in this study. The SPSS version 11.5, path-analytical model is adopted to analyze the survey data obtained.\nFindings: - This study finds that generally, all competitive strategies positively and significantly enhance firm performance through performance measurement. Specifically, firms' differentiation strategy not only has a direct and significant impact on firm performance but also it has indirect and significant impact on firm performance through financial measures. Cost leadership strategy that firms pursue does not directly affect firm performance. However, it does so indirectly and significantly through financial performance measures.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Future research could consider the use of longitudinal data to ascertain more clearly these causal relationships.\nPractical implications: - The paper offers managerial implications that whether a firm chooses to pursue cost leadership or differentiation strategies, a strong emphasis on performance measurement will ensure the positive impact on firm performance in a fierce competitive environment.\nOriginality/value: - This paper adds to the existing theoretical discussion and analyses the research and findings on the mediating role of performance measurement on the relationship between competitive strategy and firm performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
School leadership and its impact on student achievement: The mediating role of school climate and teacher job satisfaction
|
[
"Leadership",
"Student achievement",
"School climate",
"Secondary schools",
"Teacher job satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Leadership is widely acknowledged as one of the key determinants of student achievement. Studies across different countries and socio-economic contexts show remarkably similar traits and practices shared by effective school leaders, reinforcing the universal appeal of school leadership (Witziers et al., 2003; Marzano et al., 2005; Hallinger, 2011). Leithwood et al. (2008) claim that \"school leadership is second only to classroom teaching as an influence on pupil learning.\" Indeed, successful schools possess an adept, strong and purposeful school leadership. Nonetheless, accumulated evidence over the past three decades of school effectiveness research suggests that the benefits of school leadership for student achievement are indirect, with either a weak or statistically non-significant direct positive effect on student outcomes (Hallinger and Heck, 1998; Witziers et al., 2003; Robinson et al., 2008). Such beneficial effects are more likely to be mediated by a supportive school climate and work environment (Cohen et al., 2009; MacNeil et al., 2009). Likewise, teachers' classroom practices, their job satisfaction and commitment to work are more directly related to student outcomes than the work of principals (Griffith, 2004). Starting with the seminal work of Bossert et al. (1982), the field's conceptualization of school leadership has widely embraced this mediated-effects perspective. A mediated-effects model seeks to explicate the means through which leadership impacts student achievement (Bossert et al., 1982; Bruggencate et al., 2012). The school leader's role is conceived as part of a web of interpersonal, environmental and in-school relationships that combine to determine educational outcomes (Pounder et al., 1995; Hallinger and Heck, 1998).\nSetting the context - a snapshot of secondary education reform in India: The goal of this research was to test a mediated-effects model for conceptualizing the leadership behaviors of principals and its impact on student achievement levels in Indian higher secondary schools. A brief overview of the current challenges to secondary education reform, vis-a-vis the uniqueness of the Indian context is in line. India is home to the second largest education system in the world. Fueled by increased government spending and buoyed by campaigns such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All Movement) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (National Mission for Secondary Education), enrollment and retention levels in primary and lower secondary schools have surged dramatically in the past decade. At the same time, to compete in the global knowledge economy, several new universities have been set up with the aim of building a world-class research infrastructure. With India's burgeoning youth bulge peaking at the key age group between 15 and 24 years, the upper secondary education system is facing an exponential growth both in response to higher transition rates from primary schools as well as a fast-growing demand for higher education. Between the years 2007/2008 and 2017/2018, projections suggest an increase in absolute demand for secondary education of around 17 million students per year (World Bank, 2009). The challenge posed by the target of universal access to quality education is changing the landscape of educational accountability. In these times of heightened concern for educational outcomes, school leadership remains a key strategic issue.\nStudy purpose: From a mediated-effects perspective, the goal of an ideal explanatory framework is to identify the most promising mediating variables and unravel how such variables interact within a hypothesized model. While a number of researchers have investigated the relationship between a particular leadership behavior and teacher job satisfaction, the most pivotal job attitude (Bogler, 2001; Griffith, 2004; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Hulpia et al., 2009), the relative impact of different leadership practices on teacher job satisfaction has not been investigated. The present study extends current research by examining the role of teacher job satisfaction and school climate in mediating the differential effects of leadership practices on student achievement. More specifically, we seek to answer the following research questions:\nTheoretical framework: Job satisfaction, the most focal job attitude studied in the work and organizational psychology literature (Judge and Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012) refers to the favorable or unfavorable feelings that individuals have toward their work or work environment, resulting from an evaluation of their job or job experiences (Robbins and Judge, 2013). Implicit in this definition is the importance of both affect (feeling), and cognition (beliefs). Teacher job satisfaction can be influenced by a variety of factors like the quality of relationships between teachers and their principals, salary, working conditions, professional self-growth, recognition for work done, the work itself, etc., to name a few (Ostroff, 1992). Teachers are seen to be more satisfied when they have greater control over classrooms and when they receive effective support and guidance from the principals (Tillman and Tillman, 2008; Hulpia et al., 2009). Several studies report a statistically significant impact of teacher job satisfaction on student achievement (see, e.g. Spector, 1997; Dinham and Scott, 1998, 1999; Griffith, 2004). A study by Ostroff (1992) reports significant correlations between average teacher job satisfaction in a school district and numerous indicators of school effectiveness. Based on these findings, we expect that teachers will positively impact student achievement when they are satisfied with their jobs (H1).\nMethodology: Schools in the study\nResults: As a first step, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the factor structure, reliability and convergent validity of all the behavioral dimensions. For each of the study scales, model fit was evaluated using standard goodness-of-fit indices. The model kh2 is the most basic fit statistic that indicates how well the actual data fits the hypothesized model at a particular significance level. A rule of thumb is that the kh2 divided by the degrees of freedom should be less than 2 (Hair et al., 2009). kh2 statistic is sensitive to sample size and thus additional measures of model fit must be used. Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) indicates the errors of fit in the covariance matrix. Values of 0.08 or less are acceptable and a recommended lower level is 0.03. comparative fit index (CFI) is an incremental fit index that assesses the model in relation to a null model with no measurement error. CFI levels of 0.90 or higher are recommended (Hu and Bentler, 1999).\nDiscussion and conclusions: In this study, we examined the role of teacher job satisfaction and school climate in mediating the differential effects of leadership practices on student achievement. Guided by strong evidence from theories on school leadership and work psychology, we hypothesized relations among dimensions of principals' instructional and transformational leadership behaviors, teachers' perception of the organizational climate (social and affective, and physical environment), their job satisfaction and student achievement. The model hypothesized that school leaders get things done primarily through other people, achieving their effect on student achievement through indirect paths. Path modeling was applied to validate a mediated-effects model using cross-sectional survey data (306 principals, 1,539 teachers) obtained from 306 schools in the two Indian metropolitan cities of New Delhi and Kolkata.\nFuture research directions: The study in its current form is limited by aggregating teacher data to the school level. Data for the study were collected only once during a limited time-frame. The sample size was dependent upon the number of principals and teachers consenting to participate in the study. The study took into account only the instructional and transformational leadership behaviors of principals and leadership effects due to other stakeholders in the school were excluded. This also limited the breadth of conceptualization to the effects of principal leadership on teacher job satisfaction and student achievement. One possible future research direction is to consider multilevel techniques for the structural analysis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of teacher job satisfaction and school climate in mediating the relative effects of principals' instructional and transformational leadership practices on student outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Guided by strong evidence from theories on school leadership and work psychology, the authors hypothesized relations among dimensions of principals' instructional and transformational leadership behaviors, teachers' perception of the school climate (social and affective, and physical environment), their job satisfaction and student achievement. The benefits of the principal's leadership behaviors for student achievement are primarily hypothesized as indirect, with either a weak or statistically non-significant direct positive effect on student outcomes. Path modeling was applied to validate a mediated-effects model using cross-sectional survey data (306 principals, 1,539 teachers) obtained from 306 secondary schools in the two Indian metropolitan cities of New Delhi and Kolkata.\nFindings: Principal leadership behaviors were not associated directly with either teacher job satisfaction or school-aggregated student achievement. Rather, the transformational leader behavior showed an indirect effect, through the social and affective component of the school climate, on teacher job satisfaction. The physical climate, however, appeared to play a dominating role in mediating the instructional leadership effects on teacher job satisfaction. Comparing the relative indirect effect sizes of the instructional and transformational leadership behaviors on student achievement, principals appear to favor the former approach.\nOriginality/value: This study provides further empirical evidence that instructional leadership better captures the impact of school leadership on student outcomes, when compared to its transformational counterpart. By identifying the relative effects of different leadership practices, school leaders and educational practitioners can focus more on altering the distribution and frequency of those practices that work best for ameliorating student achievement levels.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Sustainable supply chain management: continuing evolution and future directions
|
[
"Environment",
"Economic performance",
"Sustainability",
"Social responsibility",
"Triple bottom line",
"Sustainable supply chain management",
"Systematic literature review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sustainability has increasingly become a part of how firms manage their production and operations, with 82 percent of S&P 500 companies publishing separate sustainability reports in 2016 compared with only 20 percent in 2011 (GreenBiz, 2018). However, over 90 percent of the impact on natural resources, including air, soil and land, is due to supply chain management (SCM) activities, and over 80 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions for consumer-goods products occur in the supply chain (Bove and Swartz, 2016). As noted by Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farms, \"Even though we were the first manufacturer in America to offset 100% of the CO2 emissions from our manufacturing plants, these incredible offsets amounted to a rounding error in terms of our total carbon footprint [...] despite the great things we did in our plant, unless we tackled our supply chain's carbon footprint, we were nowhere\" (Sustainable Supply Chain Foundation, 2019). For most organizations, focusing on sustainability beyond the four walls - i.e. sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) - has the greatest overall impact (Schmidt et al., 2017).\n2. Methodology: In this section of the paper, we describe the methodology, used by Carter and Easton (2011) in their SLR of SSCM research, which we employed for this updated SLR. An SLR allows researchers to perform an objective, transparent and replicable review of the literature (Denyer and Neely, 2004). In particular, we aligned our methodology with Carter and Washispack's (2018) Modified AMSTAR criteria (see Appendix 1).\n3. Data coding: The first author coded each of the 164 articles, using Carter and Easton's (2011) coding scheme (Table I). The second, third and fourth authors coded subsamples of the 164 articles, so that each article was coded by two researchers. Following Carter and Easton (2011), we calculated the reliability of the data coding using the proportion of all pairwise agreements between coders.\n4. Results: Our results are displayed in Table II. Extending Carter and Easton's (2011) analysis, we compare the 2010-2018 time period (Column 2 of Table II) with the two earlier time periods reported in Carter and Easton (2011) (Columns 3 and 4 of the table). We discuss these results and comparisons in the next section of the paper.\n5. Discussion and prescriptions for future research: 5.1 Subject\n6. Final thoughts about future directions[1]: We see two major and impactful opportunities for future SSCM research: first, continuing to develop and refine middle-range theory that will ultimately result in a grand theory of SSCM, and second, creating a better understanding of how managers can make effective decisions surrounding SSCM. We discuss these opportunities in the two subsections that follow.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to update the work of Carter and Easton (2011), by conducting a systematic review of the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature in the primary logistics and supply chain management journals, during the 2010-2018 timeframe.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology which follows the methodology employed by Carter and Easton (2011). An evaluation of this methodology, using the Modified AMSTAR criteria, demonstrates a high level of empirical validity.\nFindings: The field of SSCM continues to evolve with changes in substantive focus, theoretical lenses, unit of analysis, methodology and type of analysis. However, there are still abundant future research opportunities, including investigating under-researched topics such as diversity and human rights/working conditions, employing the group as the unit of analysis and better addressing empirical validity and social desirability bias.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings result in prescriptions and a broad agenda to guide future research in the SSCM arena. The final section of the paper provides additional avenues for future research surrounding theory development and decision making.\nOriginality/value: This SLR provides a rigorous, methodologically valid review of the continuing evolution of empirical SSCM research over a 28-year time period.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Learning in higher education: towards knowledge, skills and competency acquisition
|
[
"Skills",
"Competencies",
"Learning",
"Innovation",
"Knowledge",
"Limited dependent models"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It is unanimously agreed that human capital plays a critical role in economic growth and development. Human capital has remained the undisputed driver of economic growth beyond physical capital and raw materials (Lucas, 1988; Romer, 1990). Human capital is accumulated through two main modes, sometimes referred to as formal and informal. Formal refers to the human capital accumulated through undergoing a formalized system of educational learning. It is regarded as the long-term investment in formal education, following a curriculum design, in institutions or through other forms of skill development that exist. On the contrary, the informal is the complete opposite and often takes place in the work places often through undertaking routine operational jobs. The proponent of new growth theory and, particularly, the endogenous growth literature view human capital as the driving force of technical progress and economic growth (Lucas, 1988; Aghion and Howitt, 1990, 1998; Romer, 1986, 1990). Countries that were able to promulgate their human capital development in earnest benefitted many folds in enhancing their value addition into their businesses and economic activities (Rodrik, 1998).\n2. Learning at the University of Dubai: setting the context: UD was established by Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1997. At its inception, the university was started as polytechnic meant to address the skills and qualifications gap in the workforce and to support the government's initiative in human resource development programs.\n3. Conceptual framework: 3.1 Literature review: toward the conceptual framework\n4. Research design and methodology: 4.1 Research design, data source and variable description\n5. Results and discussion: This section starts with a presentation of descriptive statistics, analytical results and a discussion.\n6. Conclusion and recommendations: The purpose of this study was to examine how learning takes place in institutions of higher learning. The study sought to understand the extent to which students learn and most importantly what determines learning. This was done taking UD located in the UAE as the case study. The study developed a unique conceptual framework, conceptualizing learning in institutions as a process of acquiring knowledge, skills and competences. Learning was hypothesized to take place due to demographic characteristics, student initial conditions, curriculum and future career, personal preferences and choices, and time factor. Although being well aware of the limitation posed in capturing actual learning, we had no choice and we felt that GPA was the best input-based proxy known to date for learning. The study employed different analytical methods to present a broad set of results that enabled wide comparisons on robustness. The results obtained were strong and consistent across all the statistical analytical procedures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Considering the importance of human capital in innovation, entrepreneurship and thus economic development, this study attempts to examine formal learning as a mechanism of human capital development in institutions of higher learning. Ironically, students in such institutions are automatically assumed to learn and accumulate pertinent capacity, which would then enable them to compete in the business world or pursue further studies in future. Consequently, lack of this cognizance culminates in little being known about how students learn to accumulate knowledge, skills and requisite competencies. Notwithstanding this, the challenges posed in the twenty-first century require well-rounded students those especially who can address the global transformations witnessed in the business arena. The purpose of this paper is an attempt to fill this gap using data from the University of Dubai (UD) to examine how formal learning takes place in an institution and what determines it.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Learning is conceptualized in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies accumulated as proxied by cumulative general point aggregate. All the data used came from the UD. In addition to in-depth descriptive analysis, the study uses limited dependent techniques to identify the most significant determinants of institutional learning.\nFindings: The empirical results generated indicate that demographic characteristics such as age, nationality and gender had a positive effect on learning. Moreover, a student's initial condition influenced his/her learning positively. Whereas the mode of study under personal preferences did not seem to affect learning, the number of course sections taken had a positive influence on learning. As anticipated, student transfer had a negative influence on learning. The number of credit hours accumulated affected learning positively.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study is that results are only applicable within a limited geographical scope, and thus they cannot be generalized for global consumption. Nonetheless, the discussion and results obtained make insights to any future-related studies.\nOriginality/value: As pointed out in the previous sections, learning will be conceptualized in the form of knowledge, skills and competency acquisition. In a school setting, knowledge, skills and competencies are better captured by the grade attained in each subject. The general student learning can, therefore, be equally captured by the cumulative grade point aggregate. The authors purport that learning can be visualized, or in other words conceptualized, as a complex process that is determined by five main factors that include demographic characteristics; student initial condition; personal preferences and choices; and time factor curriculum and anticipated future career.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Stress, Minister: government policy advisors and work stress
|
[
"Government policy",
"Management stress",
"New Zealand",
"Public policy",
"Advisory services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper reports on work stress investigations with policy advisors in 12 New Zealand government departments. It reviews both the work stress literature and a range of public policy/management literature in order to highlight the lack of knowledge of stressors specific to policy roles, and to demonstrate that the New Zealand based study discussed here has broader applicability to other Westminster-style systems. The paper then reports the findings of this exploratory research which sought policy manager identification of key stressors in their policy units. In conclusion implications for further research and for public sector managers are raised.An occupation overlooked?\nMethod: The research occurred in two parts: first a series of interviews in one policy unit, and later a focus group discussion with a range of policy professionals to ascertain whether there were common perspectives on stressors in the policy advice working environment across different policy units.The first study, of all managers/senior advisors in the policy advice unit of a New Zealand government department, occurred at the request of that department. One of the authors was invited to investigate whether the work and environment of the policy unit was experienced as stressful by its senior staff, and if so then to identify the key stressors. Thirteen semi structured personal interviews were held. Nine participants were male. Most participants had some line management responsibility. The identity of this organisation remains confidential in this research but suffice to say that it was a busy policy unit, dealing with core government activity in which policy change could be contentious with some very strong lobby groups.The authors discussed the findings from this single policy unit example and decided to investigate whether there were similar or different stressors in other policy groups.Hence several months later a voluntary focus group was held with 11 policy managers from 11 different government departments. None of these participants were from the department in which the interviews were conducted. Five participants were male. All were policy professionals managing policy units of varying sizes. Thus the nature of their work included managing policy advisors, plus the full range of policy advice work (from policy development, dealing with ministerial questions, to consultation processes). The policy units ranged across most government activities, from social services, through to economic infrastructure. These participants were all members of a larger policy manager group convened by the New Zealand State Services Commission on a monthly basis for professional development purposes. We had the support of the group convenor to approach group members for volunteers to participate in the focus group.We employed qualitative methods to investigate the research question (what are the potential work stressors for government policy advisors) for a number of reasons. Firstly, this is an exploratory study seeking breadth and depth of data to inform the ongoing research agenda in this area. Additionally, in response to the recent debates in the literature we were seeking people's own representations of stressors rather than exploring a pre-ordained generic scale or model. Serendipitously, participants reported that, from a personal and professional development view point, they found it practically helpful to talk about stress-related issues in their workplaces.The questions in the semi-structured interviews were based around the common sources of stress identified in the literature, but with openings for interviewees to identify other sources as well (OSH, 1998). The question prompts explored work characteristics (role, workload, work pace, decision control, organisational culture, relationships at work, home/work interface, career development) and personal factors (enjoyable and pressured aspects of work, coping mechanisms, stress signs). The researchers also had access to aggregated organisational data on annual leave, sick leave, professional development time and work related overseas travel taken by the participant group over the previous two years. The focus group were posed a single central question: What are the typical pressures or sources of stress in your job as policy manager within a public service environment? At the end of the focus group participants were asked to list their top two sources of stress on a written form.Participants were assured of individual confidentiality, all results only to be used in aggregated form without identification of individuals. Interviews were one on one, each lasted about an hour, and they were not taped but thorough notes were taken. All participants received a copy of an aggregate summary of results and were encouraged to give feedback on any perceived inaccuracy. Only positive feedback emerged. Similar confidentiality and feedback arrangements applied to the focus group participants. However, the focus group was audio-taped and transcribed. During the process of the focus group the points raised by the participants were noted on a large photocopying whiteboard thus enabling the group to see an immediate record of discussions.Both researchers independently content analysed the interview notes and focus group transcript, paying special attention to words, phrases, concepts and themes that were repeated within and across the interviews and focus group, as well as apparent similarities and variations in the interpretations of these themes among participants. Emphasis was also given to concepts that participants identified as high priorities. These emerging themes were compared and contrasted with well accepted concepts in the psychological and human resources literature on stress, with note taken of contextual issues.\nResults: Similar to the findings of more general public sector research, the policy advisors cited work volume, changing expectations, and job insecurity as common stressors. However the full picture that emerged was of a far more occupation-specific combination of factors that create the stressors evident in policy work. For ease of reporting, and reflecting the main themes, these have been clustered into: role overload and control; occupational culture and external scrutiny; and interpersonal relationships.Role overload and control\nDiscussion: Naturally some of these findings reflect the New Zealand public sector environment, but significant elements of that environment are features of other Westminster-style public services. Hence we conclude that this research allows us to do three things:1. clearly identify fruitful avenues for further research;2. tentatively summarise the key stressors for policy advisors; and3. propose areas of improvement, or at least attention, in organisational practice.In line with the established work stress literature policy professionals report a range of stressors which can be classified under well known labels: role overload, role conflict, interpersonal relationships, decision latitude and control. But beneath the standard categorisations, we encounter through this qualitative study the unique, occupation-specific reality. This is consistent with the suggestions of Dewe and Brook (2000) and Kinman and Jones (2005) regarding the importance of incorporating occupational and personal constructions of stress within particular work contexts.The study reveals the unusual meaning of the common stressor concepts in the public sector policy environment. A picture emerges of difficult, time pressured work which must be completed to a high standard for a critical audience (the government, Ministers, other stakeholders, the public). The focus of the work is subject to regular change in response to the desires of the government. The lack of control over work focus and, ultimately, final policy direction, has been accompanied by increasing levels of individual accountability. This is a potentially hazardous mix of stressors. Briner et al. (2004) remind us that we have agency in shaping the characteristics of our jobs, and thus their stressfulness. Indeed policy advisors can \"craft\" their jobs into a higher or lower stress mix, but there are also a number of external drivers - the policy advice professional culture, the Minister, other stakeholders, the changing priorities, the urgency of some government initiatives, the technical difficulty of the work. It could be that these drivers make it more likely that policy professionals shape their roles into a higher stress combination. We believe this warrants further investigation.The results also throw particular attention on the notion of role overload. Although there is a large literature devoted to role stressors emanating from the work of Kahn et al. (1964), there has been less exploration of role overload. The distinction has been made between quantitative and qualitative overload. The former refers to a volume of work demands that are excessive or cannot be accomplished in a given time frame, and the latter to work demands that are too difficult relative to the skills and abilities of the employee. Both have been shown to be related to psychological and physical strain (Caplan and Jones, 1975; Nandram and Klandermans, 1993). However, as noted by Jex (2002), we know much less about qualitative overload. The experience of role overload by policy advisors is relatively unusual in that it featured both quantitative and qualitative overload as a consistent attribute of the work. One could speculate, in the era of \"high skills\" societies and an emphasis on knowledge work, that qualitative overload may become more prevalent and thus deserving of further examination.The results draw attention to a combination of stressors around occupational culture and external scrutiny of work that are peculiar to the role of public sector policy professionals. The individual's drive to perform and to build his or her career possibilities combines with an organisational culture focused on high performance. This, in turn, feeds on Ministers' appetites for innovative but risk-free policy designs and stakeholders' expectations to be involved at each stage of policymaking. The result may be what the New Zealand State Services Commission (1999b) has called high-flying policy units, which are characterised by virtuous spirals of excellence in which high-quality work by policy staff builds trust and respect with Ministers, who reward the good work and use it to inform their decisions, thereby motivating policy staff to produce more good work, and on it goes. These are policy workplaces where staff enjoy healthy interpersonal relationships and a sense of purposefulness. They feel useful and appreciated. Alternatively, we suggest that high internal demands combined with external scrutiny can lead to a downward spiral of over-performance, excessive stress, fatigue, perceived loss of control, and demotivation. Instead of feeling empowered, policy staff can perceive their situation as a form of double jeopardy in which advisors are increasingly held responsible for the results of decisions over which they have decreasing influence.Another characteristic feature of the policy advisor role is that opposition borne out of the contentious nature of their work not only contributes to conflict in their job performance, it actually influences the substantive functioning of the job. Contentiousness in policy assessment often demands extensive feedback, reassessment and re-evaluation of priorities, focus and representation of conclusions. In short, greater conflict in policy analysis increases workload, a clear contributor to increased stress (Widerszal-Bazyl et al., 2000).Naturally much of the external scrutiny to which policy advice is subject, is conveyed through interpersonal relationships - meetings with the Minister, parliamentary committees, and with a range of other competing or supportive stakeholders. These are not just tense meetings with the boss or a colleague or client as one might expect from a generic view of interpersonal relationships as stressors. For policy advisors these can be relationships ranging from the routine to the highly charged with significant public and personal impact. Once again this emphasises the particular and multifaceted nature of stressor constructs, and the need to investigate them in a manner more tailored to the occupation, organisation and individual. For the policy advisor this particularly relates to the areas discussed: quantitative and qualitative role overload, changing expectations/priorities and thus reduced control, the occupational culture (virtuous and vicious spirals of performance), external scrutiny and interpersonal relationships.A range of organisation development (OD) and human resource management (HRM) issues for public sector managers flow from this analysis. These include considering how to develop the capability of policy advisors without creating unacceptable levels of quantitative and qualitative role overload; and identifying the best forms of organisational support for policy work and the policy profession. On the one hand the organisational imperative is to serve the minister and government of the day. On the other hand the organisation and its managers have a legal and moral obligation for the health and safety of their employees. Indeed, one could argue that policy advisors are in a relationship with ministers more akin to master/servant, while their employment relationship (and its attendant protections) is with departmental managers. OD and HRM managers need to be alert to this tension and prepared to act as a combination of ministerial demands, policy profession performance culture, and difficult work, can easily conspire to undermine concerns for employee health and safety. The literature noted that environmental changes are more successful for reducing stressors than exhorting individuals to take greater care (Ferrie, 2004), hence practical interventions that focus on culture, work organisation and relationship management may be most productive. Possible actions include: assessing the \"stress\" culture of the policy unit; ensuring that key policy staff have project management skills and protocols to facilitate realistic scoping, planning and timelines for work; and flowing from a work scheduling/project management approach having processes in place to manage the expectations of stakeholders; ensuring groundrules or protocols are agreed for the process of meetings (particularly where relationships can be difficult).For the public management and policy analysis literature, this research raises questions about policy advisory roles. In particular examining how these roles are conceived by that literature, and how they are shaped by government, by government departments, by the profession and by the individual advisor. Deeper investigation of policy roles, occupational stress and performance, may add a new dimension to the understanding of policy work and its management.In conclusion, this study reported exploratory research into the potential stressors in policy advice work. As such it is subject to the common limitations of initial phase research, for example, making generalisations for policy professionals on the basis of a small sample of experienced advisors. However, the research does give weight to occupation-specific investigation, and highlights an interesting set of potential stressors for a highly educated, highly scrutinised occupation. Future phases of this research need to test the occupation specific stressors on a wider sample of policy advisors and relate them to individual manifestations of stress.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The public management and the occupational stress literatures are both silent on stressors associated with the work of government policy advisors. This paper aims to fill that gap with an exploratory study to identify the potential work stressors for this occupation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In-depth interviews with 13 policy advisors/managers in a single government department and a focus group with 11 policy managers from 11 government departments are reported.\nFindings: - The stressors experienced can be clustered under the well accepted labels of role overload, control, culture, and interpersonal relationships. However, results indicate that the practical reality of these stressors in public sector policy advice environments is different from the generic concepts associated with the labels.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This paper underlines the importance of occupation-specific understanding of stressors, and has implications at a workplace level for human resource management, and at an analytical level for the public management, policy and occupational stress literatures. Fruitful areas for future study include deeper exploration of qualitative role overload, examining how and why advisory roles proliferate, and how resulting stress levels affect performance.\nPractical implications: - The paper highlights tensions for public sector managers in meeting obligations to protect the health and safety of their employees, while also placing top priority on serving the minister and government of the day.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides new insight to the stressors in public sector policy environments, and alerts public sector managers to key factors in managing policy unit performance and well-being.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Research in Russia reveals lack of transferable cross-cultural management (CCM) skills in young graduates
|
[
"Russia",
"Cross-cultural management",
"Education-job mismatch",
"Graduate skill set"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research in Russia has shown that education-job mismatches are affecting recruitment in the international employment market. The main issue was the overwhelming lack of transferable cross-cultural management (CCM) skills, especially among young graduates. The authors interviewed university teachers who felt that graduate job seekers lacked a wide range of basic skills and knowledge. Meanwhile, they also interviewed recruiters who were concerned about the inability of graduates to apply their knowledge in a global business context. The recruiters were also critical of the teachers for not supplying graduates with the right skill set. They wanted to see a move away from harder business skills to nurturing the \"softer skills\" required for cross-cultural understanding.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Researchers in Russia wanted to find out if education-job mismatches affect recruitment in the international employment market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: There was a three-stage process. Stage One involved organizing interviewer-led focus groups with 18 Russian recruiters. In Stage Two the authors carried out face-to-face interviews with 17 CCM research-informed teachers and 11 recruiters. Finally, the third part of the study was an interactive seminar with 297 graduate job seekers in Russia.\nFindings: The main issue was the overwhelming lack of transferable cross-cultural management (CCM) skills, especially among young graduates. The authors interviewed university teachers who felt that graduate job seekers lacked a wide range of basic skills and knowledge. Meanwhile, they interviewed recruiters who were concerned about the inability of graduates to apply their knowledge in a global business context. The recruiters were also critical of the teachers for not supplying graduates with the right soft skill set.\nOriginality/value: Research in the field has been rare, especially in Russia. The results point the way forward for academic researchers, but also practicing teachers\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Empowering individuals to integrate work and life: insights for management development
|
[
"Leadership development",
"Self-development",
"Qualitative analysis",
"Work-life balance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In the last 20 years, organizations have increasingly recognized the importance of addressing employee work-life needs as a strategy for recruiting and retaining high-talent employees and managing employee stress and morale (e.g. Amstad et al., 2011; Bloom et al., 2011; Hoobler et al., 2010; Kelly et al., 2008; Shockley and Singla, 2011). Further, work-life initiatives that were once only implemented to accommodate unique circumstances (e.g. reduced-load work, telework) are now common place (Lee et al., 2000). Indeed, in the USA in 2008, 79 percent of employers allowed flextime, 50 percent allowed telecommuting, and 41 percent allowed reduced-load work arrangements (for at least some employees; Galinsky et al., 2008).\nBenefits of work-life EIs: As noted above, traditional work-life policies may not be available or beneficial for all employees (Kelly et al., 2008). Thus, EIs may complement traditional policies by providing employees with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about policy utilization and implementation. For example, EIs may teach employees how to recognize whether a particular work-life policy is appropriate or teach them skills for effectively utilizing policies (e.g. boundary management strategies for teleworkers). Additionally, for employees who do not use traditional policies, there may be strategies and skills that they can learn to more effectively manage multiple life roles in their existing work context (e.g. how to effectively discuss work-life issues with supervisors).\nOverview of Total Leadership: We now present a review of one popular work-life EI: Total Leadership (as described in the best-selling book, Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life (Friedman, 2008). This program has been implemented in over 100 companies and well as offered in a course for executive MBAs, MBAs, and undergraduates at a top business school. We chose to focus our investigation of EIs on the Total Leadership program for several reasons. First, the Total Leadership program is unique in that focusses on leadership in all areas of life. In other words, it integrates leadership development and work-life training to generate improved performance in both work and non-work domains. Second, while we are aware that many organizations offer supportive programming for employee work-life balance, there is little information available regarding the nature, content, and administration of these programs. Finally, as with much of the training and development field, the evaluation of program effectiveness is often limited, inconsistent, and not collected both before and after implementation (Aguinis and Kraiger, 2009). Therefore, the evaluation data we accessed for this study exceeds what is typically available.\nMethods: The following section describes the sample, measures, and methods that were used to collect and analyze the data.\nResults: Table I provides comparisons of the pre- and post-Total Leadership self-assessments for satisfaction and performance. Our findings indicate that participants report large increases in satisfaction in all areas of their lives (as measured by Cohen's d-value; Cohen, 1988). Further, they reported large increases in performance in the home and self-domains. Medium increases in performance were reported in the work and community domains of life. In other words, from the perspective of the participants themselves, the EI had a significant, positive impact on their ability to be happy with and perform better in all areas of their lives.\nDiscussion: We have highlighted key insights that emerge from each experiment type for management development specialists. We now provide conclusions from our findings that those engaged in the work-life effectiveness and performance of employees should note.\nLimitations and conclusions: We recognize that there are limitations to the study described herein. In particular, the individuals in this study were participating in Total Leadership as an academic course. As noted previously, we contend that there is significant overlap in the nature of the experiments conducted and the insights gleaned from participant experiences across those participating as part of an academic course and those participating as a corporate initiative. Anecdotally, our findings to date suggest that the nine experiment types are prevalent regardless of the context in which Total Leadership is offered. Nonetheless, future research should explore this in a systematic manner and investigate whether the frequency with which experiment types are implemented and their relative effectiveness across settings. More broadly, we recommend the development of scholar-practitioner relationships that would facilitate the empirical investigation of work-life EIs in an organizational context. Additionally, the use of single-item pre/post measures of satisfaction and performance is another potential limitation. While prior research has demonstrated the value of single-item measures (e.g. Wanous et al., 1997), there may nonetheless be benefits to utilizing an extensive pre/post survey. Despite these potential limitations, we feel that our findings provide a valuable initial foray into understanding work-life initiatives and creating opportunities for employees to enhance their work-life balance while simultaneously achieving greater work performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In efforts to improve employee recruitment and retention and enhance productivity and morale, organizations have implemented policies and practices (e.g. flextime, telework to address employee work-life concerns). However, there is mixed evidence regarding their effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to complement work-life policies, initiatives aimed at empowering employees with the knowledge and skills to manage multiple life roles may be valuable. Little information is available regarding the nature or effectiveness of such initiatives. Through an in-depth analysis of one initiative, Total Leadership, the authors provide insights that can be used in the selection, design, implementation, and evaluation of work-life empowerment efforts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a mixed methods approach to explore the experiences of 316 participants in the Total Leadership program. Self-assessments (pre and post) were analyzed using quantitative methods (e.g. Cohen's d-value). Inductive and iterative qualitative methods were employed to understand the types of experiments participants created as part of the program.\nFindings: The authors found that participants reported significant increases in satisfaction and performance in all domains of life (work, home, community, and self). Further, the authors identified nine types of experiments that individuals used to enhance performance in all life domains. Implications for management development specialists are provided.\nOriginality/value: This study provides unique and valuable insight for those interested in supporting employee work-life development, leadership, and performance in all domains of life. It represents one of the first efforts to provide evidence-based guidance for the design and implementation of such initiatives.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Perceived justice and CSR after service recovery
|
[
"Satisfaction",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Perceived justice",
"Service failure severity",
"Repatronage intention"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Not surprisingly, many firms pursue a \"zero-defect\" service in their operations. Service failures are, however, unavoidable, and the results of service failures are often catastrophic. After a service failure, customer defection is more likely to occur, and even a company's reputation may be at risk if service recovery is poorly handled (Maxham and Netemeyer, 2002a, 2002b; Spreng et al., 1995). According to Doney and Cannon (1997), a company's reputation depends on customers' perceptions of how well the company takes care of customers and how concerned it is with their welfare. When a service failure is followed by poor service recovery, some customers simply stop using a service (or a product), but others may engage in retaliation by spreading negative word-of-mouth, which is likely to leave a stigma of being irresponsible or unethical. This indicates that inadequate service recovery may lead to negative perceptions of corporate social responsibility (heretofore, CSR) of a service provider. A series of encounters because of service failure and subsequent service recovery often provide a customer with an opportunity to scrutinize a service provider's ethical stance and social responsibility (McColl-Kennedy and Sparks, 2003). As a firm's ethical stance and legal responsibility are the key elements of CSR, a failed service recovery may cause customers to reevaluate a firm's CSR. Given that perceived CSR has a substantial impact on brand image and helps build the long-term success of a company (Garriga and Mele, 2004; Yoon et al., 2006), it is critical to analyze the relationship between service recovery and perceptions of CSR.\nHypotheses development: Perceived CSR within a service recovery context\nMethodology: Sample and procedure\nResults: Evaluation of the measurement scales\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between perceived justice and perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the impact of perceived justice and CSR perceptions on customers' behavioral responses, such as satisfaction and repatronage intention after service recovery. The authors also investigate the moderating role of service failure severity in the relationship between perceived justice and perceived CSR.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were collected using individually completed questionnaires. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling, and the moderation effects of failure severity in the relationship between perceived justice and perceived CSR were analyzed using stepwise multiple regression models.\nFindings: The results suggest a path from satisfaction to CSR perceptions, which indicates that the link between CSR perceptions and satisfaction is reversed in the context of service recovery. The authors further reveal recovery satisfaction in two ways: It has a direct influence on repatronage intentions as well as an indirect influence via perceived CSR. Finally, the results demonstrate that the severity of a service failure intensifies the impact of distributive and procedural justice perceptions on perceived CSR, and perceived CSR serves as a partial mediator in the path from recovery satisfaction to repatronage intentions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results demonstrate that perceived justice of service recovery affects perceived CSR after a service failure and that the severity of a service failure moderates the impact of justice perceptions on perceived CSR. However, the possibility of intercausal relationships among distributive, procedural and interactional justice may need to be further explored in future research.\nPractical implications: Given that the impact of distributive and procedural justice on CSR perceptions has become more critical as the severity of service failure increases, companies should prioritize allocating a fair amount of monetary compensation in a timely manner, particularly for those who experience a severe service failure.\nOriginality/value: The authors propose a model of perceived justice - perceived CSR - repatronage intentions within the service recovery context in an attempt to deepen the understanding of the antecedents of repatronage intention and the relationship between repatronage intention and recovery satisfaction following service recovery encounters by introducing perceived justice and CSR. Moreover, the authors discover the moderating effect of service failure severity on the relationship between justice perceptions and perceived CSR.\n",
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"I can survive on jam sandwiches for the next three years": The impact of the new fees regime on students' attitudes to HE and debt
|
[
"Higher education",
"Students",
"Financing",
"Debts",
"Loans",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The introduction of \"top-up fees\" in UK HE which took effect in September 2006 has been a hotly debated issue. Key arguments for introducing increased fees, capped at PS3,000 per course, per annum, were driven, in broad terms, by economic, equity, equality of opportunity and social justice motives (DfES, 2003). Counter arguments focus on the possible creation of a tiered system of HE, which would promote or deny opportunities to young people based on their social class and background. To circumvent such arguments, the Labour government introduced a delayed fee payment scheme, payable post qualification and upon earning a threshold salary of PS15,000 per annum. Thus, the new dimension of \"debt\" in the decision making of students was created. The big question thus became; \"will students still be prepared to enter HE despite the debt they will accumulate during their studies?\"The Higher Education Academy (HEA) sponsored a research project to examine \"the changing fee regimes and their impact on students' attitudes to higher education\". Researchers at the University of Southampton in collaboration with The Knowledge Partnership UK were commissioned to undertake the research. This paper sets out to examine the views of prospective students' about how the new fees and associated issues of student debt would impact on their decisions to participate in higher education. It does not set out to offer a general critique of the policy discourse around the issue of fees in HE as this is offered comprehensively elsewhere (see for example Brown and Hesketh, 2004; Brown et al., 2003; Moreau and Leathwood, 2006a, 2006b). It begins by mapping the context in which these proposals were made and then outlines the specific elements of the proposals assessing the extent to which they reflect the general rationales associated with HE fees and loans. It then examines the theoretical underpinnings behind students' HE decision making in light of emerging theories of debt aversion before outlining the methodological approaches used in the research. The findings from focus group interviews with potential HE students will be examined. The paper ends with a discussion of the potential impact the new fees regime is likely to have on students' decisions to engage with HE.\nThe context and role of UK higher education: In the foreword to the Government White Paper, \"The Future of Higher Education\", the Secretary of State for the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), Charles Clarke underlined the key role UK HE plays on the national and global stage. He noted:British universities are a great success story. Over the last 30 years some of the finest brains in the world have pushed the boundaries of knowledge, science and understanding. At the same time a university place has ceased to be the preserve of a tiny elite but been extended to hundreds of thousands more students each year. In the early 1960s only 6 per cent of under-21s went to university, whereas today around 43 per cent of 18-30 year olds in England enter higher education (DfES, 2003).The broad context in which the new fees proposals were set for UK HE was summed up in the Newby Report (2002) and highlighted the low funding levels for teaching and learning in UK HE and the impact this has on quality and participation and the need to move away from a spending to a business model of financing HE provision which was consistent with trends in many western countries. The report suggests that these challenges require not only greater investment in HE, but a complete rethink of the ways in which UK HE funding is both conceptualised and implemented. Added to this, government also envisages more expansion in HE with a long-term view to achieving 50 per cent participation by its adult population by the year 2010 (DfES, 2003).\nThe new HE fee scheme: To interrogate these challenges, government proposed a decentralised funding system in which beneficiaries of HE would make a financial contribution (DfES, 2003). Specific measures proposed for this new HE fees regime include, therefore:* Introducing in 2006 a new Graduate Contribution Scheme. Universities will be allowed to charge between PS0 and PS3,000 annually per course.* Government will continue to pay the first PS1,100 of fees for students from lower income families.* Abolishing up-front payment of tuition fees and enabling all full-time students to have their fees paid directly by The Student Loan Company.* Allowing every student to defer repayment of their student loan until after they have graduated (Income Contingent Loans ICL). Payments after graduation will be through the tax system and will be linked to ability to pay.* Raising from 2005 the threshold at which graduates have to start repaying their fee contribution and maintenance loan from PS10,000 to PS15,000.Further measures to encourage wider participation and creating greater equity were also proposed. These included:* requiring universities to draw up access agreements to improve access for disadvantaged students before they are able to increase the level of fee they ask students to pay.* appointing an independent access regulator (the Office for Fair Access (OFFA)) to oversee these agreements to promote wider access and to ensure that admissions procedures are fair, professional and transparent.* expanding the national Aim Higher programme to build better links between schools, colleges and universities and raise young people's aspirations.* reforming funding so that universities and colleges will be properly reimbursed for extra costs in attracting and retaining students from non-traditional backgrounds.* doubling the amount of extra money to help vulnerable students and introduce a new package of grant support for part time students (DfES, 2003).Thus, the introduction of new fees was seen as meeting equity, equality of opportunity and economic needs, arguments which tend to reflect the broad rationalisation around issues of fees and loans in HE (see for example Woodhall, 1989; Harrison, 1997; Elias et al.,1999; Blasko et al., 2002; Johnstone, 2005; Callender, 2003; Callender et al., 2005).\nDecision filters: costs-benefits or liquidity constraints?: Finnie (2004, p. 2) argues that participation in HE is contingent upon two critical decision rules. The first is what he calls the investment decision rule. Students choose to go to university if \"they perceive that the benefits outweigh the costs\". Essentially, benefits are estimated on the basis of employment opportunities, social status, independence and a hassle free life. The second rule is what Finnie describes as the \"liquidity constraints decision rule\" (Finnie, 2004, p. 3). Primarily, this rule is premised on being satisfied that the student has the means of paying the associated out of pocket expenses as well as the living costs. Essentially, this rule is about evaluating the liquidity factors and being satisfied that they will have sufficient funds to cover both the living and out of pocket expenses associated with a HE experience.Clearly, grants and loans influence decisions to participate in HE by operating through both principles. However, students prefer grants to loans grants principally because they do not have to repay the money, thus keeping their anticipated rate of returns to HE intact and by ensuring greater liquidity during the period of their study.\nTheory of debt and debt aversion: In theory, debt aversion is \"a situation where individuals are unwilling to take loans to finance their HE study even though they know it represents a good investment\" Finnie (2004, p. 9) has identified three categories of debt aversion based on this understanding. The first is what he has called \"risk based debt aversion\". This aversion to debt is associated with the uncertainty about the returns to education investment. Students who are sceptical about employment prospects following graduation, or about the perceived value of the courses they hope to pursue, including those who simply cannot cope with the idea of debt hanging over their heads, broadly constitute this group. The second form of debt aversion is what has been called \"value debt aversion\". This comprises people who are unwilling to borrow for religious or culture related reasons and can be extremely difficult to circumvent except through resorting to grants. The third form is what has been described as \"sticker price debt aversion\" where borrowers are scared of the total debt accumulated over the period of schooling. This often stems from over estimation of costs and under estimation of income. The role of information and policies for student support, including a differentiated approach to the system of loans to suit various categories of consumers, cannot be over-emphasised if attitudes to debt have to be interrogated.\nAims and methods of the research: The HEA commissioned research to provide evidence for the changing fee regimes and their impact on students' attitudes to higher education. The research was undertaken by a collaborative team of researchers at the University of Southampton and The Knowledge Partnership UK.The overall research aim was to provide evidence of the impact of the introduction of the new variable HE fees regime in England on the decision-making of young people about HE admission and on the shape and organisation of the HE undergraduate market place.While understanding the expectations and decisions of the HEIs in response to the new variable fees regime is important, it is in the decisions of potential students about how, when, where and whether to apply to university that the immediate impact of the new system will be observed.A key part of this project, therefore, was to hear the \"student voice\". To do this the research team undertook focus groups of Y13 students in four UK schools/colleges. The students we spoke with were in the cohort who could consider applying for HE entry in 2006. By talking with them in focus groups we hoped to surface their awareness of, and attitudes to, higher education fees/bursaries, debt, HE and career prospects and how this was affecting their decision making. Most importantly we wanted to know what they knew of the new fees system and how far this was encouraging them or discouraging them from applying to university, or whether other factors were predominant in their decisions.Four institutions were selected for the focus groups, two in the south of England and two in the north of England. The southern institutions (Pseudonyms Valley College and South East College) were both sixth form colleges serving mixed catchment areas and hence providing a wide range of potential higher education applicants from different socio-economic, cultural and ethic backgrounds. The two northern institutions (Pseudonyms Riverdale and Dale Grammar School) included a large general Further Education College serving a mixed catchment with a significant population from ethnic minority groups; and an 11-18 comprehensive school with a large sixth form and a good academic record, serving a predominantly working class town.In each institution two focus groups of eight students (mixed male and female) were conducted. In the two southern colleges and the northern school these comprised one group of students who had chosen to apply to university for admission in October 2006, and a second group of students who would be qualified for HE entry but were either unsure about applying or had decided not to do so. In the northern FE college one group comprised principally 17-year-old applicants while the second group was of mature students studying on a Higher Education Access course.The focus groups were conducted by members of the research team, using common scripts, and were taped for later transcription. The scripts took the students through discussions focused on what they knew about the new fees regime, where that knowledge had been derived from, what their own intentions were in relation to HE, and how these had been influenced by the fees regime. In addition to the focus group script, the students were asked to undertake a \"Brand Price Trade Off\" (BPTO) exercise in which their willingness to change their choice of HE institution and programme in response to reduced fee levels was tested. This enabled the research team to investigate the responsiveness of students to \"fee price\" in the undergraduate marketplace.Limitations\nFindings from the focus groups: The findings are presented in relation to the key questions used to frame the focus group discussion. Several themes emerged strongly from the material gathered at the focus groups in the four centres chosen for study. We consider below those themes and make comparisons between opinions and experiences of young people in different institutions. In particular, we make considerable use of direct quotations from the students, as it is in their words that their perceptions can best be found. We have, of course, anonymised both the students and their schools/colleges for the purpose of this paper.Gaps in understanding beyond the headlines\nDiscussion and implications: We have indicated earlier the limitations to generalisation imposed by the scale of our study. However, three key themes suggest possibilities for generating tentative hypotheses about the likely impact of the new fees regime on students' attitudes to HE and to debt in particular and for the future of HE in general.HE as a strong brand in the consciousness of prospective students\nConcluding remarks: There does not seem to be sufficient evidence to support the contention that increasing fees will depress participation in HE. Higher education is a sufficiently powerful brand for which students - especially those already studying for level 3 qualifications - are willing to make significant sacrifices. The most likely outcome of the new fees is that participation may dip in the current year but will remain stable or increase in the future. Although various forms of debt aversion exist among students, which call for differentiated marketing and communication strategies, there is insufficient evidence to suggest that aversion to debt will be a strong deterrent to participation. Even if some may choose options other than HE in the immediate term, the likelihood of future participation remains high. The future of HE lies not so much in increasing or decreasing fees, but in encouraging young people to acquire level 3 qualifications. Higher education is such a powerful brand and life enabler for many students and for some, surviving on jam sandwiches for three years is a sacrifice worth taking.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this research is to draw from a project sponsored by the Higher Education Academy and undertaken jointly by researchers at the University of Southampton and The Knowledge Partnership UK, which aimed to investigate the likely impact of the recently introduced new fees regime on students' attitudes to HE and to issues of debt.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on a sample of 64 students approaching the end of their A level study in four Further Education Colleges in the South and North of England, the research utilised focus group interviews to seek views about the new fees regime which were to be introduced in September 2006 throughout the country.\nFindings: - The research found that, while the issue of debt was a significant concern for many students, the desire to go to university either immediately or in the long term, remained a strong priority for the students. Different types of debt aversion, including risk debt aversion, sticker type debt aversion, value-based debt aversion and life-style debt aversion, were evident from the students' discourses.\nOriginality/value: - Overall, sufficient evidence was not found to support the general belief that issues of student debt would significantly dissuade students from participating in HE. Rather, it was found that students were more likely to be rational in their decisions, as long as the increased fees would add value to their HE experience. Significantly, the research discovers a new form of debt aversion among the participants. HE institutions need to be aware of the variety of forms of debt aversion in order to plan for more strategic recruitment in a new fees and debt economy.\n",
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] |
Effects of temporary hiring on the profits of Spanish manufacturing firms
|
[
"Temporary workers",
"Profit",
"Manufacturing industries",
"Productivity rate",
"Spain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the recent years, Spain has been the European country with the highest proportion of temporary workers, in spite of the several attempts to stimulate stable hiring by the Government. Specifically, 31.2 per cent of Spanish workers had a temporary job in the year 2002, as opposed to a European average of 13.1 per cent[1]. As can be observed in Figure 1, the most remarkable facts of temporality in Spain have been the high growth of this kind of hiring during the second half of the 1980s and the stability of the proportion of temporary workers over the 1990s. During this decade the proportion of temporary workers has always been over 30 per cent for the whole Spanish economy (and over 25 per cent for the manufacturing sector).The amazing feature of this phenomenon is that until 1984 there was a lack of legal regulation of temporary hiring in Spain, except in the case of the obra o servicio contract (a contract for specific tasks or services typical in the construction sector). The vast majority of contracts were permanent, and the high severance payments of this kind of contract avoided the adjustment of firms' employment. In an attempt to eliminate this rigidity, the labour reform carried out in 1984 authorized the use of flexible contracts that were characterized by lower adjustment costs[2]. Nowadays, these temporary contracts are very common, up to the point of representing 95 per cent of new hiring in 2003[3]. In spite of the high value of this figure, the weight of the former permanent contracts and the existence of a slow process of transforming temporary jobs into permanent ones have the result that only a third of total workers have a temporary job at the current time.Conscious of the risks associated to this hiring framework (loss of workers' human capital, excessive labour turnover, higher costs for the Benefit system, etc.), the Spanish Government did apply very important labour reforms during 1994 and 1997 trying to encourage stable hiring. Several descriptions of the main features of the Spanish labour reforms are shown, for example, in Alba and Alonso (1997), Malo and Toharia (1997), Aguirregabiria and Alonso (1999), Toharia (1999) and Segura (2001). However, these reforms were not successful. To be precise, the 1994 reform abolished the most common temporary contract, the fomento del empleo (promotion of employment) contract. Their abolition could have reduced the legal possibilities of temporary hiring. However, from this moment on firms began to use other temporary contracts existing in the legal framework, as the contracts by obra o servicio and eventual (according to the circumstances of production). As for the 1997 labour reform, its most remarkable feature was the introduction of a new kind of contract, fomento de la contratacion indefinida (promotion of permanent hiring), characterised by having lower severance payments than the former permanent contract, trying to make stable hiring more tempting for firms.At present, the Spanish legal framework contains a broad set of rules stimulating permanent hiring, like the existence of legal restrictions to the excessive renewing of temporary contracts for the same workers, and the economic incentives to convert temporary contracts in permanent ones. In spite of these actions, Spanish Governments have not been very successful in their attempts of reducing the high incidence of temporary hiring.So, the question is: if there are many rules in favour of permanent employment, why do the Spanish firms use temporary contracts so frequently? The answer could be that firms obtain (or they believe to obtain) higher profits when using these types of contracts. Several facts seems to support this idea, like the observation that temporary workers have, on average, smaller wages than permanent ones and also small severance payments (Dolado and Bentolila, 1992; Jimeno and Toharia, 1993; Jaumandreu and Martinez, 1995; Hernanz, 2002). Although Spanish collective bargaining does not allow the possibility of discriminating wages depending on the type of contract, temporary workers may have smaller monthly wages due to the fact that they earn less seniority payments than permanent ones (they are usually younger) and belong to less qualified professional categories with lower bargained minimum wages (salarios base de convenio, which are common for all workers belonging the same professional category, independently of their productivity and effort). Given these features (smaller wages and lower severance payments for temporary workers), if both types of workers have the same productivity, temporary hiring should always be preferred by firms. But, are both productivities really similar or, otherwise, are permanent workers more productive?Several studies carried out for the Spanish case show that the average productivity of temporary workers is lower than that of permanent ones. For instance, Sanchez and Toharia (2000) find evidence in favour of this hypothesis. This evidence is explained by the negative effect over the worker's effort caused by the expectation that its contract could not be renewed. Martin (2000) and Diaz-Mayans and Sanchez (2004) reach a similar finding. Actually, this outcome is plausible because according to the human capital theory, if temporary workers have less labour experience than permanent ones, ceteris paribus, their productivity must be lower. The finding that permanent workers are more productive is a counterweight to the labour cost advantage of temporary workers and puts into discussion the hypothesis that firm profits are going to increase if temporary workers are used.To summarize, it seems that Spanish firms prefer temporary hiring, although it is not clear that they obtain higher profits in this way. In this sense, the main contribution of this paper to the existing literature is to gauge the effect of temporality on firm profits. As we will see, the price-cost margin (or profit-to-sales ratio) tends to decrease as the proportion of temporary workers increases. This allows us to affirm that the well-known negative effect of temporality on productivity is stronger than the negative effect of temporality on wages, and suggests the existence of informational problems which lead firms to adopt an incorrect hiring strategy. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In section 2 the theoretical framework is developed to identify the relationship between temporality and profits. In section 3, this relation is estimated using data from the Encuesta Sobre Estrategias Empresariales (ESEE), a panel data survey carried out for the period 1990-1999 that provides information on Spanish manufacturing firms. Finally, Section 4 summarises the main conclusions of this article.\n2. Theoretical framework: It is assumed that firm production may be represented by means of a Cobb-Douglas production function, with constant returns to scale: Equation 1 where Yi is the firm i real output, Ki the capital stock, Ei the total amount of effective labour (permanent and temporary) and Mi the raw materials or intermediate consumptions. It is also assumed that: Equation 2 where ei is a measure of the average efficiency or effort of the labour force and Li is the total employment (permanent and temporary).Additionally, it is assumed that average labour efficiency is a function of the proportion of temporary workers, Ti=LTi/Li, where LTi represents temporary employment, then: Equation 3 Under the assumption that average productivity of temporary workers is lower than that of permanent ones, then d<0 (the elasticity of efficiency with respect to the temporality ratio will be negative). Substituting (3) for efficiency in expression (2) and this result for effective labour in (1), yields: Equation 4 where g=db is the elasticity of output with respect to the temporality ratio. The sign of this elasticity depends on the sign of parameter d. Under the assumption that d is negative, then given the amounts of inputs used by the firm, the output will diminish as the temporality ratio increases.Effects of temporality on the price-cost margin\n3. Estimations: 3.1. Data\n4. Conclusions: From the late 1980s, Spain has remained at the top of European countries in the use of temporary hiring. After a quick expansion in the proportion of temporary workers from 1984, this proportion has never been under 30 per cent throughout the 1990s. Although the Spanish Governments have tried to set policies in favour of stable hiring, they are not been able to significantly reduce this figure. Maybe the observation that temporary workers have less labour costs than permanent ones has been the main reason for firms to promote temporary contracts, in spite of the lower productivity of such workers (as the former studies indicate). As a whole, it remains the doubt of knowing whether the negative effect of temporality on labour costs is stronger than the negative effect on productivity, in such a way that firm profits are stimulated by temporality. In this sense, the aim of this research is to know how firms' profits are affected by the proportion of temporary workers.The profit indicator used in this paper is the profit-to-sales ratio, which is proxied by the price-cost margin. Theory indicates that price-cost margin only depends directly on the firm market share, the behaviour of rival firms and the price elasticity of demand. However, if the firm market share is substituted by their determinants in the price-cost margin equation, it is possible to justify the inclusion (among other variables) of the proportion of temporary workers. Why could market share be influenced by temporality? Assuming that temporary workers are less productive than permanent ones, the higher the temporality ratio the lower the output and the greater the total cost. This tends to reduce the firm competitiveness and, then, the firm market share and the price-cost margin.To estimate the relationship between margin and temporality a sample of manufacturing firms from the Encuesta Sobre Estrategias Empresariales, carried out for the period 1990-1999, is used. The equation is estimated in logarithmic first differences by using the instrumental variables method. The outcomes show that price-cost margin significantly diminishes as the proportion of temporary workers rises. The margin also falls as the input prices (labour and raw materials) grow, when the firm import propensity rises, as the rivals' prices diminish and when the markets served by the firm slump.Returning to the effect of temporality, it seems that the use of this kind of contract does not lead firms to increase profits. Why, then, do Spanish firms hire such a high proportion of temporary workers? It is possible that firms are not fully conscious of the negative influence of temporality on margins due to problems of information. Previous studies indicate that temporality allows firms to save labour costs, although it also reduces the firm's average labour productivity. The former effect is easily observable by firms, but the latter is more difficult to appreciate, because the measurement of productivity is not very precise in many cases (it depends on several workers' features and sometimes requires sophisticated monitoring methods). If firms only observe the effect on labour costs, they may think that temporality could yield higher profits.But, is it really true that both productivity and labour costs diminish as firms hire a higher proportion of temporary workers? Another aim of the present paper is to know the sign of these relationships. To do this, first a production function is estimated including the proportion of temporary workers on the right side. A negative sign for the estimated coefficient of this proportion (which is interpreted as the elasticity of output with respect to the temporality ratio) should demonstrate the negative effect of temporality on productivity. This coefficient may also be assessed from the estimation of the firm's total cost function, derived from the production function. The estimated equations show that, ceteris paribus, a rise in the proportion of temporary workers leads to a fall in the output and to an increase in the total production costs. To be precise, the coefficient estimated from the production function is -0.09 and the coefficient estimated from the cost function is a little bit smaller in absolute value (0.056). Alternatively, it is possible to test the hypothesis of the lower productivity of temporary workers by estimating a production function in which the amounts used of both kinds of labour (permanent and temporary) are included. In this case, the outcomes seem to confirm the former hypothesis: the productivity of temporary workers is 12.5 per cent smaller than that of permanent ones.Finally, a wage equation is estimated in the framework of bargaining models. The firm average wage is considered as a weighted sum of internal (basically, the capital-to-labour ratio) and external (aggregate wage and unemployment rate) factors, together with the proportion of temporary workers. The outcomes show that the firm hourly average wage significantly diminishes as the proportion of temporary workers rises. Concretely, a 1 per cent rise in the temporality ratio leads to a reduction in the average labour cost between 0.05 and 0.07 per cent.In summary, all these findings allow the affirmation that firms do not increase their relative profits by using temporary workers. They are only able to reduce their labour costs. But, the productivity fall caused by temporality is more intense than the average wage reduction, and then the profit-to-sales ratio (or the price-cost margin) will diminish. Only the lack of information over the importance of the productivity fall could explain the excessive use of temporary contracts by the Spanish firms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of the proportion of temporary workers on the profit-to-sales ratio (or price-cost margin) of Spanish manufacturing firms in the 1990s.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The relation between the proportion of temporary workers and the profit-to-sales ratio is estimated using the information provided by the \"Encuesta Sobre Estrategias Empresariales\" (Entrepreneurship Strategy Survey), a panel data set for the Spanish manufacturing sector carried out over the period 1990-1999. The model is estimated in logarithmic first differences in order to remove fixed effects. To correct endogeneity problems, the instrumental variables method has been used.\nFindings: - The outcomes show that the rise in the proportion of temporary workers reduces the price-cost margin of Spanish firms. It also leads to a fall in labour productivity and in the hourly average wage, and to an increase in the total cost of production.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The dataset refers only to manufacturing industry. It would be interesting to extend the analysis, if possible, to the service sector of Spanish economy.\nPractical implications: - The outcomes show that those policies oriented to reduce the high proportion of temporary workers (which has been over 30 per cent since 1990) by means of stimulating permanent labour contracts are expected to be positive for Spanish firms.\nOriginality/value: - This article is the first empirical work aimed at assessing the impact of the proportion of temporary workers on the profit-to-sales ratio.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Utility of Open Government Data for PhD students in India
|
[
"India",
"PhD students",
"Open Government Data"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Governments are regarded as the single largest collector, user, holder and producer of information linked with citizens, organizations or public service delivery (Heeks, 2006). Such data may be related to traffic, health care, transport, weather, education, marine sector, statistical indicators, agriculture, industry and the like. Governments use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to \"open\" this information for building ties with the citizens and to involve them in decision making which adds to more transparency in administration (Adu et al., 2016; Meijer et al., 2012; Thornton and Thornton, 2013). Opening of government data helps in policy-making and bringing about efficiency in administration (Janssen, 2012; Kassen, 2013; Tough, 2011). \"Open government data (OGD) refers to making public sector information freely available in open formats and ways that enable public access and facilitate exploitation\" (Kalampokis et al., 2011, p. 266). However, the precision in definition is wanting in terms of Open Government Data's (OGD) characterization as \"data,\" \"information\" or a \"record\" (Borglund and Engvall, 2014). Also, OGD is conceived as a means of furthering economic growth (Howard, 2012) by spurring innovation, entrepreneurship and creation of economic value through job creation, profits and investments (Elbadawi, 2012; Zuiderwijk and Janssen, 2012). At the same time, there are barriers linked with OGD policy-making and implementation like cultural differences, privacy issues, lack of motivation on the part of the government, lack of technological readiness, etc. (Gunnlaugsdottir, 2015; Janssen et al., 2012).\nRelated research: OGD research has been conceptual/theoretical or applied. In the conceptual/theoretical category, for instance, McDermott (2010) has provided an overview of how OGD initiatives spur transparency and accountability in government. However, his study was focused on tracing the path of OGD initiative in the USA. Likewise, the origin, development and conceptual perspectives on OGD have been underlined in another study (Wirtz and Birkmeyer, 2015) where the main emphasis is on deriving a framework and an \"integrative definition\" of Open Government and the key pillars are accountability, technology, legal dimensions and trust in government. However, their study did not take into account the differences in contextual development of OGD initiatives nor did they take a \"user-centric\" approach to understand how best the users may tap OGD for different purposes.\nResearch methodology: Interviews are one of the methods of data collection in qualitative research wherein the researcher acquires in-depth understanding of the relevant topic areas to ask informed questions (Rubin and Rubin, 2005). Semi-structured interviews are the most popular qualitative research methods (Alvesson and Deetz, 2000) which are flexible and \"involve prepared questioning guided by identified themes in a consistent and systematic manner interposed with probes designed to elicit more elaborate responses\" (Qu and Dumay, 2011, p. 246). We conducted semi-structured interviews with PhD students based in four universities in India. Specifically, three of these universities are public universities and one of them is a private university. All the four universities are based in North India. Being associated with one of the public universities as a visiting faculty member, it was easy to secure contacts with the PhD students of the same university. We chose convenience and snowball sampling for our study as some of the respondents were known through informal contacts and others were referred by other respondents. Snowball sampling is defined as a technique for getting respondents where one respondent provides the reference of another respondent; the second respondent provides a lead to the third respondent, and the process goes on (Atkinson and Flint, 2001; Browne, 2005). Convenience sampling is done where a researcher does not try to secure a probability sample and usually, the respondents are known to the researcher through formal or informal contacts. Overall, 136 PhD students were contacted from the four universities where 89 PhD students hailed from public universities and 68 agreed to participate in the study. In all, 42 PhD students were from public universities and the rest hailed from private universities. Students hailed from different disciplines like humanities, social sciences and science streams. We e-mailed the respondents to respond to our questions. Follow-up was done wherever clarity was required in any response. The entire study was conducted between July 2016 and November 2016.\nConclusion: Research on OGD is limited (Gonzalez-Zapeta and Heeks, 2015) and our study has made a significant contribution to the literature by investigating the role of OGD for PhD students in India. It may not be gainsaid that OGD has utility for the PhD students in India and the data and information available on the government web portals may be used for substantiating their research. Also, some of the PhD students prefer to access the government websites for whetting their current affairs and to gain knowledge about different government activities. However, there are challenges associated with these data sets on account of their incompleteness, lack of reliability, missing values, lack of metadata, lack of accuracy and authenticity, etc. While there were some PhD students who have never tapped the government websites for data or information of any kind, it may be deduced that awareness about the same is lacking. Our study sought to appreciate the utility of OGD from the perspective of the PhD students based in universities from India. There are three key derivations from our study: first, it is important that a dedicated OGD initiative be undertaken by the Indian Government to ensure that the data are complete, comprehensive and useable for research and statistical analysis purposes; second, as one of the stakeholders of OGD use, PhD students should be goaded to tap data sets for their research outputs and offer recommendations to the government and other agencies based on their research and analysis; and finally, information literacy should be furthered among the PhD students for contributing to the existing data sets besides tapping the existing ones. We will conclude the study with some indicators for further research besides underlining our study limitations and implications.\nLimitations of the study and future research directions: One of the limitations of our study relates to the number of PhD students whom we contacted for our research. Further research is called for probing the same or similar research question as ours in a more expansive sample covering more Indian universities. Second, a comparative study may be undertaken between two or more countries wherein one may probe the differences of OGD use in research in developed vs developing countries. Our study adopted a qualitative approach where convenience and snowball sampling techniques were deployed. We recommend that future research should undertake a simple random sampling and quota sampling for tapping research scholars across the length and breadth of the country. While we solicited views from PhD students from management and social sciences domains, further research may seek views from the faculty members and other stakeholders of other disciplines as well. Finally, further research is required to assess the utility of OGD for undergraduates of different disciplines and analyze how they perceive the application of OGD in their studies.\nSocial and practitioner implications: One of the functions of OGD is to provide social value (Charalabidis et al., 2016; Kalampokis et al., 2011) and it is important that OGD should be authentic and accurate to sustain users' trust in the data sets (Sataslaatten, 2014). OGD initiatives are recently kicked off with more fervor by the Indian Government (www.data.gov.in) and our research shows that there are many loopholes in the data sets and information available on the different websites of National and State governments. Therefore, practitioners may draw lessons from here and cover the gaps by updating the data sets and other information on a regular and consistent basis. All efforts should be made to ensure that the websites are accurate and authentic (Shah et al., 2010). With more scholarly research using OGD, innovation may be spurred in the country and this might result in generating economic value as well. Further, from the side of the universities and higher educational institutions, graduates and undergraduates should be encouraged to improve upon their information literacy skills (Heading et al., 2010) for harnessing OGD for their research and uses. They should communicate with the government authorities via the contact details provided in the websites to request the latter to update the records and data. Social networking media may be used to underline the significance of OGD for the students and for other stakeholders like businessmen, professionals, homemakers and other citizens. Finally, practitioners should draw insight from our study to institutionalize OGD initiatives in the country for its holistic and sustainable development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the utility of Open Government Data (OGD) from the perspective of the PhD students in India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 68 PhD students in India to solicit their perspectives regarding the utility of OGD for them. Convenience and snowball sampling was used for contacting the PhD students and the study was conducted among students of North India who are from public and private universities.\nFindings: While some PhD students tap OGD for their research work, others use OGD as informational tools for broadening their general knowledge. There are also some PhD students who do not use OGD at all. There are challenges associated with OGD usage by the PhD students. For instance, the outdated and incomplete data available on the government websites prevent their optimum use. Likewise, information available on the government websites needs to be revised on a regular basis for proper utilization in research.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study approached PhD students for seeking their perspectives about OGD utility and further research is required with a large number of respondents. Nevertheless, the study leaves social and practical implications because while the study leaves insights for more involvement of PhD students in tapping OGD for their research, it also leaves recommendations for the policy-makers to take a pro-active stance by providing data sets regularly and accurately for improving government efficiency in public service delivery.\nOriginality/value: Hitherto, conceptual and theory-driven research on OGD has been undertaken and case study-based research works have been conducted to assess the challenges and prospects of OGD implementation in Western settings. Furthermore, prior research has solicited perspectives from stakeholders like public officials, politicians or citizens to investigate the difficulties in OGD use and policy-implementation. Identifying the research gaps in extant literature with respect to the aforesaid dimensions, this is the first study where the perspectives of Indian PhD students have been recorded in terms of the utility of OGD in research and other purposes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Flexibility of benefit systems and firms' attraction and retention capacities
|
[
"Flexibility",
"Compensation",
"Attraction capacity",
"Benefit system",
"Retention capacity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities have become a critical strategic variable in the development and maintenance of firms' competitive advantages (Porter, 2001). Core employees make the difference and are basic for the firm in order to reach their objectives (Balkin and Bannister, 1993; Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, 1992). These workers are able to develop capacities to respond to the changing requirements of firms, thus becoming a highly valuable resource. As these workers realize their strategic value, they ask for better labor conditions that cover their needs and aspirations (Chew, 2004). Hence, higher talent will imply higher demands on the part of the workers.\nBenefit systems: Benefits or indirect compensation encompass all those other incentives, apart from pay for time worked, that employers provide to employees (Milkovich and Newman, 2007). The reasons to provide these benefits to employees are diverse. First, benefits can be part of a collective agreement and offer some fiscal advantages for firms (Benders et al., 2006). Furthermore, previous literature has shown how offering benefits can support some business and human resource strategies, to the extent that it is positively assessed by employees (Lin et al., 2011) and it is an important determinant of employees' job satisfaction (Barber et al., 1992). As a consequence, benefits have been considered an effective tool to increase firms' attraction (Hillebrink et al., 2008; Smith, 2000) and retention capacity (Mercer Consulting, 2007; Towers Perrin, 2006).\nBenefit systems in Spain: Spanish economy is still suffering the consequences of the financial crisis that started in 2008. Despite this crisis has impacted the economy of many countries, the consequences in Spain have been especially harder. In the Spanish case, the negative impacts of the crisis were increased by the bursting of the real estate bubble and a deep financial and banking crisis as of 2010. The reduction of consumption and the difficulties to access to financial resources entailed Spanish firms to a drastic cost reduction. The consequences were dramatic for the Spanish labor market. In 2013, the unemployment rate raised up to 26 percent of the working population, predominating long-term unemployed workers older than 45 years old and young people with no experience and low qualifications.\nHypotheses: The influence of benefits flexibility on firms' attraction capacity\nMethod: Sample\nResults: In Table III we show the correlations and descriptive statistics for each one of the continuous variables used in our analysis.\nDiscussion: This research showed that despite the scarce attention that Spanish firms have paid to the flexibility of benefit systems (Vidal-Salazar et al., 2012), this flexibility can have an influence on firms' attraction and retention capacity.\nConclusions: Overall, this study contributes to our knowledge of benefit systems by considering the effect of flexibility of these systems on firms' attraction and retention capacity. By comparing the effects of three different benefit systems on firms' capacities, this study has completed some previous research that has considered the effect of only one specific benefit system (e.g. Lin et al., 2011). Specifically, results have shown that firms offering benefit systems with a high degree of flexibility present more attraction and retention capacity. Additionally, by collecting data from firms in Spain, this study has considered a previously unexplored context, thus responding to recent calls asking for this kind of studies (e.g. Baeten, 2014; Chiang and Birtch, 2012). As the adoption and effectiveness of rewards, and specifically benefit systems, depend on the fiscal and labor legislation of each country, conducting studies that take into account different countries are necessary in order to develop the knowledge of benefit systems performance. In this sense, although both the legislation and the specific economic situation of Spanish firms could add some doubts about the effectiveness of more flexible benefit systems, the results of this study show how this kind of benefit systems could be a source of competitiveness. Apart from the presupposed economic advantages that these more flexible benefit systems can imply for firms, to the extent that they allow firms to save cost by only offering benefits that have some value for employees, these benefits systems can also be a source of competitiveness by increasing firms' attraction and retention capacity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze three different forms of benefit systems and the effects of their application on Spanish firms' attraction and retention capacity, differentiating these systems depending on the flexibility offered to the workers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data of this study have been collected from a sample of 308 human resources managers in Spanish firms, through an online questionnaire. The hypotheses were tested by ordinary least squares regression analyses.\nFindings: The results show that firms having more flexible compensation systems, that is, those providing greater freedom to workers in the election of their benefits and the design of the benefit system, reported to have a higher attraction and retention capacity than firms offering to their employees a unique and similar benefit package for all the employees.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future studies could extent this study by analyzing different contexts in order to determine whether some institutional factors can influence these results. Similarly, it would be interesting to analyze the effects of these systems on other organizational outcomes, such as their financial performance.\nPractical implications: Human resources policies and, especially, compensation policies have a significant influence on the ability of firms to recruit and retain core employees, necessary for corporate success. This study sheds light on the effectiveness of different benefits systems in enhancing the firms' capacities to attract and retain core employees. Taking into account the hard financial and labor environment that the Spanish firms have to face, the results of this study can have important implications for managers.\nOriginality/value: This paper responds to recent calls asking for the necessity of analyzing the effect of different benefit systems in contexts different to the broadly considered American context. Similarly, these results could be applied to other countries with conditions similar to Spain, that is, countries where the benefit systems have been traditionally less flexible and with an offer of benefits quite different than firms located in countries where the State offers a less-social assistance to citizens.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Citizens' assessment of the information quality of e-government websites in Pakistan
|
[
"Pakistan",
"Information quality",
"E-government",
"Citizens",
"E-government websites",
"Information quality indicators"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: E-government websites/portals have long been established as the main, if not the sole, source of government information and an efficient means of communication between governments and citizens, as well as for dissemination of information (Sandoval-Almazan and Gil-Garcia, 2012). Information provided through the internet and the World Wide Web can be updated regularly and disseminated quickly to a wide range of users. The efficiency and effectiveness of e-government websites/portals and their use are partially dependent on the quality of information provided (Detlor et al., 2013). Therefore, information quality (\"IQ\") remains among the biggest challenges not only for information users but also information professionals or information providers, including government agencies, who are responsible for collecting, organizing and disseminating information relevant to the needs of the users or citizens. E-government websites/portals provide access to information that is vital to a functioning democracy, good governance and a wide range of e-government services to citizens at national, state or local levels. Although, the provision of e-government services by developing countries is a recent phenomenon, Pakistan made strides and is ranked in the middle tier according to the E-Government Development Index (United Nations, 2018). The Ministry of Information Technology, Government of Pakistan, began its e-government initiative in 2002. The National Information Technology Board (NITB), a department of the Ministry, was created on August 11, 2014, and its mission was to \"improve Pakistani citizens' quality of life and economic wellbeing by ensuring the accessible, affordable, reliable, universal and high quality ICT services\" (National Information Technology Board, 2017).\n2. Literature review: Information and sources of information are organized and made accessible to potential users whose information needs can be satisfied with relevant sources of information that meet a certain standard of IQ. One of the first criteria for \"IQ\" is that the information needs to be useful to potential users. An information source is considered to have a reasonable level of IQ if it is accurate, complete, easy to use, economical, relevant, timely and authoritative (Salauk and Flores, 2001). Users' satisfaction is affected by the IQ of e-government websites. Information quality is a source that aids as a device to fulfil the users' needs (Rasool and Warraich, 2018).\n3. Research design and methods: The current study aims to identify and examine the IQ indicators of e-government websites/portals in Pakistan. We explored the IQ of e-government websites in terms of indicators such as accuracy, accessibility, advertising, authority, availability, believability, conciseness and consistency, completeness, ease of operation, efficiency, interpretability, navigation, objectivity, reputation, relevancy, reliability, security, timeliness, understandability and value added.\n4. Findings: The 152 useable responses were received from the undergraduate students in their second, fourth and sixth semesters with an average (mean) age of 19 years. The majority of them, 104 (68 per cent), were 18 to 20 years old. And, 40 respondents (27 per cent) were between 21 and 26 years old, while eight (5 per cent) were 27 to 29 years old. In terms of age, the sample reflects the general student population at the university.\n5. Discussion: The findings of this study, based on an analysis of survey data from a sample of Pakistani citizens (see Tables I-III), showed that e-government websites/portal in the country exhibit most of the more key IQ indicators such as value-added, objectivity, accessibility, understandability and efficiency. Other indicators with mean ratings of 4 and above (i.e. at least \"agree\") are: security, interpretability, believability, completeness, accuracy, reputation, navigation, reliability and relevancy as well as IQ indicators are not affected by the different level of age groups of citizens.\n6. Conclusion and recommendations: E-government has transformed the government in terms of delivery of services. E-government websites need to provide valuable, accurate, accessible, objective and understandable information to their users. Citizens rely on the information provided through Web portals and e-government websites designed and maintained by government entities at all levels of government: local, state and federal.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: E-government websites/portals are effective modes of communication between governments and citizens. The information quality (IQ) of these websites/portals is of vital importance and, hence, is worth assessing, to ensure their effectiveness. This study aims to assess the IQ dimensions of e-government websites/portals in Pakistan and also evaluate the most significant IQ indicators.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used a quantitative research method based on a survey. The data were collected from a sample of young citizens, and a questionnaire was adopted from a previous study by Kandari, et al. (2011) with minor changes to reflect the local context.\nFindings: The findings revealed that out of 20 IQ indicators, 14 were rated 4 or 5 on a five-point Likert scale, indicating a reasonably high IQ for Pakistani e-government websites/portals. Value-added, \"accessibility\" and \"objectivity\" were the top three indicators, while timeliness, ease of operation and advertisement were the least rated indicators, suggesting that these need to be addressed. The findings of the study also revealed that IQ indicators are not affected by the different age groups of citizens.\nResearch limitations/implications: The focus of this study was limited to university students to understand their perceptions about IQ indicators of e-government websites in Pakistan, and the results can only be generalized to young Pakistani citizens and the developing countries with a similar context.\nPractical implications: This study could provide some guidance to policy makers and websites designers in the development of e-government websites according to users' needs and identifying the ways to regularly maintain and update these websites.\nOriginality/value: This study provides an understanding of the IQ of Pakistani e-government websites from the citizens' perspective. It attempts to fill that gap and produce findings that could assist in making informed policy decisions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Collaborative knowledge management for corporate ecological responsibility
|
[
"Management",
"Simulation analysis",
"Collaborative knowledge management",
"Corporate ecological responsibility",
"Ecological responsibility",
"Evolutionary game"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the continuous progress in the knowledge economy, knowledge has become an important strategic resource in enterprise development (Urbancova, 2004). The core value of knowledge in enterprises has been gradually highlighted. Knowledge is widely accepted as the basis of enhancing the core competitiveness of firms. Knowledge management is conductive to the implementation of a model of managerial behavior which is in line with the expectations of the employees and promotes the capitalization on intellectual capital (Mirela and Dalia, 2018). Corporate ecological responsibility (CER) emphasizes extended producer responsibility, which, in turn, stresses the reduction of the negative environmental impacts of companies (Hilson, 2011; Hba and Manouar, 2018). However, research on CER has just begun. The connotations, characteristics, contents and forms of enterprise corporate responsibility are still being explored. The innovation of knowledge on CER is the basis of encouraging firms to assume ecological responsibilities effectively. Collaborative knowledge management is the organic combination of collaborative commerce and knowledge management (Sirbu and Simion, 2018). The collaborative knowledge chain plays a dominant role, and synchronous knowledge management, including the acquisition, sharing, innovation and application of knowledge, is realized, thus exerting the maximum overall effect (Boufera et al., 2018). On the one hand, collaborative knowledge management can facilitate the integration of ecological responsibility-related knowledge, technologies and resources among enterprises of the same type and help enterprises overcome difficulties in the joint implementation of ecological responsibility. On the other hand, collaborative knowledge management can acquire advantages from the ecological responsibility knowledge of different subjects, offset knowledge disadvantages and facilitate the innovation of ecological responsibility-related knowledge.\n2. Literature review: Karlenzig and Patrick (2002) proposed the concept of knowledge cooperation. They believed that knowledge collaboration is an organizational strategy that can dynamically integrate internal and external systems, commercial processes, technologies and relationships (pertaining to the community, clients, partnerships and suppliers), thereby maximizing business performance. Knowledge collaboration is a knowledge activity process in a collaborative environment and pertains to the abstraction of knowledge management in a new stage. Knowledge collaborative management is a method of attaining knowledge collaboration (Tai et al., 2017). Knowledge collaborative management coordinates the knowledge of different enterprises and is the key factor to enhance firm competitiveness. Numerous studies have been conducted on collaborative knowledge management. The consensus among scholars is that collaborative knowledge management is a multi-dimensional concept, and integrating knowledge resources is a strategic behavior of enterprises. Vandenbosch et al. (1999) regarded collaborative management as a type of strategic behavior for transmitting knowledge resources on a subject that requires it via information and knowledge sharing among organizations. Karlenzig and Patrick (2002) believed that collaborative knowledge management is a strategic method to integrate different knowledge resources and maintain long-term cooperation by establishing a technological dynamic connection system among organizations. Given the increasing comprehensiveness of studies, collaborative knowledge management has been applied increasingly to numerous fields. Through a case study, Ramesh and Tiwans (1999) introduced collaborative knowledge management into the consumer electronics market and interpreted the necessity of such management in new product development. Tollinger et al. (2004) discussed how the Mars exploration project employed collaborative software and achieved success. Collaborative knowledge can facilitate cooperation among enterprises. Hill and Scudder (2002) revealed that collaborative knowledge management could dynamically connect different enterprises, enable the communication of enterprises and encourage enterprises to make decisions together. Hult et al. (2004) demonstrated that collaborative knowledge management could facilitate real-time communication among organizations. Li (2009) discovered that under high external environmental dynamics, collaborative knowledge management reduces the transaction cost among businesses and supports the formation of an alliance. Yulong (2009) applied collaborative knowledge management in enterprises in a supply chain. He found that collaborative knowledge management allows for the integration of intellectual capital among different enterprises and improves the internal and external knowledge management levels of the firms.\n3. Method: 3.1 Hypothesis\n4. Result analysis and discussion: The detJ, trJ and stability at points A, B, C and D when K1 [?] (DS-C1P1)/(P2), K2 [?] (DS-C2P2)/(P1) are listed in Table III.\n5. Conclusion: On the premise of limited rationality of game parties, the decision evolutionary process of whether two enterprises implement collaborative knowledge management in assuming ecological responsibility or not was analyzed using the evolutionary game theory. The influences of collaborative knowledge management on the enterprises' performance in ecological responsibility were investigated systematically. The results demonstrated that the enterprises' selection of collaborative knowledge management in the implementation of ecological responsibility is mainly determined by the corresponding cost and extra benefits. Extra benefits entail the additional advantages gained from the implementation of collaborative knowledge management by two enterprises and by one enterprise. All enterprises select strategies that bring them additional benefits. Interest and cost coefficients are the major influencing factors of extra benefits. The interest coefficient is negatively correlated to the cost coefficient and the knowledge value of the other party. Both enterprises choose collaborative knowledge management when the extra benefit of the simultaneous implementation of collaborative knowledge management is higher than that of single implementation.\n6. Future work: A closer look to the literature on, however, reveals a number of gaps and shortcomings. First, I constructed a preliminary game model consisting of two types of enterprises. In fact, there are many types of companies, and they are not considered too fine here. Second, the strategy selection is relatively simple. Too many hypothesis conditions exist in the modeling process, but several factors are disregarded. Third, the strategies that companies can choose are cooperation and non-cooperation. In fact, there are many situations in the company's strategy, and there may be complicated situations in the early stage of cooperation and non-cooperation in the later stage. Future research may involve additional influencing factors and increasing the strategic selection of the game players to make the research contents approximate topractical situations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Knowledge has become the basis of enhancing the core competitiveness of enterprises in this era of knowledge-driven economies. Collaborative knowledge management not only realizes the real-time exchange and communication of knowledge among different enterprises, but also facilitates the collaboration and integration of knowledge. Collaborative knowledge management has been successfully applied to different fields. To address the poor ecological responsibility of enterprises, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of collaborative knowledge management in this research to determine if the evolution of the decision-making process in collaborative knowledge management is involved in corporate ecological responsibility (CER).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research established an evolutionary game model of collaborative knowledge management for CER. The behavioral, evolutionary law and stable behavioral, evolutionary strategy of the participants was identified according to the replicator dynamics equation. Simulation analysis was conducted using MATLAB software.\nFindings: Research results demonstrated that, first, the strategic selection of firms is influenced by cost and interest coefficients. Second, the strategy, selection of enterprises, is related to the common benefits of enterprise cooperation. Third, during the systematic evolution and stabilization of strategies, enterprises adopt the same knowledge strategies.\nOriginality/value: On the basis of the research findings, policy suggestions were proposed to encourage enterprises to implement collaborative knowledge management strategies in ecological responsibility.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Portraying physical activity in food advertising targeting children
|
[
"Attitudes",
"Eating",
"Marketing",
"Advertising",
"Children",
"Obesity",
"Beliefs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Childhood obesity has become one of the most serious public health concerns of the Twenty-First Century (World Health Organization (WHO), 2013), particularly in the USA (Wang and Lobstein, 2006). Exposure to food advertising has been established as a contributing factor (Institute of Medicine (IOM), 2006). Indeed, most foods advertised during children's television programming are high in fat, sugar, and/or sodium (Kunkel et al., 2014). Despite this, as of 2012 the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2013) was able to report that childhood obesity had decreased among very young and at-risk populations. While the changes were quite small and only appeared in 19 US states and territories, this finding is encouraging, suggesting some public health efforts may be working. Among these efforts are voluntary changes to food and beverage marketing (Kolish and Peeler, 2008).\nStudy 1: Method\nStudy 2: Method\nOverall discussion: In recent years, consumers have shown an increased interest in physical well-being (IOM, 2010). Food and beverage companies have also pledged to promote a healthy lifestyle in child-targeted marketing (Peeler et al., 2009). Indeed, the inclusion of physical activity in food advertising is often praised for encouraging children to get fit (Kolish and Peeler, 2008). While the results of this research indicate that this marketing tactic is on the rise, the way this strategy is currently being employed may actually result in poor dietary behaviors. Thus, its positive impact on children's health is questionable.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Childhood obesity is a serious health concern (World Health Organization (WHO), 2013) and advertising exposure is known to be a contributing factor (Institute of Medicine (IOM), 2006). In recent years consumers have expressed an increased interest in products appearing healthy and food companies have committed to changing their child-targeted marketing practices to promote a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of this paper is to examine depictions of physical activity in food advertising and assess how recognition of a promoted food's healthy and unhealthy traits influences dietary selections among youth in Southern Arizona in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A content analysis of food advertisements aired during 2009-2013 (n=534 and 354, respectively) identified changes to child-targeted food marketing messages. A structured interview determined differences in recognition of \"juxtaposed beliefs\" (i.e. that are contradictory and both healthy and unhealthy e.g. connecting exercise with a food high in sugar) among younger children, five to six years of age (n=34) and older children, ten to 11 years of age (n=34). Children were offered snacks to determine how this ability to recognize juxtaposition related to their dietary selections.\nFindings: There has been an increase in the frequency with which physical activity is depicted in advertisements for high-sugar foods. When presented with such advertising, a greater number of older than younger children recognized juxtaposed beliefs. Those younger children who showed recognition were more likely to select the advertised item, although this was not the case with older children.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings from this research relate to children's responses to advertisements for sugared cereal that depict physical activity and may not be generalizable further.\nPractical implications: Children who are able to recognize both the healthy and unhealthy aspects of food are paradoxically likely to find it more appealing. Given the increased practice of associating high-sugar foods with physical activity in child-targeted food marketing, this raises concerns for nutrition education strategies, and the regulation of food marketing to children.\nOriginality/value: Little research has examined the depiction of physical activity in food marketing targeting children, nor children's ability to recognize, and react to, juxtaposed beliefs regarding a product's healthfulness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Antecedents of customers' intention to support Islamic social enterprises in Indonesia: The role of socioeconomic status, religiosity, and organisational credibility
|
[
"Advertising",
"Entrepreneurship",
"Religiosity",
"Credibility",
"Socioeconomic status",
"Donation",
"Social enterprise"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The practice of giving donations has drawn scholars' interest from many disciplines such as psychology (Aaker and Akutsu, 2009; Kappes et al., 2013), sociology (Berking, 1999; Taniguchi and Marshall, 2014), economy (Andreoni, 1989; Scharf and Smith, 2014), politics (Benthall and Bellion-Jourdan, 2003), and marketing (Sargeant, 1999; Wang, 2014). In the marketing field, numerous theories and concepts have been applied to explain the phenomenon of giving donations. These include: cause-related marketing (Basil and Herr, 2003; Wang, 2014), relationship marketing (Bennett, 2005; Laura and Sally, 2000), branding (Bennett and Gabriel, 1999; Hankinson, 2000; Hassay and Peloza, 2009; Saxton, 1995; Strahilevitz, 1999; Stride, 2006; Tapp, 1996a, b), marketing orientation (Balabanis et al., 1997), advertising (Bennett, 2013; Brunel and Nelson, 2000; Chang et al., 2009; Nelson et al., 2006; Small and Verrochi, 2009), and market segmentation (Schlegelmilch and Tynan, 1989).\nRelevant literature and hypothesis development: Charitable giving in islam\nResearch design: Sample and data collection\nDiscussion: The current study shows that none of the extrinsic factors of the consumers' demographic characteristics or extrinsic factors significantly influences customers' intentions to channel their charitable giving via Islamic social enterprises.\nTheoretical contribution and managerial implications: The current study tested donor behaviour from a marketing perspective developed by Sargeant (1999). The results showed that the extrinsic and intrinsic determinants of the donor do not significantly influence donation. This implies that socioeconomic factors and religiosity have weak predictive value to estimate SI. It is only the input factor provided by the organisation which significantly influences donors' donations. As the input of the organisation was tested partially using a dual credibility model, the results lend support to the robustness of the path between organisation credibility to the attitude towards advertising, attitude towards the brand, and intention (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 1999; Lafferty et al., 2002).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of extrinsic factors, namely, age, education, gender, marital status and income on customers' intention to support Islamic social enterprises via donation. The paper also assesses the influence of religiosity on support intention (SI). The impact of customers' perceptual reaction to the credibility of social enterprises' advertising is also measured to assess its influence on SI.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 214 completed questionnaires from online and offline surveys were analysed using several statistical analyses, including structural equation modelling, to assess the effects of the independent variables on SI.\nFindings: The study found that customers' socioeconomic status and religiosity have no significant influence on their intention to channel their donations via Islamic social enterprises. It is the social enterprises' advertising which significantly influences their SI.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study focuses on an Islamic research context of social entrepreneurship. Thus, the results cannot be generalised directly to the non-Islamic social entrepreneurship context.\nPractical implications: Findings of the study suggest that organisations should develop effective communication strategies through advertising to highlight organisational credibility as it plays an important role in shaping customers' attitudes and intentions.\nOriginality/value: The study investigates the effects of marketing on customers' SI. It also considers credibility, advertising, and the concept of branding in a context of social entrepreneurship, a concept that is still largely unexplored in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using biological models to improve innovation systems: The case of computer anti-viral software
|
[
"Information systems",
"Data security",
"Computer viruses",
"Software tools",
"Innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The creation of innovative products and services, or the adoption of innovative internal processes, is generally a complex and important challenge for all organisations. Rothwell (1992) has emphasised that this process has grown more complex in response to accelerating technological and market-based challenges, with traditional linear views of innovation (i.e. invention driven or market-pull) making way for more fuzzy and non-linear systems of organisational innovation response to market, technological and organisational stimuli (McAdam, 2005). More recently, there has been an emerging emphasis on network openness as a determinant of innovation performance (Laursen and Salter, 2006).Nonetheless, innovation process models have traditionally been characterised as highly linear, involving the creation of knowledge, the transformation of this knowledge into new applications and the commercialisation of these applications to market requirements (Pavitt, 2004). Where innovations systems models have emerged and have become popular, they have tended to address the complex interactions between system participants (within network, regional and national aggregations). A far less prevalent application of systems approaches in the innovation literature has been the examination of the recursive processes that occur within the fundamental problem solving arena of innovation (Leydesdorff and Etzkowitz, 1998).In this paper, we explore the potential application of complex, biological systemic processes in the improvement of the innovation system and processes in a highly technical field. One of the most dynamically emergent technological product offerings in the global economy, bar none, is the suite of products available to counter the debilitating and/or destructive impacts of computer viruses (Balthrop et al., 2004). The prevalence of computer viruses and other forms of \"malware\" (unauthorised and contaminant software designed to infiltrate and/or damage a computer or computing system) has been the cause of untold economic and other harm since its inception in the mid-1980s. In its wake, the growth of such malicious applications has spawned an industry intent on providing computer users with a variety of defences and cures for the viral-borne ills.Anti-virus software vendors generally provide protection for their customers within hours of the virus being detected. Service provision ranges from applications available to single users, through to network-based applications tailored for the security requirements of high-end users like banks and research laboratories. In all cases, the objective and intention of the anti-viral application is to halt malicious damage and preclude future dissemination of the virus to other network users.A key criticism of the current innovation system that has developed to respond to virus infection is that it is reactive and, as such, ineffective at confronting the causes that lie behind the ongoing proliferation of viruses. These causes have variously been discussed as the inherent vulnerability of the major \"closed source\" operating systems, the increasing use of peer-to-peer methods for the distribution of infected content and the ubiquity and rapidity of email as a means of spreading the executable viruses.As such, while the reactive capabilities of the anti-virus industry can be seen as a model of responsiveness, it has failed to address the key issues that allow viruses to spread. We thus see the innovations in anti-viral software as effective only within a limited definition of success. We argue that the use of biological models of viral control will provide a much more successful and comprehensive approach to the development of firstly, an innovative system of anti-viral protection and secondly, a wider metaphor for the development of product and service level innovations.\n2. Introduction to the case: In 1983 a series of five controlled viral attack experiments conducted by a promising young doctoral student at the University of Southern California proved the concept of a \"computer virus\" (Cohen, 1985). Since that early period, it has been observed that computer viruses have evolved into pieces of software code that exhibit two specific characteristics (Hoffman, 1990, Ludwig, 1996). First, the code has a partial or fully automated capability to reproduce or clone itself. Second, the code can transport itself by attachment to a computing entity (such as a program, disk sector, data file) and ensuing transfers between the various system entities. In the years that followed the seminal research and experimentation, the information systems community has attempted to dissect and develop a greater understanding of computer viruses (Cohen, 1987, Hoffman, 1990, Ferbrache, 1992, Cohen, 1994, Ludwig, 1996, Szor, 2005). In essence, computer scientists and software experts have attempted to understand the pathology of computer viruses, or their basis as an artificial life form (Ferbrache, 1992, Spafford, 1994). Whether the code takes the form of an add-on virus that attaches itself to host programs or software, is an intrusive virus that overwrites the host code, or takes on a polymorphic structure that continues to replicate itself and infect large networks, the quest for greater understanding in this important area of computing security continues.The parallels drawn with biological hazards, viruses and immune system response has lead to a substantial level of research in the areas of software modelling, biological systems-based design, anti-virus architectures, viral software testing and analysis, and computing heuristics. Some researchers have conducted a matched analysis between human and artificial (computing) immune systems, identifying important similarities (and notable differences) between the immune systems, and describing desirable features that should be mirrored into artificial environments. For example, Skormin et al. (2001) identified that both systems were highly complex, distributed and connected with many entry points, were vulnerable to intentional or unintentional introduction of foreign bodies, and must be capable of detecting and neutralising alien matter. Similarly, Harmer et al. (2002) asserted that both systems must maintain a massively parallel and distributed architecture for communications and signalling, be capable of self/non-self determination, support autonomic behaviours in attacking new foreign matter and infections, and invoke memory based responses to attacks from past infections. Other research has concentrated on using the biological immune system as an inspirational model for computer anti-virus software (Kephart, 1994, Kephart, 1995, Forrest et al., 1997, King et al., 1999, Goel and Bush, 2004; Goldenberg et al., 2005). The concepts of innate and adaptive biological immune systems are used as direct physical models for developing virus pattern recognition, computer immunological memory, and autonomic virus patch software. Given the evolving business environment where malicious software threats (e.g. worms, viruses, infectious agents) are becoming commonplace, the development of virally immune self-healing or self-defending information systems networks appears to hold some promise.In exploring this line of inquiry, a review of biological immunity literature suggests that the development of secure networks and software that mimics the human immune system may yield substantial benefits for the protection of critical information and communications technology infrastructure. However, an immune system response to computer viruses and worms would likely involve screening for abnormalities, quarantining the infectious agents, and developing software antibodies to combat the destructive agents. This raises the question: What type of development framework can software organisations use to create security systems and anti-virus software? This paper presents an innovative development framework that uses biological models for the analysis and creation of artificial systems (Benyus, 1997).A detailed explanation and summary of the human immune system, including the types of immunity and the biological delivery mechanisms, serves as a theoretical platform for the system development discussion. It is considered important that a comparison and contrast of the biological and information systems immunity problem space be conducted, including the treatment of viruses and virus mutations in both domains. We then emphasize that the development of security systems and software using a biological lens may prove more successful than the current practices and processes. We adopt the biological viewpoint, and describe biomimicry terminology and theory, to discuss some specific examples of how the mimicking of biological systems has supported the solving of human problems (e.g. deep sea sponge structures used as biological models for fibre optic strand development by Lucent Technologies) is developed. The paper then explicates the biomimicry framework and populates the framework with the structure for developing security systems and software, including computer virus immune response. The framework is augmented using examples from current research efforts and developments in the area of information systems network immunity and some commercially available network protection software systems. The paper concludes with some further ICT development opportunities that might be pursued using the biomimicry framework.\n3. The human immune systems - a theoretical platform: 3.1 Human immune systems\n4. Biomimicry - terminology and theory: 4.1 Biomimicry - using biological models to solve complex human problems\n5. Biomimicry - current activities in computer immune systems: Some specific high profile activities demonstrate that the commercial and research communities of interest are presently investing in the research and development of security systems and software that mimic biological immune systems. First, the United States Army Research Office has provided the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Arizona with a US$1 million grant to develop bio-mimicked security software. The software is scoped to screen information technology networks for abnormalities, isolate infectious viruses and worms, while developing coded antibodies to fight infections. The first part of the research program will establish the rudimentary modelling techniques and tools, while the second part of the research will be focused on implementing the antiviral techniques (Stiles, 2005). In the second example, the Electronics Department at the University of York has established a funded artificial immune systems research network, comprising of over 125 computer related academics and professionals, under its Bio-inspired Architectures Laboratory. The network supports researchers in establishing the collaborative infrastructure to drive forward research in the areas of computer system immunity, fault tolerant hardware systems, and active machine learning (Network for Artificial Immune Systems, 2005). These activities serve as important examples of the innovative use of biological models for researching and developing computer system immunity.\n6. Conclusions: 6.1 Biomimicking innovation\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - A strong and fast-cycle innovation system has been developed to counter the ongoing threat of computer viruses within computer systems employing vulnerable operating systems. Generally, however, the innovative applications that develop in response to each generation of computer virus can be seen as a reactive, rather than proactive, critical response. The paper seeks to present a critique of the innovation system that has emerged to combat computer viruses by comparing it with its natural system namesake, the human anti-viral immune system. It is proposed that the relevance of this analogy extends beyond this case to innovation systems more generally.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper discusses the biological theory related to the human body's immune system and how immune systems might be mimicked in the development of security systems and anti-virus software. The paper then outlines the biomimicry framework that can be used for scoping the development and features of the security systems and software, including the population of the framework segments. The implications of biomimetic approaches in the wider innovation management literature are discussed.\nFindings: - Some commercial security products that are undergoing evolutionary development and current research and development activities are used to augment the biomimetic development framework and explicate its use in practice. The paper has implications for the manner in which the objectives of innovation systems are defined. There is implicit criticism of linear models of innovation, that by their nature ignore the recursive and/or adaptive processes evident in natural systems.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first paper, to the best of the authors' knowledge, that discusses the application of natural systems and biomimetics to broaden the scope of innovation process design, and link its findings back to the wider innovation literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Women-only (homophilous) networks supporting women leaders in education
|
[
"Women",
"Leadership",
"Leadership development",
"Social networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A literature review on the support and development of women in leadership at work (Coleman, 2008a, n.d.) identified the importance of networking and mentoring in the career progress of women. An additional internet search using the search engines: Yahoo, Google and Ask and combinations of the words groups, networks, women, organizations, support, development, leadership, work, for organizations that support and develop women who aspire to senior roles or who are already in senior roles (Coleman, 2008b) indicated that there were relatively few established women's networks in the field of education ...This paper is based on two case studies of women-only networks in England: a regional network in secondary education and a national network in tertiary education. These two case studies form part of a much larger project on the support and development of women leaders at work. Network theories are used to analyse aspects of the two case studies. The initial questions considered in this paper are: what all-women networks might offer women in leadership in education in terms of support and development and what evolutionary stages the two networks had reached? In carrying out the case studies it became clear that the two networks were in decline, so a further question of possible reasons for their demise was considered. The paper begins with a brief review of network theories, relating them to all-women networks.\nNetwork theory: Social networks, both official and unofficial, are an important part of the working environment and one of the main channels through which tacit and overt knowledge about the world of work is passed on. Broadly, they may offer support, that is the \"expressive\" function, involving friendship and trust (Ibarra, 1993; Perriton, 2006), or they may be more \"instrumental\", promoting business contacts that will benefit the working practices of members of the network. Most networks offer some combination of the two functions.Many of the networks supporting women at work are \"emergent\", meaning that they were set up by an individual or a group of individuals in response to an identified need, as with both of the case study networks examined here. Emergent networks can be organization wide, for a particular group, or they may be personal networks: \"defined by an individual and his or her direct contacts with others\" (Ibarra, 1993, p. 59). Alternatively, networks may be \"prescribed\", deliberately set up in a top-down way within an organization, an example of this, would be a network for women surgeons established by the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (Coleman, 2008b) to encourage more women into the speciality.Networks have been theorised (Granovetter, 1973; Ibarra, 1993) according to their range, meaning the extent of diversity of the members, their density, which is high if a person's network contacts all have close network connections with each other (Ibarra, 1993, p. 63) and according to the strength of their ties. Strong ties bind people who are in similar work situations where information tends to be common to the members. Networks with strong ties are characterised by \"trust and predictability\" (Ibarra, 1993, p. 63). Weak ties are found in networks with a greater diversity of members (Granovetter, 1973). They are potentially very useful instrumentally as they act as channels through which socially distant ideas can reach the individual, who otherwise might not benefit in this way. They also act as a \"bridge\" to parts of the social system to which members are not otherwise connected. Weak ties thus enable network members to build more extensive social capital, perhaps making links with clients as well as with individuals in their own profession or organisation (Suseno et al., 2007). Network theory mainly relates to mixed networks, but theory is also applied to single sex or homophilous networks (Ibarra, 1992; McCarthy, 2004; Perriton, 2006).Women-only networks\nMethodology: As mentioned above, the two case studies of networks A and B which are discussed in this paper are part of a wider research project including an internet search which showed all-women networks in education are scarce. It appears to be the case that all-women networks are more likely to be flourishing in \"masculine\" areas such as finance, rather than in more feminised professions such as education.The internet search for all-women networks at work identified women's networks within a single profession for example \"women in journalism\" and those that operate within an individual organisation such as Shell. Both of these types of networks will tend to have strong ties. There are also those that cross professions where ties will be weaker and which are likely to be good instrumental networks. There are also organizations with wider aims for the promotion of women, including access to board membership; for example, in the UK, \"Opportunity Now\" and \"Catalyst\" in the USA.The two networks featured in this paper are both located in education. One (network A), is mainly for high school principals although it includes some deputy principals, in a region of England. When network A was observed it had only about 20 members, most are in their 50s or are now retired although there are a small number of younger women members. The principals head up schools whose pupils are in the 11-18 age range. Eight semi-structured interviews were undertaken: three with \"founder\" members, who are now retired, and four with current principals. One of the founding members was interviewed twice, once in relation to the \"life\" of the organisation and once about her own experiences as a woman principal. In addition one meeting of members of the group was attended and observed and documents relating to their establishment and development were considered.The higher education network (network B) had about 50 members when seven semi-structured interviews were carried out, three with founder members. The members of the network are mainly in their 50s and 60s and most are academics who also carry an important administrative role such as Dean, or the top university role of vice-chancellor (college president). As part of this research project, one of their conferences was attended and observed.\nFindings: Findings are presented relating to the origins and functions of the two networks; particularly the support and development that they have offered and continue to offer; their evolutionary stages and reasons for their probable demise.Origins and functions\nDiscussion and conclusion: The two all-women networks moved through the initial stage of \"survival\" to offer a balance of emotional and practical support to the members. Meetings have provided a \"safe haven\" for the expression of doubts and concerns that other mixed networks could not. Those interviewed recognise the valuable contribution that the networks have made to their own and to other women's professional development. At their most successful the networks had opportunities to \"voice\" their concerns and provide relevant information to a wider local and national audience. Despite their successes, the number of members is shrinking in both cases and although still offering support, they appear to be moving toward a probable \"exit\".The two all-women case study networks were founded at the same time, responding to a culture that was influenced by the women's movement. A total of 20 years later, in a post-feminist age, women-only groups are seen very differently with many, although not all, younger women in the UK believing that there is not a gender problem (Howard and Tibballs, 2003). In this context the networks are facing a reduction in membership which may mean their extinction or reduction to informal and/or virtual meetings on the internet. The women that make up the membership of these two networks are aging, and many of their younger sisters do not seem to feel the same need for an all-women support organization and are not joining to replace those now moving to retirement. One of the early members of network B commented:The reduction in members may be a function of its time. Our age group had a powerful interest to come together to work and support each other. It does not appeal to the younger women. They will find out the problems and I suspect they will have to find their own solutions. It is a bit sad, but things have their time. It has been a great network.It may be that there is a natural life cycle related to the age of the founder members of the networks who are now moving into retirement. As one of the interviewees mentioned, it may be that each generation has to find its' own solutions to continuing gender issues affecting women as leaders.The professional development function of the networks is no longer relevant as it has now been taken-over nationally and regionally, particularly in the school sector. There is also a perception of an increased pace of work in education. A series of national reforms in the school sector, including inspection and performance management have put fresh demands on the time of teachers and principals leaving less time for additional meetings. In addition, network A originally received some support from the local authority, which ceased around 2000. Similarly, there are increasing demands on university administrators as they have had to adjust to a regime of greater accountability, and this has contributed to HE institutions being less willing to give organisers time to carry out formal duties concerned with the organization. In both cases the networks are now totally reliant on the voluntary efforts of their members.The networks emerged to help remedy the scarcity of women in leadership roles in the workplace and in response to the informal and formal male networks which have helped to keep men disproportionately in positions of power. Despite the fact that most of those working in education are women, women leaders in secondary and tertiary education remain in the minority. In the region where Network A is situated only 25 per cent of principals are female (Fuller, 2009), and there was a perception amongst those interviewed that the situation was worsening. In the university sector, although there are more women in leadership positions than in the 1990s when network B started, the numbers of women professors and vice chancellors remains low. The percentage of women professors in the UK is currently 18 percent (HESA, 2009).Although the number of current members may mean the demise of the networks, they have proved to be of immense value to members, offering them opportunities that mixed groups did not, providing a special type of support as a network of women who can speak honestly and openly in a way that a mixed forum does not allow. Whilst secondary schools and higher education leadership remain male dominated, all-women networks could have a part to play in the support and development of those women leaders who remain open to the idea of all-women groups. However, the evidence from the case studies indicates that the current culture and context of education renders this unlikely.Note: it was reported to me through a personal communication in June 2009 that the network of HE women leaders had now officially ceased to exist.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to consider what all-women networks have, and might offer, in terms of support and development of women in educational leadership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study draws on two case studies of such networks in education in England, the first, a regional network for women secondary school principals, and the other national, for women leaders in higher education. Network theories are employed to trace the type, origins, functions and evolution of networks for women in educational leadership. The two case studies, drawing on interviews, observation and documents, are part of a larger research project on the support and development of women leaders at work.\nFindings: - Two networks emerged at the beginning of the 1990s in the context of second wave feminism and the isolation experienced by women in leadership roles. The interview data show how strong the support function has been and continues to be, but despite this, these networks appear to be in terminal decline. Amongst reasons for the decline is the aging profile of the membership accompanied by lack of interest from younger women who may believe that gender issues are no longer relevant. Finally there is less support for the networks from universities and local authorities than was the case in the past. However, the strength of findings about the level of support has practical and social implications for women leaders.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings relate to only two case studies in one cultural setting.\nOriginality/value: - The originality of the paper is in the application of network theory to the field of education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Programme implementation in schools: conceptualisations from Irish teachers
|
[
"Teachers",
"Participatory methods",
"Implementation",
"Participation",
"School health promotion"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: School-based programme implementation\nMethodology: Participatory approach\nResults: The cards, categories and schemas developed by participating teachers are presented sequentially in this section, alongside description of the process undertaken by the teachers.\nComparing the schemas: Interest and willingness\nDiscussion: The schemas developed by teachers, and the discussions which accompanied the process, illustrate the complexity of implementing school-based programmes from the perspective of teachers. The need for localised acceptance was emphasised by teachers, which incorporated components such as interest/willingness, incentives and perceptions of a programme. Support, time, training and resources emerged as common components. Students and other educational stakeholders did not feature in either schema. Structurally, the schemas are presented as a hierarchy and leadership is presented as structurally fundamental to both of them as it features in either the core or base of each schema.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: School-based programmes face a variety of personal, environmental and organisational challenges to implementation. Stakeholders can provide crucial contextual information to improve implementation. The purpose of this paper is to explore teachers' perspectives on implementation through a bottom-up participatory process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative participatory approach was employed. This comprised groups of teachers theorising and creating schemas of school-based implementation.\nFindings: Two schemas were developed. Support, time, training and resources emerged as common components. Students and other educational stakeholders did not feature in either schema.\nResearch limitations/implications: The schemas were developed by teachers in Ireland. The findings are relevant to that local context and generalisability beyond this may be limited. The developed schemas contain structural and content components that appear in published conceptual frameworks of programme implementation. Thus, there is some correspondence between the views of published theorists and the current sample of teachers, particularly with regard to leadership and teacher motivation. There are also disjunctures that deserve exploration, such as the lack of reference to students.\nPractical implications: Participatory schema development could be of particular value to trainers working with educators. The generated schemas provide useful detail on current perspectives, which could be valuable as part of any training process or the pre-planning stages of implementation.\nOriginality/value: This study describes a straightforward approach to revealing the perspectives of stakeholders that could help school-based implementation processes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Using BPM governance to align systems and practice
|
[
"Process management",
"Governance",
"Decision making",
"Responsibilities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Business process management (BPM) as an organisational management philosophy continues to receive significant attention as a practice, providing organisations with a means of increasing competitiveness and sustainability in times of market uncertainty, increasing globalisation and constantly changing business conditions. BPM is a management discipline that requires organisations to shift to process-centric thinking, and to reduce their reliance on traditional territorial and functional structures. BPM is not a new discipline in business management. Some argue that BPM has its roots in the early work of Taylor (1967), while the concepts and principles embodied in BPM have received increasing attention over the past 15 years. The business process reengineering (BPR) work of (Hammer and Champy, 1993) is synonymous with the rebirth of the interest in process management. However, the aftermath of many forays into BPR was not without issues. Most notably, for many organisations BPR projects were synonymous with staff cuts and budget overruns. Following this, Davenport (1993) took a more moderate view suggesting a less aggressive approach and the adoption of continual business process improvement and innovation (BPI). Over the next ten years or so, other management practices such as total quality management (TQM), business excellence models such as EFQM, ABEF, MBNQA, standards such as ISO 9000 and even legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley in the USA took on an increasing process focus (Evans, 1996).When discussing BPM, there is an obvious lack of clarity in the use of the term. A previous study conducted by De Bruin and Doebeli (2009a, b) found that the most common interpretations include:* BPM as a solution for a business using software systems or technology to automate and manage processes;* BPM as a broader approach to managing and improving processes that focus on the process lifecycle; and* BPM as an approach to managing an organisation by taking a process-view.In 2008, a survey report entitled the State of Business Process Management found that a majority (40 percent) of organisations in 2007 believed that BPM was a top down methodology designed to organise, manage, and measure the organisation based on the organisation's core processes (Harmon and Wolfe, 2008). Only 9 percent of organisations related BPM to a set of new software technologies that make it easier for IT to manage and measure the execution of process workflow and process software applications (Harmon and Wolfe, 2008).As a consequence of these varying interpretations, there does not seem to be a standard and common approach for an organisation to implement and progress the practice of BPM. The reality is that, in amongst this array of terminology, there is little theory in the academic arena to assist organisations in embedding BPM across an enterprise (DeBruin and Doebeli, 2008).Different researchers have investigated the phenomena over the last years (Hammer and Champy, 1993; Evans, 1996; Hammer, 2001; Davenport, 2005; Hung, 2006). The core problem is that companies reengineer too narrowly without a holistic and aligned view (Neilson and Couto, 2003). Companies should consider adopting new forms of BPM governance to enable process orientation. This would require the empowerment of business process owners, process orientated decision-making models, appropriate reward systems and supportive organisational structures. In support of this statement, Spanyi (2003) stated that setting BPM governing principles would empower firms to make tough strategic choices and engage the entire organisation in the execution of strategies more effectively. From the research cited above, it appears that the construct of BPM governance is important in enabling the successful deployment of BPM across an organisation.The importance of governance is not new, being evidenced in the work of many researchers across a variety of domains (Weill and Ross, 2005). The concept of BPM governance was investigated within the last few years in particular between 2003 and 2007 to gain knowledge and understanding of the different capabilities required for effective deployment of the practice (DeBruin, 2009).Recent research conducted by Rosemann and de Bruin (2005) on BPM maturity and progression has further added to the body of knowledge around BPM governance. Their study has identified governance as one of the key factors that needs to be in place for an organisation to embed enterprise wide BPM effectively. The capability areas within the BPM governance factor were further identified by DeBruin (2009) as:* process management decision making;* process roles and responsibilities;* process metrics and performance linkages;* process-related standards; and* process compliance.Despite research identifying the importance of governance, along with associated capabilities, there has been little progress on how the above-mentioned capabilities can be effectively deployed across an organisation (Neilson and Couto, 2003). This research proposes a BPM governance model that sets BPM decision making, along with roles and responsibilities in a government-owned corporation (GOC) operating in Australia. The research aims to address the gap in literature by presenting and discussing the deployment and operationalisation of BPM roles and responsibilities as a two-stage qualitative case study.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Meaning of BPM\n3 Research design: 3.1 The case organisation\n4 BPM governance design model: The purpose of the BPM governance design model (Figure 1) was to provide a high-level context for the elements to be considered by an organisation when establishing a BPM governance model. The elements were drawn from the findings made in this study and include:* organisational environment (owner/stakeholders, market, regulation and legislation, culture);* organisational design principles;* organisational structure (organisational reporting structure, BPM reporting structure);* results of investigation (content analysis findings - governance documentation, interview findings - interviewees);* BPM governance model success factors; and* the organisation's BPM definitions.The BPM governance design model identifies key macro elements that are important in developing a BPM governance model. Development of the BPM governance model from the BPM governance design model is described in the next section.4.1 Modelling BPM roles and responsibilities\n5 Discussion: Data from the content analysis stage provided insights to the current corporate governance and management framework, and its lack of relationship to BPM governance. Building on the content analysis a series of interviews provided insights into the current views and interpretations of BPM decision making and BPM roles and responsibilities. Both phases of the research assisted in creating and clarifying the case and setting some of the organisation's BPM definitions. The definitions were further used in the design of the BPM governance model, and provided direction in operationalising the model.Overall, it was found that BPM roles that work \"in\" and \"on\" a process are defined, however, they are not visible. Staff are not assigned the BPM roles as part of a workforce or succession planning and managed accordingly. The career paths of BPM roles that work \"on\" a process are to be developed and the performance managed to ensure further capability is built. It was recognised that all staff on all levels of management in the organisation have a role to play in BPM.The BPM governance model includes the BPM roles required at different levels of management as part of the organisational structure, which the authors argue will ensure effective deployment of business process thinking in the case organisation. Roles and their responsibilities are integrated into the organisations governance decision-making framework, which in turn ensures that process thinking is included in the operationalisation of strategies. The integration of BPM roles and responsibilities into the governance management system of the organisation ensures sustainability of the practice and business improvement efforts.For the findings of this research to be effectively deployed, the organisation's senior management team should endorse the future BPM governance model as part of the governance and management framework, and deployed it as an enterprise-wide practice. Successful deployment will involve embedding the following enablers into management systems across the organisation:* a corporate ownership function;* assigning the role of practice leadership;* adopting principles and standards;* identifying relationships and dependencies; and* assignment of BPM roles.\n6 Conclusion: Organisations worldwide are rethinking and changing the way they are operating, as the pressures to improve performance seem to increase continuously. BPM has been seen as a practice that enables organisations to improve performance continuously, however, results often fall short of expectations. In response to this issue, research has investigated BPM practice in order to build the knowledge base further, and assist organisations in managing process performance more effectively. However, despite active research in BPM decision making, and roles and responsibilities, limited information exists on how organisations can design their governance framework to allow effective process-based decisions. This research has specifically explored and addressed this issue and thus contributed to academic literature. The research also has provided practical value for the organisation on which the research is based.It is recognised that a limitation of this study is that the findings may not be generalisable to other situations and organisations, given the limitations of a focus on only one organisation. Consequently, the BPM governance design model should be explored and tested further, thus presenting an opportunity for future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose a business process management (BPM) governance model that sets BPM decision making, along with roles and responsibilities. The setting context of the study is a government-owned corporation operating in Australia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative case study examined and analysed organisational documents using a content analysis approach. Results of document analysis are used to inform a series of in-depth interviews of key stakeholders in the organisation. Interviews are analysed using a constant comparison method to derive themes and build categories of description.\nFindings: - A BPM governance model is proposed. Results of thematic analysis are interpreted against the framework of the BPM governance model, leading to findings that include implications for theory and practice.\nPractical implications: - In practical terms, the research shows how BPM practice can be aligned and integrated with the corporate governance and management systems in the selected case study organisation.\nOriginality/value: - Despite research identifying the importance of governance, along with associated capabilities, there has been little progress on how the abovementioned capabilities can be effectively deployed across an organisation. This paper addresses a gap in the literature relating to how to deploy BPM governance in an organisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Communities of practice: linking knowledge management and strategy in creative firms
|
[
"Professional services",
"Knowledge management",
"Strategy",
"Creative industries",
"Communities of practice",
"Architecture industry",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Professional service firm"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The increased global demand for knowledge-intensive products and services has led to knowledge and intellectual capital being seen as the organisation's most important assets. As a consequence, the deliberate and systematic management of these assets, with expertise, is considered vital for survival in the twenty-first century.\nKnowledge and the need for its management: Nonaka (1994) described knowledge as \"created and organised by the very flow of information, and anchored on the commitment and the beliefs of its holder.\" Nonaka's (1994) description highlights the importance of the knowledge holder, as knowledge is created through human action. However, there is another view that sees knowledge as being created and held together when individuals work collectively in groups (Huysman and Wulf, 2006). The high mobility of knowledge allows it to exist at the individual, group, organisation and inter-organisational levels (Nonaka, 1994).\nStrategy and KM: The firm's broad strategy identifies initiatives to strengthen the firm's competitive position (Zack, 1999). The strategy of the organisation provides KM with a framework that guides its efforts, providing the link between the two (Zack, 1999). Canavan et al. (2013) identified two types of strategies in creative PSFs: a product portfolio strategy and an artistic competency strategy. The first is based on the delivery of a standard product and meeting the budget and time constraints, while the second is focused on developing a strong and recognisable artistic style.\nCoPs and other knowledge-sharing tools: Since Lave and Wenger introduced the concept of a CoP in 1991, there has been a huge increase in research and interest in the concept, stretching its boundaries beyond the original intentions and formulations of the pioneers. The social role of these communities was emphasised through Wenger's social theory of learning, where the focus is on developing meaning through participating in social interaction and practice within communities (Wenger, 1999). It is through the social interaction and collaboration in a CoP that learning is maximised and innovation is facilitated (Greiner et al., 2007).\nA proposed framework: In creative PSFs, the tacit knowledge held by individuals makes personalisation more appropriate. However, the potential for ICT should not be neglected, as it could play a supporting role to the human approach. Therefore, an appropriate balance of codification and personalisation is required. More emphasis on codification is needed to suit a company with a strategy that requires process efficiency (Greiner et al., 2007), e.g. creative PSFs following a product portfolio strategy (Canavan et al., 2013). Consequently, ICT, lessons learnt and best practices are more appropriate for the codification approach. Personalisation suits a company with a strategy that requires process and product innovation (Greiner et al., 2007), e.g. creative PSFs following an artistic competency strategy (Canavan et al., 2013). Social knowledge-sharing tools of CoPs, storytelling, conversation and dialogue are more appropriate for this approach. Figure 1 shows the proposed framework for linking the creative PSF's KM strategy with the firm's strategy.\nMethodology: This study was conducted in a medium-sized architectural firm in New Zealand specialising in commercial and industrial buildings. Supermarkets and office/warehouse buildings are the main project types that the firm designs. In addition, the firm has also been involved in the design of shopping centres, child care centres, residential apartment buildings and retail facilities. The firm was established in 2001, and at the time of this research, there were 32 people, including directors, architects, interior designers, draughtspersons and administration staff. In New Zealand, an architectural firm of this size is considered a medium-sized organisation. It is a multicultural organisation with staff and senior management coming from a diverse range of backgrounds from more than ten different countries.\nFindings and analysis: The importance of knowledge as a strategic asset\nConclusions: Participants in this study considered knowledge a strategic asset that could make a difference between competing architectural firms. Knowledge needs to be captured, stored and shared between people to benefit the people and the organisation. Having a balanced strategy of personalisation and codification to manage knowledge that is linked to the organisation's strategy through CoPs can play an important role in the firm's competitiveness. The authors identified the reasons why CoPs should be at the heart of KM within creative PSFs. These communities need to be steered to focus on KM strategies that suit the firm's business strategy of product portfolio or artistic competency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the importance of knowledge and its management in the creative professional service firm (PSF). The other purpose is to explore the role of communities of practice (CoPs) in knowledge management (KM) strategies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A single-case study approach was adopted with five open-ended semi-structured interviews conducted with middle and senior management having mainly an architectural background. The data were complemented with participant observation and reflection on experience together with conversations with work colleagues.\nFindings: The findings suggest that having an appropriately balanced strategy of personalisation/codification of knowledge through CoPs contributes to the competitiveness of the firm.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper provides a useful exploration of KM in creative PSFs, but the results may lack generalizability because of the small scale and qualitative nature of the research. The research is limited to one firm in one country. Future research is needed to test the findings in other creative PSFs and in other countries.\nPractical implications: The paper provides guidance to managers in creative PSFs on the need for positioning CoPs at the heart of the firm's KM strategies.\nOriginality/value: The paper tests a theoretical framework on how to link strategy with KM strategy in creative PSFs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Transmission and control for QKD in online banking systems
|
[
"Control",
"Transmission",
"Online banking system",
"Quantum cryptography",
"Quantum key distribution"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In our literature survey, we observed a wide range of identification mechanism and a lack of standardization across various banks. Online banking is a new phenomenon and banks across the world are only recently appreciating the full effect of the same. Furthermore, the banks may like to differentiate themselves from one another on the basis of visible security feature. However, there are only a finite number of options available and hence it may not be feasible. Comparative studies of various mechanisms have been at best inconclusive on the best security feature. In addition, there are reports of public perception which leads to banks being asked to improve their online security. Nevertheless, having a standard of authentication would far outweigh these disadvantages, both for the customer as well as the bank. It would ensure lower installation and start-up cost for the banks. It will also improve the operational abilities of the banks in online banking.\nQuantum cryptography: Quantum cryptography is an emerging technology in which two parties may simultaneously generate shared, secret cryptographic key material using the transmission of quantum states of light. The security of these transmissions is based on the inviolability of the laws of quantum mechanics and information-theoretically secure post-processing methods.\nQKD in online banking system: Previously we have proposed a quantum cryptography authentication mechanism for multi-factor authentication in online banking system (Sharma and Lenka, 2013). In that system we have proposed an authentication mechanism as shown in Figure 1.\nTransmission in QKD: Potentially practical applications of QKD, outside the carefully controlled environment of a physics laboratory, are largely determined by the physics of single-photon production, the requirement of faithful transmission of the quantum states involved, the existence of high efficiency single-photon detectors at the required wavelengths, and the compatibility of QKD with existing optical communications infrastructures. The inclusion of QKD in online banking systems is solely dependent upon the efficiency of transmission techniques and the capacity of that QKD system with respect to their distances, data rates and data size.\nSystem control in QKD: QKD systems in online banking system require two asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometers to create a coherent double-pulse for encoding and to generate interference between the double-pulse for decoding. A two-input, two-output asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer (2 x 2 AMZI) PLC split these pulses into a pair of coherent double pulses with an 800 ps time delay. The two interferometers should have identical path differences to obtain interference with high visibility. That is the most important thing we have to solve for using QKD in online banking systems.\nConclusion: This paper presents the transmission and system control of QKD for online banking system is feasible under specific conditions outside a laboratory. Above, we have shown our research on the QKD based online banking systems. Though our current researches are focused on QKD systems for online banking systems, the techniques discussed can be applied to other quantum information processing involving photons. Combination with other efforts that are not mentioned here, such as entangled-photon-sources, single photon sources, two-qubit gates, and so on, will provide a rigid foundation for future quantum information technologies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a technology, based on the quantum laws of physics, rather than the assumed computational complexity of mathematical problems, to generate and distribute provably secure cipher keys over unsecured channels. The authors are using this concept of QKD for the online banking systems. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to function properly, any system using QKD needs to transport both quantum and classical data from a specified source to a specified destination, resolve competing requests for shared hardware, and manage shared keys between neighboring trusted nodes via a multi-hop mechanism. In this paper the authors are going to explain the transmission and control system for QKD implementation in online banking systems.\nFindings: This paper presents the transmission and system control of QKD for online banking system is feasible under specific conditions outside a laboratory. Above, the authors have shown the research on the QKD based online banking systems. Though the current researches are focused on QKD systems for online banking systems, the techniques discussed can be applied to other quantum information processing involving photons. Combination with other efforts that are not mentioned here, such as entangled-photon-sources, single photon sources, two-qubit gates, and so on, will provide a rigid foundation for future quantum information technologies.\nOriginality/value: Recognizing the importance of online access as one of the vehicles for the development of cheaper, faster and more reliable services there are areas of improvement where all involved parties should endeavor to improve toward the deployment of services without unnecessary or excessive risks. This improvement applies to both retail and commercial customers and does not endorse any particular technology.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Towards an exchange view of trade fairs
|
[
"Literature review",
"Conceptual framework",
"Trade fair",
"Exchanges",
"Integrative review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Trade fairs have by now accumulated a significant amount of academic research. A substantial portion of this research originates from marketing. Increasingly, however, trade fairs are also drawing interest from economic geography and economic sociology. In marketing, trade fairs are primarily viewed as temporary markets that enable transactional and informational exchanges among sellers and buyers (Rosson and Seringhaus, 1995; Sharland and Balogh, 1996). In economic geography, trade fairs are primarily viewed as temporary learning spaces that facilitate contact among geographically distant industry actors (Schuldt and Bathelt, 2011; Maskell et al., 2006). In economic sociology, trade fairs are primarily viewed as \"field-configuring events\" that shape the development of industries and markets (Moeran, 2011; Schubler and Sydow, 2013).\n2. Social exchange theory: SET attempts to explain how exchange relations between social actors develop and change over time and how these exchange relations influence social structures and vice versa (Cook and Emerson, 1978; Emerson, 1976; Molm and Cook, 1995). Defined as \"voluntary transactions involving the transfer of resources between two or more actors for mutual benefit\" (Cook, 1977, p. 64), exchange relations are taken as the primary unit of analysis in SET. SET contends that exchange relations emerge under conditions of interdependence - that is, when actors rely on each other for the satisfaction of their material or social needs (Cook, 1977; Molm, 1990). SET also assumes that actors are self-interested and behave rationally, with the goal of increasing their individual rewards while decreasing their costs (Lawler, 2001). SET further assumes that exchange relations involve mutually contingent and ongoing exchanges (Cook, 1977; Emerson, 1976).\n3. The review procedure: To identify the types of exchange functions performed by trade fairs, a diverse body of trade fair research was reviewed. The locus of this review spanned the marketing, economic geography and economic sociology literature. The goal was to locate, review and synthesize relevant research articles from each stream around an exchange view of trade fairs. With this aim, and relying on the authors' knowledge of the literature, work started by identifying a large corpus of research articles addressing substantive trade fair exchange issues. Taking these as a starting point, forward citation searches were conducted using the Google Scholar database. This step ensured that newly published works that cited the first round of articles were added to the literature list.\n4. The exchange functions of trade fairs: 4.1 Transactional exchange\n5. Discussion and implications: Exchange, a voluntary, two-way transfer of resources among social actors, is a defining element of social life (Molm, 1997). Individuals enter into various forms of exchange relations, as it is virtually impossible to fulfil all their needs through individual efforts alone (Molm, 1997; Molm and Cook, 1995). Firms are not that different from individuals in terms of their dependence on exchange relations (Cook, 1977; Lambe et al., 2001). To fulfil their organizational goals and objectives, firms need access to a variety of resources that are owned and controlled by third parties. To gain access to these resources, firms must establish exchange relations with different groups of entities (Lambe et al., 2001).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to integrate divergent discussions located within the marketing, economic geography and economic sociology literature about trade fairs and their functions, around an exchange-based view of trade fairs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Following an integrative review approach and drawing on thematic discussions found in social exchange theory, a large corpus of research articles on trade fairs was systematically reviewed and integrated.\nFindings: Trade fairs facilitate five major exchange functions: transactional, informational, social, symbolic and cultural. Each of these functions is characterized by a distinctive combination of exchange structures, exchange rules, exchange resources and organizational outcomes.\nPractical implications: The study offers practical guidelines regarding how exhibitors, visitors and organizers can develop and benefit from an exchange-based view of trade fairs.\nOriginality/value: The current study integrates three divergent literature streams into an exchange-based view of trade fairs. In so doing, the study offers a common conceptual foundation upon which future trade fair research can intersect and cross-fertilize.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Knowledge communities in matrix-like organizations: managing knowledge towards application
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge application",
"Communities of practice",
"Matrix management",
"Motivation",
"Organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The intra-organizational sharing and use of knowledge is a vital dimension of knowledge management. Analyzing how knowledge processes occur and how management may influence such processes constitute crucial tasks for research. In this article, the authors analyze the antecedents of knowledge application in a matrix-like context. The authors examine how the management of communities, support from line manager, and employee motivation facilitate knowledge application.Much of the literature on knowledge processes in organizations has centered on informal networks that are either ad hoc in nature (e.g. Hislop, 2005) or shaped by the frequency and closeness of interaction between individuals (Granovetter, 1973; Hansen, 1999). Informal communities presume that management can only direct knowledge processes to a small extent. By contrast, in knowledge constellations, where managerial interventions are used to facilitate knowledge sharing, management plays a potentially crucial role in stimulating and creating an environment for such processes (Van der Hooff and Huysman, 2009). Studying such formalized knowledge constellations enables us to examine to what extent managers of communities are able to direct and influence employees' ability to apply knowledge.The authors analyze antecedents of knowledge application. Although firms deliberately set up mechanisms for intra-organizational knowledge sharing and dissemination across units, it is not a given that these mechanisms actually contribute to knowledge application. To exploit the knowledge in an organization (March, 1991), it is not sufficient that employees simply engage in knowledge sharing behavior. In some instances, tools for knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer can contribute to increase in application of methods, techniques, and models, while in other instances these effects may be negligible. This begs the question, what are the antecedents of knowledge application?In complex organizations, employees may have several affiliations or multi-memberships (Schonstrom, 2005; Wenger et al., 2002; Tsai, 2002; Mahesh and Suresh, 2009). The employee has a primary \"home\" in the line organization but, at the same time, can belong to other spheres, or communities, that serve different purposes. Communities of practice and internal knowledge networks are examples of secondary intra-organizational structures that have come to typify horizontal knowledge overlays. Such overlays may potentially reduce the power of the line organization as well as take focus away from the work occurring within the line organization. The line manager may perceive the employee's participation in these communities as either disrupting work, or alternatively as a source of new insights, methods, and procedures that will improve the quality of the work. Thus, the manager's perception of the value of the employee's participation may influence the knowledge application. The authors develop an explanatory model that hypothesizes that employee motivation and two managerial dimensions - the quality of community management and level of support employees receive from line organization - have both direct and interactional effects on knowledge application. The empirical context of the study is a large, geographically distributed firm with a matrix-like structure. In this firm, several horizontal, disciplinary communities have been created to improve exchange of information, enhance sharing of experiences, and improve and transfer best practices in the firm. The members of each community are professionals (e.g. engineers, geologists, geophysicists) who have a similar educational background.We structure the rest of the article as follows: first, the authors distinguish between knowledge sharing and application, and informal and formal communities, for the purpose of discussing knowledge management and knowledge constellations. Second, the authors present our hypotheses and the organizational context. Third, the authors present the data and analysis. Fourth, the authors conclude with a discussion of the findings and implications.\nKnowledge management and knowledge communities: From knowledge sharing to knowledge application\nHypotheses: antecedents of knowledge application: Model and variables\nThe organizational context of the study: A matrix-like organization\nData and methods: Population and sample\nResults and analysis: The following analysis presents the antecedents of knowledge application. The authors hypothesized that motivation, community management, line support, and interaction between the two latter items and motivation would influence knowledge application. Table II presents the results. Model 1 presents the control variables, which the authors also include in the additional models. Model 2 presents all the main effects, including the impact of community management (H1), line support (H2), and motivation (H3). In addition, model 3 presents the interaction effect of community management and motivation (H4), and model 4 introduces the interaction effect of line support and motivation (H5).Table II provides support for all our hypotheses regarding the main effects. Community management, line support and motivation are all positively related to knowledge application (H1, H2, and H3). These findings are consistent across all models. Adjusted R-square shows that these three variables explain approximately 45 percent of the variance in knowledge application (model 1). The authors do not find the expected interaction effect of community management and motivation (H4). In other words, the effect of community management on knowledge application is not stronger among intrinsically motivated employees than among employees with low intrinsic motivation. By contrast, the interaction effect of line support and motivation is positively associated with knowledge application, as expected (H5). The effect of line support on knowledge application is stronger among intrinsically motivated employees than among employees with low intrinsic motivation.For the other explanatory variables, the authors find that the length of membership in a community increases knowledge application. Larger communities tend to have lower knowledge application (models 1, 2, and 3); however, after the authors introduce interactions of motivation and line management, this is no longer significant (model 4). Previous employment shows few significant effects; only employees employed after the merger are more positive towards knowledge application. Last, employees in exploration and petroleum technology score lower on application of knowledge than those in the reference category (i.e. drilling and well). Introducing age into the models did not change the results, and there were no significant effects of the age categories.\nDiscussion: The authors examine the antecedents of knowledge application in intra-organizational formal communities in a large firm. The authors explore the circumstances under which such formal communities contribute to the use and improvement of knowledge, with an emphasis on motivational and managerial factors. First, the authors find that intrinsic motivation is positively associated with knowledge application. The findings show that when employees' motivation for joining a knowledge community or community of practice is in line with the community's goals, it creates a basis for knowledge application. Employees with a higher level of intrinsic motivation are more likely to take part in knowledge sharing activities and have a greater ability to seek out, identify, and understand the application potential of the information and knowledge in question. This finding is in line with previous research showing that intrinsic motivation is associated with greater ability to receive knowledge (Reinholt et al., 2008).Second, the authors find that the quality of community management increases knowledge application in the units. Our findings suggest that communities that are led by managers who understand social processes, stimulate discussions, and disseminate best-practice information positively affect knowledge application. The authors also expected that the stronger motivation combined with good community management would create greater knowledge application. However, the authors did not find support for this in the empirical analysis. One possibility is that while initial motivation differs between participants, it may change during the course of community participation.Third, the authors find that line support has a positive impact on knowledge application. Because formalized communities create an overlay across the hierarchical organization, and thus may reduce the line organization's power, the authors expected that line support would be essential for knowledge application. Our findings support this: when workers perceive having support from their line manager, they tend to be able to retrieve more knowledge from the community. In other words, when the line manager has a positive attitude towards community participation, he or she is more inclined to understand the potential of the knowledge elements shared and disseminated throughout the community.Fourth, the authors find a positive interaction effect of motivation and line support. Intrinsically motivated employees who receive support, from their line manager, for joining the community are able to retrieve more knowledge than those who do not receive support from their line manager. This finding shows that the line managers' attitudes are essential for employees to be able to apply the knowledge they retrieved from the communities.\nImplications and further research: This study has several implications for further research on knowledge management and knowledge processes. First, this study is among only a few studies that have examined the antecedents of knowledge application. This process in the knowledge management cycle is closely connected to exploitation of knowledge. Follow-up studies of knowledge application could contribute to a better understanding of this key aspect of organizational knowledge sharing. Research challenges include understanding what constitutes knowledge application in different settings, and determining whether or not the model the authors outline can explain the application across empirical settings. Challenges also include developing measures for this concept.Second, the authors analyzed deliberately created horizontal communities of a more formal nature in which knowledge sharing and dissemination take place, in contrast with \"early\" communities of practice and informal knowledge sharing communities. Although organizations have different rationales for creating such constellations, the authors believe there are reasons to suggest that they often constitute horizontal, structural overlays in matrix-like organizations. Further work should be done on such knowledge constellations because of their possible empirical significance, and the potential to build theory that accounts for variation in organizational context. Findings, within similar settings should be accumulated and compared. Further questions need to be explored, for example, what is the impact of the degree of formality? Do formal, managerial supported communities have higher degrees of success, and if so, what accounts for the differences between types of communities?Third, the authors cannot generalize statistically beyond the organization studied here; however, the authors believe that the matrix-like character of knowledge constellations is generic in organizations, at least beyond a certain level of complexity. This is because an employee's primary membership is usually related to day-to-day operations in a line unit, project, or team. Such operations consume most of the employee's time. However, in large distributed organizations, there will be a need to build, develop, and exchange methods, techniques, experiences, and information across these basic units. These overlays might be related to similar knowledge domains, such as in the context studied here, or focus on product development and innovation that is based on a range of different knowledge types. The matrix-like character of knowledge communities is an area for sharing information. Further research should pursue competence development in such organizations. This would be a vital addition to understanding the relationship between organizational structure and knowledge processes in organizations.Fourth, the authors found support for both management dimensions, namely, the quality of community management and support from line managers. The main leadership challenge for incumbents of the community integration role is to exert influence across organizational units and activate members, when they do not have any hierarchical authority. The authors developed the measures of community management on the basis of an in-depth understanding of the communities in the specific context. A vital task for further research should be to develop constructs that capture such horizontal coordination, as well as the constructs' indicators. Further questions need to be explored. What are the mechanisms through which community coordinators exert influence and stimulate interactions among network members? Regarding the influence of the line manager of the community member, the authors found that line support contributed positively to knowledge application in the line unit. Using this study as a basis, further research could analyze line support in more detail, including the development of indicators of the construct and its impact in matrix-like organizations.With regard to the study's managerial implications, our findings may contribute to increased understanding of how managers may promote knowledge application. The study shows that formal horizontal knowledge overlays are important devices for transferring knowledge in large, distributed organizations. However, it is important that these communities are not too large in size, because it becomes more difficult to build strong ties and trust between members. Furthermore, to enhance knowledge sharing and knowledge application, commitment from both line managers and community coordinators is essential. In order to improve community management, the organization could select coordinators on the basis of their potential to stimulate and develop a given community, rather than on their technical qualifications in the knowledge domain. Management training, coaching and arenas for the contact and information exchange between coordinators may also be useful. A greater awareness of the challenges in the role and exchange of ideas and experiences could enhance communication within and benefits from these communities. Generally, in a matrix-like organization, dialogue and communication are important in order to reconcile supplementary goals and considerations. Top managers in such complex organizations should acknowledge both the potential as well as the challenges of horizontal overlays and matrix-like mechanisms.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to analyze how formal, horizontal knowledge communities contribute to knowledge application. In large, complex organizations employees face multiple roles that compete for their time and may be conflicting. The paper seeks to analyze the interplay between the communities, the line organization, and the employees; specifically, to examine how the quality of management of the communities, the attitudes of line managers, and the employees' motivation for participating in the communities facilitate knowledge application.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors conducted a survey in an organization with several specialized, horizontal knowledge communities. In total, 2,517 responses were obtained from members of 131 different communities.\nFindings: - First, community management, line support and intrinsic motivation have a positive impact on knowledge application. Second, the effect of line support is stronger when employees are intrinsically motivated.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is limited to one organization. Future research could study knowledge processes in matrix-like organization, as well as the role of community coordinators for knowledge sharing and application.\nPractical implications: - To enhance knowledge sharing and knowledge application, commitment from both line managers and community coordinators is vital. In a matrix-like organization, dialogue and communication are important in order to reconcile supplementary goals and considerations.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents a study that is one of the first to analyze antecedents of knowledge application in formal communities of practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The relationship between student's MBTI, preferences and academic performance at a Syrian university
|
[
"Syria",
"Damascus University",
"GPA",
"MBTI",
"Natural preferences"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: All students desire and intend to have a successful career after graduation. However, achieving this aim may require proper planning and selection of the right degree subject at university. Knowing one's natural preferences may help explain the current level of satisfaction and results achieved as well as helping students to decide which degree best suits their capabilities. At the individual level, the fact that university main subject selection is a key determinant in one's professional career, where chances of success should be higher if the choice of domain matches natural preferences, makes it important to explore the natural preference. At the national level, this task will enhance governmental capacities in developing national plans for education and employment.\n2. Type and formal education, theoretical perspective for the study: It has been suggested that students should be taught in a mixture of learning styles; the style they naturally prefer, in order to avoid them being too uncomfortable with their studies, and the less preferred style in order to develop their skills (Felder and Brent, 2005). The recommendation to teach students sometimes in the style they prefer stemmed from studies of type effects in engineering education by a consortium of eight universities and the Centre for Applications of Psychological Type in Gainesville, Florida. It was noted that this diversity in teaching methods is likely to keep students from being too uncomfortable during learning in their less preferred mode. This is also likely to help them develop the diverse strengths they will need to function effectively in their careers.\n3. Methods of investigation: The research was implemented in five faculties at Damascus University. Damascus University is the oldest and largest University in the Syrian Arab Republic. Its first Faculty, the School of Medicine, was founded in 1903. Since then the number of faculties and students increased until it became one of the largest universities in the region with a total of more than 100,000 students, and an annual enrolment rate of 20,000. The university is composed of 23 faculties and five institutes awarding undergraduate degrees as well as master and PhD degrees in many fields.\n4. Findings of the study: Analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. Descriptive statistics were done to determine distribution of sample among various MBTI types, type and GPA, dichotomy and GPA, type and study like, and dichotomy and study like. Correlation analysis and t-test were used to investigate the relation between type and GPA, type and overall and individual subject study like, and between each dichotomy and GPA, each dichotomy and overall and individual subject study like.\n5. Discussion: Although results did not indicate a decisive relation between GPA and MBTI personality type, there was a clear relationship between the S-N dichotomy and distribution among faculties, S-N dichotomy and overall study and selected subject like, and S-N dichotomy and GPA. There also appears to be a relationship between overall study like and GPA. Taking into account the fact that the S-N dichotomy is the perceiving part in the type theory, and that selection of study domain and academic achievement are primarily the result of a perceiving function, the findings of this research seem logical. Felder and Brent (2005) noted that students will perform differently depending on the way they naturally prefer to process information of a subject. If memory and recall are important, Sensing types should perform better, while if analysis is required, intuitive students should have an advantage. Practically, according to Felder and Brent (2005), the majority of Sensors intended to work as engineers in large corporations after their studies while a much higher percentage of Intuitors planned to work for small companies or to go to graduate school and work in research. Intuitors were three times more likely than Sensors to give themselves top ratings for creative problem-solving ability and to place a high value on doing creative or innovative work in their careers. Feelers placed a higher value than Thinkers on doing socially important or beneficial work in their careers. As advanced students, 14 per cent of the Perceivers and none of the Judgers planned to take a year off following graduation before committing themselves to a career path (Felder and Brent, 2005).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to find whether a correlation exists between students' natural preferences or what is known as psychological type as determined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI); the extent of their enthusiasm measured by their level of \"like\" to the subject, and students' grade point average (GPA).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 89 students who took the MBTI inventory in five selected faculties at Damascus University in Syria. In order to rate the subjects' like or dislike level, the students were asked to complete a form prepared for this purpose. The students' GPAs were also included in the analysis.\nFindings: Using paired sample t-test, the results indicate a statistically significant correlation between type of student and his/her faculty of study, type of student and overall study subject like, and type of student and his/her GPA. There was, however, a statistically significant correlation between various personality dichotomies of the type (Extraversion-Introversion, Sensing-Intuition, Thinking-Feeling, Judging-Perceiving) and faculty, individual subjects like, and GPA. The study also indicates a statistically significant correlation between study like and GPA, and faculty and GPA. The most critical conclusion from the study is that Sensing-Intuition dichotomy of the MBTI inventory has the strongest correlation to distribution of students among faculties, the subject's like or dislike, and the GPA. In addition, the higher the level of like for a subject, the higher the GPA is.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study results were based on a sample of students from a specific subject area of study. To validate the results of the study, future research is highly needed on a larger sample of students from different subject disciplines.\nPractical implications: Empirically, this study provides decision makers of the higher education sector with relevant information regarding the intended future attempts to reform the university admission policy with regards to the career path.\nOriginality/value: The usefulness of MBTI inventory has not been assessed in the Arab countries before. This study is therefore considered as one of the initial studies in this field.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Systematic review on B2B branding: research issues and avenues for future research
|
[
"Business‐to‐business branding",
"Branding",
"Research issues",
"Systematic review",
"Literature review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\n1. Introduction: The economic value of business-to-business (B2B) transactions is significantly greater than that of consumer transactions (Hutt and Speh, 2010 p. 4), but traditionally a preponderance of branding research has been conducted in the context of consumer products (Lynch and De Chernatony, 2004; Webster and Keller, 2004). Consequently, a number of past studies lament the status of B2B branding research, claiming that it has been under-researched (Mudambi et al., 1997; Roper and Davies, 2010), scarce (Roberts and Merrilees, 2007) neglected (Kim et al., 1998) and lagging behind industry practice (Mudambi, 2002). However, as business markets have become more intense under the pressures of commoditization, globalization and growing customer power, B2B firms are increasingly seeking competitive advantage by branding their products (Mudambi et al., 1997; Walley et al., 2007). In today's hypercompetitive B2B market, a strong brand may be the only truly sustainable competitive advantage (Kotler and Pfoertsch, 2007). It is even argued that \"brands are one of the most valuable intangible assets that firms have\" (Keller and Lehmann, 2006).As a response to increasing industry attention, recent years have seen the publication of a vast number of B2B branding articles, and special issues devoted to B2B branding in such journals as the Journal of Brand Management (2004 vol. 11 is. 5), the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing (2007 vol. 22 is. 6) and Industrial Marketing Management (2010 vol. 39 is. 8, & 2011 vol. 40 is. 7) that evidence the current importance of this topic. In addition, B2B branding is highlighted as a prominent area requiring further research in a recent literature review examining future avenues of B2B marketing (Sheth and Sharma, 2006).However, despite this increasing interest on B2B branding, the extant literature remains fragmented, and areas with limited or inconclusive research warrant further examination (Glynn et al., 2007; Kuhn et al., 2008). Academics have long raised a concern about the lack of systematic research on B2B branding (e.g. Gordon et al., 1993; Kim et al., 1998; Beverland et al., 2007a; Cretu and Brodie, 2007). Yet to date, integrative literature reviews taking stock of the extant B2B branding literature have been virtually absent, while the vast majority of the extant overviews are essentially \"narrative literature reviews\" (Cooper, 2010): largely subjective in nature, and thus limited in their scope. With very few preliminary exceptions (Sinclair, 2008), little has been done to comprehensively organize and summarize the findings and knowledge gained from previous B2B branding research.In order to advance any expanding discipline, a frequent re-examination of the current state of the research is required (Cooper, 2010). It is argued that the state of B2B branding discipline is nascent (Zablah et al., 2010) and lacking a \"critical mass of studies\" (Roberts and Merrilees, 2007). Therefore, the intention of this study is to identify research issues that hamper the progress of the B2B branding literature and thus provide guidance for future research. We attempt to do this by using a systematic review (Petticrew and Roberts, 2006), which is aimed at comprehensively identifying and synthesizing all the relevant studies on B2B branding. We address the following research question:RQ. What kinds of research issues hamper B2B branding research?Our systematic review identified a total of 73 academic publications explicitly addressing B2B branding. Based on an extensive review of this literature, we identified two major conceptual issues and three major methodological issues hampering the current research. The conceptual issues are:* the lack of systematic theory development; and* the transference of consumer concepts.The methodological issues are:* the dominance of quantitative research;* the lack of longitudinal research; and* the focus on single industries.This systematic review contributes to the B2B branding literature in the following ways:1. To our knowledge, it is the first systemically conducted literature review in the field, identifying a large part of the key literature related to the topic.2. It provides an overview of the past research and highlights dominant research methods and perspectives.3. This review identifies emerging research gaps and limitations in the current literature to be addressed in future research.The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. First, we introduce the research methodology and report the details of our search protocol. Second, we provide an overview of the selected publications. Finally, we outline our main findings, discuss their implications and suggest fruitful avenues for future research.\n2. Methodology: Traditional literature reviews are usually highly subjective by nature and often lack rigour and wide coverage, thus failing to provide reliable knowledge (Tranfield et al., 2003; Cooper, 2010). On the other hand, it is argued that a systematic review provides the most reliable, efficient and high-quality methods for assessing extensive bases of literature (Cook, 1997; Denyer and Tranfield, 2006).Systematic review methodology has its origins in medical science, but it is also suited to create actionable knowledge within other disciplines (Denyer and Tranfield, 2006). Its main goal is to aggregate large volumes of information from a wide range of studies into an accessible synthesis (Tranfield et al., 2003; McKibbon, 2006). The key advantages of a systematic review are its methodological rigour, transparency, pragmatism, exhaustive literature coverage and reproducibility (Cook, 1997; Tranfield et al., 2003). In addition, by highlighting weaknesses and shortcomings in the current research, systematic reviews indicate valuable opportunities for future research (McKibbon, 2006).2.1 The scope of the research\n3. Description of the literature: Our systematic review identified 73 peer-reviewed journal articles from the period 1973- October 2010 on B2B branding. All the retrieved publications are presented in Appendix 1 (Table AI). In the following section we will present a descriptive overview of the retrieved data.3.1 Publication activity\n4. Findings: In this section we discuss the findings and address our research question: What kinds of research issues hamper B2B branding research? Based on the analysis of the retrieved publications, we identified gaps and limitations in research methods, study settings, and theoretical frameworks, and then revisited the literature to reflect these issues from that perspective. We identified the following two major conceptual issues and three major methodological issues as the most relevant to current B2B branding literature. The conceptual issues are:1. the lack of systematic theory development; and2. the transference of consumer concepts.The methodological issues are:* the dominance of quantitative research;* the lack of longitudinal research; and* the focus on single industries.The issues are discussed in detail below.4.1 Conceptual issues\n5. Discussion and conclusions: This paper provides a systematic review of the B2B branding literature, and identifies 73 relevant journal publications, containing two major conceptual issues and three major methodological issues present in the literature that hamper current B2B branding research. To summarize the findings of the review, it seems that conceptually research on B2B branding is still in a nascent phase, lacking a solid theoretical foundation and drawing largely on theories developed in the consumer context, thus complicating the field's further integration and knowledge accumulation. One of the primary objectives of research is theory building (Handfield and Melnyk, 1998), and this requires both sustained and cumulative efforts to connect current thinking and insights to prior knowledge. In addition, creating knowledge requires a critical mass of studies employing a common theoretical framework (Zimmerman, 2001). However, instead of building on prior studies and providing cumulative research insights, many of the identified publications have focused on attempts to further knowledge in the adjacent literature (Roberts and Merrilees, 2007), making little effort to place their studies within a broader theoretical context relevant to B2B branding. This variety of theoretical lenses might be a sign of broadening interest of scholars from different fields, but it also poses a daunting challenge for integrating a unifying conceptual framework to model B2B branding.Due to the limited conceptual foundation, the field poses challenges to quantitative research and would likely benefit from using more exploratory research strategies in order to build a strong conceptual and well grounded empirical base, before moving to extensive theorizing and confirmatory research. As it stands now, the field is producing a growing number of quantitative studies which, while contributing to the discipline, are rarely grounded in a sound theoretical foundation, thus providing only limited contribution to the cumulative body of knowledge. This is echoed in Roberts and Merrilees (2007) notion, \"[B2B branding] literature is embryonic, so much remains to be done\". As a response to the aforementioned concern, we have made an attempt to assemble and interpret the extant B2B branding literature so that subsequent research efforts can be directed to areas where they will have the most impact. By highlighting the research issues discussed above, we hope to prompt future research to contest these issues with their implications, and avoid making the same missteps in the future, thus potentially aiding more rapid advancement in B2B branding as a discipline. Instead of very detailed account of the findings, due to the space limitations and diversity in the reviewed publications, we provide only a broad overview of the issues that are hampering the progress of the literature. We encourage future research to address and delve deeper into the issues discovered in this review.Besides the research issues discussed above, another possible barrier to the literature's progress is limited awareness of the available body of research. To this end, this systematic review represents an initial step towards identifying the key literature related to B2B branding, providing future research with an easier access to the extant body of knowledge. Systematic reviews are increasingly taking their place among social sciences (e.g. Tranfield et al., 2003; Rousseau et al., 2008), and are considered to be a critical step in making the accumulated knowledge available for interpretation and use (Rousseau et al., 2008). By introducing systematic review to B2B branding literature, we attempt to provide scholars with a comprehensive understanding of the field's current state and the direction in which it is headed. Only by taking full advantage of the accumulated body of knowledge, can we hope to enhance the development of more integrative, theoretically sound and managerially relevant explanations of B2B branding.5.1 Limitations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to review the current body of the B2B branding literature, and identify research issues that hamper current B2B branding research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study employs a systematic review, and identifies 73 relevant journal publications from the years 1973-2010 that were subsequently evaluated for further analysis.\nFindings: - This study identifies five possible issues hampering current B2B branding research: the lack of systematic theory development, the transference of consumer concepts, the dominance of quantitative research, the lack of longitudinal research, and the focus on single industries.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study considers only published journal articles, excluding books and conference proceedings. By highlighting the research issues, this paper aims to direct research efforts to areas where they will have the most impact, and thus aid more rapid advancement of B2B branding as a discipline.\nOriginality/value: - This study provides the first systematic review to identify and evaluate the current B2B branding literature. The review identifies the key literature related to B2B branding, provides an overview of past research and identifies emerging research issues to be addressed in future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managing diversity in organisations: Practitioner and academic perspectives: report from a Gender in Management Special Interest Group research event
|
[
"Equal opportunities",
"Entrepreneurialism",
"United Kingdom",
"Organizational culture",
"Women"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: On 23 January, the British Academy of Management's Gender in Management Special Interest Group sponsored a seminar held at Glasgow Caledonian University. Three industry presentations discussed aspects of diversity policy, initiatives, and programme development within Bank of Scotland, National Australia Group UK, and BBC Scotland. These were followed by two academic presentations, giving details of diversity-related research conducted by Dr Savita Kumra from Oxford Brookes University and Dr Susan Ogden of Glasgow Caledonian University. The majority of presentations focussed on gender equality, but occasionally touched upon other areas of diversity management as well. This report will summarize the key points of these presentations, which provided the audience with a unique perspective of diversity management from both sides of the research-practice divide.\nPractitioner perspectives: The two banking firms represented at the seminar emphasized the importance of diversity management not only for attracting, retaining, and developing staff, but also for attracting, retaining, and developing their customer base. Julie Harris-Burland, manager of Bank of Scotland's Women in Business programme, explained the rationale underpinning the programme designed to encourage female entrepreneurs to invest in their firms through Halifax Bank of Scotland loans. Citing statistics that over one million women in the UK are now self-employed, and that women-owned or led businesses currently contribute approximately PS60 billion to the UK economy, Harris-Burland went on to quote economic projections that women in the UK will be financially better off than men by 2,025, when they are projected to control 60 per cent of the nation's wealth. Hilary Crowe and Julie Wade from National Australia Group UK alluded to similar motivations for their organisation's Inclusion and Diversity Action Plan; the business case outlines clear benefits for financial institutions that can attract female consumers.The Women in Business programme operates according to the principle that women approach business differently than men do, said Harris-Burland. For instance, female entrepreneurs have shown themselves to be more likely to use their personal savings or credit cards to finance their business endeavours, preferring not to incur the perceived risks of taking out large loans. The programme aims to provide service to female customers in a way that takes into account their attitudes to banking and their business goals, both of which can be different from those of male entrepreneurs. According to Harris-Burland, the goal is to make mainstream financial products appropriate for Bank of Scotland's female customers as well as male ones, rather than to introduce a different set of products for women.Programmes to manage staff diversity were also discussed by the three industry presenters. Crowe and Wade cited reduced turnover and improved share of the UK talent pool as the business case drivers for the internal component of National Australia Group UK's Inclusion and Diversity Action Plan. The plan includes, among other elements, diversity awareness and capability building, gender balance in senior and sales management roles, multicultural marketing, and the identification of accountable individuals or sponsors for each action taken. Bank of Scotland's Women in Business Internal Programme focuses on the provision of training, confidence-building, and networking opportunities for female staff members, and takes pains to emphasize that it is not a \"women's club\"; many of the topics are designed to have broader appeal throughout the organisation. This concern for inclusion, rather than exclusion, was also discussed by Pat Davers, diversity advisor at BBC Scotland, who spoke of the dangers of inadvertently marginalising men when designing and implementing programmes to support women.The impact of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations for the National Australia Group UK was addressed by Crowe and Wade. The Group took a four-pronged approach, comprising collaboration (with union representatives, agencies, legal advisers, and benchmarking with industry), establishment of a project group, amendment of affected HR policies and procedures, and communications. A number of adjustments to existing HR practices needed to be made in order to comply with the new regulations. The recruitment process in particular was scrutinized closely for its potential to discriminate against younger or older workers. Job advertisements were reworded to avoid using loaded adjectives such as \"youthful\", \"dynamic\", or \"mature\". Candidates were no longer required to state years of job experience, but rather were asked for examples of relevant experience. The placement of the job advertisements was also reviewed, with an eye to achieving diversity in the range of media through which the advertisements were disseminated. For instance, efforts were made not to focus exclusively on websites that tend to attract a younger user base.\nAcademic perspectives: Following these demonstrations of positive strides being taken by firms towards the equal treatment of women and workers of all ages, two presentations were made that reminded the seminar delegates how far there is yet to travel on the road to equality. Dr Susan Ogden reported on the findings of research undertaken as part of two Gender Balance in Management projects within the Centre for Public Policy and Management at Glasgow Caledonian University. Evidence was provided of a gender gap at the managerial level in both the public and private sectors; for example, in the retail sector, while 60 per cent of the workforce is composed of women, they comprise only 40 per cent of management roles. In the National Health Service in Scotland, women comprise fully 90 per cent of the workforce, yet occupy only 33 per cent of senior management positions.Ogden identified a number of barriers to women's career progression. Masculine organisational cultures emphasising long hours and internal networking tend to exclude many female employees, particularly those with family responsibilities, from the inner circles of power and influence. The importance of external, male-dominated networking, or the \"old boys' club\", was also cited as a factor hindering women's progress up the career ladder. Interviews with workers across the health, finance, and catering sectors also revealed negative perceptions of those using part-time or non-standard working patterns, and/or maternity leave. The implication is that workers, usually female, who engage in non-standard working patterns are seen as unreliable by their supervisors, usually male, and suffer consequent career penalties. The issue of work-life balance was also raised by interviewees, with employees wondering if the price of career progression was too high in terms of increased hours and workload.Some barriers were sector-specific. For instance, those working in retail described the requirement for mobility as a condition of promotion difficult or impossible for women with children who were established in schools and with partners or spouses who had careers of their own. In the voluntary sector and in small to medium sized enterprises, HR practices related to employee development were characterized by respondents as underdeveloped and inconsistent. Interviewees spoke of confusion over the routes to progression within their organisations, and of a lack of formal career development strategy or formal Human Resource Development opportunities.Similarly, the self-managed nature of career development was identified in Dr Savita Kumra's research as a main area of disadvantage for women working in the professional services. Interviews with both male and female consultants in an international consulting firm revealed the importance of understanding the \"rules of the game\": being aware that the formal systems in place for career progression do not always operate by the book, assessing what behaviours are valued by the firm, and ensuring one's contributions are recognised and rewarded. The women interviewed were less comfortable with the proactive nature of this process than were the men, who appeared more at ease with the networking and self-promotion activities required to make themselves visible as candidates for promotion to partner. Consultants also spoke of the necessity of fitting an existing mould in order to succeed within the firm. The prevailing model of success within the organisation was described as gendered, requiring visible commitment, acquiescence with requests, and similarity to existing (and predominantly male) partners.The afternoon concluded on a hopeful note, as Ogden highlighted a number of success stories from various sectors. Policy initiatives in the police, finance, and health sectors were reported as leading to improvements in female recruitment and development. Women were found to prosper in organisations featuring - and observing - formal HR policies and visible, positive female role models. Supportive and approachable managers were also identified in all sectors; by encouraging women's access to training and development, and their applications for promotion, these managers played an important role in overcoming the glass ceiling so often present in organisations.Emerging issues identified by Ogden included the need for further \"gendering\" of policy and strategy formulation. While organisations, for the most part, understand the business benefits of gender equality and are implementing ongoing incremental changes, prevailing organisational cultures tend to inhibit the uptake of work-life balance and flexible working practices. Female employees also continue to face the challenges of making use of available policies, such as women's networks, without incurring any negative reactions from those who associate such initiatives with unfair advantage or \"reverse discrimination\". The afternoon's proceedings indicated that despite valuable progress being made towards women's equality, more work is necessary on the part of organisations, professional bodies, and government to provide women with career opportunities truly equal to those of men.\nSession chairs: Adelina Broadbridge, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Stirling and Gillian A. Maxwell, Senior Lecturer in HRM, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityFor more information about the Gender in Management Special Interest Group and for joining instructions, please visit www.gimsig.ac.uk\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to report on a seminar sponsored by the Academy of Management's Gender in Management Special Interest Group, which comprised discussions on aspects of diversity policy, initiatives, and programme development within Bank of Scotland, National Australia Group UK, and BBC Scotland, and also academic and industry presentations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The report is based upon observations, notes and discussions on a range of issues relating to diversity in organisations.\nFindings: - The seminar highlighted practitioner perspectives of diversity management - both for staff development and for the development of a customer base in the case of banks, by actively encouraging business from female entrepreneurs and by aiming to make mainstream financial products appropriate for both female and male customers.\nOriginality/value: - This report brings together a number of interesting and important themes linked to improvements in female recruitment and development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How do corporate reputation and customer satisfaction impact customer defection? A study of private energy customers in Germany
|
[
"Corporate image",
"Customer loyalty",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Germany"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: The promotion of private ownership and increased efficiency has led to the abrogation of state-owned services in most European Union (EU) countries. Many countries, including the UK and Germany, began with liberalizing the telecommunications sector. In the UK, partial deregulation of the sector began in 1988, in Germany in 1995 when the Deutsche Bundespost was disintegrated and transformed into several public companies.The liberalization of the EU energy market drives competition, although critics argue that the asymmetrical enforcement of the EU's directive by some member states keeps preventing the emergence of a truly integrated transnational market. Germany opted for a full liberalization and has become one of the most strongly liberalized markets in the EU. As a consequence, the strategies of Germany's municipal utilities (so-called Stadtwerke) have dramatically changed since the liberalization of the energy sector. According to some projections, of 900 municipal utilities (the terms \"municipal utilities\", \"utilities\", \"energy suppliers\", and \"energy supply companies\" are used synonymously throughout this paper) in the pre-competitive environment, only a few will survive.Currently, German consumers can exercise choice with regard to electricity and natural gas. Traditionally, German households tend to purchase all their energy and energy-related services (e.g. technical maintenance) from one local or regional energy supplier. Switching energy suppliers would hence involve taking a household's entire business to another company. Energy suppliers are thus challenged to focus their marketing activities on customer management and to minimize the defection of those customers willing to switch suppliers to the competition. Especially in the service marketing literature, customer retention (or its inverse, switching) is considered a central theme of the relationship marketing concept (e.g. Oliva et al., 1992; Reichheld, 1993). Identifying the drivers of customer retention and understanding their effects on retention are an important avenue of future relationship marketing research (e.g. Lemon et al., 2002; Verhoef, 2003). In this context, Crosby and Stephens (1987) argue that relationship marketing can be used as a tool when services are difficult to evaluate by consumers, suggesting that key relationship-marketing concepts are highly relevant in the context of energy firms. Services are intangible by nature and energy supply firms are confronted with the task of creating customer satisfaction and retention with intangible offerings.Various strategies are being discussed in both marketing research and practice with regard to successfully countering customer willingness to switch suppliers (see, e.g. Rowlands et al., 2004). Besides the possibilities of inhibiting customer willingness to switch (e.g. by means of alternative contract models and/or new price models and price reductions), in particular customer satisfaction as well as corporate reputation management can be considered to be promising approaches for energy supply companies. The reason for this is that it has been repeatedly found that in comparison to companies in other sectors, German energy supply companies exhibit deficits with regard to corporate reputation and customer satisfaction (e.g. Kundenmonitor Deutschland, 2001; manager magazin, 2002).Despite the economic relevance of customer willingness to switch suppliers in the energy sector, there has not yet been a systematic investigation of the question as to how far perceived corporate reputation (i.e. customer-based corporate reputation) and customer satisfaction influence switching intentions. Against this background, this study has several objectives. First, we discuss the relevance of customer-based corporate reputation and customer satisfaction for customer switching behavior. Second, customers' perceived corporate reputation and their satisfaction level with their current energy suppliers is measured. Third, the effects of these two variables on customer switching behavior are examined. Finally, the marketing implications of our research are discussed.\nTheoretical background: The concept of corporate reputation and its relevance for switching behavior\nMethod: Questionnaire and data collection\nImplications: Implications for marketing practitioners\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To analyze whether perceived corporate reputation and customer satisfaction are directly associated with customer intention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using structural equation modeling, the study is based on the responses to a written questionnaire of 462 customers of a large German utility.\nFindings: - A non-significant and weak relationship was found between corporate reputation and switching intention. The postulated impact of customer satisfaction on customer switching intention was confirmed. Corporate reputation and customer satisfaction were found to be strongly correlated.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample includes only one company's customers, so the findings may not be generalized to other industries. Future research in other service industries is called for.\nPractical implications: - The threat of customer defection in deregulated markets requires power supply companies to examine the marketing instruments and measures required to inhibit customer willingness to switch power suppliers. This study demonstrates the need to focus on monitoring and increasing customer satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: - The importance of reputation and satisfaction will ultimately be assessed on the basis of their customer-related consequences and their economic relevance to companies. The construct of corporate reputation has attracted significant attention among marketing scholars, although almost no work can be found that focuses on the most important stakeholder group, namely customers. This paper addresses this research gap. The identification of context-specific reputation and satisfaction effects on customer defection offers both practical implications for marketers and contributes to the theoretical knowledge base of an increasingly important domain in services marketing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Entrepreneurship in the digital press: a semantic analysis
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Thematic analysis",
"Innovation",
"Media",
"Semantic analysis",
"Spain",
"Corpus",
"Co-occurrence",
"Digital press",
"Word association"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Recently, researchers have begun to study entrepreneurship from different perspectives. Although some authors such as Kloepfer and Castrogiovanni (2018) have sought to identify what exactly constitutes entrepreneurship and how to define the field appropriately, this is a difficult task because of the wide variety of entrepreneurship research on diverse topics.\nTheoretical framework: Some authors have approached entrepreneurship as an opportunity just in economic terms (Alvarez and Busenitz, 2001). It has also been approached as the discovery of opportunities and the subsequent creation of new economic activity (Reynolds, 2005). In this sense, one of the most cited definitions of entrepreneurship is the one proposed by Shane and Venkataraman (2000). They addressed entrepreneurship as the discovery, assessment and exploitation of opportunities, and therefore new products, services or production processes, new strategies and organisational forms, and new markets for products and inputs did not previously exist.\nMethodology: This research analyses the treatment of entrepreneurship in the Spanish economic media. A linguistic corpus was constructed with content related to entrepreneurship drawn from the digital editions of the three most important Spanish economic newspapers for the period 2010-2017.\nResults: The main results for the different types of textual analysis carried out on the corpus are presented in the following sections.\nConclusions: This paper sought to analyse how the media addresses entrepreneurship and the attributes linked to this phenomenon. The analysis was carried out on a linguistic corpus comprising content related to entrepreneurship drawn from the digital editions of the three most important Spanish economic newspapers during an eight-year period.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the media addresses entrepreneurship and to identify the attributes linked to this phenomenon.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample is defined in terms of a linguistic corpus comprised of content related to entrepreneurship drawn from the digital editions of the three most important Spanish economic newspapers for the period 2010-2017. Word association and co-occurrence analyses were carried out. Further, a non-supervised clustering process was used as the basis for a thematic analysis.\nFindings: Correspondence between social and media patterns related to the entrepreneurship phenomenon is revealed by the results. It is shown how attributes such as \"success\", \"innovation\", \"ecosystem\" and \"woman\" appear as very relevant and are linked to different co-occurrence scenarios. Relevant thematic groups are also identified related to lexical associations such as innovation, digital economy and public policies linked to entrepreneurship.\nResearch limitations/implications: It is important to emphasise that this study has identified and explored relationships between words, but not their evolution. Furthermore, conclusions cannot be drawn concerning whether there are differences in how each newspaper has dealt with entrepreneurship because of the way the corpus was constructed.\nOriginality/value: The study provides empirical evidence that helps to identify the way media approaches entrepreneurship. The authors carried out the analysis on the media contents and not on the perception of the public on the phenomenon.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The emotional and social intelligences of effective leadership: An emotional and social skill approach
|
[
"Emotional intelligence",
"Social skills",
"Leadership development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In his classic work on managerial skills, Mintzberg (1973) listed specific interpersonal skills (i.e. the ability to establish and maintain social networks; the ability to deal with subordinates; the ability to empathize with top-level leaders) as critical for managerial effectiveness. Even earlier than 1973, researchers examined the role of broad interpersonal skills, such as empathy, social skills, and tact, in predicting leadership emergence and effectiveness (see Bass, 1990 for a review). Managers, executives, and human resources professionals clearly understand the importance of strong interpersonal skills. A common theoretical framework linking emotional and social skills with leadership effectiveness is necessary to guide research and the assessment and training and development of organizational leaders.\nEmotional and social skills: Early research on social skills focused primarily on clinical populations, using social skills assessment and training as a means of understanding and treating certain forms of psychopathology or problems in psychosocial adjustment (Curran and Monti, 1982; Trower et al., 1978). At the same time, emotion researchers began to examine the role of emotional skills in social interaction and interpersonal relationships. For example, Gottman and his colleagues (Gottman, 1982; Gottman and Levenson, 1986; Gottman and Porterfield, 1981) stressed the role of effective communication of emotions in the maintenance and development of marriages. Possessing emotional and social skills was also associated with higher quality social relationships and more supportive social support systems (Riggio et al., 1993; Riggio and Zimmerman, 1991). Moreover, deficits in emotional skill have been implicated in certain forms of psychopathology, leading to low levels of social and emotional competence that can break down family and other relationships (Perez and Riggio, 2003; Philippot et al., 2003).Research on emotional skills, primarily associated with investigations of nonverbal and emotional communication (Friedman, 1979; Riggio, 2006; Rosenthal, 1979), paved the way for the construct of emotional intelligence. First presented by Salovey and Mayer (1990), but popularized by Daniel Goleman (1995, 1998), emotional intelligence (referred to as EI or EQ) is a multidimensional construct that is likened to verbal intelligence, or IQ. Both IQ and EQ are composed of different and somewhat distinct abilities.The soundest approach to emotional intelligence is the abilities model suggested by Salovey, Mayer and colleagues (Caruso et al., 2002; Mayer et al., 2000; Salovey and Mayer, 2004). The abilities model consists of four general emotional abilities:1. identifying emotions, which involves the ability to recognize emotions in oneself and others, as well as the ability to express emotions;2. using emotions to facilitate thinking, which involves using emotions to improving thinking processes and harness the power of positive moods;3. understanding emotions, including the complexities and subtleties of emotions as well as their interrelationships; and4. managing emotions, which involves skills in regulating and controlling felt emotions in a positive fashion.This four-factor structure of emotional intelligence is typically measured with the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT; Salovey et al., 2004), a performance-based assessment tool.Emotional skills are related to the ability to accurately express, read, and understand emotions; all of which are components of emotional intelligence. However, EI is broader than the emotional skills approach, since it also includes the ways that emotions inform mental processing. Emotional skills represent the more \"social\" elements of emotional intelligence in that they focus on how emotions are conveyed between or among individuals in social interaction.Social skills represent a broader range of abilities that is most closely linked to the construct of social intelligence. Although social intelligence, the ability to think and act wisely in social situations, was first explored by psychologist Edward Thorndike (1920), and later by Guilford (1967) in his model of \"behavioral intelligence,\" it is only in the last few years that social intelligence has been popularized by Goleman (2006) and Albrecht (2006). Social skills that are key components of social intelligence include the following: the ability to express oneself in social interactions, the ability to \"read\" and understand different social situations, knowledge of social roles, norms, and scripts, interpersonal problem-solving skills, and social role-playing skills. Interestingly, although social intelligence has been connected to effective social functioning in general (Cantor and Kihlstrom, 1987) and to effective leadership specifically (Zaccaro, 2002), there has been no agreed-upon framework outlining the specific dimensions of social intelligence or ways to measure it. We argue that our emotional and social skills framework is not only more parsimonious than these previous models of social and emotional intelligence, but it also has the advantages of the availability of valid measurement and an emphasis on skills that are open to development.Proposed framework of emotional and social skills and leadership\nDiscussion: Based on existing research and in a series of research propositions, we have presented a framework for emotional and social skills, and discussed how these are related, or should be related, to important leadership processes and outcomes. Specifically, skill in emotional expressiveness, emotional sensitivity, and emotional control should result in such leadership behaviors and outcomes as motivating and inspiring followers, understanding followers' needs and feelings, and regulating inappropriate emotions. The social skills, including social expressiveness, social sensitivity, and social control, are expected to contribute to such leadership processes and outcomes as public speaking, coaching, effective listening, and impression management.Understanding the role of emotional and social skills in effective leadership: a research agenda\nConclusion: There is little doubt that \"people skills\" - ability to communicate effectively, to manage social interactions and social relationships - are critical for today's successful leaders. To conceptualize these critical leader abilities, this paper draws on early research on emotional and social skills in psychology, and demonstrates how an emotional and social skill framework both relates to and can play a role in the development of effective workplace leaders. The parallels between the emotional and social skills framework and the new construct of emotional intelligence, and the older construct of social intelligence, are noted. We suggest that emotional and social skills can be targeted for assessment and development and can be an important component of a leadership development program. Research evidence suggests that emotional and social skills are both related to leader effectiveness and are able to be improved through training interventions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework for conceptualizing the role of emotional and social skills in effective leadership and management and provides preliminary suggestions for research and for the development of leader emotional and social skills.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper generalizes a dyadic communications framework in order to describe the process of emotional and social exchanges between leaders and their followers.\nFindings: - The paper shows how emotional skills and complementary social skills are essential for effective leadership through a literature review and discussion of ongoing research and a research agenda.\nPractical implications: - Suggestions for the measurement and development of emotional and social skills for leaders and managers are offered.\nOriginality/value: - The work provides a framework for emotional and social skills in order to illustrate their role in leadership and their relationship to emotional and social intelligences. It outlines a research agenda and advances thinking of the role of developable emotional and social skills for managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Contrasting the nature and effects of environmentally specific and general transformational leadership
|
[
"Transformational leadership",
"Environmental leadership",
"Environmentally specific transformational leadership",
"Organizational environmental sustainability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Organizations' widespread and deep impact on the natural environment has increasingly attracted the interest of environmental activists, employees, the media and public policy officials. As a result, organizations world-wide have begun to embrace environmental sustainability (Robertson and Barling, 2015a). The success of many environmental initiatives rests, to some degree, on organizational leaders. Indeed, leaders are now recognizing environmental sustainability as a critical concern as many are implementing environmental governance issues into their business strategy (Lacy et al., 2012; Ones and Dilchert, 2012). Accordingly, a growing body of literature recognizing the importance of leadership to both organizational and individual level environmental performance has emerged (e.g. Bansal and Roth, 2000; Egri and Herman, 2000; Metcalf and Benn, 2013; Portugal and Yukl, 1994; Sharma, 2000; Shrivastava, 1994). One stream of this research has investigated the leadership styles environmental leaders typically exhibit, with the findings isolating several types, including both general transformational leadership (e.g. Egri and Herman, 2000; Gilstrap and Gilstrap, 2012; Graves and Sarkis, 2012; Ng and Burke, 2010; Portugal and Yukl, 1994), and more recently, environmentally specific transformational leadership (ETFL; Graves et al., 2013; Robertson and Barling, 2013).\nEnvironmentally specific and general transformational leadership: Transformational leadership has been the most widely studied of all leadership theories in the last 20 years (Barling, 2014). Overwhelmingly, this research has focused on what we refer to as general transformational leadership, a type of leadership that is comprised of four diffusely targeted positive behaviors: idealized influence (i.e. focusing on and encouraging ethical behavior), inspirational motivation (i.e. elevating employees' motivation, passion and optimism), intellectual stimulation (i.e. encouraging and allowing employees to think for themselves in novel ways), and individualized consideration (i.e. demonstrating concern for individual's needs; Bass and Riggio, 2006). One innovation in the way in which transformational leadership was traditionally conceptualized and studied was the move away from this focus in which transformational leadership behaviors are presumed to affect outcomes across different contexts, to a focus in which the same set of transformational behaviors focus on influencing a specific target (e.g. Barling et al., 2002; Graves et al., 2013; Mullen and Kelloway, 2009; Robertson and Barling, 2013, 2015b).\nStudy 1: Distinguishing between environmentally specific and general transformational leadership\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Descriptive data, intercorrelations and reliability information appear in Table I.\nDiscussion: As a necessary first step, this study assessed the construct validity of ETFL. Findings from this study support our construct validity hypothesis that ETFL is distinguishable from but related to general transformational leadership. These results replicate those of Mullen and Kelloway (2009) who demonstrated that general and safety specific transformational leadership are separate constructs. Given that target specific and general transformational leadership have been shown to be unique but related constructs across two different contexts, the next step in investigating whether ETFL is different from general transformational leadership, and thus worthy of study as a unique construct, is to contrast whether it provides incremental predictive validity over-and-above general transformational leadership on relevant outcomes. Accordingly, we test whether ETFL might exert greater effects on relevant outcomes than general transformational leadership in Study 2.\nStudy 2: Contrasting the effects of environmentally specific and general transformational leadership\nMethod: Recruitment and sample\nResults: Descriptive data, intercorrelations and reliability information appear in Table III.\nDiscussion: The results of this study provide support for the incremental predictive validity of ETFL on relevant environmental outcomes compared to general transformational leadership. Participants' perceptions of the leader's environmental values, and clarity about the priorities of the confederate leader were significantly higher among participants' who viewed the confederate enact ETFL than participants who viewed the confederate enact general transformational leadership and the control leadership, supporting H1a and H1b.\nGeneral discussion: A growing body of research has identified the role of both general and target specific (i.e. safety specific and environmentally specific) transformational leadership in influencing targeted employee outcomes (see Barling et al., 2011; Robertson and Barling, 2015b for reviews). Extending this research, two studies were conducted to provide preliminary support for the construct and incremental predictive validity of ETFL. Replicating Mullen and Kelloway's (2009) research on safety specific transformational leadership, our first study showed that environmentally specific and general transformational leadership are related but separable constructs. The results of our second study provide initial support for the notion that where specific outcomes are sought, target specific transformational leadership might well be more effective than general transformational leadership. Taken together, these findings offer several theoretical and practical implications and provide further avenues for future research.\nConclusion: About a decade ago, Barling et al. (2002) extended the focus of general transformational leadership to include safety specific transformational leadership. Recently, others (e.g. Graves et al., 2013; Robertson and Barling, 2013) have expanded the focus of this leadership further, to include ETFL. The goal of this study was to build on this research by investigating the construct and incremental predictive validity of ETFL. To this end, two studies were conducted to show that: ETFL and general transformational leadership are separate but related constructs, and ETFL exerts greater effects on environmental outcomes than general transformational leadership. More is now needed to be understood about why ETFL exerts greater effects. If future research replicates these findings, uncovers the mechanisms through which ETFL exerts its effects, and identifies the boundary conditions to such effects, a better understanding of why, when and how environmental leadership influences corporate environmental performance will be gained.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report findings from two studies that compare the nature (construct validity) and relative effects (incremental predictive validity) of environmentally specific transformational leadership (ETFL) to general transformational leadership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The nature of ETFL was investigated in an empirical study based on a sample of 185 employees. The relative effects of ETFL were examined in an experimental study based on a sample of 155 university students.\nFindings: A confirmatory factor analysis showed that environmentally specific and general transformational leadership are empirically distinct but related. Findings from the experimental study revealed that compared to general transformational leadership and a control condition, participants exposed to ETFL he confederate leader's environmental values and priorities more highly and engaged in higher levels of pro-environmental behaviors.\nResearch limitations/implications: Questions concerning ecological and external validity arise out of the experimental study. Future research should contrast the relative effects of environmentally specific and general transformational leadership across various organizational and cultural conditions. Limitations associated with demand characteristics are also of concern in the experimental study. Future research should include an environmental focus in the control condition to exclude any possible threats related to demand characteristics.\nPractical implications: Results from these two studies provide useful information regarding within-organization environmental leadership training by suggesting that maximal individual and organizational environmental change may best be achieved by training leaders to be as specific as possible regarding their values, priorities and goals.\nSocial implications: This research suggests that leaders should engage in ETFL behaviors to have the greatest positive impact on corporate environmental sustainability, and by extension, climate change.\nOriginality/value: In two separate studies, the construct and incremental predictive validity of ETFL were assessed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Ageism and perceived job sustainability: a comparative European analysis
|
[
"Discrimination",
"Motivation (psychology)",
"Older workers",
"Job satisfaction",
"Social capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Population ageing is a challenge worldwide. In EU-28 Member States, the employment rate of adults aged between 55 and 64 is on average half of that for workers between 50 and 54. Further the WHO's (2015) World Report on Ageing and Health highlighted the need to combat ageism at every level give that negative attitude towards ageing imposes significant influence on physical and mental health.\nMethodology: Data and sample\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: The experienced age discrimination in the workplace was found to be negatively and significantly correlated to perceived job sustainability, which is consistent with the literature that ageism imposes negative impact on job satisfaction and work engagement (Kanfer et al., 2013; MacDonald and Levy, 2016; Volpone and Avery, 2013). Negative stereotypes of older workers rather than actual performance can reduce a person's intention to maintain their current role, as it can erode perceptions of self-worth and human resources support (Kooij et al., 2008; Rego et al., 2018). Our results also indicate that many older workers hold a positive expectation of remaining in the same or a similar role as they get older, which highlights the importance of anti-ageism actions in the workplace and improving attitude of the public towards an ageing workforce. Although the employment rate of older workers has increased, they still face significant work strain that results in early retirement and unemployment.\nConclusion: This paper explores the impact of ageism and working conditions on perceived job sustainability for workers aged from 40 to 60 in Europe. The GSEM regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between age discrimination and working conditions, and perceived job sustainability. Our results show that older workers who have not experienced age discrimination are more likely to have positive perceptions of job sustainability. In addition to experiencing ageism, age, being male, being in good health status and satisfaction about work are found to be positively correlated with job sustainability. At the time of publication, this is the first study to explore the connection between experience of ageism and perceived job sustainability in a comparative way using a representative sample of current workers. These results remain robust when employment regimes are controlled for. While many studies have detailed the impact of physical working conditions, it is clear from this study that there is a significant opportunity to improving the psycho-social working conditions as workers age by combating ageism in the workplace.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between experiencing ageism in the workplace and working conditions on perceived job sustainability among current workers aged 40 and over in Europe, within the context of positive and active ageing strategies and programmes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data are from the 6th round of the European Working Conditions Survey (n=22,229), and the analytical sample contains adults aged 40 and older in 28 European Member States grouped by employment regime: social-democratic regime, corporatist regime, liberal regime, Southern European regime, post-socialist corporatist regime and post-socialist liberal regime. Perceived job sustainability estimated based on whether the respondent thinks (yes/no) that they can do their current job or similar role until the age of 60 or in next five years if the respondent is aged 56 and over. Experience of ageism in the workplace (yes/no) is self-reported. Generalised structural equation modelling was used to control for both individual- and organisational-level influences and to correct for potential endogeneity in estimating the impact of experienced ageism on perceived job sustainability. In addition, employment regimes are included in the model to investigate differences in this relationship by setting.\nFindings: Adults who have not experienced ageism are more likely to have positive perceptions of job sustainability, net of other factors and employment regime. Job sustainability is positively associated with age, being male, being in good health status and higher levels of work satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study is that data are cross-sectional, and time variant factors and individual fixed characteristics are excluded from the estimation. The results are influenced by the self-reported data about experienced ageism and evaluation of workplace environment, which may lead to potential endogeneity caused by unobservable personal characteristics such as personality type.\nOriginality/value: Although the average reported prevalence of ageism in the workplace is 3.4 per cent across the 28 European Union Member States, this study shows that ageism imposes significant negative influence on current workers. This study has highlighted the interrelationship between ageism, workplace satisfaction and job sustainability in this comparative setting. Efforts to reduce ageism in the workplace are likely to lead to improved working conditions and job sustainability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Level of education and knowledge, foresight competency and international entrepreneurship: A study of human capital determinants in the European countries
|
[
"Foresight",
"Human capital",
"Education",
"International entrepreneurship",
"SEM-PLS"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, international entrepreneurship has been studied throughout scholar literature by multiplicity approaches (Andersson, 2003; Etemad and Lee, 2003; Fernhaber et al., 2007; Dana and Wright, 2009; Glavas and Mathews, 2014; Dimitratos et al., 2016). In the present worldwide environment of internationalization, it is arduous for emerging enterprises and entrepreneurs to stand against the intense and fierce global competition (Chichilnisky and Heal, 1986). In such circumstances, ventures are required to learn about global business and internationalization to thrive alongside international firms (Jafari Sadeghi and Biancone, 2017). In this vein, the most prosperous firms are presumably to be ones that are excellent to identify the global opportunities and can develop their competencies to respond them in the shortest possible time (Zahra et al., 2005).\nLiterature review: In recent years, the literature developed through the focusing on the function of entrepreneurs in internationalization of firms (Bell et al., 2003; Glavas and Mathews, 2014; Johanson and Vahlne, 2003; Loane, 2005; Oviatt and McDougall, 2005; Welch and Welch, 2004), in which the international entrepreneur is responsible for the internationalization process of firms (Bhuian et al., 2005). Businesses to survive or grow, especially with the fierce competition in the market, must expand beyond their borders (Chen et al., 2016). Going international can also help firms to provide access to new resources, an extension of innovative capabilities, new knowledge acquisition, performance improvement and location advantages (Kim and Hemmert, 2016). However, internationalization could involve much uncertainty and could also be a very intricate and costly process for the business (Wiklund and Shepherd, 2003). Therefore, the success of internationalization lies in the correct adoption of new technologies, implementation and integration of foreign operations and complex structures (Kim and Hemmert, 2016).\nHypotheses development: An entrepreneur is defined as a person who engages innovation, risk-taking and financial investment to create novel and valuable economic goods, whether tangible or intangible (Yu and Si, 2012; Su et al., 2015). Having regards to the main characteristic of entrepreneurship is creating new businesses, in recent years, entrepreneurs have intended to find untapped international opportunities (Shane, 2003; Casson, 2005), and take advantage from their capabilities to manage the business on the condition of uncertainty (Onetti et al., 2012). Moreover, different internationalization theories are explaining the role of entrepreneurship in the internationalization of businesses (Ghauri et al., 2014; Li and Gammelgaard, 2014). By acknowledging and understanding different business strategies of a variety of companies within the various countries, and having distinct, values, behaviors, beliefs, entrepreneurs can create new ventures in the global context or internationalize their existing enterprises. Reflective of the multidisciplinary nature of both entrepreneurship and international business, Oviatt and McDougall (2005) define international entrepreneurship as \"the discovery, enactment, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities - across national borders - to create future goods and services\". In another word, entrepreneurial activities in an existing organization and/or creating a new business to access the global markets promote the internationalization- called international entrepreneurship. Thus, we hypothesize:\nData and methodology: Data\nEmpirical results and discussion: The results of analysis of data using SmartPLS (Ringle et al., 2015) software tool obtain the model structure of the loading factor construct that would explain the correlation of the construct of the level of education/knowledge, foresight competencies, successful business creation and international intensity is pictured in Figure 2.\nConclusion: This study sets out to improve the understanding of what drives toward the international entrepreneurship and reveals different considerable results. we investigate the role of human capital in entrepreneurship and internationalization. As such, we focused on the level of education as well as foresight competencies of entrepreneurs who intend to establish a business and desire internationalize it. We found that some of the variables are strongly associated with entrepreneurial internationalization, while one other not.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Global economies are involved with enormous activities of internationalization that provide pure and untapped opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses to place and promote their products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors applied structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis with the partial least squares (PLS), conducting an empirical analysis of data from 28 European countries.\nFindings: The results reveal that the higher level of education/knowledge in a country enhances the foresight competencies of entrepreneurs and that they both have a positive influence on the effective business creation. The findings of this paper also stress on the positive relationship between the effect of business creation and international intensity in economy level.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitation of this study lies in the impossibility of obtaining a larger and more complete data. Consequently, this study uses national-level data from 28 European countries, which makes the sample too small. In addition, although innovation is one of the driving factors in both internationalization and entrepreneurship, because of the limitation, it has not been considered in this study.\nPractical implications: The authors assert that countries, specifically European nations studied in this research, can improve their employment rate and value creation (through their products in international markets) by giving a special attention to the entrepreneurial-oriented human capitals.\nSocial implications: This research warns policymakers that they can have a serious contribution in promoting (international) entrepreneurship. They should draw a rigorous plan for formal and informal educational systems that effectively develops essential knowledge for launching new businesses and fosters the innovation and entrepreneurship.\nOriginality/value: This study set out to improve the understanding of the role of level of education/knowledge and foresight competencies, as the elements of human capitals, on international entrepreneurship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Building high-performing and integrated project teams
|
[
"Coaching",
"Trust",
"Team performance",
"Project facilitation",
"Psychological safety",
"Social capital theory",
"Project success"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: \"The soft stuff is always harder than the hard stuff.\" - Roger EnricoDelivering infrastructure projects to their pre-defined objectives is a challenge due to complexities and uncertainties that often exist. In particular, the cost and time estimates developed at the initial stages of a project are often unreliable due to the limited scope and technical definition at the front-end of projects (Ahiaga-Dagbui and Smith, 2014b; Love et al., 2016a). Design and construction errors, misguided trade-offs between cost, quality and risk, ambiguous contract documents, lack of transparent communication, and scope changes are innate features of infrastructure projects (Invernizzi et al., 2018). The upshot of such a contracting environment is often cost overrun, disputes, delays, rework and other operational inefficiencies (Ahiaga-Dagbui et al., 2017). This problem is often exacerbated by a contracting environment of competitive tendering and low-profit margins where the lowest evaluated bidders typically win the contract (Ahiaga-Dagbui and Smith, 2014a). There is evidence to support a claim that contractors often submit unrealistically low tenders, in the hope of winning the bid and finding ways of clawing back some of their initial loss from change-orders and claims (Coggins et al., 2016).A common mode for risk transfer for public sector clients, for example, has been the use of traditional lump-sum contracts based on design-bid-build frameworks (You et al., 2018). However, traditional lump-sum contract environments generally set the commercial drivers that define the strategic goals of clients and contractors on a collision course. When such contract types are used, then clients typically seek to acquire an asset at the lowest cost with the highest quality while contractors aim to increase their revenue and maximise profit. If contractors have been selected based on the lowest bid and have included a low margin then there is a tendency for them to consider post-contractual devices like change-orders, claims and extensions of time requests as \"highly appropriate and critical\" for increased profitably, even if opportunistic (Lumineau and Quelin, 2012; Lu et al., 2016). According to Hayford (2017), such a contractual environment only perpetuates an adversarial zero-gain mentality (\"my gain, your lose\") which hampers trust, effective collaboration and high team performance.Coaching and psychological safety have been identified as key enablers of high performance teams (e.g. Whitmore, 2002; Edmondson and Lei, 2014). The Association for Coaching(r) (2012) defines coaching as \"a collaborative, solution focussed, result-oriented and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work performances, life experience, self-directed learning and personal growth of the coachee\". The purpose of coaching is to empower an individual or a team to reach optimum performance. In a group context, coaching is valuable for removing relational barriers, forging team spirit, support reflection and learning from success or failures (Whitmore, 2002; Dimas et al., 2016). Similarly, psychological safety has been defined as the favourable \"perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in a particular context such as a workplace\" (Edmondson and Lei, 2014, p. 24). It has been identified as a critical factor in understanding phenomena such as individual voice, teamwork, learning and inter-firm cooperation towards shared outcomes (Liang et al., 2012; Edmondson and Lei, 2014).Against this backdrop, the research presented in this paper aims to examine the effectiveness and limitations of a Project Facilitation Model (PFM) as a coaching tool within the context of a traditional design-bid-build contract to engender conducive inter-organisational relationships. The PFM model was developed based on the experience of the client and project facilitator in delivering 129 water infrastructure projects worth AU$ 375 over a five-year period using project alliancing (Love et al., 2015). This study thus examines the application PFM as coaching tool for team integration, cooperation and trust to support effective project delivery. Traditional design-bid-build contracts have been chosen as the context of study as the literature suggests that they are typically more adversarial than the relationship framework of project alliancing (Davis and Love, 2011; Lu et al., 2016; Hayford, 2017). The paper commences with a review of the extant literature on building trust and cooperation within teams and the mediating role of psychological safety and coaching on team performance. These concepts are reviewed through the lens of social capital theory. This is then followed by a description of the PFM's structure, the research method adopted, as well as the findings identified as a result of the implementation of the PFM.\n2. Engendering high performance in projects: Key antecedents of highly effective project teams that have been identified in the extant literature include collaboration and willingness to share information (Parker et al., 1994), empowerment of the team through the development of psychological safety and trust (Edmondson, 1999; Delizonna, 2017); and a commitment to shared outcomes (Han et al., 2018). The theory of social capital, after Bourdieu (1986) and Coleman (1988), is useful in making sense of the connections between the antecedents above as it enables individual members to cooperate effectively and overcome relational barriers that can hinder performance. Social capital as a concept is often defined specifically in terms of networks, stressing the value-laden nature of social interactions and collective abilities (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988). The central proposition of social capital theory is that networks of relationships represent a valuable resource for the conduct of social affairs, providing people within the network with \"the collectively-owned capital\" and \"credential which entitles them to credit, in the various senses of the word\" (Bourdieu, 1986, p. 249).Accordingly, McElroy et al. (2006) simply describe social capital as the value of relationships between people in firms, as well as between different firms. Szreter and Woolcock (2004) propose a three-pronged framework for classifying social capital. These are (1) bonding social capital, referring to relations within or between relatively homogenous groups; (2) linking social capital - the relationships between people or groups at different hierarchical levels; as well as (3) bridging social capital, an outward looking value that helps to build connections within or between groups that do not necessarily share similar identities.Putnam (1993) positions trust as a key component in social capital theory, observing that where relationships are high in trust, people are more willing to engage in social exchange in general, and cooperative interaction in particular. Coaching can also be crucial in supporting teams to develop the enablers for developing trust and cooperation so as to flourish and perform at their optimum best (Love et al., 2015). The relationship between coaching, trust, psychological safety and social capital theory is conceptualised in Figure 1 and will form the basis of the literature review that follows hereinafter. 2.1 Coaching\n3. Research approach: An inductive case study research approach was adopted to examine the impact and limitations of coaching on developing some of the essential enablers of high performance within the team. This approach is chosen as it allows for a detailed, contextual, examination of coaching to support a narrative description of its possible impact on performance within the construction team (Eisenhardt, 1989). Case study research is particularly appropriate where an in-depth knowledge of an individual example is more useful than fleeting and superficial knowledge about a larger number of examples (Gerring, 2006). It is the preferred research strategy when the phenomenon and its context are not readily distinguishable and when a deeper understanding of practical issues on how things actually work is required (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011). The research process follows the outline provided by Eisenhardt (1989), i.e. defining the research question; selecting the cases for examining the phenomenon under study; developing the data collection instruments and protocols; actual data collection and data analysis to identify emerging constructs; and an interpretation of the findings by comparing them to the existing literature to ensure both internal and external validity. The research question for the study is two-fold: (1) how effective is project facilitation as a coaching tool for engendering collaboration and team working? and (2) what are the strengths and limitations of the model? The key departure of this research is that project facilitation model was implemented within a traditional design-bid-build project environment instead of a relationship delivery method such as an alliance. 3.1 Case selection\n4. Findings and discussions: A PFM model was adopted in this research to coach the team towards developing client-contractor and contractor-subcontractor relationships that might enhance project performance and innovation. The model was reviewed using triangulated data gathered from the team at the end of the project to access its effectiveness, limitations and areas that need improvement. The findings of the study demonstrate the mediating role of the Coach was beneficial in bridging the usual gap between clients and contractor, as well as attenuate the otherwise adversarial, \"them versus us\", relationship between clients and contractors. The client team noted that the program was a \"good insurance policy to have for a project which had a tight deadline and interfaces. The construction was completed within budget and within schedule [2]. The client and contractors\" staff observed that the workshops provided an opportunity to build team relationships, maintain high morale throughout the team and enable a better understanding of each company's drivers. The facilitation workshops further provided a platform to work through site issues quickly, identifying diagnostic action points before they could snowball into major problems and disputes. Essentially, the facilitated workshops seem to have created the platform that was useful in developing a level of psychological safety and trust within the project team necessary for open communication in relation to problem ownership and resolution. These are all critical antecedents to effective performance of any team, according to Wing (2005) and Edmondson and Lei (2014). The relationship between team performance, coaching and psychological safety that emerged from the case study are conceptualized and presented in Figure 6. The conceptual model is a simple abstraction to help visualise the connections between the different constructs that emerged from the data collected. 4.1 Best for project (BfP) principles and high performance\n5. Conclusions: Inter-firm relationships in construction are often governed by contracts to allocate risks between parties with provisions like performance bonds and guarantees, liquidated damages and retentions that attempt to enforce performance. What is often overlooked is that such contractual environments often lead to adversarial mentalities; an \"us versus them\" environment between clients and contractors that usually leads to disputes, variation-seeking behaviour, delays and limitations on value-adding project innovation. Using evidence from triangulated data sources, the study explored the effectiveness and limitations of project facilitation as a coaching model to develop conducive client-contractor relationships that could support enhanced performance. The key departure of the study is that relationship-based principles have been utilised as part of a traditional design-bid-build contract with lump-sum payment arrangements.Overall, the data sustains a claim that the coaching program provides the mechanism to develop team behaviours that support enhanced performance and create an environment less adversarial, and more collaborative than traditional contracting. The facilitation process within the environment of traditional lump-sum contracting provided the client with an extra \"soft insurance measure\" to influence the performance of the team. The results indicate that the facilitated workshops help develop and sustain best-for-project principles and psychological safety - these in turn created the platform for open and more effective communications for problem-solving. The project was delivered within schedule and within budget with the model being rolled out on other projects by the client organisation.Despite the possible benefits of project facilitation, it might be poor advice to recommend its adoption across all types of projects or client organisations. Relationship contracting may not always have the strategic strength to ensure compliance and performance, or even curb the traits of opportunism in transactional frameworks. This may be due to the interplay of power positions between clients and contractors, the nature of competitive tendering within the industry and the low operating margins that contractors generally operate on, particularly in periods of low economic growth. It will generally be difficult to incentivise contractors and suppliers to make relationship-related adjustments without a guaranteed return, usually in terms of repeat work or profitability. The facilitation model may thus be most suited for large clients with a continuous volume of work and regularity of relationship with the same partners. Such clients may be able to develop the conducive power and incentive structures to ensure that their project delivery partners are moved towards increased collaboration and best-for-project ideals.The findings and conclusions presented have some implications for research. For example, the success, or otherwise, of the project facilitation process may be contingent on the capabilities of the facilitator and the perceived value of the process to the construction team. Thus further research is needed to explore the characteristics, experience and profile of the project facilitator to achieve success. Also, research is required to empirically determine the types of projects that would benefit from the use of a facilitator. Further explication and testing of the model on different projects and teams is necessary to explore its efficacy and limitations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Effective inter-organisational relationships are key to engendering innovation and ensuring the successful delivery of infrastructure projects. Relationship-based contracts are thus widely used to stimulate best-for-project ideals and attenuate the otherwise adversarial relationship that often exists between clients and contractors. This study examines the effectiveness and limitations of a project facilitation model as coaching tool for developing conducive inter-organisational relationships for construction project delivery.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopts a case-study approach using evidence from triangulated data sources of focus group workshops, semi-structured interviews and document analysis.\nFindings: (1) The facilitation model enabled an environment for psychological safety to be developed, which engendered a platform for effective cooperation for problem-solving and achieving quasi best-for-project ideals. (2) The model provides the mechanism to develop team behaviours that support enhanced performance and create an environment less adversarial and more collaborative than traditional contracting.\nOriginality/value: The novelty of this research is that relationship-based principles have been utilised as part of a traditional design-bid-build contract with lump-sum payment arrangements.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Localisation in an emerging Gulf economy: Understanding the role of education, job attributes and analysing the barriers in its process
|
[
"United Arab Emirates",
"Higher education",
"Localization",
"Emiratization",
"Job attributes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Currently, most Middle Eastern countries are focusing on localisation policies, i.e., the substitution of expatriate workers with skilled and qualified local labour, due to low rates of native employment in the private sector (Forstenlechner and Rutledge, 2011; Forstenlechner et al., 2012). Localisation strategies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region are inevitable given the context of its rising population, increasing unemployment, improving general levels of health, and expanding education systems (Swailes et al., 2012).\n2. Literature review: Workforce localisation in the GCC\n3. Research methodology: This study employed a mixed method approach to achieve the research objectives. First, a survey-based method was used to assess the respondents' perceptions of jobs and job attributes, and second, interpretive structural modelling (ISM) methodology was applied to understand the interrelationships among the barriers that inhibit the localisation process. These approaches and their results are discussed in the following sections.\n4. Survey analysis: Table II provides insight into the profile of the survey respondents. In all, 80 per cent of the respondents were between the ages of 20 and 30 years old, and 20 per cent were 30 years old or older. The sample was comprised of 66 per cent females, of which, 34 per cent were working and 66 per cent were non-working. The sample was comprised of 34 per cent Emirati males, of which, 73 per cent were working in the government, semi-government, and private sectors and 27 per cent were non-working.\n5. Analysis of barriers to localisation using ISM: The ISM technique uses experts' opinions to develop relationships among variables. Thus, in the present study, seven experts, two from government, two from the private sector, and three from academia, were consulted. A consensus was built with regard to the relationships among the barriers. Then, a binary matrix was created that resulted in the reachability set and antecedent set for each barrier. The reachability set consists of the barrier itself and the other barriers that it may impact, whereas the antecedent set consists of the barrier itself and the other barriers that may impact it. Thereafter, the intersection of these sets is derived for all the barriers. The barriers for whom the reachability and the intersection sets are the same occupy the top level in the ISM hierarchy. Once the top-level element is identified, it is separated out from the other elements, and the process is continued until the level of each element is found. After removing the transitivities as described in the ISM methodology (Faisal, 2015), the digraph is finally converted into ISM, as shown in Figure 1. These levels help build the digraph and the final model (Figure 1).\n6. Implications: Understanding student perceptions of future employment opportunities is important to educators, recruiters, and policy makers (Al-Waqfi and Forstenlechner, 2012). Knowledge of student perceptions can be used to guide instruction, advice, and recruiting tactics (Warrick et al., 2010). To ensure country-wide progress, nationals must not only have a job but need to do a job. There is a dire need for vibrant policies that will motivate employers in a positive way instead of applying measures that are only punitive in nature.\n7. Limitations and scope for future research: Despite the fact that this study has provided prolific discernments of Emiratis on localisation programme success, ideal job attributes, and the role of education in employment, the study still has a number of limitations. The data were collected from only two Emirates; therefore, the results, while relevant for the UAE and the Gulf region, may not be generalisable to countries in other regions. More in-depth insights into what Emiratis are looking for in their professional careers may help in developing and fine tuning several of the initiatives and improve the effectiveness of localisation programmes. It may be stimulating to replicate this research in other Emirates and also in other GCC nations.\n8. Conclusion: Localisation has been an effective instrument in promoting employment opportunities for UAE nationals, and as a result, the programme has gained recognition amongst Emiratis. This study states that younger Emiratis consider localisation as an enabling factor in their professional success as compared with the older ones. Working female Emirati graduates were more positive towards localisation programme than their male counterparts. However, both genders see a mismatch in the efforts being made to better equip them. Also, both working and non-working male and female graduates' ranked salary as the key job attribute. The majority of the nationals were of the opinion that education plays a crucial role in their professional success, particularly in case of their first employment opportunity. Furthermore, tertiary institutions do not offer job readiness training or guided job searches to Emiratis to help graduates become more work ready or help them apply for jobs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to understand Emirati nationals' perceptions of the role of workforce localisation policies in their professional aspirations and growth and, second, to determine the role of higher education and job attributes in the achievement of their goals. The study uses a hierarchy-based model/road map to improve localisation efforts by attempting to aid understanding of the relationships and barriers hindering these processes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study follows a two-stage process. In the first stage, a questionnaire-based survey was administered to 207 Emirati postgraduate students from public and private universities based in two major Emirates: Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The sample data were analysed by basic descriptive statistics in the form of cross-relationships and rank correlation tests. In the second stage, an interpretive structural modelling approach was used to develop a hierarchy-based structural model of the barriers to localisation.\nFindings: Emiratis younger than 30 years old consider localisation as an enabling factor in their professional success in contrast to those older than 30 years old. The results also indicate that working female Emiratis have significantly more positive attitudes regarding the contribution of localisation towards their professional success than that of their male counterparts. However, both genders see a mismatch in efforts being made to better equip themselves for the workplace. The hierarchy-based model delineates variables that could contribute to making localisation a successful employment programme in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).\nResearch limitations: The findings of this study relate to the UAE. However, there are similar localisation programmes that have been implemented in other Gulf Cooperation Council states. Hence, while the results of this study are relevant to the UAE, they may not be generalisable to the entire Gulf region.\nPractical implications: It is proposed that the research findings and the structural model of relationships may help policy makers develop suitable strategies to strengthen the Emirati localisation programme.\nOriginality/value: This study makes a contribution to the literature and can serve as a guide to policy makers for localisation programmes. This is achieved by analysing the attitude of UAE nationals studying at higher education institutions. Furthermore, the study presents a hierarchy-based model of the barriers to localisation that explains the root causes of the problem.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A study of the drivers of commitment amongst nurses: The salience of training, development and career issues
|
[
"Nurses",
"Job satisfaction",
"Health services",
"Training",
"Career development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Context\nMethodology: Procedure\nFactors influencing commitment: Shared values - vocational commitment and patient care\nDiscussion: The economic realities of health care delivery have resulted in conflicting priorities, which have placed considerable pressure on nursing staff (Reay et al., 2003; Wright and Bartlett, 2008). The \"fault-line\" between NHS professional and general manager (Winyard, 2003) concerns the much-vexed issue of resources, and the introduction of general management concepts traditionally associated with the private sector (Bolton, 2002; Winchester and Bach, 1995). The issue of resource management and its impact on the delivery of holistic patient care, the employment of qualified nursing staff, training and development, pay and terms and conditions have been well documented and are reflected in the responses outlined above (Tables II-VII). Responses relating to the introduction of general management practices and responsibilities, and their adoption into the nurse practitioner role were mixed. Some viewed them as an intrusion, and felt that administrative and general management responsibilities competed with their primary role in delivering patient care (Sambrook, 2006). For others it was a welcome development, they felt that it gave them a greater sense of management and control over their own work. The responses to the issue of greater involvement in organizational decision-making were also similar. A stronger consensus did however emerge regarding the desire for a more \"two-way\", \"bottom-up\" approach towards organizational communication.The findings indicated that strong and supportive leadership, at ward and strategic organizational level, positively influenced the commitment of nursing staff. The question as to whether they felt that they currently had good leadership was not apparent. What was apparent, concerned the importance of line-management in influencing the commitment of their subordinates, both towards senior management and the organization. The role of leadership, linked to support, communication and strong interpersonal skills, was an interesting outcome of the study and would imply that the health service has undergone and will continue to undergo significant change (Cutcliffe, 2003). The fact that some respondents were prepared to work harder, and do more for good leaders was also significant.The study showed that support for ongoing professional training and development positively influenced commitment. Training and development offered nursing staff the opportunity to upgrade their skills and adopt the best practices and standards of their profession. Training and development initiatives could also be used by HRD practitioners, as an opportunity to introduce leadership and management development into the nurse practitioner role. While some were critical of the nature of the training regime, saying that it had become to academic and less hands on, the majority were generally positive about the support they were currently receiving. Respondents from the acute sector organization were particularly positive in this regard. Others however felt that they were not given sufficient time to pursue their own training and development, and said that management expected them to pursue training and development with their own time and money.The means to progress individual career prospects was also linked to training and development. It was also suggested that recognition and value did not necessarily have to be financial, thus leaving the door open for the use of professional training and development as a way of addressing this issue. Indeed, some respondents said that training and development were currently been offered to them as a form of reward and recognition.Career progression was met with mixed responses. Some respondents were more motivated towards career progression than others. The main issue amongst those who were not as driven towards career progression concerned the possible substitution of direct patient contact, and their professional nursing role, with administrative and managerial responsibilities. There was also the feeling that too many qualified nurses were competing for too few high level jobs, leaving unqualified nurses to deliver direct patient care.The overall findings of this study suggest that HRD has a role to play not just in helping bridge the fault-line between nurse practitioner and general manager, but also in maintaining and strengthening the commitment of nursing staff. By focusing on training, development and career issues, HRD initiatives can increase the commitment and facilitate the professional development of nursing staff, while at the same time link them to wider organizational aims and objectives.\nConclusion: This study highlighted key drivers of commitment amongst nursing staff and the importance of vocational commitment, in delivering high quality patient care (Homburg et al., 2002). The respondents took pride in their identity as nurses, and their role in delivering health care. They generally felt that agency nurses and unqualified nursing staff were not as committed, nor did they have the same kind of vocational commitment as their qualified counterparts (Peter and Morgan, 2001).Training and development were welcomed by nurses for the role they played in strengthening and enhancing nurse practitioner capabilities (Morrow and Wirth, 1989). The responses to career progression and greater involvement in decision-making were mixed, for many nurses they implied a move away from the nurse practitioner role and direct patient care, towards management and administration.Many nurses felt that they have not been given due credit, value and recognition for the work they did. In addition to addressing the motivational needs and the drivers of commitment amongst nursing staff, training and development also offers a means through which nurses can be recognized and valued for their contribution to health care. The study highlighted the importance of good leadership, particularly that of line management. This may also lend some justification for the inclusion of leadership and management development as part of the training and development of nursing staff. On the whole, the findings would strongly suggest that HRD practitioners use language, and terms of reference familiar to nursing staff, particularly in how they discuss and conceptualize training, development and career issues (Sambrook, 2006). The results of this study examined a number of drivers of commitment and explored the role training, development and career issues. The challenge for HRD practitioners in the health service organizations is to devise HRD initiatives that address the issues raised, in particular the issue of the nurse practitioner roles and responsibilities versus those associated with general management (Table VIII). It should be pointed out however that some of the issues raised, such as the existence shared values, leadership and resource management should also call upon the support and involvement of the wider HR function.\nLimitations of study and further research: The findings of this study are limited to nursing staff working two NHS organizations. In exploring the various drivers of commitment and the role of training, development and career issues the study's focus was towards depth, as opposed to breath, of investigation. Further research would be useful in exploring further the relationship commitment has with training, development and career progression. This may involve the use of a quantitative survey methodology design, for the purposes of measuring commitment, and its relationship with training, development and career issues amongst a larger nurse population.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this study is to highlight factors influencing the commitment of nurses, and particularly focuses on the role of training, development and career issues. It provides the basis for a HRD framework, outlining policy choices in developing high commitment amongst nursing staff.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative research design was used, involving 40 semi-structured interviews with nursing staff, from acute and community hospitals. The main themes and sub-themes relating to the drivers of commitment and the role of training, development and career issues were identified and explored employing a grounded theory, constant comparative approach.\nFindings: - The main \"fault-line\" between nurses and the organization concerned resource management, and the introduction of general management concepts and practices. HRD practitioners should consider using the language and terms of reference familiar to nurses when devising HRD initiatives. Factors positively influencing the commitment of nursing staff included shared values, involving a sense of \"vocational\" commitment towards patient care and nursing. Strong leadership, particularly concerning the role of line management, was seen as important in influencing commitment. Teamwork and support, from both line management and colleagues, was also important. Training and development were highly regarded by nurses, and could be a useful way of recognizing and acknowledging their contribution to health care delivery. Career progression and greater involvement were viewed favourably by some nurses and unfavourably by others. The main issue concerned the possible substitution of nurse practitioner responsibilities with administrative and managerial responsibilities.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings are solely based on interviews with nursing staff from two NHS organizations. In exploring the various drivers of commitment and the role of training, development and career issues the study's focus was towards depth, as opposed to breath, of investigation.\nPractical implications: - Valuable information for HRD practitioners and researchers on the drivers of commitment amongst nursing staff and the role played by training, development and career issues is provided.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is a useful study on exploring commitment amongst nursing staff and ways in which HRD practitioners and researchers can facilitate and develop commitment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Board independence, gender diversity and CEO compensation
|
[
"CEO pay",
"Boards of directors",
"Gender diversity",
"Monitoring",
"Independence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Appointing women to top management positions has become a focus of increasing attention. At a global scale, female representation on boards and in management teams is, however, still limited. For instance, the Female FTSE Board Report of 2012 suggests that only 15 per cent of the FTSE 100 board members are female (Sealy and Vinnicombe, 2012). The GMI Ratings' (2012) Women on Boards Survey shows that, between 2009 and 2011, the proportion of women on boards was only 12.6 per cent in the USA, 16.6 per cent in France and 12.9 per cent in Germany. Moreover, in January 2011, France passed a law that established a quota for women on boards, set at 40 per cent of the board members of the largest listed or non-listed companies[1] by 2017. While the percentage of women on boards in France did reach 29.7 per cent by 2014[2], this proportion was still far below the ultimate quota objective of 40 per cent.\n2. Theoretical background and hypothesis development: 2.1 Board independence and CEO compensation\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusions: In recent years, the presence of women on boards and in top management positions in companies has become a focus of increased attention. This focus is certainly observed in France, where the French legislature and the French government enacted and implemented major, far-reaching reforms in multiple areas of corporate governance, especially those regarding the appointment of women to boards of directors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the joint effect of board independence and gender diversity on the effectiveness of boards in monitoring CEO compensation in a continental European context, i.e. France.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Fixed-effect regressions are used to study the impact of board independence, gender diversity and their interaction, i.e. the proportion of female independent directors on the different components of CEO compensation (total, fixed and variable).\nFindings: The authors observe that both the proportions of independent directors and women sitting on the boards positively influence the various components of CEO compensation. However, the interaction of these factors, i.e. the proportion of female independent directors, is negatively associated with CEO compensation. These results suggest that independent women directors improve board effectiveness in monitoring CEO compensation, especially its fixed component.\nOriginality/value: The results of this research help to elucidate the importance of women being appointed to boards as independent directors to properly monitor managerial pay. These results provide support to the approach of the French Cope-Zimmerman law of January 2011, which promotes female representation on boards as independent directors to enhance board decision-making. Thus, evidence presented and discussed in this paper should provide useful insights for academics, corporate managers and regulators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Democratic" collaboration for school turnaround in Southern Arizona
|
[
"Ethic of community",
"Collaborative leadership",
"Distributed leadership",
"School turnaround",
"United States of America",
"Leadership, Schools"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Collaboration among multiple stakeholders is an integral part of growing expectations (i.e. grant funders, reform packages, accountability standards) for school turnaround. Effective and authentic democratic-oriented collaboration may indeed be a difficult endeavor in a school faced with pending sanctions for failing to meet Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) and many other competing priorities (e.g. time, budget, school safety, personnel conflicts)[1]. Participatory or democratic structures (e.g. teacher teams) and practices promoting collaboration may become only an illusion of reform (Mitchell and Sackney, 2009). Lacking more scrutiny of democratic dynamics and processes, collaboration may only reinforce traditional ways of working without accomplishing any real change (Hoog et al., 2005).How principals in successful schools have developed their organizations into participatory democratic communities has also been a key interest among researchers associated with the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP). Principal leadership for school turnaround across varying national contexts (e.g. Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, England, Norway, Sweden) emphasized principal orientations to distribute leadership and encourage open and reflective dialogue, critical analysis, and collaborative decision making (e.g. Day, 2009; Drysdale et al., 2009; Moller and Vedoy, 2009; Moos et al., 2005). In many cases, principals nurtured the kind of collaboration that increased capacity for participant social cohesion rooted in shared beliefs about democracy, equity, and social justice (Day, 2005; Giles et al., 2005; Gurr et al., 2005). More recently, studies of school turnaround within high-need or high-poverty school communities experiencing changing demographics or with significant proportions of ethnic minorities have noted principal attention to collaboration and collaborative networks in culturally sensitive or relevant ways (e.g. Mulford et al., 2008; Murakami-Ramalho et al., 2010; Pashiardis et al., 2011). For example, in Cyprus, principals established collaborative networks inclusive of local community members to share in democratic decision making and to link the school to active community life (Pashiardis et al., 2011). US principals also made efforts to involve culturally diverse parents and community members in the life of the school albeit in different capacities ranging from passive volunteers to active lobbying or involvement in decision making (Johnson et al., 2011; Murakami-Ramalho et al., 2010). Community engagement also depended on principal interpretation of appropriate involvement tempered by perceived anxieties or stress of high-stakes testing and accountability.Missing in ISSPP case studies, however, is deeper analysis of the democratic collaborative processes and dynamics enacted by participants, including the principal, that enabled and sustained the turnaround. More understanding of principal influence of democratic collaboration is especially vital in high-need and increasingly diverse school communities where the principal does not share the same ethnic identity and cultural background. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the democratic nature of collaboration and the role of the principal in one successful Southern Arizona elementary school within a changing demographic and border context in the US Southwest[2]. I draw upon data from one existing case as part of a larger multi-case study that focussed on leadership practices, skills, and dispositions in the Southern Arizona context whose demographic trends parallel demographic changes across the USA, including particularly high percentages of Latino(a) and Hispanic students (Ylimaki et al., 2012). While Latino(a)/Hispanic populations are increasing dramatically and projected to become by far the minority group across the USA, such demographic changes are already evident in Arizona where the Hispanic or Latino population is already the majority minority group (US Census Bureau, 2009).\nCollaboration in an ethic of community: Examination of how participants narrate the democratic processes of collaboration and the contribution of principal leadership is informed by Furman's (2004) ethic of community. Furman (2004) argues that a new leadership paradigm is needed to properly guide the work of school improvement and socially just educational reform. By social justice, I mean deliberately challenging fundamental inequities and increasing access to better educational and economic outcomes for marginalized children (Furman, 2004). This new paradigm transfers the locus of moral agency from the solitary or dominant visionary heroic leader to the responsibility of a community as a whole. As moral agents, leadership is distributed among stakeholders who are committed to a set of communal processes that encourage deeply democratic deliberation and collaboration: first, processes for knowing, understanding, and valuing; second, processes for full participation and inquiry; and finally, processes for working toward the common good. Collaboration for change depends on the vitality and strength of trusting relationships forged by a set of commitments, skills, and dispositions that allow these processes to emerge.In the first key process, participants strive for collegial relationships through knowing, understanding, and valuing one another (Furman, 2004). Members must respect the worth and dignity of all individuals involved in collaboration. Members convey a sense of acceptance and that individual views and values are welcomed. Participants practice deep intentional listening as they suspend personal judgments, assumptions, or emotional reactions for the perspectives of others including any pre-dispositions for end goals and steps necessary to achieve them. They articulate respect for member cultural diversity as well as devotion to understanding and celebrating local community history and culture.Second, the collaborative process must enable participants toward full participation and open inquiry in specific carefully constructed spaces or forums that facilitate opportunities for democratic exchange, deliberation, and inclusion of all voices (Furman, 2004). Dialogical interactions allow for inquiry and exploration of ideas for change. Participants, in this manner, socially construct the appropriate focus of the collaboration that will be served by the specific actions and projects developed through deeply democratic communal processes (Furman, 2004).Finally, manifestation and mastery of the first two key processes and related interpersonal and group skills (e.g. listening with respect, communicating effectively, working in teams) indicate capacity for realization of the third. Participants develop like-mindedness about the \"common good\" of the collaboration that exceed individual personal benefits or motives (Furman, 2004, p. 226). Collaboration in an ethic of community enables participants to become change agents disposed toward purposeful plans of action based upon commonly held moral footings.\nCase study design: Since the ISSPP involves contextually sensitive data concerning individual perceptions about the work of each principal, I employ an interpretative single case study approach so as to allow for an in-depth inquiry of collaboration at Juarez elementary, which is a \"phenomenon in real-life context\" (Merriam, 2001, p. 191). My purpose, in this approach, is to uncover causation through \"insight, discovery and interpretation\" (Merriam, 1988, p. 10).Criteria for selection of the case studies in the larger study (Ylimaki et al., 2012) from whence data for this single case was drawn is similar to those of previous ISSPP studies conducted in the USA, including the reputation of the schools, the acknowledged success of the principals by peers, and evidence of improved student outcomes over time. I chose to focus on one particular case from the larger study for this re-analysis because the principal is uniquely situated as an Anglo male in a dominant Latino/a school community and did not speak Spanish.Existing data was originally collected in the larger study at each school using multiple sources[3]. I rely specifically on existing semi-structured interview transcripts from the principal (interviewed twice), assistant principal, eight teachers, and six parents. The data were re-analyzed deductively in light of Furman's (2004) ethic of community. I also searched for unique principal contribution to democratic functioning. To ensure reliability, codes, and themes used in this study required consensus with two coders.\nJuarez Elementary School: Juarez Elementary is located in Southern Arizona along US and Mexico border in a relatively poor neighborhood within a large metropolitan area that is known for its high crime and gang violence. Juarez enrolls nearly 600 students, 95 percent of which are primarily Latino/Hispanic and 90 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. For the vast majority of students (75 percent), English is not the primary language spoken at home. Many are new in the country or believed to have undocumented family members. Students come from the surrounding neighborhood except for approximately 50 who are open-enrolled[4]. The school also maintains, on average, a 24:1 student-to-teacher ratio. Lute Ingalls has been principal of Juarez School for 13 years. He is a white (Anglo) male in his late 50s, with a tall build and a paternal manner. When he came to Juarez, he was the fourth principal in four years. Juarez School grew from one of the poorest performing schools to one of the highest performing schools in the district. Juarez achieved high-performing status within the states achievement profile classification system in the year prior to the interviews[5]. In fact, during data collection, the district superintendent appointed Lute to a central office position with the goal of creating \"more Juarez's\" throughout the district.\nFindings: I present findings with respect to Furman's (2004) ethic of community framework.Knowing, understanding, and valuing\nDiscussion and implications: I examine the democratic nature of collaboration for school turnaround including unique principal contributions, which suggest unfulfilled democratic potential because of inherent tensions in agency for change. Several implications with respect to practice, leadership preparation, and research are also discussed.Unfulfilled democratic potential\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to examine the democratic nature of collaboration and related principal influences in one successful Southern Arizona elementary school in a changing demographic and border context in the US Southwest and where the principal did not share the same ethnic identity/cultural background.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This case study, using Furman's ethic of community framework, draws upon a secondary analysis of existing qualitative data from one urban elementary school as part of a larger multi-case study. Participants included the Principal, Assistant Principal, eight teachers, and six parents.\nFindings: - Findings revealed limitations in democratic collaborative processes associated with school turnaround on account of principal pressure for compliance with personal agendas and packaged curricular reform expectations. Top-down managerial practices sacrificed inclusion of stakeholders, community relationship building, and room for more authentic democratic grassroots innovation.\nOriginality/value: - Furman's ethic of community enabled deeper analysis of democratic processes at a level typically not articulated in other case studies associated with the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
User perceptions of software with embedded spyware
|
[
"Trust",
"Privacy",
"Computer software"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Spyware has been defined in the US by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as \"software that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge and which may send such information to another entity without the consumer's consent, or asserts control over a computer without the consumer's knowledge\" (Federal Trade Commission, 2004b). Spyware can gather personal information stored or typed into a computer and can also install other spyware programs. User's keystrokes and mouse clicks can thereby be captured during both web navigation and local computer use. Hard drives can be scanned to obtain information from user's files and application programs such as e-mail, word processors, and games.Information obtained by spyware can be used beneficially to present online consumers with a streamlined, interactive experience and can facilitate more effective communication between businesses and their customers. A consumer's shopping experience can be enhanced by direct marketing based on target market profiles. Adware, a type of spyware, delivers specific advertisements and offerings, customized for individual users as they browse the web. These advertisements can take the form of pop-up or pop-under ads, web banners, redirected webpages, and spam e-mail.Some adware however, may alter a homepage by hijacking a web browser, or add URLs to bookmarks, to persistently present a competitor's website or a look-alike site, disallowing the user web access for his own purposes. Personal information such as financial data, passwords, and identification-tagged downloads can be transmitted, without the user's knowledge or consent, to the spyware author or third-party sites. These sites can \"phish\" for data from user inputs while surfing, banking, and making purchases. The data could then be used to promote gambling, pornography, or fraudulent schemes, such as identity theft, to unsuspecting users.Spyware usually arrives as hidden software components bundled with downloads such as screen savers, music-swapping software, or other freeware or shareware, but can also be included with purchased software. Users may wittingly or unwittingly consent to spyware by agreeing to the license presented when installing software, or even when denying software installation. Spyware is not well understood by users because of its covert nature.As an emerging research topic, spyware is not yet well understood (Zhang, 2005). The FTC has acknowledged that spyware is difficult to define because the capabilities of spyware can be used for both beneficial and negative purposes (Federal Trade Commission, 2004a). The capture of personal information via spyware may improve product and service offerings tailored to individual user preferences, enabling a company to develop a more intimate relationship with customers, which in turn increases trust and thereby loyalty (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000). An enduring competitive advantage can be achieved from this cyclical interchange. Trust however, must be understood because outrage over the collection of personal data can threaten trust, resulting in a loss of loyalty.The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a research model and hypotheses to explore user perceptions of privacy, trust, and US legal protection in the use of application software embedded with spyware. We first review previous research on spyware in section 2, revealing an absence of research addressing users' perceptions of application software within which spyware is embedded. Section 3 discusses the theoretical foundations for our research model and hypotheses. Section 4 provides a description of the experiment undertaken to test our own model of users' perceptions, of trust, privacy, and US legal protection, resulting from actual use of legitimate application software with embedded spyware. The analysis and results are presented in section 5, followed by a discussion of their implications in section 6. Finally, the conclusion and directions for future research are presented in section 7.\n2. Literature review: Previous information systems research on spyware addresses user characteristics and perceptions associated with spyware, characteristics of spyware, and ethical, legal, and policy standards. The review of previous spyware research underscores the controversy surrounding spyware resulting from privacy invasion and deceptive behaviors of spyware.2.1 User characteristics and perceptions associated with spyware\n3. Research model and hypotheses: While the current literature has addressed various issues about spyware, absent is a consideration of users' perceptions of application software within which spyware is embedded. Based on our review of previous research, we formulated the research model presented in Figure 1. Five variables and the relationship between them are identified, including the presence or absence or spyware in a software application, the user's belief that the software vendor is trustworthy, the user's perception of being able to control information privacy, the user's perceptions of the protection afforded by existing spyware laws, and overall trust in the software vendor. Consistent with previous research addressing trustworthiness, the user's perception of the vendor is examined as a set of specific beliefs including the ability to appropriately use any information collected, the benevolence of intentions in using information collected, and integrity in information collection and use. The presence or absence of spyware in the use of application software is hypothesized to negatively influence trustworthiness of a software package, the user's perceived control over privacy, and the user's belief that the US legal system protects software users. In turn, these three variables are expected to affect the user's overall trust in the software vendor. These variables are discussed below as they relate to the use of application software within which spyware is embedded.3.1 Spyware presence\n4. Research method: This is an exploratory study to examine whether the presence of spyware in application software impacts users' perceptions and beliefs about trustworthiness of the application software, privacy control of the software vendor, US legal protection, and overall trust of the software vendor. An experiment was undertaken using undergraduate students, who are provided with laptops as part of their degree program, as subjects.An experiment is appropriate because a field study would not allow control for the presence of spyware. The use of students as subjects may raise the question of external validity (Gordon et al., 1986). While this convenience sample is not representative of all internet users, the students are active members of the online population, with an average of about ten years of experience in this realm. The younger generation is generally regarded to be more internet literate because they grew up with this technology (Juznic et al., 2006). Those aged 18-29 have the highest penetration rate of internet use, with 88 percent in this age group using the internet (Pew Internet & American Life Project Surveys, 2006). Additionally, students had self-interest in taking the experiment seriously because the spyware activities would impact both them as users and their laptops. We acknowledge the use of a convenience sample, young in age and collected for this study from a specific geographic location (i.e. the mid-Atlantic US), engaged in the use of analytical software accessed from an internet interface, limits generalizability of the results. Further, we acknowledge that directives of an instructor in a classroom environment may affect trust perceptions of the software vendor, since the students may believe that the instructor would not request student use of software that would cause concerns.4.1 Measures\n5. Analysis and results: Table III presents a summary of the findings. An independent samples t-test reveals partial support for H1. Statistically significant differences between the experimental and control group are found for trustworthiness, ability, benevolence, and overall trust. Specifically, trustworthiness of the software vendor was significantly lower (t=2.25; p<0.05) for users of application software with spyware (m=4.60) than for users of software without spyware embedded (m=5.21). Among the three dimensions of vendor Trustworthiness, perceptions of vendor ability (t=2.23; p<0.05) and benevolence (t=2.82; p<0.05) were significantly lower for users of software without spyware (m=4.64 for ability; m=4.5720 for benevolence) than without spyware (m=5.37 for ability; m=5.41 for benevolence). Additionally, overall trust of the vendor was perceived to be significantly lower (t=2.17; p<0.05) among users of application software with spyware (m=4.26) versus without spyware (m=5.02).Multiple regression was used to test H2a, H2b, H2c, H3, and H4. An advantage of multiple regression is that an extremely large sample size of 100-200 respondents is not necessary; rather, a minimum sample size of 30 respondents is required (Gefen, 2000). The results of a linear regression with overall trust as the dependent variable and trustworthiness, perceived privacy control, and legal framework as the independent variables (F=51.142; p<0.001) provide support for H2. Trustworthiness (t=12.049; p<0.000) is a significant predictor of overall trust. Partial support is provided for H2a, H2b, and H2c based on a linear regression with overall trust as the dependent variable and ability, benevolence, integrity, perceived privacy control, and legal framework as the independent variables (F=35.476; p<0.001). Specifically, H2a and H2c are supported. Ability (t=2.620; p<0.05) and integrity (t=3.2677; p<0.000) are significant predictors of overall trust. H3 and H4 are not supported.\n6. Discussion and implications for research and practice: Software vendors should rethink the practice of embedding legitimate spyware in software applications, unless user trust can be maintained. To maintain user trust, software vendors must strive to balance the legitimate use of spyware with user privacy concerns. Governmental regulatory agencies may provide a clearer definition of what constitutes the legitimate use of spyware to dissuade software users' concerns.User trust in software utilization is critical for a software vendor's success because without it, users may avoid a vendor's software should the presence of spyware be discovered. This is consistent with previous findings that consumers who lack trust in an online vendor tend not to engage in e-commerce with that vendor (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000) and the findings that consumer trust affects both window-shopping and purchase intentions of online consumers (Gefen, 2000). However, caution is necessary since this extrapolation from online purchase intentions to actual software use has not been empirically tested.Not only is trust vital to software vendors, it is central in the acceptance of technology. This exploratory study advances an understanding of trust by addressing actual users' perceptions of both trustworthiness and overall trust of a software vendor. Further, trustworthiness is examined as a multi-dimensional construct. The results provide support for the advantage of treating trustworthiness as a construct comprised of distinct beliefs (Gefen, 2002), allowing additional insight, for software vendors and governmental agencies, into user beliefs about trust. A vendor's trustworthiness-ability; that is, competence and knowledge about the appropriate use of private user information collected, and trustworthiness-integrity, the belief that a vendor will abide by acceptable principles in information exchange; were found to be important influences of overall trust of a vendor. A comparison of the perceptions of actual users of software with spyware, versus without, revealed lower perceptions of trustworthiness and overall trust. Specifically, a vendor's trustworthiness-ability, was perceived to be lower for actual users of software with spyware than for users of software without spyware. Vendor trustworthiness-benevolence, the extent to which the user believes a vendor's intentions in the use of information are good, was lower for users of software with spyware than without. Finally, overall trust of the vendor was lower among users of application software with spyware versus without spyware. These results offer insight into trust perceptions of software users, providing guidance for software vendors in their trust-building efforts.\n7. Conclusion and directions for future research: The empirical results for H1 indicate users of application software within which spyware is embedded, versus users of software with no spyware, perceive the trustworthiness and overall trust of a software vendor to be lower. Further examination of trustworthiness as a multi-dimensional construct, revealed the vendor's trustworthiness-ability, that is, competence and knowledge about the appropriate use of private user information collected, and trustworthiness-integrity, the user's belief that the vendor will abide by acceptable principles in information exchange, are important influences of the software users' overall trust of a vendor. Partial support for H2 is thereby provided, while H3 and H4 are not supported.While the results are intended to provide guidance to software developers and government regulatory agencies in resolving the controversy surrounding spyware, additional insights about the inclusion of spyware are needed. Software vendors may be concerned that users of application software within which spyware is embedded view the risks associated with spyware to be so high that they discontinue use of the software. Government regulatory agencies require insight into user perceptions and practices to determine what oversight of spyware is appropriate.The experiment undertaken was exploratory. Future research should expand the demographic representation of the online population, the geographical reach, and the type of internet activities in which users are engaged. An extension of this study would be to examine whether users actually would change their behavior by avoiding the use of software with spyware. Additionally, characteristics of the software and user satisfaction with software use may be associated with reduced user concerns. Future research could draw upon the end-user computing literature (DeLone and McLean, 1992; Doll and Torkzadeh, 1988; Doll et al., 1994) to explore for example, user satisfaction with the use of software with embedded spyware. An exploration of the software vendors' perspective would provide an understanding of what actions are undertaken to protect the privacy of their customers and maintain their trust. The efficacy of such actions could also be assessed. Such additional research will enable an understanding of the views of users regarding the acceptability of software applications with embedded spyware, which will ultimately lead to protections for users or responses by spyware providers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide a research model and hypotheses that explores software users' perceptions of privacy, trust, and US legal protection in using application software with embedded spyware.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An experimental study was undertaken requiring subjects to use an online analytical processing software product. After use, the experimental group was told spyware was embedded in the software. Questionnaire responses for the experimental and control group were compared using independent samples t-test. Multiple regression was used to determine significant predictors of overall trust in the software vendor.\nFindings: - Users of software with spyware, versus users of software without spyware, have lower trust perceptions of a software vendor. Further examination of trustworthiness as a multi-dimensional construct, reveals trustworthiness-ability and trustworthiness-integrity are important influences of overall trust of a vendor.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main limitation of the findings is the use of a convenience sample, limiting the generalizability of the results.\nPractical implications: - The results may provide guidance to software vendors and government regulatory agencies in addressing the concerns associated with spyware.\nOriginality/value: - Software vendors should rethink the practice of embedding spyware in software applications, unless user trust can be maintained.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cluster analysis for fruit consumption patterns: an international study
|
[
"Culture",
"Cluster analysis",
"Multinomial logit model",
"Diet habits",
"Fruit consumption"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As a major source of nutrition, fruit consumption is essential for human health. Studies have indicated that high consumption of fruits and vegetables may contribute to lower body mass index (BMI) and prevent several kinds of cardiovascular disease and cancer (Vecchia, 2004). To promote fruit consumption, diet recommendations and guidelines have been released by government agencies across countries. For example, the recently released US Dietary Guidelines 2015-2020 recommend consumption of two cups of fruits daily based on a 2000 - calorie intake level (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2015); dietary guidelines in the UK and France recommend to eat at least five portions of fruits and vegetables every day; and the Japanese dietary guideline recommends to consume two servings of fruits per day (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2016a). However, the actual intakes of these foods across the world are still consistently below recommended levels (Konopacka et al., 2010; Dehghan et al., 2011). Therefore, identifying factors influencing fruit consumption and consumer groups with the low intake is critical to developing effective strategies to boost consumption.\nMethods and data: Survey instrument\nResults: Characteristics of respondents\nConclusion: Healthy food intakes are essential for human well-being, and fruits are considered a part of the healthy diet worldwide. However, consistent lower fruit intake than recommended levels across countries call for effective strategies to boost the consumption of healthy foods. Our study collected novel data covering eight countries in North America, Europe and Asia to investigate and compare current fruit consumption patterns internationally. A cluster analysis was conducted to identify distinct consumer segments based on their consumption frequency of 15 types of fruit. The characteristics of each cluster were examined and compared across regions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the fruit consumer segmentations and compare the consumption patterns across North America, Europe and East Asia. This study aims to identify the key drivers for fruit consumption across segments and regions, in terms of socioeconomics and shopping behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An international survey to collect information on fruit consumption, demographics and lifestyle factors was developed. Respondents from eight countries across North America, Europe and East Asia were recruited from online panels. A total usable sample of 7,793 respondents was collected.\nFindings: Respondents can be clustered in three segments: low-frequency consumer, common fruit consumer and high-frequency consumer. These consumer segments are heterogeneous in socioeconomics and shopping behavior across regions. Overall, the high-frequency consumer cluster had more individuals who were older, married, not single/never married, self-reported healthy and physically active. The low-frequency consumer group had a larger number of individuals who were younger, living alone, single/never married, self-reported unhealthy and not active. Moreover, the high-frequency fruit consumers tended to focus on many fruit attributes, such as freshness, nutritional value, origin and in the season, but not focus on the price.\nOriginality/value: This study uses a unique data set covering eight countries and provides a comprehensive comparison of international fruit consumption patterns and identifying the important factors driving fruit purchase decisions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Taking advantage of e-learning's new tricks: But do they work for old dogs, too?
|
[
"Communication technologies",
"Individual behavior",
"Management development",
"Skilled workers",
"Teaching methods",
"User interfaces"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nFundamental truths that underpin dizzyingly-fast change: Everybody's got an opinion on learning, and many hold dear their opinions on the relationship between teaching, learning and knowledge. Countless people, Confucius and Abraham Lincoln included, have all had something wise and wonderful to say about it, so there is no shortage of advice out there.Times change, as do teaching methods, but some underlying truths remain - Leonardo da Vinci's \"Learning never exhausts the mind\" and educator Marva Collins's \"The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another\" being but two of those constants.In times of almost dizzyingly-fast change in most aspects of business life, it is quite reassuring that organizations can still apply such fundamental generalizations to the ever-pressing necessity of having staff develop and learn. But generalizations they are, with wording that would look good framed and displayed prominently on the classroom, or even the boardroom wall.The challenge for educators now is the same as that faced by educators throughout history - how to apply the methods of delivering the knowledge, expertise and skills they have to hand in the most effective ways.\nKeep focused on monitoring learning outcomes: Even the revolution that goes by the name of \"e-learning\" still has those fundamental truths at its core but its apparent technical complexity and technical sophistication can be frightening to the very people it is supposed to make life simpler for - the learners and their managers and directors who would have them learn. And just as there have always been good and bad teachers, there are good and bad e-learning tools and methods. That is why it is so important for organizations to bear in mind when choosing e-learning services, not merely to find out what it's supposed \"to do\" for the people who will be involved, but to monitor the outcomes. Did it do what it was supposed to, or what you thought it was supposed to? Do not ask if your staff \"learned anything\" - ask instead: \"Has what they learned enabled them to do things they couldn't do before?\"While the technical complexity and sophistication of e-learning, compared with the more traditional classroom-style of teaching, might put some organizations off, it is those very attributes which should be persuading them to get involved and grab all the advantages it has to offer. For instance, the flexibility of delivering training where and when it can be best used, the ability to tailor courses right down to the individual level with the opportunity for learners to navigate the learning process in the most appropriate way for themselves, skipping what they already know - revisiting aspects with which they have need to learn or reinforce - and, where the e-learning course allows, making full use of the ability to exchange information and views.\nCareful handling and explanation called for with older workforce: As for the fear and anxiety that some people have for rapidly advancing information and communication technology, it is pretty obvious that it is going to apply to fewer and fewer people as those born and bred on computers, mobile phones, e-mails, social networking sites, blogs, wikis and iPods gradually take over. In the meantime, however, there are lots of people out there still young enough to be an essential part of the workforce but old enough to need more careful handling and explanation when it comes to the intricacies and possibilities of the e-revolution. Many of them, in fact, are the very people who have to choose the e-learning solutions their organizations need or at least the ones who have to \"ok\" their procurement.Not that spending generously on learning, including e-learning, seems to be too much of a problem even in times of economic uncertainty. That is an observation which, we must hope, has longevity as the future economic environment becomes increasingly difficult to predict. The argument in favor of needing to invest in learning and development now to ensure staff are up and running when the economy improves may not sound too convincing in boardrooms preoccupied with the present.\nUSA spends $134.39 on employee training and development: However, in 2007, according to the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), US organizations spent an estimated $134.39 billion on employee learning and development. That total reflects direct learning expenditures such as the learning function's staff salaries, administrative learning costs, and non-salary delivery costs (including outsourced activities). Nearly two-thirds ($83.62 billion) was spent on the internal learning function, such as staff salaries and internal development costs. The remainder ($50.77 billion) was allocated to external services such as workshops, vendors and external events.Organizations contributing to such billion-dollar learning enterprises need to be sure, especially at a time when money is tight, it is well spent - that it makes a real difference. Andrew Paradise, an ASTD research analyst, says: \"New technology tools and solutions enable learning content to become more dynamic than ever. Learning professionals have the ability to improve technology-based content continually and cast a wider net with its delivery. One of the most recent technological advancements involves the learner gaining the ability to control the content. And the learners themselves are able to make enhancements through Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, and other social networking platforms. E-learning has facilitated an unprecedented information exchange between individuals, teams, and organizations.\"While Andrew Paradise points out that millions of workers now have access to information that can stimulate their individual potential and also help secure their standing by increasing their value, Zeying Wan et al. (2008) consider the potential problems arising because individuals have different experiences with information and communication technology which are likely to affect the outcomes of their e-learning experiences. They go so far as to suggest that e-learning is not the best choice for everyone. Learners with low virtual competence (the knowledge, skills, and abilities that individuals possess to perform in virtual environments), will face more difficulties while learning and achieve lower outcomes.\nSpecial needs of older workers need to be taken into account: They say: \"Negative feelings may eventually increase the dropout rate or result in diminished learning effectiveness. Therefore, organizations and institutions need to take into account the special needs of learners who do not have adequate knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform in virtual environments (internet beginners, individuals with low computer self-efficacy, and those with little technology background).\" For them, more traditional methods may be a better choice until they develop the necessary ICT experience and virtual competence.Until, to put it bluntly, old dogs get to learn new tricks - a point taken up by Beverley Head who reckons that this is exactly what needs to happen in Australia where there's expected to be an 5.6 per cent growth in demand for skilled workers by 2012 while the workforce is expected to grow by just 1.2 per cent in the same period. She says: \"If you really can't teach old dogs new tricks, we're in a whole heap of trouble.\" Focusing on ICT professionals, she quotes Mickey Clark, CEO of The Learning Group which develops e-learning applications. He says: \"IT workers learn experientially - the best learning is through butting in and mentoring and that can be done online through an online coach.\" While such an environment can be generated through formally developed internal e-learning systems, he says a lot of informal online coaching can be sourced through simple online searches or participating in e-mail listserv communities. He has recently observed the rise of user-generated learning systems as more people and companies embrace blogs, social networks and wikis and start using them as learning tools.Virtual training, says Jasmin Tragas, managing consultant for learning, knowledge and collaboration for IBM Australia, is particularly attractive to organizations with a widely-spread workforce, where the cost of bringing together employees and expert trainers in a single venue for a period of time can be prohibitively expensive.Like others in the business, she sees the future as a blend of learning environments embracing a mix of virtual and classroom sessions. Whatever the setting, engaging the learner to enjoy the never-ending process of learning new tricks remains the challenge.\nComment: This review is based on \"Fast learners\" (revolution in learning through e-learning) by Beverley Head (2008), \"Investment in learning remains strong\" by Andrew Paradise (2008), and \"Why people benefit from e-learning differently: the effects of psychological processes on e-learning outcomes\" by Zeying Wan, Yinglei Wang and Nicole Haggerty. Beverley Head assesses the potential of e-learning in addressing problems caused by skill shortages which Australia is likely to suffer in the near future. Andrew Paradise considers the 2008 American Society for Training and Development's State of the Industry Report which looks at the approach being taken to training and development by US companies. Zeying Wan et al. try to identify and distinguish between types of individual experience with ICT as antecedents of e-learning outcomes.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints 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: - There are lots of people out there still young enough to be an essential part of the workforce but old enough to need more careful handling and explanation when it comes to the intricacies and possibilities of the e-revolution. Many of them, in fact, are the very people who have to choose the e-learning solutions their organizations need or at least the ones who have to \"ok\" their procurement.\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The effect of family business professionalization on dividend payout
|
[
"SME",
"Family firm",
"Dividend",
"Professionalization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The topic of dividend policies in private family firms has aroused the interest of corporate finance and governance scholars and practitioners alike. However, many questions concerning the dividends in privately held family firms remain unanswered. While past research has investigated the influence of family ownership and/or management on dividend policies (e.g. Chen et al., 2005; Farinha, 2003; Gugler, 2003; Huang et al., 2012; Pindado et al., 2011; Setia-Atmaja et al., 2009, 2010; Yoshikawa and Rasheed, 2010), it typically focuses on listed family firms and ignores the much larger and more diverse group of privately held family-owned and managed firms. Studying the dividend behavior of this heterogeneous group of firms may be very interesting, since these types of firms are assumed to follow a logic that is driven by both economic and non-economic motives (Gallo et al., 2004; Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007; Koropp et al., 2014). The desire to maintain family control may influence decision making in private family firms, specifically financial decisions such as dividend payouts (Blanco-Mazagatos et al., 2007; Gallo et al., 2004; Romano et al., 2000). For example, private family firms often postpone growth-promising investment opportunities rather than issue external equity, to avoid the possible threat of weakened family control (Koropp et al., 2014; Maherault, 2000; Wu et al., 2007). So agency costs, for example due to altruism, nepotism, or self-control problems within the controlling family, may influence financial decisions in family firms.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 The importance of dividend payouts in family-controlled firms\n3. Method: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics and univariate analyses\n5. Discussion: The results support our first three hypotheses: firms with advanced financial control systems (e.g. formalized financial goals and objectives), formalized human resource control systems (e.g. incentive pay), and non-family involvement in governance systems (on the board of directors and the management team) pay out higher dividends. Our results do not support the last two hypotheses since we find that neither decentralization of authority nor top-level activeness has a significant effect on dividend payout.\n6. Conclusion: This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about dividend payments in family-controlled firms. These firms are assumed to follow financial logic that is driven by both economic and non-economic motives (Gallo et al., 2004; Koropp et al., 2014), and several studies have already investigated the influence of family ownership and/or management on dividend policies (e.g. Chen et al., 2005; Farinha, 2003; Gugler, 2003; Pindado et al., 2011; Setia-Atmaja et al., 2009; Yoshikawa and Rasheed, 2010). Recently, the subgroup of privately held family firms has also attracted attention from several researchers (Gonzalez et al., 2014; Michiels et al., 2015; Vandemaele and Vancauteren, 2015). Although these studies have started to open the black box of dividend payments in privately held family firms by investigating the influence of family governance practices (Michiels et al., 2015) and family influence in ownership and management (Gonzalez et al., 2014; Vandemaele and Vancauteren, 2015) on a firm's dividend policy, there is still much work to do before we thoroughly understand why, when, and how private family firms pay dividends. We contribute to this debate by exploring in more detail the relationship between family firm professionalization and dividend payout. Our results indicate that three out of five dimensions of professionalization, including the use of financial and human resource control systems, and high levels of non-family involvement in governance, significantly and positively influence the dividend payout ratio. According to these results, the level to which a family firm has professionalized in these aspects significantly influences the dividend payout, suggesting that professionalization seems to reduce agency costs related to parental altruism or nepotism. Our study therefore adds an important variable to the dividend literature alongside the traditional determinants (firm size, firm age, leverage, profitability, liquidity, growth) and clearly indicates the need to take into account the heterogeneity of private family firms to explain why, how, and when family firms pay out dividends.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The topic of dividend policies of private family-controlled firms has aroused the interest of corporate finance and governance scholars and practitioners alike. However, a lot of questions concerning the dividends in privately held family firms remain unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether a private family firm's dividend payout is influenced by its degree of professionalization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 492 small to medium-sized Belgian family-controlled businesses with Tobit regression models.\nFindings: The results show that professionalized family-controlled firms pay higher dividends to their shareholders than do less-professionalized firms. In particular, the use of financial control systems, non-family involvement in governance systems, and the use of human resource control systems have a positive significant impact on the average level of dividend payout.\nPractical implications: This study may be of interest to family business consultants and (potential) investors, as the results contradict the assumption that family businesses (especially those privately held) will always have a no or low dividend policy.\nOriginality/value: Investigating dividend payout in the context of other components than family ownership (in this case, professionalization) can broaden our understanding of dividend payout.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Towards the distinctive Islamic mode of leadership in business
|
[
"Leadership",
"Arab countries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent history, the philosophical model of Anglo-American capitalism, namely that of shareholder value has been the focus of criticism as local and regional economies have been harmfully impacted by its characteristics and nature (Lane, 2003; Clarke and Klettner, 2009). Numerous lessons drawing from scandals, failures, debts crises, and subsequent recessions appear to be linked to unethical conduct among business and its leaders in all corners of the globe. As Boddy et al. (2010) indicated, dishonest, unprincipled leaders dares to deny responsibility for the crises, continue to hold on to their powerful positions, seeks selfish ends at the expense of other people's welfare, and pressures employees to fit in a hypocritical organizational environment, the public has increasingly lost its faith and trust in corporations and their executives. Therefore, the necessity for legislative and regulatory change within this system so as to include all stakeholders' interests and align business with morality, ethics, and courage is pressing (Groves and LaRocca, 2011; Dubrin, 2012). This trend relates to an increasing focus on values in corporations, society, and leadership (e.g. Fry, 2009; Heifetz, 1994; Roca, 2008; Kanter, 2010).\nLiterature review: Islamic leadership\nResearch design: Based on the literature review and the increasing demand on integrating ethics and values in leader's decision making around the world and the researchers' conviction that Islamic leadership includes an all in one leadership concept/style; the following conceptual framework has been proposed:\nDiscussion and recommendations: The results of the analyses provide support for hypotheses stated earlier. As predicted, Islamic leadership is positively related to transformational, ethical and authentic leadership and not to transactional leadership. The findings support the opinion that Islamic practise can contribute to the contemporary management literature, highlighting the point that Islamic piety is an ethic of personal responsibility that is instilled by the individual accountability to God Rose (1999).Thus, compared with the other tested leadership practices, Islamic leadership might be more substantial for drawing upon and promoting both positive psychological dimensions and a positive ethical climate, because of spirituality into a site of individual management,defining work as a form of spiritual practice, and instilling ethics of individual accountability and personal responsibility for this worldly success and other worldly salvation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper provides some fundamental observations on leadership from an Islamic perspective and the Islamic revealed knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to measure the association between Islamic leadership and the most common western forms of leadership namely; transactional, transformational, authentic, and ethical leadership styles as well as its relationship on leader's effectiveness and organizational innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An empirical investigation was conducted using portrait value questionnaire recommended by Schwartz (1994b), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) followed by structural equation modelling (SEM).\nFindings: The results indicated that Islamic leadership is positively and significantly associated with perception of leader effectiveness and innovation outcomes. In addition the findings revealed that Islamic leadership is positively correlated with transformational, ethical, and authentic leadership as well and not with the transactional leadership style.\nPractical implications: Among the practical implications of this research is that while a large body of leadership research has adopted a variation of leadership theories, our results suggest that we should seize to pay attention to the influential Islamic leadership.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this paper is that it extends scholarly understanding on Islamic perspectives of management which is a relatively new and growing area of interest for academics and practitioners, in terms of both theory and practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Image edge detection: A knowledge management technique for visual scene analysis
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Visual programming",
"Algorithmic languages",
"Semantics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Visual scene analysis (VSA) is currently finding application in a large variety of fields such as engineering, medical Science, geology, biology, and astronomy, etc. The visual scene analysts (knowledge workers) uses the results and methods of mathematics, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence (AI), psychophysiology, computer science and electronics to drive semantic knowledge in images. The increasing demands on production automation and quality control, industrial application of digital image processing system is rapidly growing. Detection of edges in an image is a very important step toward complete image understanding. Edges are important features of an image; there is a lot of significant information contained in edges of an image.However, knowledge management (KM) has recently received considerable attention in the computer information systems community and is continuously gaining interest by industry, enterprises and academia (Metaxiotis and Psarras, 2003). Today KM is the subject matter of much literature, discussion, planning and some action (Nonaka, 1991; Wiig, 1993; Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Davenport et al., 1998; Leonard, 1999; Metaxiotis et al., 2002). Although, there is recognition that knowledge is a key image-processing asset, visual analysts are still in the early stages of understanding the implications of KM.Knowledge need not be a set of defined assertions with precisely specific domain; it may be both empirical and vague in nature, and AI calls the vague knowledge heuristic (Elias and Hassan, 2002). Another concept is the a priori knowledge (information), this being knowledge available before the search for a problem solution starts. A priori knowledge - if available - may ease the image knowledge understanding and management. The third is the syntactic and semantic concepts, which come from the theory of formal languages and logic. It allows us to study formal relationships between form and context. When we use the expression \"semantic information,\" we will be referring to the information originating from image content. We believe that physical edges are one of the most important properties of objects (images). They correspond to object boundaries or to changes in surface orientation or material properties. Edges help extracting useful information and characteristics of an image.In this paper, we present a framework for building a KM tool using edge detection algorithms to derive semantic knowledge of images. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we discuss key issues in KM. In Section 3, we highlight knowledge needed by the VSA. Section 4 discusses edge detection as a KM technique for VSA, and finally, Section 6 describes aspects of image-edge detection knowledge and finally, conclusion.\n2 Knowledge management (KM): KM is the management discipline that is concerned with creating, preserving and applying the knowledge that is available within an organization. Typically, this is done using techniques such as training, process modeling, experience (data) bases, and networking of experts (Kneuper, 2000).Also, Hansen et al. (1999) distinguish approaches to KM based on the importance they put on formalization:* The certification strategy puts the main emphasis on making tacit knowledge of the organization explicit, e.g. in a image process model.* The personalization strategy concentrates on support for person-to-person knowledge transfer, leaving knowledge tacit but making it available by communication between people. A typical technique here is to describe who knows about a certain topic, rather than describing the topic itself in sufficient detail for someone else to read and apply it.The main focus of the current paper is in image edge-detection process modeling and therefore on the codification strategy. Depending on context and the task at hand, either strategy can be useful.However, it is important to keep in mind that knowledge essentially in human-based. If people (such as visual scene analysts) need knowledge to solve a problem, they usually tend to ask their colleagues rather than search a database. The challenge for image edge detection process technology is to make the tools sufficiently useful for developers to prefer to use the tools rather than asking their colleagues.Probst (1998) has defined a structure for KM, called the \"building blocks\" of KM (Figure 1).\n3 Knowledge needed by the visual scene analyst: In this section, we describe the knowledge needed to support image edge detection processes in more detail. Before we can do so, we need to define who needs the knowledge we are talking about. First of all, this includes the visual scene analysts and other related knowledge workers, but also supporting personnel such as technical writers who write the user documentation and semantic information of the image-edge data. Furthermore, this will require knowledge about the images. Similarly, VSA needs knowledge about the image to judge and optimize tools effectiveness.The knowledge needed includes an overview of edge-detection process used, descriptions of the tasks to be performed and the artifacts to be produced, the development method used.\n4 Edge-detection as a KM technique for VSA: This is a process of locating an edge of an image. An edge describes defeat by a small margin. Edges typically correspond to points in the image where the gray value changes significantly from one pixel to the next (in particular the magnitude of the first derivative is large), edge detection are likely to pick out areas where there is abrupt change in gray value.Detecting of edges is a very important towards understanding images because it contains meaningful feature of an image, which are the significant information. Edges often correspond to object boundaries, shadow transition.Edge is a local property of a pixel and its immediate neighborhood - it is a vector given by magnitude and direction. Images with many brightness levels are used for edge computations and the gradient of the image function is used to compute edges. The direction is perpendicular to the gradient direction which points in the direction of image function growth.Owing to an edge in an image corresponds to an intensity change abruptly or discontinuity, step edge contain large first derivatives and zero crossing of the second. In the case of the first derivative operation, edge is detected as local maximum of the image convolved with a first derivative operator. Prewitt, Robert, Sobel and Canny implement their algorithms using this idea (Chang-Huang, 2002). For the second derivative case, edges are detected as the location where the second derivative of the image crosses zero. The using of Laplacian of Gaussian convolution mask is the common of the second derivative operator (Chang-Huang, 2002).In this work, Canny method of edge detection was used. We focus our study on Canny edge detection that is commonly used in pattern recognition and vision systems. The Canny operator was designed to be an optimal edge detector (according to particular criteria - there are other detectors that also claim to be optimal with respect to slightly different criteria). It takes as input a gray scale image, and produces as output an image showing the positions of tracked intensity discontinuities (Cong, 2006).\n5 Methodology: The Canny algorithm was implemented using JAVA version1.5.1 on an IBM compatible PC: with Pentium IV processor, 1.6 GHz, 256 MB RAM, running on ms windows. The Canny method finds edges by looking for local maximal of the gradient of image(I). The gradient is calculated using the derivative of a Gaussian filter. The algorithm then tracks along the top so as to give a thin line in the output, a process known as non-maximal suppression. The method uses two thresholds: T1 and T2, (with T1(T2) to detect strong and weak edges, and includes the weak edges in the output only if they are connected to strong edges. Tracking can only begin at a point on a ridge higher than T1. Tracking then continues in both directions out from that point until the height of the ridge falls below T2 (Cong, 2006). The process is showed in the flowchart in Figure 2. This method is, therefore, less likely than the others to be \"fooled\" by noise, and more likely to detect true weak edges. Once a threshold is set, one can compare the gradient value to the threshold value and detect an edge whenever the threshold is exceeded.A Pixel location declared an edge location if the value of the gradient exceeds some threshold. Though the image in binary, it is held in an array where each pixel can run from 0 to 255. Zero denotes a black pixel, while 255 denote a white pixel. The algorithm is composed of some iteration that gradually erodes the images into thin line. During iterations, each pixel in the image is evaluated for being removable; the pixel meets a set of criteria for being changed from black to white. After all the pixels have been evaluated, there are changes of value of the marked pixels from 1 to 255.Figure 3 is the binary sampled image. The algorithm analyzes these patterns, allowing the image to be matched with those in a database. The result is shown in Figure 4. This figure is a simplified image having removed redundant pixels; changing appropriate pixels from black to white. This result in each ridge being turned into a line only a single pixel wide.VSA is used in this paper to refer to the analysis of a visible scene of image data used to discover the detail of information contained. The practical significance of visual scene is embedded in image processing and KM is endorsed by the wide use of them. The visual scene is a technique that makes use of edge detection for image analysis. Image processing uses visual scene extensively. Visual scene is used to help simplicity the complex detail of image or to summarize the overall \"picture\" and thereby enhance the communicability of a viewpoint or content.The following are considered:* analysis of a visible scene of image data used to discover the detail of information contained;* the visual scene is an approach that makes use of edge-detection for image analysis; and* visual scene is used to help simplify the complex detail of image or to summarize the overall \"picture\" and thereby enhance the communication of a viewpoint of semantic content (Figure 5).Edges characterize boundaries and are therefore a problem of fundamentals important information about the image. There are areas with strong intensity contrasts - a jump in intensity from one pixel to the next. Detecting an image significantly reduces the amount of data and filters out useless information (Figure 4).In image processing, edge detection is a preprocessing method to locate sharp changes in the function (Figure 4); edges are pixels where this function (brightness) changes abruptly (Milan et al., 2002). Pre-processing is a common name for operations with images at the lowest level of abstraction - both input and output are intensity images. These iconic images are of the same kind as the original data captured, with an intensity image usually represented by a matrix of image function values (brightness). The aim or pre-processing is for an improvement of the image data that suppresses unwilling distortion or enhances some image features important for further processing.Since, an edge is the boundary between two regions with relatively distinct level properties, the visual analysis of an edge point with respect to adjacent point will change more abruptly than those of the level of variation. Edge detection hence helps to extract useful features for pattern recognition. This observation leads to its application being a KM technique. For example, figure shows the corresponding edge of the image in Figure 3.\n6 Managing image-edge detection process knowledge: As the term KM suggests, handling knowledge is above all a management task rather than a technical problem of representing knowledge (even though some papers in this area, typically written by computer scientists, do give that impression). In this section, we will therefore look at the management aspects of image edge detection process knowledge.6.1 Knowledge goals\n7 Conclusion: As has been described in the paper, edge-detection for practical use can be viewed as a (knowledge) management task, not only a technical one. This has the number of implications for edge-detection technology, such:* emphasis on making edge-detection process models easy to use and accessible;* combination/integration of user-centered description and formal model; and* make visible who contributed what to edge-detection process model.However, a lot of work still needs to be done before the results are satisfying for practical use. Currently, one can have either the benefits of the work done on image edge-detection process technology, or the kind of support for development tasks performed by humans as described in this paper. Hopefully, future work will be able to combine both.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to describe the use of edge-detection as an approach to support the process of analyzing visual scenes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Edges-detection is considered as a KM technique task. Several edge-detection algorithms were discussed but Canny method was chosen in conjunction with JAVA to find the edges of an image.\nFindings: - The paper provides an overview of knowledge need by the visual scene analyst. It reviews the process of extracting knowledge from image data. Finally, the paper looks at the management aspects of image-edge detection.\nOriginality/value: - Experiments herein have proved the method robustness by considering edge-detection as a knowledge management technique for visual scene analysis by deriving knowledge from semantic information based on object boundaries shadow.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Is gender inclusivity an answer to ethical issues in business? An Indian stance
|
[
"Business ethics",
"Students",
"Ethics",
"Decision making",
"India",
"Gender"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The domain of work has undergone a profound change in India. There has been a remarkable rise in female labor force participation across all employment sectors. The National Sample Survey Organisation 2006 figures indicate that women's labor force participation rate has increased to 31 percent up from 26 percent when the survey was last conducted in 2000. The process of globalization has provided opportunities for educated, middle class women to fulfill their dreams and excel in fields, which were hitherto perceived as male domains. Women have now convincingly entered the top echelons of the corporate world and are changing the leadership landscape in corporations.Recognizing the growing influence of this emerging workforce, the corporate sector is gearing up to act as catalyst furthering gender inclusivity. Past research affirms the significant role that gender equity plays in the health, education, as well as the economic and political development of a nation (UNDP, 2001; King and Mason, 2001). Advocates of gender inclusiveness put forth the view of bringing about a change towards new social and economic values which includes feminine perspective and ethics. As a result, a broad discussion arises regarding the role of gender in ethics. Gender as it pertains to ethics is an important aspect within the larger context of business ethics for two reasons. First, gender is the most commonly reported factor within the ethical sensitivity literature (Collins, 2000). Second, this measure has often been represented as a key component in ethical decision-making models (Hunt and Vitell, 1986; Rest, 1986; Ferrell et al., 1989; Jones, 1991; Reidenbach et al., 1991).Until very recently, studies in business ethics were almost exclusively associated with the western part of the globe. Yet, the problem of ethics is possibly more serious and important in transitional and emerging economies. Indian business is also at a critical stage, and the business community as a whole is plagued with ethical problems. The paucity of knowledge about business ethics in general and role of women in specific for a country trying to achieve double-digit economic growth is a cause of concern. The present paper attempts to examine gender-based differences in the ethical disposition and decision-making processes in the context of business. The term gender refers to the biological condition of being female or male in the present study. Through the study of business students' attitudes toward ethics, this paper attempts to shed light on the question of whether females demonstrate a higher sensitivity to issues linked with ethics and social values. It aims to contribute to the existing literature in two ways. First, to the best of my knowledge, this question has not been empirically tested using measures of ethical theories in India[1]. Second, the paper examines the underlying dimensions in reported ethical disposition and in decision-making processes for female and male students. The findings of the study will hopefully provide practitioners and researchers valuable insight into the role of gender in ethics in the context of Indian business.\nLiterature review: The literature found to be relevant to the present paper includes psychological studies of ethics by gender, studies of differences between females and males regarding the ethical perception at work in general and business in specific, as well as studies of a number of other factors that have been found to influence attitudes towards ethics.Psychological explanations of differences in ethical disposition\nPropositions: Extensive review of the extant literature, as well as ethical theories has resulted in the formulation of two propositions:P1. There are gender-based differences in the ethical disposition of business students.P2. The underlying dimensions in ethical decision-making processes differ for female and male business students.\nResearch design: A brief profile of the respondents\nResults and discussion: Gender differences\nConclusions and implications: Interest in gender-based ethical differences is driven by the increasing role of females in management especially due to the concerted efforts made by the government and companies in promoting a culture of inclusiveness. If females are more ethical than males as the literature on the subject generally suggests, engaging and encouraging females in their careers would certainly promote an ethical environment. The present paper is motivated by such a viewpoint, as it endeavors to unravel the difference in the ethical disposition between females and males, by its specific examination of business students.The findings provide evidence that female business students are more ethically predisposed than their male counterparts. Univariate (item-by-item) analyses of mean and proportion show statistically significant gender-based differences. For 18 ethical items, female mean responses were significantly higher (ethical) than male mean responses. The results generally hold while controlling for the effects of four demographic variables, namely, age, qualification, area of specialization, and work experience. Multivariate cluster analysis of the same data found a disproportionately higher and statistically significant number of males in the cluster grouping for the least ethically predisposed. In terms of gender trends, no support were obtained for claims made by Gilligan (1982) that females are more predisposed then males to give priority to interpersonal issues over justice concerns. A very interesting finding was the way in which gender-based difference on various ethical items was grouped by factor analysis. It was observed that multi-dimensional factors underlie the ethical decision-making processes of business students. However, males exhibited less diversity in ethical decision making while females more readily invoked different ethical dimensions for different business scenarios.There are three possible explanations for the low level of consistency in ethical orientation of the respondents. First, business (non-relational) dilemmas are more likely to be reasoned in terms of the ethic of justice and rights, irrespective of the gender type. It has been observed that relational/personal dilemmas are more likely to be reasoned in terms of the ethic of care. Second, at present the values of competition and aggression rather than consensus and cooperation tend to pervade the power structures of professional life. As professional socialization happens largely due to occupational (business) education, females may not be typically socialized into feminine values (Lamsa et al., 2000). In the Indian context, while females are offered a more structured and restricted environment, males are offered a much broader and less controlled working conditions with more authority, prestige and social opportunities, greater possibilities to discover things for themselves, to improvise and solve problems, as well as to develop skills. Material and other related incentives may motivate women to alter their thought processes, thus removing the restrictions and disadvantages that are typical of traditional gender ideology as suggested by Myers and Booth (2002). In this way they achieve a greater level of autonomy, independence, and opportunities to reach a higher level of personal enrichment and accomplishment, in short a fuller life (Hochschild, 1990). Lastly, it could be that philosophical theories embody certain culture specific presuppositions, and, should not be treated as ipso facto universally applicable. Kantian philosophy which emphasizes duty over emotional feelings is premised on the assumption of the autonomous asocial individual as the starting point of social institutions - a conceptual premise not shared in Indian culture with its emphasis on social duties as the starting point of society (Dumont, 1965, 1970; Simpson, 1974; Shweder, 1982; Shweder et al., 1987). Similarly, the relational approach to ethics, forwarded by theorist like Gilligan (1977) and Blum (1980), is premised on a voluntaristic view of social relationships suggesting that people live as they want to, differing from the more obligatory perspective on relationships stressed in Indian culture (Kakar, 1978; O'Flaherty and Derrett, 1978; Schneider, 1985).Past research relating to gender, marshals support for either validating or invalidating that meaningful gender-based ethical differences exist. However, finding a gender-based ethical difference does not imply that all female business students are more ethical than all male business students. Results of the present study thus should be interpreted with caution due to certain limitations. First, by relying on a survey an attempt has been made to infer behavioral intent. Second, the sample has been taken from a single business school. The ethical perceptions of students from one business school may not adequately represent the general perception of the entire business student community. Third, a longitudinal research design would have allowed for more rigorous analysis of the influence of ethics education on the ethical behavior of the students. Finally, the presence or lack of education in ethics in the MBA curriculum may explain for the differences found in the present as well as other studies.Notwithstanding these limitations, the study is relevant and timely given the increasing intake of females in the managerial cadre. It provides valuable insight into the differences in the ethical disposition of business students to varied situations based on gender. It is only by examining these differences carefully that an attempt can be made to eliminate the stereotypical perceptions that lead to gender discrimination (Gupta et al., 1998). The fact that females appear to demonstrate greater sensitivity on ethical issues, suggests that practitioners might want to use this knowledge for developing their organizational strategies, ethical codes, and evaluation systems. In the long-run, companies that encourages ethical behavior and whose policies do not discriminate on the basis of gender will be better placed to succeed in the emerging business environment. In the study references have been made to similar work done in the west, however, there is a need to understand that in the west most societies are largely uni-cultural as opposed to India which is multi-cultural. Hence, what constitutes ethical behavior renders itself to multiple interpretations in India as opposed to the west. The findings of the study also highlight the importance of realigning the curriculum in a manner that the teaching of ethics becomes an integral part of business school education.Whereas, the present paper focused exclusively on the ethical disposition of business students, future research could extend the study to cover other groups such as business managers, professionals, and educationists. Further, research efforts can be extended to look into the role of factors such as social class, ethnicity, religion, etc. on ethical behavior of females vis-a-vis males. Finally, future research could critically appraise if inclusion of women in the workforce has actually led to the promotion of a more ethical environment and developed trust in the company. These extensions may aid in gaining a better insight into the reasons for the pervading gender-based differences in the ethical disposition.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - If females are more ethical than males, as the literature on the subject generally suggests, engaging and encouraging females in their careers would certainly promote an ethical environment. The present paper is motivated by such a viewpoint and aims to investigate gender-based differences in the ethical disposition and the underlying dimensions in ethical decision-making processes, by specific examination of business students.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The main research instrument is a quantitative questionnaire through which the responses of 162 business students (45 females and 117 males) are examined. For data analysis univariate analysis by invoking one-way analysis of variance and multivariate approach using cluster analysis are conducted to investigate gender-based differences in the ethical disposition. To determine the underlying dimensions in ethical decision-making processes, for female and male business students, the principal axis approach to factor analysis has been used.\nFindings: - The findings provide evidence that female business students are more ethically predisposed than their male counterparts. It is further observed that males exhibit less diversity in ethical decision making while females more readily invoked different ethical dimensions for different business scenarios.\nOriginality/value: - The paper offers valuable insight into the role of gender in ethics in the context of Indian business. The fact that females appear to demonstrate greater sensitivity on ethical issues suggests that practitioners may want to use this knowledge for developing their organizational strategies, ethical codes, and evaluation systems. Further, the study also highlights the importance of realigning the curriculum in a manner that the teaching of ethics becomes an integral part of business school education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Pricing for higher education institutions: a value-based approach
|
[
"Value-based pricing",
"Educational value factors"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Knowledge has been placed as the driver of every nation's economic competitiveness. With the rising emphasis on the knowledge-based economy, the importance of quality education through which people acquire knowledge, attitude and skill is becoming a global agenda. The new reality has clearly led to educational reformation at all levels including the higher educational institutions (HEIs). For HEIs, the expectation is that the education systems provide a pathway for the present and emerging economies through offering higher education programmes of the highest quality. Hence, to sustain in the academic world, HEIs have no choice but to compete by offering a good education experience. In producing quality output, the standard of input and the training process also have to be of high quality. Accordingly, HEIs should make continuous efforts to enhance the quality of the programmes offered, as well as the academic staff and the supporting facilities. These are the higher educational dimensions that are the commodification and marketization factors for today's higher education sector (De Haan, 2015).\nPricing methods for HEIs educational programme: Pricing methods are the explicit steps and procedures through which pricing decisions are established (Oxenfeldt, 1983). A comprehensive review of the literature of pricing in the service sector has identified various pricing practices, which, generally, fall into three main categories - cost-based, competition-based and demand-based - as detailed in Table I.\nValue-based pricing and higher educational marketing: Value-based pricing is a price-setting strategy based upon customer's perceived value, not the actual cost of the product, the market price, competitors prices or even historical price (Sarokolaee et al., 2012). Accordingly, Babin et al. (1994) describe value as the trade-off between benefits and sacrifices/costs, which stem from quality and price. The value is determined based on customers' expectations of the goods and associated costs in comparison with the competitors, which is constantly evolving. In other words, the customers' cognition is used as the key factor in the pricing decision. HEIs must compete for their customers and must strive to keep their customers satisfied. Satisfied customers breed loyalty, which, in turn, strengthens a university's reputation, and ultimately, brings in more customers. This notion is in accordance with the decision-making theory, which emphasizes that making a decision based on intuition is a viable and acceptable approach in today's business context (Liozu and Hinterhuber, 2012). To convince the customers, the seller needs to support the marketing effort with tangible evidence of the value delivered during as well as in the post purchase period. Hence, in the marketing effort, the value-based pricing strategy involves great understanding of the customers, including what they value.\nProposed value-added pricing factors: The value-added measures of learning are important for quality assurance in contemporary higher education. Sauders (1999) refers to value-added as a wide range of benefits that students gain throughout the learning duration in a particular HEI that increases a student's individual utility. However, the quality of students will very much relate to the differences that the educational institution or service provides to the students. To produce graduates who are proficient in principle and also convincing in practice, HEIs need to determine and decide on the mix of inputs that is most appropriate for producing the desired outputs, which clearly could also be an advantage to a university over others. Using Gamage et al.'s (2008) classification scheme, the potential value factors are proposed.\nConclusion: Higher educational pricing is becoming a critical agenda, particularly among HEIs, since educational fees represent a significant portion of a university's income. Recognizing the extensive resources invested (i.e. qualified academic staff and world class teaching/learning infrastructure) in providing quality education, the sacrifices should be considered as value creating factors. Accordingly, this paper suggests that the educational programme value factors highlighting the distinct strong point of the university is the competitive niche offered by the learning institution. The actual practice may encourage HEIs to be more willing to make extra effort to enhance the quality teaching and learning in support of other higher education reforms. Long-term analyses of the quality dimensions and their monetary value would be helpful to evaluate the sustainable success of these changes. The challenge is to measure or even define the value factor (Anderson and Narus, 1998; Liozu et al., 2012). It certainly cannot be dictated for all HEIs. Even if the value factor of an educational programme can be determined with certainty, there is no consensus concerning the monetary value that should be assigned to the value. The value can only be estimated, which is far from objective. Thus, the implementation of value-based pricing must vary from one university to another. The knowledge may provide an initial move towards a practical and justifiable HEI tuition mechanism. Besides the price-setting strategy to support the global education reformation, the proposed concept creates a new accounting visibility in a university setting. Clearly, the subjectivity issue raises another concern about how to calculate the value of the factors in determining the public university educational programme fees, and therefore, it is proposed that more empirical and non-empirical research be undertaken to determine a possible solution.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose the concept of higher education institutions (HEIs) offering educational services based on value for money. The value is determined based on customers' (i.e. students) expectations of the service and the costs in comparison to the competitors. Understanding the value and creating customer value are a means to attain competitive advantage and constitute the basis of price setting. Drawing upon this belief, as an initial step towards value-based pricing method, the possible value factors are suggested for calculating educational programme prices across HEIs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper introducing the value-based pricing approach in setting HEI tuition fees. Extending prior discussion on the demand for quality education and current financial challenges faced by HEIs, it introduces the concept pricing based upon customer perceived value (student/industry). Value-based pricing is deemed appropriate in view of the value of short tangible and intangible investment by both parties (students and HEIs) to differentiate in terms of setting the right price for the right university for the right student.\nFindings: The primary aim is to suggest the applicability of value-based pricing for HEIs, which is likely to be both relevant and fruitful for the sustainability of the sector. It represents a personal point of view; building upon a review of the literature, the paper extends the established knowledge one step further in terms of setting the right price for the right university, which is deemed worthy of further study and development.\nOriginality/value: The paper will be of use to the management and policymakers in the education sector in searching for a contemporary pricing mechanism for higher education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How functional, psychological, and social relationship benefits influence individual and firm commitment to the relationship
|
[
"Buyer‐seller relationship",
"Benefits",
"Social benefits"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nConceptual background: The growing recognition of the importance of buyer-supplier relationships has focused research attention predominantly on the positive outcomes that can be accrued by both buyer and supplier firms (e.g., Crosby et al., 1990; Kalwani and Narayandas, 1995). Extant literature recognizes the firm as a social network in which individuals are the basis of the firm. However, the existence and importance of relationship outcomes accrued by those individuals in the buyer firm (e.g., satisfaction with or commitment to relationship, job or supplier) have been largely ignored in empirical research, despite Ojasalo (2001) emphasizing the conceptual distinction between firm and individual levels of benefits. This notable omission from the business-to-business (B2B) literature makes it worthy of research attention.Furthermore, previous studies have focused largely on the functional (e.g., economic and strategic) benefits of interfirm relationships, such as reduced costs, contract predictability, purchasing efficiency, and quality (e.g., Cannon and Homburg, 2001; Ghosh et al., 1997; Kalwani and Narayandas, 1995; Lyons et al., 1990). Although noneconomic aspects of a relationship, such as its social elements, are recognized as important for understanding relationship behavior (e.g., Anderson et al., 1993; Cunningham and Turnbull, 1982; Wilson and Mummalaneni, 1986), researchers have only recently sought to understand the impact of interpersonal relationships through empirical research (e.g., Bolton et al., 2003; Haytko, 2004; Nicholson et al., 2001) by highlighting the positive effect of social bonding in business relationships. However, few studies directly compare both social and functional aspects of the relationship (e.g., Bolton et al., 2003; Murry and Heide, 1998; Wathne et al., 2001). Given the importance of relationship marketing and because relationships pertain to individuals, we believe that further research is warranted to understand the social aspects of interfirm relationships.Moreover, consistent with Gwinner et al. (1998), our research identifies a distinct category of benefits, namely psychological benefits that, though similar to trust, is conceptually more inclusive and addresses perceptions of reliability, empathy, support, understanding between parties, and psychological assurance in a business relationship context. In addition, this broader psychological concept is consistent with customer-perceived value components, such as solidarity, trust, reliability, and responsiveness, as identified in a B2B context by Lapierre (2000), and also concurs with the concept of psychological contracts originally introduced by Rousseau (1990).In summary, we seek to identify relationship benefits that extend beyond the economic and non-economic descriptors that are too often adopted in the literature. In taking this approach we demonstrate agreement with MacMillan et al. (2005) that adopting a social exchange theory perspective leads to the identification of a wider range of benefits beyond the functional. Consistent with prior studies in both the B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) domains, we argue for the need to recognize three distinct benefit categories: functional, social, and psychological. We also extend research on benefits by assessing their effect on commitment to the relationship. In particular, we examine how they influence the relationship commitment of an individual buyer involved in the relationship and of the buyer firm. Such research enhances our understanding of how commitment develops among buyers, who are the customers in a B2B relationship. Furthermore, as relationship marketing researchers have become interested in the varying salience of attributes or dimensions over time (e.g. Ring and Van de Ven, 1994), we add a time dimension to our study by examining relationship durational effects.More specifically, the objectives of our study are as follows:* to examine the differential effects of functional, social, and psychological relationship benefits on both firm- and individual-level relationship commitment in a B2B context;* to explore the effect of the duration of the relationship on the level of relationship benefits; and* to investigate the relationship between benefits and commitment across the duration of the relationship.To address these objectives, we surveyed 275 employees involved in a business relationship with a supplier firm. The paper is laid out as follows: using the conceptual model that we discuss following our overview of the relevant literature, we formulate our hypotheses. We present the study's results and then turn our discussion to the main implications of our findings for business firms. Finally, we conclude by identifying some limitations and suggestions for further research.Relationship benefits (B2B)\nHypotheses development: Relationship benefits\nMethod: Data collection\nResults: Measurement model\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to extend previous research investigating the effect of relationship benefits on firm outcomes by developing a model that includes the effect on individual employees in the buyer firm. The model also aims to address benefits beyond the functional in business-to business (B2B) settings by including psychological and social benefits.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study is based on a survey of 275 B2B buyers in Australian manufacturing firms.\nFindings: - The findings reveal that functional benefits enhance firm-level commitment to the relationship, whereas psychological and social benefits affect individual commitment to the relationship directly and firm-level commitment indirectly, thereby emphasizing the importance of considering the individual as distinct from the firm. Given that the relationship is a process over time, and in recognition of the non-static nature of relationship benefits, the paper also explores the changes in benefits over relationship stages, including their impact on commitment. In contrast to expectations results show that while all three types of benefits increase, there is no change in the impact of all three benefit types on commitment across relationship stages.\nPractical implications: - The study recognizes that the individual in the firm also benefits from B2B relationships and offers a measure of both firm and individual relationship benefits for use in future studies. The measure may also be used as a point of discussion about relationship management.\nOriginality/value: - The study is framed within social exchange theory and, is the first to simultaneously examine three types of relationship benefits and their interaction with both the individual and firm viewpoint. The study is also one of the first to empirically examine changes in relationships over the relationship stages.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
SLAPPing accountability out of the public sphere
|
[
"Habermas",
"Public sphere",
"SLAPPs",
"Deliberative democracy",
"Civil accountability",
"Counter accounts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a time when the hegemony of neoliberalism dominates the Western political landscape, democracy has become \"a near-universal validating principle for political systems\" (Dryzek, 2005, p. 218). However, even with the dominance of democracy as the political system de jour, there is recognition of the failings of aggregative democracy in dealing with the increasingly partisan positions held by the contestants of political and social issues in pluralist society (Brown, 2017; Chiapello, 2017; Dryzek, 2005). As a result, western democratic societies and their citizens have become increasingly interested in the politics and structure of a participatory civic space. This space is often conceived as being at the heart of democracy, where a form of accountability and the rights of civil society exist alongside other powerful economic and political interests including corporations and the state.\nDefining SLAPPs: SLAPPs are believed to have been first issued in the 1970s in the USA as a response to a dramatic increase in public protest and outcry over consumer and environmental issues at that time (Beder, 2014). SLAPPs were first identified and named in the 1980s by Denver-based academics George Pring and Penelope Canan who defined SLAPPs as \"suits filed by one side of a public, political dispute to punish or prevent opposing points of view\" (Pring and Canan, 1996, p. 9). Then Attorney General of New York State Robert Abrams identified SLAPPs as \"fundamentally different from other types of lawsuits because they seek to stifle legitimate political expression [...] and represent an attack on the first amendment rights which are at the heart of our democracy\" (Abrams, 1989, p. 33).\nConceptions of the public sphere: The degree to which individuals and organised groups have adequate \"civic space\" - i.e. the freedom and means to speak, access information, associate, organise, and participate in public decision-making - is essential to the healthy functioning and development of any society. In many countries around the world, civic space - which is considered an essential precondition for human rights, social justice and accountable governance - remains limited. The past decades have seen a worrying trend of shrinking civic space around the globe, including in emerging and established democracies.(Malena, 2015, p. 11)Following the \"deliberative\" turn, the ideal of a public deliberative space, or discursive arena, where all citizens have an opportunity to contribute to collective decisions emerged in a number of forms. Habermas and Rawls are viewed by many as the two most important and theoretically advanced post-modern proponents of deliberative democracy (Mouffe, 1999). Since the application of Habermas' critical theory to accounting and accountability, there have been a number of studies which have drawn upon aspects of Habermasian communicative action as a lens through which to better understand organisational governance (see Arrington and Puxty, 1991; Laughlin, 1987, 1995; Lehman, 2001, 2013; Power and Laughlin, 1996).\nAlternative and counter accounts: In this particular study, we are concerned with accounts of institutional and corporate behaviours given in a public space. In doing so, we tap into the recent research on the use of alternative accounts that departs from only considering traditional accounts, such as annual financial reports or social and environmental reports, to the less obvious accounts, such as petitions, protests or public art. These accounts can be textual, imagery, oral stories - the list is seemingly endless once we strip the constraints of financial accounting. Often referred to as counter accounts, non-corporate alternative financial or narrative accounts, they are used to promote a civic ideal of transparency and accountability, promote social change or enact democratic ideals (Gallhofer et al., 2015; Moerman and van der Laan, 2015; Spence, 2009). Within the alternative accounts literature these are often seen as a counterpoint to mainstream attempts to provide a voice for the marginalised (se, Dey, 2003).\nConclusion: This case has demonstrated the chilling effect of SLAPPS as a strategic corporate manoeuver to silence alternative (in form) and counter (in view) \"accounts\". Any chance of realising the emancipatory potential of new participatory and dialogic forms of accounting has been severely limited by the use of a SLAPP, a state-sanctioned legal instrument. The implications for accountability as a mechanism and a virtue are that SLAPPs reduce the opportunity for alternative mechanisms of accountability to be enacted and similarly limit the potential to proffer counter accounts which would enable the relative virtue of corporate behaviour to be measured against the norms of civil society.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the disruption to civic accountability by strategic corporate action in the form of SLAPP suits.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper provides empirical evidence of the discursive processes underpinning participatory and emancipatory accountability regimes through the lens of deliberative democracy and the Habermasian ideal of the public sphere.\nFindings: Within this paper, it is argued that the strategic use of SLAPPs by corporations presents a danger to both mechanistic and virtuous forms of accountability regardless of what deliberative democratic theory is adopted. Habermas' theory of communicative action and notion of the \"public sphere\" is utilised to demonstrate how SLAPPs can result in the colonisation of public discursive arenas to prevent others providing alternative (in form) and counter (in view) accounts of corporate behaviour and thus act to limit opportunities for corporate accountability.\nSocial implications: This paper throws light on a practice being utilised by corporations to limit public participation in democratic and participatory accountability processes. Strategic use of SLAPPs limit the \"ability\" for citizens to provide an alternative \"account\" of corporate behaviour.\nOriginality/value: This paper is original in that it analyses the impact on accountability of strategic corporate practice of issuing SLAPP suits to \"chill\" public political discussion and limit protest about issues of social and civic importance. The paper extends the critical accounting literature into improving dialogic and participatory accountability regimes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Deriving an information security assurance indicator at the organizational level
|
[
"Information security management",
"ISMS",
"Information security assurance",
"Fuzzy cognitive maps"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The goal of information security management (ISM) is to ensure that controls are in place to address the possible threats to organization's information assets. At the organizational level, security is seldom expected to be a binary variable having a decisive \"yes/no\" value, but is looked upon as an indicator whose value captures the current security status. The security requirements of organizations vary and so do the presence of controls that are needed to ensure the satisfaction of these requirements. Hence, the effectiveness of these controls decides the extent to which the security objectives are met. Measuring the effectiveness of these identified controls and appropriate aggregation of them provides us with an indicator of overall information security assurance (ISA). In this work, we present an analytical framework based on graph theory to capture the interdependence between security controls and use fuzzy cognitive model (FCM) to compute the ISA indicator at the organizational level.\n2 Related work: Quantification of information security has always been stated as an essential but difficult task. The essentiality aspect of quantifying IS comes from the fact that ensuring information security, results in two kinds of costs - direct costs of the resources in the form of technology investment (hardware, software) and human expertise, while indirect costs result from the negative effect of security priorities and incidents on operational efficiency. A balance between the costs involved and the benefits derived is essential and hence measurement becomes unavoidable. As in any other policy level instruments, the difficulty in quantifying information security results from the intangible nature of security and abstractness present in the various requirements. The perceived lack of common agreement in deciding the what and how of measurement adds to this difficulty.\n3 Proposed framework: We intend to provide a generic framework for ISA at the organizational level. In the role hierarchy of ISM, the top occupant, say chief information security officer (CISO) will have the responsibility of assuring information security in the organization. This single, high-level requirement gets further sub-divided into various security policies, controls and mechanisms with the whole organization contributing to ensure the security of its information assets. To measure the effectiveness of the steps taken for ensuring security there are two requirements - first, the effectiveness of individual steps need to be measured and second, we need a method to combine the effectiveness of these individual steps to provide a measure at the highest level. The objective of our framework is to address this second aspect.\n4 Assurance aggregation: Our objective is to incorporate the measurements of satisfaction levels of lower level tasks and their relative importance to compute a higher-level assurance score. The final result will be assurance (u\n5 Results from practical applications of the framework: In this section we share the experience of applying our framework for computing an indicator for the ISA. In the first instance we worked with a SysAd (CISSP) in an Indian IT services company while in the second case the expert was a security practice head (CISSP, CISA) working for a global consulting firm. The first case is an example of the framework's application in a predominantly technical requirement while the second instance was at the organizational level itself.\n6 Discussion: The two cases detailed in the previous section were chosen to capture the applicability of our framework at two different levels. In the first case, a sub-set of rules pertaining to mail server security was chosen and we used the interrelationships between these ten policies as given by the expert earlier. The first observation was that we needed to measure the confidence levels of those rules (and only those rules), which were not sub-divided further. The initial values for these rules were again obtained from the expert who provided a verbal justification for deciding on the initial level of satisfaction. Such an exercise results in realistic comparison of the confidence levels with practical suggestions for improving these values. Thus, lack of biometric authentication was the reason given by the expert for reducing the confidence level to 90 percent. This observation is important as we get a method for improving the values as well. When the initial value for a task is not available (rule 7 in Table II) the contribution of that rule to all its dependent rules becomes zero. Our approach permits the calculation with a hypothetical 50 percent value for this rule resulting in a 11 percent increase in the overall security score. The convergence values thus help in predicting the quantitative improvement one can achieve by improving the levels of confidence for different tasks.\n7 Conclusion: Measurement is done with the objective to control and it is generally accepted that measuring performance, increases it. Our framework proposes an approach to measure ISA at the organizational level. The framework proceeds from security statements at various levels of abstraction to identify relevant measurable controls and proposes a technique for meaningful aggregation of these measures in order to compute the ISA.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Measurement of information security assurance (ISA) is an important but difficult task. This paper aims to propose a framework, which helps in refining information security requirements into controls whose effectiveness can be measured. This work also provides aggregation techniques to combine these measurements so as to obtain an indicator for ISA at the organizational level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A top-down approach of refining security objectives to measurable independent tasks is carried out using assign graph as the model. This captures the various objectives and their interrelationships whose initial values and relative impacts are obtained from experts. Using fuzzy cognitive model (FCM), these initial values are combined together to obtain an indicator for ISA at the firm's level.\nFindings: The two applications of the framework revealed that interrelationships do exist between the different controls employed in actual security implementations and that these dependencies are seldom accounted for. When those few controls that are to be measured are clearly identified, the security experts can focus their attention on them and ensure their correct implementation and appropriate measurement. The extent of impact of a single control on the overall security picture of the firm can also be found using this approach.\nResearch limitations/implications: While the framework is generic, the assurance values obtained are context-sensitive. This is primarily because of the subjectivity involved in assigning impact measures and initial values.\nPractical implications: This work helps in answering two difficult questions in information security management: \"what to measure?\" and \"how to quantify the overall security assurance of the organization?\" This assists the information security team in identifying and refining those controls that needs to be appropriately emphasized. The proposed framework helps the top management in doing \"what-if\" analysis, thereby aiding their decision-making for information security investments.\nOriginality/value: The novel framework proposes a top-down approach for security control refinement and a bottom-up approach for combining the confidence values to obtain an indicator for ISA. This work identifies and accommodates the possibilities of having interdependencies between security controls. The proposed aggregation method using FCM is being applied for the first time in information security context and provides convergence even in the presence of cyclic dependencies amongst the controls.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does quality impact on hotel performance?
|
[
"Quality systems",
"Business performance",
"Hotels",
"Quality standards",
"Spain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Tourism is an increasingly globalised sector in which inter-destination competition is becoming greater and greater. This phenomenon is caused, amongst other things, by the fact that tourism enterprises, among which are hotels, now find themselves in a better position to compete in international destinations, which in turn results in increased international competition, not only between destinations but also between hotel establishments. On the other hand, tourists are increasingly demanding and do not only focus on the price. Within this scenario, the hotel enterprise's competitiveness must focus on improving performance through better service quality and the search for differentiation (Poon, 1993). Greater competitiveness has made quality become a key factor for hospitality companies (Ingram and Daskalakis, 1999; Costa, 2004).This new reality has led many organisations to develop quality management systems through which they expect to obtain a certification. The most common reasons are the following (Lee, 1998; Singels et al., 2001; Yahya and Goh, 2001). On the one hand, the desire to create a quality culture based on cost and defect reduction as well as product and efficiency improvement, i.e. to start on the right path toward total quality (internal reasons). On the other hand, an interest in improving the corporate image, gaining competitive advantage, adapting to customer requirements and finally, in exploring the possibility to enter new markets (external reasons).For these reasons, since 1980, the hotel sector started to show a concern for product and service quality (Johns, 1995) because it could have an impact on performance (Rust et al., 1995; Martinez et al., 2000; Roca et al., 2002; Antony et al., 2004) and competitiveness (Camison, 1996; Ghobadian and Gallear, 2001).Quality can thus influence performance in two complementary ways (Garvin, 1984; Rust et al., 1995; Reed et al., 1996). It can cause internal impacts through processes and external impacts through the market (Brown et al., 1998; Lee, 1998; Quazi and Padibjo, 1998; Casadesus and Heras, 2001; Singels et al., 2001; Yahya and Goh, 2001).Internal impacts on performance are related to the internal functioning of organisations (e.g. increase in productivity, improvement in efficiency, reduction in costs and waste). So, quality can increase the competitiveness levels of hotel establishments as well as their profitability through process standardisation, waste reduction, a more effective service, and fewer errors.External impacts on performance have to do with the effects of quality on customer satisfaction and the demand (e.g. increasing sales and market share, keeping tourism relationships, finding new tourists, and achieving higher tourist satisfaction levels along with an improved image).Despite these benefits, the literature has also identified a number of inconveniences (Brown et al., 1998; Joubert, 1998; Kanji, 1998; Quazi and Padibjo, 1998; Singels et al., 2001; Yahya and Goh, 2001). These include the extra costs involved in obtaining a quality certification, the time used, a greater operational bureaucracy, and the lack of attention to personnel development (Ingram and Daskalakis, 1999; Nield and Kozak, 1999). Nevertheless, a correct application of the system will allow advantages to outweigh disadvantages. Benefits and shortcomings may also appear in the hospitality industry when these organisations implement and certify a quality management system.This paper analyses why a hotel decides to adopt and certify a quality system, to identify the most important reasons behind that decision, and finally, to describe the impacts on performance based on the perceptions of hotel managers. The relevance of this study lies in that it provides the opinion of hotel managers based on their experience with quality systems in an internationally renowned destination.We are going to describe the methodology applied to achieve our aims along with the results obtained (the reasons for certification and the impacts on performance), after which we will present the conclusions, discuss the management implications, and finally, briefly refer to the limitations faced as well as to possible future research lines.\nMethodology: This research analyses the reasons justifying the implementation and certification of quality systems and the impact of that process on performance. We have studied the experience of two hotels located in the Spanish south-eastern province of Alicante from qualitative and quantitative information provided by their managers. Our data comes from interviews and surveys. The interviewees were hotel managers, and the interviews were based on a questionnaire with two types of questions:1. Open questions related to the management and structure of the quality system (kind of quality documents, the existence of a quality department, the quality assessment method).2. Closed questions measured with a seven-point scale about the reasons for certification and the impacts on performance. Nine items resulting from Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Jones et al. (1997), Brown et al. (1998), Bryde and Slocock (1998), Singels et al. (2001) (see Table I) were used to evaluate these reasons. As for impacts on performance, 13 items (see Table II) resulting from the measurements used by Powell (1995), Samson and Terziovski (1999), and Kaynak (2003) were included.In 2004, Alicante Town had 11 three- and four-star hotels (but no five-star hotels at the time of the study). Three- and four-star hotels were considered because these categories are the most suitable ones for the study, the percentage of one- and two-star hotels being very low. We contacted a three-star hotel and another four-star hotel, both of them affiliated to hotel chains concerned about service quality. The hotels studied were the Tryp Gran Sol Hotel (belonging to the Sol Melia chain) and the NH Cristal Hotel (belonging to the NH chain).We chose Alicante because it is the fifth most important tourist destination by number of hotel beds (INE, 2003) in Spain, which in turn ranks world's second in this sector both by number of travellers (behind France) and by incomes from tourism (behind the US) (WTO, 2003).Different quality certificates can be found in the Spanish hotel sector. Among them can be mentioned those related to the ISO 9001 standard, the European Foundation for Quality Management model, and the Q quality stamp awarded by the Instituto para la Calidad Turistica Espanola (ICTE) (Institute for Spanish Tourism Quality). Out of 12,447 accommodation establishments existing in Spain, at least 278 own one ICTE's Q certificate (Turespana, 2004). Regarding the Alicante province, it had 372 accommodation establishments in 2004, and only 28 of them owned an ICTE's Q certificate (7.52 per cent), a proportion above that of Spain as a whole.\nResults: This section shows descriptive data about the hotels, their structure, and their quality system management, and the reasons for certification and the impacts on performance.Descriptive data, structure and quality system\nConclusions: The study analyses the reasons to implement and certify a quality system and the subsequent impacts on performance. To that end, we have described the experience of two hotels located in Alicante Town presented through the perceptions of their managers, whose answers may offer some lessons other hotel managers could learn from:1. It is interesting to highlight that a hotel develops a quality system because it is regarded as a way to improve service quality, develop a quality culture and improve efficiency (internal reasons). Image improvement becomes easier too (external reason). Not surprisingly, external reasons (e.g. customer requirements) are considered less relevant by the two hotel managers interviewed.2. Hotel managers must be aware that the quality management system can have a positive effect on such areas as service quality, employee morale, reduction in working costs and waste, and customer satisfaction, which in turn can have a strong effect on sales and competitive position. Therefore, ensuring a quality product and service is a way to remain competitive in the current environment, characterised by increasingly demanding tourists and greater competition between destinations.3. It is likewise important to underline that quality certification has had little influence on financial performance. This possibly suggests that quality is a necessary but not sufficient strategic factor for hotel competitiveness.4. Considering both reasons and impacts, the quality system will make it possible to:* develop business activities efficiently and effectively, as quality service is improved through customer information and better employee training;* control processes through the definition and verification of the degree of compliance with the objectives sought, and to evaluate the service by means of surveys and indicators; and* train employees with the aim of enhancing professionalism, which leads to an improved service quality, as employees make fewer mistakes and consequently, do their job better. This, along with customer information and the quality measurement system will allow the hotel to improve its efficiency.1. If we focus on impacts alone, the quality system may influence staff behaviours and the attractiveness of the business to domestic and international customers. In the first case, as shown above, better training increases staff professionalism. In the second case, depending on the experience accumulated by hotel managers, the quality system may affect tourists, since they receive a better service. Nevertheless, the impacts generated are not to attract tourists but to make them become repeat customers, as tourists in Spain do not usually decide to stay at one hotel or another depending on whether they are certified or not.This paper has limitations, as it is a study about the experiences of two hotel managers who supplies quantitative and qualitative information. Options for future research include a quantitative analysis of Spanish hotels in relation to these aspects, an enlargement of the questionnaire, and the provision of more generalisable results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - The aim of the paper is to study the reasons for the adoption and certification of quality systems and the subsequent impacts on performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology selected is a study based on the perceptions of two hotel managers in Spain.\nFindings: - On the one hand, the results show that the most important reasons to adopt and certify quality systems are internal and, on the other hand, that although positive effects on performance can be identified, the impact on financial performance is low.\nOriginality/value: - The value of this paper lies in that it provides the perceptions of hotel managers for others who wish to know the reasons leading to the implementation and certification of a quality system and the subsequent impacts on performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Neglected on the front line: Tensions and challenges for the first-line manager-academic role in UK business schools
|
[
"Deans",
"Business schools",
"First-line-manager-academic role",
"HR directors"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper investigates the role of the first-line manager-academic (FLMA) in UK university business schools. Research from three linked surveys of UK FLMAs, deans of business schools and university human resource directors (HRDs) is presented to investigate the challenges faced and the extent to which those in the FLMA role are enabled and supported to fulfil their responsibilities as both academics and managers. UK higher education (HE) operates in an increasingly challenging and competitive contemporary environment where funding constraints, internationalization, government policy, technology, demography, competition, rankings, reputation, income pressures, and student fees are priority drivers of activity and performance evaluations. Consequently, underpinning this study is the premise that HE Institutions (HEIs) require effective management to compete successfully and that academics play a part in this management process. However, this premise is highly contested by administrators and academics alike.\nChartered and statutory UK university context: The Jarratt Report (1985) into UK HE was a catalyst for change in terms of the role of manager-academics through the reorientation of the role of head of department (HoD) as both manager and academic leader, with the emphasis on the managerial role. The report was influential and part of a number of legislative reforms in the late 1980s and 1990s, including the creation of a single UK university sector in 1992, the introduction of new funding regimes, quality assurance frameworks and bidding systems for resources such as the Research Assessment Exercise. These changes, alongside the broader influence of New Public Management, necessitated much greater institutional and managerial attention to financial, performance and people management leading to a \"heightened recognition of the importance of effectively managing staff [...] and particular consequences for the university equivalent of the 'line manager'\" (Jackson, 1999, p. 142).\nManager-academic role issues: Role definition, recognition and appointment\nResearch approach: The research takes a descriptive, deductive approach and draws upon findings from three linked (internet) surveys of deans of UK business schools, FLMAs in UK business schools and UK university HRDs, structured around a guiding hypothesis that \"The first-line manager-academic role is not clearly defined or understood; there is great variety of practice and of recognition of the role across the business school sector\".\nFindings: Role importance and career\nDiscussion: Results from the three surveys highlight that the role of the FLMA is perceived as important now, and will be more important in the future. In addition, the findings suggest that the FLMA role is important to the career development of individuals and that the development of appropriate managerial skills and acquisition of managerial experience in the FLMA role becomes a prerequisite for future appointment to more senior HE roles. The importance of early career exposure to \"management\" requires institutional responses in determining the nature of, and support for, the FLMA role, not just to improve organizational performance but to influence the contribution of the next generation of senior managers as their careers progress.\nConclusion: It is difficult to escape the conclusion that \"management\" in practice in UK business schools requires urgent attention. This investigation of the role of the FLMA has highlighted the contradictory situation of the perceived positive value of the role to organizational effectiveness alongside the challenges faced by those in the role and the lack of support they receive. Uncertain of what they should be doing, burdened with responsibilities but lacking authority or sanctions in the role, inconsistently supported, uncertain where their priorities lie and struggling to manage those for whom they are responsible, FLMAs are clearly being let down by their institutions. Consequently the organizational effectiveness of UK business schools, as well as the personal development and effectiveness of FLMAs are compromised.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the first-line manager-academic (FLMA) role against a guiding hypothesis that \"The first-line manager-academic role is not clearly defined or understood; there is great variety of practice and of recognition of the role across the business school sector\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: A descriptive, deductive approach through three linked (internet) surveys of deans of UK business schools, FLMAs in UK business schools and UK university human resource directors.\nFindings: The FLMA role in UK business schools is important to organizational effectiveness, personal development and career progression yet is poorly defined and supported, inconsistently enacted and perceived. FLMAs struggle to balance academic and management demands, with line management a particular issue and HR support and development systems are inadequate. Differences between chartered \"old\" and statutory \"new\" UK universities provide an additional layer of complexity.\nResearch limitations/implications: FLMA roles need to be better defined and FLMAs better supported to ensure that FLMAs are effective in role contributing to organizational performance and personal development.\nPractical implications: The paper throws light on a neglected aspect of management in UK business schools that has potential value for university HR directors, university managers and business school deans.\nOriginality/value: First empirical study into the role of the first-line manager academic in UK business schools.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Sustainable responsible conduct beyond the boundaries of compliance: Lessons from Italian listed food and beverage companies
|
[
"Italy",
"Sustainability disclosure",
"Directive 2014/95/EU",
"Food and beverage sector",
"Sustainable responsible practices"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Businesses are facing increased pressure to pursue sustainable, responsible initiatives that contribute to human well-being, tackle economic and social inequality and advocate environmental issues (Camilleri, 2017). This is firmly evident in the food and beverage (F&B) industry for its peculiar traits regarding waste of food and resources (Bates and Phillips, 1999), as well as environmental responsibility for biodiversity and renewable sources (Aktar, 2013; Civera, 2018; Forsman-Hugg et al., 2013). Ethical infractions may also occur throughout the supply chain if companies aim to maximise logistics performance whilst threatening the food product quality and trust-based collaborations among partners (Bloemhof et al., 2015; Manning and Soon, 2016). This sector also fulfils a breakthrough in refurbishing manufacturing processes, distribution channels and product design that can tackle societal problems and create innovative business solutions (Helms, 2004; Franceschelli et al., 2018).\n2. Conceptual framework: 2.1 Development patterns of sustainable responsible practices\n3. Method: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Findings: The findings are based on the cross-case analysis of the five F&B listed companies. Table II shows the characterisations of the companies. Four companies out of five are in the consumer staples sector, whereas the other is in the food processing. Comparing companies in terms of dimension, Company 1 belongs to FTSE MIB, Companies 3 and 4 to FTSE Mid Cap, Companies 2 and 5 to FTSE Small Cap, whereas in terms of number of employees, Companies 1, 4 and 5 have more than 1,000 employees, whilst, Companies 2 and 3 between 500 and 1,000. In terms of consolidated revenues, Companies 1, 2, 3 and 5 have a turnover between EUR500 and EUR2,000m whereas Company 4 has a turnover higher than EUR6.6m. Looking at the institutionalisation of the CSR Committee, only one company had formed a CSR Committee to make decisions on sustainability issues, and consideration of the disclosures on the stakeholder engagement process was mainly based on communication and reporting of sustainability issues. Three out of five companies followed the GRI Standards Guidelines in accordance with the Core option, whereas the others opted for the Referenced option. The GRI Core option requires the overall general disclosure, the disclosure of material topics and how they are managed, whilst the GRI Referenced option uses only selected standards that comprehensively describe some of the economic, environmental and social content. The core option is therefore more detailed than the referenced option, so those companies who apply the latter option are following an easier method of sustainability reporting. With respect to the reporting year, three out of five companies presented their first disclosure of sustainability issues, meaning that they were in the early stages of implementation, whereas the other two were in their five-year and second-year of disclosure, respectively. Looking at the company's website, three out of five companies display the sustainability section, in which companies address a responsible commitment in favour of sustainability issues, like for instance community involvement, supply chain and environmental protection. Overall, the data show primary divergences that can lead to different approaches for those who meet this mandatory disclosure for the first year compared to the others that are more familiar with reporting.\n5. Discussions and conclusion: This study investigates whether Italian listed companies within the F&B industry carry out sustainable, responsible conduct beyond the boundaries of compliance in the first year of the regulatory guidelines of Italian Legislative Decree 245/2016 (RQ1). Then, the study addresses which are the industry-specific matters the companies address as core to their business (RQ2). The findings suggest that companies respect the minimum requirements to claim that a report has been prepared in accordance with the regulatory reform, but they are in the early stage of developing a detailed disclosure. The first signals of the mere adequacy of implementation appear when looking at the results of the companies' key characterisations. For instance, stakeholder engagement is mainly intended as communication through the sustainability reports, and only in one case it was intended as an opportunity for dialogue with stakeholders and building partnerships with long-term logic. The understanding of stakeholders' expectations can balance their interests by proactively creating cooperative partnerships (Civera et al., 2018). Similarly, the involvement of stakeholders can foster co-creation and co-development of innovative ideas (Santoro et al., 2018) as well as entrepreneurship development (Bresciani et al., 2015; Leonidou et al., 2018).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Italian listed companies within the food and beverage (F&B) industry adopt sustainable responsible conduct beyond the boundaries of compliance and which industry-specific matters the companies address as core to their business within a regulatory setting of sustainability disclosure.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study develops a multiple case study of the five Italian listed companies in the F&B industry and employs a content analysis on their sustainability reports.\nFindings: This study reveals a policies-practices decoupling along with a means-ends decoupling that jeopardises the commitment to sustainability. The results show a reasonable level of compliance, but companies are at an early stage of coherent and practical application.\nPractical implications: This study offers practical avenues for companies, regulators and policy makers. Companies in the F&B industry are guided towards the learning process to shape sustainable, responsible practices at the core of their business, as this study provides a replicable assessment of F&B sustainability issues. Regulators and policy makers are called to monitor the concrete implementation of sustainability issues and improve the understanding of the sustainability agenda to overcome the misalignments that companies are currently facing.\nOriginality/value: This study provides fertile ground for assessing the degree of maturity in favour of sustainable responsible conduct within the F&B industry and shows the obstacles to this commitment in the mandatory setting of sustainability disclosure.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The associations among market orientation, technology orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and organizational performance
|
[
"Jordan",
"Organizational performance",
"Strategic orientation",
"Entrepreneurial orientation",
"Technology orientation",
"Pharmaceutical sector"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today's business environment may be the most dynamic organizations have ever faced. Organizations are seeking to minimize the fall-out from price wars, continuous cost efficiency drives and at the same time maximize new market opportunities (Masa'deh et al., 2015; Smith et al., 2017). Furthermore, new competitive challenges are continuously appearing and are forcing firms to re-examine their internal environments in order to improve their performance and sustain a competitive advantage (Almajali et al., 2016). A firm's strategy has major implications for its structure, activities, investments, relations with the market and its performance (Valos and Bednall, 2010; Ajmal et al., 2017). This strategy can help organizations solve problems, create new capabilities and improve business performance (Sarker and Palit, 2015) by providing a technique that allows organizations and their managers to gather specific resources, recognize opportunities for providing valued products and services and to convey those products and services for higher profits (Al-Ansaari et al., 2015). In order for an organization to adopt the best strategies it needs to coordinate its approaches in establishing industry positions and/or by relying on its resources, competences and capabilities in an effort to achieve a fit with its internal and external environments and in turn achieve a sustained competitive advantage and business efficiency. To be able to achieve these goals organizations need to focus on their strategic orientations (Al-Ansaari et al., 2015; Adewunmi et al., 2017). This is due to the fact that a firm's strategic orientation paves the way for its strategic direction in order to monitor its activities to achieve better business performance (Freitas et al., 2013).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Strategic orientation\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research model and hypotheses\n4. Research results: In order to examine the relationship between strategic orientation and organizational performance; reliability and validity analyses were conducted; descriptive analysis was used to describe the attitudes of the respondents to the questionnaires regarding the independent and dependent variables. Also, multiple regression analysis was employed to test the research hypotheses.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between strategic orientation and organizational performance in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan:\n6. Implications and future research: The current research was built on relevant published work and developed a researcher model with the purpose of examining the relationship between strategic orientation and organizational performance. From the review of the literature, it can be noticed that similar studies have not been conducted in the country of Jordan and its pharmaceutical sector. Consequently, besides the contribution of this study to the existing body of knowledge, the findings of this study may seem useful to management in terms of devising and implementing different strategic orientations that will enhance organizational performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between three variables of strategic orientation (market orientation, technology orientation entrepreneurial orientation) and organizational performance in the Jordanian pharmaceutical sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employed a quantitative research design where 252 questionnaires were collected form respondents operating in various pharmaceutical companies in Jordan to obtain necessary data to test the hypotheses developed for the study. Multiple regressions were used to analyze the research data.\nFindings: The results of the analysis revealed that strategic orientations were positively and significantly related to organizational performance. The findings also showed that market orientation contributed the most to the enhancement of organizational development followed by technology orientation and finally entrepreneurship orientation.\nPractical implications: These findings contribute to the understanding of the importance of employing multiple strategic orientations in order to enhance organizational performance, particularly in pharmaceutical companies\nOriginality/value: This is the first study which adequately covers the relationship between three variables of strategic orientation (market orientation, technology orientation, entrepreneurial orientation) and organizational performance in the Jordanian pharmaceutical sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Adoption of sustainable development schemes and behaviours in Italy: Barriers and solutions - what can educators do?
|
[
"Sustainable development",
"Education",
"Behaviour",
"Ethics",
"Cognitive mapping",
"Italy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Sustainable development (SD) is the cornerstone on which to base policies for the future. A critical issue in making effective decisions, and defining successful policies related to sustainability, is identifying appropriate research and educational tools. The tools must account for the social needs of society and the economic and environmental impacts of the sustainability strategy chosen; encourage necessary lifestyle changes; help successfully prevail over wastefulness; mobilize support needed for public and private initiatives; develop a new ecological vision; nurture a sense of global solidarity; and make permanent all the necessary behavioural transformations.According to the UN Commission for Sustainable Development (UN CSD, 1996), sustainability has four dimensions: social, economic, environmental and institutional. The environmental dimension can be defined as the sum of all bio-geological processes and the elements involved in them (referred to as environmental capital by economists). The social dimension (human capital) consists of the intra-personal qualities of human beings, their skills, dedication and experiences. The economic dimension (man-made capital) includes not only the formal economy, but also all kinds of informal settings that provide services to individuals and groups and thus increasing the standard of living beyond the monetary income (World Bank, 1997). Finally, institutions (confusingly called social capital) are the result of interpersonal processes, like communication and co-operation, resulting in systems of rules governing the interaction of members of a society. This dimension includes the role of formal and informal education. Together with the social dimension, it represents the foundation for the other two. Without the transformation, construction and transfer of values (i.e. foundations) the building of sustainability is brittle and weak. The United Nations has dedicated 2005-2014 to be the decade of education for sustainable development. This is very important.1.1 Education as support of values\n2 Cognitive maps for analyzing key issues for SD in Italy: Problems associated with SD involve many stakeholders, such as citizens, local communities, firms, and local administrators. Each of them considers the role of education and the cultural fundamentals for sustainability, as other studies carried out with cognitive maps (Albino et al., 2002, 2003; Kuhtz et al., 2005) and as the present study outlined. For example, despite concerns about energy use since 1970 s, it can be perceived that ordinary citizens have not yet understood the necessity of changing attitudes and behaviour for more rational use of energy and SD implementation.2.1 What is a cognitive map?\n3 Adoption of sustainable schemes: The interviews highlighted that there are various reasons for limited transfer and the non-adoption of sustainable technologies, schemes and behaviours. In this section, present literature on the subject and the results of the interviews are entangled to give a framework for reflection.3.1 What reasons limit new behaviours?\n4 The role of the educator: Graduates, the future educators, have a crucial role in inventing and implementing practical solutions to current problems, such as environmental degradation, and therefore, should be aware of the concept and challenge of SD. They represent the interface between nature, technology, economy and society and have a key role to play in helping society resolve environmental and development issues. Most of the difficulties related with communication among technical persons, and people of popular sectors of society, are due to too few or almost non-formation in humanities, in particular education (Dias et al., 2004). SD can be said to be a societal paradigm fundamental regarding the production of all sorts of goods needed for its own survival and development.The interviews performed in the present research showed that even if people are willing to transform behaviour into a sustainable one, if they are not, as it were, served the dish of transformation on a silver platter, they will not adopt it. The inertia of usual behaviours prevails. It is also important to note that the educator (should he or she be a school teacher, adviser, consultant, journalist, opinion leader, or leader of a local continuing education scheme) should be a person who not only knows about technological innovations and has a sound scientific base, but most of all is someone who is able to create consensus, communicate values and engage the client, citizen, and group to live those values in everyday life. Persuading people to adopt more sustainable behaviours has, so far, been largely based on scary future scenarios, which people respond to by blocking out. People are too busy with everyday life to care and the issues are too complex. Care needs to be taken in using fear as a driver of change. While making people aware of the costs of not acting with sustainability is important, fear should be used selectively and has been overused in the past. Fear functions up to a point, but if the message is too negative it destroys the perception that something can be done. Unfortunately, changing behaviours is not just a matter of will or good intentions. A change at the level of society probably occurs when a sufficient number of people composing that community have redesigned and reinvented their own individual concerns for themselves, their neighbors and their surroundings.4.1 The attitude of the educator\n5 The process of learning: Of key importance is the way individuals take in information and get things[2] done - specifically, how does one learn and perform? People, managers, administrators need to focus on how they learn, and educators then need to know how they perform. Both need to act on the answers. Understanding the first question, of how one learns, is fundamental to the process of transformation and requires personal evaluation and commitment. Individuals will approach problem solving and learning in different ways, depending on what is effective for them. A fundamental way of answering this question is to ask oneself whether one learns by listening, reading, or visually through pictures and graphics. Others learn by doing. One of the tasks of the educator should be twofold: aim to understand the way in which they themselves learn, as they need to understand how they best communicate concepts, and aim to encourage the clients to understand and explore their own learning styles. Understanding the cognitive styles of individuals is likely to assist educators to focus on the most appropriate means to deliver and \"package\" new information and therefore, be more effective in their work. As an educator, one cannot assume that a single approach will be suitable for all clients.Knowledge is a human construction and has a historical and dynamic character. Structures of knowledge are composed of conceptual structures and a set of experimental facts or theories which can explain many aspects of nature. The individual learning process is characterized by heterogeneity of factors, such as social, cultural, economic and cognitive differences. In the context of the diversity of social and psychological aspects of teaching and learning processes, Vygotsky's work on socio-interactions is fundamental (Dias et al., 2004). In Vygotsky's (1976) words: \"Instruction is only useful when it moves ahead of development, leading the child to carry out activities that force him to rise above himself.\" In the context of pedagogy, this idea indicates the teacher as a \"more capable peer\" (Vygotsky, 1976) who provokes in students cognitive changes, which would not occur voluntarily. Vygotsky claims that even formal or informal learning processes increase the cognitive development. From this point of view the teaching and learning process requires the participation of school and of all society, in the individual cognitive development: human learning presupposes a specific social nature and a process by which people grow into the intellectual life of those around them.\n6 Possibility for the future: Some people think that the present situation is already too critical to do anything to \"save\" the planet. The majority of those interviewed (36 out of 49) during this research expressed an explicit sense of resignation and cynicism. This is because they have been scared by catastrophists or because they do not know \"exactly\" what to do in terms of practical actions or what results some behaviours may entail. For example, in Italy many municipalities have waste recycling schemes. Yet, when citizens do not receive information or are confused about where the waste goes to be recycled, and about figures and possible benefits, they are more likely not to consider how important those actions are, and fall back into past behaviours. However, as Gladwell (2001) remarks in his book The Tipping Point little things can make a big difference. Still, people need to reframe how they think about the world. Gladwell emphasizes that change is possible, and people can radically transform their behaviours or beliefs. In his book, he presents a number of examples that show how suggestible human beings are in the face of what they see and hear, and how acutely sensitive they are to even the smallest details of their lives. Simply by finding and reaching those few special people who hold so much social power, the course of social epidemics can be shaped.When it comes to individual and organizational performance, many people attempt to produce action by working in \"the after the fact\" realm of description, analysis, explanation, and prescription. Rarely does one consider that producing an action requires a whole different way of looking at it. In order to have a dramatic impact on performance, the source of action needs to be accessed. One can alter people's performances with information and knowledge along with time, perseverance and experience. Yet, if one wants a breakthrough in people's actions, people's worlds have to be altered including their values (Fedorschak, 1999). This process is not just about pushing for action but continuing to build a mandate for action by coming together and pushing forward. What is good about today is a sense of government responsibility but a process is needed to take it forward. This process must be authentic and go beyond what already exists.6.1 Proposal for a seminar on creating a possibility for sustainable development\n7 Conclusions and implications: Although there is a global consensus on sustainability, the fact of putting in place the core values and principles of SD remains a challenge. Policy makers must be consistent in providing incentives and continuing education schemes for companies, citizens, and people. Integrated approaches that promote new behaviours are needed. In order to do this, the role of research along with formal and widespread informal education for SD and cleaner production needs to be fundamental. Problems associated with SD involve many players: citizens, local communities, firms, and administrators. In this work, cognitive maps for 49 individuals living in Italy have been developed and their differences have been analyzed and discussed. Managers of some firms (10), public administration representatives (21), environmental advisers (4) and local community members (14) were randomly selected for interviews. The 49 interviews show that all the players are considered fundamental for the implementation of sustainability and the role of education, culture and way of thinking. Yet, although each of them could contribute to SD with easy operations, these innovations in behaviours are not widespread and adopted in Italy. For SD to be implemented, it needs to be taken down from the realm of ideas and theories and seeded into the domain of everyday life. The awareness of the need to change behaviours for SD must reach the population through an educational process, not just provided in the school system. This paper proposes a seminar that can be given to any group of people to foster mental and natural ecology and create awareness for SD ethics and values. It also promotes real and measurable transformations in the attitudes of people. The aim of future research in the field would be to undertake this seminar in a local community in Italy as a pilot study and to learn from the experience. Secondly, it is the promotion of this scheme to administrations, companies, and groups as basic education to create transformation. Existing governmental approaches need to incorporate novel methods of communication alongside with more traditional interventions. Without the transformation and construction of solid values, that are considered by people of utmost importance, the foundation for their lives, the building of sustainability is doomed, and destined to remain brittle and weak.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate issues and concerns associated with sustainable development (SD) in Italy for different stakeholders, with a focus on the role of education. Cognitive maps for 49 individuals living in Italy have been developed and their differences analyzed and discussed with the aim of designing a seminar to foster mental and natural ecology and create awareness for SD ethics and values.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Cognitive maps are used to delve into the concept of SD in Italy and to investigate what actions are needed to implement it. Respondents were asked separately to talk about their idea of SD.\nFindings: - The 49 interviews showed that all the actors consider fundamental the role of education, culture and way of thinking for the implementation of SD. An appropriate seminar has been designed as an educational process that completes the formal knowledge provided at school.\nPractical implications: - Actions for future actions are indicated, i.e. to undertake the designed seminar in a local community in Italy as a pilot study and to promote it to administrations, companies, and groups.\nOriginality/value: - The majority of the interviews express an explicit sense of resignation and cynicism as regards SD in action, but 41 out of 49 when showed the designed seminar declared the intention to attend it. This paper fulfils the need to have practical tools to reframe the way we think about the world and SD and act for it. Also, it gives a look at the concerns associated to SD and barriers to action in Italy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Doctors' trustworthiness, practice orientation, performance and patient satisfaction
|
[
"Outcomes",
"Trust",
"Patient perception",
"Patient expectation",
"Patient satisfaction",
"Continuity of care"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper provides a greater understanding of the general practitioner (GP)-patient relationship. It reports a much larger unpublished doctoral study by Van Den Assem (2012), which developed and tested a new model for dyadic professional relationships specifically designed for research into the doctor-patient relationship. The findings are applicable to the National Health Service (NHS). Various trust conceptual models and related constructs in the literature were considered and assessed for their relevance. We drew upon concepts and instruments in the literature, which had been developed and tested. Although the literature indicated that conceptualizing and measuring trust between patient and doctor is challenging and often wanting, it provided the basis for research.\nThe model: The literature provided the basis for developing the constructs for the Doctor-Patient Trust Outcomes Model, which envisioned variables that address the research question:\nMethod: Study population and sample\nResults: Hierarchical regression\nDiscussion: Our findings showed that trust made the largest contribution to patient satisfaction and that the relationship between trust and doctor performance was strong. Doctors' interpersonal abilities and skills were also regarded by patients to be important considerations in determining doctor performance. Patient satisfaction studies show that along with doctors' medical skills, qualities such as listening (Lewis, 1994) and interpersonal skills (Williams and Calnan, 1991) are highly rated. Empathy (Mercer et al., 2001), communication ease and friendship (Gabel et al., 1993), trust (Anderson and Dedrick, 1990) and commitment are all highly valued by patients. Mead and Bower (2000, p. 1091) note that patients value the following:\nConclusion: Validity testing explains whether the model fits the data and whether the model could be generalized to other data samples. Hierarchical regression and SMART PLS accounted for 74.5 per cent of the variance in overall satisfaction. An ANOVA test showed good model fit. In conclusion \"the data predicted by the model correspond to the data actually collected\" (Field, 2009, pp. 201-204).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a greater understanding of the general practitioner (GP)-patient relationship for academics and practitioners. A new model for dyadic professional relationships specifically designed for research into the doctor-patient relationship was developed and tested. Various conceptual models of trust and related constructs in the literature were considered and assessed for their relevance as were various related scales.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The model was designed and tested using purposefully designed scales measuring doctors' trustworthiness, practice orientation performance and patient satisfaction. A quantitative survey used closed-ended questions and 372 patients responded from seven GP practices. The sample closely reflected the profile of the patients who responded to the DoH/NHS GP Patient Survey for England, 2010.\nFindings: Hierarchical regression and partial least squares both accounted for 74 per cent of the variance in \"overall patient satisfaction\", the dependent variable. Trust accounted for 39 per cent of the variance explained, with the other independent variables accounting for the other 35 per cent. ANOVA showed good model fit.\nPractical implications: The findings on the factors which affect patient satisfaction and the doctor-patient relationship have direct implications for GPs and other health professionals. They are of particular relevance at a time of health reform and change.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides: a new model of the doctor-patient relationship and specifically designed scales to test it; a greater understanding of the effects of doctors' trustworthiness, practice orientation and performance on patient satisfaction; and a new framework for examining the breadth and meaning of the doctor-patient relationship and the management of care from the patient's viewpoint.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Social action theory for understanding information security non-compliance in hospitals: The importance of user rationale
|
[
"Compliance",
"Information security",
"Social action theory",
"User behaviour",
"User rationale"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Information and information systems are key assets for organizations of every size. Information security breaches may cause damage that leads not only to economic losses, but also can have a negative effect on reputation, goodwill, and trust (Hoffer and Straub, 1989). Thus, information security has become a strategic issue that needs to be addressed at a corporate level (Von Solms, 2006). This view is also supported by a global state information security survey, which revealed that customer requirements have increasingly become an important factor for justifying information security expenditure PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC, 2010, 2011). Customer requirements progressed from being factor six (out of seven) in 2007 to being the second most important factor (out of seven) in 2010. The authors of the survey concluded that \"information security practices continue to take on a far more customer-facing, business-supporting, strategic value-building role\" (PwC, 2011).\n2 Employee non-compliance and information systems misuse: Non-compliance with information security policies and misuse of information systems are closely related. Policies, guidelines and security awareness-raising programmes rely on the users' willingness and ability to follow them; non-compliance means that users deliberately or accidentally fail to follow these guidelines and rules. This often leads to information systems misuse, which may cause serious security breaches. Employees' misuse of information systems is often defined as \"unauthorized, deliberate, and internally recognizable misuse of assets of the local organizational information system\" (Straub, 1990). The same one-sided focus on intentional actions can be found in existing research on the effectiveness of countermeasures. D'Arcy and Hovav (2007), for instance, carried out a quantitative study to investigate the effectiveness of security policies, the SETA program, and computer monitoring for five different scenarios of information systems misuse (inappropriate e-mail, password sharing, software piracy, unauthorized access, and unauthorized modification). Their study was based on general deterrence theory, which argues that users' misbehaviour is intentional, based on users' judgement as to whether or not the risk of sanctions when engaging in computer abuse is worth the gain: \"It posits that individuals with an instrumental intent to commit antisocial acts can be dissuaded by the administration of strong disincentives and sanctions relevant to these acts\" (Straub and Welke, 1998).\n3 Information system security as social actions: Since security countermeasures represent knowledge of good security practice they also represent rationale. Regardless of the grounds, the design and use of countermeasures is often rational from the actor's point of view. The design is based on the creator's design rationale, while the use is based on the user's use rationale. Both these concepts can be approached through Weber's (1978) theory of social action (SAT). He suggested that four types of social actions exist: traditional, affectual, value oriented, and instrumental, as shown in Table I. Traditional actions are determined by deeply rooted habits, while affectual actions are determined by the actor's feelings or emotions. Value-oriented actions are undertaken for reasons that are intrinsic to the actor, such as ethics. Finally, instrumental actions involve consideration of the behaviour of other human beings and objects, and the relative importance of different ends. Hence, there is no objective meaning of optimal means and ends; we have to take into account the value base upon which we make the judgement.\n4 Research method: We carried out a longitudinal case study (Yin, 1994) between 2008 and 2010 at a regional Swedish hospital to illustrate the rationale and mental processes behind employees' non-compliance with information security polices. The hospital employs about 750 people, has 142 places of treatment and serves around 90,000 citizens. The degree of computerization varies within the hospital; some clinics use electronic medical records (EMR), whilst others do not. Two clinics at the hospital were chosen as cases based on their different degrees of computerization of patient information: one clinic uses manual handling of medical records, whilst the other has used an EMR system for a number of years. This variety was important for providing us with rich data concerning information security in both light and heavy computerized settings, both of which are common in health care.\n5 Non-compliance in a Swedish hospital: The overall purpose of information security policy at the studied hospital is to ensure that the \"correct person has access to the correct information when needed and where needed\" (County Council, 2001). We encountered four types of information security non-compliance at the two clinics (Table III). The first type of information security non-compliance is associated with users not following the routines regarding passwords. The second type illustrates how users develop different routines for managing and sharing patient data that goes against information security policies. The third type concerns documentation of patient information that does not follow protocol. Finally, the fourth relates to illicit use of systems.\n6 Discussion: 6.1 Non-compliance as social actions\n7 Conclusion: Our research illustrates the usefulness of SAT for the management of information security. SAT and its taxonomy directs attention to the rationality of the actor in order to clarify and reveal the meaning of the action. By viewing information security actions as social actions, it is possible to gain awareness of the underlying reasons for users' compliance and non-compliance without any a priori assumptions about user intent. We suggest that SAT can help to create a better foundation for the management of information security and support the selection of a good mix of countermeasures that focus on users' rationality without any a priori assumptions about user intent. We believe that it is possible to reduce the number of non-compliant acts and create a more secure environment by developing countermeasures that address the underlying rationale for a specific non-compliant behaviour rather than overt behaviour. We present our findings in relation to four propositions, together with practical and theoretical implications. These four propositions can form the basis for information security management, and clarify the underlying objectives regarding user rationale presented in Hedstrom et al. (2011).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Employees' compliance with information security policies is considered an essential component of information security management. The research aims to illustrate the usefulness of social action theory (SAT) for management of information security.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research was carried out as a longitudinal case study at a Swedish hospital. Data were collected using a combination of interviews, information security documents, and observations. Data were analysed using a combination of a value-based compliance model and the taxonomy laid out in SAT to determine user rationality.\nFindings: The paper argues that management of information security and design of countermeasures should be based on an understanding of users' rationale covering both intentional and unintentional non-compliance. The findings are presented in propositions with practical and theoretical implications: P1. Employees' non-compliance is predominantly based on means-end calculations and based on a practical rationality, P2. An information security investigation of employees' rationality should not be based on an a priori assumption about user intent, P3. Information security management and choice of countermeasures should be based on an understanding of the use rationale, and P4. Countermeasures should target intentional as well as unintentional non-compliance.\nOriginality/value: This work is an extension of Hedstrom et al. arguing for the importance of addressing user rationale for successful management of information security. The presented propositions can form a basis for information security management, making the objectives underlying the study presented in Hedstrom et al. more clear.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Intelligence and job satisfaction in the USA and China
|
[
"China",
"USA",
"Job satisfaction",
"Performance management",
"Intelligence",
"Employee turnover"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Job satisfaction is a key element when it comes to employee turnover (Griffeth et al., 2000). Because of this, employers should be doing what they are able to make sure that their employees have a satisfactory level of job satisfaction. Because of the growth of global business practices such as outsourcing and increased international trade, it is important that employers are aware of job satisfaction in international markets and how it compares to their own.\nLiterature review: Cultural differences between the USA and China\nDiscussion: Gaznach conducted a fairly conclusive study on the relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction (1998). He found that there was a negative relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction, considering that job complexity was held at a constant. However, his study only took American workers into account. Because of this, we are unable to compare this information with another country to see if there may be other cultural influences on this data.\nConclusions and future study: To gain a better understanding of the relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction across cultures, it is necessary to conduct a study that compares both factors in both the USA and China. This link can also provide important information about how factors such as employee turnover and job performance differ across different cultures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to evaluate both intelligence and job satisfaction of workers in the USA and China. Each topic will be studied individually, first, to determine the relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction. The statistics between China and the USA will then be compared and contrasted to assess how different cultures will affect emotional intelligence and job satisfaction of those in the workforce.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review of the empirical studies on intelligence and job satisfaction was performed and used to develop a model to guide future research.\nFindings: There is a negative relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction in the USA, but no studies have been done to compare both constructs cross-culturally.\nResearch limitations/implications: The proposed study can be used to gain an understanding of the relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction across different cultures.\nPractical implications: The link between job satisfaction and intelligence can be used by employers to determine information about other aspects of their business, such as turnover rates of productive employees.\nOriginality/value: Although there has been some research on the relation between intelligence and job satisfaction, notably by Ganzach (1998), very little has been done across cultures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Designing a field experience tracking system in the area of special education
|
[
"Special education",
"Tracking",
"Knowledge management",
"Field experience management",
"Activity theory",
"Pre-service teachers",
"Cooperation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is an increased focus on data-based decision making in higher education. More and more academic leaders are adopting a data-based approach in decision making to make informed decisions for investment in education and to meet external demands for accountability (Bailey and Alfonso, 2005; Cummings et al., 2011; Means et al., 2010; Heineman, 2011; Coburn and Turner, 2011; Little, 2012). The major benefits of the data-based approach in education include: increasing teacher and staff accountability (Means et al., 2010), monitoring and improving academic programs and student performance (Means et al., 2010; Little, 2012) and making more effective instructional decisions (Heineman, 2011; Riedel, 2007). On the other hand, there are some limitations with the data-based approach in education. For example, people may not have easy access to the data needed; the quality of some data may be poor; and people lack adequate skills or knowledge to analyze, interpret and use data (Marsh et al., 2006; Coburn and Turner, 2011; Little, 2012). In all, notwithstanding the significance given to outcome measures, there remain obstacles to implementation.\n2. Field experience management process in the area of special education: In general, the field experience management process in special education involves three stages (He, 2012) as illustrated in Figure 2. The following is a general description of the activities in each of the three stages.\n3. A field experience tracking system for pre-service special education teachers: Our proposed field experience tracking system for pre-service special education teachers has received strong support from the program director, dean and the university. A research grant was provided by the university in early 2012 for us to implement the proposed system. As a result, a web-based tracking system was developed and implemented to capture pre-service special education teachers' field experience progress and skills mastered. The system was analyzed and designed using Activity Theory. Activity Theory is a framework for studying \"different forms of human practices as development progresses, with both individual and social levels interlinked at the same time\" (Kuutti, 1996). Activity Theory can be used as a practical tool to guide the requirements elicitation process for various systems such as knowledge management (KM) systems, web applications and mobile learning environments (Engestrom, 1987, 1999a, b; Uden, 2001, 2007; Uden et al., 2008; Karasavvidis, 2009). Below are several key steps in applying Activity Theory to design the system.\n4. Evaluation and data analysis results: Evaluations of the developed web-based system include two parts: usability testing and actual use of the system by pre-service special education teachers. Two experienced researchers collectively developed the evaluation protocols, procedures and a questionnaire. An initial draft of the questionnaire was piloted by several students so that they can offer feedback and suggestions. The finalized questionnaire reflected additions, omissions, and changes to questions used in the pilot-testing.\n5. Conclusion: Field experiences provide opportunities for pre-service special education teachers to gain valuable classroom teaching experiences and to apply the skills and knowledge they developed from their university work (Kauffman, 1992; Schon, 1993; Brownlee and Carrington, 2000; Puckett and Anderson, 2002; Venables and Tan, 2009; Gurvitch and Metzler, 2009; Clark, 2012). To understand and capture what pre-service special education teachers did and learned from field experience, we used Activity Theory to design a web-based system to track the field experience of pre-service special education teachers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: To improve the quality of field experience, support field experience cooperation and streamline field experience management, the purpose of this paper is to describe the experience in using Activity Theory to design and develop a web-based field experience tracking system for a special education program.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used Activity Theory to design and develop a web-based field experience tracking system for a special education program. An in-depth evaluation of the developed web-based system including usability testing and actual use of the system was conducted.\nFindings: The evaluation and data analysis results demonstrate the value of Activity Theory and show that a web-based tracking system is a valuable tool to support the management of pre-service teachers' field experiences.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper to discuss the design and development of field experience tracking system using Activity Theory. This paper can be used to motivate other developers to use Activity theory to design campus-wide information system. The system and methodology the authors used in this project has wider applicability and generalizability, and can be applied to the management of other competency and field based professional training in areas such as nursing, social work and medicine.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Beyond feedback: understanding how feedforward can support employee development
|
[
"Performance management",
"Development",
"Employee development",
"Feedback"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Feedback is an opportunity for managers to open a dialogue with employees around performance expectations and individual development. Yet, feedback is often met with negative reactions despite the nature of the feedback itself (Kluger and DeNisi, 1996; London and Smither, 2002). In order to mitigate negative responses, researchers have advised that feedback be timely, behaviorally focused and task specific (DeNisi and Pritchard, 2006). Still, there is immense variability in its effectiveness (Gregory and Levy, 2015; Kluger and DeNisi, 1996).\nFrom feedback to feedforward: Feedback\nMechanisms and boundary conditions of FFI and employee performance: a broaden-and-build perspective: FFI's effectiveness can be explained through Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory. According to broaden-and-build theory, positive emotional states broaden thought-action repertoires important for decision making and behavior. Specially, exposure to positive states increases our awareness and encourages novel, creative, and developmental thoughts and actions (personal resources). Positive affective and cognitive states also increase interpersonal connectedness important for relationship quality (relational resources) (Waugh and Fredrickson, 2006). This contrasts with negative states which support narrow cognitive and behavioral responses. Fredrickson and Losada's (2005) studied the effects of positive emotions on performance during business meetings. They found that managers who were higher in positive emotions asked more questions and considered issues broadly. Positive emotions and cognitions appear to stimulate growth of resources in a way that is important for performance. In recognition of the importance of positive affective and cognitive states, we propose that the FFI is effective because it engenders positive emotions thereby encouraging the growth of resources.\nDiscussion: This paper presents a model for the application of the FFI in terms of when and why it will be most effective. Drawing on the key underpinnings of broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001) we propose the interplay of personal and relational resources will set the basis for effectiveness of the technique. In doing so, this paper responds to Fredrickson's (2001) call to investigate how broadened thought-action repertoires might be translated into specific organization contexts and consequently impact on performance. We also integrate performance management research and theory to extend our current understanding of the limitations of the FFI's application by identifying boundary conditions (methodological, environmental and interviewee characteristics) under which effectiveness can be maximized.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Recent research has found that a technique called feedforward interviewing (FFI) can be used to develop employees on the job. Currently the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the FFI-performance relationship are unexplored. Using a positive psychology framework, the purpose of this paper is to discuss how FFI supports the creation of personal and relational resources, and explores the contextual and environmental limits to the effectiveness of the technique.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Through a review of the literature as well as examination through appropriate theoretical lenses, moderators of FFI are proposed and the implications for the effectiveness of the technique are examined.\nFindings: The FFI model explored in this paper is rooted in broaden and build theory as well as other theories from the positive psychology literature. Design recommendations and future research directions are discussed.\nOriginality/value: Through a scholarly review of the literature, the potential for the effective use of a new developmental technique is explored. Direct guidance on how to apply FFI in organizations is given.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Supplier selection in closed loop supply chain by an integrated simulation-Taguchi-DEA approach
|
[
"Data envelopment analysis (DEA)",
"Computer simulation",
"Supplier selection",
"Taguchi method",
"Closed loop supply chain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Excessive demand for production resources and increasing awareness of negative effects of manufactured products on environment have attracted the attention of the researchers to reverse supply chain logistics (De Brito and Dekker, 2004). Reverse logistic is defined as \"the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal\" (De Brito and Dekker, 2004; Rogers and Tibben-Lembke, 1999; Schultmann et al., 2006). Reverse logistic does not treat only reverse flows from customers to manufacturer, but also considers forward flows of supply chain network, resulting in a new concept which is referred to as closed loop supply chain (CLSC; Fleischmann et al., 2004; Rubio et al., 2008).\n2. Literature review: One of the oldest methods used in this field is DEA which considers different criteria to determine the best supplier like what (Liu et al., 2000) have done in their study. This method has been developed to cope with increased numbers of criteria. Narasimhan et al. (2001), have grouped suppliers into four categories by defining eleven criteria which includes five output criteria and six inputs. Because of the importance of issue, in several surveys, designing of the supply chain network has been done in different phases. In the first and second phase, supplier determination is applied utilizing one of the methods mentioned above. Talluri and Baker (2002) designed supply chain network in three phases; first, score of each supplier has been determined, second, optimal number of suppliers has been specified. Amin and Zhang (2012), used AHP method initially to identify the score of each supplier and then selected suppliers in an integrated model.\n3. Problem description: In this study, a closed loop supply chain has been considered consisting of four levels of supplier, producer, distributer/collector and consumer. Costs which have been taken into account in the chain include transportation, production, raw material and ultimate product preservation, shortage costs, as well as costs related to reverse current activities, raw material purchasing, making contracts with the suppliers and their cancellation (Beamon, 1999). Supply chain incomes include product selling to customers, selling of returned unrecyclable or irreparable products to the outside of the chain (Handfield and Nichols, 1999). Every supplier has a consistency in its production which causes the raw material used for the production of the final product which have different levels of quality (Christopher, 2012). In addition, the supplier with respect to technology, consistency of the production process and the quality of the raw materials produces the final product which has different levels (Ostlin et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2004).\n4. Objective functions and the proposed model: The experimental variables in this experiment are as follows:\n5. Numerical example: In this example there are three suppliers and the purchase values are determined in three years in a row. In this chain, there are two suppliers which have been dedicated to two regions. To determine the decision variables, the stimulation was done using Arena version 11. Because of this, some parameters which could not be modeled, are not presentable in the primary model which was mentioned in the previous section. Thus, all parameters that are used in the numerical example are shown in Table II.\n6. Conclusions: In this study, a closed loop supply chain has been surveyed. Because supply chain models are mainly complex problems, providing systematic models for them is very difficult and requires spending a lot of time. Therefore, approximate methods like experimental design can be used. DOE has been used to obtain suitable responses for systems that systematic equation cannot be determined. In proposed model, the experimental variables are benefits of chain and number of low-quality products. Moreover, control variable is the quantity of order. Also, four turbulence parameters are taken to account: type of customer consumption, quality of raw materials, quality of final product and transportation time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Reverse logistics refer to processes related to the reuse of products. The role of suppliers' performance is crucial in achieving quality, cost, service and delivery aims of a supply chain. The selection of suppliers is regarded as one of the critical issues encountered by purchasing and operations managers in a supply chain to enhance organization's global marketplace competitiveness. Most of the supply chain models are rather complex problems. Consequently, it is impossible to propose systematic models to handle them. Therefore, in this paper a new integrated approach based on experimental design and computer simulation is proposed for supplier selection. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, a simulation approach is implemented to determine certain equivalent of parameters values in a CLSC network design which cannot be computed through mathematical model. Suppliers' order quantities are investigated by Taguchi method for planning time horizon. Moreover, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to assess suppliers based on quality, cost, delivery time, production capabilities, services and technology.\nFindings: In the numerical example, there are three suppliers for different regions. Purchase value of each supplier is measured in three years successively. According to the proposed method, the authors find the minimum level of costs together with the maximum number of high-quality products.\nPractical implications: The objective functions of model are minimizing the costs and maximizing number of high-quality products. The integrated approach introduced in this paper enables managers to select their suppliers effectively in their real system.\nOriginality/value: Most supply chain models are complex and the identification of proper and optimal solutions in complex real-world systems often requires the solution of multi-objective problems involving multiple stochastic variables. Therefore, the paper introduces a new integrated approach for supplier selection in closed loop supply chain. To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study that integrates DEA, computer simulation and Taguchi method for supplier selection in closed loop supply chains.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Planning for avian flu disruptions on global operations: a DMAIC case study
|
[
"Health and safety",
"Infection control",
"Six Sigma",
"PDCA",
"Quality management",
"Process management",
"Organizational effectiveness",
"Organizational change"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: US companies for many years have been outsourcing and developing supplier bases in countries with less expensive raw materials and labor to gain competitive advantages (Kumar et al., 2007; Kumar and Eickhoff, 2006). The drive towards ultimate cost minimization has made supply chains vulnerable (Hoffman, 2006). There are many concerns for such vulnerabilities; one is infusing mass destruction weapons through the system via an unsuspecting company's supply chain into a country targeted by international terrorism (Kumar et al., 2008). Another could be an uncontrollable pandemic drastically affecting global supply chains (Ruquet, 2006). The potential short- and long-term damage to life and economic activity is incalculable (Rice and Spayd, 2005; Sikich, 2005, 2008). An avian flu pandemic can affect a trading and transportation system in a major way, shown when human death by avian influenza A (H5N1) deaths were reported in Hong Kong in 1997 (CDC, 2010).Avian influenza is an infection caused by avian (bird) influenza (flu) virus. These influenza viruses occur naturally among birds. Wild birds worldwide carry the virus in their intestines, but usually do not get sick from them. However, avian influenza is highly contagious among wild and domesticated birds, including chicken, ducks and turkeys, which can sicken or cause fatalities (CDC, 2010). At first, avian influenza was unable to transfer to humans. However, the first human case in 1997 showed a person contacting infected poultry or surfaces contaminated with secretion/excretions would be infected from three known influenza virus A subtypes (H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2). Figure 1 illustrates a simplified avian flu spread and avian flu pandemic progression to humans.Between 2003 and 2009, 467 human cases involving highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses were reported by more than a dozen countries in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, Europe and the near East (CDC, 2010). Moreover, of those ill with H5N1 virus, approximately half (282 (50 percent)) died (WHO, 2009). The H5N1 virus is able to mutate and cause high mortality in humans.\nLiterature review: Few studies are found in the literature on avian flu pandemic's potential economic impact on global supply chains and corporate preparedness through business continuity strategies to minimize such a pandemic's severity. The collaboration between public organizations (e.g. WHO, Congress, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, etc.) and private sectors (e.g. for profit organizations) is the most important aspect to mitigate supply chain risk from an avian flu pandemic. Verbiest and Castillo (2004) showed even in its early stages, that avian flu caused significant economic damage primarily harming the agriculture sector, particularly poultry production. McLeod (2005) estimated the direct cost to livestock sector in Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam at $560 million.Estimating an avian flu pandemic's impact on economic costs is uncertain. There is considerable epidemiological uncertainty about how many people will be infected, disease severity and economic uncertainty about how an outbreak affects economics activity. It is also difficult to predict how the public will respond to a flu outbreak. Experience shows that even during an epidemic outbreak, the public soon adapts to the disease and economic activity continues. On the demand side, a pandemic is likely to affect customer confidence and change consumption and social patterns. It will also affect investor confidence, which can have important long-term consequences. On the supply side, a pandemic will affect labor availability, as illness forces workers to stay home. It will also continue to negatively affect the livestock sector. Governments will have to deal with an uncertain policy environment as they respond to the public health emergency and economic dislocation. Markets have a tendency to overreact, which could exacerbate economic impact (Bloom et al., 2005). Therefore, no purchases owing to illness and psychological reactions to a pandemic present a new business impact that is currently not assessed as part of traditional business impact assessment; and as such, it is not addressed in any business continuity, disaster, crisis management or recovery plan. Another impact assessment or plan that has not been addressed is company revenue loss or restriction. Traditional plans start with an assumption that the marketplace is still viable; a potentially false assumption. Traditional plans are designed to get an organization back into their market as quickly as possible - recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO) and maximum tolerable outage come to mind (MTO) (Sikich, 2005).From an economic viewpoint, evaluating an avian flu pandemic is essential for an entire business entity. Planning for business continuity needs to consider potential failures in basic public infrastructure as well as upstream and downstream supply chains (Dalton and Considine, 2006) as a business continuity plan's goal is to preserve and protect an enterprise's essential elements and maintain acceptable operations throughout a crisis and afterward, as the company recovers. It is always easier to minimize risk than to recover from a setback. The business continuity plan process begins with identifying and managing risk (Rodetis, 1999).A research study on pandemic spread in Southeast Asia showed spatial spread patterns in Thailand - the epidemic rapidly transforming from predominantly local to country-wide between 60 and 90 days (Ferguson et al., 2005). Therefore, an epidemic could increase its hazard to a pandemic. Its spread should alert both government and business entities to set up regulations, policies and procedures to prevent and control the catastrophe, which could happen (Knowledge@Wharton, 2006a).This study aims, therefore, to develop a decision framework using Six Sigma DMAIC process to analyze avian flu's potential impact on large company global operations such as Wal-Mart and Dell Computers, whose market and supply base span the world. Specifically, our intent is to understand challenging operational issues to formulate business continuity plan for corporate preparedness in the event of an avian-flu pandemic:* Avian flu pandemic effect's on businesses - Wal-Mart and Dell Computers - chosen for this study and the role various governments should play.* Avian flu pandemic's risk, including failure modes on Wal-Mart and Dell Computers' global operations.* What sequence of factors reinforces avian-flu's pandemic negative impact on Wal-Mart and Dell Computers global operations?* What sequence balances an avian-flu pandemic impact on Wal-Mart and Dell Computers global operations?* Appropriate guidelines on business continuity plans for corporate preparedness to mitigate trading and transportation security risks and failure modes in Wal-Mart and Dell Computers' global business operations.\nAnalytical framework: An avian flu pandemic's impact on the two global supply chain operations (Wal-Mart and Dell Computers) and the operational issues described earlier are analyzed using basic DMAIC - an acronym for a Six Sigma problem-solving a method with similar traits to plan-do-check-act (PDCA) using define (supply chain process maps), measure (situation analyses), analyze (failure mode and effects analysis), closed-loop (influence diagrams), improve (future analysis), and control (future analysis). We conducted a literature review to understand, define and measure the situation that a global business operation faces when it comes to virulent flu infections. A situation analysis, a tool within the software package Decision Focus(r) (Focus Performance Systems, 2005), analyzes the complex situation down to cause and effect, as well as assigning priority: severity, urgency and growth to each. From there, a cause and effect analysis was done on the top issue - avian flu becomes pandemic. The next step was to analyze the causes identified and implement strategies to correct or mitigate those causes. The supply chain process maps were developed for Wal-Mart and Dell Computers global operations showing the stages where the staff involved (for both Wal-Mart and Dell or their trading partners) could be infected by an avian flu pandemic from the information we gathered. Subsequently, a detailed analysis was carried out using FMEA and closed-loop influence diagrams for understanding the avian flu's pandemic impact on two global operations. All five DMAIC phases for Wal-Mart and Dell Computers are simultaneously discussed in detail. A failure mode and effect analysis and closed-loop influence diagrams illustrating avian flu pandemic's impact on Wal-Mart and Dell Computers supply chains are included in the DMAIC process analyze phase.\nWal-Mart and Dell Computers: Define phase\nImprovements measures in Wal-Mart's and Dell's supply chains: Managers must pursue strategies to review and communicate risks for suppliers, employees and their families, and immediate contacts while integrating avian flu strategy with company health, safety and environment policy. Measures proposed for supply chain improvements may include:* Constantly reviewing operational plans.* Carrying out vendor capability assessments.* Creating detailed preventive measures to adequately prepare a detailed operational action plan in case of outbreaks.* Ensuring business continuity and planning to safeguard activities in the case of epidemic spread.* Drawing on good practices from other businesses, expert and official advice.* Sharing actions with others and offering mentoring.* Initiating education on prevention, understanding symptoms, contact risks, full personal and workplace preparedness for emergency action.* Planning employee communication chain roles.* Encouraging a trust and openness culture.* Implementing a decisive response to individual cases - avoiding stigma and maintaining confidentially.* Building a strong public health culture in the workplace for all future health risks.* Ensuring that all managers and supervisors contribute to non-discriminatory workplace and external contact surveillance regarding symptoms, contact risks - with sensitive and decisive response to outbreaks and risks.* Encouraging employees to be vigilant.\nControl measures for Wal-Mart's and Dell's supply chains: To prevent spread when a worker is already infected, the proposed pandemic management plan may include:* Monitoring staff to identify infected members.* Sending staff home once a pandemic case is identified.* Quarantining products and supplies.* Avoiding meetings and encouraging teleconferences.* Encouraging staff to be hygienic by washing hands and sterilizing work tools.* Limiting documents transfer such as invoice with fewer hands involved, considering electronic transfer.* Canceling meetings or shipments.* Encouraging vaccination among suppliers, distributors and staff.\nConclusions: Our analysis shows sequential factors that reinforce or balance an avian flu pandemic's impact on Wal-Mart and Dell Computers global supply chains. Such analyses are useful for top managers wishing to develop strategic business continuity plans and corporate preparedness for effectively responding to the major risk posed by a pandemic on their supply chains. Companies with global operations should, as a matter of urgency, adopt and create business continuity plans to combat workforce loss and supply chain disruption (Dalton and Considine, 2006; Knowledge@Wharton, 2006b; Rodetis, 1999). Managers also have to review their insurance policies to determine coverage during a crisis. Supply chain managers must communicate and educate suppliers and transporters about preparedness. Companies must keep supplier information and contact and help educate them on the need to adopt best practices to protect their staff. Business organizations should not wait until an outbreak strikes before taking action since they might have little time to prepare and a pandemic could limit travel, disrupt supply chains and hit staff attendance, causing an overall business slowdown. It is essential that staff are informed when and where cases occur, so they know where they can travel and what to avoid. Information should be shared via telephone, e-mail and text message, or via the company's intranet. As part of this process, managers must make sure they have up-to-date contact details for all their staff. The logistical challenges posed by a potential pandemic would be different from those posed by a terrorist attack. Traditional contingency planning revolves around a scenario in which a company's logistical infrastructure is taken out-of-action. In an avian flu case, company corporate infrastructure would be in place, but many employees would be unwilling or unable to work or travel. So it is imperative to assess continuity plans for keeping the business going, such as whether staff can work from remote locations. Effective collaboration is needed among governments, international organizations, businesses and other supply chain stakeholders.\nRecommendations: Business continuity plans and related costs are not easy to ascertain because historical data are not available and because the low experience curve associated with avian flu. As a relatively new phenomenon, quantitative data are not available to determine immediate costs. Potential cost to vendors, manufacturers and other supply chain stakeholders is relatively unknown. This could be attributed to inexperience dealing with a serious outbreak. System dynamics modeling is one way to quantify avian flu pandemic's impact on global supply chains. Avian flu's nature and its unpredictability affect research because many factors can come into play, which concerns any business manager. More research should be undertaken to study and understand avian flu's impact on human population and domestic and global business operations. Actually implementing a proposed business model in Wal-Mart and Dell Computers operations is a logical next step. The author plans to pursue this effort with company managers. Absent universal policy or regulations to control a pandemic could be problematic. A major problem is that different national policies hinder control measures. There is a great need for collaboration among governments and organizations and also formulating integrated global policy and regulations to avert an avian flu pandemic's potential threat.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The author aims to assess the spread of avian flu, its impact on businesses operating in the USA and overseas, and the measures required for corporate preparedness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Six Sigma DMAIC process is used to analyze avian flu's impact and how an epidemic could affect large US business operations worldwide. Wal-Mart and Dell Computers were chosen as one specializes in retail and the other manufacturing.\nFindings: - The study identifies avian flu pandemic risks including failure modes on Wal-Mart and Dell Computers global operations. It reveals the factors that reinforce avian-flu pandemic's negative impact on company global supply chains. It also uncovers factors that balance avian-flu pandemic's impact on their global supply chains.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Avian flu and its irregularity affect the research outcomes because its spread could fluctuate based on so many factors that could come into play. Further, the potential cost to manufacturers and other supply chain partners is relatively unknown. As a relatively new phenomenon, quantitative data were not available to determine immediate costs.\nSocial implications: - In this decade, the avian influenza H5N1 virus has killed millions of poultry in Asia, Europe and Africa. This flu strain can infect and kill humans who come into contact with this virus. An avian influenza H5N1 outbreak could lead to a devastating effect on global food supply, business services and business operations.\nOriginality/value: - The study provides guidance on what global business operation managers can do to prepare for such events, as well as how avian flu progression to a pandemic can disrupt such operations. This study raises awareness about avian flu's impact on businesses and humans and also highlights the need to create contingency plans for corporate preparedness to avoid incurring losses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Supervisor and mentoring effects on work-family conflict in logistics
|
[
"Job satisfaction",
"Turnover",
"Work–family conflict",
"Mentoring",
"Supply chain",
"Logistics",
"Supportive supervisors"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Given that supply chain management (SCM) represents a key enabler of competitive advantage, supply chain employees serve as critical resources for firm performance (Stank et al., 2011; Wowak et al., 2013). Yet SCM faces a critical workforce shortage with job openings outpacing supply (Ruamsook and Craighead, 2014). Compounding this problem, SCM suffers a gender bias as women represent only 35 percent of the workforce (Nix and Stiffler, 2016). Overall, the work culture of SCM is not well understood given limited research exploring organizational support for and retention of employees (Hohenstein et al., 2014; Schorsch et al., 2017).\nLiterature review: Ellinger et al. (2002) position HR as a key enabler of SCM capabilities, and scholars have since linked SCM employee skills to organizational performance (Ellinger et al., 2008, 2011; Gomez-Cedeno et al., 2015). HR management should subsequently hold a priority in SCM (Huo et al., 2015; McCrea, 2015). However, a recent survey reveals that only 29 percent of SCM employees have a dedicated HR representative who fully understands their work challenges, suggesting that HR management remains underdeveloped in SCM (Donati, 2015). HR management has also been understudied if not mostly neglected in SCM literature (Ellinger and Ellinger, 2014; Gomez-Cedeno et al., 2015; Huo et al., 2015) with Hohenstein et al. (2014) emphasizing a lack of scientific investigation of HR in SCM, including recruiting, hiring and retention. This gap becomes markedly more pressing given a perpetual workforce shortage in SCM that has been driven by rapid growth of jobs combined with insufficient expansion of academic programs, rapid retirement of baby boomers and a general lack of appeal of SCM to young professionals (Aquino and Draper, 2008; Maloni, Scherrer and Mascaritolo, 2016; Maloni, Scherrer, Campbell and Boyd, 2016). Research also emphasizes gender inequity that reduces SCM's attractiveness to women (Lynagh et al., 1996; Nix and Stiffler, 2016).\nConceptual model and hypotheses: With these challenges, we build our conceptual model and associated hypotheses below (Figure 1), concentrating on the logistics function of SCM. The model focuses on WFC, assessing the impact of family-supportive supervisors and mentoring on work interference with family (WIF) (RQ1). Given the talent shortage, the model then evaluates the impact of WIF on job satisfaction and intent to leave logistics (RQ2).\nMethods: We assess the research hypotheses and gender moderation with survey data of logistics professionals (Table AI). The survey items for WIF (Carlson et al., 2000), family-supportive supervisor (Hammer et al., 2013) and mentoring are applied directly from established scales (Dreher and Ash, 1990). The job satisfaction and turnover intention items are also validated in existing research (Brayfield and Rothe, 1951; Judge and Bretz, 1992).\nDiscussion: Aligning with role conflict theory and building on calls for nuanced assessment of WIF sources (Hargis et al., 2011), the results reveal potential complex impacts of supervisors, mentoring and subsequent individual WIF sources in logistics. Supportive supervisors reduce time and strain-based WIF with mentoring balancing behavior-based WIF. However, mentoring can counterproductively increase time-based WIF for women. Examining WIF consequences, both strain and behavior-based WIF have gender-specific effects on job satisfaction, which subsequently correlates with intent to leave logistics. Such results underscore the importance of coaching in logistics (Ellinger et al., 2005), urging organizations to offer gender-specific support from both supervisors and mentors to reduce WIF. We discussed ideas to do so below.\nConclusion: To close, this study expands on scarce OB/HR literature in SCM, ultimately offering several contributions to both OB/HR and SCM. For OB/HR, the results reveal some complementary interplay of supervisors and mentoring to support different WIF sources. Yet, evidence that mentoring can be simultaneously helpful and harmful for women adds complexity to extant literature and contradicts previous findings of few gender WIF differences. As such, mentoring is not always beneficial for young professionals, and employers must critically evaluate concurrent forms of gender-specific social support for specific WIF sources.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: A talent shortage and underrepresentation of women in logistics emphasize the need to assess the logistics work culture. As logistics practitioners face round-the-clock job pressures, work-family conflict presents one such opportunity for study. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of supervisors and mentoring on work interference with family (WIF) and subsequent job satisfaction and intent to leave logistics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Under role conflict theory, the authors apply structural equation modeling to survey data of logistics practitioners, focusing on time, strain and behavior WIF sources.\nFindings: The results highlight the complexity of WIF in logistics. Strain and behavior-based WIF relate to job satisfaction, which then relates to intent to leave logistics. Family-supportive supervisors reduce time and strain-based WIF, and mentoring provides complementary support for behavior-based WIF. However, mentoring also yields unintended contradictory effects for women as detrimental to time-based WIF.\nResearch limitations/implications: The relatively small sample size, particularly for women, limits generalizability of the results.\nPractical implications: To foster supportive work environments, logistics organizations must train supervisors and mentors to resolve employee WIF, including its different sources and gender-specific impacts.\nOriginality/value: The interplay of supervisors and mentors has not been well studied to date. Also, the contradictory impacts of mentoring for women based on WIF sources challenges WIF literature and issues warnings for mentoring in professional practice. Finally, the results provide insight into the talent shortage and gender imbalance in logistics that lack empirical study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Managing international branch campuses: Lessons learnt from eight years on a branch campus in Malaysia
|
[
"Development",
"Management",
"Communication",
"Identity",
"International branch campuses"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: International branch campuses (IBCs) represent a small but dominant element of transnational higher education (TNHE). They attract considerable attention and merit closer inspection. This paper considers the management of an IBC and discusses this issue from the reflective standpoint of an author employed in a senior management position, during a period of significant growth of the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC). This paper will examine the key management issues during the early, developing and evolving stages of an IBC from a practitioner's perspective.\n2. Literature review: There is extensive literature on TNHE which provides the foundation for discussion regarding IBCs. (Knight, 2007, 2011; McNamara and Knight, 2014; Naidoo, 2009). McBurnie and Ziguras (2007) refer to IBCs as a form of international business rather than pure academic expansion and this provides an interesting context for further analysis. This degree of expansion, where home countries seek new markets for a new type of student recruitment - not to the home base - creates a new and varied dynamic of delivery and existence. We cannot treat IBCs as homogenous entities, however, as key factors such as ownership, governance and structure differ (Lane and Kinser, 2013). While Lawton and Katsomitros (2012) argue against a single, static definition for IBCs, we can identify patterns through an examination of practice and process.\n3. Methodology: Over a period of eight years, from 2008 to 2015, the author conducted interviews, meetings and discussion groups with managers, senior leaders, administrators and students on the University of Nottingham UK and Malaysia campuses in order to identify key trends and emerging issues of concern. These themes were then mapped onto defined periods of growth; early (1-5 years), developing (5-8 years) and evolution (8 years onwards), in order to provide a distinct approach and process for analysis and understanding.\n4. Context: UNMC is a joint venture between the University of Nottingham, Boustead Holdings Berhad and YTL Corporation Berhad. The partnership holds the status of a government-linked company created to contribute to Malaysian society, and an obligation to follow national hiring policy guidelines with respect to administrative staff. Nottingham has oversight and responsibility for the academic issues and Boustead, the majority shareholder, oversees the administration. In essence, UNMC can be seen to run on two systems simultaneously, integrated but distinct in their own right. At the point of establishment, national law dictated that the majority shareholder be local. UNMC began its life as one of partnership and this has been of tremendous benefit. The level of investment and support received from the local partners has been instrumental in the growth and success of the campus. From a practical and day-to-day perspective, however, this does create issues of communication and oversight that need to be understood and managed. While Nottingham controls academic issues, the organisation and management of human resources and finance, including salaries and promotion criteria for non-seconded staff are governed by Boustead policies. This in itself does not necessarily constitute a problem but does mean that locally hired employees, both administrative and academic, more accurately associate their employer as a national Malaysian company rather than a UK university.\n5. Findings: 5.1 Early stage (1-5 years)\n6. Conclusion: As UNMC enters the next stage of development and looks to further evolve, its focus will be increasingly on the research and knowledge exchange agenda. To this end, connections, partnerships and collaborative opportunities will be explored and exploited. A reduction in the reliance on the UK campus for senior staff will provide for contextual relevance and value. Early career academics will need to be retained to strengthen institutional knowledge and the campus will be even better placed to attract senior researchers, as it continues to solidify its position as a research active international university.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: International branch campuses (IBCs) are complex entities and while much has been written about their expansion and development, the literature is largely from an external perspective. There have been few longitudinal studies examining the development of an IBC over time. The purpose of this paper is to review the development of one IBC over an eight-year time period, to identify the key learning points for institutional managers of other IBCs or for institutions intending to establish an IBC.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is a culmination of research, conducted during the eight years when the lead author worked at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC). The author was involved in practical management aspects as well as the research and analysis of IBC development. This paper represents a form of ethnographic research where the author conducted interviews, meetings and discussion groups, observed institutional policies, strategies and operations in action and was in an ideal position to identify and discuss their impacts on institutional performance.\nFindings: This paper examines key management issues during the early, developing and evolving stages of an IBC and discusses key issues including communication, curriculum, identity and management. Key challenges, procedural issues, managerial responses and strategy will be presented to highlight foundational concerns for IBC development and areas and topics that must be given priority and support.\nOriginality/value: This paper considers the management of an IBC from the reflective standpoint of an author employed in a senior management position, during a period of significant growth of UNMC. The author provides insights and discussion involving practical experience.\n",
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Coping styles of failing Brunei vocational students
|
[
"Brunei",
"Achievement",
"Active failing",
"Passive failing",
"Students’ coping",
"Vocational and technical education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Training people in vocational and technical education (VTE) skills is part of the overall process to develop human resources of any country contemplating to achieve economic and social progress (Wilkins, 2002). This form of education is also variously known as or referred to as technical and vocational education in some countries. Under various models of VTE, some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa introduce the relevant VTE subjects within the secondary school level curriculum (Atchoarena and Delluc, 2002). Other countries elsewhere such as Papua New Guinea in the Pacific teach the subjects in both secondary and post-secondary institutions (Mundia, 1998). Most VTE programs are funded by the public sector and fall within the national education system. However, there are a number of them funded and operated as private sector institutions (see Atchoarena and Esquieu, 2002; Wilkins, 2002). In short, there are three different types of vocational education, namely: an integrated vocationalized general education, separate-track vocational education, and non-formal vocational education (Yamada, 2001). In many countries with dual education systems such as Brunei, VTE forms a separate component which operates alongside the national general education system with its own institutions, teachers, and programs (Yusuf and Hamid, 2014). Previous research indicates that with high intrinsic motivation (see Fuller and Macfadyen, 2012) and ability to engage in self-directed and self-regulated learning (see Jossberger et al., 2010), VTE students have been able to eventually enter universities and rejoin their mainstream peers who did not have to take a detour to reach tertiary level educational institutions (see Abbott-Chapman, 2006; O'Shea et al., 2012). Figure 1 shows the exit points and different pathways taken by Brunei students who do not have adequate academic skills to obtain high marks and grades in order to progress linearly from one level of education to the next one till they reach the university stage. Those who fail Year 13 are marginally admitted into the university foundation program known as the University Bridging (UniBridge) program to equip them with sufficient academic skills to embark on undergraduate courses. Upon successful completion of the UniBridge program they qualify to enroll for degree or diploma programs. The majority of students who branch off tend to have more practical rather than academic skills. These students search for and often get gainful employment mainly in the public and private sectors after leaving school. Alternatively, they take VTE courses after which they either seek employment or pursue higher education. The various possible exit points, migration routes, and transition destinations available to those who branch off are plotted and visually illustrated in Figure 1.\n2. Method: The methodology adopted when conducting the current study is described below under five different sections.\n3. Results: The quantitative findings are presented below according to the objectives of the study. Findings in Sections 3.1-3.2 are related to the two parts of the first research objective. The results in Sections 3.3-3.6 address the second research objective. The qualitative findings are presented in Sections 3.7-3.9.\n4. Discussion: The findings of the present study are specific to Brunei VTE situation and intervention suggestions made in this section apply only to the Brunei context. Helping AF and PF students in Brunei will involve doing many interrelated things in stages. In this section, the discussion will focus on: how to identify AF and PF students in Brunei VTE institutions; common interventions for AF and PF students in Brunei VTE institutions; specific interventions for Brunei AF students in VTE programs; specific interventions for Brunei PF students in VTE courses; addressing things that the Brunei students dislike about VTE courses; and addressing Brunei students' suggestions on improving VTE courses and performance. Each of these is briefly described below.\n5. Conclusion: The AF and PF students were prevalent in both genders and across all VTE courses but in small numbers. Male AFs and PFs outnumbered their female counterparts. The more-able and average students scored relatively higher on productive coping strategies such as confronting the stressor, self-control, seeking social support, accepting responsibility, planful problem solving and positive reappraisal, while the AFs and PFs scored lower on all these attributes. However, the AFs and PFs were relatively higher on dysfunctional coping styles such as distancing and escape avoidance. The finding that AFs scored lower on seeking social support than the average and more-able peers may partly explain the reason why these students do not perform well despite working hard. VTE students mentioned a number of problems that need to be addressed to improve achievement on the courses. These included improving facilities such as internet connection and increasing financial support. Further interview research is needed to probe some of the responses from the quantitative survey and open-ended qualitative component.\n6. Limitations: The present study had two main limitations. First, it lacked an interview component to probe some of the responses from the quantitative scales and to explore further the findings from the open-ended qualitative section. Second, as a case study the results cannot be generalized to other VTE students in Brunei and elsewhere. Despite these problems, the study has practical significance in that it identified the trends and patterns in the achievement-related behaviors and coping strategies of Brunei VTE student participants that might inform future research and interventions in this understudied student population.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the prevalence of two types of underachieving students (n=246) (active failing (AF) and passive failing (PF)) in Brunei vocational and technical education (VTE) institutions and their patterns of coping.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The field survey method was used to directly reach many participants, administer the instruments and collect the required data.\nFindings: The authors found 20 AFs (14 males) and 16 PFs (five females) across the VTE courses. More-able and average students scored relatively higher on all six productive coping strategies (e.g. confronting the stressor), while the AFs and PFs scored lower on these attributes. The AFs and PFs scored relatively higher on both dysfunctional coping styles (e.g. distancing) than more-able and average students. Furthermore, the AFs also scored lower on seeking social support (possible reason for not performing well). Internet connection and students' financial support need to be improved in Brunei VTE institutions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study would have been strengthened by the inclusion of an interview component to probe supplement/complement findings from the quantitative survey and the open-ended qualitative instrument (both self-reports).\nPractical implications: The study had practical significance in that its findings could be used by instructors and policy makers to improve the achievement of VTE students in Brunei and elsewhere.\nOriginality/value: This is the first time the phenomena of AF and PF were investigated in Brunei VTE students. Further qualitative research was recommended to gain additional insights and solutions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Experiences of food access for asylum seekers who have ceased using a food bank in Melbourne, Australia
|
[
"Australia",
"Policy",
"Asylum seekers",
"Foodbank"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many countries, Australia included, implement policies and practices that seek to deter the arrival of asylum seekers (Jupp, 2002). In Australia, these policies are designed to send a message to any potential asylum seeker that they should not attempt to enter Australia without already being granted a protection visa (Fleay et al., 2016). Such policies have two distinct aims. The first is to prevent the arrival of asylum seekers by boat, and include offshore detention and turning boats back to sea, while the second includes policies that punish asylum seekers while in the country, and include restricting rights to social services, employment, education, health care and housing. As a result of these policies, many people seeking asylum who are in Australia are food insecure, and rely on the charitable sector to meet their basic needs.\nBackground: While Australia's restrictive policies receive bipartisan support within Australia (Pickering and Lambert, 2002; Pickering and Weber, 2014), they have been criticised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2014) and refugee and asylum seeker advocates as having a detrimental effect on the well-being of those seeking asylum (Amnesty International, 2014). Furthermore, the UNHCR has determined that parts of Australia's policy, particularly those related to indefinite and mandatory offshore detention, violate the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Mendez, 2015).\nLiterature review: Little research investigating the effect of these changes on asylum seekers in the community exists. Research available does suggest that those living in the community with no work rights experience feelings of anxiety, sadness and fear, with many asylum seekers describing situations of poverty (Fleay and Hartley, 2016), insecure housing (Woodcroft et al., 2014), unemployment, limited access to social services and government financial assistance, leading to an increased risk of food insecurity (Gallegos et al., 2008; McKay and Dunn, 2015). Food insecurity is defined as the inability of a household to access a sufficient quality and quantity of nutritionally adequate and safe foods that are socially or culturally acceptable, a situation that has been found to be high in asylum seeker and refugees than the general population (FAO, 2013).\nMethod: Sample and recruitment\nResults: General characteristics\nDiscussion: This study has reported on an investigation of the food-related experiences of asylum seekers, who, despite having the opportunity to use a foodbank, have ceased accessing using the service. Compared to previous research investigating this population (McKay and Dunn, 2015; Mukoya et al., 2017), this research found a slightly lower rate of food insecurity (66 per cent in the current study, compared to 91 per cent in McKay and Dunn 2015), but similar experiences of physical and emotional health. Interesting to note from this current research was that despite the experiences of food insecurity, hunger and financial vulnerability, asylum seekers reported a number of reasons for their lack of use of the foodbank, including a concern that there were others who needed the food more, and because the foodbank was not meeting their needs, in either the provision of culturally appropriate foods or foods they liked.\nLimitations: There are several limitations to this study. First, the often precarious nature of the lives of asylum seekers, the challenges of using a telephone translation service, alongside the delicate nature of many discussions of food access and food aid may account for the large variation in the length of the interviews. Some of the recorded interviews were shorter than others (range 20-70 min), reflecting the variation in responses and willingness to expand on responses; many of the questions were such that an answer could be provided without further explanation - without this flexibility, the research team feel that fewer participants would have completed the whole interview.\nConclusion: This study sought to investigate the food-related settlement experiences of asylum seekers in Australia who have ceased accessing a free foodbank. Ensuring asylum seekers have the means and abilities to access sufficient and appropriate foods, and to achieve food security is the responsibility of a number of actors including governments, aid organisations, and donors. This current study found that asylum seekers were experiencing food insecurity and hunger, and financial insecurity. There were a number of reasons that asylum seekers were not using the foodbank, including not having sufficient cooking equipment or skills, not being able to easily access the foodbank, and a lack of culturally appropriate foods. The diversity in foodbank membership reported in the current study makes the need for a variety of food that are culturally appropriate even more challenging. A number of possibilities to address this include subsidising foods, for example, spices or herbs, fruits and vegetables, and halal foods, which are commonly identified as hard to get or are cost prohibitive to members, while continuing to provide staple foods at no cost. As the respondents in this study were not using the foodbank, and were experiencing food insecurity, novel or alternative approaches to community engagement and food distribution will be needed to increase food security and to decrease hunger.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of asylum seekers who were entitled to use a foodbank but who had ceased attending the service, to understand why they were not using the charity, and to investigate their food-related experiences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employed a mixed-method approach utilising telephone interviews. Interviews were conducted with 70 asylum seekers in Melbourne, Australia, between September 2015 and February 2016. Interviews explored food-related settlement experiences, food insecurity and experiences of hunger.\nFindings: Two-thirds of participants were identified as experiencing food insecurity. Despite food and financial insecurity, participants were not using the foodbank as frequently as they were entitled as: the food was not culturally or religiously appropriate to them; asylum seekers with income felt uncomfortable taking food from others who were perceived to be in greater need; or because they were experiencing transport barriers. Participants also experienced a range of physical and mental health concerns.\nOriginality/value: Ensuring asylum seekers have access to culturally appropriate foods and services is essential. However, given the diversity in foodbank membership, it may not be feasible to provide all of the desired foods at no cost; instead, increased access to culturally appropriate foods may be achieved through a subsidy programme. Novel or alternative approaches to community engagement and food distribution may be needed to increase food security and to decrease hunger in this group.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Developing SCM framework associated with IT-enabled SC network capabilities
|
[
"Case research",
"IT-enabled",
"Network co-management",
"Network resources",
"SC network capability",
"SCM framework"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The marketplace is always full of dynamic competition, resulting in the uncertain and dynamic nature of supply chain management (SCM) (Ivanov et al., 2014). In this regard, the most challenging objective for a business is to determine how best to enhance the competitiveness of the entire supply chain (SC) network (Stadtler and Kilger, 2008). Previous studies suggest that effective collaboration within alliances significantly impacts SC-related performance, cost reduction, and innovation (Corsten and Felde, 2005). Accordingly, a competitive SC network has replaced competitive individual firms in terms of meeting the need for fast technology growth, customers' varied requirements, and globalization needs (Boyaci and Gallego, 2004). From a dynamic capability perspective, SC network capability is of critical importance in creating network value and increasing the profits of entire chains (Dayan et al., 2013). Network capability refers to a firm's ability to initiate, develop, and utilize internal organizational relationships, as well as external inter-organizational relationships (Zacca et al., 2015). Since a collaborative SC network seems to be the leading pattern (Farahani et al., 2014), managing SC network capabilities is now a critical research issue.\nTheoretical background: This study discusses SC network capabilities from two perspectives: mobilize network resources and adaptive network co-management. We begin with a general overview of the related literatures.\nThe research method: This study adopts an in-depth interpretive case study as the main research strategy, for several reasons. First, since our main research questions are \"how\" questions and exploratory in nature (Yin, 2003), the case study method is an appropriate research strategy. The method, which involves developing the SCM framework related to IT-enabled SC network capabilities, processes, and design actions in their natural context, is well-established in business research. Second, since the SC context is complex, this necessitates rich descriptions and better insights into the case context, which can be achieved by using a case study strategy. Third, case studies can involve only a single case and employ an embedded design, while using multiple levels of analysis in a single study (Yin, 1984). Also, Eisenhardt (1989) notes that a research strategy can use a single empirical case study to create theoretical constructs. A single case design can represent a \"revelatory case\" (Yin, 1984).\nCase analysis and findings: To ensure the quality of this research, including the design and findings, we carefully examined some validity and reliability tests (Yin, 1994; Voss et al., 2002) in Table IV, which refer to information from Sheu et al. (2004).\nDiscussion: Based on the CCP case study and the findings that emerged, we propose a model (Figure 2), which is divided into three parts, from top to bottom, are (1) the network resources, (3) the SC network capabilities (main process), and (2) the network co-management. The network resources states that the results of CCP using IT-related skills strengthen internal network resources. The network co-management demonstrates that the results of CCP using IT-related skills strengthen external co-management capabilities to face the marketplace. When the firms possess internal network resource mobilizing and adaptive external network co-management capabilities, finally make the SC possess SC network capabilities. Detailed discussion are as follows:\nConclusions: In the network context, cross-digital boundary is always the big issue. Lack of framework in improving IT operations between alliances often results in no direction in improving processes, mistrust between alliances, lack of information transparency, and difficulty acquiring embedded information from partners and innovation. The research of CCP cases, by way of developing SCM framework associated with IT-enabled SC network capabilities, enables the generation of a theoretical model (Figure 2). This model can be used as a norm of interaction when fostering the mobilizing resources and adaptive co-management features to cross-digital boundary between members (Akkermans et al., 2003), to make information transparency. And through IT, the model enables network to combine these capabilities to be more complete for the present and future competitiveness. Also, through effective or innovative uses of IT and seamless processes within a network, the accuracy and velocity of information can escalate and the network members can respond the market uncertain requirements quickly to improve sustainability.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize how information technology (IT) enables supply chain (SC) network capabilities, which is to capitalize on SC's existing set of resources and, at the same time, manage new combinations of SC resources to meet future market needs. The paper also develops SCM framework associated with IT-enabled SC network capabilities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Through a case study of a leading Taiwanese petrochemical corporation, qualitative data were gathered on the IT-related SC management practices, in terms of network resource mobilizing and adaptive co-management arrangements to enable SC network capability. This research is based primarily on the interviews of the case company, supplemented by archived documents, published books, and in-depth observations.\nFindings: Based on the evidence from the case, this study inductively develops a model that includes the operating processes with IT-enabled activities to achieve ambidextrous SC network capability, and the relevant framework functions in network resources and co-management activities include information co-governance, information interoperability, community engagement strategy, cyber-physical dexterity, and control enactment, which lead the SC alliances improvements for dynamic environmental changes.\nPractical implications: Practitioners may derive strategies and tactics from the current findings to help them implement innovative information technologies and setup SC framework, during SC network capability development, to achieve SC's sustainable competence in a dynamic market.\nOriginality/value: Researchers and practitioners may obtain a more complete view of IT-enabled SC network capability development. The proposed model reveals that developing IT-enabled SC network capabilities is a dynamic process whereby an organization's major SC managerial activities are divided into specific network resource mobilizing and adaptive co-management arrangements.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Benchmarking masonry labor productivity
|
[
"Construction industry",
"Labor efficiency",
"Labour utilization",
"Benchmarking",
"Productivity rate",
"Palestine"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In its simplest form, labor productivity could be defined as the hours of work divided by the units of work accomplished (Thomas, 1994). However, in reality, labor productivity is a much more complex phenomenon which largely depends on quite diverse factors such as site conditions, workers' competence, materials availability, weather, motivation, supervision, to name just a few. Management also affects labor productivity. Ganesan (1984), for example, reported that incompetent management of the industry and its construction agencies, whether these are public or private, is a prime cause of low productivity. Often, labor productivity is a key factor contributing to the inability of many contracting organisations to achieve their project goals, which include, most importantly, the profit margin. Therefore, it is paramount to understand the main determinants of labor productivity, and to keep and compare accurate records of productivity levels across projects. This approach which is simply referred to as benchmarking has gained popularity in many production and service industries. Put simply, benchmarking is \"a systematic and continuous measurement process\".In construction, however, benchmarking is not a straightforward task due to both the very nature of the industry which lacks solid data gathering and the remarkable fluctuation in productivity. Benchmarking attempts in construction are bound to face certain difficulties such as incomplete or non-existent data. Even if data are well recorded and retrievable, it would be highly dependent on the special characteristics of the project, e.g. size, type and budget. Therefore, it is difficult to use it effectively as a basis for comparison. The structure of the industry with its temporary nature in organizing the construction process, where a number of organizations get involved in designing and constructing a single project, adds to the complexity of the benchmarking task (Mohamed, 1996).\nBenchmarking construction productivity: Over the years, construction productivity has been the focus of many reported research studies (Abdel-Razek and Hosny, 1990; Thomas and Sanders, 1991; Abdel-Razek, 1992; Hosny and Abdel-Razek, 1992; Abdel-Razek, 2004). Also many attempts have been made to model construction labor productivity (Adrian and Boyer, 1976; Adrian, 1987; Abdel-Razek and McCaffer, 1990; Thomas and Zavrski, 1999a, b; Abdel-Hamid et al., 2004).Researchers have a long tradition of measuring productivity at the industry or macro-economic level, typically making a longitudinal study of productivity trends, but this high-level analysis does not provide an indication of firm level performance (El-Mashaleh et al., 2001). At the micro-level, however, there is a vast literature addressing productivity at the project or even activity level. Previous literature examined various influences on productivity through both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies among contemporaneous projects and/or activities. Man-hours employed and work produced get measured and compared to past records, or compared with other firms to obtain measurements of how efficient a firm is in undertaking its activities (Thomas and Napolitan, 1995; El-Mashaleh et al., 2001).The scope of most construction productivity research has been on partial measures, principally labor. While useful at the activity level, partial factor metrics are limited. In particular, they do not address complex interactions between different factors both within and across projects. Thomas and Napolitan (1995) proposed a (total) Factor Model to measure productivity at the activity level. They suggested that several influences on productivity (e.g., skill level, weather, site conditions, management, etc.) are separable and additive in nature. Their model, however, does not address interactions within and across projects and hence, is not applicable at the firm level. This lack of having a productivity measurement methodology for contractors, at the firm level, represents a serious gap in construction research that likely retards industrial adoption of new methods. A productivity measure at the firm level has a host of benefits, as it supports (El-Mashaleh et al., 2001):* management decisions regarding resource utilization across projects to achieve highest return;* management decisions about investment in resources and in mix of projects;* benchmarking efforts, thus allowing contractors to better understand their competitive position and improve their performance; and* comparative research of various management policies.In particular, a firm-level productivity measurement methodology allows empirical evaluation of improved management policies. For example, lean production tools such as the Last Planner and Shielding Production (Ballard and Howell, 1998) are productivity improvement techniques at the project and activity levels. While these techniques have proven useful, there is no methodology that could relate the activity and project level performance to the firms' performance (El-Mashaleh et al., 2001).Benchmarking construction labor productivity has become an important research topic at the global level. Thomas and Zavrski (1999b) developed a conceptual benchmarking model for international benchmarking of labor productivity for selected construction activities. Their model is widely applied in order to compare labor productivity in one construction project to that of another, and to establish the basis of benchmarking labor productivity (Abdel-Hamid et al. 2004). This paper adopts the benchmarking model developed by Thomas and Zavrski and builds upon the work of Abdel-Hamid et al. (2004), to measure, analyze and compare masonry labor productivity across nine different projects located in Gaza, Palestine.\nResearch methodology: The model of Thomas and Zavrski (known also as the theoretical model for international benchmarking of labor productivity) comprises two main steps:1. Determining project attributes which include collecting data pertaining to total work hours, total quantities, cumulative productivity, baseline productivity and number of abnormal days.2. Calculating project performance parameters (benchmarks), these are: disruption index (DI), performance ratio (PR) and project management index (PMI).Definitions and project attributes\nData collection: Data were collected from nine construction projects located in Gaza Strip in order to measure the labor productivity for masonry works. The targeted projects include residential buildings, schools governmental buildings, garage extension, and a university building. Table I shows the classification of the nine targeted projects. All projects data including crew size, daily work hours, and daily quantities (output) were collected from the daily progress report sheet. Table II shows typical data collected for project number 1, The Noor El Maaref project.Cumulative productivity=Total work-hours/Total quantities=590/1229=0.4801 whr/m2\nData analysis and discussion: Project attributes\nProject performance parameters (benchmarks): Disruption index\nRelationship between PMI and DI: Reviewing the PMI index and disruption index values reveals a strong relationship between the two indices. If the number of abnormal days increases in a certain project, the disruption index becomes larger and most often the reason behind such a case is poor project management. The results obtained for both indices support the correlation between the two indices. The worst PMI value (i.e. the highest value obtained) among all nine projects was obtained for project no 3, and is equal to 0.79. This was attributed to the increased number of abnormal days (18 days were abnormal out of 28 total actual working days and thus producing the lowest value of disruption index which is equal to 18/28=0.64).The increased number of abnormal days, in a certain project, reflects poor project management and poor labor productivity. Higher values of both DI and PMI are indications of sub-standard labor performance and poor management. As the PMI continues to increase in value, one would expect more abnormal days or disruption, and accordingly the DI also increases. When the DI exceeds the value of 0.5, the PMI increases at a higher rate, as shown in Figure 2, which demonstrates the exponential correlation (R2=0.6336) between the two indices.\nConclusion: Daily labor productivity for nine projects in different locations in the Gaza Strip were investigated in order to determine the value of the baseline productivity in each one. Also other project benchmarks such as disruption index (DI), performance ration (PR) and project management index (PMI) have been calculated for all nine projects. The DI and PMI indices were found to have a correlated relationship. The higher values of both indices indicate poor labor productivity.Checking the DI values in the nine projects reveals that the higher DI the more likely the project experienced abnormal work days (poor productivity). DI values for four projects were found to be very small (i.e. less than 0.1) indicating that four out of nine targeted projects performed reasonably well. Also, the PMI values of in these four projects were found to be less than 0.4, therefore both of DI and PMI could be considered as guiding indicators of project labor performance.It was also noticed that two out of the nine targeted projects were performing badly as their DI values were higher than 0.4. The PR and PMI values for these two particular projects were greater than 2.0 and 0.5, respectively.The management of each contracting company should maintain its own record which describing the baseline productivity in different previous projects with similar conditions. Such records help estimating labor productivity in future projects. Also the project managers should be capable to interpret the reasons behind the differences in the productivity values in different projects. At the site management level, a daily progress report must include the required information necessary to obtain the baseline productivity. It is strongly recommended to develop a benchmarking standard for each construction firm in Palestine, which may lead to an improvement in the national construction productivity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Labor productivity is one of the most important factors that affect the physical progress of any construction project. In order to improve labor productivity, site production should be measured on a regular basis, and then compared to acceptable standard benchmarks. The objective of this paper is to measure masonry labor productivity in Gaza Strip, Palestine, using a consistent benchmarking approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Production data were collected from nine different construction projects located in Gaza. For each project, values for baseline productivity, disruption index, performance index and project management index were calculated.\nFindings: - Based on the nine targeted projects, the baseline productivity of masonry works in Gaza seems to range from 0.29 to 0.80 work-hours per square meter. Calculated values were utilized to develop a correlation between two project benchmarks (i.e. disruption and project management indices). AS only four out of the targeted nine projects performed reasonably well, the paper strongly recommends developing a benchmarking standard for each local construction firm in Palestine which may lead to an improvement in the national construction productivity.\nOriginality/value: - The outcome of this research will improve the national construction productivity in Palestine and highlights the benefit of improving benchmarking standard.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Ethnic niches and immigrants' integration
|
[
"Ethnic groups",
"Immigrants",
"Integration",
"Labour market",
"Israel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Immigrants' ethnic concentration in the particular spheres of life in the host society is a newcomers' phenomenon. Immigrants who came to Israel after 1989 (during the last 20 years) constitute about 20 percent of Israel's population. Approximately 85 percent of them immigrated to Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The previous waves of immigrants in 1970s and 1980s adopted a strategy of assimilation, replacing their culture of origin with that of the host society. They spoke Hebrew at home, changed their names to Israeli names, watched TV, and read newspapers in Hebrew. The newcomers of the last wave (since 1989) created strong immigrant communities based on a shared origin and successfully utilized immigrant networks for economic and social advancement (Horowitz, 2005). They remained a separate sector within Israeli society united by the same experience, culture of origin and strong ethnic ties, but simultaneously became an integral part of the host society and even began to affect it. It seems that immigrants' Jewishness and their similarity to the host population's religious Jewish background did not contribute to their assimilation. The question is whether these immigrants who prefer to deal within their own immigrant niches can be regarded as integrated in the new host society. Do they perceive themselves as integrated or as segregated in it?The purpose of this study was to investigate how ethnic niches of immigrants affected their integration.More specifically this study examines the following questions:* Do immigrants operate within ethnic niches either in the labor market or in private life?* What are the factors influencing immigrants' integration in the host society and the labor market?* How does being in an ethnic niche affect immigrants' integration?\n2. The theoretical framework: 2.1 Theories of immigrants' integration\n3. Method: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Ethnic niches of immigrants\n5. Conclusions: This paper considered a concept of ethnic niches that denoted ethnic division of society resulting in the overrepresentation of ethnic minorities in particular spheres of life. The study revealed that FSU immigrants create ethnic niches in both private life and the labor market. They formed a separate sector within Israeli society with press and TV in their native language and connecting mainly with co-ethnic individuals. This finding is correspondent with the previous studies on FSU immigrants' in Israel observed in the literature review.In spite of being in ethnic niches, immigrants reported rather high perceived integration in the host country and the labor market. This finding is in accordance with Reitz and Sklar (1997), Phinney et al. (2001), and Al-Haj (2004), who stressed that engaging immigrants in ethnic networks and their desire to maintain cultural continuity did not relate to immigrants' assessment of their absorption and integration in the host society.The study also examined how ethnic niches of immigrants affected their integration. One of the oldest hypotheses about immigrants is that engaging in ethnic networks and life within ethnic communities hinders immigrants' integration. The literature review led us to anticipate that immigrants who tended to deal within ethnic niches in either sphere of life would perceive themselves as less integrated than those who were not in ethnic niches. But the study found that the salient factors that influenced the immigrants' integration in the host society related only to their incorporation in the labor market and did not relate to immigrants' engaging in ethnic niches in private life. The factors influencing immigrants' integration were the share of co-ethnic colleagues, professional Hebrew competence, and household income. Regularity of reading a newspaper in Hebrew was the only factor related to private life that influenced the immigrants' integration. Immigrants, who read newspaper in Hebrew more often, reported higher integration in the host society. This can be explained by the fact that immigrants who read Hebrew newspapers also read job advertisements and so had a higher chance to find better job. The factors influencing the immigrants' integration in the labor market were also professional Hebrew competence and household income. Thus, being in an ethnic niche in private life (the share of co-ethnic friends, regularity of watching TV in Hebrew, using Hebrew at home) does not influence the immigrants' integration neither in the host society nor in the labor market. But being in an ethnic niche in the labor market does influence immigrants' integration.In summary, the study revealed that immigrants who were in ethnic niches in private life perceived themselves as integrated in the host society and the labor market. Immigrants who were in ethnic niches in the labor market perceived themselves as being less integrated.The paper contributes to understanding the role of ethnic niches in immigrants' integration in the host society and provides valuable insight for academics and practitioners who wish to understand immigrant integration. The finding as to a strong relation between being in an ethnic niche in the labor market and immigrants' integration raises significant questions about what may prevent ethnic concentration in the labor market. Further studies are needed to investigate this issue.The study has some policy-oriented contributions, because the question how engaging in ethnic networks and life in ethnic communities affects immigrants' integration is of the greatest practical importance. Israel's immigrant policy traditionally aimed at immigrants' assimilation, and considered being in an ethnic niche in private life a negative factor preventing immigrants' adaptation to the new society. In recent years immigration policy has become more flexible and tolerant to the formation of ethnic enclaves. This study revealed that participation in ethnic networks and using native language in private life did not inhibit integration. The findings of this study support an integrationalist orientation of the immigrant policy. Government agencies and decision-makers should not interfere in biculturalism of immigrants, allowing them to make their own choice, but should act for incorporation of the immigrants into the labor market. This is what can really contribute to immigrants' integration.Opens in a new window.Figure 1\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to investigate how ethnic niches of immigrants affected their integration. Immigrants' integration in the host society is described by the integration of immigrants in their private life and integration in the labor market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected in 2006-2007 in Israel. Combining convenient and snowball samples, 321 immigrants from the Former Soviet Union were surveyed via a questionnaire. The questionnaire was presented in the immigrants' native language or in Hebrew, according to the respondent's choice.\nFindings: - The study revealed that the salient factors that influence the immigrants' integration in the host society relate to their incorporation in the labor market. Being in an ethnic niche in private life does not influence the immigrants' integration in the host society. But being in an ethnic niche in the labor market does influence immigrants' integration. In summary, the study revealed that immigrants who are in ethnic niches in private life perceive themselves as integrated into the host society. Immigrants who are in ethnic niches in the labor market perceive themselves as less integrated.\nOriginality/value: - The paper contributes to understanding the role of ethnic niches in immigrants' integration in the host society and provides valuable insight for academics and practitioners who are interested to appreciate immigrants' integration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Integration of company responsibility, the learning process: the Autogrill case
|
[
"Responsibility management",
"Sustainability management",
"Corporate Social Responsibility",
"Stakeholders",
"Total Responsibility Management",
"Stakeholder engagement",
"Case studies",
"Italy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: the integration of company responsibility: The responsibility approach of organizations through the integration in systems of management is still in an early stage of development in some companies. This process of management of responsibilities can be dealt with in different ways and may vary from company to company. Over recent years, a variety of guides for management by stakeholders have been published (see Table I), of which we should mention \"The Copenhagen Charter\" (1999), the \"Manuals of the Stakeholder Engagement\" (2005) and the \"Total Responsibility Management\" (Waddock and Bodwell, 2007)1 which stands out, for the \"holistic\" style of management that it proposes and for the analogy with the Total Quality Management (Deming, 1984; Walton, 1986) by which the authors are inspired.\nCase study of Autogrill: Company background\nThe Autogrill path toward the integration of company responsibility: Vision and values system: Inspiration\nDiscussion questions: 1. What is the management approach used to integrate the responsibility inside the company?2. What is the functional and organizational \"strategy\" in the learning path to integrate company responsibility?3. What are the major tools of sustainability of the company?\nTeaching notes: The use of a longitudinal perspective and the reinterpretation of the sustainability path of the company, through the approach of Total Responsibility Management, have been used in this case to assist the student's understanding of the process of integration of the responsibility.In this study, we focus on the TRM because we have found that it is a useful framework to support the initial idea of the integration of the company responsibility in the business systems of management and to build a model of relationships management with the stakeholders, according to a holistic vision of company responsibilities. Therefore, the tables used in this case study could be very helpful not only in the business environment but also in the academic one. Using this case study for example students should gain a better understanding of the learning process of a company moving from a CSR perspective towards a more orientated stakeholder model. Furthermore, they could interpret, understand and also plan the path of other companies using the grids of the case study.A potential use in the classroom could be through a group simulation where individuals of each group compete with one another within the same simulation.The members of each group could play a functional role (CEO, CSR director and other stakeholders) and engaging in a simulation of the process of integration of the company to answer the previous questions and finding a common view. Group simulation is a simple version of the business environment and offers several advantages over traditional training methods.Instructors as facilitators can choose several ways of forming each group to organize the timing better to complete the requirements. One proposal is to form small groups in function of the elements in the class and to give each group some requirements such as a power point presentation to present at the end of the discussion to the rest of the class.The tables or grids could be also useful tools for analysing the process of company responsibility after the year 2007. Another assignment for each group, for example, could be to use the tables to record major events and the information about Autogrill using the Sustainability Reports from the years after 2007. This analysis could be very useful for the students' understanding of the topic and to show the company improvement on its path of integration of the responsibility in the systems of management.\nWhat is the management approach used in Autogrill to integrate the responsibility inside the company?: Autogrill tried to go beyond the simple concept of social responsibility, seen as responsible actions socially separated from the business (as for instance the beneficence, the philanthropy, projects of CSR, etc.) towards a position acquiring year on year a more managerial character towards all the stakeholders. This is a process that must be managed and integrated inside the activities of the company, which requires a gradual and \"overspending\" (Freeman, 1984a, b) process of \"knowledge\", \"learning\", \"resources\" and \"capability\".In the path toward the sustainability, Autogrill has adopted a process of continuous improvement that has gradually widened its vision, going beyond the \"narrow\" consideration of the consumer. This widening of vision from mono to multistakeholder was also realized through the identification of \"remarkable stakeholders\" of the company and taking in consideration the expectation of every single group.The identification process of stakeholders can be considered as the beginning of an evolutionary path of learning towards a greater awareness and consideration, not only of the risks and the problems, that each single stakeholder can create for the firm, but, above all, of the opportunities that the stakeholders, both individually and in groups, can give to the enterprise through the satisfaction of their expectations and a systemic dialogue and engagement with them.The stakeholder management model can make a real difference between enterprises, not only in the management of its responsibilities, but also in translating the changes into actions through a system of interactive relationships, based on the trust, respect and the cooperation with the stakeholders. The system of relationships, called \"stakeholder engagement\", it is an interactive process based on dialogue that requires a two way of communication and a real collaboration between the company and its stakeholders.Although the company is not making a specific reference to an approach of management of the responsibilities as the TRM, it is however trying to manage its responsibilities towards the different stakeholders with a model very similar to the Total Responsibility Management. As can be deduced, in fact, also from the model of analysis of the TRM used in the case study to analyze and to codify the various phases of the path of Autogrill Group (Inspiration, Integration, Innovation, continuous improvement and Indicators), we noted that the enterprise, for instance, after having individualized its stakeholders, has begun to handle some objectives regarding some thematic areas or \"macro-themes\" trying to identify further points of improvement through a process of innovation and continuous learning.Furthermore, the future objectives of the company are very ambitious and they aim to not only integrate the concept of responsibility in terms of strategic management, but, above all, in terms of operational management in the \"day by day\" activity of every single function.\nWhat is the functional and organizational \"strategy\" in the learning path to integrate the company responsibility?: At an organizational level we have to remember that most companies are generally structured for functions and for markets, rather than for categories of stakeholders. Therefore, we need a change in the organization to learn a new way to manage integrate into the managing process other systems of management which are able to take into account the expectation and the interest of all the stakeholders in the company activity. This profound change in the way of thinking and acting has to be integrated in the various functions of the company and aligned with the strategy of the enterprise. Although the company is in the early stage of this process, in the vision of the management there is the \"strategic intention\" to use a \"learning process\" to translate; reinterpret and spread the sustainability approach inside the company and to raise its stakeholders' awareness of such issues.The process toward the approach of management of the responsibilities of the company, as is deduced by the study of the business case of Autogrill Group, is a path of \"gradual\" learning (learning process) that requires time, resources and competences, but can be very useful as \"catalyst\" of innovation and continuous improvement of the firm.\nWhat are the major tools of sustainability of the company?: The study of the Autogrill Group case has highlighted that the integration of company responsibilities needs several tools. Particularly, we noticed that the tools relating to the measurement, control and communication of the responsibilities, as the indicators of social performance and the systems of reporting of sustainability, have been used for instance also by the company as tool of organizational learning. The management of Autogrill, for example, used the process to realize the Sustainability Reports \"to communicate\" and \"spread\" this new philosophy inside the company and to integrate the new concept in a vision of continuous learning.Afuture, for instance, the Ecogrill of new conception, as has been testified by its managers, is a consequence and a result of this process realized through the \"exploitation\" and the implementation of the accountability and stakeholder engagement processes.In the future the principal goal of the company is to use the system of measurement of economic, social and environmental accountability as a tool of strategic management, to support the decisional system of management, taking in a systematic way, not only the \"reputational\" value, but, above all the \"managerial and strategic\" value of this holistic vision of management.\nConclusion: In this case study, we have attempted to gain better understanding of how a company learns to integrate its responsibilities in the process of management, through the investigation of the interpretative models of management that can be useful with the purpose to support the thesis of the integration of responsibilities.For each firm, the process of integration can be realized in various ways and there will not be a univocal path, although at an operational level some models of stakeholder management have been suggested. These models or guidelines have the goal of helping the management with the responsibilities of the company, but alone are not enough to integrate responsibility inside the company. This research highlights the integration of responsibility as a gradual process of learning and knowledge that requires an organizational change of process inside the culture, the leadership and the management of all the company.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to provide an insight into the learning process leading to the integration of company responsibility, in companies that are moving from a generic approach of Corporate Social Responsibility towards a holistic approach of stakeholder management. The analysis of a case study of a multinational Italian company, Autogrill Group S.p.a., will be explored as an organizational learning process using the framework of a recent approach of Total Responsibility Management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The method of qualitative research is based on the analysis of the theory of the subject and through the use of various techniques to study the case to give a longitudinal perspective.\nFindings: - The use of the case study suggests that the path from a CSR perspective toward a stakeholder management model of responsibility is a \"gradual\" learning process that requires vision, commitment, integration, innovation, competence, management systems and resources. This learning process is also very important as a \"catalyst\" of innovation and for the continuous improvement of the company.\nResearch limitations/implications: - In this research the aim is to inquire: How do companies learn to integrate their responsibilities in the process of management, moving from a generic approach of CSR toward a holistic approach of stakeholder management?\nOriginality/value: - The stakeholder management model of Total Responsibility Management in this research is used to assist understanding the importance of managing the company responsibly and to show a way of reading the progress of a multinational company, which is on the path towards a more stakeholder-oriented model of responsibility.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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