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Does female representation on corporate boards improve intellectual capital efficiency?
|
[
"System GMM",
"Boardroom gender diversity",
"Intellectual capital efficiency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Gender legislation around the world has put immense pressure on firms to increase female representation on their boards. Some countries, such as Norway and Spain, have even introduced gender quotas in order to achieve a certain level of female representation on corporate boards, whereas other countries are in the thought process of similar legislation (Adams and Funk, 2012). As a result of such legislation and firms' own pursuit of becoming good corporate citizens, female representation on corporate boards has increased significantly over the last decade or so. For example, as per the Davies report on gender diversity in the UK, the number of female directors on the boards of FTSE 350 firms has doubled since 2011. This increase in women on boards has attracted much attention from academic scholars to investigate the business case of having more female directors on boards. Liu et al. (2014) investigate the link between women on boards and firm performance and concur that firms with more female directors exhibit better financial performance. Similarly, Campbell and Minguez-Vera (2008) document that boardroom gender diversity is associated with an improved market valuation of firms.\n2. Literature and hypotheses: 2.1 The importance of IC efficiency\n3. Methodology: This section presents the methodology of this study; defines the dependent, independent and control variables; and discusses the econometric issues embedded in the BGD and IC relationship.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusion and directions for future research: The existing literature on BGD and firm performance has focused on financial performance using return on assets, return on equity or Tobins' Q, and hence has ignored intangible performance or IC efficiency. The importance of IC, being a driver of competitive advantage, has gained much attention over the last two decades or so. Therefore, this study focuses on the role of female representation on boards in IC efficiency. The results reveal that BGD significantly improves the efficiency of IC. Further analysis also reveals a significant positive relationship between BGD and human, structural/innovation and financial capital efficiencies. The results are robust to two alternative proxies for BGD: the Blau index and a dummy variable for the presence of at least one female director on the board. The results were also consistent when we applied a DiD estimator.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between female representation on corporate boards and intellectual capital (IC) efficiency - while prior studies focus on the relationship between gender diversity and firms' financial performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on data from top 500 UK listed firms for 2007-2016 (3,279 firm-years), this study employs an adjusted-value-added intellectual coefficient as a measure of IC efficiency. Further, the two-step system-generalised method of moments has been applied to account for endogeneity issues.\nFindings: The results reveal a significant positive relationship between female representation on boards and IC efficiency, including human capital, structural/innovation capital and financial capital efficiency. These results are robust to alternative proxies for the independent variable and difference-in-difference estimation.\nPractical implications: The results posit that female representation on boards is associated with IC efficiency, which is vital for firms' value creation and competitive advantage in the knowledge-economy era. The study also endorses current legislation to increase female representation on corporate boards.\nOriginality/value: This is among the limited studies to explore the role of female representation on boards in IC efficiency - while most prior studies relate IC efficiency to financial performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Apposition, contradiction, conflict and domination: The competing discourses of the Finnish municipal manager
|
[
"Finland",
"Discourse",
"Municipality",
"Management",
"Managers",
"New public management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Management thinking has invaded many areas of life. Forms of corporate management influence aspects of life that previously were arranged within communities, e.g. education and health have become objects of management knowledge and control. This means that experts of managing have taken up the role of improving established ways of doing things. We are growingly preoccupied with materialism, production and issues related to them (Alvesson and Willmott, 2012, p. 13).\nPerspectives of public management and administration: NPM\nDiscourse: language and its use in constructing meaning: Discourses can be defined as established language practices that contribute to the construction and production of a phenomenon. A discourse is a textual entity and a part of socio-cultural practices, a constructive element of social reality. The study of discourses aims, in addition to the identification of discourses, at analyzing how social reality is actualized in and through them. The focus is on how something is said and how this affects the construction of the phenomenon. Discourses are ways of describing and making sense from a certain angle and in a specific way. The power of discourses is in their ability to describe the world: through the choices in language use, a certain representation of the issue, related subjects and their relationships and identities is constructed. A discourse thus creates a perspective to the moment, phenomenon and subjects at hand, while at the same time describing the way things are (Siltaoja and Vehkapera 2011; Pietikainen and Mantynen, 2009).\nAnalysis of research data: the two management worlds in discursive terms: Discourse analysis utilizes different techniques to analyze texts and to find \"clues\" of discourses to which these texts belong, relate to and represent. The basic nature of discourse analysis is interpretive, and the techniques are used to explicitly reveal multiple meanings and different representations. Discourse analysis involves the systematic study of texts, including the study of their production, dissemination and usage (Phillips and Hardy, 2002; Phillips et al., 2004; Fairclough, 1995). Within this study, a three-phase discourse analysis is applied: textual/linguistic analysis, interpretive analysis and critical discourse analysis. The deepening analysis process aims at describing the textual level, interpreting the representations and meanings of the textual level within their contexts and critically interpreting and assessing these representations (Pynnonen, 2013).\nConclusions: Our first research question was to describe how the discourses of municipal management and business management manifest themselves and how these discourses can be identified. The means of identification was a term-pair list, where elementary terms of these discourses are defined on the basis of the empirical material, legislation and previous research (Table I).\nLimitations: The empirical material of this study is limited to the proceedings of one seminar. It provides only a cross-section of the municipal discourse and municipal management. For a wider view, a larger textual material should be analyzed. On the other hand, the wider development of NPM has been studied widely and this micro-discursive study complements the previous findings.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively describe and explain the contemporary Finnish discourse of municipal managers. The emphasis within is on analyzing the encounters of the public sector management discourse and the private sector management discourse, and the effects that these encounters have on the construction and representation of municipal management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is based on a three-phase discourse analysis, proceeding from the textual and linguistic level through interpretive analysis to critical analysis. This analysis is based on the proceedings and presentations of a seminar of municipal leadership and management, arranged in 2013 in Finland.\nFindings: The encounters of the discourses form three types: apposition of actors; contradiction and conflict of contexts; and domination of the private sector discourse. Apposition is a surface-level phenomenon, synonymizing the actors of the two discourses. Contradiction and conflict are caused by the incompatibility of operational and value contexts. Domination is a phenomenon of prioritizing the private sector principles and values in conflict situations. All these may affect the role and work of, as well as expectations toward, the municipal manager.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research and more samples are needed to assess wider applicability of the present findings.\nOriginality/value: The study highlights the roles of language and discourse in the construction and representation of municipal management and managers. It increases the importance of understanding the discursive elements of the new public management phenomenon. In addition, the study supplements the existing macro-level studies.\n",
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Present company excepted or accepted? Recognizing each other's faces in educational leadership's scholarship and practice
|
[
"Case studies",
"Academic staff",
"Professional associations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Professional culture is a recurring topic of interest to education scholars, but many practitioners eschew what seems like non-productive and irrelevant academic musings from those in the ivory tower (Sykes, 1999). This paper represents an effort by two scholar-practitioners to expose the dividing norms between educational leadership practitioners and scholars. The purpose of this paper is to name the sources of divisions and in so doing to allow opportunities for reconciling or celebrating these persisting differences. An applied field needs to ease the passage of scholars and practitioners between the worlds of work and study of that work. The interdependence of scholarship and practice requires deeper understanding of the forces that separate these two contributing perspectives in the field of educational leaders.The divisions have been part of the discussions about the goals and purpose of preparation of school administrators since the beginning. Levine (2005, p. 15) described \"sharp differences - which became fissures... James Earl Russell, dean of Teachers College, favored a practitioner-based program\". Other deans, for example at Harvard and University of Chicago, pushed for more rigorous academic models. \"The education school deans agreed to disagree, thus laying the foundation for what has evolved into polar differences regarding the goals and purposes of educational administration programs\" (Levine, 2005, p. 16).In response to the Broad Foundation and Thomas B. Fordham Institute's recent report Better Leaders for America's Schools: A Manifesto, Kowalski (2004) notes that a group of what he refers to as anti-professionist are currently raising the stakes in that they seek to deregulate school administration, \"This war for the soul of school administration has and continues to be centered on intractable conflict concerning tensions between democracy and professionalism in school governance\" (Kowalski, 2004, p. 92). While this paper will not directly deal with this attack, what some are considering a crisis in the field, it does offer some direction for those who believe that education can and should strengthen the professional aspect of administration.\nPerspectives: Teaching is one of several occupations, including the military, by which people can improve their social status (Lortie, 1975). As a result, members of any social strata may view educators' social status as pretentious. The dogged self-determinism of US cultural values allow anti-intellectualism to simmer socially and cast more shadows over the esteem by which teachers are regarded (Boyer, 1990; Elazar, 1994).The field of educational leadership assumes a traditionally defensive stance in relation to the field's stature in society as well as in the academy (McCarthy and Kuh, 1997; McCarthy et al., 1988). This posture stimulated the drive for a scholarly foundation in the studies of educational leadership (Boyer, 1990; Clifford and Guthrie, 1988; Tyack and Hansot, 1982).Pounder (2004, p. 511) imply that professors have moved further over the decades toward a scholarly approach valuing the importance of ideas and extending knowledge. In a survey of recent doctoral graduates, they found overall perceptions of the university professoriate were that \"those job attribute items that were viewed most negatively included largely salary and working conditions items (objective domain). For example, 'pressure to publish' was evaluated least favorable of all 57 items\". However, for the sub-group of graduates that went into the professorate they found \"Interestingly 'publication/work pressure' was positively related to intention to remain a professor, suggesting that perhaps those respondents who have already chosen to be educational leadership professors do not experience publication/work pressure as necessarily disadvantageous to staying in the professorate\" (Pounder et al., 2004, p. 523). Even among recent graduates from doctoral programs there seems to be some stark differences in dispositions between practitioners and professors.The underlying viewpoint assumed in this paper is a critical perspective, one that questions the prevailing conditions and assumptions of a social system, class, or group (English, 1992, 1994; Greenfield, 1982, 1985; Foster, 1986). Educational leadership studies have been called to task for either taking a more critical perspective or conversely not taking a critical enough perspective (Culbertson, 1988; Donmoyer, 1999a,b; Griffiths, 1988; Lopez, 2003; Lugg, 2003).\nData sources and methods: Although this article's prevailing perspective, critical theory, typically adopts analytic approaches depending on deconstructing language and vocabulary in extant works, this work reports on a combination of hermeneutics in the dominant educational leadership literature and the co-authors' experiences. Both authors, established scholars in higher education, experienced temporary assignments as public school leaders in two states. While both had practiced as school leaders before entering higher education, their experiences venturing back into the field and then returning to the academy are rare, though not unique (Cunningham, 1969; Donmoyer, 1995; Stuart, 1967). Both recorded their experiences in journals, saved memos and other school data records, and since re-entering their professorial positions maintain relationships with the public schools that they temporarily served. These extensive data sets as well as continuing access to their professional and scholarly colleagues provided the basis for analyses presented.The authors reviewed journal entries and post-field experiences to reveal vignettes of problematic postures between scholars and practitioners. The findings expose the unhelpful divisions in the applied field of educational leadership. Although space limits full replication of vignettes here, the following provides an example and summarizes findings. Then the authors provide personal reflections on how their movement between both worlds increased their capacity as scholar-practitioners.\nPractitioner vignette: The setting is a professional development session with university professors giving information about two topics (teacher selection and a teaching model designed to foster reading skills - Concept attainment; see Lasley and Matczynski, 1997). For this professor, this was a real change because I was now part of the practitioners not on the other side. It felt good to be part of a group of principals that I respected and had worked with in a different role; for the most part, from the reactions of the principals it seemed I was accepted as a peer in the group. It was July 25 and I was already well into hiring three positions for the next year, in which it was arranged for me to be on sabbatical from a university in southern Ohio and working as the high school principal at a nearby school district. While I did not find everything covered in this professional development session to be earth shattering I did find a few good ideas that I thought, \"I may use that some day.\"What struck me about this meeting occurred in an informal feedback session with the whole group. I was commenting on something and made the statement that I was looking forward to the year and the fun I was expecting to have as a principal. There was an interesting reaction from one of the veteran members of the group (in fact a few weeks earlier, on June 5, I had spent an hour visiting at her school getting her advice on what I might look for as a rookie principal - she was one of two people I sought out during this time period). She laughed boisterously and made a comment to the effect that I was in for a surprise, implying naivete on my part. At the time I was a little offended, but thought as someone who has only been a professor and an assistant principal (and that was 18 years earlier) it would not be appropriate to react. So all I said was, \"Well, I do think it will be fun.\" The two years I spent were hard and I learned a lot, but they were also full of fun for me and the people I worked with at the high school. That comment and many others like it continue to be made to me about how many professors would not survive the rigors of the principalship. These types of comments indicate how some professors are viewed as being out of touch with reality. The lack of relevance is a major problem for the profession and provides support to those who would like to see the demise of university preparation programs.What practitioners say about scholars\nScholar-practitioner vignette: The setting is an international peer-refereed scholarly conference where few practitioners venture. Many of those that do grace the sessions appear due to pressure from their professors and advisors as they seek terminal degrees. In public spaces, they offer positive, even approval-seeking, comments such as, \"I've read about these people and now I get to see them.\" Or, \"I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the brain power here.\" In the few moments they grab with the scholars, they sometimes confess that the conference is different from their experiences with professional conferences. For one thing, the exhibit hall offers few free samples. In short, the Kudzu of academe drapes every aspect of scholarly conferences.During my tenure in the field, re-tooling as a middle school principal, I went to both professional and scholarly conferences. Not surprisingly, I felt at home in both, until one post-session conversation with several colleagues, among which exist respected researchers on the roles and politics associated with positions in school leadership. My colleagues began comparing notes related to the policy environment for their programs in school leadership from state regulations to accreditation requirements. Naturally, the topic of current pressure for alternative career paths to the principalship and superintendency arose. One of my colleagues noted the irony in a local press for alternative certification that had played out in a state regulation and accreditation requirements for professors of educational leadership to possess some form of practitioner license. The perversity of policy that eschews a core prerequisite for school leadership as teaching experience, but insists that professors of educational leadership possess such credentials provoked both laughter and concern.The conversation turned as colleagues compared notes on their practitioner backgrounds, and I remarked on \"retooling\" in the field after 14 years in academe. One of those present shocked me with this outburst, \"Why on earth would you do that?\" It turned out that the outburst was a rhetorical question as this well respected scholar began to list a variety of reasons why time in leadership roles in the field was a worthless and wasteful use of time. The following is an example of the reasons provided by practitioners:* Research is the focus of full professors and principals do not have time to research anything.* The petty logistics of school days provide no insights into the principal position that can't be gathered in rigorously designed surveys or other studies.* Full professors represent a level of scholarship that requires no further credentials.* The public and policy makers need no other evidence of professorial productivity than that which academic freedom protects through the process of promotion and tenure.* It doesn't take a cook to recognize the quality of the food.* My brain was probably soft to start.Obviously, I have thought about this incident. In comparison to the numerous vignettes that I could recite about how practitioners reacted to my \"retooling\" in the field, I think both sectors suspected that I suffered some kind of brain malfunction. Ultimately, the scholar to practitioner message carries the edge of intellectual elitism that inappropriately privileges one perspective as well as violates some of the basic scholarly tenets of knowledge construction in any field.What scholars say about practitioners\nReflections: The knowledge for educational leadership cannot be incubated in a sanitized library. As an applied field, educational leadership offers the most opportunities for scholars and practitioners to collaborate in knowledge production. Arguably, the realms of practices and scholarship must intersect along at least three vectors:1. the deepening of relevant research agenda for the field;2. the refinement of preparation and development for practitioners; and3. a united front and informed guidance of policies directed at education in general.Improving and refreshing a research agenda\nConclusion: There are three points from Levine's \"nine-point template for judging the quality of school leadership programs\" (Levin, 2005, p. 12) that deal with the needed practitioner scholar balance. Specifically, \"3. Curricular balance: The curriculum integrates the theory and practice of administration. ... 4. Faculty composition: the faculty includes academics and practitioners, ideally the same individuals. ... 7. Research: Research carried out in the program is of high quality, driven by practice, and useful to practitioners and/ or policy makers\" (Levine, 2005, p. 13). In this paper, we have dealt with curriculum and research directly, and while we strongly encourage faculty to seek ways to connect or reconnect with the field, it is our contention that if we really balance the field's curriculum for development and preparation with research, then faculty will connect with practice.Just as emerging research shows that schoolyard fights result from status-seeking individuals who can be simultaneously bully and victim, the divisions between scholars and practitioners in educational leadership may be symptomatic of a dysfunctional caste-seeking system. Scholars and practitioners in an applied field need to promote their duality and interdependence.\n",
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The persisting tension over the relative importance of theory and practice creates a crevasse between scholars and practitioners. The purpose here is to problematize divisions between cultural norms found among scholars and practitioners.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Both authors, higher education scholars, experienced temporary assignments as public school leaders and reflect on their experiences moving back and forth between school leadership practice and academia. This qualitative and autobiographical work draws on a combination of hermeneutics in the dominant educational leadership literature and the co-authors' experiences recorded in journals, saved memos and other school data records. These data sets and continuing access to their professional and scholarly colleagues provided the basis for analyses.\nFindings: - Draws on three main points: curricular balance; faculty composition; and research, and, while it strongly encourages faculty to seek ways to connect or reconnect with the field, opines that, if the field's curriculum for development and preparation with research is balanced, then faculty will connect with practice.\nOriginality/value: - Research carried out in the program is of high quality, driven by practice, and useful to practitioners and/or policy makers.\n",
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Good governance and preferential trade: evidence from the Swiss generalized system of preferences
|
[
"Good governance",
"Agro-food trade",
"Generalized system of preferences",
"Utilizing trade preferences"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since 1 March 1972, Switzerland, along with the major trading powers USA, Australia, Canada, Japan and EU, has granted developing countries (DCs) and least-developed countries (LDCs) preferential tariff terms for industrial and agricultural products as part of the generalized system of preferences (GSP), on a voluntary and non-reciprocal basis. The unilateral preferential treatment of DCs and LDCs initially contradicted the \"most-favored-nation (MFN)\" principle of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 1971, a waiver of the MFN principle was established in Article I of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in order to provide a legal framework for the unilateral granting of tariff preferences to DCs and LDCs (Bartels and Haberli, 2010). In this context, the present article concentrates exclusively on the agricultural and food products of the Harmonized System (HS), chapters 1-24.\n2. Data: The \"utilization rate\" at the product level is chosen as the dependent variable. GSP imports and GSP-eligible imports are the basis for calculating the \"utilization rate\" and are obtained from the Swiss-Impex database (SCA, 2015). The data set contains annual observations. Switzerland's foreign trade statistics were methodically converted from producing country to country of origin in 2012. This methodological change in the foreign trade statistics has some strong effects on the export values of the DCs and LDCs. To ensure comparability of the results, the year 2012 is excluded from this analysis. The utilization rate is calculated based on the following formula:(1)\n3. Stylized facts: 3.1 The evolution of DCs' and LDCs' utilization rate during 2002-2011\n4. Good Governance, institutions and utilizing trade preferences: Grethe (2001) emphasizes the threat that the reduction of classical agricultural protection (tariffs) might enhance the possibility of NTBs being misused for protectionist purposes. The implementation and intensification of NTBs are bound by institutional and financial preconditions. Utilizing unilateral or bilateral trade preferences also generates costs (costs of compliance) for obtaining the certificate of origin (rules of origin) and the certificate of direct transport. These costs could be seen as NTBs. Exporters in DCs and LDCs in particular consider NTBs in the form of additional trade documents (e.g. certificates of origin and of direct shipment) as a major trade barrier (UNCTAD, 2013). The decision whether or not to utilize the GSP system is made by the exporter. Providing information on the current GSP system and on impending changes in the system is the responsibility of state institutions. The same holds true for the creation of framework conditions for overcoming other NTBs. Bureaucratic hurdles, particularly the restrictive rules of origin, are a significant obstacle to utilization of the GSP. According to Haberli (2008), the opportunities offered by the GSP are largely unknown in most of the responsible state institutions and among DC and LDC exporters. The same, however, applies to importers in the respective industrial nations. An exporter's decision whether or not to utilize trade preferences depends on the preference margin. A rationally behaved (i.e. profit-maximizing) exporter chooses to take advantage of trade preferences only if at the margin the tariff discount (preference margin) compensates for the costs of compliance associated with all preferential trade agreements (bilateral or unilateral). The main point of preferential trade systems granted exclusively to the DCs and LDCs is to overcome bureaucratic hurdles through suitable state institutions in order to achieve an economic advantage through reduced duty, or no duty whatsoever.\n5. Empirical strategy - dealing with zero values: Because the utilization rate can be equal to zero, it is inappropriate to use Ordinary Least-Squares (OLS) (the sample contains around 55 percent zero values). Consequently, we estimate our models using PPML with pooled panel data as baseline estimation (Section 5.1). As an additional robustness check, Shepherd suggests using the Heckman selection model (Section 5.2).\n6. Results and discussion: This section provides regression results for the baseline reference estimations from PPML (Subsection 6.1) and the additional robustness check estimations from the Heckman selection model (Subsection 6.2).\n7. Conclusions and policy recommendations: The main objective of this study is to demonstrate that the institutional quality in a nation is an important element in utilizing trade preferences granted to DCs and LDCs. In this context, our results unequivocally indicate that the institutional quality of a nation depicted by the Good Governance indicators is indispensable in order to overcome NTBs in the form of export certificates such as proof of origin and proof of direct shipment. For all model variations, the variable \"Good Governance\" shows a significant and positive effect on the level of the utilization rate. Therefore, exporters from a country with high institutional quality are more likely to gain benefits from the GSP than exporters from a country with low institutional quality. Furthermore, our results indicate that \"poorer\", highly populated DCs and LDCs with high institutional quality and low productivity in the agricultural sector utilize the GSP more often than other DCs and LDCs. By implication, \"wealthier\", less populated and more productive DCs and LDCs with low institutional quality tend to export under the MFN scheme, where no costs of compliance occur, rather than under the GSP scheme. In particular, the negative effect of the variable GDP is surprising, because this variable is often used as an approximation for the institutional quality of a nation. Consequently, we believe that the GDP is merely an indicator for the economic or export performance of a nation and therefore should be understood as a purely economic performance indicator, which does not capture the institutional quality of a nation.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine if the institutional quality of developing countries (DCs) and least-developed countries (LDCs) contributes to a significant increase in the utilization rate of the Swiss generalized system of preferences in the agro-food sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use state of the art regression techniques accounting for zero values to identify if the institutional quality - separately depicted by the Worldwide Governance Indicators, the Index of Economic Freedom and the Human Development Index - can contribute in overcoming non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to trade.\nFindings: The institutional quality exerts a consistent positive effect on the level of utilization of trade preferences.\nResearch limitations/implications: Swiss food trade represents, of course, only a very small share of world trade, therefore it would be worthwhile to extend the analysis to other countries and sectors.\nPractical implications: Industrialized countries' development policies should more strongly focus on capacity building in DCs and LDCs to strengthen trade-related institutions.\nOriginality/value: The study focuses on an often underemphasized element in international trade relations - the role of the institutional quality in overcoming NTBs to trade.\n",
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Six treatments of global ruling power/governance and prospects for the future: an overview*
|
[
"Global governance",
"Global ruling power",
"Powers that Be",
"Mechanism of control",
"Global power"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In all societies - from societies that are very meagerly developed and have barely attained the dawnings of civilization, down to the most advanced and powerful societies - two classes of people appear - A class that rules and a class that is ruled.\nFutures of global governance: voices from the south: This special edition on global ruling power and governance was conceived to investigate not only the question on who rules the world but the manner by which such rule (if indeed it is granted that some form of global ruling power is emerging) exercises its power, as well as questions of legitimacy. All the authors presented here hold that global ruling power/governance does indeed exist in one form or another; however, the nature of global ruling power is neither very well understood nor addressed meaningfully, even in academic journals, much less in the popular press. Because of this lack of attention to a crucial issue, a vacuum has been created that often leads people to believe that global ruling power is non-existent - a colossal misunderstanding that only serves to benefit the Powers that Be, who have discovered that clandestine rule by manufactured consent represents a new, more evolved, couth form of despotism. Hence, meaningful discourse that exposes the real nature of global ruling power is crucial to look ahead and chart the course of the future of humanity in the twenty-first century.\nVoices from the north confront the globalization of ruling power: the power elite: This special edition, \"Who Rules the World?\", on global governance/ruling power, originated as a clarion call to futurists (and non-futurists) to follow-up and expand upon Hamm's (2010) publication in Futures, \"The study of futures, and the analysis of power\". Even though the authors here are from a diversity of origins in a number of ways (e.g. North/South, global governance/ruling power, futurist/non-futurist, male/female), one can observe a notably cohesive quality to the responses to Hamm's (2015) original study. It is only fitting then, that here, midway through the special edition, we transition from voices of the South - from futurists primarily concerned about the \"official\" forms of global governance - to those who are primarily non-futurists, focusing more on the identification and composition of the emerging \"unofficial\" global ruling power/class. In this regard, surely Ahen's (2015) excellent contribution serves as a transitional piece and fine prelude to Hamm's (2015) follow-up to his original study; featured as the fourth piece in this special edition, Hamm directly addresses the question of global ruling power.\nProspects for twenty-first-century global ruling power: Ruling power has always been a fact of human social existence, not only from the dawn of civilization but from pre-historic times as well, as an emergent property of consciousness and evolution. For example, hierarchal systems can be observed in primates[4]. As for humans, in his provocative thesis on the origins of human consciousness, Jaynes (1976/1990) illustrates how ruling power originated in evolution and functioned to give a people a sense of identity and continuity that, over time, created civilizations. For the Ancients, the power of a single voice that transcended time became an unquestionable spiritual authority - a model of ruling power that lasted for thousands of years. However, historical evidence also shows how ruling power became corrupted as it became politicized[5]. The absolutizing of ruling power, derived from spiritual claims, paved the way for the divine right of kings, which served to consolidate ruling power as a fact of social life in virtually all civilizations prior to the modern era; furthermore, as ruling classes asserted hereditary rights, the fact of authoritarian ruling power became a permanent institution for thousands of years[6]. Then, as populations grew and societies became more complex during the modern era, accordingly, ruling power evolved in complexity in order to maintain and strengthen the means of social control. Even though the myth of divine and hereditary rights of kings and ruling classes was exposed and debunked, the principle of authoritarian ruling power reemerged in more complex and sophisticated forms, in proportion to the evolution of human consciousness and civilization during the modern era. As city-states grew into nation-states, the absolute rule of the monarchy was openly criticized for its lack of accountability until its power was stripped by the state, and it gradually withered away over the course of a century or so. However, as Korten (2001, p. 127) points out, although monarchal rule died out, Empire did not but, to the contrary, grew more powerful through the new-found wealth it appropriated from indigenous lands in the Americas and around the globe; thus, began the transition \"from rule by imperial monarchs to rule by imperial corporations\" - the story of \"how money came to rule the world\".\nAcknowledgements: For more information about the authors featured in this special edition on global governance/ruling power, click on the following links:\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to test and explore the hypothesis global ruling power, as well as review the six approaches featured in the special edition on global governance/ruling power.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Anthropological and historical records are presented as support for the emergence of ruling power in society; moreover, evidence of global ruling governance/power is reviewed in the six papers featured in the special edition.\nFindings: Alternatives for global governance are reviewed in two papers, while four papers present evidence in support of the thesis of the emergence of a transnational ruling power/class.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because global ruling power exists informally and surreptitiously, the exact mechanisms of control are difficult to delineate, especially due to the fact that the Powers that Be spend much effort to block research into this area; however, this special edition opens up a promising area for new research efforts into global ruling power and the potential for global democracy.\nPractical implications: Practical implications, although minimal in the short-term, increase as awareness grows, and policy alternatives are considered for the transition to a long-term, democratic global future.\nSocial implications: Once social consciousness grows about the non-democratic, authoritarian nature of global ruling power/elite, the more the momentum will grow for reforms in the direction of global democracy - towards a more sustainable and equitable global system, politically, economically and ecologically.\nOriginality/value: This paper represents a relatively new area for interdisciplinary research into global futures. Futurists, political scientists and sociologists should find it valuable.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Value of social robots in services: social cognition perspective
|
[
"Social cognition",
"Elderly care",
"Value co-creation and co-destruction",
"Social robots in services",
"Warmth",
"Competence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Social robots, defined as fully or partially automated technologies that co-create value with humans through their social functionalities, represent a rapidly growing element of service industries, where they perform frontline tasks. Robots, thus, have moved from industrial settings (e.g. factories) to public (e.g. retail, hospitality and healthcare) and private (e.g. homes) user settings (International Federation of Robotics, 2015). They are no longer isolated in controlled, structured environments; modern robots must operate in chaotic, potentially complex human interactions, often with multiple stakeholders. This proliferation of social robots in efforts to deliver a superior customer experience (Mende et al., 2017; van Doorn et al., 2017) and euphoric predictions in industry reports (KPMG, 2016) conflict with the disappointments arising in real-world implementations. The key impediments to acceptance include unrealistic expectations and a lack of benefits for specific use contexts (Pino et al., 2015), suggesting that service providers need a better understanding of what constitutes a robot's value proposition and how value might be realized for service beneficiaries. This research, therefore, investigates users' evaluations of the value co-creation and co-destruction potential associated with social robots who engage in human-like behaviour in a service setting.\nTheoretical background: Social cognition perspective for robots\nTheoretical propositions: Congruence between value propositions and users' values\nDiscussion and implications: Theoretical implications\nConclusion: This conceptual paper focusses on the value of social robots in services, an area which is still in its infancy. The paper argues that because of their human-like appearance, minds and behaviours activating the social cognition mechanisms of users, different personal values might become activated compared to interacting with non-human technologies. The three propositions resulting from our study are:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The technological revolution in the service sector is radically changing the ways in which and with whom consumers co-create value. This conceptual paper considers social robots in elderly care services and outlines ways in which their human-like affect and cognition influence users' social perceptions and anticipations of robots' value co-creation or co-destruction potential. A future research agenda offers relevant, conceptually robust directions for stimulating the advancement of knowledge and understanding in this nascent field.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing from service, robotics and social cognition research, this paper develops a conceptual understanding of the value co-creation/destruction potential of social robots in services.\nFindings: Three theoretical propositions construct an iterative framework of users' evaluations of social robots in services. First, social robots offer users value propositions leveraging affective and cognitive resources. Second, users' personal values become salient through interactions with social robots' affective and cognitive resources. Third, users evaluate social robots' value co-creation/destruction potential according to social cognition dimensions.\nOriginality/value: Social robots in services are an emerging topic in service research and hold promising implications for organizations and users. This relevant, conceptually robust framework advances scholarly understanding of their opportunities and pitfalls for realizing value. This study also identifies guidelines for service managers for designing and introducing social robots into complex service environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of rapport in professional services: antecedents and outcomes
|
[
"Trust",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Professional services"
] |
[
{
"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: Rapport\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Measurement model\nLimitations and discussion: This study focuses on one type of service, which may limit the generalizability of the findings across service contexts. Research suggests that service relationships vary by type of industry (Price and Arnould, 1999), and Gremler and Gwinner (2000) suggest that the nature of rapport is also likely to vary by service context. The study suffers from the common limitations of cross-sectional paper and pencil research. The relationships tested in the models are correlational, rather than causal, providing an opportunity for paths in the opposite direction and reciprocal effects. Further, the single-item measure of personal connection has measurement limitations, but was intended to capture a dichotomous response (have or do not know of a personal connection).The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of rapport. The model focused on the antecedents of interpersonal rapport and rapport's relationship with trust, customer satisfaction, and WOM. We begin our discussion with the results for the antecedents of rapport.The antecedents of rapport\nImplications: Managerial\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This research seeks to test a model examining the antecedents and outcomes of interpersonal rapport in a professional service context. The four antecedents examined are familiarity, mutual self-disclosure, extras, and common grounding, and the outcomes examined are trust, satisfaction, and word-of-mouth communication.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study employs a survey methodology to obtain the opinions of 121 dental patients regarding their relationships with dental professionals. The hypothesized relationships in the model were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).\nFindings: - The research findings indicated that all four antecedents were positively related to rapport. Rapport was also found to be related to customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth communication, but rapport was not found to be related to trust. Post hoc analysis suggests that rapport appears to be related to trust early in relationships, then becomes less important, but re-emerges as a driver of trust in very mature relationships.\nPractical implications: - Since rapport appears to be important to generating word-of-mouth, managers should foster and reward rapport-building behavior.\nOriginality/value: - The study empirically verified four antecedents of interpersonal rapport in services, and supports the role of rapport as an important mediating variable in relationship development. The research also supported prior findings on the unique contribution of rapport to positive word-of-mouth communication.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Community arts for health: an evaluation of a district programme
|
[
"Arts",
"Health education",
"Music",
"Drama",
"Communities",
"Partnership",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over recent years there has been growing interest in the link between arts and health. It is argued that art, with its focus on creativity, expression and identity, has a unique contribution to make to health and health care (Smith, 2002; Eakin, 2003). Arts for health encompass a number of different types of activity, which vary in purpose, setting and target group. One strand of work that has attracted increasing attention is the use of arts to promote health and wellbeing within community settings. Angus's description of art for health encapsulates some of the core elements:... people working together to express their needs, their hopes, their visions [...] About people being active and creative citizens and having fun together [...] being good for the health, well-being and self respect of individuals and the community (Angus, 1999, p. 17).Community arts for health are about improving health and wellbeing in its widest sense and are often focused on individual development. Arts can also offer innovative and effective approaches for tackling social exclusion and strengthening communities (Policy Action Team 10, 1999; New Opportunities Fund, 2004) and therefore have relevance within national and local programmes to reduce health inequalities (Department of Health, 2003). Despite a convincing rationale, the evidence base proving effectiveness remains small (Hamilton et al., 2003). In part this is because it is a relatively new field of activity and in part because of the challenges in utilising appropriate evaluation methodologies which are able to capture individual and community change while taking account of the creative and participatory ethos of projects (Angus, 1999).This paper reports on the evaluation of a recent programme of community-based arts run in an urban district in the UK. The broad aim of the programme was to promote the use of arts to address health needs and promote wellbeing. It involved the development, implementation and evaluation of a small number of arts interventions targeting disadvantaged communities. The purpose of the paper is twofold:1. to report on the main findings from the evaluation and locate the evidence within wider literature; and2. to identify and discuss some of the implications for practice arising from the findings.These include issues around the development of local partnerships, approaches for reaching marginalised communities and the contribution of arts to health goals. The paper starts by providing a brief review of the literature on community arts for health.\nCommunity arts for health: It is argued that participation in community arts can have a direct effect on an individual's health and wellbeing through enhancing understanding and expression or through developing the necessary skills to enable the adoption of healthy behaviours (Matarasso, 1997; Angus, 1999; Health Development Agency, 2000). Matarasso (1997) identified 50 types of social impact resulting from participation in art, including improvements in health status. The survey of 243 adults and 270 children participating in arts projects found that 52 per cent of adults reported feeling better or healthier since their involvement.The Health Development Agency (2000) undertook a comprehensive review of community-based arts projects in England. Results, which were largely based on the observations of project staff, suggested that projects were having an impact on mental health; 91 per cent of projects reported that involvement had increased the self-esteem of participants, and 82 per cent reported increased confidence. Reduced anxiety and social isolation were also reported. There were some educational outcomes identified: 72 per cent of projects reported that participants had developed language, social or creative skills. A systematic evaluation of five major long-term community-based arts for health projects also found good evidence of the impact on mental health in relation to reducing social isolation and improving self-esteem and confidence (Everitt and Hamilton, 2003). Arts activities were seen as developing emotional literacy, which was considered important for good mental health and for developing strong relationships. Another evaluation of an arts for health programme found that community arts approaches were successful in creating healthy discussion and expression within groups (Smith, 2001). Some of the arts projects using group work in community settings reported intermediate outcomes of improved health information or improved environments.As well as promoting the health of individuals, community arts can be used to address some of the wider determinants of health such as access to services, education and skills, employment, culture, and the physical/social environment. A recent literature review assessed the evidence on the social impact of art (Newman et al., 2003). Only eight studies were of high enough quality to be included in the review but the authors concluded that there was evidence to support art having a very positive impact in four areas:1. personal change (for example increased confidence);2. social change (including greater understanding of cultures and sense of community);3. economic change; and4. educational change.The findings are supported by the Social Exclusion Unit's report on Arts and Sport, which found ample evidence that community-focused arts and sports programmes had an impact across four areas:1. health;2. crime;3. employment; and4. education (Policy Action Team 10, 1999).Arts for health can be used to strengthen communities through increasing social cohesion and community networks (White and Robson, 2003). Individual and community health outcomes are seen as inextricably linked (Matarasso, 1997; Green and Tones, 2003), and the Health Development Agency (2000) acknowledged the contribution of art to building social capital in communities. Studies of community arts in regeneration initiatives suggest that arts can have a significant impact on individual development and community cohesion as well as environmental and economic aspects of regeneration (Landry and Matarasso, 1996; Central Research Unit Scottish Executive, 2000, Goodlad et al., 2002). It is suggested that arts are particularly effective within areas of disadvantage and can attract and engage young people and other groups who are otherwise marginalised (Kay, 2000).In examining the most effective approaches to delivering community arts for health, the literature suggests that the best methods are community-centred, flexible, encourage participation, and are based on strong partnership working (Matarasso, 1997; Kay, 2000; Health Development Agency, 2000; Everitt and Hamilton, 2003). A national survey found that the main barriers for projects were short-term or limited funding, lack of time, insufficient resources and poor quality venues (Health Development Agency, 2000). There can also be barriers to bringing together creative approaches and mainstream health activities (Tones and Green, 1999; Smith, 2001).In summary, there is evidence to support using arts in community settings to enhance health and wellbeing. In most of the studies, participants and practitioners reported benefits in terms of individual or community development. The long-term health impact is more difficult to measure and attribution is a problem (Goodlad et al., 2002, Newman et al., 2003). Given the diversity in the field of community arts for health, there is clearly scope for further studies that can tease out the impact of initiatives and also illuminate some of the most effective ways of working. This paper presents the findings from a recent evaluation of a community-based arts for health programme within an urban district of the UK which involved the delivery of three different projects. The following section describes the background to the programme before going on to describe the evaluation methods. The paper then presents the main findings of the evaluation and discusses the limitations of the research. Finally the paper discusses some of the implications for practice.\nBradford Arts for Health Programme: Bradford is a large city in the North of England with a large Asian population. The Bradford Arts for Health Programme was set up in 2003 with the broad aim of promoting the use of arts to address health needs and enhance wellbeing. There were other examples of arts for health interventions scattered across the district. However, it was hoped that the programme would result in a more strategic approach to developing the work. A partnership group was formed with representation from arts and health sectors and funding was sought from local health and social care organisations, including the district's Primary Care Trusts and the local council. Programme activity was focused on the development, implementation and evaluation of a small number of arts for health interventions targeted at disadvantaged communities. In addition, the programme sought to build capacity for using arts through engaging local workers and communities and through developing networks. The lead organisation for the management and delivery of the programme was Kala Sangam, a Bradford-based South Asian Arts organisation whose core work was promoting South Asian arts through education, lifelong learning and training, health and disability projects, community performances and box office events. The programme resulted in three arts for health projects being delivered in four different localities. The projects are described below.Music and movement sessions within childcare settings\nEvaluation methods: The evaluation was carried out in collaboration with the lead arts organisation. An evaluation framework was devised and individual evaluation plans were designed for each project and the programme. The plans linked overall goals, objectives, indicators of success and suggested data collection methods (Meyrick and Sinkler, 1999). The framework also took account of aspects of the context and processes. Qualitative methods were used to gain an in-depth understanding of how and why the projects worked and to capture the experiences and views of people involved (Angus, 1999). The choice of research methods was guided by the evaluation plans and the acceptability of methods to staff, participants and artists.While in residence, the artists collected data from the projects including flip charts, feedback boards, learning diaries recording activities and processes, and photographic documentation. The evaluation framework was completed at the end of all projects. The researcher also visited each of the projects, with the exception of the drama workshops, to observe the activities. Short structured interviews were conducted with parents attending the music sessions.Following completion of the projects, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 individuals from a range of organisations involved in the delivery of the projects or the wider programme. The interviews covered the development and implementation of activities, perceptions of the impact of activities, and the contribution of the programme. The interviews were tape-recorded or detailed notes were taken and returned to respondents for verification. The interview data were analysed thematically to identify cross-cutting issues. The evaluation framework was then used to analyse all the interview and project data and to assess whether objectives had been met.The evaluation adhered to ethical principles. Participation was voluntary and everyone was asked for their consent. Quotes and reported experiences have been anonymised.\nFindings: This section presents the findings from the evaluation. The first part looks at the delivery of the projects, the use of creative methods, and participation. It goes on to look at identified outcomes and factors influencing implementation. Finally the paper presents findings on the wider impact of the programme and the contribution of arts to health.Planning and delivery\nDiscussion: This section examines the key points from the findings and discusses the implications for practice. It starts by discussing the strengths and limitations of the study.Limitations of the research\nConclusion: Community arts for health offer new ways of promoting individual and community health. It is an approach with enormous potential for reaching out and working with diverse communities and for tackling health inequalities. The arts for health programme which was the focus of this evaluation was found to be successful in promoting the use of arts for health and supported the development of partnerships between different sectors. Projects were flexible in responding to local needs and accessible to different groups. Creative methods were found to be effective at engaging individuals, including those from disadvantaged communities, and promoting participation in social activities. The results were a range of health and social outcomes, including greater understanding and skills development, not just with the participants but also with partner organisations. Above all, the projects were valued by those taking part.The challenges in delivering effective community arts initiatives and building partnerships across different sectors should not be underestimated. The evaluation findings suggest that developing local ownership and building trust are essential to maximising the success of projects. There are also some key issues, such as training and the development of long-term alliances that may need to be addressed if sustainability is to be ensured. More research is needed into effective models of delivery within community settings. Arts for health can make a difference, but there is a need for greater understanding of how the arts can contribute to health goals and have a long-term impact on community health.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present an evaluation of a community arts for health programme in the UK involving the delivery of three separate projects targeted at disadvantaged areas.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Evaluation plans were drawn up for each project, which linked long-term goals, objectives, indicators of success and data collection methods. Evidence was collected during the projects. In addition, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals involved in the programme.\nFindings: - The projects used a range of creative methods, which were found to be accessible and relevant. A number of short-term health and social outcomes were demonstrated. The programme also had wider impact through strengthening partnership working and the development of knowledge and skills.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This was a small-scale study with limited in-depth data from participants. Long-term outcomes were not assessed. There is scope for more studies investigating the impact of arts activity on health and social care organisations and the training needs of staff.\nPractical implications: - A number of implications for practice emerged from the findings, including the importance of building local ownership and involvement, and the development of sustainable activity through partnership working.\nOriginality/value: - This evaluation contributes to the small evidence base for arts for health interventions. It identifies outcomes from the activities and discusses issues relating to the development and implementation of community-based arts for health projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer co-operatives and retail internationalisation: problems and prospects
|
[
"International relations",
"Retailing",
"Co‐operative organizations",
"Marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Almost inevitably, well-established retailers with a strong domestic retail offer and customer franchise will, at some point, seek store-based expansion outside their national borders. The assumption is generally made that what works at home can transfer, and will succeed, abroad but the international trials and tribulations of a number of leading retailers suggest that this is not always the case. Certain retailers may have become so embedded in their domestic context that they find it very difficult to transfer their operations to other markets. What works at home does not necessarily work in another market.If this is a problem for investor-owned retailers, then it is even more difficult for the retail operations of consumer co-operatives. With their long trading histories and strong ethical stance, it might be assumed that consumer co-operatives would have no difficulty in undertaking retail internationalisation. Often they have assumed dominant positions in their domestic markets and their approach and philosophy towards trading provides a point of differentiation, a commonly perceived prerequisite for retail internationalisation. Yet, the reality is that their activities are constrained both by factors within each co-operative and also by the structure and ethos of the co-operative movement itself. This paper uses examples of retail internationalisation by consumer co-operatives to explore these issues.\nApproaches to internationalisation: The increased visibility of retail internationalisation over the past three decades has stimulated a significant volume of academic research. A number of common themes have emerged, as authors have explored the volume and direction of investment (Hollander, 1970; Burt, 1991; Muniz-Martinez, 1998), the motivations for internationalisation (Alexander, 1990; Williams, 1991; Quinn, 1999), and the role and choice of market entry mechanisms (Doherty, 2000; Gielens and Dekimpe, 2001). Studies of specific retail sectors and geographically determined flows have been accompanied by case studies of \"exemplars\" of retail expansion (Wrigley, 1997). Others have developed frameworks categorizing international retailers on the basis of behavioural criteria - most notably business culture and market responsiveness (Treadgold, 1990; Salmon and Tordjman, 1989; Simpson and Thorpe, 1995; Helferich et al., 1997; Alexander and Myers, 2000). In addition, there is a growing interest in failure and divestment as an intrinsic element in the retail internationalisation process (Alexander and Quinn, 2002; Burt et al., 2003; Jackson et al., 2004).This research confirms, to varying degrees, that the retail internationalisation process is complex. Simplistic frameworks assuming progression and evolution are inadequate for explaining a process commonly punctuated by readjustment and realignment to a wide range of external and internal interactions and pressures (Dawson, 2003; Coe, 2004; Wrigley et al., 2005). A clear understanding of what is the essence of the internationalised retail offer and the distinctive national and international management skills that the company possesses would seem to be essential. How these allow or constrain the internationalising retailer in the creation of a distinctive and superior operation to what already exists in the target marketplace remains an underlying pre-requisite for both operationalising and understanding successful retail internationalisation.Although retail consumer co-operatives are included in the above studies (especially those investigating internationalisation at the macro level where trends are the focus of attention) the overwhelming focus of retail internationalisation research has been the investor-owned retailer or corporate chain. Despite attaining a position of strength in many markets, the \"failure\" of consumer co-operatives to exploit opportunities in the international marketplace contrasts with the experiences of their investor-owned contemporaries. Is this a function of timing or circumstances? Of inappropriate or mis-guided investments? Or is it an inherent feature of the philosophical approach underpinning retail consumer co-operatives?\nCo-operatives and international expansion: First, we need to distinguish between two different forms of retail co-operative.Consumer co-operatives\nConsumer co-operatives and retail internationalisation: Several authors have highlighted the different forms that retail internationalisation might take, ranging from cross border movements of consumers, to the exchange of ideas and pooling of management functions (such as buying) to the establishment of retail outlets (Kacker, 1988; Dawson, 1994). A number of these options are evident in the internationalisation activities of the consumer co-operatives.Co-operation between co-operatives\nThe co-operative difference: a barrier to internationalisation?: As noted earlier, the very nature of consumer co-operatives is believed to provide a point of distinction and differentiation from other market-based organisational forms:... the social dimension of co-operatives helps to set them apart, to make them different from their competitors and to make them what they are today. The active promotion of social values provides co-operatives with a clear profile, helps to distinguish them from their competitors and gives them a competitive advantage. The absence of social values denies co-ops their natural profile, renders them similar to their competitors to the point of not being able to distinguish them, and denies them their natural competitive advantage (Pestoff, 1999, p. 208).This is a common thread in the discussions that have taken place when commentators try to explain the failure of a co-operative; see for example, Grott (1987), Rauber (1992), Normark (1996), Middleton (1998) and Kurimoto (1999). Talking of the \"new wave\" co-operatives in the USA that began by selling natural foods, Grott (1987) commented that: \"As social commitment declined, more and more patrons began reverting to the norm and relating to the co-op on primarily economic terms - the weakest of all competitive positions for the co-op\".As co-operatives grow, they can find it more difficult to retain this special relationship with their members, so putting pressure on their democratic structures and even their cost structures. Yet, the size of many modern consumer co-operatives also has allowed them to be important leaders in terms of a range of actions such as product labelling, health education, fair trade and so on. Co-operative principles (as expressed in their attitudes and behaviour) also send out a number of clear signals. According to proponents, they can change the attitudes of local workers towards taking responsibility for their own welfare; can form the basis for channelling funds into the local economy and community; allow the distribution of any surplus widely, based on a member's patronage of the co-operative; and often provide other benefits such as education and local public works.So, why is it that consumer co-operatives have found it so difficult to get across their point of difference in new markets? Singerman (1987) argued that the problem for many co-operatives is less about forgetting social goals and more about the changing environmental circumstances. Whether or not co-operatives have a strong membership base, they can only grow when they have a good capital base, good internal structures with checks and balances on management activities, and an outwardly-focused market approach. Whilst many commentators suggest that co-operatives suffer from inadequate capital, Middleton (1998, p. 3) argues that this need not apply to large societies because they are just as able to borrow against their asset base and to draw on retained surpluses as any investor-owned chain. Much of the \"blame\" therefore, would seem to lie with choices made by directors and managers, firstly in terms of when and where to move internationally, and secondly, how committed they are to making those moves work and become self-sustaining.This point can be seen in Van der Krogt's comparison of primary co-operatives and investor-owned firms in the dairy industry. He found that co-operatives preferred to engage in mergers, licensing and explorative collaborations, whereas the firms focused mainly on takeover strategies through acquisitions and strategic equity shareholdings. In his view, cooperatives' democratic decision-making based on members' current patronage results in cautious growth strategies; and, cooperatives' equity capital constraints lead to the preference of business expansion through consolidations and collaborations with low capital demands (Van der Krogt, 2002, pp. 25-6). Unfortunately, it appears that in retailing, and particularly food retailing, a similarly cautious approach has prevented co-operatives from using their early mover advantage to build up a sufficiently large market presence. When other, more aggressive retailers have entered the market and begun to expand quickly, the co-operatives have found themselves with no other competitive advantage (no membership base) and they have faded away very quickly.These issues take on further significance when we look at the barriers to international expansion by co-operatives. On the one hand, there are no real controls over co-operatives to prevent their expansion on an international or even global scale (Craig, 1976) but, on the other hand, adherence to the co-operative principles (and a consequent desire not to interfere with the activities of other co-operatives) does tend to act to constrain their activities outside their own local area. Indeed, Book (1992) argues that a multinational co-operative organization can only come about as a result of the democratic agreement of all the co-operative organizations in the various countries involved.These guiding principles and the underlying philosophical approach may, however, hinder the international spread of retail operations. A number of authors, grounded in co-operative ideals question whether international expansion is appropriate. Table V provides a summary of the contrasting characteristics of consumer co-operatives and market based corporate chains in terms of stakeholders, management approaches and supply chain organisation. In all three areas, the focus of investor-owned chains seems to be more aligned with the strategic focus, management control systems and operational flexibility believed to underpin a successful internationalisation strategy.The tension between market opportunities and the equity/community focus of co-operatives would seem to mitigate against internationalisation on any substantial scale. The know-how and technical transfer arrangements exemplified by Coop Norden may represent the \"limit\" of the co-operatives international scope. A point recognised by Kurimoto (1999):Needless to say, co-operatives are rooted in the communities where they operate and can't move where opportunities exist. However, it is urgent for co-operatives to upgrade the regional and global collaboration in the fields of joint buying, technology transfer, exchange of know-how, joint ventures, etc. The multi-national co-operative can be conceived on the regional scale, provided they allow local representation.Finally, the recent paper by Wrigley et al. (2005) has framed retail internationalisation within Hess's (2004) discussion of embeddedness. Hess distinguishes between three forms of enbeddedness - societal (or the cultural, industrial and historical origin of the firm); network (the composition and structure of the network relationships within which the firm is engaged) and territorial (its relationships in \"place\" with local firms, consumers and regulations). Wrigley et al. (2005) emphasise the key importance of territorial embeddedness to explaining the retail transnational corporation.The history of consumer co-operatives in expanding their retail operations outside their domestic networks suggests that the role of societal embeddedness is also an important consideration. Hess's three forms of embeddedness are, in effect, external influences upon the firm. The experience of consumer co-operatives may suggest a fourth form, which is an internal construct, namely \"firm\" or \"organisational\" embeddedness. This would represent the vision, values and organisational behaviours of the firm that is a product of (and affects its ability to cope with) the other forms of societal, network and behavioural embeddedness. This is particularly visible and relevant with a co-operative because its boundaries are relatively \"porous;\" that is, members have a role and influence that can go far beyond that of just a customer and yet are also usually more territorially concentrated than the shareholders in an investor-owned firm. In Hess's (2004, p. 182) words, this becomes another element in the \"processual character of embeddedness by focusing on the becoming rather than the being\". It would appear to be much easier to become embedded in a new retail territory or new retail network where one is \"merely\" modifying the relationship with a customer. The establishment of the concept of membership and a relationship with members appears to be far more difficult; yet the concept is so embedded in the organisation as to make it difficult to function as a co-operative without it.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to explore the retail internationalisation activities of consumer co-operatives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Conducts a survey of the available information on these internationalisation activities.\nFindings: - A survey of the available information on these internationalisation activities shows that they have been restricted to a relatively small number of co-operatives and that the \"failure\" rate has been very high. Some suggestions are made as to why the co-operatives have been unable to convert their early-mover advantages into sustainable retail networks.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The restricted nature of the sample means that these exploratory findings are primarily descriptive. Further, in-depth work with a sample of these co-operatives would help us to better understand the reasons for the moves into and out of various international activities.\nPractical implications: - Expands the literature on retail failure in general and also provides some more depth to the literature on the internationalisation of co-operatives.\nOriginality/value: - Whilst there have been significant volumes of research into the internationalisation of investor-owned retailers and of producer co-operatives, particularly the \"new generation\" co-operatives, there has been very little prior work undertaken in this area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effects of higher education on childrearing fertility behavior in Japan
|
[
"Ordered logit model",
"Childrearing",
"Fertility behaviour",
"Number of children",
"Psychological burden"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Low fertility is a common social concern in developed countries, as the continuing decrease in birth rates has led to a rise in the old-age dependency ratio, which measures the number of people age 65 and older per 100 working-age people between 15 and 64. According to the UN report of world population prospects 2015 (United Nations, 2015), the number of elderly people in the world is projected to be 1.4 billion by 2030 and 2.1 billion by 2050 and will be particularly high in Japan, where the United Nations projects a ratio of 26.4 percent in 2015 (already the highest in the world), which is then predicted to rise to 36.5 percent by 2050. As the number of working-age people decreases, the size of domestic markets and consumption of all goods and services also diminishes, which renders those markets unattractive to potential investors (Bloom et al., 2010). Fougere and Merette (1999) predicted that a rise in the old-age dependency ratio will have a profoundly negative impact on economies, particularly financial markets[1], healthcare/pension system, as well as cultures and all other aspects of society for decades to come.\n2. Summary of previous research: 2.1 Theoretical model of fertility - does education matter?\n3. Hypotheses and methodology: 3.1 Hypothesis\n4. Data and model: 4.1 Data\n5. Results: 5.1 OL model for determinants on number of children\n6. Conclusion: This paper analyzed the determinants of the number of children a woman chooses to have over her lifetime, and how an awareness of the pressures of education and childrearing affects fertility decisions. It is clear that a higher level of education is more likely to decrease the number of children that married couples choose to have. Moreover, educationally conscious women tend to have fewer children. The decrease in women's fertility that comes with an advanced education could be explained partially by the awareness of the duties and burdens of childrearing. Although Blau and Hagy (1998) found that higher wages encourage women to purchase more external childcare, the outcome of the present paper does not support their findings. Because advancement in a woman's education also increases her awareness of the positive aspects of childrearing, women increasingly choose to care for their children themselves. In other words, childrearing can be considered a \"burden\" when women wish to continue their careers in competitive, high-pressure environments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Cost-benefit theory cannot explain the inverse relationship between education and fertility behavior among developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine psychological factors in fertility decisions, focusing on the number of children and determinants involved in the decision to have three or more children.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two empirical models were employed utilizing data from the Japanese General Social Survey of 2005 and 2006. An ordered logit model was used to examine how educational background impacts the number of children people choose to have. A logit model focused on psychological factors was used to investigate the effect of the burden of childcare on the decision to have more children.\nFindings: The probability of a third birth declines as the number of years of education increases for women, but not for men. Women whose mothers were housewives tended to have fewer children, whereas women who live in families and are homeowners were likely to have more children. For women, the most influential factor in the decision to have a child was awareness of childrearing costs. Men from higher-class, higher-income families tended to have more children.\nPractical implications: The analysis indicates that maternal leave or systemic re-employment support can impact a woman's decision to have a child.\nSocial implications: The inverse relationship between women's fertility behavior and education can be partially explained by the awareness among educated women of the duties and burdens of childrearing.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to practical information concerning the role of psychological factors in fertility decisions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Labour dispute arbitration in China: perspectives of the arbitrators
|
[
"China",
"Industrial relations",
"Chinese labour law",
"Employment legislation",
"Labour dispute arbitration system"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study of the dynamics of China's labour dispute resolution mechanism - an essential component of the country's labour and employment law system - reviews the interactions among labour relations actors, and probes how the Chinese state intertwines with the global and domestic markets. In the two decades since China's enactment of the Labour Law 1995[1], labour-capital conflicts have intensified. The number of labour dispute cases skyrocketed from 48,121 in 1996 to 1.497 million in 2013 (China Labour Statistical Yearbook, 2014). According to the official statistics, 30.65 per cent of incidents of collective civil unrest in China[2] were caused by labour-capital disputes between 2000 and 2013 (Li and Tian, 2014), while, in some highly industrialised regions, one wildcat strike mobilising more than 100 worker participants erupted every three days[3]. China's labour dispute resolution mechanism is under enormous pressure. This paper is a pilot study about the Chinese labour dispute arbitrators and explore the dynamics of the Chinese labour dispute arbitration system through the arbitrators' perspectives. The paper studies the outcomes of arbitrational reform following the enactment of the Labour Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law (LDMAL) of China in 2008. It draws on the perspectives of the full-time arbitrators, who are on the frontline of China's labour and employment law system and have been neglected in the existing literature.\nMethodology: This paper used a mixed research method approach, including archive studies, questionnaires and interviews. The fieldwork was conducted in Beijing Municipality - the economic and political centre of the country, featuring a population of 21.15 million in 2013 (\nFindings: Inhibited reform towards arbitrational independence\nConclusions: When the intensity of its labour-capital conflicts heightened, the Chinese state reacted by introducing arbitrational reform. The LDMAL 2008 (art. 3) regulates that the labour dispute resolution mechanism shall uphold the principles of legitimacy, justice and efficiency, and MoHRSS (2012) initiated the system's reform to increase independence, justice, efficiency and professionalism of arbitration. The arbitration courts were established and new efforts were made to raise arbitration's effectiveness. By analysing the perspectives of full-time labour dispute arbitrators, this paper evaluates the extent to which the system's reform can safeguard labour rights and contribute to the establishment of the rule of law in China.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore China's labour dispute arbitration system reform through analysing the degree to which it has attained its stated objectives - notably, independence, justice, efficiency and professionalism - from the perspectives of the arbitrators, previously ignored in research on China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper used a mixed research method using questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were sent to all full-time labour dispute arbitrators in Beijing, China with a useable response rate of 71 per cent. Additionally, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 key stakeholders involved in the arbitration process.\nFindings: Instead of establishing an impartial platform, the arbitration system endeavours to promote the state's capacity to rule over labour relations. Its recent reform excluded arbitrational independence owing to concerns about reducing the Chinese Communist Party's arbitrary power. Arbitrational justice was perceived to improve through case resolution efficiency, which made arbitrators minimise arbitration time, partly because of high caseloads but largely because of their key performance indicators. Quality of arbitration was compromised. The arbitrators understood the spaces and boundaries of the reform, and focused on increasing professionalism to enable them to more fluidly manoeuvre between the different political economic interests, above safeguarding labour rights.\nResearch limitations/implications: The questionnaire size was too small for regression analysis. Future research should expand the sample sizes and conduct cross-regional studies.\nPractical implications: In 2008, China undertook an arbitrational system reform - probing its practical influence contributes to the authors understanding about the changing institutional environment of Chinese labour relations.\nOriginality/value: As a pilot study on labour dispute arbitrators, this research presents the dynamics of the Chinese labour dispute resolution mechanism.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Harnessing the power of the job description
|
[
"Competitive advantage",
"Succession planning",
"Job description"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Managers have a wide range of tools available to help with their managerial duties. Managers can employ tools such as strategic planning, customer relationship management, employee engagement surveys, benchmarking and a balanced scorecard to maximize the productivity of their workforce (Marr, 2013). Although often used in the hiring process, job description is a managerial tool that is often underutilized.\nConclusions: A job description is often dismissed as a human resource necessity that an organization deploys when they need to hire an employee and puts away afterward. However, a job description can be used throughout the employment relationship to give the organization a competitive advantage.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show managers can effectively utilize a job description throughout an employee's tenure. Typically, a job description is used in the hiring process. However, a job description can be utilized in recruiting and selection, compensation, evaluation, training and development, health and safety, and succession planning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author approached the use of a job description from a manager's perspective. Using both existing literature and conceptual usage of a job description, the author provides a potential use of a job description to improve the human resource competitiveness of an organization.\nFindings: If utilized throughout the life of employment, a job description is a powerful tool that can aid managers. Managers have a road map that can help them with their duties of planning, leading, organizing, controlling and staffing. With a road map, the complexities of management become easier.\nResearch Limitations/implications: The limitations involve actual data that prove the effectiveness of the job description. Most of the information provided in the article is theoretical but potentially provides practical information for practitioners.\nPractical implications: The article provides a practical application of the use of a job description. The information provided can be utilized immediately by practitioners. Specifically, inexperienced managers can use the job description as a road map for supervising an employee through the employment relationship.\nSocial implications: Unfortunately, there are very little social implications. However, whenever organizations can improve their relationships with their employees, society will surely benefit.\nOriginality/value: The article presented involves pieces of previous works, but to date, the author could not find another example of the total use of the job description through the employment relationship. Therefore, it appears to be very original in application.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Constructing reading proficiency and struggle through tracked contexts
|
[
"Literacy",
"English language arts",
"Constructions of English",
"Literacy and identity",
"Literacy teaching"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Young people demonstrate a range of literacy skills and practices across school contexts (Frankel, 2016; Ivey, 1999; Learned, 2016) and out-of-school contexts (Lam, 2009; Leander and Lovvorn, 2006; Moje, 2000). Despite this variability, deficit and static labels such as \"struggling reader\" persist (Worthy, 2010). The reification and acquisition of deficit labels can undermine youths' literacy learning (Franzak, 2006; Gutierrez et al., 2009). These labels propel the construction of not only deficit identities (Alvermann, 2001) but also culturally situated categories of able and disable (or proficient and deficient) that demand the classification of students (McDermott et al., 2006; Mehan, 1996). To counter the negative effects of labeling and to reframe reading difficulty, researchers have recommended a host of other modifiers (e.g. striving, improving, inexperienced readers) (Greenleaf and Hinchman, 2009), but deficit-oriented labeling continues.\nTheoretical and empirical perspectives: Theories of contexts, identities and power\nMethods: Research context\nData sources: According to our theoretical framework, we understood literacy contexts as constituted through people's interactions (Erickson and Schultz, 1997), as well as people's associations with the material objects of school (Latour, 1987). Thus, we collected three primary data sources that permitted examination of classroom literacy interactions (observations), literacy-related objects used in interactions (classroom artifacts) and participants' interpretations of literacy contexts (interviews). This multifaceted data set, which we collected over six months, supported the analysis of contexts as multidimensional and constructed over time. A secondary data source was student records, including general achievement and literacy assessment data, which helped us understand how youths performed on traditional measures of reading and provided insight into why they were tracked into particular classes.\nFindings and discussion: Notions of reading proficiency and difficulty were complexly constructed through tracked English contexts. Despite the state, district and school's adoption of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts and a school-designed common English curriculum, both of which were to contribute to shared literacy objectives, analysis showed that students and teachers built highly contextualized understandings of reading proficiency that both aligned and diverged across tracks. We begin by discussing how youths and teachers interpreted reading difficulty, and then we turn to their interpretations of proficiency. Throughout, we discuss how these interpretations appeared to mediate students' literacy experiences in English language arts.\nConclusions and implications: Our findings advance research on literacy-related tracking and labeling in three key ways. First, analysis showed not only that literacy-related tracking and its apparent consequences persist despite ample evidence that such tracking limits literacy learning (Applebee et al., 2003; Rex, 2001) but also that these tracking/labeling effects persist amidst efforts to standardized instruction. Both are contributions, but the latter is particularly important. Like many high schools in the USA, Central High had adopted the Common Core State Standards around which teachers designed a shared English curriculum, with the goal of improving reading (and writing) for all students. Little research, however, has examined how presumably standards-based instruction plays out in tracked contexts. In our study, what counted as reading proficiency and difficultly, rather than being raised to a common \"high bar\", continued to vary across tracks.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to report on a study investigating how young people and teachers interpreted reading proficiency and difficulty across different tracks of English language arts in the sole high school serving a culturally diverse city.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For six months, the researchers observed in three hierarchically tracked English classes. Participants were three teachers and 15 focal youths. The researchers also conducted semi-structured and open-ended interviews and collected classroom artifacts and students' records.\nFindings: Despite adoption of the Common Core State Standards and a school-designed common English curriculum, both of which were to contribute to shared literacy objectives, students and teachers built highly contextualized understandings of reading proficiency, which diverged across tracks and mediated instruction. Across tracks, however, deficit discourses about reading struggle persisted, and students and teachers attributed difficulty to students' attitudes and behaviors. Young people never described themselves in negative terms, which suggests they resisted the deficit labels tracking systems can generate.\nOriginality/value: Findings extend research by showing how literacy-related tracking contributed to exclusionary contexts through which students were unproductively positioned at odds. Findings suggest a need for renewed rigor in the examination of tracking practices, particularly how notions of reading difficulty/proficiency position youths and mediate literacy instruction. Despite deficit conceptions of \"struggling readers\" across the school, youths never described themselves negatively and accepted reading difficulty as normal; how youths achieved such resourceful stances can be further investigated. These research directions will support the creation of English contexts that invite all youths into inquisitive, critical and agentive interactions with texts and each other.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The association of attendance at religious services and involvement in church/religious activities and youth assets, by gender, with youth's engagement in sexual intercourse
|
[
"Adolescents",
"Sexual behaviour",
"Religion",
"Youth"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to 2007 data, 48 percent of US high school students reported having had sexual intercourse, 45.9 percent of them females and 49.8 percent males (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008). In an attempt to reach the Healthy People 2010 goals to increase the proportion of adolescents who abstain from sexual intercourse (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2000), research has focused on assessing factors that may protect youth from engaging in sexual intercourse.The role of religion has been studied as a factor that influences teen sexual behavior (Davidson et al., 2004; Hardy and Raffaelli, 2003; Nonnemaker et al., 2003; Regenerus et al., 2003; Steinman and Zimmerman, 2004). Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) show that religiosity delays the onset of sexual activity for both males and females and is associated with a lower probability of ever having had sexual intercourse (Rostosky et al., 2003; Nonnemaker et al., 2003). Although attendance varies, approximately half of American youth regularly participate in religious organizations by attending religious services or participating in religion-based youth groups (Smith et al., 2002). Data indicate that 60 percent of 8th graders, 54 percent of 10th graders and 49 percent of 12th graders report at least monthly attendance of religious services (Smith et al., 2002). Female youth attend church more often than male youth and participate in religious youth groups more than males (Smith et al., 2002; Regenerus et al., 2003).From the youth development perspective, involvement in religion has been investigated as a youth asset. It has been shown to be associated with never having had sexual intercourse as well as being effective in preventing teen pregnancy (Catalano et al., 2002; Kirby, 2001; Vesely et al., 2004). Focusing on youth assets, including religion, is one strategy for increasing sexual abstinence among youth. In a study on the effects of youth assets on teen sexual behavior, the youth asset shown to have the strongest association with the outcome \"never had sex\" was use of time (religion) i.e. involvement in religious activity through church attendance and involvement in groups (Vesely et al., 2004) However, the role of this asset among males and females and the contribution of each of its components (attendance versus involvement) has yet to be studied.This study examined a youth asset identified by prior research, use of time (religion), and engagement in sexual intercourse (Vesely et al., 2004). We were interested in looking at the two components of the Use of Time (religion) asset, i.e. attendance at religious services and involvement in church/religious activities, separately on youth's engagement in sexual activity. This analysis determines if one of the components is more strongly associated with never having had sex. In addition, because there may be different developmental pathways and patterns in religious participation between genders, we assessed the association between the use of time (religion) asset and never had sexual intercourse when stratified by gender, rather than controlling for gender. We hypothesized that differences would exist in these relationships for males and females.\nMethods: More detailed methods for this study have been published previously (Oman et al., 2002a).Sample\nResults: Of the 1,350 randomly selected households from which youth-parent data were collected, our final sample totaled 1,281 youth/parent pairs, of which 663 youth were female and 618 youth were male. Youth who had missing demographic data (n=49) or were of a race/ethnicity other than those listed in Table I (n=20) were not included in the analysis. Sample size varied for each analysis due to missing responses on the religious attendance (n=4) or involvement question (n=3), ever had sex question (n=32), or asset questions (n=0-140, depending on the asset).Religion and sexual intercourse\nDiscussion: This study not only examined attendance at religious services and involvement in church/religious activities, but also investigated the association of these religion-based issues while considering the influence of other youth assets on youth's engagement in sexual intercourse. Prior work in this area has identified an association with never having had sex and frequent attendance or involvement in religious activities (Rostosky et al., 2003; Thornton and Camburn, 1989; Hardy and Raffaelli, 2003; Nonnemaker et al., 2003). However, this study extended previous research and examined attendance at religious services and involvement in religious/church activities as separate items to determine if one aspect was more strongly associated with never having had sexual intercourse.Males and females also had slight differences in significant youth assets in the final multivariate model. For males, two assets (non-parental adult role models and peer role models) and the involvement in church/religious activities component of the use of time (religion) asset were independently associated with never had sexual intercourse. Among females in the study, three assets (non-parental adult role models, peer role models and responsible choices (for Hispanics only)) and the involvement in religious/church activities component of the use of time (religion) asset were independently associated with never having had sexual intercourse.Interestingly, involvement in church/religious activities, not the attendance at religious services component, had the strongest association for never had sexual intercourse among both males and females when taking into account the effect of other youth assets in the multivariate model. In fact, attendance at religious services was no longer statistically significant once involvement in church/religious activities was added to the model. This finding suggests that in the original use of time (religion) asset, the involvement in church/religious activities component accounts for more of the association of never having had sexual intercourse among the entire sample, compared with attendance at religious services. This also suggests that involvement in religious/church activities may have the strongest protective effect against sexual intercourse for both males and females. As a result, attendance at religious services alone may not have an influence on sexual behavior, whereas more in-depth involvement in church/religious groups or activities may be necessary to positively impact sexual abstinence. Perhaps this is true because youth who participate in religious groups or activities have the support of an adult or peer role model. Church/religious activities may also provide youth with a social support network in which they can interact with other youth who have similar interests and value systems, rather than simply attending services in a non-interactive format. Another possible reason is that youth who are involved in church/religious activities may be more likely to do so out of choice, thereby reflecting their own personal value of the experience, whereas religious service attendance might be directed by parental values and may not directly impact youth behavior.Limitations of the study\nConclusions: Data from this study suggest that multiple youth assets for 13- to 19-year-old males and females, including involvement in church/religious activities, are important in promoting sexual abstinence among youth. Involvement in church/religious activities, not attendance at religious services, was most strongly associated with never had sexual intercourse among males and females when taking into account other youth assets that were also related to never having had sexual intercourse. The study also explored gender-specific youth assets that were associated with never had sexual intercourse and discovered that different youth assets protected against sexual intercourse among males and females.Many areas for further research are suggested, including the need for more longitudinal studies using this data set, the effect of religion on other forms of sexual behavior, as well as the development of interventions to strengthen youth assets that may protect from engagement in risky sexual behaviors. Because of the possible influence of youth assets on sexual activity, developing gender-specific and culturally specific interventions to promote multiple youth assets may reduce the number of youth engaging in sexual intercourse. Faith-based communities may have a role in promoting youth development and healthy adolescent reproductive and sexual health, and may be an appropriate venue for interventions to promote youth development, abstinence and healthy sexual behaviors. All community agencies, including the faith community, should work together to nurture youth and to strengthen their positive assets.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Previous research has shown that religion plays a role in the lives of many youths. This paper aims to extend previous research and examine attendance at religious services and involvement in religious/church activities as separate items to determine if one aspect was more strongly associated with never having had sexual intercourse among youth in the USA. It also aims to consider the effect of other youth assets, and analyze all by gender.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Cross-sectional data were examined to assess youth assets and risk behaviors. Multivariate regression was used to determine whether the assets or religion questions were significant in the presence of the other assets/religion questions. The eight assets examined, in addition to church attendance and involvement in religious groups were adult role models, peer role models, family communication, involvement in sports and groups, community involvement, aspirations for the future, responsible choices, and good health - diet and exercise.\nFindings: - Involvement in church/religious activities, but not attendance at religious services, was associated with never having had sexual intercourse among males and females. Analysis also determined that several of the other youth assets were protective of sexual intercourse among males and among females.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Findings from this study may be limited by the validity of the self-reported measures. The data were cross-sectional, making it impossible to draw inferences about the causal directions of the relationships found in this study. Future research should focus on developing interventions to strengthen youth assets.\nPractical implications: - Developing gender and culturally specific interventions to promote youth assets may reduce the number of young people engaging in sex.\nOriginality/value: - The paper extends previous research and examines attendance at religious services and involvement in religious/church activities as separate items to determine if one aspect was more strongly associated with never having had sexual intercourse.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A methodology to define strategic processes in organizations: An exploration study in managerial holding companies
|
[
"Strategic planning",
"Holding companies",
"Balanced scorecard"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Based on Porter and Millar's (1985) value chain model, the processes, in many organizations, can be divided into two parts: primary and supportive processes. Five primary processes are inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and services. These processes would be backed by supportive processes. They are infrastructure processes (accounting, finance, and management), human resource management, technology development, and procurement. This paper presents a methodology to highlight the strategic processes among other ones. These processes help an organization to achieve their objectives. However, all of them are vital for the organization. Furthermore, with the proposed methodology, organizations are able to focus on processes and create their own competency. Acquiring competitive advantage would be hard and sustaining it would be even harder (Porter, 1996, 2001). Many authors developed frameworks and concepts to achieve the sustainable competency (Davenport, 1993; Guimaraes and Armstrong, 1997; Desouza, 2001).This paper identifies the detail of methodology which has the ability to create competency for an organization. In this methodology, balanced scorecard (BSC) framework is used. The BSC identifies the information required to measure performance against the business objectives (Kaplan and Norton, 2000). The BSC provides a framework, a language to communicate mission and strategy. The four perspectives of the BSC permit a balance between short and long-term objectives. The BSC retains the financial perspective since financial measures are valuable in summarizing the readily measurable economic consequences of actions already taken. In the customer perspective, companies identify the customer and market segment in which the business units will compete and the measures of the business unit's performance in these targeted segments. In internal process perspective, companies identify the critical internal processes in which the organization must excel (Niven, 2002). The fourth perspective of the BSC, learning and growth, identifies the infrastructure that the organization must build to create long-term growth and improvement. In this paper, an overview of the methodology is described in Section 2. Section 3 is dedicated to case study. Discussion and conclusion are elaborated in Sections 4 and 5, respectively.\n2 An overview of strategic processes definition methodology: As mentioned, the limitation of resources is the main motivation of this research. This methodology helps the organization to focus on processes which have more impact on the organization's goals. In order to achieve this objective, three steps were designed. The high-level steps in the proposed methodology. The details of steps are mentioned in the Case study section are shown in Figure 1.2.1 Determining the processes\n3 Case study: implementation of strategic processes definition methodology in managerial holding companies: 3.1 First step: processes of managerial holding companies\n4 Discussion: In this research, because of the BSC holistic viewpoints, one process was chosen from each perspective as strategic processes. It means that, may be, there are some processes with better rank in Friedman test but not more than one process in one perspective were chosen. For example, although export development and portfolio management rank higher in Friedman test compared with licensing strategy, since only one process has to be chosen from each perspective, licensing strategy was selected. As a result, financial management, licensing strategy, subsidiaries performance appraisal and innovation in HC were chosen as strategic processes in HCs with competitive strategy. These processes are highlighted in Figure 3.\n5 Conclusion: Defining the strategic processes or processes with strategic nature is the main goal of this research. Based on this methodology, these processes do not exceed 4 or 5 processes so that organizations with their limited budget and time are able to focus on them. By using this methodology, organizations determine strategic processes which are critical in achieving their objectives.Combining the statistical analysis and the BSC framework is another achievement of this research. Statistical analysis presents the ranking of managers and experts' viewpoints. On the other hand, the BSC framework creates a holistic view in the organization.The case study of this research supports the steps of its methodology. Managerial holding companies are able to save their time and budget in achieving their goals by using this methodology. There are many processes in managerial holding companies. This methodology selected a process in each BSC perspective. These strategic processes play key roles to attain managerial holding companies' objectives.This research is based on a single case. Generalization based on this case would be interpreted cautiously and a limitation of the case study should be kept in mind. Furthermore, the strategy of research case is a competitive one and the strategic processes are chosen according to this strategy. For further research, it is recommended that this framework is reviewed by other kinds of strategies and also more practical case studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To elaborate a methodology enabling organizations to define their strategic processes among other processes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A case study approach has been chosen due to the nature of this research. Case study research method is qualitative method but it can be positivist. The mix of techniques is appropriate and some degree of quantification is necessary. Three high-level steps are designed and these steps are developed in the managerial holding companies (research case study).\nFindings: - Because of limitations on budget and time, organizations are able to define the processes which are critical to achieve organizations' goals. This methodology has a holistic view in organizations by using balanced scorecard framework.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research is based on a single case. Generalization based on this case should be interpreted cautiously and a limitation of the case study should be kept in mind. Furthermore, the strategy of the research case is a competitive strategy and the strategic processes are chosen according to this strategy. They may be changed based on other strategies. In interpreting the result, these limitations should be kept in mind.\nOriginality/value: - Defining the strategic processes helps organizations to use their resources based on their objectives. This paper presents a methodology that improves the ability of organizations in managing and directing their resources efficiently.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
National context and organizational performance across three sectors
|
[
"Organizational performance",
"Cross-cultural management",
"Diffusional pressures",
"Isomorphism",
"Sector management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is the purpose of this paper to shed light on the degree to which diffusion of management practices exists across public, private, and not-for-profit (NFP) sectors in two very different national contexts. In this exploratory study, we examine the performance of organizational structures and processes within the above named sectors in contextually different countries.\nBackground: Organizational behavior varies by context\nReview of relevant literature: National contexts that contribute to institutional diffusion and integration\nInstitutional context: Jamaica and the USA: Below are brief descriptions of two English-speaking countries included in this study - Jamaica and the USA. Each country has some similar and markedly different national contexts. The USA has a long history of a constitutional democracy coupled with abundant natural resources and a strong capitalistic/free enterprise economy. Jamaica, a parliamentary government, is economically underdeveloped, has lower per capita income than the USA, and has attained relatively recent independence from colonial rule (1962). Officially it is described as \"[...] having suffered from very low growth, public debt, and serious social challenges\" (International Monetary Fund, Country Report, 2013; p. 126).\nThe three sectors embedded in two different national contexts: The three sectors (public, private, and NFP) serve different segments of society (Gilbert et al., 1999). Research has demonstrated that the internal management structures and processes employed within these three sectors tend to be more similar than different (Baruch and Ramalho, 2006). Yet, because sectors are influenced by national diffusional pressures noted above, it is expected that the similarities and differences of management practices will vary by nation (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Sia and Soh, 2007). When researching such variation of sector behavior, it is the larger national institutional context (i.e. Jamaica and the USA) that is used to represent the independent variable; the sector (organizational) level within the national context is viewed to be the dependent variable (Smircich, 1983; Swanson, 2011). Thus, due to the more advanced diffusional contexts within the developed nation than the developing nation, we offer our second hypothesis:\nMethodology: The study instrument\nFindings: In this paper we posed three research questions. Each was addressed in our analysis:\nDiscussion: Our research supports the theory that diffusional pressures within nations influence the integration of organizational methods and practices (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). Theory also suggests that organizations are highly influenced by the characteristics of the larger systems in which they are embedded (Bjerregaard et al., 2009; Redding, 2005) such as culture, industrialization, technological development, education, political policy, economic behavior, and the like.\nStudy limitations: The samples gathered for this study need to be enlarged as they may not be truly representative of the USA and Jamaica, per se. Future studies that compare sector differences should be designed to discern types of organizations and industries within sectors.\nImplications for future research: Analysis of the OPA dimensions and their relationships to actual unobtrusive outcome measures would aid in the further validation of the ten dimensions across the sectors and their relative influence on OP.\nPractical implications: As a result of this study, we find some notable implications for the world of practice.\nStudy conclusions: As hypothesized, the national differences identified in OP are significant. The data provide strong justification for further research relating to the effects of national contextual characteristics on the performance of organizations.\nSummary: Studies of organizations often assume the universality of management principles and practices, yet they do not give sufficient accounting of the effect national culture has on the way management is practiced (Kwantes, 2009). As organizations are increasingly working in networks consisting of multiple countries, the differences found between Jamaica and USA organizations may be indicative of like variations among other nations of wealth and poverty.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of diffusional pressures as they relate to organizational performance (OP) across public, private, and not-for-profit sectors in two different national contexts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review is conducted of institutional forces in the environment of two nations; one highly developed and the other developing to identify isomorphic pressures in each of the countries. An organizational performance assessment (OPA) tool is used to analyze the differences in the performance of the three sectors in the two national contexts identified. The research relies on Pearson correlation, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and MANCOVA statistical applications to validate the assessment instrument and shed light on differences across nations and sectors that can be attributed to organizational diffusion as a result of institutional pressures that exist in the countries in which the organizations are embedded.\nFindings: The findings indicate there is greater need to adapt to local ways of doing things when working cross-nationally within developing countries than with those that are developed where management practices are more alike than dissimilar. The results of the study suggest that when managing organizations cross-nationally, in the more developed nations organizations will perform more effectively and more alike than when working with organizations in less developed countries where the conditions for the diffusion of organizational practices are weaker.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research focussed on two countries for comparative purposes. Due to sampling limitations, the findings are more relevant to the sectors the authors studied within countries than between the countries per se. It is recommended further research be conducted using larger samples across many national cultures. While relying on broad societal institutional dynamics, the study design does not permit the analysis of the effects of specific contextual characteristics on OP. Such an undertaking is undoubtedly a \"next step\" that the authors recommend.\nPractical implications: The extant literature finds that managing systems cross-nationally requires adaptation to local national contexts. Where there is less economic and technological development, less opportunity for free market competition (capitalism), educational opportunities, and shared standards from which the performance of organizations are judged, the more unlikely organizations will employ commonly applied management practices. A new tool is introduced that can be used to further research on OP cross-nationally.\nOriginality/value: The study provides empirical evidence to demonstrate that in nations where stronger diffusional pressures exist, fewer differences will be found among the performance of the three sectors. Additionally, the effectiveness of organizations in these national contexts will be greater. While research among the three sectors has identified performance differences, such differences are less likely to be discernible in developed nations due to isomorphic pressures. The study is especially relevant to those who manage global organizations cross-nationally. It introduces a new tool to measure OP across national boundaries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Application of digital technologies in health insurance for social good of bottom of pyramid customers in India
|
[
"Bottom of pyramid",
"Risk management",
"Digital technology",
"Social policy",
"Social health insurance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Digital technologies today are a key aspect of healthcare management for individuals and organizations (Van Velthoven and Cordon, 2019). Individuals have access to a diverse range of mobile health applications that empower them to monitor and control their health status (Lupton, 2014). This complements the efforts of the health insurance sector to manage the health risk of individuals by incentivizing a healthy lifestyle (Owens and Cribb, 2019). Digital technologies also help in reducing the disparities in the healthcare status of individuals and improve the quality of life (Nayak et al., 2019a).\n2. Review of literature: Insurance firms are slowly transforming themselves into technology companies in the insurance business (Molteni, 2017). Insurance is a difficult product to sell owing to the financial complexity, low financial literacy and lack of awareness among the consumers of the need for such a product (Parekh, 2010). Added to this is the complexity of social inclusion of the lowest strata of society in an affordable and accessible health insurance framework (Jaiswal, 2008). Financial services in India are provided by banks and insurance companies and the solvency of these entities is critical for the funding of the healthcare sector (Planning Commission, Government of India, 2009). The challenge in India is to avoid both over- and under-inclusiveness in any healthcare financing model (Berman et al., 2010). The government priority has been to infuse funds for the primary healthcare infrastructure and allow the private sector to deal with the expensive curative care (Rao and Mant, 2012). The bifurcation of responsibilities between the public and private sector is still not clear and thus leads to extra availability of funds for health to a certain class and less or no availability for those who actually need it (Costa and Diwan, 2007). The need to have focus areas for utilization of excess funds is thus essential for social health models.\n3. Research gaps and objectives: Little research has been done on the scope of digital technologies in social health and its potential to collaborate between various stakeholders in the healthcare market (Bacigalupe, 2011). A digitally engaged individual can participate in a better way for self-monitoring and self-care which eases the dilemma of policymakers to find ways of influencing the adoption of digital interventions (Lupton, 2013). The need for social health insurance has been a politically sensitive issue in developed insurance markets like the USA (Rivlin and Reischauer, 2016) as well as in India (fe Bureau, 2014). The announcement of the Universal Health Scheme in India as a part of the Union Budget for 2018-2019 (Saraswathy, 2018) also underscores the emphasis that the government lays on social health insurance. The Universal Health Scheme (Ayushman Bharat) is a new form of the earlier RSBY scheme launched by the Indian Government with a higher financial benefit and a revamped technology infrastructure that links the health insurers and healthcare providers for faster clinical data exchange and facilitates storage of high-quality data for better analytics. With the changing nature of demographic indicators and associated disease patterns, it is necessary that more research is carried out in the area of technology in social health policy (Goodall et al., 2010). Research in the area of social health policy has not focussed on how access to high-quality healthcare and financial health protection can be bundled into a single business model (Dye et al., 2013). Technology can address this gap by linking the business models of healthcare providers and healthcare financers through seamless sharing of clinical data (West et al., 2014). The health insurance sector needs to recognize the BoP section as a business opportunity and develop sustainable business models using technology interventions (Prahalad, 2005). Government policymakers would immensely benefit from research in areas that can connect the information revolution to the social health insurance market to establish a policy framework for social health insurance (Middleton, 2005).\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Approach for the study\n5. Discussions of results and implications for the BoP sector: The expert interviews clearly indicated that health insurers must adopt digital technology interventions to benefit the BoP population and ensure better healthcare access for them. The emphasis on specific areas of technology intervention and the associated implications of adoption of digital technology are discussed below based on the holistic and pattern codes shown in Table III.\n6. Conclusion: The adoption of technology in social health insurance is associated with the cost of digitalization. In countries like Thailand, the public health expenditure is the same as India; however, the coverage of universal healthcare is much more than what is available in India (Sundararaman, 2018). The utilization of technological resources in conjunction with data analytics, cloud computing, telecommunications and wireless technologies can address the issue of improving quality and access to healthcare without any significant cost escalation (Sajanlal, 2019). This will improve the adoption of digital technologies and increase the scale of implementation of social health interventions. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is encouraging innovations in the area of wearables and portable devices that can immensely contribute to social health policy through improved risk management and reduced disease burden.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Social health insurance framework of any country is the national identifier of the country's policy for taking care of its population which cannot access or afford quality healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the strategic imperatives of digital technology for the inclusive social health models for the BoP customers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative exploratory study using in-depth personal interviews with 53 Indian health insurance CXOs was conducted with a semi-structured questionnaire. Using MaxQDA software, the interview transcripts were analyzed by means of thematic content analysis technique and patterns identified based on the expert opinions.\nFindings: A framework for the strategic imperatives of digital technology in social health insurance emerged from the study highlighting three key themes for technology implementation in the social health insurance sector - analytics for risk management, cost optimization for operations and enhancement of customer experience. The study results provide key insights about how insurers can enhance the coverage of BoP population by leveraging technology.\nSocial implications: The framework would help health insurers and policymakers to select strategic choices related to technology that would enable creation of inclusive health insurance models for BoP customers.\nOriginality/value: The absence of specific studies highlighting the strategic digital imperatives in social health insurance creates a unique value proposition for this framework which can help health insurers in developing a convergence in their risk management and customer delight objectives and assist the government in the formulation of a sustainable social health insurance framework.\n",
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] |
Causes and consequences of consumer online privacy concern
|
[
"Privacy",
"Internet",
"Electronic commerce",
"Consumer protection"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Technology has enabled firms to explore vastly improved and exciting new applications such as data warehousing, data mining, target marketing, and self-service. Service firms increasingly move towards one-to-one marketing and service delivery to millions of customers on the internet, enabling them to deliver cost-effective customized service delivery processes and loyalty programs (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2006). However, shifting marketing and customer service to the internet also poses great challenges, including the emergence of serious privacy concerns and resulting negative consumer responses. This threat to consumer privacy posed by the internet requires urgent attention as it may undermine a firm's marketing performance in the long run (Gauzente and Ranchhod, 2001).The internet has heightened a variety of consumer concerns regarding privacy (Caudill and Murphy, 2000). Specifically, consumer apprehensions include the proliferation of databases, the enormous volume of personal data that is being collected, and the possibility of privacy violations and loss of control in the process of collecting, accessing, and utilizing this information (Culnan, 1993; Hiller and Cohen, 2001). Faced with these concerns, consumers sometimes undertake actions such as supplying false or fictitious information to a web site, setting up their computers to reject cookies, or refusing to purchase from particular web sites (Culnan and Milne, 2001). These potentially negative reactions that arise from threats to consumer privacy would eventually have a significant impact on a firm's marketing performance (Gauzente and Ranchhod, 2001).Factors that may have contributed to the growing awareness and concern about the invasion of information privacy include the lack of legal frameworks to counteract such an invasion (Wijnholds and Little, 2001), the lobbying by consumer groups such as Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the increasing media publicity alluding to such invasions (Waldmeir, 2001). Perhaps, as a response to public anxiety, consumer privacy policy is at the forefront of US governmental efforts to regulate the internet. As far back as 1997, the Clinton Administration had already stated the importance of protecting data and consumer privacy in order for e-commerce to realize its full potential (Clinton and Gore, 1997). In October 2000, internet privacy became a central issue in the Presidential Campaign (Marketing News, 2000), with both the Democrat nominee Al Gore and then Republican challenger George Bush saying that they planned to protect online privacy and promote internet commerce. In 2002, privacy looked set to be one of the top priorities on government officials' agendas (Szynal, 2002), with Congress debating several online privacy bills, and the Federal Trade Commission committing 50 percent more manpower to privacy enforcement.Given the increasing concern for privacy at the consumer and governmental levels, we set out to examine how regulatory efforts and business policy relate to online consumer actions. Based on the power-responsibility equilibrium model (Laczniak and Murphy, 1993), we developed and tested a conceptual model that focuses on online consumer responses to privacy concerns. The findings provide insights into how corporate and societal factors influence consumers' online privacy concern and their resulting online responses.We discuss in the next section the concept of privacy in the physical and the online world each from the three perspectives of the individual consumer, the organization and the regulator. In the section thereafter, the power-responsibility equilibrium model with concern as the key mediating variable is introduced together with the development of our research hypotheses. The final three sections deal with the research method, data analysis, and discussion and implications, respectively.\nConceptual background: The individual's \"right to be left alone\" was first articulated by Louis Brandies, an American Supreme Court Justice in 1890. The landmark article, \"The Right to Privacy\" (Warren and Brandeis, 1890), was written in response to the loss of privacy experienced in the nineteenth century - photographs and news coverage were invading the sacred precincts of private and domestic lives (equivalent to today's activities of the paparazzi). Drawing boundaries and definitions of privacy has been difficult (Gavison, 1984). In an attempt to define privacy, Linowes (1989) borrowed an observation made during a trial by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart when he could not define obscenity and stated: \"but I know it when I see it.\" In the USA, \"privacy\" is used to include everything from anonymity, to control over personal information, and to limiting government intrusions into the home. In Europe, the term more commonly used is \"data protection,\" and today, the various terms tend to be used synonymously worldwide.In this research, we are primarily concerned about privacy as it relates to the three domains of consumers, corporations, and public policy. We discuss consumer privacy from a general consumer privacy perspective, followed by an internet-specific perspective.Overview of consumer privacy research\nModel development: Like much of the earlier (Milne and Gordon, 1993) as well as the recent research on information privacy in the direct marketing domain (Phelps et al., 2001), the internet privacy literature may be viewed from two divergent angles. The first involves consumer focused research, for example, the measurement of consumer online privacy concerns (Sheehan and Hoy, 2000), and the examination of the specific conditions under which consumers are willing to provide information (Moon, 2000; Phelps et al., 2000). The second viewpoint concentrates on the ethical, legal, regulatory and public policy factors related to online privacy (Bloom et al., 1994; Caudill and Murphy, 2000; Culnan, 2000; Richards, 1997). Our research integrates these two perspectives into one framework, linking regulatory efforts to consumer privacy concerns on the internet, and addressing the implications on online user behavior. Specifically, we use of the power-responsibility equilibrium model to address the relationship between corporate practices, regulatory forces, and consumer privacy concern and subsequent consumer responses.The power-responsibility equilibrium model, developed by Davis et al. (1980), states that power and responsibility should be in equilibrium. The partner in a relationship with more power also has the responsibility to ensure an environment of trust and confidence. Large firms especially have inherent ethical responsibilities based purely on their size and power (Laczniak and Murphy, 1993). According to the model, if a company chooses a strategy of greater power and less responsibility, the company will lose in the long run as consumers take defensive action to reduce the firm's power. Caudill and Murphy (2000) noted that the model may be useful for explaining ethical issues in online marketing transactions and for understanding online privacy. In a recent study, Lwin et al. (2007) tested the PRE model in a marketing context to examine privacy concern using an experimental study.In Figure 1, the two general categories of power-yielding influences (the organizations and the governments) lead the proposed conciliator and end relationships. Policy refers to the firms that have ownership and power over the use of consumer data and are thus expected to show responsibility. Regulation points to the other power holder, the government, whose regulatory policies police and direct the use of data. How these groups are perceived to exercise their responsibility towards privacy will ultimately have an impact on consumers' privacy concern and their resultant actions. For example, if a company is seen to have a consumer-friendly privacy policy and adheres to it, the firm is perceived as responsible, and thus will lessen consumers' privacy concern (Caudill and Murphy, 2000).Online consumer privacy concern (Concern), the mediating construct in this model, is common in studies on consumer privacy (Fox et al., 2000; Phelps et al., 2001), and is generally defined as the consumers' concern towards keeping their personal information private. This inherent fear is vocalized by the likes of Waldmeir (2001), who reflected that:if ... identity is fixed like a dog tag around one's neck - a tag describing every visit to a porn web site, or a chatroom for depressives - the character of American life will change forever.Consumers who perceive that corporations are acting responsibly in terms of their privacy policies, and that sufficient legal regulation is in place to protect their privacy, are therefore expected to have greater trust and confidence in these power-holders and show less concern for internet privacy. On the other hand, if those in power positions (regulators and firms) are not seen to be responsible, consumer concern is likely to increase, and thus would lead to defensive measures to reduce dependence on these power-holders.A variety of consumer responses to privacy concerns in general (Singh and Pandya, 1991) and to online privacy in particular have been noted. Of these, we identified three categories of behavior that can be considered power-enhancing to the consumers. These three individual actions are fabricate, protect, and withhold, and they are consistent with extant research on the consequences of privacy and security concerns in marketing in general (Culnan and Milne, 2001; Phelps et al., 2000; Sheehan and Hoy, 1999), and in online marketing in particular (Lwin et al., 2007).\"Fabricate\" refers to consumer efforts in disguising one's identity through the use of fictitious or false information (Lwin and Williams, 2003). \"protect\" refers to the use of technology to safeguard one's internet domain from potential intruders. For instance, consumers can use technology to reject cookies. \"withhold\" refers to the consumer's refusal to provide information or to patronize web sites. Withhold responses have been observed in the online (Culnan and Milne, 2001) as well as in the physical world (Singh and Pandya, 1991). In contrast, fabricate and protect responses are unique to the online environment and have been observed in a number of internet studies (Fox et al., 2000; Georgia Tech Research Corporation, 1998).We propose that when concerned consumers are faced with a perceived power-responsibility imbalance, they will resort to these individual counteractive behaviors to reduce the perceived lack of equilibrium. We recognize that there are additional defensive measures consumers can take to balance their perceived lack of responsibility on the part of the power-holders. However, these other measures tend to involve group actions or longer-term behaviors such as the formation of lobby groups and the public boycott of firms. These additional responses were not included in the scope of our model, which focuses on direct and immediate individual consumer responses to perceived environmental factors.Hypotheses\nResearch method: We used an e-mail-based survey design where respondents' perceptions, beliefs, concerns and responses to online privacy were measured on retrospective behavior to test our hypotheses. Specifically, we asked respondents to recall a recent web site registration where they were asked to provide information online, and then measured our two independent variables (respondents' perceptions of the policy and regulation related to this online interaction), respondents' privacy concern, and their subsequent responses (i.e. fabricate, protect and withhold). The method chosen has high external validity and aims to build on the experimental work on the PRE model by Lwin et al. (2007).We conducted a pre-test, a pilot test and the e-mail survey proper on the internet. Internet surveys are increasingly being used (CustomerSat., 2002), and have been found to provide numerous benefits (Sheehan and Hoy, 1999). Researchers agree that the advantages of e-surveys include low costs, wide reach, design flexibility, data control, and the ability to create skip-patterns and interaction with media-rich content (Bowers, 1998). Such benefits have even prompted the US Census Bureau to attempt raising response rates through the use of the internet for the US Census 2000 (CNN.com, 2000; IDG, 2000). With regards to the drawbacks of e-surveys, Yoffie (1998) pointed out that apart from issues of information privacy, conducting surveys online might also lead to a \"sampling dilemma\" that excludes consumers who do not use the internet. For our research, however, the targeted population was confined to consumers on the internet, which validated the use of an e-survey as an appropriate research method.Measures\nData analysis: Measurement model\nDiscussion and implications: Our aim has been to explore the relationships between environmental factors and consumer responses using online privacy concern as a mediating variable in the power-responsibility equilibrium framework. The model extends previous work on privacy by linking privacy concern to organizational privacy policies, governmental regulation, and online consumer behavior, and it provides external validity to an earlier experimental study that used projective role playing to test the PRE model (Lwin et al., 2007). Three major individual response types to privacy concern were explored, namely, fabrication of personal information, use of privacy-enhancing technologies, and refusal to purchase. Using empirical evidence from a survey, we examined the relationships between the antecedents and effects of consumer perception towards personal information privacy over the internet. The results supported all the hypotheses, which suggests that comprehensive corporate policies together with a supporting legislative framework both have a positive influence in reducing online users' privacy concern and subsequent defensive responses. Furthermore, we showed that concern fully mediates the effects of policy and regulation on response behaviors.Implications for marketers\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - Past research on internet privacy has examined various aspects of privacy regulation and consumer privacy concerns. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that links anteceding environmental factors with the resulting consumer responses using the power-responsibility equilibrium perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An online survey of 182 net shoppers was conducted whereby respondents were asked to recall a recent web site registration that required them to provide personal information online.\nFindings: - The results indicate that robust perceived business policies and governmental regulation reduce consumer privacy concern. More interestingly, the data show that a perceived lack of business policy or governmental regulation will result in consumers attempting to regain power balance through a variety of responses. As predicted, increased concern resulted in higher power-enhancing responses such as the fabrication of personal information, use of privacy-enhancing technologies and refusal to purchase.\nPractical implications: - To reduce consumer privacy concern and subsequent negative responses, organizations need to pay close attention to their privacy policies through greater self-regulation, third-party accreditation and to ensure the presence of compliance mechanisms that support and check the marketing and collection activities of their organization and related parties. Regulators can reduce consumer concern by further defining and improving the legal framework for protecting consumer privacy on the internet. In addition, governments should consider overseeing third-party privacy accreditation as well as firm and industry self-regulation. Finally, to improve consumer perceptions of privacy protection, enhanced regulatory privacy protection should be communicated to the public along with a response outlet for privacy concerns so that consumers know that they should report privacy-related complaints to a regulatory agency.\nOriginality/value: - The paper examines how business policies and regulation influence consumer online privacy concern, and the resulting consequences on internet user behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Institutional framing and financial inclusion: Testing the mediating effect of financial literacy using SEM bootstrap approach
|
[
"Microfinance",
"Uganda",
"Structural equation modeling",
"Financial literacy",
"Financial inclusion",
"Institutional framing",
"Rural poor households"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: There is growing consensus among financial inclusion scholars and advocates that entry of new financial services' providers into the financial markets with complex products has resulted into the dire need for financial literacy, especially among poor households who are considered illiterate (World Bank, 2009). This lends support to the argument that there is increased need for the poor to be financially literate in order to scale-up the low rate of financial inclusion rampant among poor households in developing countries (DFID, 2009). Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2005, p. 26) defines financial literacy as \"the process by which financial consumers/investors improve their understanding of financial products and concepts and, through information, instruction and/or objective advice, develop the skills and confidence to become more aware of financial risks and opportunities, to make informed choices, to know where to go for help, and to take other effective actions to improve their financial well-being.\"\nLiterature review: Institutional framing and financial inclusion\nFinancial literacy and financial inclusion: World Bank (2008) observes that financial literacy helps to improve efficiency and quality of financial services in financial markets. According to UNESCO (2014), the ability to make well-informed financial decisions plays an important role for poor individuals to manage their financial affairs. Indeed, financial literacy is relevant for the poor who operate at the margin and are vulnerable to persistent downward financial pressures. Financial literacy helps in empowering and educating the poor so that they are knowledgeable about finance in a way that is relevant to their lives and enables them to use this knowledge to evaluate products and make informed decisions (OECD, 2009a, b, c).\nInstitutional framing and financial literacy: Kostova (1999, p. 314) suggests that cognitive program such as schemas (frames) changes as people age and acquire knowledge. The schemas, frames, inferential sets, and representations affect the way people notice, categorize, and interpret financial information. Drawing from the social learning theory (Bandura, 1986), the cognitive components of financial literacy involves being knowledgeable and informed about the basic concepts underlying management of money. Psychologists have argued that schemas can be modified over time through acquisition of knowledge and skills as people grow (see Kelly, 1958).\nInstitutional framing, financial literacy and financial inclusion: World Bank (2002) suggests that a complex blend of institutions (formal & informal) promotes and limits market activities by setting mechanisms, which guide behaviors and actions of players. Additionally, OECD (2009a, b, c) argues that in countries with diverse social and economic profiles, financial literacy is relevant for the poor who operate at the margin and are vulnerable to persistent downward financial pressures.\nStudy design and methodology: A total population comprising of 17,464 poor households located in Mukono district was selected for the study. To arrive at a sample for this study, Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table for determining sample size was used and a total sample of 375 poor households was selected for this study. Stratified sampling method was used to select the villages from each of the sub-counties and simple random sampling technique was applied to choose the required number of poor households. Prior to the main study, a pilot survey involving 100 questionnaires was carried out on samples not used in the main study. After pre-testing the questionnaire, all ambiguous, negatively worded and difficult questions were deleted in order to have a refined questionnaire for the major field study. The unit of analysis was poor households with household heads as the main unit of inquiry. The results from the study indicated that 53 percent response rate was achieved and 175 questionnaires received back from the field were not usable since they were incomplete.\nResults: The main purpose of this study was to establish the mediating role of financial literacy in the relationship between institutional framing and financial inclusion using SEM bootstrap approach. Different goodness-fit-indices were used to test whether the hypotheses were supported or rejected.\nDiscussion, conclusion and recommendation: Based on hypotheses generated under this study, the results revealed that institutional framing had a significant effect on financial inclusion. This lends support to H1 of the study. This finding links well with North (1990, p. 3) who suggests that institutions devise and influence the ways in which economic actors such as the poor, get things done in context involving human interaction. Indeed, institutions structure incentives in human exchange (economic) by defining and limiting sets of choices and actions for poor individuals (North, 1990, p. 4). Scott (2001, p. 49) also observes that the regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive pillars are central building blocks of institutional structures, which provide elastic fibers that guide behavior and actions of actors such as the poor, who live in social settings. Therefore, this means that poor households' behaviors and actions largely depend on institutional frames that either promote or limits their financial choices. Thus, institutional framing structures the way poor households think about financial choices and alternative courses of actions that they might use to attain desired financial goals. This finding is supported by World Bank (2002) argument that a complex blend of institutions (formal, informal and cognition) promotes and limits market activities by setting mechanisms, which guide behaviors and actions of players for efficient exchange.\nConclusion and recommendations: Conclusively, this study adds to the existing literature by revealing that financial literacy positively and significantly mediates the relationship between institutional framing and financial inclusion, especially among poor households. Financial literacy provides financial knowledge and skills, which supplement on poor individual's frames to enable them to, easily evaluate financial information, comprehend meanings, and take corrective actions regarding financial decisions and choices. Therefore, policy makers, managers and practitioners should be aware of the importance of financial literacy, which boost the perceptions of poor households towards access and use of financial services. Financial literacy programs should be a yardstick in provision of financial services by financial institutions.\nResearch limitation and future research: This study has been limited by adopting only cross-sectional study design combined with quantitative. Thus, further investigation involving longitudinal study, which adopts use of both qualitative and qualitative approaches, may be applicable in future studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish the mediating effect of financial literacy in the relationship between institutional framing and financial inclusion among poor households in Uganda with a specific focus on Mokono district.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopted a cross-sectional design. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), which adopted Analysis of Moment Structures to test for mediating effect of financial literacy in the relationship between institutional framing and financial inclusion.\nFindings: The results revealed that financial literacy had a partial mediating effect in the relationship between institutional framing and financial inclusion. Furthermore, the results indicated that while institutional framing has a direct effect on financial inclusion, it also exerts an indirect effect through financial literacy. This supports the argument that institutional framing that structure the way how poor households interpret, evaluate, comprehend and make sound financial decisions and choices, is enhanced by knowledge and skills acquired through financial literacy by poor households.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has been limited by adopting only cross-sectional design and quantitative research approach, therefore ignoring longitudinal design and qualitative research approach. Besides, the study uses SEM bootstrap approach and ignores MedGraph method, which is also recommended for testing mediation.\nPractical implications: Since the results suggest that institutional framing of poor households are partially enhanced by financial literacy to increase financial inclusion, policy makers, practitioners and managers of financial institutions should ensure extending financial literacy programs closer to the poor in order to expand the scope of financial inclusion beyond the current sphere. Indeed, financial literacy programs will boost cognitive abilities of poor households resulting into better financial decisions and choices and, hence increase in demand and consumption of financial services.\nOriginality/value: The study significantly generates empirical evidence by testing the mediating role of financial literacy in the relationship between institutional framing and financial inclusion using SEM bootstrap approach. The study portrays the influential partial effect of financial literacy in enhancing institutional frames of poor households in order to cause improvement in financial inclusion. Indeed, financial literacy programs that entail acquisition of financial knowledge and skills boost cognitive abilities of poor households to easily interpret, evaluate, comprehend meanings, and take correct decisions and actions on financial matters. The mediating effect of financial literacy in the relationship between institutional framing and financial inclusion seems to be lacking in literature and theory. Thus, the paper is the first to relate the influential partial effect of financial literacy in the relationship between institutional framing and financial inclusion among poor households, especially in a developing country context.\n",
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Mid-career as a process of discovery
|
[
"Gender",
"Management",
"Career development",
"Higher education",
"Career satisfaction",
"Mid-career"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Mid-career, sometimes referred to as mid-life or middle adulthood, is defined as the period between 35 and 45 years (O'Neil and Bilimoria, 2005) over 40 (Wortley and Amatea, 1982) or 40-55 (Wahrendorf et al., 2013). It is often a time for re-evaluation of expectations and needs (Emslie and Hunt, 2008).\nBeing a female manager in mid-career: This paper takes a gendered perspective to the study of mid-career from which it is meant that this research is sensitive to the unique experience of women within the social systems and the practices that are promoted in organisational life (Watson, 2006, p. 378). Historically, much career theory has taken a staged-based approach to the study of women in the workplace where age-based transitions denote progress in career. Indeed, the term mid-career was traditionally used to emphasise \"pragmatic endurance\" (O'Neil and Bilimoria, 2005) and was generally defined as occurring within the 30-40 age (Amos-Wilson, 1996; Wortley and Amatea, 1982) or 36-45 age stage (O'Neil and Bilimoria, 2005). The emphasis here was on commitment to set career patterns, striving for vertical movement or training modification and re-evaluating choices made. There was also an emphasis on the juggling of responsibilities and the re-negotiation of the work-life balance (Emslie and Hunt, 2008).\nMethodology: An ethnographic case study approach is used as the basis for data collection in this study. This research was undertaken in a small higher education institution where the author was employed as a manager and, could therefore draw on everyday dialogues with colleagues as a key part of data collection. \"Being in\" the research setting provides a rich dynamic which is not always possible in ethnographic research (Van Mannen, 2011). Indeed, informal discussions over coffee increased trust and participants appreciated what they called, \"research therapy\". However, this also presented ethical dilemmas regarding having to play the dualistic role of manager and researcher for example during meetings with departmental staff who were colleagues as well as research subjects. Despite this challenge, however the specific value of ethnography is that it allows the researcher to draw on their knowledge of the respective organisation. If the researcher is unfamiliar with the context of the research, it is possible that \"fly away\" comments that provide a deeper sense of understanding might be missed. An example is detailed in the extract below, derived from the author's interview with Pauline:\nFindings: The combined individual narratives arising from the data collected are discussed below within the \"process of discovery\" where mid-career is evaluated within the framework of the \"established manager\". Rather than age-based stages, these are junctures which are acknowledged by all managers regardless of their length of service or managerial experience.\nDiscussion: Being a manager in a higher education institution involves complex navigation of organisational politics, tall hierarchical structures, individualism and competitiveness (Priola, 2007; Grummell et al., 2009). Indeed, becoming a female manager and getting promoted can be a challenge in itself (Morley, 2013). Yet, by exploring the experiences and aspirations of female managers in the mid-career phase, the findings indicate that women are less worried with moving \"upwards\" on the career trajectory and more concerned with gaining a sense of authenticity and balance. This was the same for both academic managers and those working in professional services. The desire to ask \"what's next?\" is common during this phase (Dupont, 2014), however, there remains a commitment to self-management and personal growth and a desire to balance home and work to achieve intellectual satisfaction and authenticity. These findings are in contrast to the work of O'Neil and Bilimoria (2005) which found that women were more likely to be operating in a transactional capacity in mid-career, whereby they do what is required to get the job done realizing that their career development is largely impacted by others.\nLimitations and further research: This is a study of women in the higher education sector in the UK and their experiences may differ from the career experiences of women in other sectors. The higher education sector now highlights a contemporary market-driven organisation where masculine forms of management are increasingly reinforced. Turnover is lower than other sectors and there is generally less opportunity for promotion.\nPractical implications: Organisations need to be aware of the different experiences and aspirations of mid-career phase women as they may not be seeking progression through the upward career trajectory. Flexible and virtual working, extended sabbaticals, shorter working weeks and innovative working practices may support retention, particularly for those who are seeking work-life balance and a sense of authenticity rather than upward promotion. This is especially important in recognising the changing needs of managers in mid-career. If creative ways of working are available throughout career and at all levels within the management hierarchy, this may prevent a desire to \"opt out\" altogether. It may also encourage female managers to progress further on the vertical trajectory.\nConclusion: This study has explored mid-career experience in situ within a case study in the UK Higher Education sector. It considers the experiences of female managers and endeavours to contribute to the gap in literature in this area (Clarke, 2012) by studying the interactions, discourses and roles of those we are trying to understand (Rubin and Rubin, 2012). Using an ethnographic methodology, this research moves beyond the flawed assumptions of traditional stage-based approaches by providing deep level insights into the time served work experience of this management group. This paper reveals how female managers navigate their careers within a masculine prescribed culture and the implications of such practice.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the mid-career experience of female managers within a small higher education institution in the UK. It considers how managers manage \"self\" within this phase of career.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study takes an ethnographic approach to the exploration of experiences in mid-career. Using a relational approach it was possible to draw together new insights deriving from the data. A narrative approach provided the framework from which deeper insights were captured through detailed participant stories told in situ.\nFindings: This study offers a deep analysis of the constructs of management experience as these are negotiated within mid-career. The priority of female managers in this study is directed towards the balance of home and work. There is less evidence of a desire for upward progression, instead the focus now shifts to the achievement of authenticity and balance.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study was conducted in the higher education sector in the UK which is noted for its increasing commercialisation agenda and low staff turnover. Undertaking comparable research in other sectors will provide further insights into the generalisability of findings. Managers in this study were wholly white, middle class and most are still working in the region in which they were born. A more diverse cohort may be studied to ascertain the importance attributable to balance of work and life across different groups.\nPractical implications: This study presents some important areas of consideration for those involved in the support and advancement of female managers. Indeed, for those engaged in cognitive and developmental work this study provides rich and in-depth qualitative data that may prove helpful when formulating policy. It is of significance to senior managers within organisations and encourages attention towards executive development and organisational culture, both of which support the retention of talent within the organisation.\nSocial implications: This paper provides insights into middle and senior management practice that may be of use by policy makers in the wider higher education sector context, as well as in general management good practice discussions more widely. This study may also be of interest to aspiring female managers and those relatively new to their roles as they seek to position themselves to achieve a sense of authenticity within their organisations.\nOriginality/value: This study provides an empirical contribution to the study of female managers working within a small higher education institution in the UK. It provides deep insights into management practice at mid-career within the workplace and the way in which this is conceived in situ.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Moderating effect of idiocentrism and allocentrism on person-organization person-job fit and work attitudes relationship
|
[
"Cultural values",
"Individual differences",
"Person-job fit",
"Person-organization fit"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Person-environment fit is a concept that has attracted the management scholar's interest in recent years, since obtaining person-environment fit in organizations is crucial for retaining a flexible workforce. This is due to its impact of various employee attitudes and behaviors. It reinforces the development of positive work attitudes such as satisfaction and organizational commitment, while reducing the negative work attitudes such as turnover intention (Kristof, 1996).\nHypotheses development: Idiocentrism allocentrism and person organization-person-job fit and employee attitudes\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted by using AMOS 6 to test convergent and discriminant validity. Although these measures are well established in USA, it was important to investigate the measurement equivalence of the instruments and their applicability in Turkish contexts. Multi-item composites were formed for the scales before analysis, as multi-item composites reduce the total set of items to a manageable level and provide higher reliability than that of single items (MacCallum et al., 1992). As can be seen from Table I, kh2, df, kh2/df, root mean square residual (RMR), goodness of fit index (GFI), comparative fit index (CFI) (Bentler, 1990) and Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI; Tucker and Lewis, 1973) measures were used to assess the measurement equivalence of the variables.\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating influence of idiocentrism and allocentrism on the relationships between perceived person-organization fit, and person-job fit and work attitudes. Results indicate that an individual's allocentric values exaggerate the effect of person-organization fit, on job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention. Our findings are supportive of our hypothesis and the proposals of Piasentin and Chapman (2006) and Kristof-Brown et al. (2005) that the impact of fit on work attitudes is dependent upon the importance that individuals attach to the particular aspect of their work environment. Results indicate that the person-organization fit is more important for individuals that are highly allocentic. While there is support for the moderating effect of individual values on the person-organization fit and work attitude relationship, the moderating influence of idiocentrism and allocentrism on the predictive value of person-job fit on work attitudes was not supported by this research. In other words, idiocentric and allocentric values do not impact the importance that individuals attach to their fit with their job.\nStrengths and limitations: Interpretation of the current results must be evaluated by taking into account the strengths and limitations of this study. One strength is that this study assessed multiple types of fit within and investigated the moderating influence of both idiocentrism and allocentrism in the same regression model while controlling each other. Another strength of this study are the relatively high reliabilities of the individual difference scales. While reliabilities of scales ranged between 0.67 and 0.75 in studies by Wasti (2003a, b) and Roberts and Wasti (2002), this study found the reliability of the idiocentrism scale to be 0.79 and allocentrism scale to be 0.73. This level of reliability is acceptable, especially when measuring broad constructs such as values (Singelis et al., 1995; Roberts and Wasti, 2002).\nFuture research and implications: First, this study found that allocentric values, conceptualized as individual difference variables, moderate the relationship between the employee attitudes and person-organization fit. However, future studies might investigate how the other individual difference variables, such as self-esteem, need motivations and personality might moderate the fit outcome relationship as proposed by Piasentin and Chapman (2006). The interaction of idiocentric and allocentric values with other types of environment fit such as person-vocation, person-group and person-supervisor fit should also be investigated, as it would be interesting to see whether individuals who are allocentric and who describe themselves as interdependent on their social environment put more emphasis on fitting with their supervisor and group as opposed to individuals who are idiocentric. This study conducted research in a single country and assessed the deviation of values in individuals and their impact on person-organization and person-job fit and their outcome relationship. It may be a nice expansion to conduct a multi country cross-cultural research to look at the role that cultural values play. Furthermore, while this study argues that cultural orientation moderates the perceived person-organization and person-job fit and outcome relationship because of the difference in work-related values, cultural values also modify individuals' cognition and perception (Markus and Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1995) and actual fit is an antecedent of perceived fit (Cable and Judge, 1996, 1997). In future research, it would be interesting to see whether cultural orientation of the individuals modifies the relationship between the actual fit and perceived fit.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating influence of idiocentrism and allocentrism on person-organization fit, person-job fit and work attitudes relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The survey data were collected from 426 employees of a holding company.\nFindings: The results reveal that allocentrism makes a difference in fitting the particular aspect of work environment for the individual. Results showed that allocentrism positively moderates person-organization fit and job satisfaction and organizational commitment and turnover relationship. However, no moderating influence of idiocentrism was found on person-organization fit and employee attitude relationship. Furthermore, it was also found that neither idiocentrism nor allocentrism moderated the relationship between the person-job fit and employee attitudes relationship.\nOriginality/value: This research adds a cultural component to the person-environment fit research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of emotions and social influences on consumer loyalty towards online travel communities
|
[
"Loyalty",
"Emotions",
"Theory of reasoned action",
"Social presence",
"Perceived risk",
"Online travel communities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The rapid growth of Web 2.0 applications, which empower internet users and allow two-way information communications in travel and tourism, has generated an enormous amount of online user-generated contents (UGC) on hotels, travel destinations and travel services (Yeh et al., 2011). According to Leung et al. (2013), social media and search engines are the two \"mega trends\" that can significantly impact the tourism system. Social media have been widely adopted by travellers to search, organize and share their travel stories through blogs (e.g. Twitter), online travel communities (e.g. TripAdvisor), media sharing sites (e.g. YouTube), social knowledge sharing sites (e.g. Wikitravel) and other tools in a collaborative way. In view of this rapidly growing trend and the potential benefits social media can offer, numerous hotel and tourism businesses have been integrating social media applications into their websites to enhance customers' travel information searching experience (Sanchez-Franco and Rondan-Cataluna, 2010).\nLiterature review: In this paper we develop a research model that aims to expand theoretical insights from research on relationship marketing, integrating the role of emotions and social influences on loyalty formation (see Figure 1). Here, we present the literature review on the individual (perceived risk) and social (subjective norm and social presence) antecedents of emotions and the impact of emotions on attitudes and consumer loyalty.\nMethodology: Procedure\nResults: Measurement model\nConclusions: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of emotions and social influences on loyalty formation towards online travel communities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The individual (perceived risk) and social (subjective norm and social presence) antecedents of emotions as well as the impact of emotions on attitude and loyalty towards online travel communities are tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consists of 385 active users of online travel communities in Spain.\nFindings: Data analysis shows that perceived privacy and security risk elicit negative emotions such as stress, frustration and fear towards the online travel community. Normative influences (subjective norm) and feeling the presence of other community members (social presence) boost positive emotions towards the online travel community. Interpersonal influences have a positive effect on subjective norm but not external influences. Positive and negative emotions affect preferences towards the online travel community (attitudes) as proposed by social impact theory. Subjective norm and attitude have a direct influence on loyalty towards an online travel community, confirming previous research grounded on theory of reasoned action models.\nOriginality/value: Despite the crucial impact of consumers' affective states on loyalty formation, research on social media is mainly focused on the technological nature of consumer information exchanges, neglecting other drivers of consumer behaviour beyond the technology employed. This paper develops a model that integrates the relationships between consumer emotions and their individual (perceived risk) and social (social presence and subjective norm) antecedents and outcome variables (attitude and loyalty). The role of social influences is analysed, assessing the conjoint impact of one-way communication (interpersonal influences and mass media) and Web 2.0 communications (social presence) on positive emotions and loyalty formation towards the online travel community.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
MyManagement: women managers in gendered and sexualised workplaces
|
[
"Gendered practices",
"Women managers",
"Resistance",
"Compliance",
"Aesthetic labour",
"Age and ageism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In this paper, we identify and analyse how women managers in Finland are encountering myriad sexualised and gendered behaviours in current workplaces and across their careers. Through our analysis of data from interviews and focus groups, we have developed the concept of \"MyManagement\", which encapsulates the varied and inter-weaving processes of women's[1] coping strategies and self-management. These include physical appearance, style of dress, physical demure and communication with male and female colleagues.\nHabitus and doing gender in management work: Our research design drew on the gendered and embodied nature of organisational life, from studies on professional women's bodies (Trethewey, 1999), the (re)embodied organisation (Styhre, 2004), bodies, surveillance and resistance in organisations (Ball, 2005), bodies in leadership (Sinclair, 2005) and headhunters' perspectives on the \"ideal\" executive body (Merilainen et al., 2015). During both data collection and the theoretical development of this paper, we recognised the multifaceted nature of the terms manager and management, including a process, a group and an individualised and gendered experience. Women managers' appearance and behaviours are scrutinised and manoeuvred through a range of spoken and unspoken processes and in ways that do not appear to impact on men to the same degree. Women are generally aware of these contradictions and challenges, and that, at times, they too are monitoring each other's appearance and behaviours. However, the gaze is predominately male and reflects the dilemmas posed by \"doing\" gender in organisations.\nThe study: This paper draws from the empirical data gathered through 15 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups with 12 women. All data gathering activities were recorded, translated and transcribed. Women managers were working in business organisations or non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The youngest were in their 30s, and the oldest in their 60s. All women were highly educated: most had a university degree or the equivalent.\nEncountering sexualised work-life: We open up the empirical sections through examples of sexualised work-life - such encounters were present throughout the data. Hillary, a mid-aged business manager, spoke about an incident in a work trip where a male superior from her previous workplace had commented on the \"sexy look\" of her hair. She had found that unpleasant and confusing and pondered on the borders of professional conduct:\nUnder surveillance: to fit in: Pressures to be fit and be \"good-looking\" were present throughout the data. NGO manager Lisa talked about how she felt that she lacked the \"elegancy\" and focus on appearance she felt was expected in her organisation. Business manager Irene described the ways in which she avoided unwanted attention.\nSearch for youthfulness and ageless \"beauty\": Under panoptical gaze which controls and sets the norms for \"unruly\" bodies, women themselves used manifold self-disciplinary technologies to keep up with expectations (Foucault, 1988). A major issue was the pressure to be \"slim and well-groomed\" and look youthful or ageless (Bordo, 1993).\nRebelling with vigour and humour: Although sexualised work-life encounters and embedded beauty standards were often dealt with by sidestepping and compliance strategies, there were also examples of resistance in which women reacted with vigour, strength and wit. One example is from Beata, a business manager in her mid-40s, who described how she had encountered many sexualised comments during her career in a male-dominated business area. Then, a sexual advance during business negotiations got Beata to react:\nDiscussion and conclusions: Drawing upon our analysis, we identified three strategies that women use to navigate the gendered and sexualised work-life contexts:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The authors report on research with women managers, documenting their strategies in response to gendered and sexualised working life. The paper aims to offer a conceptual framework and suggest ways in which employing organisations and workers might recognise and address the myriad forms of discrimination.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative design was pursued with 15 one-to-one interviews and two focus groups involving 12 women managers aged from their 30s to 60s. Data were collected in Finland. Women were recruited through business networks. Participants worked in a range of private sector and voluntary sector organisations.\nFindings: Finland is a country which enjoys an international reputation for gender equality, but across the data, women recounted numerous examples of how they navigate working life to manage sexualised and discriminatory encounters and comments. Women reported feeling under constant surveillance for their looks, dress and behaviours in and outside the workplace. Further, ageing brought with it challenges to remain energetic and youthful and enhance the image of the organisation.\nOriginality/value: Although a considerable body of research exists on (gendered) aesthetic labour at work in service and hospitality work, there are limited data on this in business and middle management. With an ageing workforce, and women continuing to encounter pressures with their physical appearance, behaviours and dress, they continually develop ways to negotiate their careers. The authors propose the concept of \"MyManagement\" as a self-technology to denote the ways how women manage workplace relationships, working life and career development as organisational practices remain gendered.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Wine labelling: is it time to break with tradition? A study of the moderating role of perceived risk
|
[
"France",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Wines",
"Labelling",
"Design",
"Packaging",
"Typicality",
"Risk"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In design, there is a constant need to reassure the public: memory, familiarity, culture, and recognisable styles are all elements that come into play. There is no doubt that it is a complex problem Riccardo Dalisi, designer of the Alessi Neapolitan cafetiere (cited in Finizio, 2006).\nTheoretical framework: typicality judgement and wine labelling design: The notion of visual codes\nPresentation of our empirical study: methodology: Data collection\nResults: Pre-test of levels of perceived typicality and perceived risk\nDiscussion and managerial implications: The impression shared by representatives of the wine industry that French consumers are not very receptive towards innovative wine label design appears to be confirmed by these results. Furthermore, it appears that the acceptance of a moderately atypical label seems to be linked to the level of perceived risk at the moment of purchase.Indeed, the level of perceived risk plays a moderating role. In situations corresponding to a low level of perceived risk, the positive impact of perceived typicality on purchase intent is weaker. This explains why the absolute choice of the respondent is far more balanced on the low risk scenarios of consumption. In situations corresponding to a high level of perceived risk, typicality judgement operates as a sort of choice heuristics in which perceived typicality directly influences purchase intent independently of the consumer's aesthetic preferences (H3). In other words, in a situation that is perceived as risky, consumers choose the label they see as the most typical even if it is not the one they themselves prefer from an aesthetic point of view. This explains why in the above table 63-71 percent of our respondents chose the Traditional ++ label for the two occasions perceived as the most risky.These results are interesting from a managerial point of view. First, because it appears that wine professionals have to find solutions to reassure the consumer if they want to get out the visual codes of their product category. Then because, it would appear to be possible to manage wine label designs in accordance with the type of consumption occasion which a brand would like to target. If a wine is intended to target occasions perceived as risky, it would be preferable to opt for a design that is typical of the appellation region. By contrast, if a wine is intended to target a consumption occasion that carries a low level of risk, then the producer may wish to select a more atypical design that will distinguish the product from its competitors. Finally, the pre test we made provides very clear indications about the ways in which producers could play on the degree of perceived typicality in their packaging. We have seen how fidelity to the visual codes of a region can result in a very high perceived typicality score, whereas the introduction of variations on these codes can allow a product to be perceived as more atypical.\nConclusion and suggestions for future research: Wine labelling has received increasing attention from researchers in the last few years. Rocchi and Stefani (2005), for example, study the perception of different wine labels by Italian consumers. They show that wine bottles are perceived in terms of tradition and innovation. Boudreaux and Palmer (2007) and Orth and Malkewitz (2008) demonstrate the impact of the bottle design and of the wine label itself on our perception of a brand's personality and on consumers' purchase intentions. Several other studies, finally, have shown that the design of wine labelling is an important criterion in the choices consumers make (Mueller and Lockshin, 2008), in particular for those with the least knowledge of wine (Lambert, 1996). The current study is an attempt to add to this body of work by examining the links between the perceived typicality of design, aesthetic preferences and purchase intent. It highlights the difficulty of moving beyond the traditional visual codes of the wine industry. Indeed, our results show that in terms of wine purchasing, consumers seek typicality. A nuance should be added to this conclusion, however: our work highlights the moderating effect of perceived risk on the relationship between typicality, aesthetic preferences and purchase intent. The results we obtained indicate that deviations (design atypicality) will be seen as more appealing when the perceived risk is low, while it is preferable to choose a typical design when the perceived risk is high.We also suggest new possibilities for wine professionals who are looking to differentiate their product via its visual aspect. We have shown the potential appeal of dividing the wine market according to different consumption occasions, whereby labels that break with traditional visual codes would target occasions carrying a low level of risk: wine for relaxed meals alone or with friends, or as a gift for friends perceived to be novice wine drinkers.Certain limits to this research should be highlighted, however. The first relates to our selection of labels and the information they contained. This information did not play a role in our study, yet it is likely that it also contributes to the perceived typicality of wines. Furthermore, one might wish to argue that other labels which broke more or less with the traditional visual codes of Bordeaux wine could have been used and that our results might have been very different in this case.Finally, this research does not take in account the moderating role of individual and contextual variables. In order to complete this work, it could be interesting, in the future, to define an experiment which allows testing the impact of such variables.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the level of perceived atypicality in a wine label's design on the consumer's aesthetic appreciation and purchase intent. Furthermore, it intends to highlight the moderating role of perceived risk in the relationship between these three variables.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Four Bordeaux wine labels providing the same information but with different designs are tested on a sample of 166 individuals. The respondents evaluate the labels in terms of perceived typicality and aesthetic appreciation. They are then asked to indicate what their purchase intentions would be for each label in respect of five different consumption occasions.\nFindings: - The results indicate a strong preference for the most typical label. However, this preference decreases when the perceived risk associated with the consumption occasion also decreases. For those consumption occasions perceived as less risky, the respondents seem more willing to choose labels with a moderately atypical design.\nOriginality/value: - This research provides some answers to a problem recently raised with representatives of the wine industry: given that consumers seem to prefer traditional labelling, to what extent is it possible to differentiate a product in terms of design? The authors' results indicate that the acceptance of atypical designs is linked to the level of perceived risk at the moment of purchase. A brand that targets consumption occasions that are perceived as only slightly risky will therefore more easily be able to depart from the visual codes of its product category.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Objectivity in performance ranking of higher education institutions using dynamic data envelopment analysis
|
[
"Equal opportunities",
"Efficiency",
"Higher education",
"Performance measures",
"Dynamic data envelopment analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Globally, the economics of higher education has propelled countries to develop world-class institutions to attract the attention of foreign students. \"Some countries make very large amounts of money from international students, but it is a cutthroat market, and perceived status and reputation are important marketing tools. The arrival of two major global ranking lists which have attracted much public attention has provided added impetus to the competition for international students. These are the Shanghai 'Academic Ranking of World Universities' and the Times Higher Education Supplement of 'World University Rankings,' first published in 2003 and 2004, respectively\" (Harvey, 2008).\n2. Data and methodology: Students, parents and the industry are three major stakeholders in the field of management education, and meeting their expectations is the key objective of the institutions. In meeting the expectations of these key stakeholders, quality is a must in institutions as far as input, processes and outputs are concerned. Rising expectations and competitive forces create an urge among institutions toward qualitative excellence which can be seen in their individual communications through various channels. However, there are agencies that take an independent outsider's view and rank these institutions on certain parameters. Some such rankings for management education in India are done by agencies such as National Human Resource Development Network - Cinque, Competition Success Review - GHRDC, C fore-Business World and MDRA-BT. Generally, across all the rankings, the methodology adopted is to use the average of the scores of different parameters. A few of the common parameters found in these rankings are faculty strength and profile, research output, student intake, curriculum and teaching-learning, placements, management development programs and consultancy, internationalization and infrastructure. The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, which started NIRF rankings in 2016, besides the above parameters also based its ranking on perceptions of key stakeholders of the institutions. However, these rankings are not without limitations. For example, the ranking models put the inputs going in and output coming out of the institution together in the value creation process which is a serious limitation. Second, the sample used for ranking constitutes institutions across different types such as government-run autonomous institutions, Indian Institute of Management, university-affiliated institutions offering MBA, and autonomous private institutions offering Post Graduate Diploma Program. These institutions vary in the basic characteristics of their foundation, governance, resources, curriculum and program design. Moreover, the sample institutions are all combined into one, despite their huge age differences and significant differences in geographic dispersion, and their connection with the industry. These add to the limitations. The current ranking methods and results of these rankings are therefore not very objectives, leading to ambiguity and confusion in the minds of stakeholders.\n3. Data collection and preparation with an example: The above-proposed methodology is illustrated using one example of a private educational group operating at various locations in India. We have collected primary data for four consecutive years for three educational institutes of the group located in the north, north-west, and central India. The three institutions, though belonging to the same group and running similar programs in management, are different in age, scale and location, which broadly affect the competitive scenario, profile of students, faculty, connect with the industry and general functioning of the institution. After data collection, we have applied a low-pass filter to gauge the trend in data, assuming n=4 (for four years; see Equations (1) and (2)). After filtering the data for input and output at each of the location (DMUs), we applied input-based Cranes, Cooper and Rhodes to calculate efficient DMUs (Charnes et al., 1978).\n4. Results, implications and limitations: We collected data for the stated input and output variables for each of the DMU. We also figured out the benchmarked input variables taking the average of the each of the DMU input variables (it may be industry benchmark or government standard). In the original DEA methodology, absolute input variable values are used to calculate efficiency, but here we have taken the newly introduced average values of input variables (maybe industry benchmarked in other cases) for calculation of efficiency which leads to a clear ranking, presented in Table II.\n5. Conclusion and future direction: Expectations of the stakeholders from HEIs put a high premium on their efficiency levels. Increasing opportunities globally on the one hand and competitive forces on the other, along with the expectations of stakeholders, have established an urge among institutions toward qualitative excellence and increased efficiency. These realities have triggered initiatives of measuring efficiencies and ranking of institutions with the objective of providing a basis for decision-making by various stakeholders such as government, private promoters, students, parents, faculty, industry and others. In an emerging country like India, where the education sector is growing in leaps and bounds, quality and efficiency are huge concerns and therefore, measures of efficiency are highly required. No doubt, there are agencies that take an independent outsider's view and rank these institutions on certain parameters, but such ranking or measurement methodologies are found to be less objective and ambiguous. Across all the rankings, the methodology adopted is to use the average of the scores of different parameters. For example, the ranking models put inputs going in and output coming out of the institution together in its value creation process which is a serious limitation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There has been a persistent debate on measures of efficiency and ranking procedures of higher education institutions (HEIs). Deriving absolute efficiency measures and their ranking provide a critical input for the society to choose the appropriate educational institute. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relative performance of institutions in management education in different locations in India and propose a holistic efficiency measurement which can be applied to HEIs in general.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses dynamic data envelopment analysis (DDEA) as the primary methodology of analysis. Multiple measures of inputs and output have been defined to assess efficiency in institutions of management education. Some of the output variables used for measuring relative effectiveness are: the number of students placed, number of entrepreneurs, median CTC of placed students, total number of students passed, number of research publications, number of students and faculty who have participated in international exchange, input variables used, student intake, faculty profile, resource allocation on the development of student, faculty and staff, industry linkages, alumni network. The institutions under study are in three different locations in India, having distinct characteristics. The multiple measures of inputs and outputs defined have been used to measure efficiency, following which DDEA was used to rank the efficiency measures.\nFindings: Various agencies use their framework to evaluate and rank HEIs; however, they are either subjective or less researched methodologies. The proposed method acts as a new researched and objective methodology for ranking of HEIs operating across regions with different societal, economic and political contexts. Efficiency in education is of high relevance today for various stakeholders such as students, parents, industry, policy-makers and government. An objective, such as the one proposed in this paper, would be helpful in satisfying the needs of various stakeholders. Furthermore, the government has policies of allocating funds, in case of public-funded institutions, based on efficiency levels in HEIs. The measure using DDEA suggested in this study provides a better measurement of efficiency.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is based on the extension of DDEA with slight modification to the denominator portion of efficiency calculation. The modification is accentuated by taking an industry benchmark or government benchmark. This may lead to slight difficulty in the appropriation of input parameters. Hence, selection of appropriate input and output parameters is the key limitation. To demonstrate capabilities of the proposed approach, this framework is implemented for performance evaluation of institutions of higher education in India. Some helpful policy-making and managerial insights are derived from the numerical results.\nOriginality/value: The uniqueness of this research is that it adds a well-researched methodology based on DDEA to measure efficiency and rank HEIs for effective assessment and benchmarking. The frameworks used so far have been either subjective or less researched methodologies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Determinants of suppliers' level of use of B2B e-marketplaces
|
[
"Business‐to‐business e‐marketplaces",
"Business‐to‐business marketing",
"Post‐adoption stage",
"Level of use",
"Suppliers",
"Business‐to‐business e‐commerce",
"Electronic commerce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplaces were first introduced in the early 1990s and offered essential solutions to the market's crucial demands for alternative communication and collaboration e-business processes. They are defined as:[...] intermediaries that allow multiple buyers and suppliers to meet on an electronic platform that rests on the Internet infrastructure in order to exchange information about products/services, conduct transactions online and adhere to other value-added services; constituting an increasingly important application for Information Technology (IT) (Choudhury et al., 1998; Hadaya, 2006).Epigrammatically, they enable firms to trade and cooperate with each other more efficiently by acting as mediators between supply and demand.As a result of the great advantages that promise their use, various enterprises have adopted them aiming to take advantage of the provided functionality. Consequently, B2B e-marketplaces have also received considerable attention from the academic community and many researchers have investigated them in diverse scientific fields, such as information systems' (IS) research (Bakos, 1998; Premkumar, 2003), supply chain management (SCM) (Eng, 2004; Grieger, 2003), operational research (Lee et al., 2006) and others.Concerning their business-oriented investigation, there have been three main research streams (Koppius, 2002). In the first stream, B2B e-marketplaces are compared with the electronic markets and the electronic hierarchies in order to examine how IT influences the final choice of each of these electronic coordination mechanisms. In this stream, B2B intermediaries are also compared with other non-electronic (traditional) markets (Bakos, 1991). According to Hadaya (2008), the starting point of this scientific stream was Bakos' (1991) exanimation of how, by reducing search cost, e-market systems affect prices, sellers' profit and buyers' welfare, as well as Malone et al.'s (1987) comparison between electronic markets and electronic hierarchies. Concerning the second stream, it covers B2B e-marketplaces' study from an institutional point of view, by identifying their value proposition, their roles, as well as their business functions and the characteristics that define their structure (Hadaya, 2008; Ordanini et al., 2004). According to this stream, B2B e-marketplaces can be distinguished based on four basic characteristics:1. the types of goods they trade;2. their ownership model;3. the price discovery strategy they support; and4. their core service offerings (Hadaya, 2008).Finally, the third stream covers the surveys that examine the factors that hinder or drive firms' adoption (Eng, 2004; Yu, 2007) and issues related to how to operate B2B e-marketplaces (Hazra et al., 2004; Lee et al., 2006). Additionally, in this scientific stream, surveys concerning the identification of B2B e-marketplaces' critical success factors (Choudhury et al., 1998; Fairchild et al., 2004) and strategies that can be implemented to increase their competitive advantage (Le, 2002; Standing et al., 2006) are also included (Hadaya, 2008).Up till now, though, the vast majority of empirical studies regarding the examination of B2B e-marketplaces have been based on Roger's (1995) diffusion of innovation theory with a limited focus on the adoption stage of the assimilation process, where enterprises make the decision whether to accept them (Hadaya, 2008). In contrast, the objective of this paper is to investigate B2B e-marketplaces on their post-adoption stage. Specifically, this study examines the factors that influence suppliers' level of use of B2B e-marketplaces, which is the research question of this paper, focusing on the investigation of three basic domains:1. suppliers' internal environment;2. their external environment; and3. the characteristics of the applied B2B e-marketplace.For this reason, a conceptual framework is developed and tested on data collected from Greek B2B intermediaries.The paper is organized in five sections. In Section 2, the extant literature is provided followed by the description of the variables and their relevant hypotheses that are included in the emerged \"B2B e-MarkFLU\" conceptual framework. In Sections 3 and 4, the applied methodology and the survey's results are presented correspondingly. The final section concludes with a discussion commenting on the data gathered, paper's contribution, its limitations and provides further research directions.\n2 Literature review and research hypotheses formulation: In this research paper our concern centers on the following question: which are the factor affecting suppliers' level of use of B2B e-marketplaces? As far as we are concerned, the post-adoption stage of B2B e-marketplaces; regarding the examination of firms' level of use, is limited to only five empirical studies (Table I). However, none of them has thoroughly investigated enterprises' active participation in a B2B e-marketplace. In particular, they focused on specific factors without testing meticulously variables from the three basic variable domains, which are:1. firms' internal environment;2. firms' external environment; and3. the characteristics of the adopted B2B e-marketplace.In order to fill this existing gap, a systemic approach of these domains is introduced as it is believed that they play a vital role in suppliers' business behavior in a B2B e-marketplace.In the subsequent paragraphs, 11 related variables of the three domains and their corresponding hypotheses are presented; based on extended literature review of B2B e-Marketplaces' business model and emerging concepts of B2B e-commerce.Internal factors\n3 Research methodology: To test the \"B2B e-MarkFLU\" framework and its related hypotheses, an electronic questionnaire was developed and administered from July 2009 to February 2010 to all the active suppliers participating in Greek B2B e-marketplaces. Particularly, its questions were designed on the basis of a comprehensive literature review and prior surveys approved for their validity and reliability. Regarding questionnaire's distribution, each B2B e-marketplace took the responsibility to send it to its members. The respondents included namely CEOs, CIOs and Sales Managers. However, prior to its distribution, the questionnaire was pretested in order to identify possible problems in terms of clarity and accuracy. Specifically, four academics and two practitioners reviewed the items' classifications to ascertain the precision of the instructions and the content validity. Moreover, a pilot test using a sample of ten suppliers helped to identify possible problems in terms of clarity and accuracy. Thus, the feedback from the pilot testing was very useful in redesigning and refining the questionnaire.Out of the 800 questionnaires e-mailed to all the active population, a total of 87 firms replied representing a response rate of 10.88 percent, which appears to be typical compared to similar research studies taking place in the specific scientific field (Grewal et al., 2001; Hadaya, 2008; Le et al., 2004; Rao et al., 2007; Yu, 2007). Additionally, the dataset examined for potential bias by contrasting early with late respondents, following a method suggested by Armstrong and Overton (1977). This method has been widely adopted in e-commerce research (Claycomb et al., 2005; Le et al., 2004; Molla and Licker, 2005; Rao et al., 2007; Zhu and Kraemer, 2005). Early respondents are defined as those who had completed the questionnaire within the initial ten days, while late respondents are those who completed the survey after this period; being motivated by a follow up e-mail notification. The comparison was made with respect to three questions concerning their demographic data:1. the number of employees;2. the 2008 annual turnover; and3. the period of the first participation in the B2B e-marketplace.No such bias was revealed in terms of the number of employees (kh2=9.893, df=5, p=0.078), the 2008 annual turnover (kh2=2.697, df=3, p=0.441) and the period of the first participation in a B2B e-marketplace (kh2=4.408, df=3, p=0.221), as the differences between the two groups were statistically non-significant applying the kh2 statistics at the significant level of 0.05.Furthermore, in order to test the \"B2B e-MarkFLU\" framework, a data analysis is conducted in two stages. The first step employed factor analysis using principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal rotation (VARIMAX) to examine the data validity and reliability, as well as latent factors being developed; followed by multiple discriminant analysis in order to examine these factors which correspond to the 11 research hypotheses. These methodology steps have been previously applied in relevant scientific researches (Molla and Licker, 2005; Premkumar and Ramamurthy, 1995).Operationalization of the variables\n4 Results: Multiple discriminant analysis is used to analyze the proposed \"B2B e-MarkFLU\" framework and its research hypotheses. Specifically, the simultaneous estimation method is selected and applied; compared to stepwise estimation approach, \"as it is more preferable when, for theoretical issues, the researcher wants to include all the independent variables in the analysis\" (Hair et al., 2006). However, some basic assumptions are tested regarding the appropriateness of discriminant analysis before the data were analyzed. First, the normality of the distribution is examined. The results indicate that overall the normality assumption can be realistically accepted. Second, the correlation matrix of all the independent variables is tested in order to check for possible multi-collinearity problems. Despite the strong correlations between some of the variables, none of them is significantly close to 0.90 (Hair et al., 2006). Consequently, no multi-collinearity problem is detected. Finally, Box's M test is applied in order to verify the similarity of the dispersion matrices of the independent variables among the groups (Hair et al., 2006) (Table III).The results from the discriminant analysis show that only the first function has statistically significant elements concerning the relationship between the 11 independent variables and the dependent variable (Table IV). Moreover, this function explains 72.8 percent of the total variance.Therefore, the study produces a model that is satisfactorily significant in discriminating the three levels of suppliers' B2B e-Marketplace use. Specifically, the standardized discriminant coefficients and discriminant loadings for the independent variables are presented in Table V. Following Hair et al. (2006) guidelines, variables with discriminant loadings greater or equal to 0.4 are identified as significant contribution to the function and acceptable. Six out of the 11 variables are found to exceed the cut-off value and they are, in descending order:1. B2B e-marketplace's mission and provided e-services;2. ownership status;3. top management strategic support;4. funds' availability;5. competitive pressure; and6. governmental pressure.Moreover, these variables also have high discriminant coefficients indicating that they are important discriminators by both criteria. As a result, H1, H3, H5, H7, H8 and H10 are supported, whereas H2, H4, H6, H9 and H11 are rejected. Mean and standard deviation from the three participation levels are also presented in Table V aiming to provide a better understanding of the discriminant analysis results.Furthermore, another important test is to examine the ability of discriminant functions to classify accurately. The detailed classification results are presented in Table VI. The overall proportion of correct classifications is 56.3 percent which is characterized as mediocre, but at the same time as normal due to the significantly unequal cell sizes of the three participation levels (Hair et al., 2006).\n5 Discussion and conclusion: This paper has presented the outcomes of a systemic investigation of factors influencing suppliers' level of use of B2B e-marketplaces, exploring the three aforementioned variable domains; that are:1. firms' internal environment;2. their external environment; and3. the characteristics of the B2B e-marketplaces through the development and examination of the \"B2B e-MarkFLU\" conceptual framework.Based on extended literature review of B2B e-marketplaces' business model and emerging concepts of B2B e-commerce, 11 related variables of the three domains and their corresponding hypotheses were formulated and examined on data collected from suppliers that currently use Greek B2B e-marketplaces.The results indicate significant implications for both researchers and practitioners. In the subsequent paragraphs, the theoretical and managerial implications, as well as the study's limitations and future research directions are described.Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of various factors on suppliers' level of use of business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplaces by examining three basic variable domains; suppliers' internal environment, their external environment and the characteristics of the adopted B2B e-marketplace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A conceptual framework is developed based on extended literature review and examined on data collected from 87 suppliers that currently use Greek B2B e-marketplaces. Factor analysis and multiple discriminant analysis are applied to test the framework and its related hypotheses.\nFindings: - Several hypotheses are formulated leading to the development of the proposed \"B2B e-MarkFLU\" conceptual framework. The research results show that factors from all the examined variable domains influence suppliers' level of use of B2B e-marketplaces. However, the B2B e-marketplace's characteristics are regarded as the most important of the three categories because of its higher impact on the involved suppliers, whereas the factors from the external environment have the lowest impact.\nOriginality/value: - The research helps to fill an existing gap in the study of B2B e-marketplaces' post-adoption stage, as there have been extremely limited empirical studies after their adoption phase. To our knowledge, this paper comprises the first empirical attempt aimed to investigate thoroughly the three aforementioned variable domains by researching suppliers' active participation in B2B e-marketplaces.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The relationship between knowledge management enablers and performance
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge processes",
"Performance management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: According to the definition of American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), knowledge management (KM) is a kind of strategy that delivers the right knowledge to the right persons at the right time. It can also help members share information, and turn this sharing into actions that improve organizational effectiveness. It can then bring the collective intelligence influence ability into full play using knowledge sharing, and further increase the response and innovation abilities of an organization. KM has been considered to be an important resource in competitive advantage (Ginsburg and Kambil, 1999; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). In the current competitive environment, the factors leading to enterprise success are no longer simply in the investment of capital, labor and raw material, but in the ability of knowledge innovation from all the members of an organization. Knowledge has now become a kind of strategic resource in enterprises. Therefore, the management of this strategic resource shows its explicit importance.When it is a critical issue to know how enterprises manage knowledge in order to create a competitive advantage, a flawless KM process is an unbeatable advantage in this game. Lee et al. (2005) suggest KM activities result in knowledge circulation processes, and they divide the knowledge circulation processes into five components: creation, accumulation, sharing, utilization, and knowledge internalization. They further indicate that KM activities can promote the use of this circulation. After the implementation of KM, an organization should begin to evaluate the effectiveness of KM (O'Dell and Grayson, 1999). Lingle and Schiemann (1996) surveyed the measurement-management of American enterprises, and statistic results show that organizations that have implemented measurement-management show better performances than others, whether or not it is in respect to financial performance or industry ranking. All these reveal the importance of constructing the KM performance index (KMPI). Consequently, this study adopts the classification of knowledge processes introduced by Lee et al. (2005) to construct KMPI in light of the KM process. This study further analyzes whether company characteristics influence the importance of KMPI, which is also the first topic we intend to explore in this study.In the process of choosing a KMPI, it is also important to consider the infrastructure that promotes KM performance in the company, which means considering KM enablers. KM enablers do not only promote organizational members' knowledge development, but also encourage them to share knowledge and experiences, which enable the consistent and systematic development of organizational knowledge. In order to improve the effectiveness of the KM process, this study explores whether the importance of a performance index depends on the different levels of enablers. This is the second issue in this study. Lastly, this study intends to explore the correlation between the importance of KMPI and financial performance, whether a company should pay more attention to the financial performance index or to the KMPI. Therefore, this study intends to collect information about KM and the importance of performance indices by using questionnaires, and then conducts empirical analysis to provide relevant management implications.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 KM definition and process\n3 Research hypothesis: 3.1 Research framework\n4 Empirical analysis: 4.1 H1 empirical findings\n5 Conclusions: Company characteristics verified here are a company size, its industry and the period of KM implementation. Employees are the most important element in KM. Therefore, this study takes a number of employees as substitute variables for company size. The findings show that company size does not necessarily express a significant relationship with the importance of the performance index. Accordingly, we can conclude that the number of employees does not affect the selection in the importance of the performance index. Thus, findings on the importance of the KM process performance index can be applied to both big and small enterprises. Neither do the different company industries significantly influence the importance of the KM process performance index. Only in knowledge accumulation and knowledge utilization does the value in the information electronics industry appear lower than in non-information electronics industries. This might be due to the information electronics industry's highly intensive knowledge characteristics or its employees already used to working on KM. Nevertheless, strengthening the importance of the performance index in knowledge accumulation and knowledge utilization is strongly required in non-information electronics industries since they need to encourage their employees to pay attention to KM. Research findings show that the implementation experience does not relate to the selection of the importance of KM process performance indices. However, this also might be because KM is a kind of new management practice, and the differences of the KM sampling time are small. The KM implementing experience therefore does not show its influence in the selection of the performance index.In the process of KM implementation, working environments with an information technology infrastructure and a culture that supports its employees' knowledge activities should be established. These environments can be called organizational infrastructures, and these supportive infrastructures are KM enablers. This study finds that strategy and leadership shows the most significant, positive relationship with the KM process performance index among all the other KM enablers. Secondly, there is the incentive system in KM organization and KM creation. A good conductor directs an explicit vision and goal to help employees actively participate and be involved in KM implementation. The involvement of senior managers can also drive them to pay more attention to KM process performance indices. Next, KM effectiveness needs to be evaluated after the KM incentive systems are established, and this also promotes the importance of the KM process performance index. The findings implicate that the more support senior managers give to their employees' KM activities, the easier it becomes for a company to strengthen the importance of the KM process performance index.In respect to the importance of the performance index in knowledge creation, knowledge internalization on the operational side and knowledge internalization on the customer side, all are all positively related to the importance of the financial performance index. The performance index of knowledge internalization on the operational side does not show a significant relationship with the importance of the Consumer/product performance index. Accordingly, a company will focus on the financial results brought by cost decreases when it starts paying more attention to the operational profits brought by KM implementation. However, it does not help a company to emphasize on profit gained from an individual product or consumer. From the perspective of relationships in performance indices, the more important it is for a company to recognize the performance index of knowledge creation and knowledge internalization, the more attention it will pay to the financial performance index. In other words, a company can expect to generate financial effectiveness through the performance index of knowledge creation and knowledge internalization. Therefore, these processes are significantly related to the financial performance index.These research findings can provide our industry with suggestions for constructing a performance index from the perspective of the KM process. With the constraint of the number of samples, this study does not construct the KM process performance indices of every industry category or strategy. However, it explores a whole industry and then compares the differences between the information electronics industry for non-information electronics industries. This study suggests that future researches can put their effort in analyzing the KM process performance indices in other industries or strategies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to study the correlation between knowledge management (KM) enablers and performance indices of KM.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Referring to the literature reviews, it attempts to construct the KM process performance index, analyze its importance, and further analyze a company's characteristics, the relationship between KM enablers with the importance of the KM process performance index, and try to adopt four KM enablers as independent variables. Lastly, it intends to explore whether the relationship between the importance of the KM process performance and financial performance indices affects the importance of the financial performance index.\nFindings: - Among KM enablers, the factor strategy and leadership appears to be one of the most significant positive relationships among all of the KM process performance indices. The importance of performance indices in knowledge creation and knowledge internalization on the operational and customer sides show a positive, significant relationship in the importance of the financial performance index.\nResearch limitations/implications: - With the constraint of the number of samples, this study does not construct the KM process performance indices of every industry category or strategy.\nOriginality/value: - The main contribution of the paper is that it explores the causes that influence KM process performance indices, and this enriches empirical research literatures in the domain of the KM process performance indices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Winning the competition for supplier resources: The role of preferential resource allocation from suppliers
|
[
"Indirect capabilities",
"Extended resource-based view",
"Supplier resource competition"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The success of a firm increasingly depends on the resources of its suppliers (Dyer and Hatch, 2006; Hult et al., 2007; Hunt and Davis, 2012). However, as an increasing number of firms seek external collaboration, competition for capable suppliers grows (Takeishi, 2001). Because suppliers have limits on the resources they can devote to buyers, it has been argued that it would be \"extremely difficult\" for buying firms to create competitive advantages through a supply base that is shared with competitors (Dyer and Hatch, 2006, p. 703). Therefore, competitive advantage is not a self-evident result of collaborations because competitors might obtain better resources (e.g. the best ideas, newest technologies or preferential allocation of scarce materials) from a supply base that is inherently similar. The competitiveness of firms critically depends upon the supply chain management (SCM) capabilities needed to obtain supplier resources for which competitors compete as well.\nThe ERBV and the competition for supplier resources: Many scholars have built on resource theories in exploring the strategic role of SCM. In its original form, the resource-based view (RBV) (Wernerfelt, 1984; Barney, 1991) explains the competitive advantage of a firm to be \"a function of the combined value and rarity of all firm resources and resource interactions\" (Lavie, 2006, p. 643). As such, the RBV has been used to explain the competitive advantage of firms in industries ranging from typical manufacturing industries such as the automobile industry (Dyer and Hatch, 2006) to service industries such as logistics services (Lai et al., 2008). Over the last decades, resource-based theories have developed new perspectives. Whereas the RBV mainly looked within the firm for resources (Barney, 1991; Peteraf, 1993), newer perspectives focused on the resources that are acquired external to the firm to explain competitive advantage (Dyer and Singh, 1998; Das and Teng, 2000; Steinle and Schiele, 2008; Hunt and Davis, 2012). The theory that competitive advantage is derived from both internal and external resources has been labeled the ERBV (Mathews, 2003; Squire et al., 2009; Lewis et al., 2010).\nIndirect capabilities: Organizing access to external supplier resources requires a firm's own set of internal capabilities (Araujo et al., 2003). Several researchers have built on Teece et al.'s (1997) dynamic capability ideas to conceptualize capabilities that enable firms to utilize inter-organizational relationships to integrate external resources. Although in its original conceptualization a dynamic capability mainly relates to the development of a firm's internal resource base, these researchers have examined the effects of such capabilities on the integration of external resources (e.g. Kale and Singh, 2007; Schilke and Goerzen, 2010; Allred et al., 2011). Loasby (1998, p. 149) labeled these capabilities as indirect capabilities because, he argues: \"We need not only to know how to do certain things for ourselves, but also how to get other things done for us.\" Indirect capabilities can be regarded as a firm's ability to organize access to the resources of other organizations (Mota and Castro, 2004; Spring and Araujo, 2014).\nConceptual model and hypotheses: In the following we hypothesize on the effects of the defined indirect capabilities on the competitive advantages of a firm. We argue that, because indirect capabilities enable access to the resources of suppliers, buying firms that possess such capabilities will more likely attain competitive advantages from their supplier relationships. In addition, we theorize on the intermediate effect of preferential resource allocation from suppliers on the relationship between indirect capabilities and competitive advantage. Figure 1 shows the conceptual model.\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nResults: To test the statistical significance of the hypothesized paths, a bootstrapping procedure using 500 resamples was used. To assess the stability of the estimates, similar bootstrap samples of 250 and 1,000 were employed. The results show consistent levels of significance across the bootstrap samples. We test two models. In Model 1, we test the effect of selection capability and relational capability on competitive advantage (i.e. H1 and H2). In Model 2 we include the preferential resource allocation construct and test its mediating effect on the relationships between the capabilities and competitive advantage (i.e. H3 and H4). The results of the two models are shown in Figure 2. To test whether the effect of preferential resource allocation on competitive advantage differs for firms in manufacturing industries and service industries (i.e. H5), we apply a PLS-based multigroup comparison approach suggested by Henseler (2012).\nConclusions and discussion: Building on the ERBV, this paper discussed the relevance of supplier resource for the competitiveness of buying firms. We examined the indirect capabilities that can help firms to acquire better resources than competitors. In doing so, this study provides answers to questions raised by several scholars. For instance, Takeishi (2001, p. 403) questions: \"How could a company outperform competitors who also have cooperative relations with their partners?\" Similarly, Dyer and Hatch (2006, p. 703) note \"[...] when manufacturers purchase the same inputs from the same suppliers [...] it would be extremely difficult for a buyer to create competitive advantages through a shared supplier network.\" We introduced the term supplier resource competition to frame a setting in which buying firms compete for the resources of shared suppliers. Our results, as shown in Models 1 and 2, show that firms that possess organizational routines associated with identifying and selecting collaboration opportunities are able to attain higher levels of competitive advantage from their relationships with their supplier base. In addition, the capability of an organization to build close relationships with its suppliers positively relates to the competitive advantage that firm attains from its relationships. A significant and substantial proportion of the relationship between the capabilities and competitive advantage was found to be mediated by preferential resource allocation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper examines the competition between buying firms for the supplier's competitive resources. The purpose of this paper is to examine how indirect capabilities - the ability to access external resources - can help in obtaining preferential resource allocation from suppliers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to analyze data of 163 buying firms that assess preferential resource allocation from suppliers.\nFindings: Two indirect capabilities (a buying firm's selection capability and relational capability) positively influence the firm's competitive advantage. These relations are significantly mediated by preferential resource allocation of suppliers. The impact of preferential resource allocation appeared stronger for manufacturing firms than for service firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study's data set represents the buyer's assessment of suppliers' resource allocation. Future research should aim for dyadic data for further validation. In addition, due to sample size limitations, this study's data does not allow sector segmentation. A larger study that provides insights into segmentation is suggested for future research.\nPractical implications: The results inform managers about the relevance of the competition for supplier resources with rival firms that share suppliers, and the influence of this competition on firm competitiveness. Managers should not only focus on the supplier itself, but also on the capabilities of the supply chain management (SCM) function to recognize and integrate the supplier resources.\nOriginality/value: This study adds to the extended resource-based view literature by integrating the notion of supplier resource competition. In addition, the study shows the importance of indirect capabilities for obtaining preferential resource allocation from suppliers. Finally, the authors show the importance of separating between service and manufacturing when examining SCM practices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Optimal disassembly sequencing strategy using constraint programming approach
|
[
"Parts",
"Assembly",
"Mechanical components",
"Automatic programming"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A multi-component product is a system built by a set of components which are bound together by a set of liaisons. If the liaisons are made from detachable fasteners, the product can be split up into subassemblies, or single parts. The objective of the proposed approach is to generate an optimal disassembly sequence for each feasible subassembly.In this paper, constraint programming approach is used for automatic feasible subassembly and transition generation. Topological and geometrical constraints are among the main constraints considered in the feasible subassembly generation process. Feasible sequences are represented on an AND/OR disassembly graph.\nMethodology for setting a disassembly strategy: In the first four sections, we will attempt to show, in order, how a product can be modelled, how to generate feasible subassemblies, how to identify feasible transitions and how to build a disassembly graph or its equivalent transition matrix. We will then present the constraint programming models which are new alternatives for generating these elements. We also propose a function for sequence dependent cost in order to reach an optimal disassembly sequence by using Operational Research tools. Figure 1 presents the methodology development.\nProduct modelling: Product modelling is performed by using the connection graph and the precedence relationships first proposed by Bourjault (1984). A simple example (see Figure 1) is used to illustrate different concepts related to product modelling.Connection graph\nGeneration of feasible subassemblies: Topological and geometric constraints, respectively coherence and detachability constraints, are used in the feasible subassembly generation process.A subassembly is said to be coherent if its connection graph is a connected undirected graph (there exists at least one path between every pair of the graph nodes). From the connection graph in Figure 2(b), the subassemblies {B,E}, {B,D} and {B,D,E} are not coherent. The short notation BE, BD and BDE will be used throughout the paper.A subassembly is detachable if it can be obtained from the original assembly via disassembly operations only, that is without reassembly and with respect to the precedence relations. For instance, the subassembly BCDE is not detachable because A cannot be removed from ABCDE (B or E are still in place therefore the left-hand side in the first precedence relation cannot be true, see Figure 2(c).\nGeneration of feasible transitions: Given a subassembly S, any transition is said to be feasible, if there exists a set of disassembly actions that leads to two feasible subassemblies S1 and S2 satisfying the following conditions: Equation 1 Equation 2 Equation 3\nSequence representation on a graph: A disassembly sequence can be represented by an ordered list of feasible transitions. Since many assembly sequences share common subsequences, attempts have been made to create compact representations, such as the disassembly graph or AND/OR graph (Homem de Mello and Sanderson, 1990). The latter is a directed network where the nodes are the feasible subassemblies and each hyperarc (or V-arc) represents the division of a parent subassembly into two child subassemblies. Hence, disassembly sequences of the initial product (the source) are represented by the paths that lead to the targeted parts or subassemblies (the leafs).For a N-component system, 2N-1 combinations must be considered to find the feasible subassemblies (Wolter, 1991). In the system depicted in Figure 2(a), 31 combinations must be analysed and only 28 of them are coherent. Because of the geometric constraint (detachability), there remain 18 feasible subassemblies. Note that ADE and DE are feasible only because of the accessibility slot for screw Z. The AND/OR graph presented in Figure 3 shows the 18 feasible subassemblies (the nodes) and the 29 hyperarcs representing the feasible transitions for the design with the accessibility slot. From the node CDE, the two leaving hyperarcs show two feasible transitions: 1-C AND DE; 2-D AND CE.The AND/OR graph can also be represented by a transition matrix W, where the rows and the columns are associated with the Ni feasible subassemblies and the Nj feasible transitions, respectively. The element wij is defined as follows: Equation 4 Using the matrix W, a feasible disassembly sequence can be recognised as an alternated series of columns (transitions) beginning with (-1) and ending with (+1). In one column, there is (-1) in the row i of the parent subassembly Si (the absence of it means that the subassembly Si cannot be dismantled) and (+1) in the row of an intermediate child subassembly. The sequence continues with another column which dismantles the latter child until reaching the target.Figure 4 gives the transition matrix for the illustrative example (Figure 2(a)). Shaded subassemblies and transitions are only feasible with the accessibility slot for the screw Z and the lines represent two different sequence examples to reach part A.If a performance measure (cost, time, effort, entropy, etc.) is associated to each transition (or each column of W), optimal disassembly sequences can be generated. Later in this paper, we propose a simplified cost function z.\nApplied constraint programming for subassemblies and transitions generation: To find all the feasible subassemblies requires a previous decision of which parts to be removed and subsequent ones when to do so. Our approach is based on binary decision variables, associated to parts and defining a subassembly, which have to satisfy the topological and geometrical constraints. The connection matrix M and the precedence relations allow the representation of each constraint as a function of decision variables. Note that, in order to handle feasible subassemblies that can be obtained only by removing several parts simultaneously (parallel disassembly), the precedence relations are enhanced by the clearance relations, introduced in this article to take into account the direction of simultaneous removals.Numerous studies on disassembly sequencing use heuristics or exact methods such as mathematical programming, graph theory, Petri nets (Lambert, 2003). With exact methods, the feasible subassemblies are often obtained by questioning the user about disassembly actions, which is extensive and time-consuming (Baldwin et al., 1991). In this paper, constraint programming approach is used to efficiently solve the combinatorial problem which aims, first, at finding the feasible subassemblies.With constraint programming, the approach adopted here, we search for a set of binary variables which satisfies constraints, and avoid hence the run of logic programming steps. The constraint solver modifies the variables, combines and simplifies the constraints, these tasks reducing the search domain, until a solution is found. For this work, OPL Studio and ILOG Solver have been used as constraint programming systems, which allow us to take advantage of existing algorithms (Lustig and Puget, 2001).Constraint programming approach is also used to generate feasible transitions. In order then to select an optimum disassembly sequence according to maintainability considerations, either the graph theory or a linear programming model are implemented.\nFeasible subassemblies identification using constraint programming: MS is the maximum number of steps required to achieve a disassembly at its full extend; and P={A,B,...} is the set of parts in the product. Equation 5 Equation 6 Equation 7 A subassembly is feasible if there is at least one set of disassembly steps and if all the intermediate subassemblies, generated at steps 1 to MS, satisfy coherence and detachability constraints. For each step, the program determines the parts to be removed by setting the value of the decision variable b. If a solution exists, the feasible subassembly state is defined by the final set {bM,p=1}[?]p[?]P.At step 0, all the parts are present: Equation 8 As soon as a part p is removed, it cannot be reassembled. The constraint (5) prevents a variable which has been set to 0 (at step i-1), to be reset to 1 in all subsequent steps (i, i+1,...): Equation 9 Moreover, each of the subassemblies generated at each step has to be coherent. The corresponding constraint requires the second smallest eigenvalue, of the Laplacian matrix of the connection graph, to be greater than 0 (Weisstein, 2004).Finally, to remove a part, the detachability constraint should be satisfied. The precedence relations are designed to assess whether it is possible to sequentially detach parts by considering the intermediate subassembly at the previous step. However, they are not suitable to study simultaneous disassembly actions in parallel disassembly, because notations would become recursive. Therefore, we propose the enhanced disassembly relationships, by introducing the clearance relations in addition to the precedence relations. These new relations take into account how to remove a part by considering the current state and by using a new decision variable, the Disconnection Clearance Vector (DCV) di, which indicates the direction in which there is a clearance for the first extraction move. As di can only have one value, the program is able to handle the simultaneous removal of several parts, in the same direction. The enhanced disassembly relationships (see Table I) are defined as the combination of the precedence and clearance relations.According to the notations used in the program and the Boolean formalism, the enhanced disassembly relationship for part A (the first one in Table I) becomes: Equation 10\nFeasible transition identification using constraint programming: O is the set of feasible subassemblies. Equation 11 gpq is the effort required to break the connection between the parts p and q. Equation 12 S1, S2 is 2 child subassemblies of a transition found as feasible; S is a parent subassembly, such as S=S1 [?] S2; and zS,S1=zS,S2 is the cost of the transition which dismantles the parent subassembly S.Once all the feasible subassemblies (O) are found, the feasible transitions can be identified and their associated costs calculated. A feasible transition is defined by a parent subassembly and two child subassemblies, satisfying the constraints (1), (2) and (3). The constraint (3) is already satisfied because the subassemblies are taken in O.For each feasible transition, the status of each subassembly is expressed by the set of the decision variables tS, defining a column of the transition matrix W. The constraints (1) and (2) are expressed by (7) and (8): Equation 13 Equation 14\nFunction for sequence dependent cost: In order to prepare the disassembly sequence optimisation, it is necessary to know the costs of the feasible transitions, to be attributed to the AND/OR hyperarcs. For instance, one can choose time (Boks et al., 1996), entropy (Hsu and Lin, 2002) or multi-factor measure such as disassembly effort index (Das et al., 2000), maintainability index (Wani and Gandhi, 1999; Zwingmann, 2005), etc.In this paper, the transition cost is given by a simple function (z[?]R+) based on the costs required to break all the connections (see Figure 2(b)) between the parts of two child subassemblies, S1 and S2. Table II presents the costs of the feasible transitions in the example of Figure 2(a) (the italic ones cannot be completed without the accessibility slot for the screw Z), according to the cost function (9) and the following scale: gpq=1 for a contact between parts p and q, 2 for a screwed connection and 10 for a welded connection: Equation 15\nGeneration of an optimal disassembly sequence: Once the transition matrix or the AND/OR graph are generated and cost attributed, the shortest path algorithm, namely the Dijkstra algorithm, can be applied in order to find one sequence to reach the part or subassembly under consideration with the minimum cumulative effort.The optimum sequences can also be obtained via linear programming (LP). We adapted an end-of-life disassembly model from Lambert (2002) for the maintainability paradigm. Originally, the feasible subassemblies i represent potential revenues ri and the transitions j (with cost zj) are chosen by decision variables xj. In our case, a very high revenue is attributed to the part to be maintained and a null value for all the other subassemblies, so that minimizing the disassembly costs (to reach the part considered) means maximizing benefits: Equation 16 Equation 17 Table III gives the resulting sequences and costs for maintaining each part of the product (see Figure 2(a)). Based on this quantitative analysis, the maintainability of parts A and C is improved by the accessibility slot for screw Z.Besides, our approach allows us to solve more complex problems, requiring parallel disassembly, such as the polyhedral case (Chen et al., 1997). Recently, this kind of problem has been addressed with a new technique (Lambert, 2006), however, to the best of our knowledge, the entire AND/OR graph for the polyhedral case is not reported in the literature. Based on our approach, 145 feasible subassemblies are found in about ten seconds (see Table IV), as well as 614 transitions (Zwingmann, 2005). For this case, all the calculations took about ten seconds on an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2 Ghz with 512 Mb of RAM. For a larger case like a wheelchair designed with 29 parts, it can take several hours to found the 385,860 feasible subassemblies and the 8,276,023 feasible transitions. To measure the product complexity, note that the connection graph density is very low (72 arcs versus 392 combinations) and the 29 enhanced disassembly relationships involve a mean of 3.5 parts (from 1 to 13).Constraint programming reduces efficiently the search space: the feasible subassemblies represent less than 0.072 per cent of the theoretical combinations. However, the memory limit slows down the calculations if the product has more than 20 components.\nConclusion: In this paper, an efficient and automatic approach for disassembly sequencing generation is proposed. A constraint programming approach is used to determine the set of subassemblies and transitions, including procedures to validate their feasibility. The concepts related to the proposed approach are illustrated through a simple example. The shortest path algorithm or a LP program are implemented to get an optimal disassembly sequence in the context where a cost is incurred for each disassembly action. Other performance criteria such as revenue to be maximized may be used in the disassembly sequence generation.The proposed approach is compared to many available methods already published in the literature. It performs very well, mainly with respect to feasible disassembly sequence generation process. The product modelling method is quite simple. The approach has been successfully applied to improve both the wheelchair design and their maintenance activities. Other applications are still under consideration. The authors seek to implement the proposed approach in CAD software for maintainability assessment purposes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to identify all the feasible disassembly sequences for a multi-component product and to find an optimal disassembly sequence, according to specific criteria such as cost, duration, profit, etc.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Taking into account topological and geometrical constraints of a product structure, an AND/OR disassembly graph is built. Each graph node represents a feasible subassembly. Two nodes i and j are connected by an arc (i, j), called a transition, if the subassembly j can be obtained from the subassembly i by removing one or several connectors. Constraint programming approach is used to generate the feasible subassemblies and related transitions.\nFindings: - If a cost zij is incurred to perform a transition (i, j), an optimal disassembly sequence can be generated for a given subassembly, using the shortest path algorithm or a linear programming model.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The proposed approach performs very well compared to other approaches published in the literature, even when applied to products requiring parallel disassembly and including a large number of parts.\nPractical implications: - This approach has been successfully applied to assess the wheelchair maintainability at the design stage and will be implemented in CAD systems. One other application, regarding the disassembly process and total revenue maximization for product recycling, is now under consideration.\nOriginality/value: - Applying constraint programming to efficiently generate the set of the feasible subassemblies constitutes the main contribution in this paper. This process is the hardest step in the disassembly sequencing problem.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Considering the effectiveness of philanthropic collective action: a community ecology perspective
|
[
"Social capital",
"Collective action",
"Community education",
"Community philanthropy",
"Racial diversity",
"Urbanity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Investigating the complex relationship between social capital, collective action and community education requires a multidimensional perspective that incorporates individual and community level units of analysis. When addressing the relationship between social capital and education, scholars have utilized traditional markers of \"success\" at the individual and school levels of education by exploring test scores, dropout rates and college acceptance rates (Portes, 1998). However, not many studies have analyzed social capital's impact on the effectiveness of philanthropic collective action within the context of community education using a macro-level approach. According to the concept of ecological inference fallacy suggested by Robinson's (1950) demographic analysis, education at the community level might be differently associated when using aggregate socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Robinson (1950) found that individual-level correlations do not always correspond to aggregate-level correlations. Based on his test regarding illiteracy, he found that \"an ecological correlation is almost certainly not equal to its corresponding individual correlations\" (p. 341). Education does not only foster individual skills, knowledge and networks, but it also promotes social cohesion and civic engagement among community constituents (Bekkers and Wiepking, 2010; Helliwell and Putnam, 1999). Our study aims to analyze the effects of social capital on philanthropic collective action within the context of community education and how this relationship is moderated by community contingent factors of urbanity and racial diversity from the ecological perspective.\nLiterature review: Social capital at the community level\nMethodology: This study examines the relationship between social capital and philanthropic collective action for community education while considering the moderating effects of urbanity and racial diversity. We test and interpret interaction effects using moderated multiple regression (MMR), where the baselines of MMR are grounded to multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. This approach allows for the incorporation of multiple explanatory factors into the model as the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator (Kennedy, 2003). MMR is an effective method to analyze the magnitude of the effects of antecedents on the dependent variable that are dependent upon contingent factors (Aguinis et al., 2017). Since cross-sectional analysis in a specific given year might not provide valid enough results, multiple empirical analyses are carried out in the context of USA counties during two points in time, 2006 and 2010 (Paarlberg and Yoshioka, 2016). Furthermore, these two testing points allow us to contextualize this study's implications by comparing differences of community ecology before and after the Great Recession of 2008. US counties are employed as the unit of analysis. Since other types of community socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are included, county governments serve roles as local public and economic policy actors for local education since the local economy imposes property taxes. Utilizing a county level analysis allows us to make comparisons across regions to examine the relationship between social capital and community education (Hoyman et al., 2016; Longhofer et al., 2018). Using the one-, 2two- and three-year lagged terms of independent and control variables correct concerns of endogeneity and issues of reverse causality.\nResults: Table II provides a summary of descriptive statistics in both years of 2006 and 2010. To find effects of social capital on philanthropic collective action for community education, we test direct effects for H1 (Models 1, 2, 6, and 7) and the moderating effects of racial diversity and urbanity for H2 and H3 (Models 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10). Basically, OLS regression is used to estimate coefficients with robust standard errors at the county level, while MMR tests the interaction effects between social capital and the two contingent factors of urbanity and community racial diversity. When testing for multicollinearity, the mean variance inflation faction (VIF) for the base linear models is 1.41 in 2006 and 1.33 in 2010, which limits multicollinearity across variables.\nDiscussion and implications: By examining the effectiveness of philanthropic collective action for community education and its relationship to social capital, this study suggests that effects of social capital on philanthropic collective action vary based on community urbanity and racial diversity. This study's unique focus and conceptualization of community education has allowed us to effectively construct a proper measurement of philanthropic collective action for community education that has been seemingly underdeveloped at the macro-level in previous literatures. Our definition of community education is distinguishable from individual educational performance and public education because the former is the sum of local individual human capital influenced by local economic conditions, socio-demographic characteristics and the local government.\nConclusion: In sum, this study's findings offer a contribution to our understandings of the complex relationship between social capital, community characteristics, and philanthropic collective action within the unique context of community education while also considering the moderating impacts of community racial diversity and urbanity. Social capital aligns with levels of civicness at the community level (Portes, 1998), and our study based on empirical findings implies that social capital bridging in racially diverse communities serves an important role in promoting collective philanthropic action for community education. Community education is a vital and indispensable sector; it is a space-bounded, collective, and structural concept embedded within local community conditions. Our findings imply that when considering the effectiveness of philanthropic collective action for community education, development will be most succinct when bridging social capital is promoted in racially diverse communities, serving as a viable response to addressing community needs not adequately addressed by the public sector.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between social capital and collective action at the county level in the US while incorporating the moderating effects of community racial diversity and urbanity and to find the changing effects of social capital on philanthropic collective action for community education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper employs a quantitative research design. The dependent variable measures philanthropic collective action for community education while the independent variable for social capital is measured as a community level index. Moderating variables include a community racial diversity index and urbanity. This analysis tests and interprets interaction effects using moderated multiple regression (MMR), with the baselines of MMR being grounded to multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Analyses are carried out in the context of the USA during 2006 and 2010, with US counties employed as the unit of analysis.\nFindings: The effects of social capital on philanthropic contributions decline in counties with low- and mid-levels of racial diversity. On the contrary, the effects of social capital increase in highly racially diverse counties. The three-way interaction model result suggests that racial diversity positively moderates social capital on philanthropic collective action for community education where the effect of social capital is strong and positive in highly racially diverse urban communities.\nOriginality/value: This research complicates the notion that social capital and racial diversity are negatively associated when exploring collective action and community education, and suggests effects of social capital varies with moderating effects on philanthropic collective action for community education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Emotional intelligence competencies in the team and team leader: A multi-level examination of the impact of emotional intelligence on team performance
|
[
"Emotional intelligence",
"Social skills",
"Team leaders",
"Team working",
"Team performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Emotional Intelligence competencies have been shown to be significantly related to individual performance (Boyatzis, 1982) both in cognitive tasks where the individual is under stress and in tasks where individuals are interdependent on one another (see Druskat and Jordan (forthcoming), for a review). At the team level, the study of emotions and the effects of emotions on team performance is a relatively new avenue of research. Since teamwork is an inherently social activity, emotions play an important role in team effectiveness. Druskat and Wolff (1999, 2001a, 2001b) proposed a model of emotional intelligence at the group level. Groups develop a set of behavioral norms labeled emotionally competent group norms (ECGN) that guide the emotional experience in the group. The degree to which a group develops these norms has been linked to team performance (Druskat et al., 2003). Understanding the factors that lead to the development of ECGNs would be beneficial for team development.The purpose of this research is to assess the relation between team leader emotional intelligence competencies and the emergence of emotionally competent norms in a team. Specifically, the present research examines the relationship between emotional intelligence of a leader, the group level emotional intelligence (GEI), and how both of these levels of emotional intelligence affect performance of the team.Definitions\nMethod: The objective of this research was to assess the relationship between individual emotional intelligence competencies, team level emotional intelligence, and team effectiveness. This field study was a cross sectional examination of the EI and GEI norms that were present in teams and team leaders in a military organization.Sample and procedure\nResults: Exploratory factor analysis\nDiscussion: This study showed that a team leader's emotional intelligence affects team level emotional competence and team performance through the development of ECGNs. This study also supported that the emotionally competent group norms affect team performance.The four key contributions of this research are:1. this research validated that leader's behaviors are important in the development of team norms;2. this research further validates Wolff and Druskat (forthcoming) ECGN theory by lending support for the ECGNs as well as offers alternative clustering ideas for the norms;3. ECGNs were shown to be related to performance; and4. this research extends the knowledge base about emotions in teams.Previous research has shown that leaders who are emotionally competent are better performers, more successful, are able to handle relationships successfully, and demonstrate a myriad of other traits (George, 2000; Goleman, 1998; Gabriel and Griffiths, 2002). With leaders having direct influence over their subordinates (Rafaeli and Worline, 2001), it is easy to see how a team leader's EI influences the development of ECG norms in the team they lead. While earlier research established that an individual's EI affects their performance, the present research now shows that a team leader's EI affects team performance through the ECGNs that are established on the team they lead.Another contribution of this research is the validation it provides to the Wolff and Druskat ECGN theory. Results partially support the relationship between ECGN presence and team effectiveness. Specifically, it was found that awareness norms contribute to the development of regulation norms and that the regulation norms are related to performance. While this was not what was originally hypothesized in this research, the reason why this relationship is present is clear. On the individual level, one cannot have a regulation of emotions without having an awareness of their emotions first. It is logical that the same relationship would be present with the group level emotional intelligence; the group has an awareness of the emotion, which leads to the ability to regulate it.Limitations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships among team leader emotional intelligence competencies, team level emotional intelligence, and team performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - It is argued here that the team leader's emotional intelligence (EI) will influence the development of group level emotional intelligence (GEI), which was measured by a team's emotionally competent group norms (ECGN). Second, it is hypothesized that the presence of ECGNs will positively influence group effectiveness. Data were collected from 422 respondents representing 81 teams in a military organization.\nFindings: - Results show that team leader emotional intelligence is significantly related to the presence of emotionally competent group norms on the teams they lead, and that emotionally competent group norms are related to team performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Limitations of this research include a narrow sample with the teams not being highly interdependent.\nPractical implications: - This research provides implications for practice in three primary areas: development and sustainment of emotionally intelligent managers and leaders; development and sustainment of emotionally intelligent work groups; and establishment of organizational leaders at all levels to foster and support emotional competence throughout the organization.\nOriginality/value: - This research contributes to the field by offering support for the effects the team leaders' emotional intelligence has on the teams they lead as well as by showing how team level emotional intelligence affects team performance. This study adds to the body of literature in what is considered a relatively new area of study. The four key contributions of this research are: this research shows that the leader's behaviors are important at the team level; this research further validates Wolff and Druskat's (forthcoming) ECGN theory by lending support for the ECGNs as well as offering alternative clustering ideas for the norms; ECGNs were shown to be related to performance; and lastly this research extends the knowledge base about emotions in groups.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Obese models' effect on fashion brand attractiveness
|
[
"Brand personality",
"Brands",
"Standardization",
"Obese",
"Plus-size",
"User imagery"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although most models in fashion ads are thin (Clements, 2013), a counter-trend within this industry toward the use of plus-size models has recently emerged (Lin, 2014; Williams, 2015; Lin and McFerran, 2016). However, the term \"plus-size\" is not employed consistently. Oftentimes, the term refers to women of normal weight or moderate overweight (Lee, 2015), but there is also a growing industry trend for heavier plus-size models (Marriot, 2015) and it is now becoming more common to see models that are obese, for example supermodel Tess Holliday (D'Angelo, 2015).\nTheoretical framework: BMI and body type\nThe empirical study: Our objective was to investigate how obese models affect brand perception, and whether this is moderated by culture, or by the consumer's own body type or gender.\nHypothesis test and discussion: Overall main effect: the effect of model weight on perception of a fashion brand's attractiveness\nGeneral discussion and conclusions: The main message of this paper is that contrary to expectations, obese models are not particularly harmful to fashion brands. The results indicate that the overall effect of obese models on consumer perceptions of fashion brand attractiveness is not significantly different from that of normal weight models. Furthermore, it seems that neither culture nor the consumer's own weight makes a difference in this regard. Because the first two of these results go against the hypotheses, and none of them show significant differences, it is tempting to draw the conclusion that the experiment's manipulation was ineffective. However, there are two signs that contradict this notion. First, the manipulation check tells us that the participants did indeed perceive a significant difference between the two stimuli. Second, the significant interaction effect of the participant's gender on obese models' effects on fashion brands corroborates that the participants responded the manipulation; just not in all the expected ways. If we therefore accept the results as valid, what do they mean?\nPractical implications: For the industry, a contribution of this study is to add new knowledge to the ongoing discussion on the use of plus-size fashion models. By integrating the previously distinct areas of the effects of model body type on brand perception and the debate over advertising standardization across markets, we provide evidence that supports fashion companies' practice of standardizing user imagery across markets despite the product category's cultural contingency. This means that for fashion aimed at women it is possible to use obese models with no penalty with regard to how the brand's attractiveness is perceived by consumers. This approach seems valid for companies that use standardized marketing communications across markets because the results in Sweden and Brazil produced similar brand effects. It is also a valid approach when marketing fashion both to the actual target group for plus-size garments (overweight and obese women) and also to underweight and normal weight women. This is relevant, because consumers often rely on friends for confirmation in the purchase decision process (Kotler et al., 2016), so when a plus-size consumer seeks advice from her friends, it is important that their perception of the brand is positive, even if the friends themselves are thin, and therefore not part of the target market. The only significant difference in the response toward brands worn by obese models was determined by gender. Female consumers found brands worn by obese models significantly more attractive than those worn by normal weight models, while the inverse was true for men. This means that for fashion brands that are predominately purchased by men as gifts for women, the use of obese models might not be advisable.\nLimitations and future research: The focus of this study was limited to the effects of obese vs normal weight models on fashion brand perception. Other types of brand associations and other product categories are therefore beyond the scope of this paper. There are examples where consumers from different cultures perceive a given advertisement differently depending on the ethnic origin of the model. The model portrayed in this study was Swedish with blonde hair and fair complexion. It is possible that she affected brand perception similarly across markets, but that e.g. a South American or African model used in the same way would not. Moreover, because the study represents a first foray into the issue of how obese fashion models work for fashion, the method has its limitations. The brand attractiveness scale captures only one aspect of brand character, and the stimuli itself was rudimentary. It is possible, therefore, that different, and more elaborate, ad executions could moderate the response toward obese fashion models. As both the general population and fashion models continue to get heavier, it would be of great interest to see more studies on the burgeoning phenomenon of obese fashion models and their marketing implications.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of obese models vs normal weight models on fashion brands' attractiveness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An experiment was carried out in which 1,225 university students in Sweden and Brazil rated the attractiveness of a fashion brand worn by a normal weight model and an obese model.\nFindings: The overall effect of obese models' effect on fashion brand attractiveness was insignificant. Furthermore, neither culture nor the consumer's own weight had a significant effect. There was, however, a significant effect of the participant's own gender; women rate fashion brands worn by obese models significantly higher on attractiveness than they did fashion brands worn by normal weight models. Men displayed the inverse response.\nResearch limitations/implications: The effect of the model's ethnicity was beyond the scope of the experiment, and the brand attractiveness scale captured only one aspect of brand character, leaving other potential brand effects for future studies.\nPractical implications: Companies can use obese models with no overall brand attractiveness penalty across markets and for marketing to women of all sizes. Given men's negative reactions, such models might however be unsuitable for the male-to-female gift market.\nSocial implications: The results support the use of obese models, which can lead to greater representation of larger women in the media, and consequently, reduced fat stigma.\nOriginality/value: The study validates the theory of user imagery, and it extends the theory by examining how different target consumers react to user imagery traits and thus provides evidence for gender bias toward obese models.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Analytical models towards explaining the difficulty in efficiently matching site concrete supply resources with placing crew needs
|
[
"Scheduling",
"Simulation",
"Productivity",
"Construction planning",
"Construction site"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\nIntroduction: This study relates to the efficiency of concrete placing on sites, using ready-mixed concrete delivered in batches by truckmixers. Specifically, management intent is the timely arrival of concrete deliveries such that the concrete placing crew is never idle waiting for concrete to arrive and truckmixers never have to queue on site, waiting to be unloaded. Such a situation represents a perfect \"matching\" performance of truck resources and placing crew resources.\nPast research related to the productivity of concreting on site: For about 30 years, the productivity of concrete placing and the related difficult truckmixer scheduling problem have been the subject of research, which can be categorized into productivity benchmarking, simulation-based study of the various processes and optimum scheduling techniques. Benchmarking serves to identify the scale of the problem existing in practice and the influencing factors involved. Simulations enable an understanding of the characteristics of the placing and delivery system as a whole, the productivities to be expected from the proposed truckmixer and site schedules and the development of heuristic decision rules for use in practical computer-assisted truckmixer scheduling systems. Optimization, for a given set of practical constraints, is concerned with deriving schedules that provide optimum compromises between productivities achieved and, say, the costs of resources utilized.\nNew analytical model: The model has two components, representing serial and circulating dispatch policies.\nScope of the study: The study was divided into the four stages A, B, C and D as summarized in Table II.\nStudies made: Study A\nCondensation of study findings: Figure 1 resource matching performance can be seen as the consequence of an unconscious, accepted industry cost compromise between the need to maximize the productivity of placing crews and the need to maximize the usage of delivery truckmixers. Guaranteed perfect site service would require concrete suppliers to possess very large fleets of truckmixers, under-utilized for most of the time, necessarily reflected in higher unit concrete prices.\nConclusions: With reference to the \"purpose of the study\" above and the benchmark of real-life resource wastage depicted by Figure 1:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: For parts of the time on a typical construction site concrete pour, the site placing crew is idle waiting for the arrival of the next truckmixer delivery, whereas for other periods, truckmixers are idle on site waiting to be unloaded. Ideally, the work of the crew should be continuous, with successive truckmixers arriving on site just as the preceding truckmixer has been emptied, to provide perfect matching between site and concrete plant resources. However, in reality, sample benchmark data, representing 118 concrete pours of 69 m3 average volume, illustrate that significant wastage occurs of both crew and truckmixer time. The purpose of this paper is to present and explain the characteristics of the wastage pattern observed and provide further understanding of the effects of the factors affecting the productivity of this everyday routine site concreting system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Analytical algebraic models have been developed applicable to both serial and circulating truckmixer dispatch policies. The models connect crew idle time, truckmixer waiting time, truckmixer round trip time, truckmixer unloading time and truckmixer numbers. The truckmixer dispatch interval is another parameter included in the serial dispatch model. The models illustrate that perfect resource matching cannot be expected in general, such is the sensitivity of the system to the values applying to those parameters. The models are directly derived from theoretical truckmixer and crew placing time-based flow charts, which graphically depict crew and truckmixer idle times as affected by truckmixer emptying times and other relevant parameters.\nFindings: The models successfully represent the magnitudes of the resource wastage seen in real life but fail to mirror the wastage distribution of crew and truckmixer time for the 118 pour benchmark. When augmented to include the simulation of stochastic activity durations, however, the models produce pour combinations of crew and truckmixer wastage that do mirror those of the benchmark.\nOriginality/value: The basic contribution of the paper consists of the proposed analytical models themselves, and their augmented versions, which describe the site and truckmixer resource wastage characteristics actually observed in practice. A further contribution is the step this makes towards understanding why such an everyday construction process is so apparently wasteful of resources.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evaluation of quality of Coalho cheese produced with endogenous Lactococcus spp.
|
[
"Food products",
"Food additives",
"Quality",
"Sensory perception",
"Animal products",
"Brazil"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Coalho-type cheese is widely produced in several Brazilian regions, especially in Northeastern Brazil. It is a typical delicacy of Northeastern cuisine, and it is used in many ways: it can be eaten fresh, grilled or as an ingredient in several regional dishes.Typical artisanal Brazilian Coalho cheese is normally produced with raw cows' milk (it is produced mainly in small proprieties without the hygienic conduct required for cheese production), even though legislation does not allow this; most of the production is based on the simple coagulation of raw milk and the pressing of the resulting curds without a starter culture. It is considered an artisanal form of production. Cheeses that are made without all the requirements of the legislation do not usually conform to the microbiological specification for the Coalho cheese standard (Santos, 2002; Nascimento et al., 2002; Borges et al., 2003; Teshima et al., 2004; Martins and Silva, 2006).Owing to the fact that the milk should be pasteurized (a process that eliminates most of the endogenous lactic acid bacteria) for cheese production, the sensorial characteristics of this kind of cheese - such as flavor, aroma, and texture - are changed, and can be improved with the addition of specific lactic acid bacteria such as Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc (Oliveira et al., 1980; Sbampato et al., 1999), as well as contributing to the safety of the product (Isepon and Oliveira, 1995).According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (2009), Coalho cheese is a semi-hard, slightly acid, white-colored cheese showing a typical opened texture with mechanical holes and a salty flavor. There are many possibilities of variations during the elaboration of this cheese, including cooking temperatures, salting methods, use or not of lactic cultures, size of the curds after cutting, with consequent changes in its physicochemical composition. It can be found in varying sizes and forms (from long wood sticks with 100 g of cheese to blocks of 8 kg), with either regular and irregular small eyes or without them. The main characteristic of this type of cheese is a well mineralized curd with a high pH; generally, the cheese should present internally a more tender structure recovered by a fine dark-colored pellicle.In sensorial analysis there are several descriptive methods that provide qualitative information beyond the quantitative data of the products. The flavor profile developed by Little (1940) and cited in Meilgaard et al. (2007) is considered qualitative and semi-quantitative, and only evaluates the aroma and flavor. The texture profile created by Szczesniak (1963), although considered qualitative and quantitative, uses descriptive terms that are definite (i.e. established according to products that were analyzed previously) and only evaluates the texture. In this case, the vocabulary of the panelist becomes limited and this forces the panelist to evaluate terms that can be unknown or only slightly understandable. Stone et al. (1974) developed a quantitative and qualitative method called \"quantitative descriptive analysis\" (QDA) that evaluates all the sensorial aspects present in products. The QDA values generally use a nine-point non-structured hedonic scale. In this method the descriptive terms are created by the panelists forming the evaluation team for the product.Andrade et al. (2006) employed descriptive analysis to describe the characteristics of Coalho cheese; however quantification was not fulfilled. Consumer testing has already been employed to estimate the quality of Coalho cheese (Benevides et al., 2000; Mangueira et al., 2002. Recently, Cavalcante et al. (2007), used an acceptance test to evaluate four different types of Coalho cheese produced with endogenous lactic acid bacteria, but the samples were not measured for a set of common attributes of the vocabulary (such aroma, flavor, texture, appearance). Instead they were measured in a global form (general), but the hedonic values of these attributes that could contribute to improving of the quality of product were not measured. Thus, a quantitative score of these attributes could add new information about the sensorial characteristics of Coalho cheese.The objective of this study was to evaluate by using the quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA(r)) method, acceptance testing and physico-chemical parameters the quality of Coalho cheese produced using two different strains of endogen lactic acid bacteria (Lactococcus spp. and a blend of the two strains).\nMaterial and methods: Source and maintenance of starter culture\nResults and discussion: Acceptance test\nConclusion: According to all the results, Coalho cheese produced with any one of the two cultures isolated showed potential for the production of Coalho cheese, but the samples of cheese produced with the LA-02 (acidifier) and blend (LA-02 plus RE-02) cultures had a higher mean acceptance for aroma, texture, flavor and appearance.In QDA, the samples were described by 13 attributes generated; and the yellowish color was the most important attribute in the discrimination of the three samples. The blend sample presented a higher intensity of holes, typical aroma of Coalho cheese and typical flavor of Coalho cheese; therefore, this sample was more similar to commercial samples.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The objective of this study is to evaluate the quality of Coalho cheese produced using two different strains of Lactococcus spp. that were isolated from artisanal Coalho cheese in Bahia, Brazil.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Three different batches of cheeses were produced using lactic acid Lactococcus spp. strains named \"LA-02\", \"RE-02\" and \"Blend\" (LA-02 plus RE-02). To study the quality of these products the paper uses quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA), a test of acceptability and an analysis of physical-chemical parameters.\nFindings: - For the flavor attribute, the highest acceptabilities were for LA-02 (7.38) and Blend (6.92). The panelists found that 13 attributes were important to describe Coalho cheese. The Blend cheese was characterized by its yellow color, hardness, consistency, chewiness, typical Coalho cheese aroma and flavor. The LA-02 cheese was characterized by its acid flavor, homogeneity and softness. All the samples analyzed showed values of moisture and fat that were in line with Brazilian legislation.\nPractical implications: - Coalho cheese is a typical Brazilian artisanal cheese that is normally produced with raw milk, even though legislation does not allow this. Pasteurization of the milk used to produce cheeses guarantees the microbiological safety of the product and, in this case, the cheese needs the addition of lactic acid bacteria in order to improve the sensorial quality and to give typical characteristics.\nOriginality/value: - Coalho cheese, as produced in the artisanal form, is widely appreciated for its sensorial characteristics. The Coalho cheese proposed in this research retains the typical sensory characteristics by using different strains of Lactococcus spp. that were isolated from artisanal Coalho cheese but according to the specification of good manufacturing practices (GMP).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring the relationship between intentional and behavioral loyalty in the context of e-tailing
|
[
"Behavioural loyalty",
"Recency-frequency-monetary value (RFM) model",
"Intentional loyalty",
"E-tailing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Customer loyalty has been recognized as a paramount asset for retailers who battle in a severe competition environment (Balabanis et al., 2006). Loyal customers contribute to a greater share of profits than non-loyalists (Anderson and Srinivasan, 2003); moreover, retention costs for loyal customers are significantly less than the acquisition costs associated with attracting new customers (Chiou and Droge, 2006). Given the advantages of loyalty, researchers and retailers have explored the factors that influence customers' store repatronage, including store image (Kwon and Lennon, 2009), refund policy (Kukar-Kinney, 2006), product quality (Yieh et al., 2007), fairness (Chiu et al., 2009), switching costs (Yen, 2010), and value and satisfaction (Cronin et al., 2000), among others. Of these, customers' overall satisfaction with a retailer and/or the pleasure experience perceived based on prior consumption are often considered as mediators in terms of their influence on other factors related to store loyalty (Choi et al., 2008). As such, considerable marketing research on customer satisfaction and loyalty has evolved in order to better understand their long-term financial impact on retailers.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 RFM model\n3. Research model and hypotheses: 3.1 Research model\n4. Methods: 4.1 Measures of the constructs\n5. Results: The empirical data were analyzed using the PLS approach by which both the psychometric properties of the constructs and the validation of the research model were examined simultaneously. Compared with the covariance-based structural equation model, PLS is more advantageous and less restrictive in terms of sample size, measurement scales, and data distribution (Tenenhaus et al., 2005). In this study, the iteration estimation of standardized path coefficients was based on the option of path weighting scheme, and its respective significance was the result of 1,000 bootstrapped samples with the option of construct level changes (Tenenhaus et al., 2005).\n6. Implications for research: The empirical results indicate that more than half of the proposed hypotheses are supported. The findings of this study provide several important theoretical and practical implications regarding e-tailing customer relationship management. Consistent with previous research (Chang and Chen, 2008; Chiou and Droge, 2006; Christodoulides and Michaelidou, 2011; Woisetschlager et al., 2011), this study found that satisfaction is positively related to WOM and repurchase intention. Additionally, switching cost was found to be positively related to WOM and repurchase intention, which reflects the results of previous research (e.g. Balabanis et al., 2006; Chiou and Droge, 2006; Lam et al., 2004; Woisetschlager et al., 2011).\n7. Implications for practice: The findings of this study provide several practical implications for e-tailing customer relationship management. First, concerning the management of intentional loyalty, satisfaction has to be emphasized since it plays an active role in driving customers' WOM and intent to repurchase: going beyond customers' service expectations will always play a pivotal role in retaining them (Jones and Sasser, 1995). As such, e-tailers can allocate additional resources to enhancing customer satisfaction, which in turn will increase customers' positive recommendation and intention to repurchase. Further, satisfaction is a consequence derived from various factors such as convenience (Szymanski and Hise, 2000); e-tailers who deliver convenience benefits to customers will earn higher customer satisfaction. Other important factors affecting customer satisfaction include web site design (Rosen and Purinton, 2004), security (Szymanski and Hise, 2000), information quality (Wang, 2008), and service quality (DeLone and McLean, 2004).\n8. Limitations and future research: While this research was conducted with methodological rigor, there are some limitations that could be addressed in future studies. First, this study is a cross-sectional analysis. However, recent studies have claimed that the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty may evolve dynamically (Homburg et al., 2006). Longitudinal evidence may enhance our understanding of the dynamics between satisfaction, intentional loyalty, and behavioral loyalty.\n9. Conclusions: This study contributes to a more thorough understanding of the relationship between customer satisfaction, switching cost, intentional loyalty and behavioral loyalty in the context of e-tailing. The contributions of this study to research on e-tailing customer relationship management are threefold. First, in contrast to previous research that has focussed on exploring the determinants of customer repurchase intention within the e-tailing context, the current study focusses on the relationship between intentional loyalty and behavioral loyalty. Thus, this study represents a new direction for online consumer repurchase behavior research. Future studies could focus on what drives behavioral loyalty as compared to intentional loyalty. Second, satisfaction and switching cost are found to be independently related to intentional loyalty, with satisfaction exerting a stronger relationship. However, switching cost does not moderate the relationship of satisfaction with both WOM and repurchase intention within the context of e-tailing. Third, this study finds that repurchase intention instead of WOM is positively related to customers' behavioral loyalty in terms of repeat purchase frequency and monetary value in the context of e-tailing while the two relationships are weak because of the relatively small variance explained and effect sizes. More empirical research should be conducted to understand the complex intention-behavior relationship phenomenon associated with e-tailing customer loyalty.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand what drives customers' behavioral loyalty and explore the relationship between intentional and behavioral loyalty in the context of e-tailing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the theory of reasoned action and the recency-frequency-monetary value model, this study proposes a research model to explore the relationships among satisfaction, switching cost, intentional loyalty (i.e. word of mouth (WOM) and repurchase intention), and behavioral loyalty (i.e. purchase frequency and monetary value). Data collected from 266 respondents in the context of e-tailing are tested against the research model using a partial least squares (PLS) approach.\nFindings: The results indicate that both satisfaction and switching cost are positively related to intentional loyalty (i.e. WOM and repurchase intention), and that the relationship of satisfaction with intentional loyalty outweighs that of switching cost. Additionally, while repurchase intention significantly associates with purchase frequency and monetary value, a relatively small portion of the variance in both purchase frequency and monetary value are explained. More importantly, WOM is unrelated to both purchase frequency and monetary value. The insignificance of WOM and the low predictability of repurchase intention indicate that the relationship between intentional and behavioral loyalty is weak in e-tailing context.\nOriginality/value: This study provided empirical evidence to support the weak relationship between intentional and behavioral customer loyalty in the context of e-tailing. The findings provide several important theoretical and practical implications for e-tailing customer relationship management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How do entrepreneurs' characteristics influence the benefits from the various elements of a business incubator?
|
[
"Regional development",
"Business incubators",
"Entrepreneurship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Regional business incubators are a policy tool for the promotion of entrepreneurship, which can be easily implemented even in non-metropolitan regions with weak regional innovation systems. Hence, they provide an attractive option for many regional development managers. Still, relatively little is known about how different types of entrepreneurs respond to regional incubator programmes. Henry and Treanor (2013) argue that government support to enterprises often does not fit the needs of the companies. We suspect that one of the reasons for this is that government support programmes such as incubators are not sufficiently tailor-made and matched to the characteristics of the individual entrepreneur. Research has emphasized that SME support needs to be matched to specific SMEs and their managers (Pansiri and Temtime, 2010), and we hypothesize that the same is critical for incubator programmes, as is likewise suggested by Thompson and Downing (2007). For this reason, it is important to know how different types of entrepreneurs respond to various elements of an incubator programme. Many previous studies have either tended to treat incubator programmes as a uniform entity, where all entrepreneurs receive the same service or they treat all entrepreneurs as a uniform group ignoring differences in their characteristics. Rarely is it investigated if or how different types of entrepreneurs respond to the different support elements in a business incubator.\nBusiness incubators and their support element: Business incubators are organizations that provide office facilities, administrative services and professional advisors to entrepreneurs at the same location (Allen and McCluskey, 1990). Regions can have several strategies for entrepreneur incubation and provide different types of incubators (Atherton and Hannon, 2006). The type of business incubator that we focus on in this paper can be classified as a combination of an \"economic development incubator\" and a \"mixed incubator\", using the typology of Aernoudt (2004), where the primary objective is to help economic development and employment by creating new start-ups. The incubators are not science parks, but rather a broader type of incubation programme and therefore house more diverse types of incubatees. These kinds of incubators are relatively easy to establish as they require only minimal investments and hence are an attractive policy option for many regional development managers.\nDifferences between incubatees: Just as incubator programmes differ, so do entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship research has pointed to a large set of different characteristics among entrepreneurs, which we have no intentions of reproducing here. Rather, we hypothesize that three specific characteristics of entrepreneurs affect the level of perceived benefit that they receive from different incubator elements. These elements are entrepreneurial experience, development stage and logic. The three elements are all commonly used in a variety of entrepreneurship literature in order to categorize different kinds of entrepreneurs. We chose these specific characteristics because we hypothesize that they are of primary importance as regards to how incubatees relate to the different elements of the incubator. We have investigated a few other characteristics as well, such as gender, education level and market-orientation, although they are not included in this paper as we found no important differences as to the benefits from the incubator elements among these characteristics.\nThe context for the research: Growth Factories: In order to study whether different types of entrepreneurs benefit from different elements of an incubator, we focus on a specific incubator programme within Region Zealand, called the Growth Factories. Region Zealand is located outside Copenhagen, Denmark and comprises the majority of the island of Zealand and the two southern islands, Lolland and Falster as well as Mon. There are no major cities in the region, and no dominating centre. But there are smaller and medium-sized towns with up to 45,000 inhabitants, which have centre functions within the region. The Growth Factories have ten office facilities, which are typically located within these medium-sized towns. The location immediately outside Copenhagen means that the region has strong economic links to Copenhagen, mainly through commuting. There is also considerable diversity within the region. Municipalities closer to Copenhagen have a higher per capita income than municipalities further away from the city. Further, the industrial structure varies, and some municipalities have a very small local employment base, while others have high employment rates (Lind and Monsson, 2012).\nMethod: Our study combines two different data collection methods in order to learn both from in-depth studies of incubatees and to investigate whether our findings could be found in a broader cross-section of incubatees. Initially we conducted personal interviews with incubatees from the Growth Factories. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with four selected incubatees. Each incubatee was interviewed two times with a six month interval in order to observe changes in their entrepreneurial process, which may occur over time. The four incubatees were selected so that they would include incubatees with substantially different backgrounds, located in different parts of the region.\nResults from the survey: The incubatees were asked to rate on Likert-item scales from 1 to 5 the degree to which the five elements of the Growth Factories had positively influenced their entrepreneurial process. This allowed the incubatees to evaluate which elements had a positive influence and also to differentiate between the importance of the various elements. The Likert-item scales are interpreted as intervals, which allows for the calculation of means and standard deviations, and hence simple comparisons are appropriate for this study without any major statistical problems (Johnson and Creech, 1983; Zumbo and Zimmerman, 1993).\nResults from interviews: Our interviews revealed results that were very similar to the survey. For the interviews, we chose two experienced entrepreneurs who had developed their company for some time with effectuation logic, and two novice entrepreneurs who were in an early stage of their business development with a causation type of logic. Ideally, we would have had respondents that covered the full set of possible combinations of characteristics. However, for the interviews, we preferred to compare two types of entrepreneurs that were markedly different in order to amplify differences in their preferences based on their characteristics. We further specifically chose incubatees who were very vocal in their expressions of benefits from the different incubator elements.\nDiscussion: Our study finds that there are clear differences with regard to the benefit from different incubator elements for different kinds of incubatees. The survey results show that there are significant differences as to how novice and experienced entrepreneurs rate the influence of knowledge providers such as the business support consultants and the educational courses. Novice entrepreneurs appear to benefit considerably more than experienced entrepreneurs. The interviews revealed similar conclusions, and specifically that the novice entrepreneurs were more open to advice and knowledge both on practical issues as well as on strategic matters and planning issues. These conclusions are very much in line with Westhead et al.'s (2005) conclusion that novice entrepreneurs are more open to advice from entrepreneurship programmes.\nConclusion and implications: The results of this study have implications for regional governments and development managers aiming at constructing new regional business incubators. In the construction of regional business incubators, it is important to design programmes that fit the characteristics of the entrepreneurs, as a one-size-fits-all approach may be inappropriate. Similar conclusions have previously been suggested for SME support (Pansiri and Temtime, 2010) and this paper empirically highlights the importance with regard to incubation programmes. Incubatees benefit from different elements, and hence a combination of elements is suitable. One can consider the option of implementing differentiated programmes that appeal to different types of incubatees. But as the results of the survey suggest, the incubatees show a large variety of characteristics, which means that they may not be easily classified into generic personas or taxonomies. Thus, incubator programmes may rather benefit from a combination of different elements that can be optional or tailor-made for the specific entrepreneurs depending on their characteristics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate empirically that differences in characteristics of entrepreneurs result in benefits from different elements of a regional incubator programme.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use mixed methods consisting of in-depth interviews and a survey of 100 incubatees in order to study entrepreneurs within a specific incubator programme called the Growth Factories located in Region Zealand, Denmark.\nFindings: The authors find that there are significant differences in the perceived benefit of various business incubator elements for incubatees depending on their entrepreneurial characteristics.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future studies are particularly important in order to learn which elements provide the different kinds of entrepreneurs with a critical factor in determining their success or failure.\nPractical/implications: The conclusions have importance for regional government and development managers aiming at designing new business incubators. The authors suggest that in order to enhance the effect of incubator programmes they must be tailor-made to the individual entrepreneur.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies have either tended to treat incubator programmes as a uniform entity, where all entrepreneurs receive the same service, or they have treated all entrepreneurs as a uniform group, even though it is well known that entrepreneurs vary considerably in their characteristics. This paper overcomes the gap.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A new measure of e-service quality in France
|
[
"Measurement",
"Testing and instruments",
"Electronic commerce",
"Internet shopping",
"Customer services quality",
"France"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In Europe, online retail sales are expected to reach EUR263 billion by 2011 (Favier, 2006), equivalent to approximately US$370 at the exchange rate prevailing in mid-2009. In reaching that level, they will have outpaced the American e-commerce growth rate of 17 per cent (eMarketer, 2007) or $108.7 billion (US Census Bureau, 2008) between 2006 and 2011. In France, specifically, online shopping expenditure grew by 12.8 per cent between 2000 and 2007 (Internet World Stats, 2007), and by more than a third from the second quarter of 2006 to the second quarter of 2007 (Atkins-Kruger, 2007). French internet shoppers thus constitute a substantial and growing market for online retailers, whether French, international or global.Given the influence of shoppers' perceptions of quality on an online retailer's market share and profitability, the evaluation of performance quality is critical to both practitioners and researchers (Porter, 2001; Reichheld and Schefter, 2000; Srinivasan et al., 2002). To assess it accurately, the attributes or dimensions perceived as the most important by the purchaser or recipient need to be identified. In the context of online retailing, these include perceptions formed by interaction at the web site (Lee and Lin, 2005; Loiacono et al., 2007; Nadkarni and Gupta, 2007; van Riel et al., 2001) and throughout the whole purchasing experience (Sousa and Voss, 2006), including web interactivity (Loiacono et al., 2007) and delivery.Table I shows that the majority of articles and studies dealing with the measurement of e-service quality published between 2000 and 2007 were conducted in English-speaking countries, predominantly in the USA. As Sigala (2004) and Swaid and Wigand (2009) point out, most have employed the SERVQUAL scale (Parasuraman et al., 1988), which was developed from research in an English-language environment. Very few originated in Europe, despite the continued and significant growth of e-commerce already noted. The components and the perception of quality differ across cultures (Liu et al., 2008; Shareef et al., 2008; Singh et al., 2008). Thus, the identification of specific indicators of quality are examined within France whose consumers' expectations and evaluations of products and services are shaped by a cultural milieu that is unique among its counterparts in the rest of Europe and around the globe. Its distinctiveness is summed up in the concept of the \"exception culturelle francaise\", a national value system which ordains that cultural \"products\" are not in fact products, in the sense that they express the cultural values of the country and must be protected against competition from bigger and richer competitors with larger markets, lower production costs and different cultures. Thus, for example: the retail price of books cannot be discounted below a level set by the government; there are quotas on non-French movies on TV and non-French music on radio; the state subsidises film production; value-added tax on cinema tickets and food is less than a third of the standard rate; and there is income support for temporarily unemployed creative and performing artists.Given these nationally distinctive consumer expectations, and the perceptions of service quality that are shaped by it, e-businesses looking to trade via web sites in France need to tailor their service-evaluation procedures to the characteristic local consumer culture.The purpose of this paper is therefore to develop a scale for measuring the e-service quality of French retail web sites. We first define e-service quality, and examine the specificities of the French marketplace and consumers. After identifying the components of e-service quality, as defined in the literature and also as perceived by French consumers via a qualitative survey, we describe a quantitative study designed to develop and refine a specifically French measurement scale, and evaluate its psychometric properties. The paper concludes by identifying the managerial implications of the findings, and offering recommendations that may assist online retailers in expanding their customer base and improving their profitability.\n2 Conceptual background: In this section, we propose a conceptual framework that draws upon the variety of available approaches to the measurement of e-service quality, capturing and integrating all relevant quality dimensions, especially in the retail sector and discuss the influence of cultural aspects on these key attributes in the French market.2.1 Defining e-service quality\n3 The measurement model: The goal of the research reported here was to develop and refine a scale for the measurement of retail service quality specifically relevant to the sociology of consumption behaviour in France, dubbed E-tail SQ, for \"service quality\", in English rather than French. In pursuit of that aim, we developed the three-stage design shown in Figure 1. In Study 1, data collected in qualitative interviews enabled us to define French consumers' self-described components of e-service quality. A quantitative questionnaire administered in Study 2 permitted reduction and purification of the scale. Lastly, we empirically validated, tested and developed the model by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of new quantitative data collected in Study 3.3.1 Study 1: generation of scale items\n4 Discussion and implications: The majority of the academic studies reviewed identify a more or less universal set of key attributes as the basis for measures of e-service quality (acknowledging slight differences in the wording of the dimensions, items and content, which depend on the sector under consideration). Those are: ease of use, responsiveness, fulfilment reliability, communication/information, access, personalization, security/privacy, site design and post-purchase customer service.Recognizing the reported differences between France and the English-speaking world in which most of the published research has been conducted, our own study applied qualitative content analysis to the identification of the key dimensions of customers' perceptions of service quality in the French \"e-tail\" market, which were then purified into five dimensions containing 15 scale items by subjecting data collected in web-based surveys to confirmatory factor analysis. The results of validation testing demonstrated that the resulting scale has appropriate reliability and validity, as well as allowing for an effective test of its efficacy as a predictor of consumers' perceptions of the service quality delivered by retailers selling goods and services online in France.The dimensions extracted matched five of the nine factors identified in the literature review, namely:1. ease of use;2. information content;3. security/privacy;4. fulfilment reliability; and5. post-purchase customer service.These contribute equally to overall e-retailing service quality, except for the \"post-purchase customer service\" dimension. The relatively low importance of this dimension might be an artefact of an incidence of missing values for the customer-service questions due to those questions being asked of all respondents rather than only those who had problems or questions. Support for these results is provided by the only other French study to deal specifically with customers' interactions with online merchants' web sites, which identified approximately the same online quality dimensions and the same beta weights for their relationships to overall e-service quality (Bressolles, 2006).Given the importance of culture in forming users' expectations of web-delivered service quality, as mentioned by Tsikriktsis (2002), we expected to find differences between existing scales developed for use mainly in the English-speaking world, and one designed for the French context. Our study confirmed that five of the key drivers of e-retail service quality identified in existing studies were applicable in the European context and, more importantly, in the French market, despite the \"exception culturelle francaise\" discussed in the \"Introduction\". In fact, our findings show that there are no major differences in the nature of the dimensions contributing to perceptions of e-quality, though their weights did vary.The weightings found in our study differ from those in other major studies, particularly with respect to the role of security/privacy. Whereas, its effect was not found to be significant in the major studies conducted with Anglophone respondents (Kim and Stoel, 2004; Parasuraman et al., 2005a, b; Swinder et al., 2002; Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003), our French respondents accorded it greater emphasis. This is very likely to be attributable to Hofstede's cultural differences, among which the French rate \"avoidance of uncertainty\" higher than other nationalities do (Hofstede, 1991; Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1993). It could perhaps be argued that cultural convergence may be accelerating as a result of the globalization of popular cultures and lifestyles. This effect could be especially marked among internet users, who are routinely exposed to international, dominantly English language, web sites. Our French study is thus significant in lending support to the argument that cultures are homogenising under the influence of global resources such as the web.From a managerial point of view, our E-tail SQ measuring scale will allow firms trading online in France to assess their perceived service quality and thereby improve their customer relationships in the French marketplace. Recently, according an official report on e-commerce in France (Dayan and Heitzmann, 2008), more than 60 per cent of French internet users do not purchase online, almost half of those citing security or privacy as the reason. This distinctive online behaviour pattern is a crucial consideration for managers seeking to improve quality management of their local web sites and to boost their share of e-commerce in France.\n5 Limitations and future research: Certain methodological considerations limit the scope for generalising from our specific findings.First, the initial phase of our study used a convenience sample, and the population for the final testing stage was self-selected. Further testing is indicated, using a larger and more random sample in order to reduce sample bias. Second, our scale needs to be applied to data gathered in different business sectors and product categories, to provide stronger support for its broader applicability. Future research should therefore seek to replicate the study in new settings, to assess whether or not the dimensions and linkages identified here remain relevant there. Lastly, the low value for post-purchase customer service in the development of our scale reflects the small sub-sample of customers with experience of service recovery. Future research should set a sample-selection quota that will ensure their inclusion, to improve the comprehensive psychometric assessment of the customer service component.This study supplements the existing research on e-quality by adding a French perspective. However, there is still much to do. The similarity of language amongst the French-speaking countries may not indicate a similarity in their perceptions of online quality. This opens the door to cross-cultural studies within the Franco-phone environment. However, because the Franco-phone environment purchases from Anglo-phone web sites, this is an important area of study (Shareef et al., 2008; Singh et al., 2008). Other studies have shown differences between males and females in online interaction and between age groupings of younger and older (Venkatsh and Agarwal, 2006).\n6 Conclusion: Recent years have witnessed a flourishing of research activity relating to e-commerce issues, most significantly with respect to the development of scales to measure the quality aspects of service delivery. Most studies have been conducted in English-speaking environments. Given that the internet is a global phenomenon, access to which is growing at an exponential rate in France, we set out to develop a scale specifically for use in that marketplace. Our study begins the process of designing, developing, and evaluating a reliable and valid scale for the measurement of online retail service quality to facilitate the understanding of e-tail service quality.In evaluating the usability of the outcome, it became obvious the scale elements were similar to those in existing non-French studies, though the emphasis and definition of the elements varied. Specifically, French on-line shoppers placed greater emphasis on the security/privacy dimension than their English-speaking counterparts. This difference may be attributable to the cultural differences defined by Hofstede (1991) and Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1993).Our study is potentially valuable to the academic and practitioner communities because it engages in a practical way with differences in customers' perceptions of service quality within the large emerging online marketplace in France. Specifically, we discourage the use of a one-size-fits-all approach, and encourage the adoption of a more marketing-led approach in adapting web sites and services to local expectations. Through a better alignment with the attitudes and expectations of consumers in a target market, companies offering e-services should find that positive evaluation of their service quality improves their bottom-line performance.The measuring instrument we have presented offers a valid framework for the measurement of the French consumer's perception of e-tail service quality. Our final conclusion emphasises the urgent need to find new ways to articulate cultural behaviour and social needs in web site design, to incorporate the target market's own desired values.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to design, develop and evaluate a reliable and valid scale for the measurement of online retail service quality, specifically in the French context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Study 1 derived scale items from the literature by content analysis. Study 2 extracted items from two quantitative data sets, gathered by questionnaire from 172 and 125 online shoppers, by exploratory factor and reliability analyses. Study 3 applied psychometric testing and confirmatory factor analysis to data from a survey of 178 e-shoppers.\nFindings: - The outcome is \"E-tail SQ\", a 15-item scale to measure five key user values (labelled ease of use, information content, fulfilment reliability, security/privacy and post-purchase customer service). These scale items derived from French data are found to be similar to those identified in previous international studies, except that French e-shoppers place more emphasis than their English-speaking counterparts on internet security and privacy of personal information.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample profiles place limits on the applicability of the scale across markets and service categories. Further research must be conducted to improve its external validity.\nPractical implications: - \"E-tail SQ\" can help online retailers in the French marketplace to measure service quality delivered, and thereby to improve it, and may be transferable to other national markets.\nOriginality/value: - This new scale for the measurement of service quality in a specific cultural environment offers online retailers a framework within which to manage their web-based relationships with a growing number of online shoppers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Developing health information literacy in disengaged at-risk populations: Insights to inform interventions
|
[
"Information literacy",
"Health education",
"Health information literacy",
"Mothers",
"Information behaviour",
"Information intermediary"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper advances our understanding of the theoretical and practical challenges of developing health information literacy (IL) (understood as IL in the health context) amongst disadvantaged (socioeconomic) and dependent (support) populations; and from the perspective of professionals out with information professions occupying everyday support roles (e.g. health and social care). Such a perspective is important as two recent information behaviour studies (Buchanan and Tuckerman, 2016; Buchanan et al., 2018a) conducted with at-risk (health and well-being) groups in areas of multiple deprivations (e.g. employment, education, health and crime), which evidence significant IL issues and also evidence general disengagement with information professionals (e.g. librarians and educators) and associated learning programmes, and a localised dependence upon support workers when seeking everyday information. Cognisant to correlations between low IL and poor health outcomes (e.g. Berkman et al., 2011), this study raises important questions regarding approaches to IL education in at-risk populations, and the role of primary healthcare professionals in everyday support roles.\n2. Background: Our understanding of IL in the everyday context, i.e. out with formal education programmes and the workplace, is limited. Martzoukou and Sayyad Abdi (2017), in a recent review of research examining IL in the everyday context, report that, \"Despite the clear value of information literacy within the everyday life context, most empirical research has been conducted within educational and workplace settings\" (p. 2). In relation, they report that, \"[...] the implications of lacking IL skills within the everyday life environment have not been sufficiently researched [...] It is further unclear how people can be supported and empowered to develop effective information literacy practices within the different realms of everyday life\" (p. 29).\n3. Methodology: Our case study participants were a team of UK National Health Service (NHS) Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) nurses providing outreach support to vulnerable young first-time mothers from areas of multiple deprivations, and the mothers themselves. Nurse visits are from pregnancy to child age two: weekly at start, then fortnightly scaling down to monthly towards end. The study zone (team area) was confirmed via the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivations as within the 5 per cent most deprived decile in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2016).\n4. Findings: Participants\n5. Discussion: In discussing our findings, we return to our research questions.\n6. Limitations and further research: Whilst drawing on the cumulative experience of a team of primary healthcare professionals, and incorporating client perspectives and needs, we nonetheless report within the constraints of a single case study. Given the significance of our findings, we would call for further empirical studies with further groups.\n7. Conclusion: Our young majority expectant mothers have multiple information needs across multiple topics spanning issues of parenting, poverty and personal development. Whilst some could articulate needs, others could not, and some acknowledged unawareness of needs. Several described feeling overwhelmed, and some actively avoided information to reduce stress. When looking online for information, our mothers predominantly do so via Google searches. Our findings suggest issues of need recognition, and low awareness and/or use of state online information resources.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of the challenges of health information literacy (IL) education in disadvantaged and disengaged at-risk populations; and from the perspective of professionals out with information professions occupying everyday support roles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative in-depth case study. The participants were a team of UK Family Nurses providing outreach support to young expectant mothers from areas of multiple deprivations, and the mothers themselves. The data collection methods were observation, survey, interviews and focus groups.\nFindings: Information needs of mothers are multiple, and not always recognised as information problems, or revealed. Several felt overwhelmed, and actively avoided health information. There is low awareness and/or use of state sources of online health information. Family nurses provide an important information intermediary role, but are unfamiliar with IL concepts and models; consequently, there is limited evidence of client transitions to independent information seeking, or underpinning pedagogical practices to achieve such goals.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research is required into appropriate pedagogical approaches to IL education adaptable to semi-structured everyday situations. Recognition of information need requires particular attention, including methods of elicitation and specification in the problematic context.\nPractical implications: In an era of digital transitions and public service reforms, the authors raise important questions regarding the true reach of public health policy.\nOriginality/value: The paper holistically examines nurse-client information behaviours, and extends the discussion of low IL in nurses beyond issues of evidence-based practice to issues of developing healthcare self-efficacy in at-risk clients.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The gender gap in work-life balance satisfaction across occupations
|
[
"Gender",
"Canada",
"Work–life balance",
"Quantitative methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The employees' attainment of a satisfactory work-life balance (WLB) has been an area of central focus for human resource professionals, policymakers and scholars. The scholarly attention has motivated several reviews (Kalliath and Brough, 2008; Chang et al., 2010; Sirgy and Lee, 2018) and Special Issues in academic publications (Goel, 2017; Powell et al., 2019). The burgeoning interest partly results from the significant societal shifts of the past few decades towards greater gender equality in education and labor market attainment. Nowadays, in most developed countries, the traditional model of a male breadwinner and a female homemaker only applies to a strict minority of households with children (Powell et al., 2019). However, while men show increasing engagement with family life and childcare; still, the greater share of chores related to homemaking and childrearing falls on women (Williams and Alliger, 1994). In this modified landscape, females generally bear the double burden of paid employment and unpaid house labor (MacDonald et al., 2005). As a result, the gender gap in WLB satisfaction has received a significant scholarly interest (Frankenhaeuser et al., 1989; Lundberg et al., 1994; Swanson et al., 1998; Emslie et al., 2004; Chung and Van der Lippe, 2018).\n2. Literature review: A large literature across the social sciences has investigated the interaction between the work and life domains (Goel, 2017; Powell et al., 2019). WLB, while initially referring to the interface between professional responsibilities and familial commitments, has evolved to include employees who are not involved in parenting but need to reconcile work with their personal lives (Kalliath and Brough, 2008). Acknowledging the breath of this scholarship, the purpose of this literature review is threefold. First, the significant divergences that exist in the literature regarding the measurement of WLB are reviewed. Second, the review briefly surveys the contributions which underscore gender as an important factor in the assessment of WLB. Finally, a subsection is devoted to the confluence of work flexibility, gender-based occupational segregation and earnings.\n3. Data and methodology: The data used in this paper are from the Canadian General Social Survey (GSS), cycles of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015. Statistics Canada started conducting the Canadian General Social Surveys in 1985. Since 1985, the Canadian GSS has been conducted almost every year (Statistics Canada, 2017). Only a few of the GSS cycles include a question on respondents' satisfaction with their WLB. The most recent cycles which have surveyed the respondents on their satisfaction with their WLB were conducted in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015. These are cross-sectional datasets, i.e. unlike a panel, the respondents are not followed over time and each cycle relies on a new sample. The sizes of these cycles vary. The GSS-2010 contains 7,360 observations on respondents with fulltime employment, while the GSS-2012 is the largest with 11,838 observations on men and women with fulltime employment. These four cycles are pooled to achieve a large enough sample size by occupation and by demographic group. Excluding the missing observations, the sample size in the pooled dataset reaches 37,335. The missing observations are assumed 'missing at random,' and are dealt with through listwise deletion.\n4. Results: Table III reports the results of 6 estimations. The dependent variable is a dummy taking the value of 1 for those who report being very satisfied with their WLB. The sample is restricted to those employed fulltime. The confounders are sequentially added to the equations from Column (2) to Column (6). Column (1) only includes gender and survey dummies. Column (2) adds demographic variables such as the respondent age and age squared, and the number and age groups of the children. Column (3) further includes the respondents' human capital and ethnic background. Column (4) adds income. Column (5) further includes the province of residence. Finally, Column (6) controls for occupations using 9 dummies. The occupation \"Sales and Services\" is retained as the reference category. The control variables, not shown in the table to save space, are exhaustively listed in the note to the table. The regressions with the full set of controls are available upon request.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: The present paper, with a quantitative focus, examined two questions. First, the gender gaps in WLB satisfaction was examined pooling all occupations, by ten major occupational categories, and their subcategories distinguished by education and family arrangement. Second, the paper investigated whether the gender gaps in WLB satisfaction were driven by males or females in the sample. The results can be summarized as follows. First, there is a modest WLB satisfaction disadvantage for women in Canada, when all occupations are pooled. Second, across occupations, women in Management and in Education/Legal Services were found less satisfied with their WLB than their male counterparts while the opposite emerged for women in Trades/Transport. Third, the largest gender gap in favor of males emerged for the highly educated employed in the Education/Legal Services sector while the largest female advantage was observed in \"blue-collar\" Trades/Transport jobs. Finally, the investigation of the reasons behind these WLB gaps indicated that only the female disadvantage in management is driven by a female-specific pattern. The positive and negative gaps in transport and education are driven by the relatively lower and higher WLB satisfaction of men in these occupations, respectively. In the lines below, these gender gaps are put into the perspective of past literature.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the gender gaps in work-life balance satisfaction across occupations. Due to data limitations, the studies of work-life balance satisfaction have generally relied on researcher collected data. As a result, large-scale studies encompassing all occupations in the same social and policy context are rare. In several cycles of the Canadian General Social Survey, the respondents are directly asked about their work-life balance (WLB) satisfaction. The present paper takes advantage of this unique opportunity to compare the gender gap in WLB satisfaction across occupations in Canada.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper pools four cross-sectional datasets (N = 37,335). Multivariate regression analysis is used.\nFindings: Women in management and education are found to have a lower WLB satisfaction than their male counterparts. Conversely, and rather surprisingly, a WLB satisfaction advantage is found for women in transport over males in this occupation. Further investigation shows that the female WLB advantage in transport is driven by the relatively low WLB satisfaction of males in this occupation, while the opposite is true for education.\nSocial implications: The findings are discussed in light of the WLB policies and their increasing gender-blindness.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first large-scale study which compares the gender gap in WLB satisfaction across occupations, in a given policy context.\n",
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Teamwork of temporary employees: multiple perspectives
|
[
"Teamwork",
"Organization",
"Context",
"Perspectives",
"Temporary employees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Temporary employment arrangements have become pervasive in contemporary organizations (Kalleberg, 2009). Employees in part-time, temporary agency, contractual, fixed tenure, casual, on-call, day-hire, and similar other forms of employment constitute a considerable proportion of organizational workforces. Temporary employees are visible in every department/function/vertical working alongside permanent employees.\nManagement's perspective: Managing a labor process means to control it effectively. Team management is through power delegation to team members who are vested with responsibilities of planning, designing, executing, and maintaining their tasks. Although teamwork is essential for participative work cultures, managing teamwork of temporary employees is complex because:\nTemporary employee's perspective: The employee's perspective toward teamwork is dependent on the type and quality of social exchange received in teams (McLean Parks et al., 1998). Apart from wages/salaries/benefits, which to some extent determine temporary employee's perception of the job, the inclination to work in a team depends on the following:\nContextual perspective: Situating the above perspectives in their respective contexts helps to uncover the nuances of understanding teamwork of temporary employees. Two broad contexts impacting the above perspectives are highlighted:\nConclusion: The effectiveness of involving temporary employees in teams and their simultaneous well-being becomes questionable owing to the multiple and conflicting perspectives of teamwork. However, the concept of team-working is here to stay. Therefore, understanding teamwork which involves temporary employees is not only critical but also crucial, as it significantly extends the purview of teamwork in general. The key to solving such problems requires taking the perspectives of the management and the temporary employee, and situate those within their respective contexts to draw holistic meanings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the teamwork of temporary employees by taking into consideration the impact and role of the management's perspective, temporary employee's perspective and contextual perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on reviews of workplace literature pertaining to temporary employments, conversations with managers and temporary and permanent employees of organizations engaging temporary employees on a perennial basis have been thematically analyzed.\nFindings: Multiple perspectives of teamwork of temporary employees exist in organizations. However, one rarely finds the interaction and collective treatment of these perspectives, which are critical to understanding teamwork of temporary employees. The paper reports on these perspectives.\nPractical implications: With rise in temporary employments in organizations and teamwork being crucial to participative work cultures, organizations need to consider multiple perspectives of the phenomenon before making an informed decision.\nOriginality/value: There is limited research that delves into teamwork of temporary employees despite the phenomenon becoming increasingly significant in organizations. This paper offers an approach to look at teamwork of temporary employees through multiple perspectives.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Spanish lessons on developing employee commitment and empowerment-driven strategies: Investing in consistency through integrated high-performance work systems
|
[
"Affective commitment",
"Empowerment",
"Strategic human resource management",
"High-performance work systems",
"People performance",
"Social exchange theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Building systems that can do some of the heavy lifting needed for organizational success is a noble goal for any innovative human resources (HR) team seeking to properly equip themselves to make a substantial impact. A research paper by Para-Gonzalez et al. (2019) explores how the phenomena of affective commitment and empowerment in employees influence the relationship between organizational performance and high-performance work systems (HPWS). The impact of the structure of human resource management (HRM) practices on this relationship and on these phenomena are a particular focus of the study, with the aim of determining which are best placed to support HPWS. Data were gathered from questionnaires answered by 200 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Spain's manufacturing sector, each having between 50 and 500 employees. Views were sought from production, marketing, quality, and HR managers within these organizations, in relation to the areas they are respectively qualified in.\nLaying the foundations for strategic HR management: Strategic human resource management (SHRM) can be understood as a performance measuring approach to HR that aligns the plethora of HR strategies that are intentionally implemented and followed by an organization. Under SHRM, strategies are pursued with the goal of more effectively reaching the organization's goals through the targeted deployment of employee effort, and through the development of an innovative organizational culture. HPWS have the capacity to generate a collectively felt, team-wide bond that is an energy source of empowerment and affective commitment for each person in that group. HPWS measure how well HR practices have been integrated so that they manifest people-based currencies, such as employee commitment, that are invaluable during moments of crisis. In the mysterious void between HR policies and employee performance, we find actions fueled by concepts like dedicated commitment and loyalty that are symptomatic of motivated and satisfied employees feeling proud of where they work. The advantages an organization enjoys from the efforts of such employees are that customers receive a better experience, which is likely to lead to greater revenue generation.\nThe results surrounding SHRM, HPWS and performance: Based on the responses to survey prompts such as \"I have a feeling of belonging toward my organization\" and \"I have a considerable independence and freedom in how I develop my job,\" the following results were uncovered, that:\nAdvice points for HR teams: Leading on from the above results, the study's authors offer HR teams the following guidance on optimizing their strategic efforts to boost people performance:\nCommentary: The review is based on 'Do SHRM and HPWS shape employees' affective commitment and empowerment?' by Para-Gonzalez, L. et al. (2019), published in Evidence-based HRM. This research paper explores the potential of HR management practices to integrate into an organization-wide high-performance work system (HPWS) as a route to achieving greater organizational performance. Based on the views of respondents from Spain's manufacturing sector, boosting the affective commitment and empowerment of employees in the presense of a HPWS inspires them to elevate their performance. One way of achieving this is for managers to give their team members more autonomy. Applying HR best practices across selection, training, performance appraisal, and compensation activity is a crucial step in laying a foundation that is linked to the organization's overall strategic goals.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: This research paper explores the potential of HR management practices to integrate into an organization-wide high-performance work system (HPWS) as a route to achieving greater organizational performance. Based on the views of respondents from Spain's manufacturing sector, boosting the affective commitment and empowerment of employees in the presence of a HPWS inspires them to elevate their performance. One way of achieving this is for managers to give their team members more autonomy. Applying HR best practices across selection, training, performance appraisal, and compensation activity is a crucial step in laying a foundation that is linked to the organization's overall strategic goals.\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",
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Negotiating "meaningful participation" for Indigenous peoples in the context of mining
|
[
"Indigenous communities",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Extractive industries",
"Free",
"Prior and informed consent",
"Māori worldview",
"Social licence to operate"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nGlossary: Te reo Maori\nIntroduction: The international community has collectively recognised Indigenous peoples' rights to participation in the environmental management of resource use and extraction on their traditional lands (O'Faircheallaigh and Corbett, 2005). At the very least, the defining role of agreements such as the International Labour Organization Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is for signatories to recognise and promote Indigenous people's rights to the integrity of their cultural identity, traditional lands and territories and to self-determination (O'Faircheallaigh and Corbett, 2005; Whiteman and Mamen, 2005; Erueti, 2015). More broadly, they should provide for Indigenous peoples to \"meaningfully participate\" in development plans, which assures informed consent prior to decisions affecting their rights/interests and to follow their own visions of development (which may not be synonymous with Western conceptions of economic development) (Whiteman and Mamen, 2005). This approach suggests that any form of agreement and effort towards meaningful participation must:\nContext: In New Zealand, the notion of meaningful participation is influenced by the bi-cultural political economy, which has established certain political and legislative influences that need to be understood when establishing a relationship with Iwi and Maori tribal groups. The added dimension of socio-cultural context ultimately highlights the complexity hidden behind the term meaningful participation. At the heart of Maori tribal society and culture is the concept of whakapapa, or genealogical connection, where everything operates through a complex mesh of relationships. This holistic view of the world ensures that the principles of whakapapa help to guide Maori in all social, environmental, economic and cultural contexts. These include the concept of kaitiakitanga, guardianship or the \"ancestral obligation to collectively sustain, guard, maintain, protect and enhance\" the life force of everything, which underpins all relationships with the environment. All relationships are managed through the concept of whanaungatanga, a notion of relationship management that defines how everything relates to each other. This is, in turn, managed through the principle of rangatiratanga, leadership, governance and management. The governance and management processes work to ensure that the rules for engagement are followed according to the tikanga, appropriate rules and practices that are informed by centuries-old values and beliefs.\nThe complex nature of meaningful participation: Mining and mineral extraction is a global phenomenon with significant local implications (O'Faircheallaigh, 2015). The industry has advanced the industrial development of many nations and is providing ample financial returns for corporate stakeholders. In addition, opportunities for employment and development of community infrastructure are the most cited positive outcomes for local communities (Hilson, 2002; Hilson and Murck, 2000). In relation to Indigenous communities, there is recognition that mining and mineral extraction can provide substantial net benefits through leveraged government spending on service provision and investment in Indigenous capacity building in organisational skills, governance and leadership (O'Faircheallaigh, 2004; O'Faircheallaigh, 2015). However, it would not be unfair to note that for the most part, the positive returns from mining activities on or near Indigenous people's lands have been captured by the corporations, the nation state and the \"majority\" non-Indigenous members of the general community (Banerjee, 2008). Evidence suggests that the mining industry has an extremely poor record when it comes to the meaningful involvement of the Indigenous communities on whose land mining and resource extraction operations occur (O'Faircheallaigh and Corbett, 2005; Whiteman and Mamen, 2005; Banerjee, 2008).\nThe multi-dimensional reality of meaningful participation: At the level of the political economy, there are many examples that demonstrate the complex nature of the situation where Indigenous knowledge frameworks inform and collaborate with non-Indigenous practices in the extractive industries and which, we argue, provides a level of legitimacy in relation to achieving localised approval and consent (Parsons et al., 2014; Gifford et al., 2010). In Australia, for example, there are the Australian Aboriginal Indigenous Land Use Agreements, which is an agreement between Native Title group and others about the use of land and waterways. A Canadian example is the Ermineskin Cree Nation has a 50/50 joint venture agreement with One Earth Oil and Gas Inc. signed in 2010. This is touted as \"the first agreement signed directly with a Canadian First Nations Band\" and will ensure that the Band is actively engaged at all levels of development and acquires social and economic benefits from the engagement (Ruwhiu et al., 2013). In New Zealand, there are no such agreements. However, Maori tribal groups are actively seeking ways to ensure that engagement happens in ways that maintain their tribal integrity and are in-keeping with the legislative mechanisms designed to ensure consultation and participation. One example is a guideline document from the North Island tribal group, Ngati Ruanuui, which was developed from the Ngati Ruanui experience of holding traditional authority and mana over a rich gas reserve off their coastlines.\nConcluding remarks - it is simple, but not easy!: Mining is a contested practice that draws attention to the tension between the rights of Indigenous communities and the corporate agenda of profit, shareholder maximisation and open market. It is an activity that has drawn communities together in protest and sets the scene for some of the world's most violent oppression of human rights (Banerjee, 2008). However, recent commitments made by the mining industry in recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples do reflect a strong shift in industry ideology in relation to sustainable development, and we would agree are important steps. Driven by international recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples for participation in the environmental management of mining and mineral extraction projects on their traditional lands, we have seen the emergence of negotiated agreements as a primary resolution mechanism (O'Faircheallaigh and Corbett, 2005; Whiteman and Mamen, 2005). However, it should be noted that the terminology \"participation in decision-making\" and \"strive to be consistent with Indigenous peoples\" traditional decision-making processes' are areas where there is vague interpretation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the importance of meaningful participation for Indigenous peoples within the complex and highly political context of mining and mineral extraction. The aim is to consider the multi-dimensional nature of the mining context that takes into account the discursive landscape that frames the often disparate perspectives of corporate, state and Indigenous communities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is a conceptual offering that examines the complex environment within which \"meaningful participation\" between mining corporates and Indigenous communities operate.\nFindings: This paper highlights the multi-dimensional nature of a proposed relationship between the mining corporates, the state and the Indigenous Maori community within New Zealand. The facilitation of \"meaningful participation\" requires that any negotiated agreement is undertaken within a framework of meaning that makes sense to the Indigenous community, in addition to the appropriate legislative and corporate initiatives to be in place.\nOriginality/value: The paper highlights the complex considerations that must be included in any form of negotiation between mining corporates and Indigenous peoples to achieve meaningful participation in the form that it was intended under international accords. While recognising the different contextual circumstance of Indigenous peoples around the world, this paper illustrates a pathway towards meaningful participation that takes into account economic, socio-cultural and environmental variables.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Keep calm and carry on: European consumers and the development of persistent resilience in the face of austerity
|
[
"Persistent resilience",
"Austerity",
"Financial crisis",
"European consumers",
"Coping strategies",
"Consumer transformation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The global financial crisis of 2008 is said to have triggered the most significant economic downturn, as the Great Depression of the 1930s (Griskevicius and Millet, 2011). Several euro-linked EU governments including Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal, had to accept austerity policies signalling their commitment to reduce deficits and reach annual targets set by the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank. Several scholars have identified the axiological problem surrounding political and ideological discourses on austerity where governments have held austerity as a moral solution to the sins of excessive spending while also calling for continued consumption to maintain growth policies (Peston, 2012; Bramall, 2013; Blyth, 2013). While austerity has received extensive attention as a political and economic force (Blyth, 2013; Krugman, 2012), there has been less focus on its impact on consumers (Boost and Meier, 2017; Karanika and Hogg, 2016; O'Loughlin et al., 2017a; Cappellini et al., 2014) for some exceptions). Studies have investigated the effect of austerity measures on aggregate consumption (Kamakura and Du, 2011; Porral et al., 2016), marketing budgets and business strategies (Currim et al., 2016; Rollins et al., 2013), but there has been relatively little focus on how consumers have responded to the economic challenges of austerity in terms of their resilience (Cappellini et al., 2014; O'Loughlin et al., 2017b; Koos et al. (2017). Previously resilience was portrayed as a one-off response to a major event but with an ultimate return to a previous state (Norris et al., 2008). Resilience in the face of austerity is, however, less likely to be about bouncing back, rather adapting to ongoing economic challenges that continue over time. This paper advances theory by arguing that the extenuated circumstances of austerity can reveal a form of resilience that is less about bouncing back to normal but rather moving to a new reality.\n2. Consumer coping and consumption: Previous research has explored individual and community coping strategies to various crises and economic downturns (Shama, 1981; Ang et al., 2000; Kaytaz and Gul, 2014). Behavioural and psychological responses (Mick and Fournier, 1998) and adaptations to consumption practices and alterations to shopping patterns such as reduction and changes to spending have been identified (Hampson and McGoldrick, 2013; Lamey, 2014). Exploring the Argentinian economic crises of 2001-2002, Zurawicki and Braidot (2005) discovered among the middle class an overall reduction in consumption and substitution of luxury goods, reduced spending on social events and increased socialising at home. During the Turkish economic downturn, Kaytaz and Gul (2014) reported product and price switching while a Pan-European consumer study of the 2008 economic crisis found the \"old\" poor were better equipped than those newly financially disadvantaged to cope with insecurity and dependency (Dagdeviren et al., 2017). In the USA, Hampson et al. (2018, p. 159) explored varying attitudes and behaviours towards money in the post-recession economy and found that the \"flourishing frugal\" cluster comprising the highest earners tended towards guilt-free hedonic consumption while the \"financially distressed\" favoured frugality but were vulnerable to impulse buying. In response to such crises, marketers have been adviced to demonstrate understanding and empathy towards consumers and to develop appropriate segmentation and positioning strategies (Strutton and Lewin, 2012). This is evident in the rise of value and basic own label brands alongside the popularity of discount food stores.\n3. Resilience: Despite the extensive literature on resilience there is a lack of agreement regarding its meaning and practical implications (Herrman et al., 2011; Raab et al., 2015). The varying definitions emanate from psychology (Lazarus, 1993), organisational studies (Weick and Sutcliffe, 2007), sociology (Evans and Reid, 2013), consumer research (Ball and Lamberton, 2015), disaster studies (Baker and Baker, 2014; Ozanne and Ozanne, 2016), ecology (Adger, 2000) and spatial studies (Andres and Round, 2015). Different types of resilience have been identified, including psychological (Block and Kremen, 1996), behavioural (Robertson and Cooper, 2013), community-based (Mason and Baker, 2014; Baker, 2009) and social resilience (Koos et al., 2017). Psychological resilience has been characterised by the ability to bounce back from negative emotional experiences and by flexible adaptation to the changing demands of stressful experiences (Block and Kremen, 1996; Lazarus, 1993). Returning to a previous state is a common theme in the literature, where resilience is described as \"the developable capacity to rebound or bounce back from adversity, conflict and failure or even positive events, progress and increased responsibility\" (Luthans, 2002, p. 702). Resilience is also associated with both reactive and proactive responses involving recovery, learning and growth (Youssef and Luthans, 2007, p. 778). This suggests that resilience can be developed during a process of adaptation to events, which, in turn, may have either a sensitising or strengthening effect (Rutter, 2012).\n4. Persistent resilience: Golubchikov (2011, p. 4) introduced the term persistent resilience in response to increasing uncertainty brought about by economic, social and climate change, defining it as \"a form of engagement with more enduring, lasting challenges and pressures, especially those challenges that underlie everyday life, [and] are mundane\". He argues that persistent resilience allows for a proactive and continuous renegotiation of everyday life practices and relationships and accommodates \"continuities of change and reciprocity\". According to Golubchikov (2011), the potential to become increasingly marginalised, excluded and/or displaced from the marketplace is particularly significant for EU consumers if they fail to proactively tackle austerity in the long-term. Persistent resilience is presented as a response to the pressures of modern society but also as a coping strategy over prolonged periods of austerity experienced by many Europeans. It can, therefore, be viewed from both a social and an individual perspective. More recently, De Verteuil and Golubchikov (2016) highlighted the persistent renegotiation and restructuring of common, everyday practices, drawing on the power of resources and networks to effect incremental change, which may form the basis for more significant transformation at both an individual and societal level. They suggest that persistent resilience can be actively produced such that while people may not be able to change their circumstances, they develop agency in coping with austerity. This emphasises persistent resilience as a negotiated phenomenon rather than a normative form of overcoming adversity.\n5. Methods: Following an interpretive turn (Spiggle, 1994), face-to-face, in-depth interviews were chosen as an appropriate form of social enquiry (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994; Miles and Huberman, 1994). The interview process was based on a long interview protocol (McCracken, 1988), which aimed to explore the effects of austerity in terms of changes to everyday behaviour and experiences, comparing how things were done prior to and during austerity. After receiving ethical approval from our respective university ethics research committees, the semi-structured interviews began with some global questions regarding the home, leisure and working lives of participants before moving on to more detailed questions regarding their consumption and day-to-day family and work life.\n6. Findings and discussion: Building on the resilience literature, the conceptual work of Golubchikov (2011) and the empirical study of Andres and Round (2015), the paper presents a theoretical proposition for the concept of persistent resilience within the consumer context of austerity. Our conceptualisation incorporates and develops existing theories in areas including social resilience and coping but responds to the particular situation of austerity. The rationale for this theory development comes from Oswick et al. (2011) who call for more theoretical blending through analogical reasoning rather than one-way borrowing. Therefore, while we began to identify similar themes to those of Golubchikov (2011), we recognised that these themes could be further developed and built for a consumer context. To help appreciate and understand the contextual nuances regarding our themes (Figure 1), we firstly acknowledge and discuss the influencing role of two themes, which we identify as constants, (i.e. an occurrence, which takes place and may re-occur over time) namely persistent stressors (McCubbin et al., 1980) and temporal orientation.\n7. Conclusions: Oswick et al. (2011) argued against the simple appropriation of theories from other disciplines and recommended a blending process and analogical correspondence over one way domestication. Theoretically resilience has benefited from considerable conceptual development although little blending has taken place across economics, psychology, organisational, disaster studies and sociology. This study has engaged with the concept of resilience, blended it with appropriate theories primarily in the area of social resilience and developed it through an empirical study to underline the temporality surrounding persistent resilience and consumption responses to austerity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In the context of European consumers' experiences of austerity, this study aims to advance current resilience theory in marketing through developing persistent resilience from a context of austerity influenced consumption.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Following an interpretivist approach, 38 face to face, in-depth interviews were conducted with European consumers from Ireland, UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece who were affected in some way by the global financial crisis.\nFindings: Building upon limited conceptual and empirical investigations in social geography, the analysis identifies the themes of persistent stressors and temporal orientation as constants, alongside day-to-day coping, relating and pragmatism, consumer adjustment, repertoires of resistance and transformation as key elements of persistent resilience within the consumption context of austerity.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study addresses the limited theoretical and empirical focus on persistent resilience and austerity and directly contributes to consumer behaviour and marketing theory in understanding persistent resilience and its implications.\nPractical implications: Changes to behaviours as a result of persistent resilience included reducing and stopping consumption, discount shopping, alternative consumption in the form of growing or making and mindful consumption through wastage reduction and re-use.\nSocial implications: The study highlights the significant social impact of austerity while also identifying positive outcomes for social relations among family, friends and the wider community.\nOriginality/value: This study develops and extends Golubchikov's (2011) theory of persistent resilience through exploring European consumer responses to austerity, identifying key consumption characteristics relevant for marketing theory and practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Globalization (fighting), corruption and development : How are these phenomena linearly and nonlinearly related in wealth effects?
|
[
"Africa",
"Corruption",
"Globalization",
"Wealth effects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Is globalization a tool in the fight against corruption? How does globalization in terms of trade openness and financial liberalization affect corrupt practices and the fight against corruption through human development in developing countries? How are these phenomena related in wealth effects? Are findings different under linear and nonlinear conditions? This paper addresses the above concerns within the context of Africa in the light of Lalountas et al. (2011) hypotheses (conclusions): \"Thus, our main conclusion is that globalization could be a powerful means of fighting corruption, only for middle and high income countries. For low income countries however, globalization has no significant impact on corruption. We might therefore conclude that at low levels of per capita income emphasis is given to the economic dimension of international integration and as a result the effect of globalization on corruption is limited. Persistence on globalization as an effective means to reduce corruption in developing countries might lead to inappropriate policies. On the contrary, at high levels of per capita income emphasis is given to the political and social dimensions of globalization and as a result the effects of this phenomenon on corruption control are significant (p. 645).\n2. Globalization, human development and corruption: 2.1 Theoretical highlights\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data\n4. Empirical analysis: This section addresses the ability of the exogenous components of human development to account for differences in the CPI and corruption-control; the ability of the globalization instruments to explain variations in the endogenous components of human development and the possibility of the globalization instruments to account for the CPI and corruption-control beyond human development channels. To make these assessments, we use the panel TSLS-IV estimation method with financial and trade liberalization measures as IVs.\n5. Conclusion: Is globalization instrumental in fighting corruption? Do wealth effects matter in this fight? Are findings valid when the linearity assumption is dropped? This paper has assessed the Lalountas et al. (2011) hypotheses in the African context. Though not in form, yet in substance the intuition and motivation are compatible with those of Lalountas et al. (2011). Four hypotheses have been tested from different methodological and contextual standpoints. In the analysis, while the economic and social dimensions of globalization have been reflected in the HDI, the political dimension has been captured by good governance indicators. A TSLS-IV estimation technique has been applied where-in globalization instruments of trade and financial liberalization are instrumented on human development and government quality to account for corruption (corruption-control) effects. Thus the intuition has been to assess how globalization is instrumental in the fight against corruption through human development (economic and social dimensions) and government quality (political dimension).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Is globalization instrumental in fighting corruption? Do wealth effects matter in this fight? Are findings valid when linearity assumptions are dropped? The purpose of this paper is to assess the Lalountas et al. (2011) hypotheses (conclusions) in the African context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Though not form, yet in substance the intuition and motivation are compatible with those of Lalountas et al. (2011). Four hypotheses are tested from different methodological and contextual standpoints. In the analysis, while the economic and social dimensions of globalization are reflected in the human development index, the political dimension is captured by good governance indicators. A two-stage least squares-instrumental variable (TSLS-IV) estimation technique is applied where-in globalization instruments of trade and financial liberalization are instrumented on human development and government quality to account for corruption (corruption-control) effects. Thus the intuition is assessing how globalization is instrumental in the fight against corruption through human development (economic and social dimensions) and government quality (political dimension).\nFindings: H1: globalization is a powerful tool in fighting corruption (True). H2: globalization is an important tool in fighting corruption only in middle- and high-income countries (partially true). H3: for low-income countries globalization has no significant impact on corruption (true). H4: H1 and H2 are valid only under linearity (false).\nSocial implications: In countries with high levels of per capita, emphasis is placed on the political and social dimensions of globalization and as a result the effects of this phenomenon on corruption-control are significant. Conversely, in nations with low levels of per capita income, emphasis is given to the economic dimension of international integration and as a result the effect of globalization on corruption is limited. As a policy implication, persistent globalization as an effective means to reduce corruption in developing countries might lead to inappropriate policies in low-income countries.\nOriginality/value: This paper has tested the Lalountas et al. (2011) hypotheses in the continent where concerns of globalization, human development and corruption are most acute.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Trust and duration of buyer-seller relationship in emerging markets
|
[
"Cognitive",
"Buyer–seller relationships",
"Trust",
"Emerging markets",
"Duration analysis",
"Affective"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Trust continues to receive considerable attention among marketing scholars as a critical factor for the sustainability of buyer-seller relationships (Akrout et al., 2016; Young, 2006). Given the trend toward fierce competition for customers, where even satisfied customers often engage in switching behavior, building strong interpersonal trust with customers has become an imperative for firms seeking to enhance the duration of exchange relationships with customers. Owing to the fact that several forms of duration effects are possible in a buyer-seller relationship, engendering the appropriate form of trust represents a strategic imperative for enhancing a firm's ability to manage and retain customers over time. The duration effects range from: inverse duration to positive duration to stationary effects. In inverse duration effects, survival time decreases over time. In positive duration effects, survival time increase over time. In stationary duration, there is no change in survival time. Although these different duration effects are possible, we know little about the prevalence of trust-duration relationships. For the most part, the extant research has focused on how to build trust in exchange relationships, but not on how trust enhances the survival time (duration) of exchange relationships, despite recent calls for inclusion of duration analysis (Akrout et al., 2016).\nAffective and cognitive trust: As indicated earlier, interpersonal trust has been widely viewed as comprising affective trust and cognitive trust. Affective trust derives from personal bonds and feelings that a trustor has developed for another party (McAllister, 1995). Although affective trust has received less attention in the literature than cognitive trust (Akrout et al., 2016; Young, 2006), affective trust also markedly influences the buyer-seller relationship (Anderson and Kumar, 2006). The level of affective trust in the relationship between buyers and sellers reflects the amount of care and concern that the relationship partners exhibit for one another (Johnson-George and Swap, 1982; Rempel et al., 1985). This sense of care could be generated by the realistic expectation that the partner will not bring harm to the other partner in the relationship. As a result, these sentiments create the perception of security within the relationship. In comparison to cognitive trust perceptions, affective trust evaluations of a relationship partner result directly from previous interpersonal exchanges with the partner. Scholars acknowledge that affective trust is the emotional component in repeated exchange relationships developed over time (Dowell et al., 2015).\nTrust and duration of relationships: Consistent with the preceeding argument interpersonal trust in repeated exchange relationships entails partners' experiences with affective and cognitive components in the buyer-seller relationship that develop over time (Johnson and Grayson, 2005). This assumption is consistent with the intangible nature of service, and that customers rely on experience and credence attributes after the service has been consumed, rather than search attributes, to make purchase decisions (Zeithaml, 1981). Expectations about services are based on extrinsic cues, such as those related to the physical surroundings, to form expectations about the service one will receive (Zeithaml, 1988). We view buyer's trust performance on interpersonal trust as critical components of the physical surroundings of exchange relations in EMs.\nMethodology: Sample and data collection approaches\nConstruct measurement and validation: Our focal constructs include interpersonal trust attributes of purchasing agents - affective and cognitive. Affective trust was measured by four items, including \"purchasing officers care about me and other customers\", \"purchasing officers would not knowingly do anything to hurt me\", \"purchasing officers seem to look out for what is important for me\" and \"purchasing officers go out of their way to help farmers and customers\".\nEstimation procedure and results: The analysis was conducted in three stages to parallel with the study research questions. To address RQ1 about how cocoa suppliers evaluate interpersonal trust attributes of buying firms' purchasing officers, we examined the mean ratings of the respondents' evaluations of affective, ability and integrity trust. RQ2 pertaining to the impact of trust components on duration was initially examined in a simple duration model. The number of years the cocoa producer has been selling to a given buying firm was treated as the dependent variable, and the three interpersonal trust variables served as the independent variables. This analysis was repeated for sellers' intention to remain with the current buyer as the dependent variable in an effort to model duration as a future behavior intention.\nResults: The results of the analysis regarding the important components of interpersonal trust in the EM buyer-seller relationship are summarized in Table III. Ability trust received the highest evaluation (Mean = 4.45), followed by integrity trust (Mean = 4.14) and affective trust (Mean = 3.59). These evaluations suggest that suppliers view buying firms' purchasing agents as exhibiting high affective trust attributes as well as emphasizing cognitive trust over affective trust. Thus, the latter finding supports anecdotal evidence that managers tend to undermine affective trust in building interpersonal trust. The result support H1, which asserts that all the components of interpersonal trust are important in EM buyer-seller relationships. In addition, the results in Table III indicate that private buying companies receive higher ability ratings than state buying agencies.\nDiscussion: Consistent with previous research supporting the link between trust and anticipation of future buyer- supplier interactions (Crosby et al., 1990), our study provides several insights into the relationship between interpersonal trust and the duration of buyer-seller relationships in the EM context such as Ghana. In addressing the nature of relationship duration within buyer-supplier relationships, our paper extends previous work by Mpinganjira et al. (2017), which calls for such an investigation. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the importance of interpersonal trust components (affective and cognitive) in suppliers' perceptions of their relationships with their buyers, understand the importance of interpersonal trust to the relationship duration and investigate how firm characteristics such as firm type (state buying agency versus private buying agency) systematically impact seller relationship duration decisions. Thus, an additional contribution of this paper is the combined examination of both affective trust and cognitive trust. While the literature recommends consideration of both affective trust and cognitive trust, few studies have included measures for both trust dimensions.\nLimitations and future research: As with all survey-based studies, the relationships captured in this research are likely to change when investigated in different contexts. Thus, the results may not generalize to other EM contexts such as different export commodities in different countries. This is especially the case in the EMs contexts where cocoa export channels have long been fully privatized (e.g. Cote d'Ivoire and Brazil). Unlike many EM cocoa export channels that have long been privatized, Ghana's cocoa export marketing system was only recently and partially privatized and potentially has more sellers at risk of adopting/switching relationships with their buyers than would be expected in more privatized export commodity marketing systems. Therefore, future studies should replicate this study in different commodity and country contexts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine how various components of interpersonal trust (affective and cognitive) influence the duration of buyer-seller relationships in the emerging market (EM) context of a heterogeneous market structure dominated by small, fragmented sellers/suppliers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study proposes a hazard model for analyzing duration effects of interpersonal trust in the EM context. The model was validated using data on buying agents provided by 340 cocoa sellers/producers in Ghana, gathered from extensive field interviews.\nFindings: Results of the survival analysis reveal a limited but significant positive duration effect of cognitive (ability) trust only. Further analysis of sellers' duration intentions (intention to remain with a buyer) also reveals a positive impact of affective trust but no impact of cognitive (ability and integrity) trust. Cocoa bean sellers' evaluation of buying firms' purchasing agents suggests that buying firms underperform on emotional/affective components of interpersonal trust, and that private firms outperform state buying agents on ability trust as well.\nResearch limitations/implications: While this study focused on the fragmented nature of sellers in the EM context, and the scope was limited to the sellers' interpersonal trust perception of the buyer-seller, future research should examine both buyer and seller perceptions to obtain complete insight into the buyer-seller dyad in the EM context. In addition, the results of the duration effects identified in this study may not be generalizable to other EM export commodities, where channels have long been fully privatized. Ghana's cocoa export marketing system was only recently privatized, and potentially has more sellers at the risk of adopting/switching relationships with their buyers than would be expected in more privatized expert commodity marketing systems.\nPractical implications: Managers of export commodity buying firms in EMs can take advantage of the positive duration effects of cognitive trust by constantly improving the capabilities of their purchasing agents throughout the lifetime of their suppliers to sustain their relationship. However, sellers' intention to switch can be mitigated by formalizing policies that encourage emotional bonds with sellers, especially small-scale producers in highly vulnerable bargaining positions. The aggregate output of small-scale producers could be of strategic importance in the future.\nOriginality/value: Managers need systematic empirical evidence of the nature of duration effects of interpersonal trust given anecdotal evidence suggesting that managers have a tendency to emphasize cognitive trust over affective/emotional trust. Further, the applicability of such evidence in the EM context is critical given unique conditions such as highly fragmented sellers dealing with relatively large corporations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Woodward's aegis: a critical biography of Joan Woodward
|
[
"Technology",
"Engagement",
"British management",
"Contingency management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nWoodward's aegis: a critical biography of Joan Woodward: \"It depends.\" Today's management scholar is well aware of this hedge when describing the best processes, policies and practices. The statement \"it depends\" as a response to business challenges is strongly suggestive of contingency management (Mintzberg, 1979), a fundamental approach still prevalent. Prior to the contingency approach, scholars sought out what they considered to be the singular \"best way\" of managing (Wren and Bedeian, 2009).\nCritical biography: Biography is the process of examining the life and times of a particular subject in a chronological fashion (Garraty, 1956). Biography serves two purposes:\nValues and background: Joan Woodward was born in England on September 27, 1916. She earned an interdisciplinary PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) degree with first-class honors from Oxford in 1936 and a master of arts in medieval philosophy from Durham University (Durham, England) in 1939. She went on to earn a diploma in social and public administration from University of Oxford in 1939 (Dates from Obituary, The Times, 1971a, May 19). This diversity of educational thinking and academic disciplines allowed Woodward to have broader framework to draw from than if she had been trained in classic management theory (Perrow, 2010). Although the Oxford University Press had never published a book on organization or industrial policy before, Woodward's medieval background was regarded so highly that the editor published her work.\nContribution: Woodward's early years in the field marked a time when many academicians were moving away from the classical theory of management. The classical school featured such luminaries as Frederick Winslow Taylor, Mary Parker Follet and Lydell Urwick, and stated that there was a one best way to manage. This one best way did not consider the differences that would occur between a plant in capitalist Detroit or communist Moscow. Norbert Wiener launched the first criticism when he published Cybernetics in 1948 and gave the first basic theoretical perspectives for systems theory (Shafritz and Ott, 1987). Systems theories had close philosophical and methodological ties to Scientific Management and Frederick Taylor's \"one best way.\" The systems theory originally used qualitative scientific methods to find \"optimal solutions\" (Shafritz and Ott, 1987). It did not take long for researchers who ascribed to systems theory to begin to wonder if the dynamic nature of systems made it impossible to develop an ultimate solution for all organizations (Wren, 2005).\nInfluence and criticism of Woodward's work: Over the years, there have been some criticisms of Woodward's work. One criticism is that organizations often have multiple technologies (Miner, 2002). Although Woodward did include a \"Combined Systems\" category, there was little direction as to determining dominant technology in a firm or a how to apply the combined technology category. Miner (2002) also listed two other common critiques of the work:\nContext: To understand the context of Woodward's work, a brief overview on the state of British business education and the economy in general is needed. Woodward commenced her work during the decline of the British economy. A great many scholars have speculated that the decline of British power can be attributed to a decline of the commercial spirit (Wiener, 1981). The British Empire grew most rapidly during the period when business and science were both encouraged and respected by the elite (Wiener, 1981).This ethic was replaced by an emphasis on both status and morality, which resulted in a rapid decline in business and science. A culture that had produced a Newton and Darwin was increasingly falling behind in education, science, and business to other nations. Instead of Great Britain, America is considered the center of the second phase of the industrial revolution (Wren and Bedeian, 2009). Likewise, Germany took the lead in applying science to education. Britain also saw a declining industrial strength as well. For instance, Marcus Samuel seemed to be more interested in becoming Lord Mayor of London than in maintaining his base of power in the Shell Oil Company. In the public schools, sons of businessmen were looked down upon as they lacked the esteem as either the sons of nobles or intellectuals (Wiener, 1981).\nConclusion: This paper fills a real void in the literature by discussing a figure that has not been adequately recognized over the past several years. Even a page dedicated to the history of Imperial College fails to mention the impact of Woodward on the discipline (Timeline of College Events, 2015). A thematic review of the Journal of Management History from 2010 to 2014 reveals that although scholars have spent a tremendous amount of attention on various management thinkers such as Taylor, Simon, Chandler, Barnard and Homans, there has been little written about Woodward (Schwarz, 2015). What has been published about Woodward comes from an issue in Technology and Organization. This is somewhat incongruent with the importance of contingency in the literature and Woodward's role in developing contingency as a replacement to Taylor's assumption of universalism (Wren and Bedeian, 2009). Sexism cannot be to blame, as scholars have spent attention on various women including Lotte Bailyn, Lillian Gilbreth and Mary Parker Follett in management history (Gibson et al., 2013; Gibson et al., 2015; Moore, 2015). In fact, the second most talked about person in the literature over the past few years besides Taylor is Mary Parker Follett (Schwarz, 2015).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to offer a critical biography of Joan Woodward, often considered the founder of contingency theory. This paper examines Woodward's background to develop a more complete understanding of the factors that influenced her work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper draws on insights gained from personal correspondence with two colleagues of Woodward, one who recruited her to the Imperial College where she conducted her most prominent work and one whom she recruited while at the college. In addition, Woodward's original work, academic literature, published remembrances and a plethora of other secondary sources are reviewed.\nFindings: By connecting these otherwise disparate sources of information, a more complete understanding of Woodward's work and its context is provided. It is argued that Woodward's education, training, brilliance, values, the relative weakness of British sociology and the need to improve the economy helped to make Woodward's work both original and practical.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this work is to examine the work of Woodward through the lens of critical biography. Despite Woodward's contributions, Woodward remains an underappreciated figure. The purpose is to provide her contribution against the backdrop of the British industrial and educational sphere.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Chinese students' decisions to undertake postgraduate study overseas
|
[
"China",
"Higher education",
"Postgraduate",
"International student"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Given the enormity of the Chinese population coupled with the country's fast paced economic growth, there are significant opportunities for international trade relationships. One such international trade relationship is in terms of Chinese young adult consumption of international higher education services. According to data from the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, the number of Chinese students studying overseas surged from 179,800 in 2008 to 608,400 in 2017. Therefore, China has been the most important source country for international students to English speaking countries like the UK, the USA and Australia in recent years. The focus of this paper is to understand what influences Chinese young adults in their consumption choices pertaining to international postgraduate study choices.\nLiterature review: In the specific context of Chinese students who choose to study overseas, various authors have illuminated push and pull factors leading to international higher education choices (Li and Bray, 2007; de Wit, 2008; Dimmock and Leong, 2010; Chan, 2012; James-MacEachern and Yun, 2017). According to Chan (2012), push factors include factors such as perceived increased value of obtaining a foreign degree, and high levels of competitiveness for access to domestic university places. Pull factors are where host countries offer perceived superior conditions for study than domestic providers, for example, in terms of quality of higher education provision, or macro-environmental factors. Dimmock and Leong (2010) examine the reasoning behind Chinese students' overseas study with a particular emphasis to Singapore. They contend that studying overseas is because of economic and demographic factors, and despite rapid domestic Chinese higher education expansion, there remains an inherent shortage of available places. However, Dimmock and Leong (2010, p. 27) note that studying overseas can have significant risks such as \"language difficulties, different pedagogic traditions and expectations, life-style differences and culture shock\". They assert that push factors include limitations in respect of admission, teaching and learning, and societal culture, whilst pull factors include consideration of cost, quality and culture. They furthermore contend that a decision to study abroad is conditioned by the resilience of the individual student in terms of adaptation to differing learning and teaching, living environments and culture. The authors also articulate that a choice to study abroad is influenced by long-term residence intentions post study (i.e. return home, remain in study destination or intention to reside in a third country).\nMethod: The data in this study were collected from 15 respondents at Xi'an University of Finance and Economics and Xi'an International Studies University. The students were final year undergraduate students who were at the point of considering where to study overseas for their postgraduate education. The sampling approach was influenced by Glaser and Strauss' (1967) \"theoretical sampling\". The semi-structured qualitative interviews were longer than many other typical qualitative studies; with interviews typically lasting between 2 h, and 2 h and 30 min. In all, 13 of the interviews were conducted in Mandarin and 2 were conducted in English (as requested by the respondents who would like to take the chance to practice their English language skills). Data were collected in July 2011. All interviews were transcribed verbatim into English for the purposes of data analysis. This process generated around 260,000 words of raw data. Hence, the data went through processes of open coding on transcripts, meta-coding, data matrix construction and data reduction (Miles and Huberman, 1994). This enabled the researchers to compare the data with extant literature to inform the theory development in this paper.\nFindings: The paper will now discuss the main findings of the study according to the principal themes of: financial and time costs; employment prospects; postgraduate education as a cultural adventure; linguistics; visa issues; admissions; climate; influence of referents; academic image and reputation.\nDiscussion and implications: Consumer research studies have reported that Chinese consumers place considerable emphasis on thrift and frugality in their consumption behaviour (Doran, 2002; Wang et al., 2008). Our study shows that such characteristics impact on international study choice. Whilst the extant literature has indicated cost being important in decision making this has been in generic terms; research has not identified that length of postgraduate taught degree programmes in respective countries as being a key influencer of decision making. Hence, this research furthers debate about cost in that it becomes a trade off between the inter-linked dimensions of finance and time; albeit one which is now linked to the quality assurance landscape architecture of specific countries. For example, given the shorter postgraduate taught registration period for UK degrees than many of its international competitors, the UK may have a competitive advantage in recruiting and retaining Chinese students as many perceive the choice of the UK as less financial and time intensive for postgraduate study, than many other international competitors. This could be a key marketing asset for UK higher education institutions which should be emphasised in marketing communications. The shorter period of study for taught programmes than many international competitors (especially continental EU countries) may, however, deter some Chinese students who may wish to have a longer period to settle in to the higher education culture; afforded by countries with longer postgraduate taught programmes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to surface themes which may influence Chinese students' decision making in relation to postgraduate study in international universities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study utilises a semi-structured qualitative interview methodology (n=15).\nFindings: The main findings are discussed according to the following themes: financial and time costs; employment prospects; postgraduate education as a cultural adventure; linguistics; visa issues; admissions; climate; influence of referents; and academic image and reputation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample size is small, yet affords greater depth of data and discussion.\nPractical implications: The research offers practitioners in universities who are managing postgraduate recruitment of Chinese students, some greater understanding of the reasons behind prospective Chinese postgraduate students' choice; from which they can evaluate the effectiveness of their institutions' recruitment strategies.\nOriginality/value: Extant research has tended to report reasons why Chinese students study overseas, whereas this study offers deeper insight and exploration of the reasoning of Chinese international students in the postgraduate context. The research is of value given the importance of postgraduate Chinese students to international university recruitment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Demographic determinants of electronic commerce (EC) adoption by SMEs: A twist by location factors
|
[
"E-commerce",
"SMEs",
"Adoption",
"Demographics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Whereas governments and large corporations play a dominant role in the formal economy, SMEs drive the informal sector (Mutuala and Brakel, 2006; Awa et al., 2011); hence, many economies aggressively pursue public policies encouraging small is beautiful, especially in this digital era. Scholars (Scupola, 2009; Ojukwu and Georgiadou, 2007; Ongori and Migiro, 2010; Ogechukwu, 2006) show that SMEs are the bedrocks for industrialization; they balance political and economic independence. SMEs vary amongst economies in the contexts of their number of employees, amount of capital invested, annual turnover, size of fixed investment, the nature of their business and/or the combination of all (Awa et al., 2011; Gamage, 2003; SMEDAN, 2005). Scholars assert that SMEs are associated with socio-economic growth of any nations as they catalyze urban and rural developments and provide agility to adapt to changing market demands (Mutuala and Brakel, 2006; Apulu et al., 2011; Ongori, 2009). Scupola (2009) proposes that they account for about 96-99 per cent of enterprises in most OECD nations and provide about 80 per cent of economic growth. In Nigeria, about 97 per cent of enterprises are SMEs and they employ an average of 50 per cent of the working population and contribute about 50 per cent to the country's industrial output (Ihua, 2009).\n2. Conceptual review: SMEs in Nigeria believe that the uptakes of electronic commerce will revolutionize business operations but when compared with advanced economies, one may be tempted to say Nigerians uphold wait and see (imitative approach) attitude in adopting some of the ICT platforms. Ifinedo (2006) states that SMEs in Nigeria can increase their market reach, enhance customer service and reduce both marketing and distribution cost through e-commerce. However, the strength of e-commerce lies on its provision of a worldwide innovative platforms for optimizing operations and integrating services and business partnership via real-time flow of information (Ongori and Migiro, 2010; Al-Qirim, 2007). It provides new methods of communications, business transactions, market structures, education, and works that assure operational flexibility (see Awa et al., 2010). Though e-commerce's definitions vary, Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants refers to it as sharing of business information, maintaining business relationships and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunication networks (ASCPA, 1997). Awa et al. (2010) define it as a form of business transaction involving inter-firm alignment, where supposedly independent parties/firms interact and collaborate real-time through electronic networks rather than physical contacts.\n3. Conceptual development and hypotheses: The research framework visualizes the interrelationships amongst the three groups of variables (predictor- age, experience, education, and gender; dependent- adoption; and moderator- firm's location) whereas the empirical review provides the scholarly evidence. Though the predictor variables are well studied, simplistic and seem somewhat superficial in the context of e-commerce, introducing geographical location as a moderator variable provides potentially unique twist since (to one's self) ICT inquiries (e.g. Fillis et al., 2003; Shiau et al., 2009; Thong, 1999; Grandon and Pearson, 2004) scarcely sought to use location factors to explain the critical link between e-commerce adoption and the demographic composition of top management. Extant inquiries (e.g. Apulu et al., 2011; Apulu and Latham, 2011; Apulu and Ige, 2010; Kannabiran and Dharmalingam, 2012; Riemenschneider and Mckinney, 2002) focus more on the development of adoption forecasts, and the identification of adoption drivers and inhibitors than on the demographic characteristics of decision makers.\n4. Materials and methods: 4.1. Population and data collection\n5. Analysis and findings: Figure 1 presents a framework of four hypothesized main/direct effects and two moderation effects that explain firm's location. The measures were reliable and valid and the two effects were tested using a four-step hierarchical regression procedure. Cohen and Cohen (1975) propose that the process involves factor-loading of the independent variables, loading of the direct effect, the moderator, and then the interaction effects. Since in some cases nominal data collected, SPSS procedure converted them to interval to permit the use of regressions. Essentially, testing the moderation involves examining the general moderating effect of the moderators, and then examining the moderator effect and the direction of the moderation for each link between the independent and the dependent variables. The model summary in Table II shows that the predictor variables explain an overall estimate of 27 per cent variations of e-commerce adoption behaviour (see R2=0.271, p\n6. Discussion: This paper attempts to provide additional insight into the demographic determinants of e-commerce adoption by introducing the moderation effects of some location factors. Specifically, our investigation focused on identifying the moderator effects of physical infrastructures and industrial specialization on the demographic composition of top management and e-commerce adoption. Although with varied statistical strengths, the two factors significantly moderate the relationship(s). Proposing that e-commerce adoption varies with firm's location, this finding debunks Thompson Friedman's proposition of the world is flat (see Israel, 2007; Gengatharen and Standing, 2005). With uneven developmental strides in some developing economies, e-commerce can rarely be perceived by SMEs to provide plausible ways to overcome the ordeals of distance and size. The predictor variables explain e-commerce adoption behavior; thus, lending support to extant studies (e.g. Thong, 1999; Dwivedi and Lal, 2007; Shiau et al., 2009; Awa et al., 2011). First, the equation found that age has significant positive relationship with e-commerce adoption. While some studies (Hambrick and Mason, 1984; Child, 1974; Awa et al., 2011) confirm the significant role of younger executives in adoption decision; others (e.g. Chuang et al., 2009) assume age has a significant but negative effect.\n7. Limitations and directions for further studies: This study is besieged with some limitations that perhaps ignite need for future research. First, drawing our sample from SMEs in some industries operating in the three geo-political zones may limit the power of generalization of our findings against those industries and zones not studied on the recognition that no two industries/zones are exactly the same. Therefore, external validity and possibly theories is often built by replicating and cross-validating the variables and their measures. Second, though concrete steps were taken to minimize their effects on results, some errors seem unavoidable in the course of converting data just like all the measures used appear subjective and prone to common error bias. Third, other demographic (e.g. income, marital status, functional track, etc.) and location (better knowledge centres, conglomeration of venture capital companies, spatial proximity, etc.) factors not captured in this study may be studied by future researchers.\n8. Conclusion and implications: E-commerce is associated with socio-economic developments and operational efficiency. Geographical locations differ in terms of the opportunities they offer different young, educated, and experienced labour force, which ultimately define extent of innovation adoption. SMEs located far from the cities tend to adopt ICT solutions very sluggishly because the range and quality of available resources may not be adequately encouraging. Somuyiwa and Adewoye (2010) propose that SMEs need quality resources to improve geographical proximity and to overcome communications ordeals placed by their size and physical distance. SMEs are constrained by limited resources to fully exploit the capabilities of e-commerce but their operating agility offers them leveraging strengths to tap the huge growing market, and to experiment and customize entrepreneurial solutions faster than large enterprises with more established bureaucratic hierarchies. Mintzberg (1979) theorizes that the CEOs of SMEs (and perhaps in conjunction with their lieutenants) make the most critical decisions because of the centralised structures; thus, their demographic characteristics significantly explain and predict e-commerce adoption.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Research on the demographic characteristics of top management team (TMT) on e-commerce adoption has really advanced. Although some of such studies factored location factors as e-commerce adoption drivers, rare attempts have been made to unravel if the differences in the demographic composition of TMT and the rate of adoption may be explained by the differences in the firm's geographical location. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to bridge this knowledge gap by proposing a framework that conceives and measures geographical location as a contextual variable between e-commerce adoption and TMT composition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were generated from the opinions of owners/managers of 226 SMEs drawn purposefully from registered SMEs in five industries located in three geo-political zones of Nigeria. Two cities (a state capital and a commercial nerve centre) were studied and a four-step hierarchical regression (spanning factor-loading) was used to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: Evidence from the study shows that the hypothesized relationships between demographic factors and e-commerce adoption (main/direct effects) were statistically significant (supporting H1-H4). The two moderators (physical infrastructures and industrial specialization) that explained location factors were equally statistically significant in moderating the relationship between the demographic composition of TMT and e-commerce adoption.\nResearch limitations/implications: Sampling the opinions of SMEs in some industries of three geo-political zones of Nigeria limits the power of generalization. Therefore, extended data and measures are required to replicate the study in order to build external validity and reliability, and possibly theories. Further, some errors seem unavoidable in the course of converting the data through SPSS procedure just as all the measures used appear subjective and prone to common method bias. Other demographic and location factors not captured in the study may be handled by future studies.\nOriginality/value: The work will be of benefit to the academia and practitioners in terms of showing how location factors dictate the relationship between the demographic composition of top management and e-commerce adoption. The paper raises pointers that stimulate future research and advised policy-makers on even or near-even distribution of infrastructural facilities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
From blueprint to implementation: Communicating corporate identity for the hotel industry
|
[
"Communication",
"Corporate identity",
"Hospitality management",
"Public relations",
"Advertising"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: An organization needs a single clear corporate identity to secure its reputation in the eyes of internal and external stakeholders. This identity must reflect the ethos, aims and values of the organization and present a sense of individuality that can help to differentiate the organization within its competitive environment (Balmer, 2001). These aims and values should be presented in terms of visual and non-visual symbols - for example, a logo, uniforms and advertisements for the former, and a common language, procedures, and training methods for the latter.Every organization's management should work from the assumption that its corporate identity is not consistent over time. Environmental forces such as acceleration of product life-cycles, deregulation, privatization programs, increased competition, globalization, mergers, acquisitions, shortage of high-caliber personnel, public expectations for corporate social responsiveness, and the breakdown of boundaries between the internal and external aspects of organizations can all prompt managers to periodically reconsider an organization's identity (Balmer and Gray, 1999). However, while today's managers recognize the importance of creating a corporate identity, the communication process can pose difficulties for managers because of the necessity to present it to several different audiences (Kedidi and Torfve, 2005).Corporate communication has been defined as \"the process through which stakeholders perceive that the organization's identity, image, and reputation are formed\" (Balmer and Gray, 2003). Corporate communication can be divided into three categories: primary communication, aimed at internal and external stakeholders (employees and customers, respectively); secondary communication (marketing communications, corporate advertising and promotion); and tertiary communication (word-of-mouth between organizational stakeholders and networks) (Balmer and Gray, 2000; Balmer and Greyser, 2003). The purpose of this case study is to trace the corporate communication process implemented by the Fattals hotel chain management, focusing on primary communication.Fattals Hotels is the largest hotel management company in Israel, with 14 hotels and 4,500 rooms. Fattals Hotels began building its renewed corporate identity after six years of activity as an Israeli hotel management company, as a result of intense competition from its competitors Dan Hotels, with 3,150 hotel rooms, and Isrotel Hotels, with 2,650 rooms. The Fattals group was the first hotel chain in Israel to realize that the needs of both Israeli and foreign guests were changing. Whereas in the past Israeli customers were satisfied with local service quality standards in the hotel industry, by the end of the millennium, surveys showed that these standards were no longer perceived as relevant. The Fattals group realized that in order to create a competitive advantage over its two competitors they must adopt a new corporate identity approach based on the provision of international service quality standards. This new approach was relevant both to local and foreign customers who wished to obtain the same service quality they experienced around the world. The idea of creating an international corporate identity for their hotels enabled Fattals group to differentiate themselves from their competitors. But in doing so, the chain had to reeducate local customers to prefer a hotel with international appeal rather than a local one. The case of Fattal's is a unique one from several aspects. First, it represents irregular transition from branded identity to an endorsement identity which are two contradictory corporate identity strategies. It is very rare to find good examples for organizations that were changing radically their identity in such a short time. Second is the shift from mainly local-national corporate identity to global-international corporate identity. Third is the vast involvement of the internal stakeholders (workers and managers) in the process of the identity formulation, design and implementation. This case demonstrates how a suitable mechanism and processes can aid in reaching an effective assimilation of the new identity. Fourth is the creation of a dynamic, systematic and on-going process of adopting and up-dating of a corporate identity.\nNew corporate identities in the hospitality industry: In recent years, the hospitality industry has experienced significant changes, primarily due to the interest of many chains in going international (Burgess et al., 1995). This trend has led to a new business approach on the part of many international luxury hotels (Van Doorn and McCaskey, 2003) that has resulted in a large number of mergers and acquisitions. These strategic steps have required hotel chains around the world to change, first their names, and later their corporate identities. There have been two main approaches to this process. Some chains have adopted a monolithic approach - for example, the Carlton Hotel Collection (Van Doorn and McCaskey, 2003) and the Hilton Hotels chain (Gray and Balmer, 1998). This strategy ensures that the same name and visual style is used in all external communications (Olins, 1989). In contrast, other chains have based their strategy on the endorsed approach. In this approach - for which the Holiday Inn chain presents an excellent example - the idea is to develop semi-independent identities that are endorsed by the corporation (Selame, 1997).Hales (1997) points out that implementation of a corporate identity strategy is also of increasing importance for stand-alone hotels. Like most other industries, the hospitality industry has found that communication is the key to success. Hotel management often struggle with the question of how to communicate a new corporate identity.\nChannels of corporate identity communication: Since stakeholders are influenced in many different ways, organizations seek to use as many channels and methods as possible to get their message through (Gray and Balmer, 1998). According to Kedidi and Torfve (2005), the most useful corporate communication sources in the hospitality industry are nomenclature and branding, graphic design, formal statements, architecture, media relations and routine interactions. These channels are summarized in Table I.\nSources of corporate identity communication: In order to make these corporate identity communication channels more applicable to managers, Miles and Mangold (2004) suggest an effective framework. Internal communications are directed at employees; external communications at customers. Both take place at both formal and informal levels. Both forms of communication are shown in Figure 1.The formal sources of internal communications include the organization's human resources management and public relations system, which disseminate information about the organization through recruitment documents, newspapers and periodicals, and the organization's internet sites. It is important that messages emanating from human resources be consistent with one another and with the organization's other communications (Goetting, 2000). In order to provide clear and consistent messages through these human resource systems, it is imperative to professionally manage the processes of attracting and recruiting employees, training and development, and compensation procedures (Miles and Mangold, 2004).The second formal source of internal communications is the organization's public relations system. This source plays a major role in directing employees' perception of the organization's business policies and social values. Advertising messages put forth by the PR system can project a particular image as well as an emotional tone (Mitchell, 2002).Informal sources of internal communications include coworkers or supervisors, the organization's culture, and its leadership and management, all of which play an important role in building a corporate identity (Miles and Mangold, 2004). The first informal internal source is the influence of coworkers. In some cases, information transmitted through coworkers - via interaction or observation - may reflect organizational realities more accurately than the messages transmitted through formal sources. The second informal internal source is the organization's culture. Organizational culture consists of a set of values, norms, standards of behavior, and common expectations that send messages to members about what goals they should pursue and how they should behave to reach those goals (Jones and George, 2003). The third informal internal source is the influence of organizational leadership and management. Charismatic leaders in any organization typically help their subordinates understand the organization's values and vision and are able to communicate a plan for achieving that vision (Burns, 1978).External communications, directed at customers, likewise emanate from both formal and informal sources. Formal sources of external communications include public relations and advertising. Advertising is considered to be a powerful tool in comparison to public relations, since the organization has the capacity to control and supervise it. Managers must understand that messages transmitted to external stakeholders through public relations and advertising have to be consistent with the messages transmitted to internal stakeholders. Informal sources of external communications include customer feedback and word-of-mouth. Word-of-mouth communication is highly credible, compared to the organization's formal communications and the messages conveyed through media advertising (Bone, 1995; Herr et al., 1991).\nFattals hotel management group: the quest for a new corporate identity: With the establishment of the Fattals group in 1999, its managers sought to base the firm's identity on a branded corporate identity strategy. Under this strategy, firms promote several different brands independently of the corporate parent. Therefore, in the beginning, the chain's business strategy entailed taking over several leading hotels in Southern Israel and running each one separately without changing its identity or personality. During the execution of this strategy, the company took over four different hotels, three of them locally owned and one belonging to the Le Meridian Hotels chain. The chain management then embarked on a vigorous program of change designed to guarantee an especially high standard of service quality, so as to bring the hotels to an international standard. Along with this, the management began to examine positive trends in the tourism sector, which pointed, first, to a growing number of tourists from many Western European countries and from the USA, and second, to an influx of massive financial support from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.Given these positive trends, the Fattals' management decided to re-define its target markets. Management defined its potential customers as seeking one of four types of vacations: elegant European-style vacations, vacations with a European flavor, Mediterranean-style vacations and pampering Israeli-style vacations. In an effort to determine the best response to these four segments, management began to explore the possibility of associating the names of international hotel chains with the local hotels that required an image change. After considering several global chains and negotiating at length with their managements, Fattals owners determined to create its four brands based on three global hotel brands and one existing local brand. The group of hotels that were to cater to clients seeking an elegant European-style vacation was to be called Le Meridian; the group offering a European flavor was to be called Golden Tulip; those hotels offering a Mediterranean-style vacation were to be called Club Med; and those offering a pampering Israeli-style vacation were to be called Magic. Toward mid-2003, the chain had seven hotels, all managed independently: two Le Meridian hotels, two Golden Tulip hotels, one Club Med hotel and two Magic hotels (currently the chain has 14 hotels).At the end of 2003, after an examination of management trends in the hospitality sector, and recognizing the necessity to become more efficient, the chain decided to adopt an endorsement corporate identity strategy. The new corporate identity, in contrast to the previous one, would be based on the idea of building one main brand encompassing four sub-brands of the chain. The chain's management assigned three months for designing the new corporate identity. During this period, management began to re-examine the strength of the chain's differentiation strategy, in order to pinpoint approaches to differentiation that had not been adopted by its competitors. This process took place at two levels: first, at the level of senior employees of the Fattals management, through a steering committee; and second, at the level of the individual hotels' employees and managers. This involved the creation of seven teams, one for each hotel, made up of both the hotel's managers and its staff. In a series of meetings, these teams explored new ideas for differentiating the chain via diverse brainstorming approaches. At the close of the process, the team leaders presented to top management the values they had identified that could serve as a basis for the differentiation of the chain and for the new, desired identity. The findings of the joint forum suggested that Fattals could differentiate itself by stressing the aspect of a perfect and complete hospitality experience. This meant that the brand name Fattals had to be based on experiential added values, as represented by the slogan \"Hospitality is all about love\". In other words, every service provided to clients in any Fattals hotel must seem to be performed out of love and not out of necessity. This joint process of defining the new values of Fattals, a process that included both managers and employees, was critical in designing the new corporate identity.At this stage the chain had to find the best way to communicate its new corporate identity to its employees and customers. Fattals' management realized that it must first inform its employees at all levels of the change to an endorsement corporate identity. Following that, it would need to make its customers aware of the new strategy and how it might improve service quality. For both purposes, the chain relied on both formal and informal sources.The following describes the communications strategies adopted by Fattals both upon introducing the change to its corporate identity, and currently, to ensure that the company's messages are communicated accurately on an ongoing basis.Formal internal communications\nLessons and applications: The success of the new corporate identity communication process is evidenced among the two primary stakeholders of Fattals. Regarding the employees of the chain, it appears that they are more committed than ever to act according to the strict standards established within the framework of the overall identity of Fattals hotels. These changes were accomplished by including employees in the planning process. Employees have indicated that they sought to work in the Fattals chain rather than at competitors because the chain is known for supporting and fostering communication and advancement. An example of this policy is the \"Hospitality is all about love\" theme of the hotel chain. Visitors are given small figures in the shape of hearts that they can pass on to hotel employees whom they believe have given extraordinary service. These hearts can be turned in for extra pay. Employees also have a great deal of autonomy for resolving customer complaints. A case in point was the initiative taken by a waiter in one of the hotel's restaurants to provide a German beer for a guest. The beer was not supplied by the hotel, but the aspiring waiter slipped out to a nearby supermarket and acquired the requested beer brand. The result was greatly appreciated by the guest.Fattals' employees speak a common language that is based on the company's new values. Results from focus groups of employees revealed very high motivation levels and high satisfaction and willingness to work in this hotel management chain. Fattals is proud of the fact that 75 percent of their employees, based on yearly focus groups tests, claimed that they felt secure working in Fattals. A total of 80 percent believed that they have a realistic chance for promotion in the chain. As for the company's clients, there is evidence that they identify the chain and its hotels with the values it communicates. In addition, an analysis of clients' satisfaction with service (in 14 hotels) revealed that 90 percent of local customers stated that they would consider one of Fattals' hotels as their first choice in planning their next vacation. Recently, an international hotels survey showed that Le Meridian in the Dead Sea was chosen by international tourists as the best hotel in Israel (Conde Nast Traveler, 2006).During the past several years, many hotel management firms have changed their hotels' corporate identities, primarily as part of an effort to go global. It appears that the most difficult aspect of building a corporate identity is the communication process, since it is essential to communicate the new identity to each primary audience. Our analysis of the Fattals hotel management group corporate identity communication process reveals a managed process that ensures assimilation of the values of the firm by both employees and customers. The success of this undertaking on the part of Fattals can serve as a model for other organizations in the hospitality sector in their efforts to communicate their new identities to their primary stakeholders.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - In recent years, the field of corporate identity management has grown substantially in importance in the hospitality industry. Managers of hotels have become increasingly interested in learning methods that have been successful in communicating a new corporate identity. The purpose of this case study is to document the design and implementation of new corporate identity communication process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This article describes a holistic process of designing a new corporate identity for a leading hotel management group, with a focus on implementation of its corporate communication process.\nFindings: - The case study described here suggests that corporate identity communication occurs at four levels - internal and external, formal and informal - and provides a strategic framework for any hotel chain management in implementing a new corporate identity.\nOriginality/value: - This case study adds a new element to the process of communicating image/identity to internal and external stakeholders in the hospitality industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Bridge leadership: a case study of leadership in a bridging organization
|
[
"Bridging organizations",
"Bridge leaders",
"Collaboration",
"Organizations",
"Leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is increasing recognition that multiparty collaboration may be critical for the resolution of all sorts of social and economic problems. One imperative of this development is the emergence of new and unconventional forms of intermediary organizations dedicated to fostering multiparty or cross-sector collaboration. One popular example of this sort of facilitative organization is the bridging organization. A bridging organization is an independent organization that facilitates multiparty collaboration (Gray, 1989; Brown, 1993).Prior research has shown that leadership is important to the success of collaborative initiatives generally, and bridging situations specifically (Gray, 1989; Westley and Vredenburg, 1991). For example, Faerman et al. (2001) discuss the key role of leaders in shaping the vision of a successful collaborative initiative to regulate financial market innovation in the USA. Westley and Vredenburg (1991), on the other hand, demonstrate how a lack of leadership contributed to the failure of collaboration between groups of stakeholders in Canada. Despite their importance and the emerging literature on strategic bridging organizations, our understanding of leadership in bridging organizations may be fairly limited. The very nature of bridging organizations suggests that individuals who lead such organizations operate in a complex environment and face serious challenges primarily because the role may place multiple, conflicting and significant pressures on such leaders. Brown (1993) notes that bridge leaders are vulnerable to failure because they operate in contexts characterized by high interdependence and turbulence. As a central actor, a bridging agent is highly visible and vulnerable to institutional and resource dependency pressures from constituents and other actors with stakes in the problem domain (Brown, 1993).The exercise of influence in a bridging situation to effect collaboration between independent stakeholders may require a unique set of skills, yet hardly any studies exist on behaviors required for leadership in this new organizational form. Given the importance of leadership in collaboration and the hypothesized problems of leading a bridging organization, it would be of interest to explore the sort of influence strategies most suitable in bridging organizations, hence this research. Our focus here is on the leadership strategies and behaviors in one such bridging organization. This study should add to the existing literature on bridging organizations by increasing our understanding of what influence and task-related behaviors are necessary to successfully lead such an organization.This research focuses on individual formal leadership within a collaborative system (see, e.g. Galaskiewicz and Shastin, 1981). The focus on individual leadership within a collaborative system differs from the conceptualization in which the focus is on the bridging organization, rather than individuals. For example, Huxman and Vangen (2000) describe leadership within collaborative governance as leadership that stems from structures, processes and actors. In that case, the unit of analysis is the bridging organization, rather than the leadership in the bridging organization. A focus on structure as an explanatory variable for leadership can yield important insights. We note, however, that it is people who lead, not systems and so reifying structure at the expense of people may miss the crucial component of the human element in any leadership situation. The case on which this article is based is a qualitative study of a leader in an organization we identified as a strategic bridging organization in the Northeastern US. The tenure of this leader has been judged to be very successful by the two groups of stakeholders that he bridges.\nResearch objectives: Current leadership theories seem to identify a set of consistent characteristics, behaviors and influence tactics for leaders. Bridge leaders may exhibit some, all or none of those considering the fact that the context of multiparty collaboration is somewhat different from traditional hierarchical organizations to which most traditional leadership theory seems to apply. Thus although many traditional leadership roles and behaviors may apply to bridging organizations, bridging leaders may have additional challenges. As mentioned earlier, a bridge leader needs to navigate the conflicting expectations of different stakeholders without the usual sources of power. To be effective also requires that stakeholders in the system achieve their individual performance goals as well as their collaborative goals and the task-related leader behaviors will therefore be keys to their success. The unique aspects of leading in bridging organizations create at least two important questions that we address in the research:1. First, what influence strategies should prove most useful for a leader in the bridging situation?2. Second, what task-related behaviors are demonstrated by the bridge leader?\nLeadership theory: Explaining leadership in hierarchical organizations\nBridging organizations: Bridging organizations defined\nBridge leadership: Bridge leadership defined\nMethod: The study applies Yin's (2008) single case revelatory study to explore the issues. Yin suggests that case studies can be helpful in providing details about a phenomenon. This case study followed Yin's protocol for conducting single case studies. The data came from the bridge leader and from managers within the two groups that the bridging organization serves. The research used a longitudinal, intensive case study of one individual leader over a period of two and half years. The focus on a single leader allows us to have a more in-depth study of the phenomenon. This approach is also consistent with some prior studies that focused on single leaders (e.g. Browning et al., 1995).Research context\nData collection: Data for this study were collected over a two and half year period. Data were collected by interviews with the President of the Council (hereafter called the bridge leader), analysis of his writings and correspondence in the form of weekly newsletters, archival data, some participant observation, and interviews with 20 managers of firms in the two separate groups of stakeholders that the council bridges. In addition, both researchers attended several official functions of the council at which the leader presided. Three in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted over a period of several months with the president of the CMSDC. Each of our three interviews with the bridge leader lasted for about 120 minutes. In addition, ten in-depth interviews lasting about 90 minutes on average were conducted with the presidents of minority supplier businesses and three CEOs and seven supplier managers of large Fortune 500 companies (20 interviews in all). All interviews were conducted on the respondent's business premises. All interviews were audio taped and transcribed in their entirety. Mental field notes were made and recorded soon after each interview. In a few cases, follow-up phone interviews were conducted to seek clarification. We also attended several functions organized by the council. Some of these events were business oriented while others were more socially-oriented, but even these provided opportunities for networking by the stakeholders and information gathering by us.We used a theoretical sampling approach to collect our data. We spaced out our interviews with the bridge leader, analyzed the data we collected from each interview and collected additional data. The sort of data we collected at each stage was determined in part by the information we got from our data at the earlier stages. This approach, theoretical sampling, allows for interweaving both data collection and analysis (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Two years of a weekly newsletter put out by the president of the council was coded following the Miles and Huberman (1984) thematic content approach. We coded the text and derived key themes.Our research strategy, approach to coding data, and the use of data from textual analysis to triangulate our findings allowed us to demonstrate the validity of the data. Other protocols we followed that demonstrate the validity of the data are as follows: First, we developed initial conceptual categories and some preliminary explanations from the data. Second, our interviews were spaced out over a period of several months and this allowed us to review our initial conceptual categories as new information was collected. Third, we added new categories as new information emerged and dropped some conceptual categories. This was achieved by comparing new information to prior data, and explanations we derived from that data. This process of iteration continued until we believed that we were not getting any new information. In addition, our triangulation of data sources provided us at least two forms of support for the validity of our data. Finally, we also compared the perspectives of both MBEs and corporations on the president's leadership. The perceptions of MBEs and corporations on the leadership of the president of the bridging organization showed remarkable consistency as evidenced by our results.\nData analysis: The analysis procedure followed a grounded theory approach formulated by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Both researchers coded all the interview data following a three-stage process. First, we closely examined the data and generated some initial ideas about emerging concepts and then classified the emerging data into categories. We generated 86 categories at this stage, representing behavior indicators and characteristics of the bridge leader. We then compared notes and came to agreement on a common list of 26 categories. Second, we reduced the initial categories through axial coding by integrating some of the initial categories we identified (Strauss and Corbin, 1998), reducing our initial 26 categories through examination into a core category of 21. Third, we used selective coding to eliminate some categories by either dropping them or merging categories we believed related to each other. Finally, we used selective coding to further merge related categories to fit what we saw as the emerging theory. All the data were thoroughly examined for evidence of how the data fitted our categories.Two years of the weekly newsletters that the president of the council puts out were coded following the thematic content approach (Miles and Huberman, 1984). Prior research has demonstrated the suitability of data from textual analysis of speech and communication (Carley, 1993). Both researchers initially read ten each of samples of the newsletters and derived a number of key categories separately. We then compared our categories and mutually agreed on seven categories after dropping some initial ones. These categories where then used to code the newsletters. Both researchers coded the newsletters independently. Two graduate students who were trained in content analysis then separately coded the newsletters with the categories we derived. We found acceptable agreement and despite the fact that some chance agreement may have been present, we believed that our results were representative enough.\nResults: Bridge leader performance\nKey findings on influence strategies and behavior: Bridge leader as champion\nConclusion: Drawing on two research traditions in leadership and multiparty collaboration, this article makes a number of contributions to the literature on leadership and bridging organizations. First, the study contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of leadership in bridging organizations. By examining the influence strategies and leadership behaviors that were helpful to the leader of a bridging organization we studied, the study provides some practical ideas for other leaders in similar contexts. Second, in examining leadership strategies and behaviors in a specific context and showing how these may differ from our traditional concept of leadership, the study may allow us to construct new theories about leadership. Finally, where most existing discussions of bridging have been largely confined to non-governmental, voluntary, social-change organizations and environmental groups (e.g. Polonsky, 2001), this study extends the concept of strategic bridging to the private sector.It is important to mention that some of the leadership behaviors we discussed may not be unique to bridging situations, and may be applicable to leadership in hierarchical organizations as well while others may be more appropriate and desirable particularly for bridging situations. For example, leaders manage the expectations of group members (Bass, 1990) use social capital to achieve their goals, just like bridge leaders (Balkundi and Kilduff, 2006), sometimes use some of the same modes of communication such as story telling as bridge leaders to influence their followers (Conger, 1991) and apply similar relational skills such as the use of social capital to lead (McCallum and O'Connell, 2009). For example, communication is important in leadership of all sorts of organizations even if the communication strategies of bridge leaders need to be more nuanced to be effective. It is possible that some leadership behaviors that make for successful leadership in hierarchical organizations may be equally useful in bridging organizations as well. For example, we have seen the bridge leader engage in transformational, and to some extent, servant leadership behaviors.This research has uncovered some important leadership behaviors, skills and characteristics of a successful bridge leader. The study demonstrated that leaders in bridging organizations use forms of influence strategies that compensate for their lack of direct positional power. Although there is some leadership vulnerability in the form of a lack of direct control over resources, the president drew on some of his personal qualities such as humility, persistence, integrity, reflection and his ability to substitute personal allegiance for positional authority for influence. Our findings are consistent with Dulany (1997) who notes that the bridge leader's capacities to elicit trust from the stakeholders he or she bridges come from competence, integrity, constancy and empathy. The author goes on to suggest that such bridge leaders must have the ability to engage different kinds of people; be open to compromise; have credibility with their constituency and an aptitude for learning to understand the language used by the stakeholders they bridge.Implications for practice\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to examine leadership in an intermediary organization whose mission is to facilitate collaboration between large corporations and their smaller suppliers, a bridging organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative approach using a single case revelatory method was adopted. Data were collected from a bridge leader as well as 20 executives of companies involved in the collaboration.\nFindings: - The analysis revealed that the successful bridge leader tended: to build personal relations and goodwill as a way of creating personal obligations on the part of the stakeholders he led; championed the cause of the stakeholders and made their mission his/her own; created opportunities for individual and collective goal achievement; relied on symbolic behavior and ceremonies to reify the bridge mission; and engaged in frequent communication with a liberal use of humor and playfulness to make goals embraceable by the stakeholders in the collaboration.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is a single case study and that limits the generalization of these findings. However, the findings provide some preliminary evidence to show that a lack of control of resources need not be a reason for leader non-performance.\nPractical implications: - A bridge leader may substitute other influence strategies to compensate for the lack of direct positional power.\nOriginality/value: - This study is one of the few that explicitly examines leadership in bridging organizations. The paper's understanding of this phenomenon is important because of the importance of bridging organizations to business and social innovation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Making a life or making a living? Cross-cultural comparisons of business students' work and life values in Canada and France
|
[
"Work ethic",
"National cultures",
"Gender",
"Canada",
"France"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Howard and Wilson (1982) pointed out that as the baby-boom generation entered adulthood, a sharp break with traditional values took place causing considerable consternation in the US corporate world. Today's globalization, or the so-called Americanization according to some authors (i.e. Sebastian, 2004), is unavoidably spreading its influence around the world, especially in the managerial environment (Ghoshal, 2005).The large corporate scandals and frauds recently exposed in the US raises serious concerns on issues of business ethics (i.e. Ghoshal, 2005; Dolan et al., 2004a, b). In order to counter this unhealthy phenomenon, many business schools and academic scholars call for reinforcement of the concept of corporate social responsibilities (CSR) in their programs and curriculum in order to shape and instil such values in the people that will lead the corporations tomorrow (Bartunek, 2002). Critics say that these remedies attempting to educate future managers comes too late, but other believe that it might minimize future ethically based risks, all depending on the set of values the future managers enter the world of work after graduation. Welsh (2004), for example, believes that the task of instilling corporate responsibility does not reside solely with the academic institutions and he calls for the mandatory incorporation of CSR into employee ongoing training programs. Whetstone (2005), went further to developed a clear framework for an ethical organization that will serve as a clear benchmark for all stakeholders.Corporate governance in many western organizations is deeply grounded in agency theory (Jensen and Meckling, 1976) thereby focusing primarily on maximizing shareholder values, and in the process leaves managers with limited discretion to serve other stakeholders (Freeman, 1984). In contrast, there is mounting pressure on executives to behave more professionally and adhere to a more strict code of ethics (Dolan and Cannings 1995; Dolan et al., 2004a, b).While the turbulent international business environment challenges business executives to rethink existing managerial models, Garcia and Dolan (2003), Dolan and Richley (2005), Dolan et al. (2006) developed an original framework emphasizing the importance of the underlying values structure, and asserting that it is essential for today's managers, to replace earlier philosophies such as \"Management by Instruction\" and \"Management by Objective\". Dolan and his colleagues propose that \"Management by Values\" is the emerging strategic leadership tool of significant potential for practical applications to resolve the problems facing the 21st century organizations. Thus, managers' values represent a predisposition to behave; the chain leading from attitudes to behaviour is direct and is explicit in the work context.This paper has been elaborated within the previously mentioned context. There seems to be a growing need to understand better the structure and order of work and life values of future managers. In the past, most of the published research on work ethics has been explored with a focus on working individuals. Life value's influence within cross-cultural context and for minority groups has only recently gaining more attention (Brown, 2000).This comparative study of business students in Paris (France) and Quebec (Canada) (hereafter referred to as future managers) is an attempt to explore empirically some of their respective values as a key to predict their future behaviour in an actual work setting. Country (i.e. uses as a proxi measure of culture) and gender, are used as control variables for reasons that will be detailed hereafter. Thus, the objectives of this study are twofold: First, to identify the underlying value structure among the business students in reference to general life and work preferences, and second, to explore the difference in these values along country and gender. The latter were selected due to published research which show important value difference based on nation/culture (i.e. Dunkel and Mayrhofer, 2001; Hofstede, 1982) and gender (i.e. Powell, 1993; Rosener, 1990).\nTheoretical background: Work ethics\nMethods and procedures: The data for this study were collected in two business schools in French-speaking regions: Paris (France) and Quebec (French Canada).Procedures, instruments, variables, and scales\nResults: Life and anticipated work values structure\nDiscussion: The findings confirmed the two hypotheses stated in this study: (a) there are differences in life and work values between France and French Canada and (b) there are differences based on gender.Country does make difference\nConclusions, limitations and future research: The preceding discussion around the results of our study is pointing to a time where business needs to become aware of its future workforce demands which are reflected in the values that it holds. Especially when business is viewed as a social contract with society where one of the key stakeholders is its employees (Lenssen, 2005; Freeman, 1984). As such it is clear that even though we have entered a new globalized work place (Held, 2000; The Economist, 2005), the cultural values homogenization still take a long way to go as our study addresses that there are differences in the country cultures and between gender.Both life and work values are highly treasured by future managers and therefore need to be considered concurrently in the workplace. In fact, numerous managers working in multinational companies without consideration of work and life balance suffer from this disequilibrium and hereby stress (Dolan et al., 2005). Hence, the implementation of work-life balance practices becomes a crucial, challenging, and rewarding proposition for business. The provision of work-life balance practices not only promotes employees health but also becomes an important incentive to attract potential future employees.The concern of a balanced work and life for employees and managers is critical for European corporate social responsibility model, which is referred here as the philosophy of \"making a life\" vs the \"making a living\" from American managerial vision. A management approach to stakeholders instead of the sole concern on stockholders could balance better work and life values, which could probably increase the ethical behaviours in business decisions making and hereby lead to less corporate scandals.Findings made regarding gender differences in work and life values propose that women may act as strong promoters of work-life balance practices in work context. As women's participation in the workforce and especially in top management positions nowadays is increasing (Catalyst, 2003, 2004; Singh and Vinnicombe, 2003), it seems obvious to assume that their value system will be reflected in their daily decision-making processes. Their presence in decision-making positions will have significant long-term implications as they determine hiring, compensation, and employee evaluation practices (Pfeffer, 1982; Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978). Thus, findings propose that corporate business ethics are slightly changing.An interesting question that arises is whether the presence of female values in executive boards also helps to decrease large corporate scandals and frauds. Findings have shown that women placed greater value on socio-affective issues rather than typical male socio-economic issues such as prestige and power. The future will show how the business world will benefit from a more gender diverse pool of decision makers.Culture is a too complex system to be measured by over-abstract dimensions and hereby \"cultural standard\" would be the interpretations that people make of a specific context (Dunkel and Mayrhofer, 2001). Hereby, work ethics within cross-cultural context is multifaceted. Research in social science such as management uses the mode of intentional explanation, which has very significant influences on the practice of management than natural science and the effect is reciprocal (Ghoshal, 2005). Spini (2003) also stated that it is hard to say \"if the glass is half empty or half full\" depending on the epistemological or methodological standpoint of the reader. This study does not pretend to set forth a definitive theoretical model for work-life value in a cross-cultural context with a \"scientific model\" (see Bennis and O'Toole, 2005), but merely a further step of a series of research on values as the research gradually approaches reality (i.e. Bollen, 1989).A thorough research agenda on work ethics and cultural values is warranted including a replication of the study in other cross-cultural contexts; in-depth qualitative studies to explore insight and triangulate with intercultural individuals; comparison of work and life values congruence and its influence for work ethics; and the effect of global diversity on work ethics issues. Moreover, it seems justified to look at different perceptions of females and males regarding work-life values within one country and in another step to compare these findings on a cross-national level.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The contemporary managerial work place is changing; baby boomers, the globalization and an increased participation of females in the workforce is redefining what value systems future managers' will hold. This paper aims to build upon the traditional research on work ethics which focused primarily on working individuals. It seeks to explore future managers' value systems on life vs work, in a cross-national context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Previously validated questionnaires, containing 33 work-life values, were completed by business students in two French-speaking regions of the world: Paris (France) and Quebec (Canada). Factor analysis was employed to examine the underlying value structure of work and life.\nFindings: - Five factors emerged, two pertaining to work context, two to life context and one general factor as following: Extrinsic and intrinsic work context, social/society and ego/self-life context and creativity. Subsequently, a comparison along these values is made between the two regions. Gender differences were also tested along these values. Results show differences in the value systems of these future managers based on region and gender, despite their common French language.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a discussion of implications of the findings, within a context of ethics and social responsibility in reference to the stakeholder model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Culture change through the use of appropriate pricing systems
|
[
"Analytical hierarchy process",
"Pricing policy",
"Decision making",
"Construction industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is generally recognised that the traditional construction payment systems (e.g. unit price, lump sum and as percentage of construction cost) are adversely affecting the relationships between client and contractors; client and consultants; contractor and sub-contractor and contractor and suppliers. These difficulties include delay in payment, over measurement, front-end loading etc, which have been documented by the National Specialist Contractor Council survey (Murdoch, 2005). The survey found that average delays of payments were: 63 percent for 30 to 60 days; 20 percent for 60 to 90 days; and only 7 percent for less than 30 days. In addition to this, retention abuse (70 percent) and \"pay when paid\" (74 percent) are among the highest contractual abuse being reported. Latham (1993) regards this as an issue of \"trust and money\" which has a negative impact on the construction progress and has been strongly criticised in the Trust and Money report (Latham, 1993).Clough and Sears (1994) found that cash flow is one of the major causes of failure for small construction firms. In order to avoid negative cash flow the project participants have to manage their working capital by means of overdraft, borrowing from financial institutions or securing other lines of credit. However, there is always the potential to engage in bad practices such as, pay-when-paid and over measurement. To overcome these cited difficulties, alternative payment systems have been suggested by academia and government (e.g. Potts, 1988; Kaka, 2001; Egan, 2002; Njie et al., 2005; DTI, 2006). They recommended that the construction industry should move away from practices of non-productive, adversarial and conflict ridden payment practices and start to adopt some of the emerging payment methods.Research related to construction cost estimation and cash flow forecasting abound (e.g. Kaka, 1994; Fortune and Hinks, 1998; Skitmore, 1998; Kaka and Lewis, 2003), all recommend good practice for financial management in the early stage of construction cost advice and selection of appropriate payment methods. Furthermore, the call for good payment practice in construction reflects the Government's efforts to improve payment practices across the industry, e.g. \"Trust and money\" (Latham, 1993), \"Constructing the team\" (Latham, 1994), \"Rethinking construction\" (Egan, 1998), and \"Accelerating the change\" (Egan, 2002). One example is the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) endeavour to amend the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (Construction Act) and Scheme for Construction Contracts Regulations 1988 (England and Wales) to improve payment practices for the construction industry.This paper focuses on the study of pricing systems and in particular the use of AHP for MCDM in the selection of alternative systems. The project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The findings reported in this paper represent part of the \"Re-thinking construction using payment systems\" (ReCoUPS) research project. It discusses the development of a MCDM tool and the identification of the attributes to go with it. The tool uses Microsoft applications i.e. Virtual Basic for Applications (VBA) and Excel to develop the AHP model. The full function of the MCDM tool will assist practitioners to select the most appropriate pricing system to adopt for the construction client, consultant and contractor of a project.\nMulti-criteria decision making tool: Belton and Stewart (2002) regard MCDM as \" ... .an umbrella term to describe a collection of formal approaches which seek to take explicit account of multiple criteria in helping individuals or groups explore decisions that matter\". In other words, the benefit of MCDM is to facilitate decision makers' understanding of the nature of the problem faced and their capacity to learn about the decision making process. More importantly, the MCDM helps individuals and organisations to articulate the values, objectives and priorities during a decision making process. Therefore, MCDM involves intuitive judgments, individuals' experience and behaviours of a decision-maker. Values and judgments vary between individuals and complex decision making is often associated with many direct and indirect factors. Traditional decision making methods tend to model the issues which can be captured at the surface of the problem whereas MCDM techniques enable greater depths to be explored. In the case of pricing systems professional judgement is vital since the choice of decision criteria and the respective \"weights\" given to those criteria and the \"trade offs\" are essential parts of a judgemental decision environment.The relevance and importance of decision-making in construction management has attracted much attention such as the use of multi-attribute value theory or multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) for balancing multiple factors (decision criteria) to assist individuals or groups decision making in complicated environments. Belton and Stewart (2002) regard this as the concepts of \"value measurement theory\". The idea of this approach is to construct a function or means by associating a real number with each alternative to produce preferences of the alternatives that are consistent with the decision makers value judgements. Equally, in this study, the use of MCDM follows a value function method where a hierarchical decision value is constructed to assess the performance of each alternative (alternative pricing systems) against individual criteria (project objectives) together with the assessment of preferences for each criterion to obtain the overall decision maker's preference.There are numerous MCDM techniques and other decision-making methods found in construction management research such as, AHP, multi-attributes utility techniques, fuzzy techniques, multivariate discriminate analysis, artificial neural network analysis, logistic regression technique, and linear programming methods. Examples of these investigations can be found in: Hwang and Yoon (1981); Fellows and Langford (1980); Holt et al. (1994); Holt (1998); Boussabaine and Elhag (1999); Al-Harbi (2001); Al-Khalil (2002); Cheung et al. (2002); Wong et al. (2003); and Wong (2004). In this research, the AHP technique is selected to develop the MCDM tool. The AHP analysis has been proposed by Saaty (1980, 1996) and applied since widely in marketing, medical, political, social, military, and other disciplines. It is one of the most comprehensive mathematic frameworks for MCDM environments and therefore was considered to be suitable for this study.Belton and Stewart (2002) highlight the use of MCDM to improve subjective judgements when individuals and groups are involved in using multi-criteria methods. In order to perform subjective decision making, there is a number of key phases to pursue such as:1. problem identification and structuring;2. model building and use; and3. the development of action plans.In this study, these key phases were modelled into a MCDM tool as follows:1. identify and structure the case for construction pricing selection;2. identify and model the payment selection factors and alternatives to be considered in the AHP analysis; and3. develop an analytical tool to provide the most appropriate pricing system (Figure 1).\nMethodology: According to Saaty and Vargas (1991), human preferences and behaviours can be explained in terms of relative comparison expressed in the form of ratios. The use of ratio scales for assigning weights to measure qualitative attributes is relatively easy. Although AHP is a mathematically based technique for multi-criteria analysis, it is able to evaluate a complex MCDM using both tangible and intangible attributes. AHP uses a hierarchy structure to model the MCDM process which begins with the prioritisation of the MCDM attributes by means of pair-wise comparisons. The advantage of paired comparisons method is that it allows decision makers to concentrate on a comparison of two attributes at one time when assigning his or her preferences. This enhances the objectivity when making a choice from a range of potential alternatives with defined constraints.In this study the structure and attributes to be used for the selection were identified using a survey of construction professionals. These included the alternative pricing systems to be considered and the factors (project objectives) that were perceived to be influencing their choice. These are shown in Table I and will be discussed later. The pair-wise comparison was facilitated by assigning each project objective an importance rate on a nine point scale such that pairs of objectives could be compared for there influence on selecting an appropriate pricing system. In any paired comparisons exercise, there will be significant multiple judgments required. When eliciting such judgments, it is quite common to have redundant comparisons and inconsistencies. Such inconsistent judgments will cause inaccuracy in AHP results. Therefore, a mechanism for systematically checking on the consistency of each judgment is required. Saaty (1996) recommends that a value of consistency ratio (CR) less than 0.1 is a tolerable error. That is, a 10 percent of the inconsistency (error) from the overall paired comparisons judgments is accepted. The method for calculating the CR has been adapted from ExpertChoice(tm) and SuperDecisions (www.superdecisions.com) software. In this study, a MCDM tool was developed using the VBA and Microsoft Excel applications to perform the aforementioned mathematical calculations. For detailed AHP analysis, the information can be found in Saaty's literatures (Saaty and Vargas, 1991; Saaty, 1996). The following concentrates on how the proposed MCDM tool can be constructed using the AHP analysis.\nAHP analysis: A total of five different pricing methods and 17 factors affecting payment methods were identified from the previous studies (i.e. Njie et al., 2005; Sherif and Kaka, 2003, 2004) and a series of interviews with construction practitioners. The former represents alternative pricing methods identified as price-based, rates-based and cost-based types of payments i.e. lump sum, unit price, cost-plus a fixed fee, cost-plus incentive, and fee as percentages of project value. The latter is a set of key project objectives (PO) that are perceived to impact the selection of most appropriate pricing systems (PS) given the type of project and client characteristic. Table I summarises the attributes, project and client types to be considered in the proposed MCDM tool.Both PS and PO are used to construct a hierarchical structure of the MCDM attributes in an AHP model. The first step in AHP is to assess the relative importance of these POs to the project. This is discovered through a series of paired comparisons. The second set of the MCDM attributes (i.e. the alternatives PSs) are then compared to each others with regards to the degree they are perceived to support the realisation of each of the POs.. Using the above judgment data, the AHP model calculates the overall degree of suitability of each PS, and the PS with the highest score is identified option. Details of the step-by-step MCDM analysis explained in the following.Functionality of the MCDM application\nConclusion: The construction industry has been criticised for its adversarial culture and lack of performance. Significant work has been done aimed at raising awareness for the need of integrated and collaborative project teams. There has been a few good examples where partnering has actually resulted in better performance, but this view is not shared widely. Project teams, whether one off (temporary) or partnered are motivated by their own individual organisational objectives. It is often said that cash is king, and in construction this is certainly an overriding issue. This paper focussed on one aspect of this motivator, namely how projects are priced.There has been criticism of the traditional pricing system being adopted by the industry. New, alternative systems are emerging to promote and support integration and collaboration. These however, are yet to be applied widely in the industry. This paper is part of a research project aimed at promoting the use of these new payment systems. The decision support tool developed in this research will help project teams to acknowledge the relationships between project objectives and pricing systems. Depending on the relative importance of these objectives and the perceived impact of the pricing systems on these objectives, the tool will help the decision maker to assess the degree of suitability of the alternative systems and hence arrive at the best option.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to show how practitioners have not fully responded to calls for change in culture. Given that construction teams are motivated by several key factors including money, payment systems may play a major role in facilitating this change. Traditional pricing methods are still found to be the most popular system but often criticised for their contribution to the adversarial culture witnessed in the industry. Alternative pricing systems aimed at aligning constructors' behaviour with clients' objectives are emerging. As a result, the choice of an appropriate pricing system must be based on the circumstances surrounding the project and the likelihood that the system is to influence behaviour positively. This paper aims to propose an analytical hierarchic process (AHP) to help the industry do that.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The AHP consists of a MCDM hierarchy structure, pair-wise comparisons, and the calculation of the relative priorities of MCDM attributes. The attributes used have been identified through a series of interviews followed by postal questionnaires.\nFindings: - The paper results in the development of a decision aid tool for use by the industry to select appropriate pricing systems. This tool identifies seven project objectives as being important for deciding on what pricing system to adopt.\nOriginality/value: - There has been limited research on how pricing systems are being selected, or should be selected. The novelty of this paper stems from the subject area being addressed, rather than the methodologies being adopted.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Measuring the gender gap in organizations
|
[
"Gender",
"Equality",
"Organizations",
"Business",
"Policy",
"Sweden"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper describes the work of creating a gender equality index, based on register data and used at organization level, above all in companies. The idea originates from a call in 2004 by VINNOVA (the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems) for \"Gender perspectives on innovation systems and gender equality - research and development for sustainable growth\".The labour market is one important sphere where gender is reproduced (West and Zimmerman, 1987; Eveline and Bacchi, 2005; Connell, 2006). Men and women work in different professions and different positions and do not have equal career opportunities or possibilities to combine work and family (Acker, 1999; Artazcoz et al., 2004). The injustice and inefficiency that results from the gender-based division of labour affects virtually all women, men, and children in a society, though not all in the same way (Abrahamsson, 2002; Connell and Wood, 2005). Consequently, diminishing the gender gap should be a priority for human resource management in many kinds of organizations.There are several mechanisms for successful gender-aware management. The starting point is gender analysis, involving the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data in order to understand whether and why a gender gap exists. This should be complemented by raising gender awareness, by gender planning, and by using gender-sensitive indicators for monitoring and evaluation (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1999).The paper is organized as follows: first, the labour market in Sweden as a gender reproducer is characterized. Second, the meaning and measurement of gender gaps are discussed and international indices reviewed. The third section gives an operational definition of gender equality and describes the public registers available. The results of our pilot study of two sectors are presented in the fourth section and, finally, the idea, methods, and results are discussed.Does working life perpetuate gender?\nMaterials and methods: Defining gender equality\nFindings: The index was tested in two different sectors. In total, 11,805 people in 128 companies worked in computer sector; grocery production sector comprised 34,602 individuals working in 984 companies. After excluding small companies and companies employing only men or only women, the study population was as follows: Sector 1 comprised 46 companies with a total of 11,471 employees, and Sector 2 comprised 77 companies with a total of 32,151 employees. Although there were some single-sex companies with more than ten employees, these were rare in the sectors studied.A summary of each sector is given in Table II, calculated at company level and aggregated by sector. The lowest means (i.e. the most equal situation) are for the classic gender equality targets of education and income. It should also be noted that for most variables, companies with full equality (i.e. a ratio equal to one) do exist. The most unequal situation was for the two variables (a) number of employees and (b) parental leave; however, for both of these variables, there were companies with perfect or almost perfect equality, demonstrating that it is possible to implement a gender equality standard.The continuous index for the computer sector varied between 1.43 and 2.09 and for the grocery production sector between 1.13 and 2.14. Both sectors showed normal distributions across the index.In the dichotomous version, computer sector companies ranked between 5 and 3, and grocery production sector companies ranked between 6 and 2. These, too, were normally distributed.Comparison of large companies (with more than 100 employees) with companies with 11-99 employees showed no difference in index value.Comparison of the continuous and dichotomous index versions\nDiscussion: In this paper, we have shown that it is possible to measure gender equality gaps at company level using register data. This could be a cost-effective way of bringing to light-gender equality circumstances that must be either further investigated or tackled.We showed two different methods of counting the index, a continuous model and a dichotomous model. Using Spearman rank correlation, we found significant correlation between the two models at 0.01 level (two-tailed). We prefer the continuous model, which we found rewarded companies for even small steps towards gender equality. The variables in the index can of course, be used separately if the aim is to study a specific aspect of gender inequality.It is a challenge to measure gender equality adequately, and criticism of existing attempts are often well formulated and forceful (Bardhan and Klasen, 1999; Charmes and Wieringa, 2003; Dijkstra, 2002; Klasen, 2006). Nevertheless, many believe that such indices could contribute to a better understanding of this issue and as a basis for policy (Bridges, 2003; Dijkstra, 2006).We have been relatively narrow in our description of gender equality, and have used it to indicate a relationship between men and women which, in a way, suggests a form of balance. The term \"gender\" should be understood as the dynamics of everyday interaction between people - doing gender (West and Zimmerman, 1987). By measuring income, education, parental leave and other characteristics, we hope to capture the \"outcomes\" of everyday interaction and decision making.Applications of the index\nConclusions: Using the index, we are able to compare organizations and their provision of a gender-equal workplace for employees. The index appears to distinguish between companies regarding gender equality. The method is simple to manage, systematic and economically viable. Measurement of the differences between men's and women's working conditions can also be used in several ways. Having available the same basic data on one's company or sector can be an important prerequisite for future managerial interventions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present a register-based index that could provide a practical tool for gathering information and increasing our knowledge on gender equality at organizational level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on Swedish gender policy and information available in public registers, six variables were chosen. For each variable, a gender gap was calculated as the ratio between the sexes, with the larger figure always treated as numerator. The study population consisted of 11,471 persons in 46 companies working in the computer sector, and 32,151 individuals in 77 companies employed in the grocery production sector.\nFindings: - The results show indices of 1.43-2.09 for the computer sector and of 1.13-2.14 for the grocery production sector, both with a normal distribution (one is considered fully gender equal and three least gender equal). Added together, the selected variables provide results that are sufficiently different to enable ranking. The variables vary in importance in the two sectors compared. The smallest index variation was for education and salaries; the largest was for parental leave and the number of men and women employed at the companies.\nOriginality/value: - The index is based on public registers, treats men and women symmetrically, and the results generated by the index are easy to communicate to all stakeholders. This research could provide a useful tool for investigating the extent to which men and women differ in certain variables at company level.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Report of a lecture by and questions put to Mr F.W. Taylor: a transcript
|
[
"Management styles",
"Scientific management",
"Taylorism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: I am going to point a way and one lying right straight ahead. It may be monotonous, but I am going to try to keep on that single idea, so as to convince you in that if I possibly can. What I want to try to show is that, in the first place, the idea which is back of our scheme of management is radically different, in fact directly the opposite of the other type of management, and that it is not only radically different, but also that it must be in almost every case overwhelmingly better. That is what I am going to try to prove.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide a transcript of Fredrick W. Taylor's 1907 lecture on his \"task\" system of management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper shows its advantages over traditional personal initiative styles, suggesting that managers should not allow employees to think for themselves but make sure they simply carry out tasks as instructed. Demonstrated this by using as an example pig-iron handlers at Bethlehem Steel Company. Relates how he established scientific principles to ascertain the maximum load a man could carry and the optimum wage.\nFindings: - Instead of asking if workers felt able to move heavier loads, by telling them he only employed \"high-priced men\", he found plenty of willing employees.\nOriginality/value: - The paper offers an example of how primary sources can be of critical importance to management scholars, not just management historians.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The role of natural abilities, intrinsic characteristics, and extrinsic conditions in air traffic controllers' vocational development
|
[
"Self-regulation",
"Vocational training",
"Air traffic controller",
"Multiple intelligences theory",
"Vocational excellence",
"Vocational expertise"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Air traffic has been steadily increasing during the past decades[1]. The thousands of flights that are made every day around the world are stretching the capacity of airports and making air traffic an increasingly complex system to manage. Air traffic controllers' (ATCO) work covers air traffic control, air traffic advice, flight information and emergency procedures with the aim of expediting air transport and maintaining aviation discipline (Costa, 1995). They simultaneously control aircraft taking off and landing and make observations of the work environment with the help of various kinds of information technology equipment (Finavia, 2013).\nTheoretical framework: Gagne's (2004, 2010) Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT) distinguish the two usually intertwined concepts of giftedness and talent. The DMGT contains six components:\nMethods: Design\nResults: RQ1. What characteristics and environmental factors determine air traffic controllers' initial interest in this field of work, their perseverance in acquiring a vocational skill, and their mastery of the skill?\nDiscussion: The findings of this study are in parallel with those of earlier research (Korpelainen et al., 2009; Nokelainen et al., 2009; Nokelainen, 2010, 2014), showing that cognitive skills (logical-mathematical skills, problem-solving, perceptive skills, learning skills, simultaneous skills), self-reflection (control beliefs, stress tolerance), volition (perseverance and determination, exactness and carefulness, ability to concentrate, time management skills) and goal-orientation (extrinsic and intrinsic motivational factors) are recognized the most important characteristics of vocational expertise. Interpersonal skills (social skills), intrapersonal skills (ability to understand and analyze one's own performance) and spatial skills (conceptual understanding of three-dimensional information) were also among the acknowledged characteristics of ATCOs.\nConclusions and implications: Work expectations are increasing in air traffic controlling, as controllers are required to perform their work safely, effectively, flexibly and in an environmentally friendly and customer-orientated manner, while coping with steadily increasing air traffic (ICAO, 2011, 2013). At the same time, technology is increasingly supporting or completely replacing traditional human functions and the work is becoming more pre-defined and monotonous. Kirwan (2001) stresses the importance of reconciliation of the controller and technology; automation in the growing air traffic management industry requires new competencies and raises questions of motivation. The human dimensions of job satisfaction and role meaningfulness are sometimes underplayed even if such factors as motivation and reaction to stress can be determining factors in system performance and safety.\nLimitations: We acknowledge that there are limitations in the present study. First, the four airports were not selected randomly. Although they represent different types of airports (and ATCO job profiles) in Finland quite well, future studies should include comparative aspect to airports in other countries. Second, the number of participants (N = 28) in the study was quite small, limiting generalization of the results to the target population (N = 300). Future research on this domain should be extended to include also quantitative measurements, allowing more generalizable results. Third, although the analysis for the RQ3 was based on a technique that is not sensitive to missing values (BCM), missing data in ATCOs' aptitude test scores, training records, and employee assessments added uncertainty to the results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply the Developmental Model of Vocational Excellence (DMVE) in the domain of air traffic control and to describe the characteristics and predictors related to air traffic controllers' (ATCO) vocational expertise and excellence. Based on DMVE, the study analyses the role of natural abilities (gifts), intrinsic characteristics (self-regulatory abilities) and extrinsic conditions (domain and non-domain specific factors) in ATCOs' vocational development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The target population of the multiple case study consisted of ATCOs in Finland (N = 300), of which 28 were interviewed. The interviewees represented four different airports. Initially, three key personnel interviews were conducted to validate the structured theme interview instrument that was subsequently used for the 28 interviews. The data set also included the ATCOs' aptitude test scores and training records. Employee assessments were used to determine their on-the-job performance level (expertise vs excellence). The research questions were examined using theoretical concept analysis. The qualitative data analysis was conducted with content analysis and Bayesian classification modelling.\nFindings: The findings indicate that cognitive skills, self-reflection, volition and goal-orientation are considered to be ATCOs' most important vocational characteristics in addition to interpersonal, intrapersonal and spatial skills. The main differences between the ATCOs representing vocational expertise and those representing vocational excellence were related to self-regulation; motivation and volition in particular proved to be somewhat stronger in the latter group.\nResearch limitations/implications: It was acknowledged that there are limitations in the present study. First, the four airports were not selected randomly. Although they represent different types of airports (and ATCO job profiles) in Finland quite well, future studies should include comparative aspect to airports in other countries. Second, the number of participants (N = 28) in the study was quite small, limiting generalization of the results to the target population (N = 300). Future research on this domain should be extended to include also quantitative measurements, allowing more generalizable results. Third, although the analysis for the research question 3 was based on a technique that is not sensitive to missing values (BCM), missing data in ATCOs' aptitude test scores, training records and employee assessments added uncertainty to the results.\nPractical implications: ATCOs' highly controlled and pre-defined work presents a challenge to work motivation, which is seen as one of the determining factors in safety in air traffic controlling (ATC). In the future, more emphasis should be placed on the prerequisites of professional development such as leadership (human resource management, feedback, employees' opportunity to influence), working environment (physical and social environment), educational possibilities and career progression, as well as professional benefits (salary and working hours).\nOriginality/value: Although ATC is a fairly studied topic since 1970s, most studies related to ATCOs have concentrated on training, learning on the job, cognitive capacity and processing and stress tolerance. This study extends the emerging research in the field on self-regulation by adopting DMVE to investigate its role, alongside natural abilities and domain and non-domain specific factors, to vocational talent development in different skill acquisition stages.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Choosing an external auditor: does the composition of boards of directors matter?
|
[
"Kuwait",
"Board composition",
"External auditor",
"Auditor choice decisions",
"M41",
"M42"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: External audits play a monitoring role on behalf of owners/shareholders and are an essential component of the corporate governance mosaic, as they attest to the credibility of accounting information provided by management (Lin and Liu, 2009). A survey conducted by the Institute of Certified Financial Analysts (ICFA) reveals that 72 per cent of respondents considered the auditor's report to be an important part of their analysis; together with financial reports, it was used in investment decisions (ICFA, 2010). Chow (1982) use agency theory as a framework to analyze companies' incentives to hire an external auditor and postulate that a major motivation is to control conflicts of interest among managers, shareholders and bondholders. Yet, external audits only provide valuable information about a company's financial statements when they are of an adequate quality (Quick et al., 2013). Chang et al. (2009) posit that all external auditors may not offer the same quality of service. Although larger auditors are more expensive, these firms are usually thought to offer a better-quality audit. In his speech about the quality of public company audits, Michel Prada, Chairman of the IFRS Foundation Trustees, claimed that audit quality had become a global issue for standard-setters, regulators and investors. He argued that investors rely on financial statements when making investment decisions and that auditors are responsible for giving relevance and credibility to such statements. If they fail to deliver high-quality audits, investor confidence may plummet, leading to negative consequences for capital markets and local economies (Prada, 2007).\n2. Theoretical framework and hypothesis development: Section 2.1 provides a brief overview of the related theoretical and empirical literature on demands for audit and audit quality. Section 2.2 presents and discusses prior research on external auditor selection, and Section 2.3 is devoted to hypothesis development.\n3. Data and empirical model: 3.1 Data and sample\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusion: The study investigates the association between the composition of boards of directors and the choice of external auditor in companies listed on the KSE in 2013. Five proxy board characteristics were examined, namely, independence, diversity, interlocks, size and role duality. Consistent with prior research, two audit quality proxies were used, namely, a Big 4 or Non-Big 4 audit firm. To accommodate the dichotomous dependent variable (auditor choice), a logistic regression model tested the hypothesized relationships.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the association between the composition of boards of directors and the choice of external auditor among companies listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) in 2013.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Consistent with prior research, audit quality is represented by two proxies, namely, a Big 4 and Non-Big 4 audit firm. Independence, diversity, interlocks, size and role duality are used as proxies for board composition. To accommodate the dichotomous dependent variable (auditor choice), a logistic regression model is used to test the hypothesized associations between board composition and auditor choice.\nFindings: After controlling for firm-specific characteristics, results show that independence, diversity and size are statistically significant and increase the likelihood that a KSE-listed company selects a high-quality (Big 4) audit firm. Role duality is also statistically significantly but decreases the likelihood of choosing a Big 4 audit firm.\nPractical/implications: This research has implications for regulators, shareholders, boards and academics. The paper underlines the importance of the composition of the board in increasing the likelihood of hiring a high-quality audit firm. Regulators can draw upon these results when assessing the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms.\nOriginality/value: This paper is among the first to study the association between auditor choice and board composition using data from the frontier market of Kuwait, thus responding to the call for empirical research into the issue in less-developed markets. Overall, it sheds light on the effectiveness of board composition and provides empirical evidence that it is an important element in the choice of auditors. The findings indicate that board composition may be a mechanism that can promote demand for high audit quality.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The wise society: beyond the knowledge economy
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Social responsibility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There seems to be a consensus among scholars and practitioners that we are living in the era that can be described as the knowledge economy. But beyond the knowledge economy lies the wise society (Matthews, 1998). The world is longing for knowledge and wisdom (Zeleny, 2006, p. 751). Despite this craving very little attention has been focused on wisdom (Rowley, 2006), in spite of the plea from Nicholas Maxwell in his 1984 book, \"From knowledge to wisdom, a revolution in the aim and method science\", to move from knowledge-inquiry to wisdom-inquiry (Iredale, 2007; Maxwell, 2007). In this paper I argue that the Wise Society is the next development and that the concept is related to concepts like sustainable development and corporate social responsibility. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) (www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml) of the United Nations and UNESCO are the expression of wisdom. The wise society is composed by wise people and wise organizations.After this introduction wisdom is defined, followed by the literature review. Next the transition from knowledge economy to the wise society is explored, reflecting on the dynamics towards wisdom, and especially the role of science and the university, leading to analysis and concluding remarks.\nDefinition of wisdom: What is \"wisdom\"? A wise person weighs the knowns and the unknowns, resists overwhelming emotion while maintaining interest, and carefully chooses when and where to take action (Matthews, 1998). Wisdom is \"to choose one's behavior based on knowledge and shared values, in order to enhance the well-being of all and awareness that personal action has social consequences\" (Blasi, 2006). Rowley (2006) refers to Ostenfeld to define wisdom: the ability to make right use of knowledge, or the capacity to judge rightly in matters related to life and conduct. In other words, wisdom is closely related to ethics.Therefore we conclude that wisdom is the application of knowledge balancing self-interest and the interest of others. Wisdom can be found on three levels of analysis: the individual, the organization, and society. Wise individuals are required to create wise organizations, and wise individuals and organizations are needed to create a wise society.In the area of knowledge wisdom is lost in knowledge (Rowley, 2006; Maxwell, 2007). Knowledge refers to \"know how\" and wisdom refers to \"know why\". In 't Veld (2005, 2006) argues that governance codes are a prosthesis for virtues. By implementing codes wisdom is lost; people just comply (know how) and wisdom (know why) is lost.Individual level\nLiterature review/conceptual framework: The word \"philosophy\" means \"love for wisdom\" (Ross, 2004). In the literature on wisdom, reference is made to Socrates (469-399 BCE ), Plato (429-347 BCE ) and Aristotle (384-322 BCE ), Augustine ( AD 354-430), Thomas Aquinas ( AD 1225-1274), Descartes ( AD 1596-1650), Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), and John Henry Newman ( AD 1801-1890). Also reference is made to ancient insights from China's \"I Ching\" (450-350 BCE ) and Islam's Avicenna ( AD 980-1037). \"I Ching\" refers to perspicacity, leadership and wise decision making. Avicenna developed a view of knowledge that is centered on wisdom. There is a no fundamental difference in how the West and East perceive wisdom. Confucius states that there are three paths to wisdom: experience, imitation and reflection.. Buddhism states that a wise man distinguishes carefully between right and wrong (Rooney and McKenna, 2005). The future of global business will mix Eastern and Western wisdom, says Matthews (1998), referring to Nonaka and Takeuchi.Wisdom and God\nFrom the knowledge economy to the wise society: There has been a lot of discussion about how to label the post-industrial age. The post-industrial society is associated with many concepts: globalization, the new economy, the information economy, the knowledge economy, the weightless economy (Coy, 2000; Dean and Kretschmer, 2007, p. 573; Greenspan, 2007, p.493), the creative economy (Florida, 2002, 2007; Howkins, 2001), and the experience economy (Pine and Gilmore, 1999).The information economy (1970 to 1995) is characterized by high levels of investment in analytical power to process data and information more quickly. In the information age, jobs require more brain power than muscle power (Bolkin, 1999).The knowledge economy (1995 to date) is characterized by connecting power to share data and information faster and further. Technology enables us to tap into each other's creativity. The knowledge economy is the result of bringing together powerful computers and well-educated minds to create wealth. Technology enables people to work 24/7. Work and personal lives merge. Work without being personally present is possible (Kamberg, 2007). Kamberg states that we are moving to the conceptual age where employees are the source of creativity that will make the difference competing in the marketplace. This makes employees a major asset (Bolkin, 1999; Handy, 1996, p. 201).In the creative economy the creative class will bring their country to great economic growth. Countries and cities compete to attract this creative class. Cities that attract this class are characterized by talent, technology and tolerance (Florida, 2002, 2007; Hospers and van Dam, 2006; del Carrol, 2005):At the heart of such an effort is recognition of the vital roles that art and culture play in enhancing economic development and, ultimately, divining a \"creative community\" - a community that exploits the vital linkages among art, culture and commerce. Communities that consciously invest in these broader human and financial resources are at the very forefront in preparing their citizens to meet the challenges of rapidly evolving, and now global, knowledge-based economy and society (Eger, 2006, p. 18).Society has evolved from the pre-agriculture society, to the agriculture society, industrial society, information society, and now the knowledge society - hunter, agriculturalist, industrialist, information/knowledge worker, sage. In this article it is argued that the next development stage will be the Wise Society (Covey, 2004, p. 13; Blasi, 2006, p. 403).Rooney and McKenna (2005) state that wisdom is a necessary component of knowledge-based economies and that it should not be subordinated to the narrow imperatives of technological development within the socio-economic context of technocratic capitalism (see Table III).Not all societies are the same. As Max Weber already stated, there is not one type of society. He distinguishes the charismatic, the traditional and the rational-legal society (Meuleman, 2008). Spiral Dynamics distinguishes six types of society. These six are presented in Table IV. Green is the wise society in which there is a balance between \"Me\" and \"We\".\nDynamics towards wisdom: Why must we move from knowledge to wisdom?\nOther observations on the role of science and the university: Science should move from knowledge-inquiry to wisdom-inquiry\nReflections and concluding remarks: We are moving from a knowledge economy towards a wise society. Is wisdom a linear development that follows after knowledge? Is the old wise Indian in a primitive culture not wise, despite his lack of scientific knowledge? in 't Veld (2005) refers to the moral sense of the Indian, living sustainably in harmony with nature, and at the other extreme the Master of the Universe dominating nature. He advocates that we should be more Indian and less Master. Is this a linear development or a circular one? Ironically, in 't Veld states that Aristotle was the first to separate men from nature.Rowley (2006) states that wisdom is related to action based on knowledge and moral values and norms. Wisdom is not just being good, but acting good (Zeleny, 2006). But is wisdom action or is it sometimes the courage not to act? I challenge this notion of wisdom as action. Sometimes it is wise not to act. For example it is wise not to develop the South Pole.The philosopher king of Plato reminds me of Singapore, because of its autocratic government based on meritocratic values. According to Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore, the basic principle for the progress of Singapore is: \"Social cohesion through sharing the benefits of progress, equal opportunities for all, and meritocracy, with the best man or woman for the job, especially as leaders in government\" (Kuan Yew, 2000, p. 691). On the other hand, Rooney and McKenna (2005) believe that the incorporation of wisdom by government enhances democracy and diminishes technocratic control or autocratic government based on meritocratic values. Van Gunsteren (2007) agrees with them, when he states that democracy is a self-organizing system, based on the principles of the \"Wisdom of the Crowds\" (James Surowiecki, 2004), and it is superior to autocratic governments. He states, however, that several conditions must be present for self-organization to work: diversity of opinion, independence, decentralization, and aggregation - a system to arrive at collective decisions. But van Gunsteren makes a few additional remarks. Independence should not result in isolation of people and groups, and the self-organization of democracy requires leadership for indirect steering to maintain the conditions for self-organization. This argument is shared by Frissen (2009) who states that democracy requires a political elite, to protect a democratic system from populism. This means that the philosopher king can rule democratically, if his role is to preserve the self-organization of the country.The above illustrates that the wise society is all about personal governance, good corporate governance and good public governance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore beyond the knowledge economy and venture into the wise society.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a review of existing publications and original thinking.\nFindings: - The word is at the dawn of the wise society. Science and universities have a crucial role to play on the path towards such a society.\nOriginality/value: - The paper contributes to the understanding and the development from knowledge to wisdom.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Labelling and sustainability in food supply networks: A comparison between the German and Italian markets
|
[
"Food",
"Supply chain management",
"Labelling",
"Italy",
"Germany",
"Sustainability",
"Food chain",
"Economic analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Sustainable development refers to actions designed to meet \"the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\", as stated in the Brundtland (1987) Report. The notion of sustainability is connected to this approach. Three main dimensions form the sustainability framework: economy, environment and society (Gomez-Limon and Sanchez-Fernandez, 2010; Fritz, 2009); in particular, environmental issues play a crucial role in the concept of sustainability. In recent years sustainability has been included more and more both in public policy and firm strategy.Food production can lead to negative externalities for the environment, such as high consumption of fuels for packaging and transport, greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, waste treatment, and so on (Sodano, 2008). These externalities can affect both local and global conditions (for example climate change, biodiversity loss, etc.).A number of studies in recent literature highlighted different criteria and indicators to analyse sustainability in agricultural and food production, but also in energy planning, in regional development, and in other activities (Fritz and Matopoulos, 2008; Gomez-Limon and Sanchez-Fernandez, 2010; Kemp et al., 2010; Mascarenhas et al., 2010; Neves and Leala, 2010; Pretty et al., 2005; Rodrigues et al., 2010). For instance, a study carried out by Gomez-Limon and Sanchez-Fernandez (2010) provides an evaluation of indicators assessing sustainable agriculture, whereas in an article by Kemp et al. (2010) the concept of food miles is used in order to analyse if UK consumers really care about food product country-of-origin.Over the last years, in addition to food quality and safety issues, European consumers have revealed an increasing interest towards the environmental and social sustainability of food products. Consequently, food processors and retailers have paid growing attention to environmental and social problems and have started to carry out low environmental impact projects and practices.Indeed, the sustainability can be included in a firm's overall strategy. It represents a chance for process and product innovation, and a possibility for product differentiation, as producers and retailers can redesign food product features in terms of environmental and social attributes. Industrial brands and private labels play an important role in sustainable programmes aimed at benefiting the environment. A premium price and a premium image can be gained by means of this process of product differentiation. Furthermore, a credence attribute such as sustainability needs reliable systems of certification and labelling to be converted into a search attribute (Caswell, 2000; Caswell et al., 2002).The paper focuses on two aspects. First, we analyse the spread of labelled environmental certifications in food products - considering both private labels and industrial brands - surveying the Italian and German markets. Second, we outline how environmental certification and labelling for food products can affect the vertical organisation of supply chains.The method used is based on an empirical analysis performed in two cities, Milan and Bonn, chosen as samples of the Italian and German markets. In Milan, ten retailers were considered; of these, three were hard discounts. In Bonn, seven retailers were analysed; of these, five were hard discounts. We also used the case study approach, with interviews by means of an ad hoc questionnaire. We analysed two cases related to fruit and vegetables and ichthyic products, in order to assess the effect of the standards provided by the sustainability certification on the vertical organisation of the supply chains.The paper is organised as follows: the economic framework of sustainability in food supply networks is presented in Section 2; the methodology applied in the paper is described in Section 3; the description of the current situation of sustainability labels is presented in Section 4; the results of the case studies are analysed in Section 5, and concluding remarks are set down in Section 6.\n2 Sustainability in food supply networks: 2.1 State-of-the-art\n3 Data and methodology: An empirical survey was carried out in two big cities, one in Germany the other in Italy, respectively, Bonn and Milan. These two cities have been chosen because they are assumed to be the leader cities in terms of sustainability of food products in their countries and therefore are able to give a general picture of Germany and Italy, respectively. Moreover, in both cities, there is a high number of supermarkets and other retailers as hard discounts. Consideration was given to the most important retailing companies in terms of sales, and we then chose companies with supermarkets in the two cities. A supermarket of each company was visited in order to analyse the food products on the shelves and to look for environmental and social sustainability certifications. The analysis was done in May 2009 in Bonn and in September 2009 in Milan.In Bonn, seven retailers were examined, five of which are hard discounts: Aldi Sud (discount), Edeka, Hit Handelsgruppe (discount), Kaiser's Tengelmann (discount), Lidl (discount), Plus (discount), Rewe.In Milan, ten retailers were taken into account, three of which are hard discounts: Coop, Carrefour, Conad, Esselunga, Standa (Rewe Group), Sisa, Metro (wholesale distribution), Eurospin (discount), Lidl (discount), In's (discount).The choice to analyse a significant number of hard discounts in Bonn was due to the important position that this retailing typology holds in the German market. Indeed, the German market share in European discount food retailing is 32 per cent, putting Germany in second position, while the Italian one is 6.7 per cent, positioning Italy in 14th place (AC Nielsen, 2006). Moreover, most hard discount retailers in Germany have developed private label lines.After having identified on supermarket shelves, looking at products one by one, products with sustainability certifications, both private labels and industrial brands, a further analysis was carried out in the processor and retailer web sites to search for more information about these certifications.A second step in the empirical analysis was based on a case study approach, with direct interviews through an ad hoc questionnaire. There were two cases that were particularly interesting from the sustainability point of view, and these were analysed. One concerned fruit and vegetables, the other ichthyic products:1. \"Best Alliance - Rewe\" a project regarding strawberry carbon footprint; and2. \"Marine Stewardship Council\" (MSC), \"Dolphin Safe\" and \"Friend of the Sea\" (FOS) certifications related to fish biodiversity and marine ecosystems.The case studies were aimed at outlining how certification may affect supply chain relationships, with reference to the implementation of production rules and the adoption of contracts between processor and supplier (farmer/fisher), and retailer and supplier. Moreover, other questions were formulated regarding the strategy used to introduce sustainable goods, the implementation of traceability systems, and product price.\n4 Sustainability labels: current situation in Italy and Germany: The empirical analysis carried out in Germany and Italy identified ten different certifications regarding sustainability (Table II). Of these, six are manifested by their own logo depicted on the product packaging, whereas the other four became apparent during internet research.The certifications found on the supermarket shelves are the following:1. MSC, which promotes responsibility in the development of seafood resources, and applies only to wild-catch fisheries.2. FOS, which is dedicated to the conservation of marine habitats and resources, and certifies both farming and wild-catch fisheries.3. Dolphin Safe, which has led to a 95 per cent reduction in the dolphin and marine mammal mortality caused by tuna fishing.4. Best Alliance, in cooperation with the German Rewe Group, brings together the most important agents in the supply chain to develop joint standards that guarantee the sustainable production of strawberries, peppers and grapes.5. Rainforest Alliance, which has the mission to conserve tropical forests and biodiversity, and to ensure sustainable livelihoods for farmers producing tea, coffee, cocoa and fruits.6. Fairglobe, which promotes fair trade for products such as orange juice, coffee, cocoa, sugar.Certifications not found on products, on neither German supermarket shelves nor Italian ones, were:1. Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which aims at conserving tropical forests in palm oil production;2. Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS), which promotes a sustainable production of soybean;3. UTZ Certified-Good Inside, which provides standards for a responsible production of coffee, cocoa and tea; and4. Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI), which provides sustainable agriculture involving all the agents along the supply chain.The analysed certifications focus on three main areas (Table III):1. ichthyic products;2. tropical products; and3. fruit and vegetables.Let us consider the first group. It is clear that fisheries are of great importance for the economy of some countries, however they can, at the same time, create great environmental impact. Thus, with growing consumer concern about what is eaten in terms of product origin, environmental impact and nutritional value, increased focus must be placed on sustainability in the fishing sector.With regard to tropical products such as coffee, tea, cocoa and palm oil, these are linked to important environmental issues like deforestation, soil erosion, crop protection, water saving, waste management and, most definitely, farmer quality of life: healthcare, disease prevention, housing, education, and labour rights.In the area of fruit and vegetables, we have products characterised by a very high nutritional value but these are easily contaminated by pesticides. As consumers are rapidly becoming more and more sensitive to ecological and social problems, especially those linked to fresh products, there is increasing demand on the part of food firms in this sector for independent certifications concerning sustainability.From Table III it can be seen that environmental certification is much more widespread on private label items (43), rather than on the industrial brands (17). In the case of the retailer private label, a possible explanation lies in the product image, which, if it is positive to the consumer, can enhance the reputation of the retailer.Moreover, the German market is more sensitive to sustainability issues, especially to those regarding ichthyic products. This is justified, for example, by the dolphin safe fishing certification that is compulsory for tuna fish sold by German retailers, and by MSC certification whose logo was on every private label product of every German retailer taken into account. With regard to product prices, the analysis revealed that, in most cases, the price level of the certified product is very similar to the non-certified one. A possible explanation of this strategy is that the firm or retailer aims at a premium image rather than a premium price.Comparing the two countries, the German market has a considerable number of private label products that show the certification logo on the packaging, whereas the Italian market has more industrial brands carrying the certification logo.The spread of German private labels has been favoured by the market growth of hard discounts over the last ten years: such hard discounts (like Lidl and Aldi in Germany) have expanded their stores and have entered new markets, leading to an increase in the share of private labels (Bontemps et al., 2005).The most important difference between Italy and Germany regards the fact that the same product may not carry the certification logo in both countries. There are two concrete examples of this: MSC, concerning fish, and Rainforest Alliance, particularly for Chiquita bananas. The German Iglo fish fingers (Findus in Italy) carry the MSC certification symbol on their packaging, whereas there is no blue MSC logo on Findus fish fingers in Italy, even though the brand and product are the same. Since the fishery's MSC certification programme is still quite new it might be difficult for companies as big as Iglo to supply certified fish in the market in the necessary amount. With regard to Chiquita bananas, there is no Rainforest Alliance logo on the fruit in Italy, while in Germany and other European countries there is. It appears that Chiquita prefers to maintain the original logo on its product in Italy. In this way the Chiquita logo, which has a strong value for Italians, even in terms of graphic aspects, maintains its original version. Therefore, the choice of Chiquita has been to show the partnership with Rainforest Alliance only through advertising and in other communication channels. Indeed, the company carries out many public relation activities, such as press releases, conferences and TV, radio, and web communications.\n5 Case studies: 5.1 Best Alliance-Rewe\n6 Final remarks: The empirical analysis in the German and Italian markets revealed a growing interest of producers and retailers towards environmentally-friendly practices and social responsibility in food production. This interest is shown by the growth and spread of sustainability certifications on private labels and industrial brand products. Sustainability certification leads to an improved protection of the environment and, at the same time, it can represent a strategy for enterprises to gain a premium price and a premium image.The present analysis of the German and Italian markets has revealed a larger number of sustainability certifications in Germany compared to Italy: the German market seems to be more advanced in terms of food sustainability. Note that the same firm can adopt dissimilar choices in the two markets with regard to sustainability labelling (i.e. Chiquita, Findus-Iglo products).Possibly, retailers and processors implementing labelled sustainability certifications can consider Germany - together with England, whose market is even more advanced in terms of food sustainability - as an interesting market to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy applied in order to then extend this strategy to other European countries.The analysis revealed that the price of many products with sustainability certifications is not higher than the price of the corresponding product without the environmental label. In these cases, the retailer and processor strategy is aimed at improving the product reputation with benefits for the company image. For retailers selling private label products with sustainability certifications, this image improvement can lead to positive impacts also on the other retailer brand products.In order to evaluate the consequences of sustainability certification on the vertical organisation of the supply chain, two case studies were analysed. In the case of Best Alliance - Rewe, the project redesigned the organisation of the supply chain and the relations among the economic agents. The analysis revealed a higher bilateral dependency among the supply chain agents, a reduction in product uncertainty, and an increased degree of vertical coordination. This reorganisation involved the adoption of production rules, connected to environmentally-friendly practices, and the introduction of contracts, as a form of transaction governance along the supply chain.Rising interest in food sustainability is revealed in ichthyic products, as shown in our second case study. This interest is demonstrated by the spread of environmental certifications, especially for tuna products. The study revealed that seafood certifications are based on process standards, traceability and controls. Nevertheless, the Best Alliance analysis showed a higher vertical coordination of the supply chains than in the other case study. Therefore, the ichthyic supply chains appear controlled in terms of respect for environmental standards, and show a reduction in product uncertainty, but the level of bilateral dependency among the economic agents is lower.Further research can be oriented towards an analysis of consumer behaviour in an effort to understand the consumer real interest in environmental and social sustainability certification, and to survey other countries in terms of spread of the previously described certifications.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to focus on two aspects. First, to analyse the spread of labelled environmental certification in food products, considering both private labels and producer brands with reference to the Italian and German markets. Second, to outline how environmental certification can affect the vertical organisation of food supply chains.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The method used is based on an empirical analysis carried out in two sample cities: Milan for Italy and Bonn for Germany, examining ten and seven retailers, respectively, using the case studies approach, through an ad hoc questionnaire. The authors analysed two cases related to fruit and vegetables and ichthyic products, in order to assess the effect of the standards provided by the sustainability certification on the vertical organisation of the supply chains.\nFindings: - The certifications focus on three main areas: ichthyic products; tropical products; and fruits and vegetables. They are much more widespread on private label items, rather than on the industrial brands. The German market is more \"sensitive\" to sustainability issues than the Italian market. Environmental certification leads to a reorganisation of the supply chain relationships, determining a higher bilateral dependency among the supply chain agents, a reduction in product uncertainty, and an increased degree of vertical coordination.\nOriginality/value: - The paper analyses, through a new perspective, the environmental issues of food products, quantifying the spread of labelled environmental certification and comparing Italy and Germany. The vertical reorganisation of the supply chains involved the adoption of production rules, connected to environmentally-friendly practices, and the introduction of a new form of transaction governance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Benchmarking trust signals in supply chain alliances: moving toward a robust measure of trust
|
[
"Trust",
"Supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Value creation and competitive success depend on a firm's ability to use resources found among its supply chain (SC) partners (Dyer and Singh, 1998). Creating value across organizational boundaries through resource integration requires collaborative supply relations and routines. Trust is among the most essential ingredients in cultivating these collaborative relations and developing strong, mutually beneficial relationships capable of achieving competitive advantage (Fawcett et al., 2007; Kumar, 1996).Trust yields several benefits to SC relationships including:* lower transaction costs;* increased value-creation opportunities; and* enhanced collaborative learning.First, firms incur transaction costs to develop and maintain SC relationships, which include costs to negotiate and govern contracts ( Williamson, 1985). Buyers and suppliers that partner with trustworthy firms expend fewer resources to develop detailed contracts and incur lower contract monitoring and enforcement costs ( Dyer and Chu, 2003). Trust-based partnerships also last longer, reducing contract renewal, switching, and set up costs. Further, partners can make relation-specific investments without incurring added governance costs (Dyer, 1997).Second, the intensive collaboration that trust enables creates the chance to pursue inimitable value-creation opportunities. These opportunities emerge in part from relationship-specific investments that could not be made in the absence of high levels of trust (Dodgson, 1993; Zaheer et al., 1998). Buyers and suppliers that trust each other identify problems together and allocate resources and offer expertise to solve them. They also work to help each other overcome challenges. For instance, when difficulties arise, suppliers respond quickly to trusted buyers' needs, often going beyond contractual obligations, to help buyers improve their performance (Handfield and Bechtel, 2002). Their collaborative efforts reduce costs and improve operations, especially in the areas of jointly developing better products and more efficient processes. Increased rents - the reward of higher performance - can then be shared.Third, collaborative learning increases among trusted partners (Dodgson, 1993). Close ties allow a free flow of information and expertise that facilitates the transfer of existing knowledge and the generation of new knowledge. Importantly, trust-based learning leads to improved firm performance. Key benefits include higher levels of profitability, innovation, and growth. Buyers have indicated that these key measures improve when they and their suppliers trust each other and collaborate together (Johnston et al., 2004).Although the benefits of trust are desirable, the ability to build trust-based relationships is missing in many firms. In fact, highly touted theories such as the industrial organization theory and the resource-based view prescribe behaviors designed to increase the firm's bargaining power and reduce its willingness to share scarce resources (Barney, 1991; Porter, 1980). Trust is diminished as asymmetrical power is cultivated and exercised. Indeed, to build trust, powerful firms must refrain from exploiting their power - an uncommon behavior (Fawcett et al., 2004). Moreover, building trust is resource intensive, requiring confidence that today's investments will bring future benefits (Zaheer and Harris, 2006). Since few managers understand the nature of trust and the practices that build it, they lack the foresight to make such investments. The tension between the enabling power of trust and the difficulty in establishing it raises three questions:1. What constitutes SC trust?2. What behaviors comprise and promote the trust needed for breakthrough collaboration?3. How can we better measure and promote the development of high-level trust?\nBackground: the relational view of trust: Since trust is central to strong SC relationships, it is vital to accurately characterize and operationalize a trust construct. Over the past 20 years, numerous scholars have proposed alternative definitions of trust (Table I). A variety of trustworthiness factors can be discerned from these definitions, including (in order of frequency) benevolence/goodwill/non-exploitation, ability/competence, keeping promises, equity/fairness, integrity/honesty, reliability, predictability, and openness. Although the variety of definitions and trustworthiness factors indicates that trust is a complex, multi-faceted construct, scholars appear to agree on two core dimensions of trust. First, trust is confidence that a firm's partner will not act opportunistically and exploit the firm's vulnerabilities (Kwon and Suh, 2005; Sabel, 1993; Mayer et al., 1995; Sako, 1998; Dyer and Singh, 1998; Dyer and Chu, 2003; Laeequddin et al., 2009). Goodwill mitigates opportunism, allowing buyers and suppliers to work collaboratively despite the existence of vulnerability. Second, in order for trust to emerge fully, SC partners must have the intent and ability to perform to promise. Underperformance undermines the trust-enhancing power of goodwill.The prominence of goodwill and competence as trustworthiness dimensions suggests that the relational view of the firm can provide insight into the complexities involved in defining trust and understanding how it is built. The relational view argues supernormal returns are obtained when firms acquire valuable resources or competencies that reside in different members of the SC (Dyer and Singh, 1998). As shown in Figure 1, firms create competitive advantage from collaborative, idiosyncratic relationships with alliance partners. Relational rents are generated when partners:* make investments in relation-specific assets;* exchange knowledge that results in joint learning;* join resources that create unique new products and services; and* lower transaction costs because of effective governance mechanisms.Although the resource-based view emphasizes resources within a firm (Barney, 1991), the relational view leverages resources across SC partners to create advantage and supernormal returns. Trust enables collaboration, making it possible to bring heterogeneous, but complimentary capabilities together to create distinctive value and achieve competitive advantage.Trust in SC relationships\nResearch methodology: Since issues involving the role, influence and measurement of trust in SC relationships are complex, dynamic, and not well understood, an exploratory multi-method research framework was employed. Two preliminary steps were undertaken to firmly ground the research:1. A series of 50 preliminary managerial interviews were conducted to identify the critical antecedents of successful SC alliances. Trust emerged as the most frequently identified and stressed building block of high-performing SC alliances.2. A comprehensive literature search on the topic of trust was conducted. Issues including interpersonal, firm based, and SC trust were evaluated. Interestingly, much more research has been done in the area of interpersonal trust than on SC trust.These efforts provided the context to analyze and interpret the survey findings regarding the existence and influence of trust in SC relationships.The survey process followed Dillman's (1978) total design method; that is, three mailings of a cover letter, an instruction sheet, and the survey were sent to potential respondents at two-week intervals. The mailing list consisted of 1,700 senior purchasing managers drawn from the Dun and Bradstreet database. The mailing list was designed to provide broad geographic and manufacturing industry coverage across America. To increase the response rate, managers were offered a copy of the study findings and the opportunity to be entered into a drawing for one of ten iPod Nanos. Overall, 189 usable surveys were returned for a response rate of 11 percent.Non-response bias was evaluated using two methods. First, a comparison of early versus late responses revealed no problematic response patterns (Armstrong and Overton, 1977). Second, to more clearly verify that the respondents and non-respondents were not uniquely different, the profiles of the two groups were compared. Respondents were tracked so that mailing and survey administration costs could be minimized. Non-respondents could also therefore be identified. Demographic profiles for 100 randomly selected non-respondents were developed using Dun and Bradstreet databases. These profiles were compared to those of the respondents. No significant differences were found.\nFindings and discussion: To evaluate our propositions and to begin to assess potential items to be included in a more robust and comprehensive measure of trust, buying managers were asked to respond to a series of questions relating to:* trust's influence on corporate strategy as well as; and* essential signaling behaviors.In each case, a seven-point scale (1 - strongly disagree, 7 - strongly agree) was employed.Trust's strategic influence\nConclusion: building collaborative trust: Although trust is central to building the relations and routines needed to create unique value across organizational boundaries, our research findings suggest that few firms have achieved truly high levels of SC trust. Companies like Honda and Toyota, the models for the relational view, remain the exception (Dyer and Chu, 2003). Managers simply do not understand the multi-faceted and interconnected nature of SC trust. Their companies are therefore unable to unlock the competitive potential of SC collaboration. Fortunately, the interview process and survey data analysis not only helped define and measure trust more robustly, but also led to the conceptualization of two models that provide insight into how companies can leverage the relational view to achieve the high-level trust and collaboration needed to capture idiosyncratic rents.The capability-commitment matrix\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Trust is a vital ingredient in modern supply chain (SC) alliances. Yet, most measures of trust are rather simplistic. This paper aims to review the trust literature to identify the different facets of SC trust. A multi-faceted measure of trust is then developed and used to benchmark the extent to which trust signals are used in alliance management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Multi-method: 50 preliminary interviews were conducted and 189 surveys were collected.\nFindings: - Benchmarking buyers' trust-building strategies reveals that most companies lack the know-how and ability to develop high levels of trust. Most companies have implemented strategies to signal their performance capability, leading to a level of transactional trust. However, few companies have recognized the need to signal to their SC partners their commitment to the relationship - leaving them without the ability to establish the trust levels needed to drive breakthrough collaboration.\nOriginality/value: - The paper introduces the importance of signaling trustworthiness in a SC context. It develops relationship commitment as an important dimension of trust, and explains the trust cycle within the context of an exchange cycle. It also takes steps toward developing a more robust and meaningful measure of SC trust.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Banking on foreign currency accounts: evidence from Malaysia
|
[
"Malaysia",
"Banks",
"Commercial banks",
"Financial innovations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Deposits in commercial banks are usually in the form of savings, demand or fixed deposit (FD). However, the advancement of information technology has enabled commercial banks to develop new types of deposits. Deposits such as the prise-linked[1] or lottery-linked deposits (Guille and Tschoegl, 2002; Tufano et al., 2011), the gold investment deposits[2] and the foreign currency account (FCA) are such innovation to attract savings.\nFCA in Malaysia: Deposits are an essential source of fund for banks' lending activities. Therefore, commercial banks are constantly creating new features in deposits[4] to finance its loan facilities. The FCA[5], one of their recent creative innovations, can be a saving or FD. What drives depositors to save in an FCA is the ability to hedge against exchange rate fluctuations by keeping their currency in the FCA until the exchange rate is beneficial to them. Depositors who have children studying overseas or have fixed income from overseas would be attracted to save in an FCA. The FCA is also insured by the Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia[6] and is an interest-bearing account that allows depositors to save up to 12 pre-determined foreign currencies.\nLiterature review: Earlier studies on foreign currency deposits are largely conducted to examine the effect of currency substitution between domestic and foreign currency demand, as well as domestic and foreign bond demand (Cuddington, 1986; Agenor and Khan, 1996). Based on the primary concept of currency substitution, total domestic demand for foreign currency and foreign bonds may sometimes respond positively to an increase in domestic income but cannot substantiate high capital mobility (Cuddington, 1986). Agenor and Khan (1996) maximised the discounted sum of utilities of currency holding to model the cost adjustment of holding domestic and foreign currency, as compared to, domestic and foreign bonds. They argued that foreign interest rates and expected exchange rates will influence the demand for foreign currency.\nMethodology: First, the demand for an FCA is modelled as the function of iF-iD and\nFindings: Both common and individual unit root processes are used to check the stationarity of the series in the model. The LLC panel unit root was used to test for common unit root processes, and the ADF-Fisher kh2 test and the IPS panel unit root test were utilised to test for individual unit root processes. At level, the null hypothesis of unit root for all series could not be rejected for all tests conducted, an indication of non-stationarity at level. In the first difference, the null hypothesis of unit root was rejected for all series at the 1 per cent level of significance. Table I shows the details for LLC common unit root test results and Table II for ADF-Fisher and IPS individual unit root processes results.\nDiscussion: There is no cointegrating relationship for three-month FCA deposits. The six-month FCAbusiness deposit has bi-directional short-run causal relationships with\nConclusion: The\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study how the foreign currency account (FCA) is affected by the domestic fixed deposit (FD) rate, the FCA rate, the expected exchange rate and exchange rate risk.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper analyses the causal relationship between the domestic FD rate, the FCA rate, the expected exchange rate on a set of foreign currency deposits and exchange rate volatility, based on the theory of portfolio choice. Based on the theory, the panel vector autoregressive regression of fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares are modelled.\nFindings: There is no cointegrating relationship for the three-month FCA deposits, the domestic FD rate, the FCA rate and the expected exchange rate. Only the six-month FCA business deposits are affected by the domestic FD rate, the FCA rate and the expected exchange rate. The FCA depositors are not affected by exchange rate volatility.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study is conducted based on the FCA rate quoted by the leading commercial banks in Malaysia, Maybank. Thus, the FCA rate is used as a proxy for the FCA rate of commercial banks in Malaysia.\nOriginality/value: Individual depositors have to save in more than the three-month FCA to realise their expected return. For individuals, the FCA deposit is not an alternative choice to domestic FD. Exporters may use the FCA deposit to finance their foreign purchases to save the cost of foreign exchange conversion but it is still not an appropriate hedging tool against foreign exchange fluctuations as compared to the existing forward foreign exchange facility.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Relevance of the regulatory state in North/South intersections
|
[
"Development",
"Governance",
"Culture",
"Economic philosophy/theory",
"Global political economy",
"Social goods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Regulation and economy are inextricable. There is nothing new in either the suggestion that contemporary regulation policy (local, regional or global) is disproportionately motivated by economic considerations (Llewellyn, 1999), or that individual profit-driven economics as a central regulatory objective may have had its day (Shutt, 2010). Regulating economy is no longer confined to concerns of economic governance alone. It is also largely accepted that globalized risk priorities such as the war on terror have seen the use of economically directed regulatory devices (such as financial transaction reporting) employed for purposes additional to their original economic remit (Munshani, 2010). By extending economic regulation into fields outside economy, covering other essential aspirations of human comfort such as collective human security and universalizing individual integrity, we have exposed economic regulation to evaluation well beyond the measure of wealth creation. Even when the essential economic motivation behind regulation is blatantly apparent, arguments against regulation focus on the failings of financial regulation in particular to achieve its economic intentions (Wallison, 2009). Maybe one of the problems with the determination of regulation's influence on economy (or its distance from it) has been the emphasis on cash above conscience[1].\nContexts for the analysis: Like Granovetter (1985), we are also here focusing on the embeddedness of economic behaviour, because of an anthropological interest in transitions from premarket societies, to the more autonomous market relations of modernized societies. Associated with this transition is a growth in regulation which supports progressively less embedded market conditions and outcomes which have culminated in post-Fordist capitalist market and product abstraction. In terms of social bonding this transition is evidenced by the separation of economy from other frames of social relations, and the development of markets no longer reliant on organic bonding such as kinship and obligation. Under these conditions, the motivations for the market are aligned with individual gain and the regulatory outcomes are no longer livelihoods submerged in social relations.\nMechanics of embeddedness - how \"solid\" is solidarity: Turning away from solidarity which holds society together, to reflect on the types of solidarity in social relations - communal and associative (Weber, 1978, Chapter 1) - in post-Fordist economies, it is apparent that social relationships moulded through the division of labour are no longer universally built on coordinated interests (if they ever were). Associative labour relationships are now more likely to be externally forced/and mechanically imposed. Times have changed and where we diverge from Durkheim's treatment of the mechanical/organic dialectic is initially by questioning the contemporary relevance of his version of the division of labour as \"the supreme law of human societies and the condition of their progress\" (Durkheim, 1893, p. 39). Weber would doubt as an idealized interpretation of the forces behind such a division, and favour Durkheim's interpretation that mechanical solidarity constructed through law may be imposed devices to control social behaviours and relationships which \"offend(s) strong and defined states of the collective conscience\" (Durkheim, 1893, p. 39). Indeed in post-Fordist capitalist economies, we would argue that as a result of the unnatural nature of labour division (and more importantly disembedded market arrangements which sustain and are sustained by its artificiality), mechanical rather than organic solidarity prevails due to the recurrent failure of Durkheim's belief in the resilience of meritocracy. A complex division of labour as he saw it meant that people were allocated in society according to merit; therefore moral regulation and economic regulation are needed to maintain order, for people to \"compose their differences peaceably\" (Durkheim, 1893, p. 60). Contrary to this view, in a global setting, the violence entailed in maintaining the post-colonial North/South economic divide suggests that discriminatory economic ordering requires mechanical enforcement if the oppression of discriminatory peace is to be maintained. Merit is not an organic discriminator where labour prices are depressed, skill retarded and opportunity constrained in the South for the economic benefit of the North. Poverty-based discrimination between the world divide questions the real market reasons behind socio-economic developmental failures of South World countries, so often used to justify colonialism. The provident North image suggests that only the systematic adoption of the values, practices and resources of modernization can overcome the absence of social capital to establish the necessary preconditions for greater material prosperity in the South (Woolcock, 1998, p. 153). This places a large amount of the focus on nation states and transnational corporations, and rational individuals and firms, to lead the South to economic prosperity, while overlooking the vital role of domestic civil society and other institutional arrangements, appropriately resourced and regulated, that can and should mediate the space between states and markets. In this regard pressures for autonomy (commercial in particular) which feature in North World development models devalue the significance of economic embeddedness[4], in favour of atomized markets and autonomous productivity paradigms, mechanically maintained.\nRedirecting analytical focus: When talking specifically in terms of the regulatory state (and we suggest it holds as well for regulatory discourse at large), Dubash and Morgan (2012) have recently observed:\nIs Turkey the pin-up boy? Utility of regulatory intersection: Much of the literature discussing South World states tracks the transition towards a regulatory state with the implementation of regulatory reforms and transplants adapted from the North (Amann and Baer, 2005). Sectoral analyses are often undertaken with respect to these states (e.g. Hsueh, 2012; Jordana and Levi-Faur, 2005), yet they remain caught within the narrow confines of the regulatory models set up by the North. Particularly when foreign direct investment is the focus and motivation for regulatory reform, the dialectic circles infrastructural initiatives undertaken by the government to build a private sector (Kirkpatrick et al., 2006), and this distinction between state and private actors is often perpetuated such that the regulatory endeavours undertaken often simply address only the relation between the state and such private actors, neglecting the sophisticated networks of exchange existing as between such private actors that have impact of the operation of regulation in that limited sense.\nThe comparative approach - liberating embedded principle: The comparative approach means that understanding other societies implies a consciousness of our own culturally bounded conceptions. In other words, to compare is to ponder simultaneously over the unity of mankind and its obvious diversity (Berthoud, 1990, p. 172).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: What seems like a new social anthropology of global regulation is an endeavour much too grand for this paper, even though it has much merit. To contain the analysis which follows, the discussion of social embeddedness will be restricted to a comparison of markets which retain some local or regional integrity from those which have become largely removed from cultural or communal social bonds. An example is between markets trading in goods and services with a consumer base which is local and subsistence, and markets in derivative products that are inextricably dependent on supranational location. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: North World regulatory principle operates within consolidated state frameworks, dislocated market societies and reflects socially disembedded productivity relationships. The same could be said for dominant economic regulatory scholarship. More recent efforts to develop critical analysis of South World regulatory problems and answers have consistently remained connected to the referent of the regulatory state. This paper questions the utility of such a comparative conviction in a global governance reality wherein South World regulatory environments are largely subject to North World state interests and multi-national opportunism fostered by disaggregated, often dysfunctional, domestic states.\nFindings: If, as in many South World contexts, the state is dysfunctional or destructive in translating regulatory principle, then what are the social bonds which advance the integrity of regulatory principle, and what of externalities which work to draw culturally located principle towards a more hegemonic regulatory project? Could appreciating the relationship between regulatory principle and social bonding be exhibited in degrees of market embeddedness? Might the reimagining of regulatory principle be possible by reflecting on motives and outcomes for regulation that have other than wealth maximization as core value? The paper answers these conjectures as a basis for empirical research.\nResearch limitations/implications: In the spirit of regulatory anthropology it is not helpful to remain immersed in some strained geographic regulatory dichotomy, employing some good state/bad state polarity. Neither World exists in regulatory isolation. International regulatory organizations ensure this through their Western/Northern development models, and perpetuate post-colonial influences over South World development agendas. That said, there are two regulatory worlds, and hybrids between. Despite this, regulatory principle is not immune from cultural forces and social bonding. The paper addresses various dualities in order to propose a new way of viewing South World regulatory paradigms.\nPractical implications: The framework for analysis will enable a repositioning of critical scholarship and regulatory policy away from the model frameworks of consolidated states and towards the real regulatory needs and potentials of the South World.\nSocial implications: Through applying the analytical technique of social embeddedness above market community paradigms this analysis offers a novel approach to exploring economy in contexts where markets are not dislocated and products are not fictitious. In this way the contemporary materialist economic crisis can be viewed against principles of sustainability rather than growth, productivity and exchange.\nOriginality/value: The paper draws upon established scholarship regarding market embeddedness and social bonding but unique in applying this to a South World void of regulatory discourse set free of comparison with inappropriate regulatory state referents.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Improvement of industrial performance with TPM implementation
|
[
"Competitiveness",
"Total productive maintenance",
"Maintenance management",
"Performance indicators",
"Performance evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Competition between organizations is ever-increasing. According to Phusavat and Kanchana (2008), some factors considered as priorities to achieve competitiveness are: quality, reliability, flexibility, ability to meet demand and delivery. All of these factors depend on how each organization manages its processes. Furthermore, they all involve production planning and control, personnel management and acquisition of materials in addition to maintenance management.\n2. Maintenance: Maintenance of industrial equipment has been a growing topic of discussion in the business environment, as the purchase of new equipment is becoming increasingly unviable, mainly due to the high cost of new technologies. Therefore, equipment care has become very important. In principle, maintenance simply consists of keeping equipment in working condition. Currently, maintenance consists in involving the person who works with the equipment in order to predict when it might suffer a breakdown and make the necessary improvements to ensure the best course of action.\n3. Maintenance management as a factor for process performance improvement: To develop a maintenance strategy, Eti et al. (2006) suggest three basic steps: formulate a plan of what needs to be done for each component; acquire the human and material resources, and, finally, implement the strategy.\n4. Methodology: The company studied has four plants, and the deployment of TPM occurred in only one of these. In this production unit, the company has the capacity to process 1,800 tons of steel per month. The manufactured products are metal cans for chemicals. The study unit has 375 employees and a building area of 17,000 m2.\n5. Results: 5.1 Schedule of implementation\n6. Conclusions: One of the specific objectives of this study was to evaluate the improvement in industrial performance of the company \"Alpha\" based on indicators of industrial performance. After initiating the implementation of the maintenance management model - according to the specifications of TPM - the scrap, rework and efficiency rates showed significant improvement and positive trends. It is evident that the short-term results obtained are reflections of activity planning and of the observation of the established schedule for implementation, always observing that the factor of education and training would be very important to job success.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show the implementation of a maintenance management model based on total productive maintenance (TPM) in a production line of a metallurgical company, with high-precision equipment requiring effective maintenance to maintain the quality of the production process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Has been proposed a model for conducting the activities, emphasizing the training activities of the teams involved in the implementation, collection and analysis of industrial performance indicators from a year before the implementation of TPM. The development followed the timetable of activities and the results of these performance indicators were collected again after the application of the model.\nFindings: It observed that after the implementation of TPM, and the results of these performance indicators were collected again after the application of the model. Thus, it is concluded that the TPM assists in improving industrial performance and competitiveness of the production line studied.\nOriginality/value: The angle, from which the paper approaches the TPM problem, is original for the studied company and shows positives results. It allows the company to apply the model in their others production lines and factories to achieve an improvement in industrial performance and competitiveness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Entrepreneurial learning dynamics in knowledge-intensive enterprises
|
[
"Organizational learning",
"Entrepreneurial learning",
"Knowledge-intensive enterprises",
"Knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The scope of this special issue is to shed new light on the entrepreneurial learning dynamics in knowledge-intensive enterprises. The aim is to extend and consolidate this emerging research area exploring entrepreneurship as a never-ending dynamic learning process, as well as, to cross-fertilize entrepreneurship and organizational learning studies (Secundo, Del Vecchio, Schiuma and Passiante, 2015).\nAn integrated framework for entrepreneurial learning dynamics in knowledge-intensive enterprises: The investigation of the dynamic entrepreneurial learning process as happening in different knowledge-intensive contexts needs to be further developed. Knowledge is grounded on a dynamic process of learning that underlies its creation and development (Franco and Haase, 2009; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). However, while numerous scholarly studies acknowledge the central role of learning in the entrepreneurial process (Politis, 2005), little is still known about how the dynamic processes that enable learning and development in new ventures come into existence (Brockman, 2013). Research on entrepreneurial learning, on the other hand, has to a large extent been focused on the learning process of individual entrepreneurs and associated behaviors and outcomes (Politis, 2005; Wang and Chugh, 2014). Thus, the understanding of entrepreneurial learning as a dynamic process that operates simultaneously and continuously on multiple levels in knowledge-intensive ventures is still in its infancy in regard to theory and practical application.\nThe structure of the special issue: The articles published in this special issue are organized according to the theoretical framework of entrepreneurial learning dynamics for knowledge-intensive enterprises presented in the previous section. In particular, the special issue contains theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions investigating the role of dynamic entrepreneurial learning process as happening in different entrepreneurial context of knowledge-intensive enterprises. Questions of interest include:\nEntrepreneurial learning in incumbent enterprises: A first contribution to the exploration of entrepreneurial learning in incumbent enterprises is offered by Gemmell (2017) in his paper \"Learning Styles of Entrepreneurs In Knowledge-Intensive Industries,\" that reviews prior entrepreneurship studies involving the Kolb learning style inventory (LSI) and examines the learning style preferences of 168 knowledge-industry entrepreneurs to deduce a hypothesized entrepreneurial learning style. The entrepreneur participants' Kolb LSI scores are modeled to explore causal links to individual and firm-level entrepreneurial success. Preference for the Kolb active experimentation learning mode over reflective observation, predicts adoption of a key entrepreneurial innovation behavior and significant entrepreneurial performance benefits. In contrast to published theories, the reflective observation learning mode exhibits surprising negative effects on entrepreneurial performance. The study illustrates how most entrepreneurs in knowledge-intensive industries exhibit an essentially opposite learning style from the majority of university students considered most likely candidates for technology entrepreneurship careers and demonstrates how learning style assessments could help identify and develop entrepreneurial talent.\nEntrepreneurial learning in network and ecosystem: Rae (2017) in his paper \"Entrepreneurial Learning: Peripherality and Connectedness\" explores the roles of peripherality and centrality in relation to entrepreneurial learning and development. Peripherality has previously been considered from a mainly geographical perspective as being remote, loosely connected and marginal. Discourses of entrepreneurship development relating to policy, economics, geography and culture favor the concept of centers, which attract attention, resources, activities and people. Whilst peripherality is an enduring topic of interest in regional studies, it is widened through using the conceptualisation of legitimate peripheral participation in social learning as a methodological lens for the study. A case study of the technology sector in Cape Breton, Canada is included to illustrate peripheral entrepreneurship. This paper suggests ways in which peripheral-central relationships can be a positive factor in entrepreneurial learning. It suggests that rebalancing the bidirectional \"flow\" of knowledge, talent and resources between centers and peripheries can enhance the value of peripheral entrepreneurship and innovation.\nConclusions and way forward: Despite scholars call for building Entrepreneurial learning theory (Krueger, 2009), this literature clearly reveals the diverse philosophical, theoretical and methodological approaches used to study the learning process in the entrepreneurial context (Wang and Chung, 2013). After nearly 20 years, entrepreneurial learning cannot be considered a new or even emerging field of study, but rather one that has been established and has been organized in different research areas and topics (Rae and Wang, 2015).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the articles presented in the special issue \"Entrepreneurial learning dynamics in knowledge-intensive enterprises.\" The special issue is inspired by recent research on entrepreneurial learning dynamics in knowledge-intensive enterprises literature. The aim is to extend and consolidate this emerging research area exploring entrepreneurship as a never-ending dynamic learning process, as well as, to cross-fertilize entrepreneurship and organizational learning studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a literature and published document review, experiential reflections and argument.\nFindings: The paper reveals an integrative framework to highlight the breath of entrepreneurial learning research according to different level of analysis: the context where learning happen, the different typologies of entrepreneurial learning processes, the ontological levels at which learning can occur and the different typologies of entrepreneurial learners. Continuous learning processes allow entrepreneurs to develop and grow, as well as, enable knowledge-intensive enterprises to engage in strategic renewal processes.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although, entrepreneurial learning research so far has focused on applying existing theories in the entrepreneurial context, more research is needed to broaden the perspective and understanding how entrepreneurial learning can help to face key entrepreneurship's challenges in different context.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents an holistic approach of current entrepreneurial learning research and encourages researchers to explore how different learning types come into play in different entrepreneurial contexts (start-up initiatives, strategic renewal in incumbent enterprises, ventures development and growth).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The lived experiences of female educational leadership doctoral students
|
[
"Gender",
"Women",
"Graduates",
"Higher education",
"Mentoring"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Progress toward gender equity in higher education has been described as \"glacial\" and \"excruciatingly slow\" (Marschke et al., 2007, p. 1). Female professors in the USA continue to earn less, are promoted more slowly and less often, and struggle with heavier teaching and service loads than men (Acker and Armenti, 2004; August and Waltman, 2004; Austin, 2002; Haring-Hildore and Paludi, 1987; Johnsrud, 1990; Toutkoushian et al., 2007). Female academics report feeling that they must work harder to be perceived as legitimate scholars (Acker and Armenti, 2004), and abundant research reveals a \"glass ceiling\" preventing many women from obtaining leadership positions in higher education.\nLiterature review: According to Rhode (2003), male executives tend to be drawn to mentoring and building informal relationships with \"other men who seem most similar in backgrounds, experiences, and values ... and enjoy the bonding that occurs in all-male social or sporting events ... [leading to] networks of advice, contacts and support\" (pp. 12-13). This tendency is found in other fields as well; frequently leading to what Gherardi (1995) has referred to as \"homosociability,\" which provides \"tickets of entry\" to organizational culture for males (p. 173) (also see Alvesson and Billing, 1997). Participation in informal networks, then, is more difficult for those without \"tickets,\" and even harder for those with major responsibilities outside of the organization, such as women with family commitments. Female executives and junior women \"lack time for the social activities that could generate collegial support and client contacts\" (Rhode, 2003, p. 13; also see Alvesson and Billing, 1997).The literature points to an \"accumulation of disadvantages\" that leads to an \"unaccommodating culture\" for women in academe. As noted in the introduction, female graduate students, when compared to their male counterparts, have had fairly uneven experiences. According to Marschke et al. (2007), lack of opportunity and mentorship underlies, in large part, why women do not advance as quickly as men in higher education as well as why they are more likely than men to \"leave the occupation altogether\" (p. 3) (see also, Clarida, 1997; Dixon-Reeves, 2003; Edwards-Alexander, 2005; Garcia, 1999; Garvey, 1999; Gordon, 1999; Hanna, 2005; Manuelito-Kerkvliet, 2005; Schwartz et al., 2003). The attrition of women from higher education arenas is a rarely discussed problem. \"Women's attrition from academia indicates at best a leaky pipeline and, at worst, an occupation mired in institutional discrimination\" (Marschke et al., 2007, p. 3).In addition to lack of mentoring, though in some ways the two are linked, women have difficulty navigating organizational culture and climate (Lovitts and Nelson, 2000; Rhode, 2003) and cite difficulties balancing work-family roles and financial obligations (Moyer et al., 1999). Maher et al. (2004) found that many women encountered one or more major obstacles that delayed progress, including: child-care responsibilities; disruption of family life due to death or divorce, and/or the inability to secure stable funding (see also Dey and Hill, 2008; Sallee, 2008). Finally, women reported less success in securing research experiences that aided dissertation efforts as well as a lack of confidence in their ability to navigate implicit institutional mores. However, the opposite was true of early-finishing female students (completing the PhD in four years or less): these students were able to enlist the aid of a competent and involved advisor, to secure stable funding and to engage in meaningful research (Maher et al., 2004); reflecting effective mentoring practices (Johnson and Huwe, 2003).Despite the fact that the higher education arena at least informally values mentoring between faculty and graduate students, scant research is available concerning graduate student mentorship programs overall (Johnson and Huwe, 2003). The research that does exist indicates students who have professional and personal mentors feel more committed to their work, have greater career aspirations, and report higher self-esteem (Gilbert et al., 1983).Mentoring remains largely an informal activity in most graduate departments, and due to the established culture of graduate education, it had been, until relatively recently, a predominantly white male experience (Lovitts, 2001). Academia has historically been comprised of Euro-American males (Moyer et al., 1999), making it difficult for female and ethnic/racial minority students to find faculty members that share related identities and experiences. Studies show that multicultural female mentoring pairings (Kalbfleisch and Davies, 1991), along with increases in numbers of women in the workplace (Spreitzer, 1995), are having positive effects on self-esteem, relationship-building, feelings of preparedness, and persistence. Finally, mentoring relationships with female faculty are cited as important to women's graduate school completion (Moyer et al., 1999; Neumark and Gardecki, 1997).\nTheory and method: Researching the experiences of female doctoral students necessitates using a framework and methodology that values and enables a deep exploration of women's lives. As a result, we used a feminist perspective and set of qualitative tools to address the following three questions:1. What have been participant's gender-related experiences in their educational leadership doctoral programs?2. What are their perceived needs for success as female educational leadership graduate students?3. What is the nature of their experiences with mentorship?Feminist research places gender centrally within one's inquiry. It \"problematizes women's diverse situations as well as the gendered institutions and material and historical structures that frame those\" (Olesen, 2005, p. 236). Methodologically, feminist qualitative research tends to be collaborative, and participants are viewed as partners whose voices are included in multiple stages of the research process, such as in data collection, analysis and interpretation (Lather, 1992; Skrla, 2003; Young, 2005). Finally, feminist research does not end at description; rather, research for and about women sets the stage for action and transformation (Miles and Huberman, 1994).In an effort to explore a wide variety of female graduate students' experiences, our project employed a purposeful sampling strategy. We sought to include graduate students who:* were females;* were enrolled in a PhD program within an educational leadership department; and* varied demographically (Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2007).To aid in our selection, a preliminary questionnaire was administered to determine both individual demographic variation and the degree to which students had received mentoring.The sample of 12 women included in our study represented a variety of demographic characteristics. For example, ages ranged from late 20s to late 50s. One described her race as \"Black;\" two claimed \"Asian\" as their race; two described themselves as \"Latina;\" six identified as \"White,\" while one described herself as \"multi-ethnic\". The majority of participants (75 percent) were born in the USA; others were born in Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan. A majority of the women (75 percent) claimed English as their native language; others reported growing up speaking one or more of four world languages. Of the 12 participants, five were single, five were married, one was divorced, and one was engaged. Five women were parenting and/or taking care of elderly parents. A total of 11 of 12 participants describe their sexual orientation as, \"hetero\" or \"straight\" while one woman describes herself as \"gay\". Five of 12 participants are first-generation college students.We utilized a collaborative focus group interview strategy to gather data, in which we served as discussion facilitators and partners in the research process, thus \"helping interviewees become as forthcoming and as accurate as possible\" (Ritchie, 2003, p. 84). We employed an open-ended focus group protocol that invited participants to speak in their own voices; yielding \"quotable, first-person prose that enlivens historical narratives\" (Ritchie, 2003, p. 119). Two focus groups met for an extended period of time for a total of 6.5 hours.Throughout the research process, we conducted data analysis in the form of coding, teasing out themes, making clusters, and writing summaries. Throughout, we were cognizant of the impossibility of \"pure description\" (Wolcott, 1994) and the \"inescapable incursion of values into human activity\" (Lather, 1992). Thus, \"member checking\" was an important step in the research process, whereby we shared tentative conclusions and participants contributed to manuscript editing (Creswell, 2003; Morgan, 1997; Ritchie, 2003).\nFindings: The results of our analysis revealed significant findings in five general areas: constraints within the organizational culture, personal and familial sacrifice, struggles with identity, questioning self, and experiences with mentoring. These findings are described within the following five subsections.Constraints within the organizational culture\nDiscussion and implications: The purposes of our research included developing a better understanding of the lived experiences and perceived needs of female doctoral students in educational leadership programs and exploring their understanding of mentorship. Our findings revealed the positive and negative impacts that organizational culture, relationships, identity and confidence had on their experiences as doctoral students as well as their perceptions of the importance of mentoring.The notion that gender mattered to our participants was clear. Whether they were talking about their experiences at home or the university they articulated the \"othering\" they felt as women in a professional field with a strong male-centric culture (Acker and Armenti, 2004). The female doctoral students reported noteworthy differences with regard to access and inclusion for men and women students, reporting that the differences led to stronger professional networks and job preparation for men. Importantly, female doctoral students shared that gender was not the single identity marker influencing their experiences in their doctoral studies. Nine of the twelve women reported instances in which the intersection of race, class, sexuality, age, national origin, and/or language within their personal identity were perceived by others as deficits rather than resources even though multicultural identities are purported to be an asset and \"diversity\" is professed as an aim of most modern organizations (Acker, 1992; Alvesson and Billing, 1997; Cox, 2001; Gherardi, 1995; Schein, 2004; Scott and Davis, 2007).Taken together these findings have implications for the ways that educational leadership departments might support the educational and professional experiences of female graduate students. First, it is important that faculty members take a deep interest in the experiences of their students and the organizational culture they are helping to foster. It is likely that most faculty are so immersed in the culture of the department that it is difficult to see outside of it, unless prompted to do so (Acker, 1992). Thus in addition to assessing their organizational culture, department faculty might also consider fostering discussions around identity and difference with the intention of developing greater awareness and understanding among students and faculty.Once faculty are more aware of student needs and how those needs are impacted by organizational culture, our findings suggest that strategies be put in place to enable students to learn from and support one another. The students found a great deal of comfort and support from their colleagues. If supported further by faculty guidance, such informal mentoring groups could be more effective. However, mentoring should not end with peer mentoring groups. The importance of formal faculty-student mentoring was emphasized by the students in our study and is supported by the research literature on graduate student success (Dixon-Reeves, 2003; Edwards-Alexander, 2005; Jaschik, 2006). Educational leadership departments can collaborate with external professional organizations to maximize resources and broaden the informal and formal networks female students need to build greater capacity.Finally, our findings indicate the importance of transparency and reflectivity. Making the implicit rules of success in graduate school explicit and ensuring transparency around scholarships, fellowships and job opportunities would go a long way in addressing, and possibly ameliorating, the feelings of insecurity and marginalization experienced by many women graduate students. Lack of university funding and collaborative research opportunities had negative effects on participants' personal wellbeing and created unease concerning future academic employment. While universities may be strained in the present economy, educational leadership departments can create transparent processes for awarding vacant appointments.\nFuture research and conclusion: While a limitation of the present study is its small sample size, the results are presently being used to develop a survey to reach a larger sample of male and female doctoral students world-wide. Increasing the scope of our study will enable us to better gauge what is currently happening in other educational leadership departments and will answer the call in the literature for additional research on mentoring female graduate students generally, and moving beyond the use of small, narrow samples specifically (Paglis et al., 2006; Rayle et al., 2006).Another area ripe for investigation is the detailed examination of the gendered subcultures of educational leadership departments (Acker, 1992). It is one thing to document inequities, and quite another to examine why inequities persist. A deeper inquiry and analysis utilizing feminist - in conjunction with traditional - organization theories might help explain the persistent state of affairs and contribute a trend toward more holistic thinking that rejects the male-female dichotomy in favor of viewing organizational citizenship as interdependent; \"[recasting] gender practices as dual presence, intersections, and reciprocity\" (Gherardi, 1995, p. 4).We conclude in the company of Rhode (2003) and Campbell (2002) that educational institutions must take responsibility for creating the organizational structures conducive to inspiring and equipping women to succeed as students and professionals. Professional schools, like colleges of education, have a particular obligation to communicate the importance of diversity and act as exemplars in creating strategies to achieve it. Increasing the number and success of female leaders and scholars in academe - and educational leadership in particular - is essential to ensuring these organizations not only reflect the diversity of the field and society, but also to develop and benefit from the talent and contributions that both men and women scholars bring to the field.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - There is a meager body of research addressing the role educational leadership preparation programs in colleges and universities play in preparing women leaders. Also educational leadership preparation research has yet to explore ways in which mentorship provides additional capital for female graduate students. This study seeks to understand the challenges facing, and the opportunities available to, female graduate students in educational leadership departments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study used qualitative methods to explore the constructs of educational leadership preparation and mentorship of female graduate students. Qualitative methods, specifically a questionnaire and a collaborative focus group, were informed by the work of feminist theory and were used to explore participants' experiences and perceptions with the larger purpose of understanding the implications of their experiences for the development of strategies and programs intended to support female graduate students.\nFindings: - The following themes emerged from the participants' stories: constraints within the organizational culture, personal and familial sacrifice, struggles with identity, questioning self, and experiences with mentoring.\nPractical implications: - The findings have important implications for the roles university leadership preparation program structures might play in supporting female graduate students and their career success. The findings also offer recommendations for the development of mentoring programs for female graduate students.\nOriginality/value: - Currently, there is an exceptional lack of research documenting the lived experiences of female doctoral students, particularly research that can be used to inform policy and program development. To that end, the qualitative study described in this paper helps in understanding the challenges facing, and the opportunities available to, female graduate students in educational leadership departments as well as in understanding the implications of such experiences for the development of strategies and programs intended to support female graduate students.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
From the industrial revolution to Trump: Six periods of changing perceptions of American business managers
|
[
"Public administration",
"Politics",
"Management history",
"Private sector"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, something new was in play on the American political landscape. One opinion about the season's distinctiveness is that, with the rise of Donald Trump and the eschewing of his careerist rivals, the troubled Western World moved into an era of the \"non-politician politician\". However, the idea of political cleanskins as the panacea for society's ills is patently not new. An even cursory glance at the life stories of some of the nation's founding fathers reveals a theme of the so-called citizen statesman, the mature man who leaves his farm to go to Washington for a finite period with the intention of soon returning to a more grounded and wholesome life. For example, Kazin (1998) argues that elements such as the overt rebuke of King George and with him notions of Monarchy and Divine right as well as the two-term limit on Presidential terms (admittedly in place only since the Roosevelt administration), are evidence that the great American experiment represents a jettisoning of careerist civic leaders and a privileged ruling class.\nConclusion: This essay has examined the image of business and business people in relation to the State in the US over approximately 250 years. It has argued that, following the industrial revolution, business, being new, lacked legitimacy, particularly relative legitimacy (e.g. legitimacy in relation to the State). In subsequent decades, this credibility gap was closed. Following the Great Depression, the business and government sectors, mostly due to the partnership orientation that then existed, were each viewed by the public as wholesome spheres of activity. However, from the time of the Nixon administration, legitimacy for both sectors was in decline. The State was incompetent; the private sector, in particular its manager agents, unscrupulous. In the two decades prior to the political rise of Trump, corporate excess had its admirers. This was the time when the smartest guys in the room were looked at longingly by a limited in-crowd group, metaphorically, \"those in the room\". In these historically unique circumstances, it apparently occurred to one person entering the political arena to ask whether the dirty tricks of an admittedly sullied business sector could be used against the State. This was the Trump strategy, to make late twentieth century capitalist excess the means to put the government in its place.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper takes a long-term view of how the US public and private sectors have been viewed in relation to each other. It notes that since the time of approximately the Nixon Administration, each sector has not been viewed favourably by the public. Over the past 40 years, the private sector has been perceived as being run by the unscrupulous and the public sector by incompetents. The essay argues that Donald Trump was able to exploit these circumstances to win the 2016 election.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper presents a polemic. It relies on archival research and data to create a new view of historical eras in US business history. The object of analysis is the idea of relative legitimacy, the public image of the State vis-a-vis business and business managers.\nFindings: Although the paper addresses business history, a novel argument is presented about the 2016 US Presidential election. It is proposed that Trump took advantage of unique historical circumstances; therefore, his win had more to do with the moment than with him personally.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper interprets the 2016 Presidential race as the end-point of a 250-year journey. It sets a new agenda, in that previous analyses have mostly viewed the ascendancy of Trump as pertaining to distinctively post-industrial twenty-first-century phenomena.\nSocial implications: In analysing the 2016 Presidential race, the emphasis is largely removed from issues of personality or partisan politics.\nOriginality/value: The paper takes a view of the 2016 election which has not hitherto been adopted. It proposes a new concept - relative legitimacy - as having a substantial explanatory value.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The state of multi-purpose cyclone shelters in Bangladesh
|
[
"Climate change",
"Natural disasters",
"Community-based facilities management",
"Multi-capitals framework"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A changing climate coupled with the very location of the waters of the Bay of Bengal, often the source of tropical cyclones and storm surges, make Bangladesh one of the most vulnerable nations in the world in terms of natural disasters. Climate change associated with the sea-level rise is predicted to further increase the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, particularly in the coastal districts of the country (Karim and Mimura, 2008). Recent census data indicates that more than half of the population in the coastal districts live under the poverty line and are highly vulnerable to natural disasters such as cyclones (UNDP, 2011). It was estimated that around 1.5 million people took refuge in multi-purpose cyclone shelters (MPCS) when Cyclone Sidr hit the coastal districts in 2007 (Paul et al., 2010). Accordingly, > 2,500 MPCS facilities have already been built across coastal districts as part of disaster risk reduction strategies (CEGIS, 2009). The World Bank (2010) further estimates that there is a need for > 5,500 new MPCS facilities as an integral component of a disaster management strategy. To date, MPCS-related studies conducted in Bangladesh have generally focused on:\n2. Cyclones and cyclone shelter management in Bangladesh: With a population of > 143 million people and a population density of > 1,200 persons per square kilometre, Bangladesh is a densely populated country in the south Asia subcontinent (BBS, 2012). The country's geographic location in the waters of the Bay of Bengal (often the source of tropical cyclones and storm surges), its low elevation and high population density make it one of the most disaster-prone nations in the world (The The World Bank, 2010). For instance, on average, a severe tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh every three years and the country has been hit by 16 major cyclones with a loss of nearly 500,000 lives since the 1960s (Karim and Mimura, 2008). The ratio of causalities/population exposed to cyclones makes Bangladesh the most vulnerable country in the world in terms of cyclones (UNDP, 2004). As Table I indicates, the need to reduce cyclone-related casualties is nowhere more urgent than in Bangladesh.\n3. Method: The central research question that this paper addresses is: \"How are MPCS facilities in Bangladesh being managed and how can this be improved?\" The paper makes use of an exploratory research approach to assess the state of MPCS facilities in Bangladesh. The approach is particularly useful to clarify the problem space (Ghauri et al., 1995). While the outcomes of exploratory research may not always influence the decision-making processes right away, they have the potential to provide significant insights and directions into the future. It is in this context that the paper utilises the multi-capitals framework as an exploratory appraisal tool for scrutinising the current management practices of MPCS facilities.\n4. Findings: Data analyses indicate that the existing MPCS facilities are not equitably distributed across the 16 coastal districts, and thus do not reflect the needs of highly vulnerable populations (Table III). For instance, the Noakhali district with a highly vulnerable population of 1,807,000 has an existing shelter capacity for accommodating only 266,000 people. That means the existing MPCS facilities cannot provide refuge to 85 per cent of the vulnerable population in a time of need. Conversely, the Khulna district with a zero highly vulnerable population has the shelter capacity to accommodate 76,000 people. These results suggest that the existing MPCS facilities may not be strategically located and hence are inequitably distributed.\n5. Discussion: Although it was not possible to make use all of seven forms of capital under the multi-capitals framework due to the limitations of secondary data, the state of MPCS facilities captured in terms of built, cultural, financial and political resources clearly demonstrates the lack of governance mechanisms to improve MPCS service delivery. More importantly, as Paul and Routray (2013) indicate, the interrelated aspects of human, natural and social capitals are equally vital for making the most of MPCS facilities. For instance, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society in collaboration with government agencies has been training management committees in relation to disaster preparedness and management (IFRCRCS, 2012). However, skills and competencies of committee members required to manage MPCS facilities during normalcy as well as in the event of cyclones have not received adequate attention. In this regard, the role of social capital is particularly important for enhancing the outcomes of community-oriented intervention (Putnam, 2000). Because there is generally a positive association between social capital and outcomes of community-based initiatives (Dhakal, 2011b), the ways in which committees build and maintain relationships within and outside the communities that they serve are significant for building capacity of facility managers and or volunteers. For instance, MPCS management committee members are currently chosen by local government representatives on their own discretion instead of being elected by the community. It might therefore be necessary for the MPCS management committees to consider ways to harness community relationships as a core element of facilities management (Ngowi and Mselle, 1998). The aspects of natural capital in the context of MPCS facilities could range from climate change mitigation strategies at the global scale to mangrove restoration in coastal districts at the local level. For instance, a total of 88 MPCS facilities have been destroyed or dismantled because of the loss of natural capital; for example, river erosion in the vicinity of the shelters (CEGIS, 2009). This is clearly an indication of the lack of integration between environmental strategies and the construction of MPCS facilities.\n6. Conclusion: This paper began with an introductory overview of cyclones and cyclone shelter management in Bangladesh. The data analyses indicated that there is an incongruous emphasis on building shelters for the sake of building, instead of ensuring appropriate governance mechanisms are used to engage communities in shelter management and stewardship. While the construction and operation of MPCS facilities are the responsibility of government agencies, these agencies do not have clear guidelines for the day-to-day management of MPCS facilities. More importantly, MPCS management committee members are not elected by the community that the committee intends to serve. Based on these findings, this paper contends that for MPCS facilities to effectively and inclusively serve the needs of communities they need to be engaged in MPCS governance. The fact that nearly one-tenth of the existing shelters are already unusable, combined with The World Bank's (2010) recommendation to build > 5,500 new shelters certainly calls for a new governance approach to holistic management of MPCS facilities rather than just building new shelters. This paper sees value in incorporating a multi-capitals framework with a community-based facilities management lens for enhancing MPCS governance. If the lack of maintenance funding is already an issue for current MPCS facilities, future shelters must factor in the cost of operation and maintenance during the planning phase. Drawing on already constrained budgets, economic analyses have demonstrated that developing and replacing existing, and often aging, public facilities (AAMCoG, 2011), such as MPCS facilities, is an increasingly expensive process for developing countries. There is no doubt that the existing and new shelters are vital for mitigating or minimising the casualties of vulnerable populations in the event of natural disasters. If cyclone shelters are to be the backbone of disaster management strategies in Bangladesh, then MPCS facilities cannot be viewed simply as facilities disconnected from the communities they service. This paper recommends that MPCS governance might benefit from:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the state of management practices of existing multi-purpose cyclone shelters (MPCS) facilities across the 16 coastal districts in the country, in the context of an identified need for 5,500 new MPCS facilities in Bangladesh.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A \"multi-capitals\" framework - a conceptual model for appraising the state of MPCS facilities based on seven forms of capital resources - is adopted.\nFindings: MPCS facilities are not equitably distributed across the 16 coastal districts to cater to the needs of the highly vulnerable population. Nearly 9 per cent of the existing shelters are unusable in the event of cyclones. Once built, MPCS facilities have no maintenance funding and only around 19 per cent of shelters have a governance mechanism that enables community participation. A strong correlation (r = 0.65) was detected between the availability of maintenance funds and provision for community participation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The potential of a multi-capitals framework to assess the management practices of existing MPCS facilities in a holistic way was limited by the secondary nature of data on the four forms of capital: built, cultural, financial and political. The significance of the other three forms of capital: human, natural and social and their implications in the context of MPCS facilities are discussed.\nPractical implications: If the existing and new MPCS facilities are to become a vital component of disaster management strategies, MPCS governance mechanisms are likely to be enhanced by embracing the principles of community-based facilities management.\nOriginality/value: The paper introduces the utility of a multi-capitals framework to assess the existing management issues surrounding MPCS facilities and offers potential solutions in the context of developing countries. The value of the framework is in understanding the utility of an MPCS as more than just a facility.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Developing professional capital in policy and practice: Ontario's Teacher Learning and Leadership Program
|
[
"Professional learning",
"Leadership",
"Teachers",
"Professional development",
"Professional capital",
"Educational change"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In this paper, we discuss Ontario's Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP) as an approach to teachers' professional learning and leadership development that advances the concept and application of the combination of human, social and decisional capital to form \"professional capital\" (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012) with positive benefits for teachers' work and for students' learning. We situate our discussion and findings in a wider international context where approaches to policies for teacher quality have evolved over time and in different contexts. We propose that teachers' learning and leadership requires enabling teachers to be agents at the center of educational changes rather than the subjects or recipients of externally mandated reforms only. This shift involves changes in educational policy and practice led by and for teachers in partnership with educators throughout the education system - school, district, state/province, nation - and indeed in an increasingly interconnected international network of teachers seeking to be the advocates, experts and leaders of educational practices and improvements locally and globally.\nTeachers' leading professional learning and practice: Central to recent international movements in education has been the phrase \"the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers\" (OECD, 2010, p. 3) promoted by reports from the Programme for International Student Assessment and from international research on educational systems that have improved over time (Barber and Mourshed, 2007; Mourshed et al., 2010). In light of evidence that teachers and teaching are central to school effectiveness and improvement, indeed some evidence suggests that teacher effectiveness is the most important element within a school (National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1996; Sanders and Rivers, 1996); there has been growing attention to teacher quality and to effective instruction internationally.\nIntroducing Ontario's TLLP: The province of Ontario spans over one million square kilometers and is Canada's most populous province with a population of over 13.5 million people (38.5 percent of the total population of Canada). Over two million students (involving 95 percent of school-age children) in Ontario attend the publicly funded education system; 27 percent of students in Ontario were born outside Canada; with 20 percent self-identifying as members of a visible minority and 4.5 percent of Ontario students are French speaking (Pervin and Campbell, 2015). Ontario's publicly funded school system is overseen and funded by the provincial government, through the Ontario Ministry of Education. In 2012-2013, there were 3,978 elementary and 913 secondary schools. Schools are governed through four publicly funded education systems - English Public, English Catholic, French Public and French Catholic - encompassing 72 school districts and 11 smaller school authorities.\nIntroducing our research: In 2012, we were commissioned by the OTF and the Ministry to conduct a small-scale one-year research project examining the TLLP and its value for teachers. Following completion of our initial final report (Campbell et al., 2013), we were invited to embark on a second five-year longitudinal study to examine in greater depth and breadth the spread and sustainability of the TLLP (Campbell et al., 2014, 2015). Our overarching research questions became:\nFindings: We focus on two aspects of our research findings connected to professional capital: first, changes in the style and substance of policy making concerning teachers' professional development; and second, the experiences of teachers developing their professional learning and leadership through the TLLP.\nConclusions and implications: We began our research for the TLLP by asking the question: \"if experienced teachers were supported to be leaders of learning - their own learning, the professional learning of other teachers and their students' learning - what would these teacher leaders do and what would be the challenges and benefits?\" (Campbell et al., 2013, p. 1). Now, after working with nine cohorts of teachers totaling 4,300 educators and 840 professional development projects, our evidence is clear that there are strong benefits from TLLP for teachers' knowledge, skills and practices (Campbell et al., 2015; Lieberman et al., 2016). Other adults engaged in the learning and practices from TLLP projects benefit also - in our analyses of a sample of 33 final reports from cohorts 5 and 6, 94 percent of TLLP project leaders indicated improved knowledge and skills for a wider group of adults beyond the direct TLLP team (Campbell et al., 2014, p. 28). Importantly, students' engagement, attitudes, behavior and learning improve also. Further, 98 percent of TLLP project leaders responding to our survey reported sustaining their improved learning and practices in some way beyond the initial project funding (Campbell et al., 2015, p. 15).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence from Ontario's Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP) with goals to: support experienced teachers to undertake self-directed professional development; develop teachers' leadership skills for sharing their professional learning and practices; and facilitate knowledge exchange.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws on four years of research including: analyses of TLLP project application proposals and final reports; observations and participant feedback for TLLP events; surveys of TLLP project leaders; vignettes by teacher leaders; interviews with teachers, government and union leaders; case studies of TLLP projects; and analyses of TLLP online networking activity.\nFindings: TLLP provides an example of developing professional capital, involving: changes in the style and substance of policy making concerning government and unions' approaches to teachers' professional development; and the experiences of teachers developing their individual and collaborative professional learning and leadership with benefits for teachers and for students.\nOriginality/value: Five implications are highlighted: prioritizing teachers' learning and leadership of, by and for teachers requires shifts in the substance and style of policy making for teachers' work; professional collaboration benefits from appropriate partnerships and an enabling system with conditions and support for teachers' learning and leadership; valuing and supporting teachers taking charge of their own professional learning is integral; developing teachers as leaders of their peers' learning and educational improvements is vital; and enabling teachers as developers of actionable knowledge is powerful for sharing improvements in practices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
E-lending in digital libraries: a systematic review
|
[
"Digital libraries",
"Systematic review",
"Electronic books",
"Electronic book lending",
"Electronic lending",
"Electronic publishing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Authors, publishers, distributers, libraries and end users are the main elements in the information lifecycle (Runardotter et al., 2014). Information and communication technologies (ICT) also has a big impact on the life cycle. ICT facilitates access to information products of which the e-book is one example. Many studies have emphasized the benefits of e-books, especially in education. As an example, Joint Information Systems Committees (JISC's) research shows that 65 per cent of 127 UK higher education institutes use e-books in their programmes (Vasileiou et al., 2012). However, the use of e-books faces big challenges, especially for publishers, because of issues related to copyright and publishers' financial interests. However, these challenges along with benefits such as reducing book production costs in the electronic environment also make it an opportunity. So it is predicted that by 2020, about 75 per cent of publications in the world will be in digital format or will be released in both print and electronic formats (Vasileiou et al., 2012).\n2. Methodology: A systematic review protocol (Kitchenham and Charters, 2007) is used to identify and analyze past research. The aim in a systematic literature review is to find gaps in the existing knowledge in a domain and to answer some research questions (Dehghani Champiri et al., 2015). As shown in Figure 1, the review was carried out in three phases.\n3. Findings: In the findings, the 30 reviewed items are categorized by the year of publication, geographical focus, subject of study and research methods. The first study on the subject was published in 2001 and the largest number of studies occurred in 2011 (seven works) (Figure 3). The majority of the works were carried out in developed countries, which is not surprising as they are the countries that lead e-publishing and e-book technologies. As Figure 4 shows, 54 authors contributed in the reviewed items, of which 35 (65 per cent) were affiliated to American and British institutes.\n4. Discussion and conclusion: Review of research in e-lending area showed that a total of 30 studies have been carried out so far, and only a few of them are directly related to e-lending in DLs. The studies fall into four categories:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to systematically review e-lending research studies in the digital library domain to identify their subjects, existing research gap and their research methods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a systematic review. Through several stages of searching in related databases, 30 research works including journal and conference research papers, theses and dissertations, research and technical reports were identified and reviewed based on the guidelines of systematic review protocols.\nFindings: It was found that research in e-lending domain is growing, and the subject will receive greater attention in the near future. Studies were in the following four categories: e-books (specifications, creation and software and viewpoints), business models, e-book status in libraries and copyright issues, e-book lending and inter-library loan. Some research gaps were identified including e-lending domain, business models and legislation. Little has been done with qualitative and mixed approaches in terms of research methods. Moreover, findings showed that this area has received less attention in developing countries.\nOriginality/value: This is the first review of the e-lending domain in digital libraries. It identifies the key works related to e-lending, categorizes them, provides an overview and identifies emerging research issues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Making people want to come to work: How transformational leadership and meaningful work improve motivation, work engagement - and productivity
|
[
"Transformational leadership",
"Work engagement",
"Motivation",
"Employee attitudes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nMain body of article review: How do you tackle an expensive problem that keeps getting worse? It seems that people are becoming less and less engaged with the work that they do; and this means lower productivity. To put things in perspective, industry reports reveal that:\nWhat do people want out of work?: There are the obvious things - security, the ability to pay the bills and support themselves and their family. And once they achieve that, people start to look for something more from their work: they want it to mean something, to have value and to let them feel they are doing something worthwhile.\nTransformational leaders can influence attitudes and behavior: Much has been written about the various kinds of leadership and what leaders can do to be more effective. Transformational leaders are morally mature individuals who inspire their followers to greater efforts by influencing their attitudes and behaviors. Their influence also has a range of benefits for employees, enhancing well-being, creativity and - perhaps most importantly for employers-task performance.\nMeaningful work also affects motivation: If employees see their work as meaningful - as having a value above and beyond its immediate outcomes - this is likely to increase their work engagement. So it would be interesting to see if this also has an effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and employees' engagement with their work.\nAchieving higher levels of work engagement: Analyzing the responses produced evidence that:\nComment: This article reviews \"Transformational leadership and work engagement\", by Yasin et al. (2013). In a cross-sectional study, the authors highlight the mediating effect of meaningful work on the relationships between transformational leadership and work engagement. They also draw attention to opportunities for further research in this area to determine the particular aspects of transformational leadership that have most effect on employee attitudes and work engagement.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: To examine connections between transformational leadership, motivation and work engagement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Conducts a self-report survey asking employees about their feelings toward their work and their evaluation of their supervisor's leadership.\nFindings: How do you tackle an expensive problem that keeps getting worse? It seems that people are becoming less and less engaged with the work that they do; and this means lower productivity. To put things in perspective, industry reports reveal that only a fifth of employees are engaged in their work - even fewer in Australia; engagement levels are steadily declining; and resulting losses of productivity now exceed $300 billion in the USA and $100 billion in the UK. So organizations urgently need fresh ways to motivate and engage their workforce.\nPractical implications: Shows that both transformational leadership and meaningful work can affect employees' engagement with their work.\nSocial implications: Notes that meaning in work mediates the effects of transformational leadership.\nOriginality/value: Recommends attention to the design of work to address employees' needs and interests in addition to organizing transformational leadership training.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring early academic responses to Functions of the Executive
|
[
"Barnard",
"Management theory",
"Management history"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Chester Barnard's Functions of the Executive (hereafter referred to as Functions) is perennially listed among the classic twentieth-century books on management (Bedeian and Wren, 2001; Sibbet, 1997). It was recognized as significant essentially from its publication - a book review in the Harvard Business Review termed Functions \"a noteworthy attempt to deal with the subject of administration in an analytical and scholarly manner\" (1940, p. 148). Among the book's early admirers was Herbert Simon, who later said that reading Functions was key to enabling him, despite little managerial experience, to produce his own seminal work, Administrative Behavior (Wolf, 1995b). Selznick (1957, p. 31) cited Barnard multiple times in Leadership in Administration, terming Functions a \"major contribution\" in the understanding of \"the social psychology of obedience, perception, and co-operation\".\nBarnard's life and Functions of the Executive: The life and career of Chester Barnard has been detailed in prior scholarship (Scott, 1992; Wolf, 1974), and my interest here is only to emphasize points from this work particularly relevant to the origin and reception of Functions. Barnard left college at Harvard short of a degree but brought an Ivy Leaguer's intellectual curiosity into his business career. As an executive with A.T.&T. and its affiliate, New Jersey Bell, Barnard began systematizing his thinking about organizations and communicating it in papers and presentations starting in the 1920s (Wolf, 1974). He also spoke at Wharton and participated on Harvard advisory committees, becoming acquainted with the Business School's dean, Wallace Donham.\nHistorical context for US management scholarship: The period of 1938-1955 encompassed several important developments in the history of US industry, management education and management scholarship. Broadly speaking, the era saw rapid growth in industrial productivity in the USA, spurred on by Second World War. Also, the study of management, while moving away from the earlier \"Scientific Management\" era of Frederick Taylor, arrived by the mid-1950s at a point where science, or at least research that conformed to scientific methods, was even more central to the managerial pursuit than it had been in the past. Perceptions that organizational technology had fueled the Allies' success in Second World War made maintaining this advantage a national imperative during the early Cold War era, attracting students to business schools and private foundation funds to organizational research (Khurana, 2007).\nMethods: To find journal articles that mentioned or footnoted (the most common practice for incorporating references in this period) Barnard's book, I employed a text-based search method. Given the 1956 start of the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), I elected to focus my study on the years prior to that, which cannot be covered through standard citation tracking and may therefore be less well-documented. My primary source was JSTOR, chosen for its excellent coverage of early twentieth century academic journals, particularly in the social sciences, and its flexible text-based searching algorithms. I searched for items including the word \"Barnard\" and the phrase Functions of the Executive and then did a separate search for mentions of Barnard's first and last name without the titled work. I conducted similar searches in EBSCO's Business Source Complete. Although I began searches with 1938 (the publication year of Functions), the earliest matches occurred in 1939, making it the starting point of analysis.\nFunctions of the Executive book reviews: Book reviews offer a key resource signaling initial scholarly attention toward specific content elements (Augier and Prietula, 2007) and, by their journals of publication, illustrate which audiences took note of a book. In terms of journal categories, four are represented (business, economics, political science and sociology), with two reviews from journals in the first two categories and one each in the latter two. The earliest two reviewers, despite a distinction in disciplines (political science versus economics) are relatively uniform in their views. Both express a preference for the second half of the book, termed a \"penetrating discussion of practical problems\" (Anderson, 1939, p. 250) and \"most original\" (Stene, 1939, p. 348). The book's first half, with its articulation of Barnard's theoretical model of organization, is implied by them to be a somewhat tedious preamble for the payoff of the second half's dissection of the executive function and actions of leaders in it. A similar review (in an economics journal) praises as \"tantalizing\" the \"gleanings\" of leadership insight drawn directly from Barnard's experience but expresses a wish for a sequel expanding on these and omitting the theoretical content, suggesting that the book, had it \"been written by an academic scholar, might be charged by some with excessive conceptualism\" (1940, p. 613). Copeland (1940, p. 150), writing in Harvard Business Review, notes that many will perceive the book as \"heavy reading\" and regrets that Barnard \"has abstracted so much color from his statements that their meaning and significance are not readily perceived\".\nFurther scholarly impressions of Barnard and Functions: While reviews of Functions largely displayed polite, while by no means effusive, appreciation, parsing the book's array of topics seemed to put scholars in the proverbial position of the blind men assessing the elephant - each tended to describe the part most readily accessible from his perspective and to present it as the whole (or the whole that was of value). Looking at the trends in content for early references, it seems that a conceptual categorization in views of the book developed, coinciding somewhat with the disciplinary partitions of social scientists and their respective journals. Table III presents a compilation by time periods and disciplines of the prominent concepts noted and scholars whose writings were deemed similar to Barnard's.\nThe seeds of discontent: While the overall tenor of references to Barnard's work during this period is positive, the five scholars bringing more negative opinions offer evidence of early themes regarding perceived problems. Like the book reviews, their articles appeared in journals across disciplinary categories - economics (1), political science (2), psychology (1) and blended social sciences (1).\nConclusion: When Functions appeared, academic social scientists were turning their lens on organizations, and business education was struggling to build a university-based identity alongside academic disciplines, a pursuit which required drawing on the legitimating power of science as an institution (Khurana, 2007). The book thus reached a motivated community of scholarly readers, but Barnard's identity conflicted with what he delivered - he was neither fish nor fowl, being a businessman who delivered insights firmly tied to his own experiences but simultaneously offered the formulations of an aspiring organizational theorist.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to deepen understanding of the influence of Barnard's Functions of the Executive in management theory by examining its early scholarly reception.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research presented is a qualitative analysis of references to Barnard's work in academic journals prior to 1956, based on 139 articles identified through text-based searching of electronic databases.\nFindings: Favorable opinions of Barnard's book tend to emphasize his practical insights as a business executive, while his conceptual frameworks are viewed more skeptically. Criticism often focuses on the \"scientific\" legitimacy of his approach or his perceived ideological perspective. Concepts prominently discussed vary among social science disciplines, and his name is quickly tied to those of subsequent academics whose work is \"like\" his - these likewise vary by discipline. As they emerge, their voices on the concepts may supersede Barnard's influence.\nResearch limitations/implications: Since this study ends in the mid-1950s, conclusions about how its findings reflect on subsequent use of Barnard's work by management scholars are speculative. Further research could build on this work by examining scholarly literature to track how and where specific ideas or concepts from Barnard's book have been developed in management scholarship up to the present day.\nOriginality/value: This study informs current scholars interested in Barnard's work by suggesting how its early usage by academics based on boundaries of disciplinary interest may have diffused the book's early impact and influenced later attention to its concepts by management scholars.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Modelling the supplier selection process enablers using ISM and fuzzy MICMAC approach
|
[
"Fuzzy MICMAC",
"Interpretive structural modeling (ISM)",
"SSP enablers (SSPEs)",
"Supplier selection process (SSP)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Globalization of business dynamics and the fast-changing external environment have put great pressures on organizational operations (Koh et al., 2006). Effective supplier selection plays a vital role in creating a competitive edge for an organization and having a positive impact on its performance (Hsu et al., 2006). Suppliers are an integral part of the supply chain (SC) of an organization, and management requires specialized negotiating skills, as they are not a part of the organization (Ramanathan, 2007). Suppliers have to be selected carefully, as they are having positive or a very adverse impact on the overall performance of the organization. Selection of appropriate suppliers is one of the fundamental strategies for enhancing the quality output of any organization, which has a direct influence on the organization's reputation. Hence, supplier selection has become the critical issue among the practitioners and researchers.\n2. Literature review of SSPE: Manufacturing organizations can no longer be considered as an isolated entity due to global competition. The competition today is no longer between individual organizations but between SCs and networks (Sahay et al., 2003; Sahay and Mohan, 2003). Manufacturing organizations must, therefore, focus their attention not only to their customers but also on the supplier. Suppliers plays critical role in satisfying the customers. If the customers are satisfied, the financial performance of the organization can be improved. The suppliers will helpful to organizations if they are selected and evaluated properly (Kannan and Tan, 2006). Effective supplier selection plays a vital role in creating a competitive edge over other organizations and achieving a positive impact on its performance. Understanding how supplier evaluation practices are designed, implemented and used is critical for managers because it generates insight into the effective management of suppliers through performance measurement devices (Bjorklund, 2010).\n3. ISM methodology and model development: ISM is primarily intended as a group learning process, but can also use individually. The ISM process transforms unclear, poorly articulated mental models of systems into visible, well-defined models useful for many purposes (Sage, 1977). A set of different directly and indirectly related variables are structured into a comprehensive systemic model. The model so formed portrays the structure of a complex issue, a system of a field of study, in a carefully designed pattern implying graphics as well as words. Many researchers have used an ISM methodology to impose order and direction on the complexity of relationships among variables of a system (Table II). ISM is interpreted as the judgment of the group decides whether and how the variables are related. It is structural as on the basis of relationship, an overall structure is extracted from the complex set of variables. It is a modelling technique as the specific relationships and overall structure are portrayed in a graphical model. For complex problems, like the one under consideration, a number of enablers may be affecting the SSPEs. However, the direct and indirect relationships between the enablers describe the situation far more accurate than the individual factor taken into isolation. Therefore, ISM develops insights into collective understandings of these relationships.\n4. ISM fuzzy MICMAC analysis: For developing the ISM model, the relation between two variables is denoted by 0 and 1. If there is no relationship between two variables, then it is denoted by 0 and if there is a relationship between two variables then it is denoted by 1. From Table V, we can say that the relationship between 1 and 2, 1 and 3 and 1 and 9 having equal importance and denoted by 1. But actually the relation between these variables cannot be always equal. Some relations may be strong, some may be very strong and some relations may be better. To overcome these drawbacks of ISM model, the fuzzy relationship is used for the MICMAC analysis. The ISM fuzzy MICMAC analysis is carried out as per the following procedure\n5. Findings and discussions: SSP has become the lifeline of the business organizations. The objective of the ISM model in this research is to develop a hierarchy of SSPEs and to analyse the interaction among these SSPEs that would allow the successful selection of suitable supplier. Development of an ISM model (Figure 2) and categorization of SSPEs (Figure 3) have following managerial implications:\n6. Conclusions and directions for future research: The SSPEs are not independent and have interrelations among each other. It becomes more important to identify the relationship of SSPEs with each other. An integrated model using ISM and the fuzzy MICMAC approach is developed, which may be helpful for purchasing managers to use this model to identify and classify the important SSPEs for their needs. This model also reveals the direct and indirect effects of each SSPE on successful supplier selection.\n7. Practical implications: In this present research, an ISM-based model has been developed for better supplier selection. This ISM-based model has been upgraded to a fuzzy ISM-based model so that the structural model can be interpreted with higher sensitivity rather than just a binary relationship among the enablers. In this research, an attempt has been made to identify SSPEs. Although a large amount of literature is available on SSPEs, no study has been carried out to understand the interactions among these SSPEs using the ISM and fuzzy MICMAC analysis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to successful supplier selection process (SSP) by understanding the dynamics between SSP enablers (SSPEs), using interpretive structure modelling (ISM) methodology and find out driving and the dependence power of enablers, using fuzzy MICMAC (Matriced' Impacts Croises Appliquee a un Classement) analysis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The group of experts from industries and the academics were consulted and ISM is used to develop the contextual relationship among various SSPEs for each dimension of supplier selection. The results of the ISM are used as an input to the fuzzy MICMAC analysis to identify the driving and the dependence power of SSPEs.\nFindings: The research presents a hierarchy-based model and mutual relationships among SSPEs. The research shows that there is a group of SSPEs having a high driving power and low dependence, which requires maximum attention and is of strategic importance, while another group consists of those SSPEs that have high dependence and low driving power, which requires the resultant actions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The weightage obtained for the ISM model development and fuzzy MICMAC are obtained through the judgment of academician and few industry experts. It is the only subjective judgment and any biasing by the person who is judging the SSPEs might influence the final result. A questionnaire survey can be conducted to catch the insight on these SSPEs from more organizations.\nPractical implications: This category provides a useful tool for top management to differentiate between independent and dependent SSPEs and their mutual relationships which would help them to focus on those key SSPEs that are most significant for effective supplier selection.\nOriginality/value: Arrangement of SSPEs in a hierarchy, the categorization into the driver and dependent categories, and fuzzy MICMAC are an exclusive effort in the area of supplier selection.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Third sector involvement in public education: the Israeli case
|
[
"Third sector",
"Equity",
"Public education",
"Partnership",
"Privatization",
"Funding",
"Service delivery",
"Israel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Third sector organizations operate in the social space outside the market and the state (Salamon and Anheier, 1992). In the last decades, with growing privatization and democratization trends, third sector organizations have become a central social power in western countries (Gidron et al., 2004). These organizations, known also as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), are distinct from other public and private sector organizations (Salamon et al., 1999). On one hand, they are not for profit and base their operation on public mobilization and resources, such as volunteering and donations; on the other hand, they are private and self-governed. Many NGOs target their operation to the education field (Salamon et al., 1999).\nFactors influencing third sector deployment: The term equity or equality refers to the \"spatial distribution of income and resources\" that affects \"people's opportunities and quality of life\" (Leck et al., 2008, p. 154). The term is linked to the notion of social justice. Deployment may be associated not only with income but also with service provision (Portnov, 2002). The equal distribution of services in geographic space ensures equal access to quality services; it is known as spatial equity. The spatial distribution of population groups by socio-economic status is often uneven because similar income groups cluster together (Portnov, 2002), creating patterns of geographic inequity.When examining the services of the third sector, it is important to take into account the geographic aspects of these activities. In particular, special consideration should be given to the relationship of NGO decision-making and operating procedures with the activity patterns they form in the geographic space. Although no studies have been conducted on the deployment of NGOs in the educational domain, several studies have investigated the geographic aspects of NGOs and of voluntary programs aimed at the general welfare. For example, several studies on voluntary and NGO programs indicated that there is an unequal distribution of services, and that their deployment creates differential access to relevant services (Bielefeld and Murdoch, 2004; Joassart-Marcelli and Wolch, 2003; Milligan, 1998; Wolch and Geiger, 1986).Some findings indicate that third sector organizations may choose to position their activities in the periphery because of pragmatic considerations (Fyfe and Milligan, 2003a), but these considerations are often secondary to the economic considerations that dictate the priorities of NGOs (Bryson et al., 2002). For example, organizations that raise funds from the public can operate more easily in middle-class areas than in poor areas, and therefore they tend to establish their base of operation in more affluent areas (Fyfe and Milligan, 2003b). At times, the locations selected by the NGO for its activity are influenced by donor preferences, following the motto \"he who has the money has the say\" (Fyfe and Milligan, 2003b). When funding and operation are determined primarily by considerations other than need, patterns of inclusion and exclusion emerge (Fyfe and Milligan, 2003b). These findings reveal that, contrary to public perception, third sector activities may be ineffective in eliminating social gaps on a local or a national scale, if these activities are not closely linked to need.\nOrganizational decision making and third sector deployment: The above review explains why many of the stated aims of NGOs to minimize social gaps fail, at least partially, to be translated into reality. Insofar as NGO decisions are not consistent with their goals, these decisions cannot be considered rational. In a rational and deliberate decision-making process, objectives are translated into a decision-making strategy that enables the realization of the goals as part of the organization's activities (Tarter and Hoy, 1998).NGO decision-making processes may therefore reflect intervening factors in decision making. First, findings suggest that because of cognitive limitations in addressing complex decisions (Jones, 1999), \"bounded rationality\" can sometimes explain the spatial deployment of NGOs. Educational debate is currently focused primarily on efficiency and effectiveness, creating difficulties for leaders who wish to focus on social justice issues (Zembylas, 2010). It is common knowledge that the leading criterion for selecting the best alternative is highly significant in decision making (Schwenk, 1990). Therefore, economic-organizational considerations can create a \"focalism\" bias. Focalism occurs when a player relies excessively on specific information or elements of the circumstance, which then prejudices the judgment of the decision maker (Kruger and Burrus, 2004). Such cognitive bias in decision making is associated with insensitivity to outcome probabilities (Das and Teng, 1999). Often after a decision has been made, commitment to that decision escalates (Staw, 1996) despite the fact that outcomes indicate a deflection of the goal. Thus, in some cases NGOs adopt \"bounded rationality\" that fails to take into account the NGO's agenda of social equity.Second, donor preferences can also affect deployment (Fyfe and Milligan, 2003b). This finding can be linked to claims that power is a central element in explaining decision-making processes (Salancik and Brindle, 1996). The political model describes organizational decisions as resulting from a desire to accumulate influence and resources (Tarter and Hoy, 1998). Outcomes are determined by the players' interests and by the limits on their power (Das and Teng, 1999). This theory views reality as being subjectively constructed (Berger and Luckmann, 1967). Because issues are framed and attended by players' interests (Das and Teng, 1999), pressures caused by the power of others can affect decision making (Lyles and Thomas, 1988). For instance, NGOs may compromise on their goals and bargain about them in order to create coalitions and obtain resources. Therefore, the donors' agenda can influence the NGOs' decision making and operation.The problem with cognitive biases in NGO decision making is that they can distort beneficent intentions and even damage the needy party (Starbuck and Pant, 1996). Biases may divert the NGOs' commitment to equity, manifested in the spatial deployment of their operation. These issues regarding third sector educational programs are reviewed in the Israeli context.\nThird sector and public education in Israel: The State of Israel was founded on a welfare model that combined economic principles and a social justice agenda, so that the state was committed to providing social services to its citizens (Yonah et al., 2008). In the mid-1970s, shortly after the neo-liberal state model emerged as an alternative to welfare state model, it was embraced by Israel. The Israeli transformation from the welfare model to the neo-liberal one has been gradual, and it includes the adoption of a \"minimal state\" and \"free market\" in state affairs (Yonah et al., 2008). The neo-liberal policy has become especially dominant in the Israeli agenda since the 1990s, and it is manifested among others in an expanding process of privatization (Katan and Lowenstein, 2009). Currently, the relative size of the Israeli third sector is forth in the world (Gidron et al., 2004).The growing involvement of third sector organizations in service delivery (Katan and Lowenstein, 2009) is one of the consequences of the state's withdrawal from operating or funding social services. Many of the NGOs in the third sector engage in the provision of social services in the education field (Gidron et al., 2004), with a primary focus on public schools managed and operated by the state. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that Israel was and remains to a great extent a social-democratic state, and equal opportunities and services are central issues in every public educational debate (see examples in Yonah, 2000; Eilam and Ben-Peretz, 2006). The Israeli educational programs for students, focusing largely on student achievement, curriculum enrichment, development of life skills, and values education (Weinheber et al., 2008). One of the stated goals of 16 percent of the associations and of 25 percent of foundations is the reduction of social gaps (Weinheber et al., 2008).The Israeli education system is considered to be a highly centralized one (Nir and Inbar, 2003). The Israeli Ministry of Education determines the objectives of educational policy, determines the curriculum, trains personnel, and is in charge of operating and supervising the schools (Nir and Inbar, 2003). In recent years, however, third sector involvement in public education has become increasingly significant in the operation of educational projects, many of them in public schools. In 2008, approximately 75 percent of the national expenditure in education was from the government budget (CBS, 2009). Two-thirds of total government expenditure on education consisted of budgetary transfers to other sectors (CBS, 2009). It is not surprising; therefore, that in 2008 the third sector was responsible for the implementation of educational projects and programs totaling 41 percent of the national expenditure on education (CBS, 2009). Given the widespread partnerships between government and the third sector, it is worth examining whether access to NGO-managed educational services is uniform across geographic areas and social groups.\nMethodology: The present study aims to explore how decision-making processes of educational NGOs affect their operational deployment. A case study approach was selected because of the exploratory nature of the research, and because case studies are suitable for investigating unfamiliar or newly emerging phenomena, and ideal for \"process tracing\" (Blatter, 2008).Study site\nConclusions and limitations: To date, research has neglected the involvement of NGOs in state public education. The present study innovates by shedding light on this phenomenon and on the decision-making and operational processes affecting the NGOs' geographic distribution of service provision. The findings are highly relevant for improving the NGOs' operation in the educational field and maintaining their moral legitimacy as social actors.The study revealed several main factors in the NGOs' operational and decision-making procedures that affect their operational deployment, including their organizational vision, financing model, and the nature of their relationship with the Ministry of Education. Naturally, these factors are linked to some extent, as the goals of the NGO often dictate procedures such as the financing model, operational deployment, and interaction with the state. In other cases, operational procedures may unintentionally cause an NGO to stray from its officially formulated social goals. Organizational \"bounded rationality\", as indicated in these findings, prevents NGOs from fulfilling their stated goals of promoting equity. This is not to say that the sole legitimate goal of NGOs is the promotion of social equity or that they should deploy only in needy areas or evenly across the national map. NGOs should, however, carefully examine their operational procedures, especially their financial model, and try to fully understand its implications. Our interpretation of the findings is that NGOs should be aware of the way in which their decision-making and operational procedures affect their deployment. Similar recommendations were made by Simon (1982) when addressing the problem of \"bounded rationality\". Simon suggested creating a mechanism for generating alternatives and acquiring facts about the environment in order to draw relevant inferences from the data.Perhaps even more important is that the state assumes responsibility for weighing competing needs and integrating all players. In recent decades, many countries have moved from government system to a governance-based system (Bode, 2006). In this new constellation, the government and the third sector create a mixture that tends to be disorganized and unstable, requiring coordination in order to deal with its sporadic and fluid nature (Bode, 2006). To cope with a new reality in which NGO involvement is increasing, it is necessary that the state forms a clear educational vision and engage in a continuing dialogue with NGOs, to maintain a systematic policy (Peters and Pierre, 1998). Such government-NGO interaction has the power to influence the NGOs' processes and operations (Ramanath, 2009). Although the state transfers some of the functional accountability for particular services to NGOs, it is imperative that it continues in all cases to bear sole accountability for the long-term strategic effect of all educational programs in the public system, in order to shape a more socially just society and achieve other collective goals.The research methodology employed in the present study has several weaknesses. First, the ability to generalize the findings from the four participating NGOs and reach conclusions regarding all NGOs operating in the educational arena is limited. Second, some of the interviewees, representing their organization, might not always have felt at liberty to disclose all the data about their activities, deployment, and decision-making criteria.Despite these weaknesses, the study has several methodological strengths. First, the research method enabled a better understanding of the criteria guiding the decision-making processes of the NGOs' key personnel with regard to deployment. Second, in order to represent the wide variety of NGOs operating in the field of education, the cases selected included both large foundations operating nationwide programs and small NGOs operating programs in only a few localities. This enabled us to examine the similarities and differences between the various programs and the NGOs operating them. For a better understanding of the NGOs' growing involvement in state public education and its implications further research is necessary.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to address the involvement of third sector organizations in state public education in Israel, with emphasis on the decision-making processes affecting the geographic distribution of service provision.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A collective case study approach was used to investigate non-governmental organization (NGO) procedures for the deployment of the educational services they provide. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with key personnel and on documents from four NGOs operating in the Israeli public education system.\nFindings: - The article illustrates the extent of third sector organizations' involvement in the Israeli public educational system, in most cases operated with significant governmental funding. The findings reveal two main factors in the NGOs' decision-making process that affect their operational deployment: the type of financing model they adopted and the nature of their relationship with the Ministry of Education.\nPractical implications: - The paper's findings have led to several policy recommendations. It recommends that NGOs be more aware of their financing model and more critical in its appraisal. It also recommends that the state take into account the vision and financing model of NGOs and its own strategic responsibility for reaching nationwide social goals when selecting partners.\nOriginality/value: - The study examines the increasing involvement of NGOs in state public education. As trends of privatization and democratization continue, the number of NGOs operating in the public education system continues to rise, and their importance continues to increase.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Crossing and creating boundaries in healthcare innovation
|
[
"Framing",
"Boundary crossing",
"Healthcare innovation",
"Boundary creation",
"Unintended effects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Innovation is regarded as the key to meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century in terms of social change and economic sustainability (Cropley and Cropley, 2012). The healthcare sector also faces complex challenges arising from advances in medical treatment, heightened needs and demands from patients and decreasing resources to fund healthcare (Crepaldi et al., 2012). Here innovation is likewise considered the \"magic bullet\". Throughout research literature and policy papers, attempts to make innovations in public services are characterized by the intention to \"do good\" and enhance value, as summarized by Hartley (2005).\nInnovation, framing and boundaries in a public healthcare context: A definition of innovation would be appropriate at this point. However, Hartley et al. (2013, p. 822) argue that researchers do not agree in their definitions of innovation. In a healthcare setting, \"innovation\" often refers to the implementation of inventions or medical research results into clinical practice and their dissemination to other healthcare settings than where the invention took place (Greenhalgh et al., 2004). These inventions could be medico-technical devices or new organizational tools such as care plans (Kerosuo, 2001). New therapies or clinical practices typically imply new types of relations between service provider and user, or between stakeholders and new work processes in order to meet social needs in new ways (Darso, 2011). Medical innovation thus implies social innovation (Crepaldi et al., 2012).\nMethods: The present paper is part of a larger case study and will thus only report on a sample of the data. The data described here was collected through an ethnographic approach to field research (Robson, 1993). During 18 months, observations were made of all activities in the innovation project; workshops (90 hours), group meetings and exploratory activities (77 hours), and prototype testing (14 hours), human resource consultants preparing and evaluating facilitation of the project (40 hours) as well as managerial meetings in the steering committee and a human resource advisory group (2x14 hours). Across all observation sites, the primary focus was on the participating healthcare practitioners' dialogues and actions. During and immediately after each observation, the field notes on observations were computerized.\nDiscussion: The analyses above suggest researchers to address change initiatives in healthcare, framed as \"innovation\" with caution. This framing implies that there are no standard solutions like \"efficiency\" or \"productivity\" to complex problems: as in this case of reducing the number of hospitals beds from 1,300 to 800. Framing change as innovation provides a license to deviate from standard solutions and to search for new kinds of solutions. However, in complex systems like healthcare, this paper has shown that it is not possible to make simple evaluations of the positive or negative effects of innovations, as these effects can be intended, as well as show up in unintended and unanticipated ways and places.\nConclusion: This paper has shown how framing change initiatives as \"innovation\" affects which boundaries are approached and crossed. The analyses and discussions contribute to innovation research by challenging the notion of intended and beneficial effects of innovation. Instead this paper has demonstrated the simultaneous, diverse and often contradicted effects of boundary crossing in innovation, all depending on perspective.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: This paper reports from a qualitative case study of a change initiative undertaken in a Danish public hospital setting during national healthcare reforms. The purpose of this paper is to challenge understandings of innovations as defined by being value-adding per se. Whether the effects of attempting to innovate are positive or negative is in this paper regarded as a matter of empirical investigation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Narrative accounts of activities during the change initiative are analysed in order to elucidate the effects of framing the change initiative as innovation on which boundaries are created and crossed.\nFindings: Framing change initiatives as innovation leads to intended as well as unanticipated boundary crossings where healthcare practitioners from different organizations recognize a shared problem and task. It also leads to unintended boundary reinforcements between \"us and them\" that may exclude the perspectives of patients or stakeholders when confronting complex problems in healthcare. This boundary reinforcement can lead to further fragmentation of healthcare despite the stated intention to create more integrated services.\nPractical implications: The paper suggests that researchers as well as practitioners should not presume that intentions to innovate will by themselves enhance creativity and innovation. When analysing the intended, unintended as well as unanticipated consequences of framing change initiatives as innovation, researchers and practitioner gain nuanced knowledge about the effects of intending to innovate in complex settings such as healthcare.\nOriginality/value: This paper suggests the need for an analytical move from studying the effects of innovation to studying the effects of framing complex problems as a call for innovation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Online learning design that fosters student support, self-regulation, and retention
|
[
"Computer based learning",
"Distance learning",
"Students"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Whitehead once remarked that most people believe that scientists inquire in order to know (McNiff et al., 2000). Quite the contrary, he said. Scientists know in order to inquire. Whitehead's point was that for scientists - certainly for the best of them - the joy is in the journey. Perhaps that observation is not a bad model for education.While traditional approaches in the past preferred learners to act \"under order\", a new look at the learner as constructing his or her knowledge has resulted in a change of theoretical concepts. In addition, technological progress has made tools for producing and using truly interactive learning environments (Davier et al., 2003). Theories of self-regulated learning (Zimmerman and Schunk, 1989) have considered cognitive as well as motivational aspects of learning processes. Due to the rapid expansion of distance learning programs educators need to re-evaluate traditional pedagogical strategies and find ways to integrate curriculum, technology, community, and learning in a manner which supports student motivation, self-regulation and retention in virtual learning environments.1.1 Pepperdine University and online learning\n2. Research methodology and data: The purpose of this research was to determine if the integration of web-based social media technologies coupled with a constructivist-based course design has a positive influence on student retention, motivation, and perceived cognitive learning. Rovai (2004) has also studied the constructivist approach to online college learning. The constructivist epistemology is an effective way to present content, encourage interactions, and provide assessment and feedback. The constructivist approach allows students to be the teachers as they share their diverse expertise and experiences with other students.In another study done by Rovai (2002b), it was shown that there is a relationship between sense of community and perceived cognitive learning. When online learners have a stronger sense of community, they feel less isolated and have a greater satisfaction with their academic programs. Another advantage is that this also results in fewer dropouts.In this research, we also examined the ways in which online students utilized participatory media tools to support their own learning, fuel their intrinsic motivation, support their peers, and form a community of practice. Group discussion is an important component within an online class as well. Rovai (2003) examined the effects that the discussion element had on the development of community and found that when discussions were a graded component, there were significantly more discussions per student and that there was also a higher level of a sense of community.2.1 Participants\n3. Online courses designed to foster motivation: From a cognitive and metacognitive perspective, learners control and actively influence their learning activities and understanding. The motivational element determines why and to what extent self-regulating options are taken. Student motivation in online courses is driven by a need to achieve internal personal goals, as well as a need to meet the expectations of their peers (Scardamalia and Bereiter, 1991, 1994).To what extent the learner participates in the online learning community is largely determined by the structure of the course and its ability to provide the learner with projects and activities that will allow them to fulfill their dual identity as an individual and member within a learning community. Therefore, learners not only need to know what steps to take in order to be successful in the online learning process, but must also discover and tap into their internal motivation to be a successful learner.3.1 Role of the instructor\n4. Case study: 4.1 VirtCamp\n5. Conclusions: We opened this paper with a discussion of the need for a new pedagogy for online education and how the needs of the online student differ from the traditional student. In section 3 we discussed how student participation is tied to course design and how it must feed students dual identity as both a member of the learning community and their individual (intrinsic) learning goals. In addition, we discussed the role of the online instructor as a guide, peer support and the formation of social codes and \"legitimization\" via active participation in the group dialogue. Finally, we outlined how participatory media technologies support learning through social and textual exchange of ideas and problem solving activities. Additionally, technology that allows for online exchange allows students, instructors and universities to provide technical support for the online student so they can avoid the \"digital potholes\" along their learning journey.In section 4, our case study outlined how we integrated the ideas of course design in section two into our courses. We discussed the use of the digital portfolio, book group and group reflection activities as a means to fuel student interest, motivation and self-regulation in the online learning environment.Moreover, we explored how the coursework and assignments were designed to allow students to place new knowledge into a contextual or situated framework. The projects were multi-faceted in nature in that they required students to develop technical and collaborative skills, while reflecting and engaging in the coursework to meet their intrinsic goals. In addition, we illustrated how the projects, coursework and social software technologies utilized in the OMAET program are designed to provide opportunities for social and collaborative learning. As students work together they are also building social bonds that are the glue that supports both student satisfaction and retention in the Pepperdine program.This study project allowed a rare deep look at the functional use of self-regulation strategies by exploring variations in use that are possible but largely untried. The enrollment and retention for the OMAET program is at 90 percent (Table VI); it has a very good sound basis, particularly the quantification, i.e. retention numbers of the students. In addition, we provided an overview and awareness of the online student perspective, and included various responses and pedagogical methodologies to meet those needs.The success of the OMAET program at Pepperdine University is due largely to the ability of the instructors to utilize a blended approach of face-to-face with social technologies in order to foster social support, provide technical support, and design courses which allow students to explore and develop their intrinsic learning goals. As online learning continues to expand and new instructors deepen their understanding of the online learning environment they will be able to focus on students learning and supporting their needs in this environment.In the end, successful web-based learning comes when instructors and designers recognize first the importance of cultivating relationships, and then carefully balance the symbiotic relationship between social technologies, community, and constructivist learning as a means to provide avenues of opportunity for students to achieve their full potential.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Investigating the social structure in online courses helps in designing for and facilitating student support and retention. Aims to provide data showing how course design and use of social software technologies provided social and collaborative learning opportunities for online students.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A study of computer-mediated groups that utilized social media technologies and a web-based collaborative model in an online program. Participants were put into groups and observed as they constructed knowledge using both online dialogue (synchronous and asynchronous) and social media technologies as tools to support their learning.\nFindings: - The integration of web-based learning communities and collaborative group assignments into the course design has a positive influence on student retention in online courses.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research was limited to the online student population at Pepperdine University, and did not include data or research from similar online programs at other universities. Future research should include data collected from students outside the USA to find out what role cultural mores, attitudes, and gender play.\nPractical implications: - Provides curriculum design strategies that foster community, utilize social/ participatory media, and support online student learning and retention through effective course design.\nOriginality/value: - Current research on distance learning curriculum has focused on the instructor's perspective. It is felt that research from the student's perspective can also yield some valuable insights for online course design.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Take actions or outsource? An empirical examination of strategic environmental options on greenhouse gas emissions
|
[
"GHG emissions",
"Environmental practices",
"Outsourcing",
"Panel model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have received significant attention from the public and business communities due to its connection to climate change. Firms such as Walmart and Procter and Gamble have drawn public attention upon announcing their intentions to reduce GHG emissions across their supply chains (Rosenbloom, 2010). Recently, Microsoft pledged to eliminate all carbon emissions and become carbon negative by 2030 (Tilley and Gold, 2020), illustrating the increasing importance of GHG emissions. Given the scale and potential negative consequences of GHG emissions, consumers and investors have been calling for firms to take actions (Tate et al., 2011; Weinhofer and Busch, 2013; Sullivan and Gouldson, 2016). As a result, reducing GHG emissions has become the forefront issue among firm stakeholders (Doda et al., 2016) and emerged as one of the major performance indicators in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and socially responsible investment activities. Lubin et al. (2017) show that reductions in GHG emissions are associated with increases in firms' P/E ratio, indicating that investors have higher earnings expectations for firms reducing GHG emissions across industries and countries.A New York Times article (Plumer, 2018) suggested that to reduce GHG emissions, firms may have been outsourcing their GHG emissions, inferred from observing developed countries like Japan and Germany reducing their emissions while doubling or tripling the amount of associated emissions in China. A report by UK's office for national statistics also showed that the GDP and CO2 emissions per head have decoupled in the UK since 1985 but the association between the global GDP and CO2 emissions per head persists over time, suggesting that the decoupling is at the expense of outsourcing production to developing countries (Agbugba et al. 2019). Early studies in the international trade literature have also suggested that industries relocate emission-intensive production activities to other countries that have lax environmental regulations (e.g. Leonard, 1988; Low and Yeats, 1992; Levinson, 1996). A school of empirical studies has supported the notion that relocating pollution-intensive industries improves environmental performance at the country and the regional levels (e.g. Feng et al., 2013; Michel, 2013; Li and Zhou, 2017). Studies have also shown that outsourcing induces more GHG emissions in sourced countries (Li and Hewitt, 2008; Gurtu et al., 2016). Nevertheless, few empirical studies examine the implications of outsourcing on GHG emissions at the firm level (Cole et al., 2017). Therefore, firms may have managed their GHG emissions through outsourcing without fully knowing the consequences.Besides outsourcing, the more genuine option that firms can undertake to reduce GHG emissions is implementing environmental practices. Even though existing studies find positive relationships between environmental practices and environmental performance in general (e.g. Zhu and Sarkis, 2004; Vachon and Klassen, 2008; Zhu et al., 2012b; Zhu et al., 2013), few studies have specifically investigated the link between environmental practices and GHG emissions (Hertin et al., 2008; Aflaki et al., 2013). Large-scale quantitative examinations about the link are still scarce and present mixed findings (Doda et al., 2016; Hartmann and Vachon, 2018).To fill the gaps in the literature, this study investigates three strategic environmental options, i.e. outsourcing and two types of environmental practices: (1) the pollution prevention and waste management (PPWM) practices and (2) the green supply chain (GSC) practices on GHG emissions. Using the natural-resource-based view (NRBV) as the theoretical lens, we examine the effects of these strategic environmental options on local and supply chain GHG emissions. Figure 1 depicts the conceptual model.We draw data from ASSET4, a proprietary dataset maintained by Thomson Reuters, and construct a large-scale longitudinal dataset. The dataset consists of 1,614 unique global firms across a variety of industry sectors from 2007 to 2016. Employing the first-differencing fixed-effects estimation approach, we find that environmental practices are effective but only in their corresponding domains. That is, implementing PPWM practices helps firms reduce local GHG emissions but does not reduce supply chain GHG emissions. Similarly, implementing GSC practices helps reduce supply chain GHG emissions but does not reduce local GHG emissions. Additionally, we find that outsourcing has no impact on reducing local GHG emissions and affects reductions in supply chain GHG emissions negatively. Further, we note time delays between implementing environmental practices and realizing their benefits, suggesting that the effects of environmental practices take time to materialize.In conclusion, our study contributes to the environmental management and sustainable operations literature by providing new and more robust empirical evidence regarding the relationships between the strategic environmental options and GHG emissions. Our findings offer insights and guidelines for managers seeking to reduce GHG emissions. We discuss limitations and additional theoretical and managerial implications at the end of the paper.\nTheory and hypothesis development: Environmental practices\nData, variables and model specification: Data\nResults: Table 6 presents the overall results. Model 1-1 and 1-2 correspond to Equation (1) and (2) with controls only. Notably, the coefficients of sales growth are negative and statistically significant, reflecting our expectation that business growth associates with additional GHG emissions. In addition, the coefficients of lagged dependent variables are negative and statistically significant, indicating diminishing returns from emission reduction efforts. Model 2-1 shows the result of Equation (1) and indicates that a positive change in the extent of implementing PPWM practices at t-1 is associated with a greater reduction in local GHG emissions (bDzPPWMi,t-1=4.109 with p=0.002) at t, which supports H1. Model 2-2 shows the result of Equation (2) and indicates that a positive change in the extent of implementing GSC practices at t-1 is associated with a greater reduction in supply chain GHG emissions at t (bDzGSCi,t-1=9.889 with p=0.034), which supports H2.Model 2-3 shows the result of Equation (3). The coefficient of DzOIi,t-1 is negative and statistically significant (bDzOIi,t-1=-3.228 with p=0.035), whereas the coefficient of the control variable zOIi,t-1 is positive and has a similar value with a similar significance level (lzOIi,t-1=4.303 with p=0.035). These results suggest a possible bias caused by multicollinearity. Sequentially, we examine DzOIi,t-1 and zOIi,t-1 individually and none of the coefficients is statistically significant (the results are omitted for brevity). Therefore, we do not find sufficient evidence supporting H3. Model 2-4 is the results of Equation (4) and indicates a positive change in the outsourcing intensity at t is negatively associated with reductions in supply chain GHG emissions at t (bDzOIi,t=-14.926 with p=0.057). Although the statistical significance of the association is at the 10 percent level, indicating a weak association, the result does provide empirical evidence supporting H4.Robustness tests\nDiscussion: As expected, our results support H1 and H2 and indicate that implementing PPWM practices and implementing GSC practices are effective strategic options. If a firm increases its PPWM extent compared to its industry peers by one standard deviation, it is likely to achieve an additional 4% in its local GHG emissions reductions (i.e., bDzPPWMi,t-1=4.109 in Table 6 under Model 2-1). In addition, if a firm increases its GSC extent by one standard deviation, it is likely to enjoy a about 10% greater reduction in its supply chain GHG emissions compare to its peers (i.e. bDzGSCi,t-1=9.889 in Table 6 under Model 2-2). Nevertheless, the results in Table 7 under Model 3-1 and 3-2 highlight that they are effective only in the corresponding domains we hypothesized. Specifically, implementing PPWM practices helps firms reduce local GHG emissions. But it does not help reduce firms' supply chain GHG emissions (i.e., bDzPPWMi,t=2.225 with p=0.764 and bDzPPWMi,t-1=0.936 with p = 0.886 in Table 6 under Model 3-2). Similarly, implementing GSC practices helps reduce supply chain GHG emissions but does not help reduce local GHG emissions (i.e., bDzGSCi,t=-0.668 with p=0.586 and bDzGSCi,t-1=0.335 with p=0.748 in Table 6 under Model 3-1).Further, the study results fail to find evidence supporting H3, suggesting that outsourcing production activities does not necessarily help reduce local GHG emissions. Nevertheless, our results support H4, suggesting that outsourcing has a negative influence on reducing supply chain GHG emissions. More specifically, if a firm increases its outsourcing intensity compared to its industry peers by one standard deviation, it is likely to observe a 15% less reductions in its supply chain GHG emissions compared to its peers (i.e., bDzOIi,t=-14.926 in Table 6 under Model 2-4).Moreover, since the coefficients of the extent of implementing environmental practices are statistically insignificant at t(bDzPPWMi,t=-1.622 with p=0.285 in Table 6 under Model 2-1 and bDzGSCi,t=-2.667 with p=0.637 under Model 2-2) but significant at t-1 to support H1 and H2, we suggest that there are time delays between implementing environmental practices and observing their benefits as that the outcomes of implementing environmental practices take time to materialize. In contrast, the coefficients of outsourcing intensity are significant at t but insignificant at t-1 (bDzOIi,t-1=1.732 with p=0.790 in Table 6 under Model 2-4), suggesting a less or no delay between changing outsourcing intensity and observing its impact on supply chain GHG emissions reductions.Theoretical implications\nLimitations and future research: We recognize several limitations in our study. First, the existing literature has raised concerns regarding the quality of self-reported data, particularly scope 3 GHG emissions. Although the quality of GHG emissions data improves gradually (Blanco, 2019), implementing monitoring systems for GHG emissions across the supply chain is infeasible, self-auditing of environmental data just start to gain managerial traction and voluntarily reported data would never be perfect. Therefore, we address this limitation by employing a panel data model with the first-differencing approach and the firm and year fixed effects to alleviate idiosyncratic errors and discrepancies in GHG emission reporting. Nevertheless, the approach may be over-specified and limit the opportunities to gain insights into the effects of firms' or industries' idiosyncratic characteristics, such as regulatory stringency across industries or firms' ownership structure. We certainly hope that improvements in data and advancements in statistical methods will help future research to overcome these issues.Second, our measurements of the extent of implementing PPWM and GSC practices are the aggregated indices of a set of binary indicators that only captures the initiation of a specific practice rather than its implementation intensity. Additional or alternative data sources might be available and better for the operationalization of the extent of implementing environmental practices. Also, our valued-added-based outsourcing measure is an approximated estimation of the extent of outsourcing, assuming that the strategic importance of production activities drives firms' outsourcing decisions. This approach does not consider heterogeneity in managers' outsourcing decisions, particularly outsourcing sequences. Future research is encouraged to obtained granular data and devises alternative measures that consider different outsourcing priorities and examine the robustness of our findings.Third, we do not examine characteristics that motivate the adoption of strategic environmental options nor factors that contribute to the lag between actions and outcomes. Even though several studies have examined the effects of industry characteristics and stakeholder influences on adopting environmental practices (e.g. Zhu et al., 2012a; Tong et al., 2018b; Hardcopf et al., 2019; Zhu and Lai, 2019), understanding the implications of these factors on the effectiveness of environmental options is a promising avenue (e.g. Cousins et al., 2019). Also, identifying the contributing factors to lags can provide valuable business insights.Works relating to GHG emissions are gaining traction (Busch and Hoffmann, 2011; Matsumura et al., 2014; Ahi and Searcy, 2015, Environmental Protection Agency, 2019). Nevertheless, future studies should not overlook other environmental performance measures that are deemed important to our society, such as toxic waste management (e.g. Toffel and Marshall, 2004; Fu et al., 2019; Environmental Protection Agency, 2020; European Environment Agency, 2020) and explore environmental challenges with increasing urgency, such as water scarcity and agricultural yield reduction (Plambeck and Toktay, 2013).Given the increasing popularity of socially responsible investment and intensifying debates regarding actions countering climate change, stakeholders, investors and policymakers must understand the effectiveness of firms' strategic options on reducing GHG emissions. We hope that this study addresses managers' concerns regarding the effectiveness of these options, offers assurance to doubters and contributes to the discussions of a better environmental policy.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of three strategic environmental options on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Namely, we examine the effects of pollution prevention and waste management (PPWM) practices, green supply chain (GSC) practices, and outsourcing on reducing local and supply chain GHG emissions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using ASSET4 and deploying first-differencing fixed-effects panel data models, the study conducts a large-scale empirical examination on the effects of these focal strategic environmental options on GHG emissions.\nFindings: This study finds that PPWM practices reduce local GHG emissions and that GSC practices reduce supply chain GHG emissions. The results also show that outsourcing does not reduce local GHG emissions and has an adverse effect on supply chain GHG emissions.\nPractical implications: The study findings indicate that environmental practices are effective in reducing GHG emissions. However, they are effective only in their corresponding domain. Further, outsourcing is not a viable strategic option, and managers should be mindful of its undesired environmental consequences.\nOriginality/value: Firms undertake strategic environmental options, such as implementing environmental practices and reallocating production activities, to improve their environmental performance. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of these options on reducing GHG emissions has not been thoroughly examined.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Components and process in social science explanation: is there a role for Yin-Yang balancing
|
[
"Research methods",
"Comparative analysis",
"Construct equivalence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Peter Li has brought to a stimulating resolution his thinking from extensive scholarly interactions between the western and Chinese mental worlds. He makes an interesting proposal that the Chinese concept of Yin-Yang balancing be blended with western thinking into a \"geo-centric meta-system.\" This is offered as a contribution to the understanding of organizational paradox, and to socio-economic paradox more widely. He argues that the world's current struggles with exploding complexity under globalization and the information revolution, would be alleviated by a more comprehensive intellectual toolkit than currently in use.\nHow did China become philosophically an autocracy?: The short answer to this question is that: most states tend to start as autocracies; and China made a great success of the form by learning early to build a structure that retained order but with decentralized decision making on a huge scale. In historical context it was the world's first \"modern\" state, having invented and then perfected a professional bureaucracy of intellectuals (Fukuyama, 2011). This administration nevertheless in turn served a central power figure with widely accepted legitimacy, perceived as celestially based: the emperor as bearer of the mandate of heaven.\nThe role of critical thinking: In his review of the sociology of philosophies, taking account of all the thought systems underpinning the axial civilizations and their subsequent and varied modern outcomes, Collins (1998) presents a global theory of intellectual change. In this he notes a pattern of repeated responses that typify the way societies progress. That may well reflect certain logics widely reported by others who study the successful evolution of some human societies as \"advanced\" and prosperous entities (e.g. Acemoglu and Robinson, 2012; Beinhocker, 2007; Black, 2014; Boisot, 1995; Eisenstadt, 1996; Fukuyama, 2011, 2014; Himmelfarb, 2004; Mokyr, 2002; McCloskey, 2006).\nImplications of passive vs active sense-making: Passive sense-making means the use of explanatory schema that are not evidence-based. These tend to be grand schema such as the hexagrams, or the explanations of feng-shui, or the readings of individual character based on time and date of birth. They may be contained within a higher order schema such as Yin-Yang balancing.\nChina's social system, philosophy, and science: Three features of the current learning and science scene in China are evident: the great reverence for past civilizational ideals; the dedication to learning but with a bias toward received wisdom, and the discouragement of critical thinking; and an unspoken assumption that technical knowledge is legitimately borrowed from outside, and in some domains may be copied. It is also arguable that most knowledge that might be of commercial value does not enter the realm of public goods but is instead a commodity for use in advantageous transactions. The principle of academic freedom is only weakly supported and research and teaching are increasingly controlled and directed by the Party State (Chang, 2015).\nThe paradoxes at the heart of capitalism: Turning now to a western way of seeing paradox in societal analysis, a recent study by David Harvey, writing from a Marxist perspective, examines the idea that the paradoxes at the heart of capitalism have historically allowed it to adapt and survive. It is in his view the resolving of such contradictions that has allowed the various transformations that have brought it to its present condition. It is by extending such processes of paradox resolution that its future progress would be secured. So how is such resolution thought about and handled by western societies? This is outlined in a recent study of how successful societies learned to deal with incompatibility during their industrial growth. They do so by pluralist debate and \"high-minded\" leadership at critical periods (Heffer, 2013). History shows that \"magical ingredients create societies that seem to have it all, in achieving their policy goals with a balance of efficiency and equality, economic growth and social security\" (Martin and Swank, 2012, p. 6).\nElements and processes in social science and the question of holism: There is a broad pattern in social science that sets it apart from the natural sciences. This derives from the extra layer of complexity it has to deal with when its objects of study are only fully perceived through a layer of \"meaning.\" This layer is made up of the highly varied interpretations by human actors, of some ontological reality. It is these interpretations of that reality that make up the \"true meaning,\" i.e. the valid definition, of the forces that connect with action itself. People react to the realities they construct themselves, and their behavior only makes sense when their realities are understood. The challenge for many accounts is that such meanings are not easily measurable, or at least not measured for inclusion in analysis, as they tend to have loose boundaries and are not easily agreed upon as significant contributors to the understanding of action. The study of them in their own right, as in comparative psychology and sociology, is flourishing. But the inclusion of them in total societal accounts remains rare.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to consider the proposal by Peter Li about developing an inclusive research paradigm bringing together eastern and western research approaches; and second, to make a proposal for a division of labor in this endeavor.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Literature review and consideration of opposing intellectual traditions and their origins.\nFindings: If the western approach was to deal with structures and institutions, and the eastern approach was to deal with process, then some progress might be possible toward a valuable fusion. But there may be sociological as well as intellectual reasons why this would be difficult.\nResearch limitations/implications: As it is a commentary there are no specific limitations except for what can be covered in the space available.\nPractical implications: If the proposal can be made to bear fruit the chances of much greater East-West collaboration in research are higher.\nSocial implications: The reduction of friction and non-cooperation between intellectual traditions.\nOriginality/value: The \"process\" suggestion is new in this form.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Growth barriers of women-owned home-based businesses in Iran: an exploratory study
|
[
"Iran",
"Business growth",
"Growth barriers",
"Home-based business",
"Women’s business"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Encouragement and support of women entrepreneurs could help their effective participation in the economic development of their countries (Roomi and Parrot, 2008). Although women's businesses have recently grown three times faster than men's, most women's businesses have remained small and underdeveloped. In fact, growth is a stage in business development that many women's businesses do not experience (Morris et al., 2006). According to the 2012 women's GEM[1] report, in all economies women exhibit more fear of failure and have a narrower growth perspective as compared with men, and of course, the effect of limitations and environmental conditions for men and women are different in all countries such that women face severe problems when they grow from one stage to the next (Kelley et al., 2012). In the 2015 GEM report, the environmental constraints on women have been mentioned, yet again, as the biggest challenge women face worldwide (Kelley et al., 2015). There are different points of view regarding less growth in women's businesses. Some feminist theories attribute gender differences in business growth to gender discriminations (Cliff, 1998) or deliberate choices of women (Brush et al., 2004). Some other researchers refer to the service-oriented nature of women's businesses (Buttner, 1993).\nGender and business growth barriers: Women's businesses are one of the fastest growing entrepreneurial groups in the world that have significant contribution to GNP, jobs, innovations and societal welfare (Brush and Cooper, 2012). Despite the increase in women's ownership and the number of female entrepreneurs, women-owned businesses are smaller in size, sales growth and the number of employees compared to businesses owned by men (Morris et al., 2006). Moreover, a literature review of female entrepreneurs suggests that the majority of women are less likely to pursue various forms of entrepreneurial activities (e.g. launching a business, owning/managing a business, commercialization) than men (Jennings and Brush, 2013). This might be because women entrepreneurs face numerous problems compared to their male counterparts, when growing from one stage to the next (Kelley et al., 2012).\nBarriers to the growth of women's home-based businesses: In a systematic review of the literature on HBBs, Anwar and Daniel (2014) suggested that most of the research in this domain address the gender-related topics, while only few studies have been conducted on the growth of HBBs (Vorley and Rodgers, 2012). Meanwhile, researchers have reached different results on the growth of women's HBBs. Some studies have found these kinds of businesses weak and with very limited motivation and potential for growth (Loscocco and Smith-Hunter, 2004; Thompson et al., 2009). Yet, most studies conducted on women's HBBs have proved that they are completely serious and are growing across all sectors (Breen, 2010; Breen and Karanasios, 2010; Wynarczyk and Graham, 2013; Clark and Douglas, 2014; Modarresi et al., 2016b). The first group believes that women go for HBBs because they have no other alternatives. Therefore, as the house is used as a business location, the growth of their business has been limited; their activity is thoroughly made marginal, because less time is used for the business; its survival is even under question (Thompson et al., 2009), but Breen and Karanasios (2010) believe that managerial qualifications and access to capital and marketing skills make women-owned HBBs grow. Of course, there are significant gender differences at work in HBBs (Holmes et al., 1997). The barriers to the growth of HBBs are different to some extent for men and women. For example, a study in Australia (Breen, 2010) showed that the lack of capital was a common barrier for both genders, but women's family commitments versus men's risk-aversion characteristic have been two different barriers with regard to HBBs. A study by Mason and Reuschke (2015) on HBBs in Scotland showed that women who owned HBBs experience rather more problems compared to their male counterparts. According to their findings, disappearance of the boundaries between the family and the business, isolation, limited working space and difficulty in employing people are among the women's HBBs problems. Moreover, based on the results of the study by Wynarczyk and Graham (2013), the obstacles to the growth of women's HBBs are as follows: lack of skills in using and upgrading technology in the business, lack of technical skills and the related supports, lack of managerial skills - a business which leads to imbalance between life and business for some women and outsourcing are not cost-effective for a small-sized HBB - isolation and lack of interaction with co-workers and, as a result, lack of access to networking or local supporting groups for (using) consultation on business problems. The results of Newbery and Bosworth (2010) also showed that capital, role conflict between home and the business, access to social networks, size and characteristics of home plan, lack of skillful workers and employment-related rules are considered to be the barriers to the growth of women's HBBs. Among other obstacles that prevent women's HBBs from growing, one can mention the fact that most of such businesses fail to gain access to governmental supports; they confront hindrances in gaining access to information and trainings and other kinds of supports; and they are even uninformed of services provided by the governments to support small-sized businesses (Ali, 2011).\nWomen entrepreneurs in Iran: Women account for half of the population in Iran, but women's participation rate in the Iranian labor market is just 12.4 per cent, resulting in total women's unemployment rate of 19.8 per cent (Rayesi et al., 2014). Furthermore, according to the World Economic Forum (2015) report, among145 countries surveyed, Iran is among the countries with a high gender gap in economy ranking: 141 in terms of women's economic participation; 143 in terms of sub-indices such as market participation; 106 in terms of leadership positions; and 108 in terms of professional careers (which particularly deserves consideration given the high rate of educated women in Iran). Compared to Western countries, the Iranian society, especially the Iranian women, suffer from some kind of a mismatch between economic and cultural changes and the outcomes of a modern world have not been properly aligned with deeper cultural and social contexts (Javaheri and Ghozati, 2004). Indeed, there is a conflict arising from the Islamic teachings in Iran against the pressure from the secular world; this in turn results in Iranian women facing barriers to career advancement despite exploiting career and training opportunities provided through globalization and information technology (Arab-Moghaddam et al., 2007). Therefore, Iranian women view self-employment as a way of overcoming the structural barriers to entry to the public sector (Javadian and Addae, 2013) and occupational segregation (Arasti, 2006; Javadian and Addae, 2013) as well as a means of contributing to economic development (Arasti, 2006). As a result, women's entrepreneurship does not seem to be enjoying an appropriate business environment in Iran, and despite increased entrepreneurial activities by women, the ratio of businesses run by women to businesses run by their male counterparts are 2 to 10. This is while the ratio is 50 to 50 in countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa and Thailand (Kelley et al., 2012). Of course, the status of entrepreneurship is not very favorable for men either. Based on a GEM (2014) report, Iran has the worst rank with regard to entrepreneurship as a career choice in resource-based economies. Also, Iranian female entrepreneurs are too cautious. One of the main reasons for this can be traced in the socio-cultural structures of Iran which are not encouraging at all for women's entrepreneurial activities. There are numerous negative beliefs and values commonly shared in Iran with relation to women's employment and entrepreneurship, especially in small towns. Arasti (2006, p. 109) studied some of these values in her study on a sample of well-educated women entrepreneurs: a woman's employment is considered unacceptable if her family does not need her salary; a woman's employment is not allowed, because a woman's financial independence is interpreted as a decline in her husband's power over her; house-keeping and child care are the most important responsibilities of a woman; the society simply cannot approve of the presence of women in certain jobs; it is unacceptable for a woman to work in an all-male working environment; the society simply cannot approve of the presence of women as a manager; the society does not believe in women's managerial skills; and the social insecurity of women. It is noticeable that these beliefs are compounded by the families that reinforce excessive dependency of girls on their mothers, believe that girls and boys have different manners of finding autonomy, give boys more freedom in being away from home, and it is exacerbated in the context of education by regenerating gender inequalities such as gender segregation and depiction of male superiority in the contents of educational resources. This, in general, leads to the development of a poor gender identity among women which, in turn, affects the psychological and personal structures of women and their attitudes toward entrepreneurship (Javaheri and Ghozati, 2004). But the results of Arasti's (2006) show that despite all this and all the challenges that Iranian female entrepreneurs face, they have the necessary qualities and skills for being competent entrepreneurs at running their ventures like in other parts of the world. In fact, college education has attenuated the negative beliefs toward female entrepreneurs in the society (Arasti and Akbarijokar, 2008) and gave women entrepreneurs enough self-confidence to deal with these barriers (Arasti, 2006). Moreover, it is expected that with time more women find themselves in entrepreneurial positions than before in Iran (Javadian and Singh, 2012). As mentioned in the Forbes report, with an increase in the level of university education, Iranian women have progressively gained more presence in the domains of business and have played a significant role in the development of startups (Guttman, 2015).\nResearch methodology: Research approach\nDiscussion: The present study identified the growth barriers to women-owned HBBs in Iran as a developing Islamic country with its unique cultural limitations and gender inequality for women. Many studies have been done in the field of women entrepreneurship, even in the context of the Middle East and Islamic countries (Roomi and Harrison, 2008; Jamali, 2009; Roomi, 2013), and the barriers to women's entrepreneurship have been particularly investigated (Roomi and Parrot, 2008; Jamali, 2009). However, their results cannot be generalized to Iranian female entrepreneurs because of major cultural differences between Iran and Arab countries, especially with regard to gender issues, aside from the remarkable progress that Iranian female entrepreneurs have made in comparison with their Arab counterparts (Javadian and Addae, 2013). Given the effect of context on opportunities and threats and their role in entrepreneurship (Welter, 2011), the current research aimed at investigating the issue in Iran.\nConclusion: Policy implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the growth barriers of women's home-based businesses (HBBs) in Iran.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The qualitative approach was used by 22 in-depth interviews with Iranian female HBBs owners/mangers.\nFindings: Business growth barriers of women were categorized in a multi-level framework of individual barriers (micro), business-related barriers (medium) and environmental barriers (macro). The most important micro-level barrier is lack of skills and experience, while the financial barriers identified as the most business-related one and, finally, the problems of having work interactions with men is the most important environmental barrier women-owned HBBs mentioned.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this paper can help policy-makers better understand growth barriers for women-owned HBB and attenuate these barriers by developing purposeful supportive growth policies that are commensurate with the barriers. Also, HBB women owners themselves could better concentrate on removing barriers by deepening their understanding of their business growth barriers.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to the scarce knowledge about women-owned HBBs in Iran, a rapidly growing, developing country, which can provide better insights from a less explored context. Moreover, as there is only a limited understanding of HBB growth, especially in relation to women business owners, the paper results can prove helpful for researchers in the domain of female entrepreneurs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Organizational intelligence: a structuration view
|
[
"Intelligence",
"Organizations",
"Organizational behaviour",
"Electronics industry",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As a fascinating concept and intriguing research area, \"intelligence\" finds strong appeal in many disciplines outside of individual and cognitive psychology (Sternberg and Kaufman, 1998). One of the disciplines that provoked increased interest in the importance of intelligence is the management and organization development literature (Glynn, 1996; March, 1999; Stalinski, 2004). Even if we disregard the entire literature in which organizational intelligence was supposedly aggregated (Kurzman and Owens, 2002), the term is still ambiguous in the context of organizational development scholarship. This is true because there is a lack of a unified theory of intelligence in organizational settings as noted by the numerous and fragmented perspectives and ideas of researchers in the field (Glynn, 1996). Specifically, researchers investigated organizational intelligence from different epistemological perspectives, such as cognitive, behavioral and social/emotional. Each perspective touches upon different avenues of this complex phenomenon and each attempts to compensate for the other. For instance, while cognitive perspective highlights the internal structures and processes, i.e. information-processing capabilities, it puts the environment in a passive role and asserts representational dependence and relative contextual independence (Serpa, 2000). Interestingly, the behavioral perspective addresses behavior-environment relationships resulting in the adaptive behavior of organizations to the external environment (Serpa, 2000), while omitting information-processing capabilities (Schlinger, 1992).In addition to, the epistemological perspectives, the ontological basis of intelligence, i.e. individual and organizational, causes a confusion about who or what has the intelligence in an organizational setting and thereby leads to the reductionism of the organizational intelligence phenomenon. Even though there is little doubt that organizational intelligence is related to individual intelligence by mechanisms of aggregation (e.g. individual members' intelligence accumulates to become organizational intelligence), cross-level transference (e.g. individuals' intelligence is transformed and codified as organizational intelligence), and distribution (e.g. organizational intelligence is embedded in the structured patterns of thought and action in which organizational members interact and engage) as noted by Glynn (1996, p. 1089), the dividing line between individual and organizational intelligence is too imprecise to readily allow differentiation of these constructs.As organizations consist of:* individuals, and their reciprocal interactions, knowledge, behaviors, cognitions, feelings, emotions, and functional cultures;* information processing infrastructures, such as information technologies; and* interpretive systems for environmental events[1], one should blend the different perspectives and ontology on intelligence to highlight a more comprehensive view of organizational intelligence, and to better explain an intelligent organization.Such dualism of individual and organization does not ensure that the two elements address the whole of intelligence. Also, different epistemologies, such as cognitive, behavioral and emotional, though conceptually distinct are interdependent, and not separate or opposed. Accordingly, the goal of this study is to argue how the blending of the different schools of thought can lead to a comprehensive understanding of organizational intelligence in the management and organizational development literature. Organizational intelligence is an inherently social process[2] (Glynn, 1996; Akgun et al., 2003), in which building theories of organizational intelligence based on theories of individual intelligence alone tends to ignore. In turn, the application of individual intelligence fails to capture the social nature of organizational intelligence, thus requiring a social theory to form the basis of:* a coherent and adequate account of the role of individuals in organizational intelligence; and* to merge the different views on intelligence.To address this, we use Giddens' structuration theory to leverage the understanding of organizational intelligence, because the relationship between individual and organizational or collective phenomena is at the heart of the theory, and Giddens' analysis of structure enables addressing the interplay of cognition, behavior, and social systems (Giddens, 1984; Staber and Sydow, 2002; Berends et al., 2003). Specifically, structuration theory neither neglects the individual nor the organizational level nor reduces organizational intelligence to one of those levels. This is not without its own controversies as structuration theory has been criticized on many fronts (Edwards, 2000). For instance, Mestrovic (1998) chides Giddens for overemphasizing knowledge and skills. However, the researchers propose that structuration theory provides useful sensitizing devices to develop the notion of a comprehensive view of organizational intelligence in this study.In the sections that follow, we:* explain the concept and phenomenon of intelligence as used in different streams of research and as identified by Glynn (1996), Huber (1990), Sandelands and Stablein (1987), Choo (1998), and Huy (1999);* briefly address the structuration theory of Giddens;* illustrate, support, and elaborate on the use of the structurationist model of organizational intelligence by examples drawn from a case study conducted by a university's research department, and then generate proposals; and* discuss the implication of structuration theory from the managerial perspective.\nBackground: In her seminal study, Glynn (1996) noted that the term \"organizational intelligence\" is used variedly as:* a description of information-processing capabilities as well as the outcome of this process;* a description of the intelligence of people as well as aggregation of their intelligence; and* a metaphor for organization, and a property of the organization.Despite these different views, many writers agree on the basic conceptual definition of that which possesses intelligence as having the:* capacity for information processing, learning and problem solving;* ability to adapt to and reshape its environment; and* ability to understand the feeling, thoughts and behaviors of people, and to act appropriately upon that understanding (Sternberg and Kaufman, 1998; Sternberg, 1985).Specifically, these different conceptualizations of intelligence converged on the three epistemological views: cognitive, behavioral, and social/emotional perspectives (Shepard et al., 1999; Serpa, 2000). Each epistemological perspective and embedded ontological base is discussed below.Cognitive perspective\nA unified model for organizational intelligence: An overview of structuration theory\nConcluding remarks: In this paper, we argued that the understanding of organizational intelligence can be leveraged by the structuration theory. Emphasizing the duality of structures and reflexivity, structuration theory furnishes a framework for a complementary understanding of organizational intelligence. Specifically, a structuration framework highlights the structural (e.g. information processing), functional (e.g. behavioral), and social attributes of organizational intelligence. By doing this, structurating organizational intelligence helps managers to design, improve and control the compositions of organizational intelligence. Also, introducing the knowledgeability of people for demonstrable use, structuration theory provides an expanded notion of what managers and employees can do. Thus, managers and other people have the ability to not only monitor their behavior, but to also oversee their monitoring and adjust their actions to address the active and dynamic aspect of organizational intelligence. Organizational intelligence, in this regard, is an everyday activity cognitively distributed and demonstrated by the behavior of the people, and the culture and routines of the organization. Next, structuration theory helps managers develop awareness and observe that individual intelligence, networked in collectives, is actualized by the communications, culture and routines to a greater gestalt. Specifically, people can be seen as setting actions into intelligence along with other people, with intended as well as unintended interactions. Also, given the recursiveness of organizational life as indicated by structuration theory, intelligence develops, evolves and becomes dissociated from individuals or groups per se. In this perspective, organizational intelligence is not an entity, rather an activity - a property of the combined interactions among individuals, collectives and the environment.From the perspective of epistemology, structuration theory helps managers to assess and to operationalize organizational intelligence. Organizational intelligence does not represent the \"IQ\" of managers, similar to managerial cognition, nor is it the sum of the individuals. The assessment of organizational intelligence goes beyond the cognitive perspectives. Since, organizational intelligence develops from and is embedded in the day-to-day activities of the organization, its assessment involves social, emotional, behavioral and cognitive dimensions. In this sense, organizational intelligence is a multidimensional and multifaceted concept involving the recursive interplay of cognitive, behavioral and emotional capabilities of organizations. In particular, the nomological networks among these capabilities, tied together by the organizational culture, is the foundation of organizational becoming, thus helping managers to asses the organizational intelligence. Also, structuration theory helps researchers and managers to operationalize organizational intelligence. Specifically, organizational intelligence can be actualized by the reciprocal interactions among the information processing factors, emotional dynamics, organizational slacks and multiplexity which are mediated by organizational routines and resources.Organizational intelligence is a new and important topic in organizational behavior and development scholarship. However, researchers should also investigate organizational intelligence empirically. The multidimensional and multifaceted nature of organizational intelligence can be tested by operationalizing information-processing capabilities, emotional capabilities and adaptive capabilities. Next, how organizational intelligence impacts the organizational performance and processes, such as innovation orientations of firms can be tested. Note that researchers should consider the environmental conditions, type of organizational culture (e.g. clan, ad hocracy), type of innovation (e.g. incremental versus radical), size and age of organizations, and type of organizational control (e.g. central versus informal) while testing the relations between organizational intelligence and organizational performance indicators.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to unify the fragmented views on organizational intelligence from the perspective of Giddens' structuration theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper used a case study of a firm, which is a small electronics manufacturing group located in the New England area of the northeast USA. Data were collected by observation, oral histories and through discussion and interviews with organization members.\nFindings: - It was observed that a structuration view of organization intelligence removes the individual/organization level intelligence dichotomy, and integrates the fragmented studies on the epistemology of intelligence, e.g. cognitive, behavioral and social/emotional.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Propositions for further research are formulated. However, findings are derived on the basis of a substantive case study in a particular country. Further, research needs to expand this base to encompass other organizations in a wider range of countries across different cultures.\nPractical implications: - This paper helps managers to assess and to operationalize organizational intelligence.\nOriginality/value: - This paper proposes a more comprehensive understanding of intelligence in organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An audit of innovation drivers: some empirical findings in Greek agri-food firms
|
[
"Agri-food sector",
"Innovation capability",
"Innovation drivers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The agri-food sector is considered as one of the most important branches in Greece and the European Union (EU) in terms of economic output and employment (Menrad, 2004). The Greek agri-food sector (i.e. the agricultural sector and the food, beverages and tobacco industry) contributes 7.2 percent to the total gross value added and accounts for 15 percent of total employment, making a disproportionately high contribution to the Greek economy (Eurostat, 2016). However, in Greece, the agri-food sector is characterized by small and fragmented holdings, inefficient organization and low technological and knowledge sophistication. The food supply chain has a relatively small manufacturing component as most agri-food products are consumed or exported in bulk form. Moreover, the lack of a clear agri-food strategy has led the sector to rely heavily on European subsidies, incapable of exploiting the dynamics of the rapidly-expanding international market (Mylonas, 2015). Under this conditions, the agri-food sector will not response to the price discount fights among retailers, to reduction in production costs or to the needs of consumers who increasingly require new food products \"enhanced\" with service components and with technological processing characteristics, such as quality, safety, ease of use and storability (Capitanio et al., 2009). Thus, the Greek agri-food sector needs to enhance its competitiveness and productivity, improve the quality, the value added and the extroversion of the food products (Mylonas, 2015).\n2. A study framework for innovation audit: We drew on existing research in innovation to develop the content of the audit of innovation drivers. Chiesa et al. (1996) developed a model for auditing a firm's innovation capability which introduces methods to assess both an organization's process audit and performance audit. The process audit focuses on the individual processes necessary for innovation and the extent to which best practice is in place. The performance audit focuses on the effectiveness of the individual processes and of the overall process of innovation, in terms of their impact on competitiveness. Based on extensive literature review, Chiesa et al. (1996) identified the elements that make up the innovation process. Moreover, Yam et al. (2004) introduced a study framework of innovation audit and examined the relevance of seven technological innovation capabilities to building and sustaining the innovation performance of Chinese firms. Regression analysis was employed to examine the correlation between the technological innovation capabilities and innovation rate, sales growth and product competitiveness among these firms. Similar to the approach of Chiesa et al. (1996) and Yam et al. (2004), this paper proposes an innovation audit model that includes both an innovation drivers audit and an innovation capability audit. Integrating the findings of the relevant literature mentioned above, activities, processes, or characteristics that are found to be associated with innovation success and failure are put forward as audit elements. These elements are then grouped under five innovation drivers that represent separate functions of an organization: collaboration, environmental dynamism, knowledge orientation, quality orientation and process management. The purpose of the present study is to identify important components of the innovation drivers of the Greek agri-food firms, through measuring their impacts on innovation capability dimensions. This study is very important because Greece is one of the moderate innovators with a performance level below the EU average. It is worth noting that Greece is a newly developed and industrialized country, where an unprecedented economic downturn and financial crisis have dominated for at least eight years now. As organizations search for ways to overcome the barriers, innovation serves to provide a means to deal with the turbulent external environment and to reduce the negative effects of the current financial crisis in European regions (European Commission, 2011).\n3. Research methods: 3.1 Research population and sample\n4. Results: 4.1 Innovation drivers and product innovation\n5. Discussion, implications and conclusions: Innovation drivers and innovation capability has received significant attention from academics and practitioners all over the world, providing interesting business insights. Despite its strength and robustness, the Greek agri-food sector needs to adapt and implement innovation strategies in order to increase its competitiveness, and become a best value support chain in both national and international markets (Bourlakis et al., 2014). Innovation researchers have been working for some time on the theoretical development of models (Bessant and Trifilova, 2017), but there has been little work done to specifically identify how agri-food companies might adapt their innovation strategies in an uncertain external environment. This research is a first attempt and constitutes a starting point for exploring the relationship between the business environment and innovation. It gives directions to companies in the agri-food industry to enable them to distinguish themselves from their competitors. This study, which is based on a survey of 436 Greek agri-food firms and considers simultaneously the link between innovation drivers and innovation capability dimensions, provides empirical evidence and insights into the current status of innovation drivers in agri-food firms. The development and examination of the proposed relationships offers a close examination and better understanding of these relationships contributing to the theoretical development of innovation of a firm and narrowing the corresponding literature gap.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model and examine the relevance of a set of five dynamic drivers to building and sustaining the innovation capability of agri-food firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical data were acquired through a recent study of 436 Greek agri-food firms. Regression analysis was employed to examine the correlation between innovation drivers and each of the four innovation capability dimensions, namely, product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation and marketing innovation.\nFindings: The findings verify that quality orientation and process management are the two most important innovation drivers. However, the impact of learning orientation, collaborations and environmental dynamism on a firm's agri-food innovation capability is yet to be investigated.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has not investigated how firms' characteristics form the drivers and barriers to innovation at the company. Moreover, a second limitation is related to the kind of innovation that drivers boost. This research does not separate between radical and incremental innovation.\nPractical implications: In order to maintain their sustainable development and enhance their whole innovation capability, agri-food firms should closely relate their innovation capability dimensions to the formulation of a strategy and harmonization of innovation and innovation drivers' activities.\nOriginality/value: The main contribution of this paper is that it develops an appropriate research framework (a proposed structural model) for examining the links among the five innovation drivers with each of the four innovation capability dimensions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Is there a gender effect on wine choice in Portugal? - A qualitative approach
|
[
"Market segmentation",
"Labelling",
"Consumer behavior",
"Wine cues",
"Wine market segmentation",
"Focus group",
"Marketing wine",
"Gender"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Portugal is typically perceived as a country of wine. According to World Health Organization (WHO) (2018), in 2016, Portugal was the second top wine consuming country among European countries. Regarding consumption patterns by gender, in Portugal, as in the majority of European countries, men overcome women by 15 L of pure alcohol per capita. In 2016, men consumed 20.5 L of pure alcohol per capita and women consumed 5.1 L.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Extrinsic and intrinsic wine cues\n3. Research design: The exploratory study of the relevance of extrinsic cues on consumers' choice is often addressed using qualitative research methods. Within qualitative methods, focus groups are more suitable to understand perceptions, behaviours and beliefs where the divergence or convergence between perspectives and the social interaction are important factors. In the specific case of wine, the decision-making process has a strong social connection, which is associated with the consumption act itself.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Sample statistics\n5. Conclusions, implications, limitations and future research: Currently, the question about the cues that seem to be more attractive to consumers and its relation to the wine choice behaviour remains: are there differences in the choice behaviour between men and women? The present article combines the evidence of focus groups with projective techniques and the statistical analysis of a questionnaire to enhance knowledge regarding the effect of gender on wine choice behaviour. The results clearly indicate that men and women look for different extrinsic cues in a bottle and label design. Women favour information regarding the context of consumption, while men highlight information related to the sensorial profile.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the existence and influence of gender effects on wine choice, specifically whether women and men seek the same cues in wine labelling.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Five focus groups, involving 45 regular wine consumers (22 women and 23 men) from four Portuguese wine regions of origin, were conducted. Sessions included two projective techniques. To gather more information, participants were asked to fill a short questionnaire, relating purchasing and consumption habits, knowledge and socioeconomic characteristics. Qualitative data were transcribed verbatim and content analysis was used.\nFindings: Women frequently associate wine to the context of consumption; while men frequently associate wine to convivial and sensorial pleasure. Region of origin and prior knowledge experience seem to be the two main reasons for men to choose a wine; while, women seem to rely more on wine brand and previous experience. Front label information (region of origin, awards and region illustration) seems to be more important for women, while the back label descriptors (grape variety, world heritage site and wine history) are more relevant for men. The typography (font size) and information type were identified as negative aspects of the back label.\nPractical implications: Understanding how men and women looking for information on a wine bottle can help marketers communicate with specific market segments. This paper provides insights to design marketing campaigns regarding product customization at the level of label information and design.\nOriginality/value: The present research contributes to current literature on wine consumer behaviour, exploring behavioural differences, perceptions and motivations by gender. In particular, the relevance of wine cues for choice decision is explored. The evidence of focus groups combined with projective techniques is complemented with data collected through a questionnaire.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The perceived effectiveness of the school based support program: A national capacity building initiative by the national center for educational development at Qatar University
|
[
"Effectiveness",
"Capacity building",
"Independent schools",
"National center for educational development (NCED)",
"School based support program (SBSP)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, significant and rapid changes in many aspects of global society have led countries such as Qatar and others in the Gulf Region to reform their national education systems, focusing on the integration of standards, assessment and accountability. One of the key elements in most of these reforms is professional development, which acts as a central feature of such educational improvement initiatives for the many contributions it can make. It is reasonably assumed that improving teachers' knowledge, skills and practice is one of the most critical steps in improving students' achievements (King and Newman, 2001). Professional development can be an opportunity for collegial networking and a way for professionals to stay up to date with current research, practices and trends. Professional development can also provide time for the enhancement of teacher leadership in the school and classroom when teachers have ownership of their growth. Further, professional development can play a key role in addressing the gap between educators' preparation and standards-based reform (Crowther et al., 2002).\nProfessional development in Qatar: In 2001, the RAND Corporation examined Qatar's K-12 education system to recommend options for building a world-class system that would meet the country's changing needs. At that time, Qatar's education system was widely seen as rigid, outdated and resistant to reform (Romanowski et al., 2013; Zellman et al., 2009). RAND's analysis revealed a number of substantial weaknesses, one of the major ones being the lack of training and professional development. As described in RAND's report (Brewer et al., 2007):\nThe school-based support program: In-service professional development for teachers is often strongly recommended as a key strategy for school improvement to support the professional development of teachers who are already employed and working in classrooms. The goal of in-service professional development is to improve the knowledge, skills, behaviors and attitudes of teachers so they can more effectively plan, teach, assess student learning and undertake other responsibilities in the school community (Leu and Ginsburg, 2011). However, professional development activities cannot be expected to substantially achieve the desired gains in the student body as a whole if the focus is exclusively on teachers' individual learning:\nMethodology: Research design\nResults: All responses from the teachers' perceptions and demographic information questionnaires were coded, entered into a computer and analyzed using the software package SPSS (Version 21). An examination of out-of-range values and missing data clarified that no out-of-range values were entered and that for each variable, the number of missing data was small. Specifically, none of the variables had missing data that exceeded 2 per cent of the total sample size. Further, examination of these cases showed that the missing values were distributed in a random pattern throughout the sample. It was concluded that the limited number of missing data did not represent a problem in terms of interpreting the results of this study. Therefore, it was decided to replace variables with missing data with mean values of that variable for the entire sample; \"the obvious strength of this strategy is that there is no loss of sample size and statistical power\" (Tate, 1998, p. 47).\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the SBSP as perceived by participating teachers. The SBSP is the first such program in Qatar, and possibly in the region, to provide school teachers with high-quality school-based professional development activities and research-based best practices during the regular school day. The SBSP provides the opportunity for PDSs to differentiate and adjust professional learning methods to create a professional development plan that meets the diverse and specific needs of each individual teacher within each department and within each participating school. At the same time, the SBSP could not be expected to substantially achieve the desired gains if the professional learning focused only on teachers' individual learning. Therefore, the SBSP was designed to support individual teachers and to collectively build capacity and promote the overall quality of teaching and learning in the schools concerned.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the school-based support program (SBSP) as perceived by teachers who participated in this program. SBSP was designed to collectively build the capacity and promote the overall quality of teaching and learning in identified independent schools in the State of Qatar.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is quantitative in nature and was conducted using a survey methodology as its research design. A variety of statistical techniques were utilized in this research. Means, standard deviations, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were utilized to analyze gained data.\nFindings: The findings indicated that teachers perceived the effectiveness of SBSP to be moderate-to- high. Further, there was a significant difference between male and female teachers in their perceptions of the effectiveness of SBSP overall. Male participant teachers perceived SBSP overall to be more effective than female participant teachers did. However, there were no significant differences among participant teachers in perceiving the effectiveness of SBSP that is attributed to their teaching experience or academic qualifications.\nOriginality/value: This study suggests a common level of satisfaction of the SBSP program that was launched just two years ago. At the same time, however, many recommendations and implications were discussed and suggested to enhance the effectiveness of the program.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The impact of goal (non)attainment on consumer preference through changes in regulatory focus
|
[
"Feedback",
"Goals",
"Regulatory focus",
"Pride",
"Advertising message"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Feedback on goal progress or goal attainment is a mundane experience in consumers' lives. Consumers sometimes succeed in buying an expensive house but sometimes fail to pay their mortgage. They sometimes succeed in saving energy but sometimes fail to recycle. Unsurprisingly, a great deal of work has been conducted to understand the impact of performance feedback on motivational aspects such as goal pursuit, persistence, commitment, goal switching and goal revision (Fishbach and Dhar, 2005; Finkelstein and Fishbach, 2012; Campbell and Warren, 2015). However, much less is known about how goal attainment influences the state's regulatory focus, which could then influence consumers' preference for persuasive messages. More to the point, despite the large body of research in the area (Crowe and Higgins, 1997; Higgins et al., 2003), the literature has yet to conduct a systematic investigation of the role of previous success and failure on state regulatory focus and subsequent preferences.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: The impact of goal (non)attainment on regulatory focus\nExperiment 1: Method\nExperiment 2: Method\nExperiment 3: Method\nGeneral discussion: Through a series of three experiments, this research demonstrates that performance outcome and message frame interact on consumer preference, such that a promotion-focused (vs prevention-focused) message in a subsequent task will be more persuasive after people have succeeded in a previously unrelated task, whereas a prevention-focused (vs promotion-focused) message in a subsequent task will be more persuasive after people have failed on a previously unrelated task. We also found some exploratory evidence for the mediating role of emotions, notably pride, on the relationship between goal (non)attainment and preferences for regulatory-focused message frames.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Previous research has investigated how performance outcome impacts effort and subsequent goal pursuit. However, little is known about the incidental impact of goal (non)attainment on consumer preference via changes in regulatory focus. This paper aims to suggest that performance feedback has a direct impact on consumers' regulatory focus, which in turn influences their attitudes and preferences toward future events. Additionally, the authors assess the extent to which emotions arising out of goal (non)attainment play a critical role in the process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In a series of three experiments, this paper demonstrates that goal (non)attainment induces a specific regulatory focus, which in turn interacts with the frame of an upcoming advertisement to impact consumer preference.\nFindings: This research demonstrates that previous goal (non)attainment interacts with the framing of an upcoming message (promotion vs prevention) and impacts consumer preference. The authors also find initial evidence for the role of emotions on the relationship between goal (non) attainment and preferences for regulatory-focused message frames.\nPractical implications: The findings have important implications because they reveal consumers' preferences after goal (non)attainment.\nOriginality/value: This study complements prior research by integrating two research streams (goal pursuit and regulatory focus) to address an open question of whether/how goal (non)attainment impacts message persuasiveness and consumer preference through changes in regulatory focus. Therefore, this research is intended to contribute to the literature by addressing the interacting effects of goal attainment and regulatory focus on consumer decisions and the role of emotions in this process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Ontology in information studies: without, within, and withal knowledge management
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Ontology",
"Continental philosophy",
"Critical information theory",
"Heideggerian analysis",
"Poststructuralist analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This essay is an exercise in critical information theory examining the imbricate area of knowledge management and philosophy commonly referred to as \"ontology\" and its role in information studies. It takes a discursive approach using Slavoj Zizek's notion of parallax as a frame and leitmotif to attend to the differing perspectives on ontology within information studies. To avoid confusion it must be clear that in this context \"information studies\" certainly includes the formal discipline of library and information studies (LIS), but also simply denotes the interdisciplinary study of information. This is not an attempt to classify the different types of ontological information systems. It is not a definitive discourse analysis of every study, scholar, or category of ontology in the field of LIS. The accounts are carefully selected to demonstrate the nature of ontology with respect to the study of information, information technology, and users. Since the term \"ontology\" is quite polysemous, every attempt should be made to carefully delineate the different uses of it so that the topic of analysis is clear. However, in so doing, one finds antinomic conceptions, methodologies, and emphases in both application and philosophizing in ontology. The perspectives given do not necessarily represent the views of the author and the (what some might find to be peculiar) language used is necessary to illustrate the inchoate nature of the subject matter. This type of language loosely honors Howard D. White's (1999) call for \"scientist-poets\" to articulate areas in information science through a \"powerful metaphor or thematic statement\" (p. 1052).\nResearch question: what is ontology in information studies?: The word \"ontology\" is similar to other pregnant and often haphazardly used terms in academia like \"realism,\" \"epistemology,\" \"empiricism,\" \"rationalism,\" \"positivism,\" \"knowledge,\" and \"information\" in that there is considerable disagreement upon what the term means even within the differing loosely affiliated camps that use it. Information scientists Barcellos Almeida and Rodrigues Barbosa (2009) provide a well-articulated assessment of the different uses of the term \"ontology\" in knowledge management citing Barry Smith and Fred Fonseca (discussed mentioned later in this paper) as well as the following definitions by Guizzardi (2005):\nHow is this relevant to educators, scholars, and practitioners in LIS?: This section provides the argument for why such a study is important. Computational ontology has grown into a fundamental technology in information science. The nature of this technology is not entirely clear. The term \"ontology\" is also used in a seemingly unrelated manner in other seemingly unrelated contexts in LIS. There has been almost no attempt to comprehensively explain the variety of ways in which this term is used in LIS and related fields. Such an attempt should not simply be classificatory and descriptive but must necessarily be critical, theoretical, and philosophical in nature as well due to the fact that ontology is an area of philosophy; even computational ontologies are based in philosophical ontology. Reflecting the latter point, Melanie Feinberg (2007, para. 5), without mentioning computational ontologies, notes that \"the design of information systems is both a creative and a critical task [emphasis added]\" in general. A better understanding of what \"ontology\" means in the variety of contexts in which it is used could be helpful for scholars, educators, and practitioners in LIS in a number of possible ways:\nJustification for using critical theory: In his article \"Tunnel visions and blind spots: what the past tells us about the present: reflections on the twentieth-century history of American librarianship,\" Wayne Wiegand (1999) argues that patrons have appropriated the collections, services, cultural space, and other amenities of the institution of the American library for generations. Despite this, he argues the following:\nJustification for focus on applied ontology: Both philosophical and computational ontology are quite complex, especially the prior, and a comprehensive outline of each would be voluminous and outside the scope of this essay. So, I focus on specific areas within each that I feel are most important in analyzing ontology as a whole in information studies. I use computational ontology as the foundation stone for addressing ontology in information studies for a couple of reasons. One, computational ontology is the most prevalent type of ontology discussed in an explicit manner in information studies. Two, a particular approach to computational ontology known as applied ontology stakes important philosophical claims about knowledge management, technology, science, and reality in general. So, we have one uninteresting answer to the research question, i.e., one type of ontology in information studies is a kind of information system. Practitioners may have intellectual interests in the philosophical origins of computational ontologies, but they likely care most about effective structural development and system efficacies. This is an important part of what ontology in information studies is, but some (Munn and Smith, 2008; Fonseca, 2006) argue that the philosophical foundations of the systems are integral to system efficacies. Applied ontology is not simply a type of computational ontology; it is a philosophical ontology about how computational ontologies should be developed, but also about the nature of technology, science, knowledge, and reality. Since applied ontology makes such strong systematic claims and offers critique of how ontologies and knowledge management in general should be handled, it comprises the majority of the aforesaid foundation stone.\nApplied ontology: Applied ontologists hold that in order to effectively manage knowledge and make universes of knowledge interoperable, one must first effectively acquire knowledge of the world. Smith and Klagges (2008) state that since the 1970s, different terminologies and classifications defined within databases have conflicted with one another. For this reason, Smith and Klagges note, \"a discipline known as ontological engineering has arisen in the field of information science\" whose goal is to create \"a sort of Esperanto for databases\" for the purpose of better reusability of and compatibility between electronic information systems (p. 21). Whether or not such a language is possible, feasible, or desirable is a matter of debate, some of which is covered in the section dealing with representation below, particularly in the work of Fred Fonseca.\nDigital ontology: Now let us explore Heideggerian critiques of science and technics. This area of analysis obviously begins with Heidegger himself, but expands to issues most relevant to information studies in the philosophical work of Ron Day (2001a), Michael Eldred (2011), and Rafael Capurro (1999, 2006) and is applied specifically to computational ontology development by LIS scholar Fred Fonseca (2006) and psychology scholar Fonseca and Martin (2005, 2009). I initiate these discourses by attending to notions of digital ontology beginning with the analytic philosopher Luciano Floridi's conceptualization of the topic. Floridi (2008) defines, and refutes, digital ontology as a kind of cosmology that reduces all of reality to the digital (i.e. bits, binary relations, etc.). Floridi (2008) says that digital ontologists in this sense typically hold the following:\nRepresentation: As indicated earlier, applied ontologists hold that the nature of the digital medium is only relevant in that it is faster and more efficiently stores information than analogue systems and that it makes expert systems possible that can do the reading and reasoning that was once up to human experts. Furthermore, opposing the view of representing things in the world as a decomposition of beings into digital beings, they see their work as a window into which one looks to view a portion of reality (Smith and Grenon, 2004). Contrariwise, it seems that the dominant paradigm in information science conceives of information systems as representing concepts about objects in the world rather than the actual objects themselves. According to applied ontologists, a concept may be represented in a computational ontology only insofar as it is an object in reality and not simply a subjective notion in someone's mind (Grenon and Smith, 2011). For example, in a computational ontology, tree is not a concept, but a universal to which all instances of trees belong. The universal tree exists in reality as does the universal of the particular tree species Tilia americana as does the particular Basswood in my back yard; all three are potential objects of study that can be represented in a computational ontology. Furthermore, the unconscious is a concept which is an object of study in psychoanalysis. More accurately, there are several concepts to which this term may refer depending on the school (e.g. Freudian, Jungian, or Lacanian). So, in the same way tree is a universal and Tilia americana is a universal subset of tree, Freudian unconscious, collective unconscious, and linguistic unconscious are all subsets of the concept the unconscious. Surprisingly, this view of reality representation seems to be, only in part, in agreement with Hubert Dreyfus and Rodney Brooks' critiques of traditional AI development. Dreyfus (1972), following Heidegger, has argued for some time that systematic representation of what G.E.M. Anscombe (1958) refers to as \"brute facts,\" and the like, is a doomed method for \"good old fashioned artificial intelligence\" - that according to Brooks \"the best model of the world is the world itself [...] in which a mobile robot uses the world itself as its own representation continually referring to its sensors rather than to an internal world model\" (Dreyfus, 2007, pp. 5-6). This view differs from applied ontology in that it ultimately holds representation in general to be an impossible method of truly mimicking human intelligence which is not the motivation for applied ontologists.\nDiscussion: So, turning this discussion around on itself, is \"ontology,\" specifically the way it is used in information studies, ambiguous? Applied ontologists would say \"yes\" and that representing it as something that exists in the world is a problem. The solution to this, for applied ontologists, would be to remove the ambiguity - to properly identify the universal for \"ontology\" and its subcategories representing them so that they are \"transparent to reality\" (Grenon, 2008, p. 80). The first step in this approach would be to distinguish strictly philosophical ontology from the business of applied ontology in the development of computational ontologies. This would entail further demarcation of areas of philosophical ontology and different structural types of computational ontologies. Moreover, since computational ontology is grounded in analytic philosophy, it would require the denotation of \"continental ontology\" as a misnamed form of metaphysics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Ontology in information studies consists of antinomic conceptions, methodologies, and emphases in both application and philosophizing. A comprehensive understanding of ontology in information studies can be achieved by employing Slavoj Zizek's parallax view which holds that reality is not only best understood by articulating conflicting perspectives on a particular phenomenon, but that given phenomena are fundamentally constrained by incommensurable perspectives that must be acknowledged accordingly. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Ontology in information studies, including computational ontology development, is analyzed using critical information theory based on Heideggerian, poststructuralist, and anti-postmodern philosophy. The discussion is framed by Zizek's notion of the parallax Real.\nFindings: A complete understanding of ontology in information studies that does not reduce ontology to a totalizing theory or sequester notions of ontology to conflicting, unrelated discourses, necessarily accepts articulating the alterity between differing ontological views as the means by which one can best allude to what \"ontology in information studies really is.\"\nOriginality/value: This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of radically different ontological perspectives on the nature of reality with respect to digital technology.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The moderating role of age and gender on the attitude towards new luxury fashion brands
|
[
"Self-monitoring",
"Need for uniqueness",
"Age and gender",
"New luxury",
"Social identity function"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The market for luxury fashion brands is growing in developing markets like India and China. Consumers in developing countries must often choose between domestic and foreign brands (Phau and Leng, 2008). Hence, marketers need to understand the motives behind the choices of consumers, in order to remain competitive (Kumar et al., 2009; Leclerc et al., 1994). Studies have shown that the Indian consumer is often willing to buy well-known foreign brands even though they are sold at higher prices (Atwal and Bryson, 2017; Deloitte, 2017). They use expensive foreign brands to exhibit their social standing (Kumar et al., 2009). The vast disparity in income, especially in developing countries, makes this phenomenon noticeable (Kumar et al., 2009). Luxury consumption in developing countries must satisfy the consumers' desire to exhibit a western lifestyle and also provide both emotional and functional benefits (Eng and Bogaert, 2010). Consumers in a collectivistic culture express value for other-directed goals by engaging in self-monitoring and self-presentation to impress others; in contrast, individualistic consumers focus on their need for uniqueness and self-directed expressiveness (Shukla and Purani, 2012). Given that cultural factors drive consumption of luxury brands (Wong and Ahuvia, 1998), results of studies conducted in developed nations may not apply to developing countries. There is evidence that luxury brands are received better in the developed market than in emerging markets (Shukla, 2012), and therefore analysing luxury brand consumption behaviour and attitude in a market like India is a challenge (Ajitha and Sivakumar, 2017).\n2. Theoretical background and literature: This section presents a review of research that has been hitherto carried out to understand consumer attitudes towards luxury brands. Due to a lack of literature in the field of \"new luxury\", published articles in the field of \"luxury brands\" were used to build the theoretical model of the research. Studies in related fields, dealing with consumer attitudes and their related variables, are presented in the following paragraphs.\n3. Conceptual framework and hypothesis: Attitudes have links with both private and public identity motives (Smith et al., 1956). In other words, self-expression and social interaction are attitude aids (Shavitt, 1990) that express a person's self-concept, belief and central values (Katz, 1960). Similarly, new luxury product consumption is induced by the consumer's expression of individualism (i.e. need for uniqueness) and representation of social standing (i.e. self-monitoring) (Kauppinen-Raisanen et al., 2018; Stokburger-Sauer and Teichmann, 2013). Social function attitudes significantly influence the pattern of luxury brand consumption compared to other attitudes of functional theory (Wilcox et al., 2009). Accordingly, understanding the attitude towards fashion brands among Indian consumers can help international fashion industries target and segment the market (Khare, 2014).\n4. Data collection and analysis: Since the primary variables of the study were pre-developed and validated scales in the literature, quantitative research is an appropriate approach to validate the hypotheses. It is also advantageous when testing relationships to gain information among large sample sizes (Hair et al., 1995). A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data from the respondents because of its ability to collect large amounts of numerical data needed for the qualitative study, while providing the respondents with the convenience and anonymity of responding (Groves et al., 2011; Saunders, 2011). The questionnaire was developed around four variables: need for uniqueness, self-monitoring, value-expressive attitude and social-adjustive attitude. Self-monitoring was measured using the scale by Lennox and Wolfe (1984). The scale by Tian et al. (2001) was applied to assess need for uniqueness. The value-expressive attitude and social-adjustive attitude scales of Wilcox et al. (2009) were applied to measure self-expression attitude and self-presentation attitude. To measure all variables, a seven-point Likert scale was used. The main advantage of using a seven-point Likert over a five-point Likert is that it is more sensitive without risks of skewing of data (Collis and Hussey, 2013; Diefenbach et al., 1993). Since two components of attitude scales are involved, the scale must be sensitive enough to distinguish them into separate factors; hence the seven-point Likert scale is best suited. The questionnaire started with a description of the concept of new luxury followed by a list of new luxury brands (Appendix) as a stimulus for the respondents. This was followed by the items to measure the variables of the study and ended with questions designed to collect demographic details of the respondents. The data for age were collected as an open-ended question and were later categorised as younger (35 years) and older age (>35 years) groups based on the \"Youth in India\" report published by the government of India (Verma et al., 2017) (Table I).\n5. Results: 5.1 Reliability and validity tests\n6. Discussion: New luxury brands are more appealing to consumers who do not believe in the term \"luxury brands\" and are more concerned about their financial conditions (Achille, 2014). Brands should attract consumers with new fashion ideas based on their tastes and preferences in different regions to retain their product interest. In emerging markets, the supply of new luxury brands and items and high demand from buyers has shifted in a direction that is optimal for both marketers and consumers (Assocham, 2016). Analysing attitudes of the consumers towards luxury brands can help marketers and designers to understand the consumers' need to satisfy their social desires thereby helping them to focus on taking steps to reform the consumer perspectives. If consumers do not connect to a luxury brand, they would quickly replace it with a local brand.\n7. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications: 7.1 Theoretical contributions\n8. Conclusion: This study explored the relationships associated with the attitude of consumers towards new luxury brands. The moderating effects of gender and age on relationships were analysed. Results showed that the need for uniqueness is the strongest predictor of both value-expressive and social-adjustive components of attitude even though self-monitoring is also a significant predictor. Subsequently, other demographic characteristics of the respondents besides gender and age may also play a significant moderating role in differentiating the relationships, and future researchers may explore such variations. The frequency of store visits, experience in purchasing particular brands, fashion product categories, income levels and education may also have significant moderating effects. It would also be interesting to study significant differences in the responses for the variables and moderation in the relationships by categorising the respondents to different social classes. The results of the study can be generalised across developing nations where traditional luxury is unaffordable to the average consumer. It can also be generalised across different product categories like accessories, footwear, watches, jewellery, cosmetics, etc., although data consisted of responses of apparel shoppers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There is a significant growth in the consumption of new luxury fashion brands in developing price-sensitive markets like India. Not only does this growth demonstrate how the \"new\" luxury brands have become a success, but is also illustrative of the perception and practice of style and status among the middle classes. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the consumer's attitude for buying a branded product entails the need for uniqueness and self-monitoring. It also contends that gender and age moderate the consumer's attitude.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employed a self-monitored survey to collect the data from the customers of new luxury fashion retail brand stores in Chennai, India for empirical validation of the model. Data collected from 394 new luxury brands shoppers were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.\nFindings: The need for uniqueness and self-monitoring had significant positive influences on social-adjustive attitude and value-expressive attitude. However, the relationship between self-monitoring and value-expressive attitude was weak when compared to other relationships. Significant differences were seen in the strengths of the relationships between gender and age.\nOriginality/value: New luxury is significantly different from traditional luxury. Analyses regarding age group, gender and attitude can provide unique understanding related to new luxury trends, especially in a price sensitive and emerging market like India. This would help managers in segmenting the market based on consumer demographics, and devise strategies based on their characteristics to influence their attitudes and other behavioural patterns.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
George Washington: a revolutionary approach to leadership
|
[
"Leadership",
"Historiography",
"Emotional intelligence",
"Resilience",
"George Washington"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: What can the past tell us about the present? The American Declaration of Independence was drafted and signed in 1776, severing the relationship between the 13 American colonies and Great Britain. For the rag-tag Continental Army, the years that followed saw few victories, and a staggering amount of disease, suffering, defeat, desertion and disillusionment. Few people today have an appreciation for how close this experiment in democracy came to failure, on some occasions literally being saved by shifts in the wind. This excerpt from a letter written by General George Washington to his close friend and confidant Joseph Reed captures the situation perfectly:The reflection upon my situation and that of this army produces many an uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in(January 14, 1776).\nMethod: The current analysis employs a qualitative research design (Rogelberg, 2004). Qualitative methods can include procedures such as observation, interview, case study and analysis of diaries or written documents. In the disciplines of management and organizational studies, qualitative research approaches have been used since the fields' inceptions. The use of a qualitative research methodology is often most appropriate when context is central to the research question, depth and richness of data is essential and the research is exploratory is nature (Lee, 1999). Although there is relatively little guidance on its unique methods and techniques, historical research, commonly known as historiography, can also be a valued qualitative research paradigm. Historical research methods are critical parts of most scientific disciplines, and can aid scientific understanding by helping scholars examine practices, models and theories in a different context and era.\nConclusion: This study has a number of implications for leadership research and practice. First, the study provides additional theoretical support for leader-centric conceptions of leadership (Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991). A close examination of George Washington's life indicates that Washington's personal traits, behaviors and skills had significant impacts on the accomplishment of important goals. While Washington's possession and cultivation of these attributes did not guarantee success on the battlefield or in the political arena, they played a substantial role. Additionally, while many Washington scholars tend to primarily focus on Washington's moral character when examining his approach to leadership (e.g. Schwartz, 1987), the present exploration uncovers and highlights other leadership competencies that Washington leveraged to good effect. It may also be important to note that it was not these individual leadership competencies in isolation, but the constellation of them, that enabled Washington to have the impact that he did. For example, among the \"Founding Fathers,\" Hamilton was likelier more intelligent than Washington, Adams more well-read, Franklin more creative, Madison more politically skilled and Jefferson more sophisticated. A nineteenth century English Writer named Cyrus Edwards articulated this view well: \"the imposing effect of Washington is more dependent on the nice balance and exact symmetry of parts, than upon the commanding stature of any of his faculties, if estimated singly.\" The noted Historian and Washington Biographer Joseph Ellis (2004) supports this view.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine George Washington's approach to leadership through the lens of contemporary leadership theory and practice; and second, to help modern managers further reflect upon and develop their own leadership capabilities through a historiographic examination of Washington's leadership traits and skills.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Combining three different academic disciplines, management, psychology and history, the author utilized a historiographic and interdisciplinary research methodology, conducting a detailed exploration of the life of George Washington through an examination of a wide range of original archival materials, books, journal articles and other sources.\nFindings: The present analysis reveals that Washington demonstrated a variety of well-validated leadership competencies (e.g. emotional intelligence, resilience, integrity, etc.) that are largely consistent with leader-centered theoretical conceptions of leadership.\nOriginality/value: This is the first historiographic study of George Washington's approach to leadership within the management literature. Additionally, through the development of a competency model, the study demonstrates how Washington employed tools and techniques from a host of modern leadership theories to achieve critically important results.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An assessment of professional training for product managers in the pharmaceutical industry
|
[
"Pharmaceuticals industry",
"Marketing",
"Product management",
"Training needs",
"Training methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: The product management system, initially adopted by Procter & Gamble in order to improve the effectiveness of developing and marketing products, has undergone significant changes over the years (Franzoni, 1991). In the 1990s, the combination of explosive demand for new and improved products as well as the availability of new technology for production and delivery of such products generated additional demands on the system (O'Connell, 1996). This situation accelerated the rate of change and it produced an \"evolved\" system which attempts to respond to current market dynamics (Katsanis and Pitta, 1995). In the current millennium, the growth in technology with which to communicate with customers and address internal marketing needs has mushroomed. In fact, Procter & Gamble has updated its marketing training and has made this training a top priority for the organization (Neff, 2002).Despite the importance of product managers to the marketing function, however, there has been little research conducted on product manager training since the late 1990s. It is not clear whether this research gap is as a result of lack of interest on the part of researchers; the lack of training given to product managers; or the assumption that the training they currently receive is adequate.European managers appear to consider product management training somewhat more important than their North American counterparts. For example, The Marketing Excellence Forum in the UK (which consists of market leaders such as Unilever and P&G) meet together several times a year to exchange experiences and best practices, and subsequently decide how to \"trickle down\" this learning into their organizations (Brand Strategy, 2005).The role of the product manager, in most, if not all industries, is to develop product marketing plans, see that they are implemented, monitor the results and take corrective action. Such a limited scope does not capture the breadth of the coordination function (Hehman, 1984; Low and Fullerton, 1994), the importance of boundary spanning to develop and maintain a large network of industry contacts (Lysonski, 1985), or the highly developed level of interpersonal skills required to facilitate the accomplishment of tasks through relationships with people over whom the product manager has no direct authority (Gemmill and Wilemon, 1972).With the increasingly rapid change, serious questions are being raised about the ability of product managers to meet these challenges in today's leaner, faster moving and entrepreneurial enterprises (Berggren and Dewar, 1992; Low and Fullerton, 1994; Katsanis and Pitta, 1995). Quelch et al. (1992) indicated that product managers want to spend more time thinking, writing and training, and that they believe creative efforts are not rewarded. There are persistent criticisms of product managers, which include their short-term focus, short-term tenure in the job, and ignorance of key tasks required (Gabarro, 1985; MacStravic, 1996; Murphy and Gorchels, 1996; Katsanis et al., 1996). Many of these concerns appear to be linked to the common practice of corporations which recruit both young and inexperienced candidates. With inadequate knowledge and lack of experience, many of these individuals fail in their duties as product managers (Low and Fullerton, 1994). In addition, the \"soft\" skills of product management appear to be given short shrift by many companies, which would include leadership, team-building, coaching, mentoring, presentation and negotiation (Cowlett, 2001).There appears to be a gap between the requirements of the highly developed product management system and the relatively inexperienced individuals who hold the positions in the system. It can be reasonably assumed that the current level of training received by product managers may not be sufficient for them to successfully carry out their tasks. This study will address the issue of product manager training, with a specific focus on product managers in the pharmaceutical industry.\nStudy objectives: The primary objective of this study is to identify how and where product managers in the pharmaceutical industry receive the training required to undertake their job tasks. The pharmaceutical industry was chosen because it currently operates in a rapidly changing business environment which necessitates significant changes in the product management function. Through identification of where pharmaceutical product managers receive their training, understanding may be shed on either the strengths or weaknesses of the current training systems. Second, it will attempt to identify the future training needs of product managers in this industry, which is experiencing rapid evolutionary changes. The findings may prove valuable to firms who are attempting to develop appropriate training programs for their product managers.\nLiterature review: While a great deal has been written describing product managers, little has been written which focuses on product manager training. For the most part, product manager training takes two forms: formal education which is received prior to beginning their career, and on-the-job training (Bart, 1986). Most, if not all, formal training is theoretical, usually resulting from a general business degree which the new product managers complete prior to entering the work force. On-the-job training has been reported in the literature as informal and dependent on the knowledge base of upper-level management (Bart, 1986). Several general models of management training and adult learning have been presented in the literature, and while useful, do not shed light on the amount or type of training received by product managers.Most pharmaceutical product managers come from a sales background. However, these managers do not have the appropriate skill level or knowledge to understand the key tasks of brand management, because the job skills for the two positions are quite different. The skills required in order to be a good salesperson are only a subset of the skills required for a good product manager. Consequently, product managers with a sales background are unprepared for working in a physical office space, as well as for the technical type of expertise required for writing marketing plans and understanding the intricacies of product development (Panigyrakis and Veloutsou, 1999).Ross (1999) states that many newly-appointed pharmaceutical product managers have minimal marketing skills, for the following reasons:* product management is not a career path in the industry;* product managers are recruited from the sales force;* few companies have comprehensive, thorough training programs; and* rapid turnover can result in as many as three different individuals handling a product in a short period of time, which causes lack of continuity. He concluded that product managers need rigorous and systematic training.The limited literature available which specifically addresses product manager training suggests that product managers usually receive a continuous flow of recommendations and suggestions with respect to the necessary skill sets (Bart, 1986). The success of this method of training, however, relies solely on the ability of the supervisor to assign appropriate tasks and provide constructive and meaningful feedback. The apparent absence of a formal mechanism by which the supervisor provides training, is a significant factor in the gap between position requirements and the knowledge and experience of the product manager.When the pharmaceutical industry is examined, it can be seen that the competitive pressures for product managers to perform are intense. In today's business environment, product managers must deal with a variety of exogenous factors which make their role more complex. Third party payer scrutiny, demand for cost-benefit outcomes, price constraints, and the growing complexity of government regulations are but a few examples of such factors. Pharmaceutical product managers must be trained not only to supervise the execution of the promotional plan and budget, but must also possess a wide range of skill sets ranging from statistical and quantitative analysis and marketing research to a strong understanding of basic financial principles including the dynamics of profit and loss administration. (Medical Marketing & Media, 1993). In 1999, the Healthcare Marketing and Communications Council, the pharmaceutical industry's oldest and largest trade association, determined that training for new and/or aspiring product managers should have the highest priority. They subsequently organized the first Pharmaceutical Product Manager Development Program (Girondi, 1999).In light of the foregoing, it is evident that an assessment of current product manager training will provide a useful perspective and a necessary step toward the development of future training programs for product managers.\nResearch questions: The key research questions are as follows:RQ1. On what tasks do pharmaceutical product managers spend most of their time?\nStudy methodology: This research is exploratory, descriptive in nature, and utilized a cross-sectional survey design. As such, no formal hypotheses will be stated. Descriptive statistical analysis and a two-tailed test of proportions using the z statistic were used to analyze the data.The questionnaire consisted of 22 functional tasks divided into three sections. These tasks were adapted from Smith (1991) and are well established in the literature as the key functional tasks for pharmaceutical product managers (see Table I).The first section asked respondents to estimate the relative time they spent on 22 different tasks. A five-point scale was used which ranged from \"Very frequently\" to \"Rarely\". The second section asked where the respondents acquired the knowledge to conduct these tasks (this included university/college, company training; external seminars; or on-the-job experience). The final section asked respondents to estimate their future training needs on the 22 tasks using a five-point scale ranging from \"High\" to \"None\". For purposes of brevity, only the largest percentage tasks from the list of 22, as well as the statistically significant tasks from the same list will be reported.Questionnaires were mailed to 300 pharmaceutical product managers whose names were obtained through a commercial mailing list and randomly generated. The final number of questionnaires used in the survey was 50, or a 17 percent rate of return. In this group of respondents, 27 different companies from the industry were represented.\nStudy limitations: The generalizability of the findings presented is limited to one industry. Additionally, the need for training is self-reported, and not based on an external and/or objective party providing the evaluation. However, the data presented here can be quite useful to pharmaceutical industry managers who wish to identify general areas for training and development needs.\nFindings: Demographics of sample\nDiscussion of results: The results of this study are consistent with the previous literature (Smith, 1991) with respect to the functional responsibilities of pharmaceutical product managers. It is certainly not surprising that product managers spend the majority of their time on the day-to-day routine tasks required to manage their brands.Functional tasks performed frequently appear to receive less company sponsored training. There are two possible explanations. When levels of company training versus on-the-job experience are examined, the inference can be made that upper management appears to believe that on-the-job experience, in most cases, is sufficient and that product managers can learn what they need from their direct supervisors. Another explanation may be the possible assumption by upper management that \"practice makes perfect.\" Given the high rates of turnover and lack of experience as reported in the literature, this would seem to be a faulty assumption.Further, the findings suggest that the level of company-sponsored training and outside training is relatively low. This is a somewhat worrisome situation. Companies appear to rely largely on their own internal training capabilities, and the lack of external knowledge infusion may lead to the perpetuation of untrained product managers on the road to failure. This may also be partly an explanation for high turnover, as lack of knowledge may lead to job frustration.It was encouraging to observe that emerging areas of importance, such as \"introducing new products,\" \"fostering product team communication,\" \"anticipating market changes,\" and \"resolution of governmental/legal issues\" are receiving relatively high levels of training. The literature points to these emerging areas of importance to the pharmaceutical industry as critical for product manager success (Medical Marketing & Media, 1993).Finally, product managers did not seem to believe they needed training on those areas which they perform frequently. This finding was somewhat surprising given the short tenure and relative lack of experience of most product managers. They may suffer from the same \"practice makes perfect\" myopia as upper management. The areas they did identify as important for training needs were indeed the ones which are emerging as important areas for their companies and the industry.\nManagerial implications: One important implication of this research to the practicing manager is that they should ensure that product managers receive basic training in the fundamentals of their job; in other words, do not assume that \"practice makes perfect\". One may find that practice simply reinforces bad habits, which ultimately has negative effects on performance. The competencies of new product managers should be assessed when they take on their positions, particularly those who come in \"from the field\". This would help managers understand what training is required, rather than having all product managers receiving the same training (some of which may not be required). Training is often a low priority item for many companies. Given the complexity of the product management function, training should be considered as essential to the performance of the organization. One way to reduce the frequent turnover associated with the product manager position is to have well-trained individuals. Finally, there are many new areas pharmaceutical product managers are required to have expertise in, such as direct to consumer marketing, and database management (CRM). Addditional training and special expertise may be required for these functions.\nAreas of future research: Future research may focus on the effectiveness of current training methods in preparing product managers to accomplish their functional responsibilities. This research must ensure that the effectiveness measurements can be measured both internally and externally.A second area of future research would be to examine what skills marketing managers today consider important for product managers to possess; whether it is perceived that salespeople have these skills; and finally, whether or not the training needs of product managers from non-sales backgrounds differ from those with sales backgrounds.A third area of future research is that of curriculum development for product manager training programs. This study suggests that many product mangers learn on-the-job from their immediate supervisors. Certain tasks may be best learned \"outside\" the company, and an assessment of which skill sets are most appropriate for external training should be identified.This study can be carried out for different industries, or across industries for all product managers to see if similar results emerge. Additionally, it would be interesting to compare results from product managers within the same firm, to examine within-firm differences.Finally, it would be of interest to see if there is a correlation between performance on the job and the training received by the product manager when starting his/her job. Training would be expected to produce improved performance results under most circumstances.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The primary purpose of this study is to identify how and where product managers in the pharmaceutical industry receive the training required to undertake their job tasks, and whether or not there is a relationship between the tasks they perform and the training they receive.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology for this study was exploratory and descriptive in nature, and utilized a cross-sectional survey design. Both descriptive and relational statistics are used to analyze the data.\nFindings: - The key findings reveal that product managers receive the majority of their training on the job, with the rest supported by company-sponsored training and outside seminars. Product managers do not appear to receive company training in proportion to the frequency with which particular tasks are performed.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitations to the study are that the findings are limited to one industry and that training needs are self-reported.\nOriginality/value: - Managers should not assume that on the job training adequately prepares product managers to do their jobs properly, and training should be an essential part of the product manager's experience. The paper identifies specific areas for future training.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Implementation of Lean-Kaizen in the human resource service process: A case study in a Mexican public service organisation
|
[
"Continuous improvement",
"Public sector organizations",
"Mexico",
"Human resource strategies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Over the last decade, Mexican public service organisations have been subject to pressure from their external environment - including the country's citizens, the civil sector, international economic organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Monetary Fund, amongst others - in addition to changes in international markets (effects of globalisation), etc. Other pressure has come from the federal government, through government programmes such as the National Agreement for the Raising of Productivity and Quality (1992), the National Programme for the Modernisation of the Public Company (1990-1994), and the Programme for the Modernisation of the Public Administration (1995-2000) (Moyado-Estrada, 2002). Owing to both external and government pressures, public service organisations have gradually changed their concept of management, and have become involved in looking at ways of improving both their work processes and the public services which they provide (Campero-Cardenas and Carrillo-Castro, 2004).The regulatory framework behind Mexico's public administration and public services is based on the constitution of the USA of Mexico, dating back to 1917 (Carrillo-Castro, 1982). Specifically, the fifth section of the constitution (Articles 115-122) provides explicit guidelines for government and its administration in the areas of the federal states and municipalities (Cienfuegos-Salgado and Rodriguez-Lozano, 2009). According to Carrillo-Castro (1999), public services are provided to the general public under an organisational structure focused on administrative departments or ministers of state: structural models and organs based on the constitution and the subsequent amendments which have been made to this constitution. In this context, a public service in Mexico is defined as:[...] all those technical activities designed to meet a general need, whose uniform and continuous provision should be permanent, assured, regulated and controlled by administrators or leaders, whether through the Public Administration [bodies] or by individuals authorised to do so, to the indiscriminate benefit of every citizen (Fernandez-Ruiz, 1995, p. 165).As such, one of the ambits of Mexican public services in which change has been most sought since the 1980s - a result of the pressures outlined above - has been the creation of more flexible forms of governance to help meet the growing needs and demands of citizens. In other words, the need to achieve better quality standards in public services delivered to citizens has highlighted the need to put forward new management mechanisms to deal with the obsolescence of the administrative model of the Public Administration in Mexico (Cienfuegos-Salgado and Rodriguez-Lozano, 2009). In the opinion of Serrano-Migallon (2008), the efficiency and smooth running of national governments cannot be assumed as an effect of democracy. However, according to these authors, democracy requires better and more modern methods of administration in order to respond to demands for better public services from a society (in this case Mexican) that has already entered into the twenty-first century.In this regard, some Mexican public service organisations, at the federal level - including the Human Resources Office (HRO: a service area of one of these public service organisations) studied in this paper - have committed to a systematic and in-depth effort to improve and innovate their public services. This was devised to address the general inefficiency, bureaucracy, excessive regulation, as well as the processes and procedures involved in providing public services to citizens (Carrillo-Castro, 2002). So much so that some public service organisations have now begun to explore how to transfer certain practices, techniques, and tools from the manufacturing sector (Suarez-Barraza, 2001; Spear, 2005); an approach that has already been successfully tried out in several international organisations (Spear, 2004; Liker, 2004).This paper therefore presents a case study that describes how one of these manufacturing sector practices, Lean-Kaizen, was transferred to and implemented in the human resource service process of a Mexican public service organisation. The research question that has guided this entire study is:RQ. How can Lean-Kaizen be implemented in a service process within the context of a public organisation?From this, two sub-questions emerged:RQ1. What kind of enablers can help successfully achieve this implementation?RQ2. What kind of inhibitors could block the implementation effort?This paper first provides a review of the literature on the Lean-Kaizen approach from its original perspective in manufacturing and also describes the first indications of the practice's appearance in the services sector in a public context. It continues by reviewing the implementation of public service organisation performance management, and concludes by analysing the literature on human resource management (HRM) practices to improve the performance of private and public organisations. It then goes on to set out the research methodology used, and also provides a description of the implementation of Lean-Kaizen in this case study. The paper ends by detailing the implications and conclusions of the research.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 The Lean-Kaizen approach in manufacturing\n3 Methodology: Research was conducted using interpretative-based qualitative methodology and the case study research strategy (Yin, 2003; Stake, 2000), a perspective that was adopted with a view to constructing theory (Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). Theory construction was based on studying how the HRO of this public service organisation had implemented Lean-Kaizen for several years (van de Ven and Poole, 1995). Research was retrospective (Leonard-Barton, 1990).Data collection was performed by applying four research methods in the following sequential order:1. direct observation;2. non-intrusive participative observation;3. documentary analysis; and4. semi-structured in-depth interviews.During data collection, special attention was placed on triangulating the four methods, which converge on the same series of facts. A total of 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted, which helped to corroborate and reaffirm what had been obtained from direct observation data and non-intrusive participative observation data. Each interview lasted between 40 and 120 minutes and was transcribed over the ensuing two days to avoid information loss. Interviews were held with the HRO assistant manager, the directors of the areas carrying out human resource recruitment (four in total: employee selection; employee-management services; service provision; operational and organisational structure control). In addition, interviews were held with five mid-level professionals responsible for the analytical part of the process. The interview processes conclude with four non-career orientated, union affiliated, and public service organisation employees working in staff recruitment.A database was constructed to analyse the data along with matrices and networks of the patterns obtained. Similarly, once all the data had been reviewed, analysed and coded, a first draft of each case study was written up, and these were submitted to HRO executives and managers responsible for strategic projects and continuous improvement. The revised first draft of the case study not only helped to validate the data collection process, but also served to identify possible gaps and obtain more data, patterns and opinions relevant to the study. By successively comparing empirical data against the theory to observe possible differences, and then once again analysing field data, made it possible to create an iterative data analysis process (Pettigrew, 1997).\n4 The Lean-Kaizen approach implemented in a human resource service process: a case study: 4.1 Public service organisation background\n5 Implications and conclusions: The implementation of the Lean-Kaizen approach helped the HRO of this Mexican public service organisation to reduce the cycle time of its human resource selection and hiring process, maintaining its performance, adopting a standard set by listening to the customer, as observed in its results (Figure 4). This stabilised the service process and decreased complaints from internal customers. The transfer and implementation of Lean-Kaizen in the service process of a public environment is possible, as shown by the evidence presented in this case: a virtual production line. However, it is important to note that for this transfer and implementation to be achieved with potential benefits for the service area, some enablers have to be in place during the implementation process, such as those that appeared in the patterns of this case:* Commitment to and wish for improvement. Great determination by senior management to change and improve their processes and services.* Clear resolve to improve. The establishment of resolve and specific objectives for improvement.* Focus on the simple and practical. Using simple Lean-Kaizen methodologies, techniques, and practices that stimulate the participation and involvement of staff familiar with the process and the service.* Active leadership. Both senior managers and middle management for improvement, going round the gemba and complying with the improvement actions established.* The service is outcome/customer/stakeholder-oriented. The focus of the service process and its outcome should concentrate on what the internal customer wants, in order to set standards that help to minimise its degree of intangibility as far as possible. Therefore, it is not enough just to focus the efforts of public service organisations on the citizen-client, but these should also be focused on other stakeholders such as internal customers and even direct clients of the public organisation (Wisniewski and Stewart, 2004; McAdam et al., 2005).* Holistic and transversal thinking. Lean-Kaizen facilitates holistic thinking (seeing the whole process) and transversality, breaking down and minimising interdepartmental barriers (interfaces) created by the classical bureaucratic model. Confirming the potential of this approach in terms of public services previously indicated in the literature (Bowland and Fowler, 2000).* Establishing a system for measuring service process performance. A key enabler found during the case study was the establishment of a system to measure the performance for the improved service process. This ensured the potential improvement of the process after its redesign, because measuring its performance ensures finding areas of opportunity for improvement (within and beyond the assigned standard).* Effective implementation of best HRM practices. Teamwork (small improvement group), effective communication throughout the redesigning process, involvement in the efforts to improve the process, and training in gemba (specifically OJT) were all critical enablers in terms of achieving results to improve both the HRO process and service and in achieving greater employee involvement and satisfaction, confirming what has been indicated in the literature in this regard (Liu and Batt, 2005; Aghazadeh, 2007; Osono et al., 2008).In addition, a series of inhibitors also appeared which could block the transfer and implementation of Lean-Kaizen in a service process in a public environment. These are:* A \"classical bureaucratic mode\" organisational structure, creating \"small fiefdoms.\"* The influence of trade unions with little interest in change and/or improvement.* Resistance to change by employees who enjoy their own quota of power (influenced by the trade union) and their own way of doing things in the HRO sections (a legacy of the approach of this kind of area).* A lack of sound professional training in Lean-Kaizen techniques and tools.* A lack of credibility of certain middle management, with these efforts viewed as imposed by a management group in power or as a passing fad.* Excess regulation can block thinking about improvement and quality of services.* Resistance to generating measurement actions as a result of a deficient or non-existent measurement \"culture\" in terms of service processes performance.* The lack of a strong link between Lean-Kaizen efforts and the HRM best practices required to consolidate them.According to the evidence, we can claim that the transfer and implementation of Lean-Kaizen can be an excellent way of improving the performance of service processes, and the corresponding quality of the public services provided to internal and/or external customers. This paper may therefore provide a good example for public managers and other practitioners wishing to implement or continue this process. However, the case as presented makes no attempt to generalise the results obtained, although an analytical generalisation can be made, based on the evidence found. Finally, further comparisons with other case studies or other kinds of methodological focus are required to strengthen the findings of the study.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - Over the last decade, some Mexican public organisations have begun to enter into a dynamic in which issues such as service quality, ongoing improvement, and internal and external customer orientation are becoming essential to their day-to-day management. The purpose of this paper is to present a successful example of how Lean-Kaizen is implemented in the human resource service process of a Mexican public service organisation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research method adopted is the case study. Research is carried out in a Mexican public service organisation, and adopts a retrospective focus. Four methods are used to gather data: direct observation; participative observation; documentary analysis; and semi-structured interviews.\nFindings: - The Lean-Kaizen approach helps this public service organisation to improve cycle times in the human resource selection and hiring process. Various enablers and inhibitors are also identified during implementation.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Research is based on a single case study. However, rather than seeking empirical generalisation, it tries to examine how the Lean-Kaizen approach can be successfully implemented in a service process.\nPractical implications: - The research is effectively a guide for practitioners (public managers) wishing to apply or already applying Lean-Kaizen in their service processes.\nOriginality/value: - A review of academic and practitioner literature on the subject indicated that implementation of the Lean-Kaizen approach has hardly begun to be explored. It is also significant that in Mexico and Latin America, examples of the transfer and implementation of this kind of approach are practically non-existent in academic literature on the subject.\n",
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] |
Supply chain structures shaping portfolio of technologies: Exploring the impact of integration through the "dual arcs" framework
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Arcs of integration",
"Supply chain structure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The supply chain management (SCM) literature has established that integration with customers and suppliers leads to improved performance (Frohlich and Westbrook, 2001; Power, 2005; Fawcett and Magnan, 2002). Therefore, many organizations have sought to \"widen their arc\" of integration by collaborating closely with both upstream and downstream trading partners in their supply chains. An organization's portfolio of technologies enhances the feasibility of integration by facilitating information exchange and supporting SCM processes across SCM partners (Maizlish and Handler, 2005). The term portfolio of technologies is often used inconsistently within the literature to mean different things. We restrict our focus to process-enabling technologies related to procurement, distribution and inventory management, and are critical of timely and accurate information exchange among trading partners in the supply chain. Therefore, the in-scope of our study includes automatic identification and data capture technologies, such as bar coding, data synchronization tools, electronic messaging, including electronic data interchange (EDI), business-to-business (B2B) portals and extranets (Boone and Ganeshan, 2007).\nLiterature review: Arcs of integration and vertical integration\nResearch methodology: The key research question posed in this study is:\nFindings: In the following section, we report the findings of the case analysis for the three focal organizations. We also include perspectives of their extended trading partners.\nDiscussion, implications and future research: Our study has brought to the forefront the role of supply chain structure in influencing the breadth of organizations' portfolios of technologies. We have done so by developing an overarching proposition and a nested set of three sub-propositions that capture the findings of our study:\nConclusion: This study, conducted with three key players and their extended supply chains in the Australian mass grocery retail industry, has highlighted that the governance structure influences the character of the portfolio of technologies implemented in the supply network. We found that focal organizations with vertically integrated supply chains have portfolios of technologies that are narrow, whereas disintegrated supply chains are characterized by broader portfolios of technologies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of how the supply chain structure (i.e. degree of vertical integration) of a focal organization shapes the breadth of its portfolio of technologies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, three case studies were conducted involving key players in the Australian mass grocery retail sector. Each had a distinct supply chain structure (i.e. totally vertically disintegrated, partially vertically integrated and totally vertically integrated). Each supply chain case study included manufacturers or suppliers, transport and logistics service providers, wholesalers/distributors, as well as the mass grocery retail organizations. Interviews with key personnel from these organizations and other relevant information informed the findings and conclusions.\nFindings: The information technologies employed by the three focal case organizations and their extended trading partners varied in terms of level, type, complexity and sophistication. The authors highlight how the choice of supply chain technologies is affected by supply chain structure (extent of vertical integration). The authors found that disintegrated supply chain structures have a broader portfolio of technologies, whereas integrated supply chains have a narrow portfolio.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study is confined to three organizations in the Australian mass grocery retail sector, so any extensions should be made with caution.\nPractical implications: The framework presented in this study can guide organizations in assessing the appropriateness of their supply chain portfolios of technologies with the structure of their supply chains. For standard setting bodies, the findings of this study suggest that technologies need to be tailored to the requirements of the supply chains, with the level of vertical integration being one easy way to segment the supply chain types.\nOriginality/value: The study adapts and extends the \"arcs of integration\" framework. The propositions enhance the understanding of how supply chain structure, in the form of degree of vertical integration influences an organization's supply chain portfolio of technologies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Students' perceptions on environmental management of HEIs and the role of social capital: A case study in the University of the Aegean
|
[
"Higher education institutions (HEIs)",
"Environmental management",
"Social capital",
"Trust",
"Greece"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nCorrigendum: It has been brought to Emerald's attention that the article \"Students' perceptions on environmental management of HEIs and the role of social capital: a case study in the University of the Aegean\", published in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Volume 14 Issue 3, pp. 278-290 contains an error.The name of the last author on this article was misspelt as \"Kostas Evaggelinos\". The correct spelling of the author's name is \"Konstantinos Evangelinos\".Emerald and the authors apologise for this error.To reference this article please use the below citation:Nikoleta Jones, Spiridon Roumeliotis, Theodoros Iosifides, Maria Hatziantoniou, Eleni Sfakianaki, Eleni Tsigianni, Kalliopi Thivaiou, Athina Biliraki and Konstantinos Evangelinos (2013), \"Students' perceptions on environmental management of HEIs and the role of social capital: a case study in the University of the Aegean\", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Volume 14 Issue 3, pp. 278-290.\n1 Introduction: Achieving sustainability in higher education institutions (HEIs) is a major challenge. Several studies underline the importance of social factors influencing environmental management strategies. Indicative examples are the low level of participation and environmental awareness among members of the academic community and the insufficient flow of information concerning environmental issues (Carpenter and Meehan, 2002; Ferreira et al., 2006; Sammalisto and Brorson, 2008; Spellerberg et al., 2004). In this context, the social capital of an academic community may also influence the efficiency of environmental management initiatives (Evangelinos and Jones, 2009). Social capital consists of several factors referring both to cognitive and structural elements (Putnam et al., 1993; Coleman, 1990). It is regarded as a significant parameter influencing the environmental behavior of individuals and the level of citizens' compliance and cooperation during the implementation of environmental policies (Jones et al., 2009; Pretty, 2003). Several links have been recently identified at the theoretical level concerning its connection with greening HEIs (Evangelinos and Jones, 2009). However, no empirical studies have been presented so far in the relevant literature examining these issues. The aim of the present paper is to analyze the role of social capital components on students' perceptions for greening efforts in universities, both at the theoretical and empirical level.\n2 The influence of social capital factors on the environmental management of HEIs: Social capital is regarded as one of the most influential concepts in current sociology. Regarding the components of social capital, several factors have been identified in the relevant literature with the most common being social trust, institutional trust and social networks (Putnam et al., 1993; Coleman, 1990). The links of each of these components with environmental management initiatives will be separately presented hereafter.Social networks\n3 Methods: Description of research area\n4 Results: Perceptions on environmental management of the university\n5 Discussion and conclusions: A first important finding of the study concerns the connection of the perceived efficiency of environmental management of the university with institutional trust. In particular, through the results of the survey, it emerges that students who tend to have lower levels of institutional trust also regard the environmental management of the institution as inadequate. Thus, institutional trust is highly connected with the effectiveness of environmental initiatives in the context of environmental policies (Anderson, 2006). This assumption may be explained in the research area also taking into consideration the responses of students regarding the actors or social groups which are responsible for environmental management initiatives. In particular, it is observed that the initial reaction of students is that all entities should be responsible, mainly students, the administration, the rectorate and professors. However, some interesting findings emerge through the qualitative research conducted. In particular, although cooperation of all entities is regarded as essential, the initial actions are not regarded as the responsibility of students. The rectorate is considered the main actor responsible for such initiatives along with professors and the administration due to their knowledge and experience of such issues. Consequently, top-down actions are the most important according to students even when functioning as supportive to bottom-up initiatives (Dahle and Neumayer, 2002; Price, 2005).Another important finding of the study refers to the connection of social networks with the level of awareness of environmental impacts from the functioning of the university. Several impacts were recognized by students during the semi-structured interviews however the level of knowledge remains low despite the environmental education initiatives of recent years. This level of awareness is positively correlated with participation in social networks revealing that social networks function as channels of information for relevant issues and more active students have better access to such information (Dahle and Neumayer, 2002; Marcell et al., 2004; Nicolaides, 2006; Thomas, 2004; Velazquez et al., 2005).Almost half of the sample recognizes environmental standards provided by the university and this knowledge is connected with social networks. However, when asked to specify them, relatively few examples were mentioned indicating a significant lack of knowledge. Contrary to environmental impacts, social networks are not connected with the provision of environmental standards. Thus, it may be assumed that information about these standards is not provided through social networks in the university. Through the qualitative interviews, students characterized the provision of information on environmental standards as inadequate and the main reasons for this were a lack of information, the weak activation of all entities in the academic community and a lack of initiatives.A final issue investigated through the study was the importance of activation and the willingness of students to participate in future initiatives. In general, a low level of participation is observed along with limited knowledge of specific means of participation. This result may indicate a significant obstacle for the efficiency of environmental initiatives in the particular institution (Barnes and Jerman, 2002; Ferreira et al., 2006; Moore et al., 2005; Nicolaides, 2006; Velazquez et al., 2005). Nevertheless, for future efforts in the institution it is important to note that a high percentage of students are willing to participate in environmental activities. All these issues were highly correlated with social networks indicating that students who are in general more socially proactive are also more motivated in the context of environmental initiatives and are more aware of means of participation. Thus, the importance of social networks, both as channels of information and means of increasing activation, is also highlighted. Finally, social trust was also connected to students' activation, revealing that students who tend to trust their fellow citizens are also more willing to act for the common good of the academic community.Although the above findings are important for the implementation of environmental management initiatives, further research should be conducted focusing on other entities involved in greening efforts of HEIs such as the academic staff and administration personnel. Exploring the level of social capital of all these entities may assist in capturing the influence of social capital elements in a more holistic manner and identifying additional means by which the application of environmental initiatives can be facilitated.Despite this limitation, the aim of the present study was to investigate students' perceptions and attitudes connected with the environmental management of HEIs and explore their interconnections with social capital issues. From the results of the present study, several links between social capital and students' perceptions were revealed, indicating that the specific social factors may have an important role during environmental management initiatives in HEIs. Specifically, denser social networks should be promoted in order for several benefits connected with their functioning to materialize, referring both to students and all other members of the academic community (Barnes and Jerman, 2002; Evangelinos and Jones, 2009; Marcell et al., 2004; Thomas, 2004). An increase in the density of social networks and social trust may be achieved mainly through the implementation of activities where different entities can participate and also through an increase in environmental education. Through such actions, collaboration of different entities may be facilitated along with improvements in environmental awareness. Concerning institutional trust, an increase of this social factor may result in positive perceptions of the effectiveness of greening efforts combined with an increase of participation in relevant initiatives and a higher level of acceptance of information. The increase of institutional trust may be achieved mainly through top-down initiatives in combination with the collaboration of all entities including students, administration, and academic and research staff. Consequently, through the increase of social capital components significant benefits may result facilitating the greening of HEIs and contributing to the achievement of sustainability in this context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of the present study is to contribute to the discussion introducing the concept of social capital as a significant parameter influencing students' perceptions concerning greening initiatives in HEIs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A theoretical analysis is presented concerning the possible links of social capital components with students' perceptions on environmental management initiatives. Furthermore, the results of an empirical study are presented exploring these issues from the perspective of students, both through quantitative and qualitative social research methods.\nFindings: - The empirical study reveals that students' social capital is connected with their perceptions for the environmental management of the university.\nSocial implications: - The paper underlines the importance of examining and taking into consideration social factors prior to the implementation of environmental management initiatives in HEIs, in order to increase their effectiveness.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is a first attempt to empirically explore the influence of students' social capital on their perceptions for environmental management initiatives in higher education institutions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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How does management perceive export success? An empirical study of Moroccan SMEs
|
[
"Performance",
"Performance management",
"Marketing strategy",
"Management",
"Management theory",
"Management effectiveness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many nations, particularly developing countries have acknowledged the value of SMEs which are seen as the engine of the growth of any economy.\nResearch context: SMEs are recognized as catalysts in the socio-economic development of Morocco, representing 98 percent of the enterprises. They are true vehicles for achievement of macro-economic objectives in terms of employment generation and lowering rural-urban migration, local resource utilization and poverty alleviation. Exporting continues to be an important economic activity for Morocco and has grown significantly in recent years. However, Moroccan importations have chronically surpassed exportations. Moreover, Moroccan SMEs suffer from several weaknesses both endogenous and exogenous (Rochdane and Ayegou, 2009) and their vulnerability makes their internationalization very difficult.\nTheoretical background: Literature suggests mainly two perspectives of studying a firm's export success - the industrial organization theory and the resource-based view (RBV).\nLiterature review and hypotheses: This section discusses the past works on managerial determinants of export success of SMEs and builds the hypotheses.\nExport success: As with any measure, export success measures consist of conceptual and operational definitions. The conceptual definition attempts to define export success. The operational definitions establish how export success can be measured. A conceptual definition of export success should address each of the two parts: export and success. Export is defined conceptually as the composite outcome of a firm's international sales (Shoham, 1996). This is a conceptual definition and is, therefore, inclusive of several international engagements.\nManagerial determinants: A review of literature pertaining to management characteristics and the subsequent impact upon SME internationalization was carried out by Leonidou et al. (1998). It was found that attitudinal characteristics (management export commitment, management customer orientation, management perception toward competitiveness, management perception about export advantages and barriers) and skill-based characteristics of managers (international experience, foreign language proficiency and educational background) were the most frequently cited characteristics in the literature. Therefore, the following sub-sections of this literature review will detail the importance of both managerial attitudes and managerial skill-based characteristics on the export success of SMEs.\nMethods: Data collection procedure\nResults: The collected data were analyzed using version 18 of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).\nDiscussion: In this section we highlight the study's main contributions, comment on the research insights from the findings and on their implications, and discuss the study's limitations along with suggested directions for future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the managerial determinants of the export success of Moroccan small and medium enterprises (SMEs) based on resource-based view (RBV) of a firm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The quantitative design was employed involving a questionnaire completed by 100 managers of Moroccan SMEs. Multiple regression analyses were carried out to confirm or reject eight hypotheses.\nFindings: It was found that management export commitment and management customer orientation are the main managerial factors in the export success of Moroccan SMEs.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was limited to one context, and it followed a cross-sectional approach. Export success was measured by only subjective method with Likert scale. The study suggests that further investigations can be made to incorporate other factors affecting export success.\nPractical implications: The results offer insights into the practices of Moroccan exporting SMEs and recommendations for policy makers as well as an indication for further research. The research can also be used in teaching.\nOriginality/value: First, the tested model is one of few that consider developing country contexts. Second, this research can serve as a guide for future researchers who intend to study export success in other developing countries, particularly in Maghreb regions where there is a gross dearth of research. Therefore, the study is of significant value to practitioners and scholars alike.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Becoming an ecologically sustainable organization: The importance of learning
|
[
"Workplace training",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Ecology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The growing importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the more narrowly focused ecological sustainability (ES) means that issues related to these concepts are expected to be near the top of any company agenda. Leaders do promise to develop environmentally-friendly and socially responsible behaviors. But some organizations are more responsible than others and many stand accused of merely paying lip service to such objectives. Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that commitment levels fluctuate so widely.\nWhy sustainability fails: Several reasons have been put forward for the less than spectacular impact including:* limited understanding of sustainability;* sustainability principles not being reflected in practice;* practices and processes considered as being too costly, difficult, time consuming or detached from business objectives;* conflict between ecological values and the bottom line; and* lack of support from stakeholders and/or government.Commitment obviously requires investment, which poses even more dilemmas for smaller businesses already threatened by tiny margins, unpredictable markets and global competition. No wonder many companies remain unconvinced that ES is right for them.On the other hand, embracing CSR principles has allowed other organizations to develop the capacity to respond to the demands of a wider range of stakeholder groups that include people, communities and the natural environment without jeopardizing their commitment to investors.\nLearning: a key factor: In such organizations, learning and education invariably hold the key. A company armed with the right knowledge is better equipped to develop ES practices and encourage its people to assume an ethical approach to their work. Indeed, many observers feel that learning is crucial for any business with genuine aspirations towards sustainability.But what must organizational leaders do to create the right environment for learning to occur? They can:* ensure that ES is communicated clearly and consistently throughout the company to develop awareness and understanding of purposes and benefits;* prioritize ES initiatives;* educate workers and other stakeholders about ES using methods most appropriate to them;* adopt a decentralized approach so that communication and cooperation take precedence over control;* actively involve employees and stakeholders in developing and adapting ES initiatives for implementation within routine practices;* continually focus on everyday improvisation to sustain momentum and commitment; and* encourage and value personal responsibility and genuine commitment to ES principles across the company.But perhaps the most significant ingredient in the promotion of ES is interaction. Shrewd leaders will be alert to this and will endeavor to create multiple opportunities for it to occur. Allowing interaction within paid working time further emphasizes its importance. Past research within organizational contexts has shown that valuable learning often occurs through informal channels. It's no different here. Regular, informal interaction helps to connect different levels of an organization and generate more ideas while also contributing to the development of shared purposes. Furthermore, creating many different feedback loops can obviously strengthen links both within the company and to external stakeholders.Some firms adopt a top-down mentality towards knowledge sharing. However, this can impede understanding to the extent that learning occurs only sporadically. Leaders who apply the above measures are much likelier to be rewarded with learning across all levels of the organization.\nCase studies: One facet common within businesses able to successfully embrace ES is a core ethical commitment among organizational members and other stakeholders. There is ample evidence of this at Western Equipment Co-op (WEC), a Canadian supplier of equipment for different outdoor sports. The company was founded on cooperative values and now boasts ten nationwide outlets after opening its first store in 1971.The WEC mission is to offer quality products that promote conservation and responsible use of the outdoor environment. To support these aims, leaders strive to recruit employees who are passionate about outdoor issues in the belief that such individuals will display self-motivation and commitment.Among the sustainability practices at WEC are green building programs, waste audits, a vendor and supplier code of conduct, as well as initiatives to promote local development and partnerships with community organizations.WEC boasts a sound structure to support CSR learning and commitment to action. In addition to a strong focus on connectivity, interaction and feedback both among employees and between the company and its external stakeholders, WEC also values:* Decentralization. Each store is free to develop its own CSR practices based on issues most relevant to them and their localities.* Diversity. The company aims to recruit staff from diverse backgrounds and experience in different outdoor activities.Does size matter? Not to Awards International (AWI), it seems. The Vancouver-based manufacturer of trophies may employ only eight full-time staff but it can still boast success where ES is concerned, possibly shaming much larger organizations into the bargain.Production at AWI relies heavily on recycled materials and the company has also slashed the amount of water consumed in the manufacturing process by 75 percent. Other energy saving measures are in the pipeline. AWI leaders believe that business has social responsibilities and the company does its good citizen bit within the deprived community where it is based. Commitment to employing local residents as a percentage of the workforce is supported by staff involvement in various neighborhood associations and community initiatives.Being devoted to education and learning is a common thread between these and other companies similarly committed to ES principles. Some analysts use the term \"emergence\" to describe this capacity for ES. Learning is an essential pre-requisite of emergence, as leaders at WEC and AWI clearly appreciate since it is an integral part of normal practices and routines. Essentially, emergence is the sum total of the decentralization, interaction, flexibility, self organization, diversity, renewal and creative improvisation that can lead to unforeseen opportunities that may nevertheless prove highly beneficial.\nComment: The review is based upon: \"Developing organizational practices of ecological sustainability: a learning perspective\" by Tara Fenwick. The author discusses how organizations implement CSR and ecological sustainability initiatives and practices. She points out some of the barriers that impede the adoption of ecological sustainability but claims that business leaders can use learning and education to help overcome these obstacles. Measures to create a learning environment are suggested and the author illustrates the points made with reference to examples of small companies successful in their development of sustainability practices. Several important strategic implications are contained within this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - Growing importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the more narrowly focused ecological sustainability (ES) means that issues related to these concepts are expected to be near the top of any company agenda. Leaders do promise to develop environmentally-friendly and socially responsible behaviors. But some organizations are more responsible than others and many stand accused of merely paying lip service to such objectives. Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that commitment levels fluctuate so widely.\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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Life and death of leadership decisions: Learning from experience can be a matter of training
|
[
"Management development",
"Leadership",
"Experiential learning",
"Organizational culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nHealth chiefs reflect as the pressures mount: If you are the leader of your organization you are expected to make big decisions. Big decisions about strategic planning, finance, staffing, long-term goals, succession planning - the list could be almost endless.What you might not be expected to make decisions about is the detail - the stuff that could and should be left to others. Hiccups in the system, perhaps, which, important as they are, could and should be sorted out by those lower down the ladder.This assumption does, however, depend on what those \"hiccups\" are. If you are making thousands of automobiles and one of them has a transmission which won't let you change gear, or even a steering wheel which comes off in your hands, it's not exactly time to restructure the whole business. It's a fault. Shouldn't have happened, but set against the perfection that is the norm, it's something that can be managed without involving the organization's top leader in crisis talks.But what if it's not cars you are making? What if your business is trying to cure people from sickness and disease, mend their broken bones, improve their quality of life. That's the business chief executives of the British National Health Service's various regional Trusts are involved in and, while they may not be part of the medical and surgical teams, or even have any medical qualifications themselves, it is they who carry the can when things go wrong.Those chief executives have the unenviable job of trying to make sure people who need treatment get it, that the hospitals and clinics don't spend more than they're supposed to and that they have the final say when eminent doctors and surgeons disagree with their edicts. And whether they get it right or wrong, there are bound to be some people who feel disgruntled and provide good copy for newspapers and good ammunition for the politicians who all like to feel what Margaret Thatcher once claimed of her government, that the National Health Service is \"safe in our hands.\"\nExpectations which exceed capacity: She wasn't the first politician to use the health of the health service as an electioneering weapon. Opponents to UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, recently used the plight of a 69-year-old woman whose shoulder operation had been repeatedly cancelled as a way of demonstrating the Government's incompetency in health care.The biggest problem to constantly plague the NHS was foreseen when it was set up half a century ago - expectations would always exceed capacity. And when they do, it is the NHS chief executives who feel the pressure.With burdens like that, it's no wonder the NHS thought a leadership program for these rather special leaders would be a good thing. Like all worthy \"management training courses,\" telling highly skilled, intelligent administrators how to do their jobs better needs extremely careful planning, and tailoring to the particular requirements of and problems facing the recipients of this help.Frank Blackler and Andy Kennedy emphasize the positive effects of reflection in the action learning program which was devised for these leaders. (Pause here for all busy leaders reading this to comment \"That's fine, but how on earth do you find the time to reflect on what you're doing? If we had time to reflect maybe we'd have time to do the job better and wouldn't need these fancy leadership programs).Having allowed, and sympathized with, that view it's worth noting that these savvy chief executives were, by and large, offered something positive to help them in the \"heads you win, tails I lose\" frustration of their jobs.\nThe job is dealing with these problems: Blackler and Kennedy say: \"Reflection on the emotional aspects of the learning ... were instructive. As participants focused on the tensions that are an inevitable part of their work, it appeared to us that they moved away from an attitude, seemingly common at the start of the program, that their jobs would be fine if only the everyday dilemmas and problems they face could be overcome, towards a recognition that their job is dealing with these problems and dilemmas which may never truly be resolved.\"Leaders in such challenging, high-profile roles who have to make decisions which can literally involve life or death outcomes are very experienced. In common with leaders in other organizations, they've faced situations from which they have learned lessons. Their experiences have grown, their abilities to do the job have been honed, they've earned their stripes, they've faced seemingly impossible situations, but dealt with them and are better leaders for it.But are they? It may be assumed, but it's certainly not true, that everyone learns from their experiences, or learns from their mistakes. Different people learn different things, and not all of them learn the right things. That's why it's important that leadership development through experience shouldn't be considered (as it often has been, and still is in many professions) as self-fulfilling - a matter of \"get on with it, learn on the job and you'll eventually be experienced enough to do it better.\"How do you know that the leaders and potential leaders are being exposed to the appropriate experience from which they will benefit? The culture of too many organizations is that all that stuff comes from \"training\" - as distinct from learning - and the sooner they realize that training is just a part of the learning process, the more open they will be to the vital role that experience plays in the leadership development process.It has its risks, but playing it safe may turn out to be the more risky option. For instance, it's only natural when a difficult situation arises for the most experienced person to be made responsible for dealing with it. It's probably the quickest and safest option. That outlook, however, prevents someone else having, and learning from, the experience of sorting it out. Multiply that by time and people and you might end up having only a limited number of people able to deal with certain situations - and maybe they're ready for retirement or moving on.\nMaking sense of it all: The importance of reflection in the learning processes which is pinpointed in the health service chiefs' training, is also evident in Morgan W. McCall Jr's view that:... training can play a significant part of learning when:1. it is used as an opportunity to reflect on and make better sense of actual experience;2. it substitutes for experiences that are either unavailable to enough people or are too risky or expensive to use for development; and3. it provides experiences that are not available online, such as scenarios for future states of the organization or a forum for direct exposure to senior executives.\"A challenge for those charged with developing leaders is seeking to make sure that the people who can best learn from experiences are given those experiences. Before you can do that, of course, a measure of how these people respond to the experiences they are given has to be developed. And a timescale must also be recognized. It's all very well to agree that learning from experiences is the best way of developing leaders; quite another to be prepared to wait for the time it takes. (Bad news here for the older people in the organization who, it might be felt, won't be around long enough to benefit from development by experience).\nCharacteristics of good leader-builder companies: Good advice for organizations that want to be good at developing leaders is to take a look at those that already seem good at it. Douglas A. Ready condenses the skills of companies that have demonstrated that they are great leader-builders into four characteristics:1. they articulate leadership development as a top-level strategic priority;2. they build outstanding HR functions that create powerful infrastructures for leadership development3. they reward and support next-generation leaders in multiple ways; and4. they create an organizational culture that facilitates the development of leaders.\nComment: This review is based upon \"The characteristics of great leader-builder companies\" by Douglas A. Ready, \"Leadership development through experience\" by Morgan W. McCall Jr, and \"The design and evaluation of a leadership program for experienced chief executives from the public sector\" by Frank Blackler and Andy Kennedy.Douglas A. Ready examines the leadership development practices of large global companies, identifying four common characteristics shared by companies with a strong pipeline of leaders. He uses Canadian company RBC Financial Group as an illustrative example.Morgan W. McCall Jr observes that learning from experience is not automatic and that individuals may take away only incomplete learning or, even worse, the wrong lessons altogether. He says a much better experience of understanding of the learning process is required in order to make better use of experience.Frank Blackler and Andy Kennedy discuss the design and evaluation of a leadership competency-based program for chief executives from the UK National Health Service, and highlight how the program, based on active theory, was aimed at renewing and refreshing long-term chief executives.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To focus on current thinking about how best to develop organizations' leaders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - High-powered, highly experienced executives can be enthused by learning programs if those programs are appropriately designed, particularly if they allow and encourage reflection on aspects of their own leadership in the context of the challenges they face. Further, when developing new leaders within an organization, time and opportunity should be given to exposing them to experiences from which they can learn, and the right balance sought between training and experiential learning.\nOriginality/value: - Raising the awareness of different approaches to development and learning within an organization, understanding the differences between training and experiential approaches, and encouraging organizations to begin the development process early in their employees' careers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Regions facing their futures
|
[
"Regional development",
"Demographics",
"Governance",
"Strategic planning",
"France"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The development of any region or territory is primarily the result of its own territorial dynamics. It is the multitude of local initiatives and their cross-fertilization, which in turn stimulate economic activity and job creation. External restrictions, technological change and globalization are not so much obstacles to overcome as opportunities to seize. This conviction stems from the following observations.\n1. Back to the future: Let us start with the term prospective[2]. Future studies or foresight as it is usually translated involves anticipation (pre- or pro-active) to clarify present actions in light of possible and desirable futures. Preparing for foreseeable changes does not prevent one from provoking desired changes. The Greek triangle can help us if we visualize the three points: Anticipation (blue); Action (green), Appropriation (yellow). The blue of anticipation turns to the green of action only with the yellow of appropriation introduced through the efforts of the actors involved. Here we must point out two symmetrical errors to avoid in looking at the future collectively. First, there is the risk of one self-appointed king's taking action while forgetting appropriation. Second is the risk of chasing away the experts, thus the blue of expertise us exchanged so that the people can take the floor and gather the consensus of the present moment; i.e. the yellow of appropriation without cognitive appreciation. In this case any participatory version sputters out and merely revolves around the here and now. The mirage of consensus popular with today's generation often proves to be a momentary agreement to keep a solid status quo that will be passed on to future generations as the burden of our collective irresponsibility. It may well be participatory, but this type of exercise contradicts the very definition of sustainable development for it allows individual egos to triumph over long-term collective concerns. The courageous decisions for the future are rarely consensual, and if a participatory exercise, the resulting strategy will be that of the elected representatives. They must, however, demonstrate the will and courage necessary to avoid the trap of participatory demagogy.Back to basics\n2. Regional governance and its overly soft interpretations: Another concept commonly evoked in regional exercises is governance. The Commission in Brussels has produced a white paper listing the principles of good governance applicable to all levels of government. They include the following:*openness/transparency of institutions;*greater participation on the part of citizens at every stand of the political decision-making process;*greater respect of the institutions and member-states;*effectiveness of policies defined by clear, quantifiable goals; and*coherence of policies.Let us not, however, allow the characteristics of good governance to cloud the very definition of governance adopted by such international organizations as the IMF, OECD and UN. Their definition relies on the control of power and the rules of the game. If we forget the meaning of governance, we risk spreading a soft definition reduced to a process, or social governance, which, according to Ascher (1995) \"articulates and associates political institutions, social actors and private organisations in the process of creating and implementing collective choices capable of provoking the active adherence of citizens.\" whether we like it or not, the popular concept of governance traces its origins to the business corporation and from this viewpoint, the shareholder remains better treated than the citizen.Peter Drucker (1946) reminds us that the concept in English, corporate governance, consists of setting up and respecting the rules which guide and limit the conduct of those who act in the name of the corporation. In other words, good governance is the set of conditions or mechanisms designed to ensure that the actions of the corporation's officers conform fully to the will of its stockholders and their interests. Governance thus differs from management, which designates the relationships between administrators and their subordinates. As such, it becomes the \"government of government\". Already in the 1991 Club of Rome report, another relevant definition was proposed by Alexander King and subsequently adapted by Rosenau (1997): Governance could be glossed as any actor who uses order mechanisms to express demand, formulate objectives, disseminate directives and ensure that policies are followed.Transposed to politics, governance is often, and often incorrectly, misunderstood as governability (in society) that is, the capacity of governments to chart the course of socio-economic systems and their development as desired. Along similar lines, governance is neither the \"art of governing\" nor the art of directing the process of government action, as Valaskakis (1998) claims. The following simple definitions should suffice here: governance is a power relationship; government is an operational exercise of this power, and governability is the measurement or extent of this power on the systems involved. In practice, a poorly monitored or controlled system is inefficient. In fact, the future scenario planning council of the Ile de France in Louis Guieysse (2000) report showed in its report entitled simply \"Living in Ile de France in 2025\" that \"the lack of a decision-oriented atttitude among those in charge [...] the lack of communication, of transparency, make citizens wary of political and administrative institutions.\" The quality of governance, in other words, the rules and procedures enabling elected officials and civil servants to \"govern the government\" is a \"key element in resolving the crisis of governability\".In terms of the State, the poor monitoring that exists between parliament and government is a major cause contributing to the inefficient and expensive action of public authorities. Good governance should help reinforce the evaluation of public policies by independent instance of the departments concerned.The concept of governance is increasingly evoked in international agencies as a replacement term for what was previously known as \"international regulation\", considered lacking now as we see growing interdependency through economic globalization and the very global nature of environmental problems, natural resources, as well as health and security. Of course, there is no global government nor global people so the term global governance is a major misnomer.\n3. Too many scenarios and not enough endogenous projects: One last aspect of regional planning that must be mentioned here is the systematic use and abuse of future scenarios. Rather than learning from the past and analyzing regions comparatively in order to design developmental projects, many forget that foresight and scenario are not synonyms. Actually, scenarios hold little interest if not pertinent, coherent, and realistic for the region and its population. Here we remember one of our own rules: ask the right questions. Granted, drafting desirable scenarios as a group may serve a therapeutic purpose; however, in this case the resulting scenarios are less important than the collective effort. Once a group has decided to consider the future together, it might as well ask the right question(s). It might as well begin with those that do not generate a consensus, too. Why? These are precisely the questions that upset the usual order of things or shake people out of their usual thinking patterns.Although linked, the planning and scenario-building processes remain distinct concepts:*Anticipation - i.e. the prospective of possible or desirable changes.*Time for preparation for action - i.e. creation and evaluation of strategic choices available to prepare for expected changes (preactivity) and to provoke desirable changes (proactivity).Furthermore, scenarios should not be confused with strategic options because the same internal or insider actors are not necessarily those on the front lines. The anticipation phase should be collective and should involve the greatest number of people possible for this is participatory democracy at work. Indeed, this phase employs tools to organize and structure the collective thinking process on what is at stake in the future as well as the eventual evaluation of strategic options. On the other hand, for reasons of confidentiality or liability, the phase of strategic choices should involved a limited number of participants, e.g. the elected representatives only or a company's board of directors. This final phase requires less scientific methodology and decisions should be made after roundtable discussions and consensus gathering among the leading participants or those in charge. The tools employed here may be useful in choosing strategic options, but the emphasis remains on freedom of choice.The use of scenarios becomes all the more an abuse of scenarios when the scripts deal with the future context of a region with the question (Q1) What can happen?: This natural query leads regions, like companies, to reinvent the wheel and world and in so doing people forget to ask the essential pre-question (Q0) for any project Who are we? This implies identity, history, strengths and weaknesses[4]. Overall, we tend to forget what Socrates taught us: Know thyself, thyself. That pre-question underlies all else and necessitates a return to one's origins, roots or competencies, with the lessons of the regions' past failures or successes.Future planning or scenario planning focuses on what can happen. This is the first question and it becomes strategic as soon as the organization or region asks what can I do? (Q2) Once both questions have been answered, the strategic component of Q2 leads naturally to what am I going to do? (Q3) and How? (Q4) this is the overlap of strategy and prospective or scenario planning.In both regional and corporate applications, the prequestion suggesting self-knowledge, history, and desires for the future tends to be forgotten. Ironically, this question remains essential if we consider that the factors of development are endogenous and if we wish to focus on Q1; i.e. reflect on contextual scenarios. This type of reflection does have its uses but it has it limits because the future is unpredictable and remains to be built or created. All regions will face the same restrictions and opportunities. The true difference between any two regions lies in the capacity of certain regions to accentuate their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. This implies self-reliance. Self-reliance is the singularly most effective behaviour and also the one within most regional actors' reach.Diagnosis and a plan are not sufficient for a region or corporation to take action. Why? We return to Q4, or How?, which must be answered through appropriation. Only through the correct use of participatory exercises and events upstream, to use a marketing term, can any foresight or strategic prospective endeavor actually function.We end on a happy note. The future of our regions is open. Moreover, it depends less on trends or uncertainty about the future than on the ability of the actors to unite in collective efforts and build what we wishfully call \"a society of projects\".\nAppendix. The seven priorities of regions 2030: In September 2003, the newly inaugurated Conseil de prospective et dynamique des territoires (Council for Regional Foresight and Dynamics), headed by Michel Godet, began a futures exercise on the needs of the State and regions with 2030 as a horizon line.The horizon 2030 was indicated by the research suggesting changes brought about by heavy trends and major uncertainties with a scale of one generation.Prospective and foresight process as a vector in regional dynamics\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to treat contemporary economic development from a regional and European perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article applies a French prospective (foresight) approach to the issues of employment, decentralization, and privatization as an antidote to the usual discussions of governance and globalization.\nFindings: - The article stresses the need for simple, appropriable methods and questions designed to help groups start futures exercises. It contrasts key concepts such as corporation and region, governance and its popular definitions to show how collective futures exercises are a vector in regional development and a form of participatory democracy. The focus is on the human factor, i.e. local initiatives, which improve regional dynamics and create strong ties. An appendix outlines current French priorities.\nOriginality/value: - The article appeals to local \"actors\" to look toward the future together in a participatory, proactive process within regional and broader European frameworks.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Exploitation or exploration in service business development? Insights from a dynamic capabilities perspective
|
[
"Service levels",
"Corporate strategy",
"Business development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Stagnating markets, growing commoditization and increasingly demanding customer needs are challenging capital goods manufacturers to re-assess their business logic (Davies, 2004; Neu and Brown, 2008; Matthyssens and Vandenbempt, 2008). A product-oriented business logic, that is to design, make and sell capital goods and then consider services as add-ons, is getting obsolete. Meanwhile, companies are starting to adopt a service-oriented business logic, which aims to have strong contribution from services to corporate profit, revenue and customer satisfaction (Oliva and Kallenberg, 2003; Brown et al., 2009). Moving from a product-oriented to a service-oriented logic forms part of service business development, known in the literature as servitization, transition from products to services, moving towards high-value solutions or service infusion (Vandermerwe and Rada, 1988; Oliva and Kallenberg, 2003; Davies, 2004).The literature has traditionally focused on operational capabilities for the service business, including service-orientation in corporate culture (Bowen et al., 1989), human resource management (Homburg et al., 2003; Neu and Brown, 2005), organizational structure (Gebauer, et al., 2009, Oliva and Kallenberg, 2003), service development (Martin and Horne, 1992), IT infrastructure (Matthyssens and Vandenbempt, 1998) and measurement and reward systems (Neu and Brown, 2005). However, these contributions fail to describe the dynamic capabilities necessary to answer the question on how capital goods manufacturers change their operational routines to develop a service business (Cepeda and Vera, 2007). More specifically, existing research mainly neglects the following three capabilities:1. sensing service opportunities and threats;2. seizing service opportunities; and3. maintaining service competitiveness through enhancing, combining, protecting, and when necessary, reconfiguring the intangible and tangible assets of the services for capital goods companies to adopt a service-oriented business model.Developing such dynamic capabilities is far from easy (O'Reilly and Tushman, 2008; Teece, 2007; Winter, 2003). Capital goods manufacturers still have narrow search horizons when it comes to scan, search and explore service opportunities. They seem to have become the prisoners of the deeply ingrained assumption that service business development emphasizes the provision of basic services such as spare parts, repair, inspection and maintenance for the installed base. This \"straightjacket\" is evident in the figures reported by Swiss and German associations of capital goods industries. The majority of companies create only a limited percentage of their total revenue through services (72 percent creating less than 20 percent and around 39 percent creating even less than 10 percent). Only 3 percent of the companies achieve more than 40 percent of their total revenue through services (Dilk et al., 2008). Similar figures are reported by Gebauer and Fleisch (2007), Homburg et al. (2002) and Meiren (2006). Furthermore, around 95 percent of the service revenues can be attributed to spare parts, repair, maintenance and training services, while only the remaining 5 percent to innovative new services (VDMA, 2005).At the company level, take the Comau Incorporation as an example. It faces difficulties in seizing the service opportunities. Its business model on supporting customers from product engineering via production systems to maintenance services has led to an increase in the share of service revenue from 14 to 19 percent between 2005 and 2008, but the decline in corporate revenue of about 29 percent in the same period indicates that Comau's structures, processes and incentives for seizing the business model are not without debate. In the case of ThyssenKrupp, it sensed and seized the opportunity of moving into the service business by establishing ThyssenKrupp Services as a separate business division. Despite being highly profitable, ThyssenKrupp Services has decided to sell the industrial service business. It failed to enhance and reconfigure the service business for a better integration with the other business units. Similarly, Durr, manufacturer of paint and assembly systems for the automotive industry, sensed the need for outsourcing services in the automobile industry. But it met great difficulties when it tried to offer outsourcing services by taking over the customer's painting and assembly process and to reconfigure its business model. The changes were too challenging and finally led to the decision to sell the service unit.These are, of course, only anecdotal evidences. However, we believe that success in service business development depends not only on operational capabilities but also on dynamic capabilities, which underpin the operational capabilities. The goal of this study is to analyze the dynamic capabilities necessary to develop the service business. More specifically, this study has four primary objectives. First, we explore the sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities in search of common themes underlying service business development. Second, we seek to provide an in-depth description of specific capabilities contributing directly to or creating unanticipated side effects for service business development. Third, articles on service business development have not emphasized challenges when it comes to dynamic capabilities. In line with this reasoning, we aim to explore what additional problems might occur when capital goods manufacturers undergo the fundamental change in their organization necessary to develop a service business. Finally, we aim to develop testable propositions related to the issues under investigation.\nDynamic capability perspective on service business development: The background to the study lies partly in the strategic management literature focusing on dynamic capabilities and the literature on services in manufacturing companies. This section begins with an overview on dynamic capabilities. It then focuses on the disaggregation of dynamic capabilities in the context of service business development and the integration of service management literature into the disaggregation.Achieving competitive advantages requires the formation of core capabilities (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). As environmental conditions change, core capabilities can become irrelevant or can create rigidities and inhibit the formation of other capabilities (Leonard-Barton, 1992). In such conditions, firms create a competency trap for themselves, becoming ever better at an ever less relevant set of processes (Tallman, 2003; Teece et al., 1997). To avoid the competency trap, besides pure operational capabilities that enable a company to earn a living at present (Winter, 2003), companies also need dynamic capabilities (Teece, 2007). Dynamic capabilities encapsulate the evolutionary nature of resources and capabilities, which complements the static perspective of the resource-based view of the firm (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000; Helfat, 1997; Teece et al., 1997; Zahra and George, 2002). Helfat et al. (2007) define a dynamic capability as the capacity of an organization to purposefully create, extend, or modify the tangible, intangible, and human assets/resources as well as capabilities, which the company owns, controls, or has access to on a preferential basis.Teece (2007) divides dynamic capabilities into three classes:1. sensing capabilities to sense and shape opportunities and threats;2. seizing capabilities to seize opportunities; and3. reconfiguration capabilities to maintain competitiveness through enhancing, combining, protecting, and, when necessary, reconfiguring the business enterprise's intangible and tangible assets.In other words, dynamic capabilities include the capacity to identify the need or opportunity for change, formulate a response to such a need or opportunity, and implement a course of action (Helfat et al., 2007). Examples of dynamic capabilities include cross-functional R&D teams, new product development routines, alliance and acquisition capabilities, resource allocation routines, quality control routines, technology transfer and/or knowledge transfer routines, and performance measurement systems used to build, integrate, or reconfigure other resources and capabilities (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000; Teece, 2007).Dynamic capabilities have been little used in the context of service business development. In the next section, we try to link existing research with sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities.Sensing and identifying the need for change towards a service-oriented business\nResearch methodology: Since dynamic capabilities are difficult to imitate, their complex nature makes it also hard to identify them for research purposes. Thus, the study relied on an interpretative multiple-case study approach across a range of capital goods industries with different firm sizes and in two countries (Switzerland and Germany) (Table I). Analyzing different industries, firm sizes and countries is especially important since these are subject to different environmental demands that may affect the way that firms approach the development of the service business. The research activities were conducted between 2000 and 2008. Table I illustrates the time frame for each case study. As service business development is a long-term organizational change, the time frame covers various years.The study is based on inductive data inquiry in 13 companies. We selected these companies because they have a substantial history of providing capital goods and services. All companies were known to have high-performing business service initiatives. Senior-level managers served as key informants for each case study and supported us in conducting site visits and interviewing key executives. A site visit protocol consisting of the description of data collection procedures and interview guides was developed to guide our research (Yin, 1994). In each company, we interviewed between three and six informants from functions such as product sales, service sales, product management, logistics, controlling and human resources. The informants were asked to give a detailed account of their experiences in attempting the service business development. The subjects provided illustrations of dynamic capabilities.The interviews were semi-structured. Consistent with the narrative approach (Miles and Huberman, 1994), follow-up questions were used to explore capabilities driving service business development, as well as common themes around dynamic capabilities (sensing, seizing and reconfiguring). At the end of each interview, informants were asked for further comments on the service business development. Additional insights into dynamic capabilities therefore emerged inductively from the fieldwork. The interviews and follow-up questions for future interviews were recorded on the visiting protocol (Miles and Huberman, 1994). These detailed written accounts were also developed to integrate findings across different informants. Each key informant reviewed the corresponding case study. By allowing informants to review their case studies on service business development, we were able to eliminate some of the bias associated with retrospective interviews.To assure validity of data analysis, manual and computer-aided content analyses were used, based on QSR NUD*IST (NVivo 7.0(c)) procedure (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). The analysis started with a within-case analysis of each company. The idea was to become familiar with each case as a stand-alone entity. In addition, we assumed that this procedure would help us become familiar with each case that, in turn, accelerates the cross-case comparison. The within-case study analysis allowed the dynamic capabilities to emerge before we transferred findings during the cross-case analysis (Eisenhardt, 1989).Closely coupled with the within-case analysis is the cross-case analysis. During the cross-case analysis, we looked for similarities and differences in the role of dynamic capabilities. By applying the within- and cross-case analysis, we do not primarily take a grounded theory approach (Drumwright, 1994; Gilly and Wolfinbarger, 1998), but rather develop primary organizing themes with supporting propositions around the dynamic capabilities. In other words, since our study was guided by the disaggregation of the dynamic capabilities, we allowed specific sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities to emerge inductively from the fieldwork. As they did, we turned to the research outlined in the Dynamic capability perspective on service business development: a literature review to help to conceptually define the dynamic capabilities and develop our understanding of how they are interrelated with service business development.\nService business development in capital goods companies: The discussion of the results begins with a distinction between two approaches for service business development. The section then focuses on each approach, describing the phases which characterize the approaches.Exploitation or exploration: two distinct approaches for service business development\nConclusion: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to explore how dynamic capabilities of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring shape the way in which service business is developed in a broad range of capital goods industries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper takes an interpretative multiple-case study approach. It seeks to develop primary organizing themes around the key dynamic capabilities and support them with research propositions.\nFindings: - The findings suggest that companies either exploit or explore the opportunities when it comes to service business development. Moreover, dynamic capabilities differ between the two approaches and predict which way a company chooses.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Research limitations are mainly due to the nature of qualitative research. The dynamic capabilities identified here are by no means exhaustive; rather, they indicate directions for future research.\nPractical implications: - The research findings provide guidance to managers as to how the strategic shift towards services is influenced by dynamic capabilities.\nOriginality/value: - Despite difficulties associated with service business development, the literature remains relatively silent on dynamic capabilities. However, dynamic capabilities are essential to the strategic shift towards service business.\n",
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The New Entrepreneur Scholarships: self-employment as a means to tackle social deprivation
|
[
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Business formation",
"Self employed workers",
"Disadvantaged groups"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The New Entrepreneur Scholarships (NES) is a programme funded by the UK government that aims to enable people from disadvantaged areas to become self-employed. This paper is designed to give an overview of the development of the NES, from its initial concept within the Treasury, the working out of that concept by independent experts in the field, through to an assessment of the effectiveness of the current programme. The programme is particularly interesting in that it has been designed and delivered by \"not for profit\" sector experts. It is a practical skills programme which, at present, does not provide a paper qualification. Research suggests it provides highly practical benefits and that the programme has been highly effective in achieving its targets.\nBarriers to self-employment in deprived areas: Social deprivation in the UK has proved a hard problem to solve. In the most deprived areas, benefits dependency is high due to the difficulty in attracting employment into lower skill, higher crime areas. Mobility is often low, not allowing residents of these areas to obtain work elsewhere. Self-employment is sometimes seen as a route out of social exclusion for people in these areas, as it gives them the opportunity to utilise their specific talents without needing a particular educational or social background. However, here too the evidence is not encouraging, with available statistics (based on VAT registrations), suggesting that business start-ups in deprived areas run at around one third of the national average. Reasons for the low level of enterprise in deprived areas are not hard to find.Business skills\nConception and development of the NES: The conception of the NES occurred in a fact-finding visit to the USA by the then Treasury Minister Stephen Timms. There he observed integrated programmes where business colleges worked with enterprise agencies to provide training and enterprise schemes helping the disadvantaged into employment. Bringing the ideas back into a British context, the Department for Educations and Skills (DfES) was tasked to work with national organisations to develop such a scheme for the nine English regions.The organisations approached by the DfES were:* the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (the industry body for more than 100 local agencies dedicated to helping people start and grow their small businesses);* the Association of Business Schools (the representative body of more than 100 Business Schools throughout the UK); and* the Prince's Trust (a charity with years of experience in helping young people in deprived areas into self-employment through a combination of grants and mentoring programmes).These three organisations pooled their considerable experience to work with the DfES to develop a programme which would tackle the barriers to self-employment for people from deprived areas. It was not easy to obtain a solution which fulfilled the needs based on the experience of the partners but which also met the requirements of the DfES. A particular difficulty was the encouragement of a programme of activity that crossed government functional responsibilities; a problem that has reoccurred during the programme's development. The partners knew that any successful programme would have to include elements which covered education and training as well and business support and funding. The programme would have to be a model of \"joined-up government\", and it is to the credit of all those responsible at the time that the scheme was born in such an integrated manner.Scheme format\nResearch and evaluation: The NES programme has been subject to several pieces of research both in an effort by government to evaluate the benefits of the programme but also due to efforts of the programme partners themselves to identify strengths and weaknesses in their delivery.The first piece of work was undertaken on behalf of the Learning and Skills Council by ASC Consulting in 2003 and was an evaluation of the pilot year of the New Entrepreneur Scholarships. The objective was to assess whether the programme should be rolled out on a larger scale or wound up. The in-depth assessment of the programme identified that some 71 per cent of scholars going through the programme had either started, or had firm intentions to start, their own businesses. Of these businesses, 68 per cent were established within the 15 per cent most deprived wards in the country, bringing direct benefits to these areas in terms of wealth and employment creation. The evaluation also highlighted the good record of the programme in improving business skills across a wide range of relevant business experience. The evaluation found that even under the most stringent criteria for the cost of new business start-ups, the NES programme soon covered its costs when benefit savings and tax income from created businesses were taken into account. As a result the evaluation recommended roll-out of the programme at the rate of 2,000 to 3,000 places per year, a level that has not actually been achieved in practice due to subsequent funding constraints.A further piece of research by the University of Westminster built on the research work done by ASC, together with other information from NES internal records. This research focused on self-employment as a mechanism for combating social exclusion and also attempted to place the NES data within a wider context. The research profiled NES Scholars, finding that the gender split was 60:40 male to female, that 78 per cent were aged between 25 and 49, and 75 per cent were white. A total of 61 per cent were unwaged when starting the programme, 15 per cent were single parents, and 8 per cent had at least one form of disability.In the area of skills development, the Westminster research showed significant improvements in the skills of scholars, particularly in the areas of financial management, business legislation and marketing. The analysis also showed significant improvements in the economic activity status of the scholars, with nearly two-thirds improving their status after undertaking the programme.More recently a major piece of research conducted by Manchester Metropolitan University has commenced. Known as \"The Big NES Survey\", it is designed as an ongoing project and aims to research the following issues over time:* What sort of backgrounds do NES participants have (e.g. in relation to age, gender, educational level, work experience, etc.)?* Why are NES participants motivated to start a business?* What resources do NES participants have to start and sustain their businesses (in particular, education and training, economic resources, social networks, and family support)?* What barriers do NES participants face in starting and sustaining their businesses, and how could government policy help (in particular in relation to welfare support and childcare support)?* What are the outcomes for NES participants to date (particularly in terms of business survival, movements into education, training or employment, starting another business, and making a living wage)?MMUs initial research has succeeded in contacting 23 per cent of all scholars who had been on the NES programme since its inception and demonstrated that of those who had completed the programme, 91 per cent had either established their own businesses or were actively engaged in doing so. This is a startlingly good result, and one which confirmed the effectiveness of the programme in its primary objective of enabling people from deprived areas to start their own businesses. The other major finding of the initial work is that 87 per cent of scholars felt that the NES programme should offer a qualification to candidates who successfully completed the programme.\nCase studies: The research statistics give a very positive picture of the NES programme but for those who are involved in its delivery the real proof is the transformed lives of people who have been through the programme and the effect they have on those around them. The following case studies have been selected as being typical of the experiences of the many hundreds who have gone on to create businesses from the NES.Harriet Bedford - Silver12 - South West\nWider benefits of the NES programme: In its initial conception the NES programme had wider objectives than simply the delivery of skills training and business start-up support to people from deprived areas. The programme was keen to use successful scholars from the programme as exemplars and ambassadors for the programme and for enterprise in deprived areas generally. The thinking was that those who had successfully established enterprises through NES could be used to spread the word about self-employment as a route out of social deprivation and could provide the role models that were required in those areas. This was to be achieved by generating local publicity around the successes of scholars and by using scholars to promote NES to community groups and other sources of potential entrepreneurs.In practice these objectives have only been partially met. While there is a core of NES scholars who are happy to act as ambassadors, they are not used in a particularly systematic way and the resources have not been available to promote their success through local media. Many NES regions try to keep in contact with past scholars through networking events, but in practice once the core course has been completed it is inevitable that there will be a weakening of the links, although there is evidence that the scholars themselves often keep in touch with each other for longer.Ambassadors have, however, been used in a recent project which formed part of the Treasury's US-UK Transatlantic Enterprise Partnership. In the summer of 2004, 20 ambassadors were selected to attend an intensive two-week programme in entrepreneurship at Babson College in Massachusetts. The ambassadors were selected to be those who, due to the nature of their businesses, could gain most from being exposed to the American way of doing business. All those who went on the trip found the experience very invigorating personally and for their businesses. The teaching they obtained was very case-study based and during the fortnight they were regularly meeting and being taught by entrepreneurs who had established multi million dollar businesses. Good publicity was obtained nationally and locally around their visit, and the scholars were also invited to the Treasury to share their experiences with policymakers. This programme is to be repeated in 2005.\nChallenges identified in the NES programme: While the NES programme does what it was designed to do extremely effectively, it is possible to identify some challenges. A key difficulty is the NES programme's very practicality. The programme has been designed to overcome a set of barriers to self-employment. Responding to these needs has required an integrated and flexible approach, combining skills development and business support expertise and allowing flexibility at local level to respond to local needs and individual group requirements. This very integration and flexibility brings with it some problems in the areas of funding and qualifications in particular.In the area of funding it has been difficult to maintain the commitment of government agencies that understandably see the programme as being on the edge of their area of responsibility because of the range of activities it embraces. NES has historically sat with the Learning and Skills Council because of the importance of the skills development elements within it. However, policymakers with a mainly skills and qualifications agenda find it difficult to justify internally their expenditure on the business support, mentoring and ambassador elements of the programme. This has resulted in severe pressure on the resources available to the programme and in particular on the funding which is available to entrepreneurs to help them establish their businesses, which has been reduced from PS3,500 to PS1,500 over the past three years. Additional resources have recently been announced from the Treasury in a sign that the government is coming to terms with the need to \"join up\" their thinking on cross-functional schemes such as the NES.Another difficulty that NES has is the fact that it is presently running a course for which there is no qualification. It is common ground among scholars that they would like to see some form of business qualification for their efforts which would give them a tangible benefit from the programme, particularly if they did not move forward into self-employment. The flexibility of the course and its varying methods of delivery from region to region, while good for imparting the skills individuals need to create businesses, makes it difficult to identify core curriculum and standards of attainment necessary to justify the award of a qualification, again a difficulty for the Learning and Skills Council when considering funding. In reality, a number of qualifications have been piloted, although the actual take-up is quite low. It is evident that when scholars make choices between developing their businesses or seeking a qualification they tend in practice to opt for the former.As mentioned earlier, a further weakness is the lack of consistent impact on the areas in which the scholars live. There simply are not the funds available to use ambassadors as role models locally by raising their profile and allowing them to communicate effectively with their peers. While large numbers of individuals are successfully setting up businesses and thereby benefiting their local communities, no consistent campaigns have been run to spread the news of their success to encourage their peers within their communities into self-employment.\nConclusion: successes and possibilities of the NES programme: The most obvious success of the NES programme is that it achieves what it set out to achieve, in that it is very effective in helping people who would otherwise not overcome the barriers to setting up businesses to establish themselves in self-employment. This very success therefore justifies the funding, as the initial evaluation pointed out. The benefits to the exchequer of increased tax revenues and the opposite savings in benefits payments will quickly more than cover the expenditure that the programme entails.The research and case studies demonstrate the core success of NES in helping people from deprived communities establish businesses, while at the same time increasing their skill levels in the most important business areas to give them the practical resources they need to escape from social exclusion.The programme has succeeded in drawing on the expertise of different delivery partners and has allowed them to work together highly effectively at both national and local level. Government deserves praise for allowing this to happen within pubic sector structures, which find this sort of arrangement unusual. No other scheme for helping people in disadvantaged areas has been able to draw as effectively on the resources of the Business Schools' network in terms of teaching and research facilities. Furthermore, those strengths have been able to be combined with the massive experience of the Enterprise Agency movement in business start-ups and the enviable track record of the Prince's Trust in delivering support and mentoring to young scholars in disadvantaged areas.Tackling the issue of qualifications remains an issue for NES as there is a clear demand for a qualification but, in practice, less motivation to undertake more \"book work\" to meet the requirements of a syllabus. Resources are also needed to further promote the success of the NES scholars within their own areas so they can provide role models to others and that enterprise can be seen as a viable option for members of their communities.Overall, however, the initiation and implementation of the concept of NES in the UK can be viewed as a genuine success. Its continuing development can only be of assistance in transforming business start-up rates and social inclusion in deprived areas.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate New Entrepreneur Scholarships, a government-funded programme that aims to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds to become self-employed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A case study methodology is employed.\nFindings: - The programme has been very effective in helping people who would not otherwise overcome the barriers in setting up a business to establish themselves in self-employment.\nOriginality/value: - Tacking the issue of qualifications remains an issue as there is no clear demand for a qualification. Resources are also needed to further promote the success of New Entrepreneur scholars within their own areas to that they can be role models to others and so that enterprise can be seen as a viable option for other members of their communities.\n",
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Supporting decision-making in service supplier selection using a hybrid fuzzy extended AHP approach: A case study
|
[
"Multi-criteria decision making",
"Fuzzy logic",
"Analytic hierarchy process (AHP)",
"Service supplier",
"Software supplier selection"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past years, the service economy is increasingly growing (Suh and Park, 2009) and even companies like the manufacturing firms that are out of the service industry have become more and more reliant on service-based businesses (Hidaka, 2006). In high technology firms, purchased materials and services represent up to 80 percent of the total product cost (Weber et al., 1991). Manufacturers have strong technical- and product-oriented capabilities, but are often weak in service-oriented ones (Neu and Brown, 2005). Thus the purchasing department can play a key role in an organization's efficiency and effectiveness since it has a direct effect on cost reduction, profitability and flexibility; selecting the right service suppliers significantly reduces the purchasing costs and improves corporate competitiveness (Ghodsypour and O'Brien, 2001). Hence (Van der Rhee et al., 2009), suppliers delivering such services are therefore critical for successfully providing solutions (Windahl and Lakemond, 2010; Johnson and Mena, 2008; Martinez et al., 2010; Gebauer et al., 2013) for two main reasons: at first, each supplier is involved in a long-term relationship with the buyer, providing continuous support and maintenance; second, the constantly growing demand for comprehensive maintenance services (Ohman et al., 2015) implies long-term contracts with a relationship-based business logic (Brax, 2005; Oliva and Kallenberg, 2003). Of consequence, service supplier selection is an intrinsically complex multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem (Chan et al., 2008; Sadiq and Khan, 2006), involving simultaneously multiple requirements and fuzzy conditions. Among the others, the uncertainty and imprecise numeric values of decision data (including when information is sometimes incomplete and/or unknown condition) and the subjectiveness and imprecision of human behavior need to be taken into consideration (Kuo and Liang, 2011). Several MCDM methods exist for assisting decision-making with multiple objectives (Bruno et al., 2012). There are no better or worse techniques, but simply some techniques better suited to particular decision problems than others do (Dagdeviren, 2008). Among the MCDM approaches explored in the literature, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) (Saaty, 1980, 2000) is one of the most widely discussed methods both in supplier selection in general, often also in combination with other well-known techniques, such as the fuzzy set theory (FST) (Zadeh, 1965).\n2. Background: service supplier selection: In an industrial context, a service is a process of doing something for another party by integrating internal and external capabilities in order to co-create value (Vargo and Lusch, 2008). A provider of infrastructure services (Hallikas et al., 2014) needs to master both cost efficiency and service quality in order to outperform its rivals (Fliess and Kleinaltenkamp, 2004). Indeed, service supplier selection has a significant impact on the optimization of the quality, quantity, timeliness, and price of purchased goods and services (Dulmin and Mininno, 2003; Ghodsypour and O'brien, 2001; Sarkis et al., 2007). Other authors classify the supplier attributes and their levels into four broad conceptual categories: cost, delivery performance, value-added service/support, and flexibility (Van der Rhee et al., 2009).\n3. A hybrid approach for service selection: The hybrid approach based on the two most used methodologies in the literature, the AHP (Saaty, 1980, 2000) and the FST (Zadeh, 1965) will be now described in this section, starting from a brief theoretical overview of AHP and FST foundations and detailing hereinafter the proposed AHP fuzzy extension methodology.\n4. The empirical case: the hybrid fuzzy extended AHP approach implementation: The objective of this section is to illustrate in detail how the proposed Fuzzy Extended AHP approach can be implemented in a manufacturing company to support the decision-making process for the supplier evaluation and selection of a new software whose importance impacts the competitiveness of the company: a TDMS.\n5. Discussions: Fuzzy judgments adopted to assess the alternatives have allowed decision makers to have three main advantages: to practically and quickly judge the alternatives against the considered subcriteria; to catch the nuances of individual sensations and judgments; and to incorporate into the decision model not exactly quantifiable, incomplete, non-obtainable or partially obtainable information that are inevitably present in any real-world decision problem. These three advantages are reflected in the easiness to use the proposed service evaluation approach that proves to be very simple from a computational standpoint, being ultimately based on a weighted average of ratings. In addition, the adoption of traditional AHP methodology for assessing the relevance weights of decision criteria has made possible to take into account fully, precisely, and in a structured way, the actual priorities and stated objectives of the company, revealing the exact requirements of the software system that the company really wants to buy. The decision criteria used in this paper integrate many different aspects of a complex service selection problem (software quality features, costs, supplier characteristics, etc.) and, apart from the functional subcriteria which are of course strongly focused on the discussed empirical case, they allow to get the right mixed level of abstraction and concretization for the requirements of a generic service selection problem, so contributing to enhance the body of knowledge of the decision support system.\n6. Conclusions and implications: The service software supplier selection for complex manufacturing industries represents a quite delicate issue for IT managers and a very attractive area of interest for researchers. Quite often, methodologies dealing with the suppliers selection process are just tested on numerical exemplification, with little attention to the problems that arise during the practical implementation and during the practical usefulness of such formalized tools in practice (Bruno et al., 2012). In this paper an easy to use and systematic hybrid FEAHP approach has been presented and applied to support the decision-making process of the IT managers of an Italian aerospace company in the selection of one of the most relevant service categories for a manufacturing company: the software supplier satisfying the business context requirements. The described empirical case study has allowed to appreciate the practical usability and applicability of this research work within a real corporate environment in order to contribute to bridge the gap between theoretical approaches and empirical applications.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Service supplier selection is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem assuming a strategic role for the competitiveness of high-tech manufacturing companies. Nevertheless, especially for service quality evaluation, there is little empirical evidence of the practical usefulness of MCDM methodologies. Aiming to cover this gap between theoretical approaches and empirical applications, the purpose of this paper is to propose a fuzzy extended analytic hierarchy process (FEAHP) approach for service supplier evaluation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A hybrid approach which combines some of the strengths of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and of the fuzzy set theory is presented, as organized into five steps. A case study is used to evaluate the applicability in a real company context.\nFindings: The usability of the approach is demonstrated in an aerospace company for solving the supplier selection problem of a business software whose applications are still in infancy: a Test Data Management System (TDMS). The illustrative application contains both \"general\" criteria to be used for other service supplier selection contexts as well as service-specific criteria related to software selection.\nResearch limitations/implications: Even if the application regards the selection of a software supplier, the methodology can be generically extended to other services' selection in complex manufacturing industries through the personalization of some criteria.\nPractical implications: Implications can be derived both for business managers involved into the decision-making process and for suppliers identifying the most promising features of software quality.\nOriginality/value: The originality consists in the combination into a hybrid approach of the strong points of the AHP with the fuzzy set; the inclusion of multiple perspectives of decision criteria for service supplier selection, basically the \"software product\" and \"supplier\" ones; a real empirical application to test and demonstrate the efficacy and the practical utility of the proposed approach.\n",
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The power of information on customers' social withdrawal and citizenship behavior in a crowded service environment
|
[
"Service experience",
"Information",
"Customer citizenship behaviour",
"Mobile communication",
"Crowding",
"Social withdrawal"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Theoretical writers about crowding collectively agree that crowds present a congested scene of chaos, which brings about an immense onset of stress and stress-related disorders, eventually posing physical and mental risks to individuals (e.g. Cox et al., 2006; Valins and Baum, 1973). Reviews of popular press publications also reinforce the negative consumer sentiments concerning crowds, particularly in well-known theme parks, hospitals, airports, stores and rail stations (e.g. Martin, 2014; Wynne, 2007).\nTheoretical background: Crowding and service experience\nStudy 1: information gain in crowded environments: The essence of adaptation strategies in crowds implies that firms can help customers to cope with stressful, crowded situations. An adaptation strategy can involve behavioral, decisional or cognitive control over the situation (Averill, 1973). For example, being in a crowded airport waiting to take off, a customer has behavioral control when she can do something to actually avoid the crowd (e.g. she knows an empty waiting area that is unknown to other people). She has decisional control if she can choose to leave the crowded airport and come back once it is empty. Unfortunately, customers do not always have behavioral or decisional control in service settings. Equally, the chance of having a \"secret\" empty waiting area is low, and the customer cannot decide to leave the airport and not fly. This makes cognitive control highly desirable. Cognitive control is unique in that it does not involve any actual change of or actual physical escape from the environment. Researchers have called for more crowding solutions that do not require avoiding or escaping the actual central event (the crowd) (Dion, 2004).\nStudy 2: information sharing in crowded environments: While increased social withdrawal and reduced customer citizenship behavior may be effective adaptation strategies to cope with the stressful, crowded situations from the customer's perspective, these responses are not desirable from a marketer's point of view. Existing research shows that the positive interactions customers have with service employees or fellow customers favorably impact their overall service experiences (e.g. Grove and Fisk, 1997). When social withdrawal is heightened, the chance of interacting with others decreases and so does the opportunity to foster positive interactions. Therefore, from a strategic point of view, it will benefit firms to encourage customer-to-employee and customer-to-customer interactions in hopes of creating more positive interactions.\nGeneral discussion and implications: Given the growing prevalence of crowding in service settings, it is concerning that there are limited investigations addressing practical ways to manage consumer experiences and responses in crowds. In an increasingly service-dominant era, customer experience management has become an important organizational strategy that most companies hope to grow and sustain. Nowhere is such demand for customer experience management greater than in extended service environments suffering from intense crowding situations. Using behavioral constraint theory, this study sought to explore ways for firms to alleviate the negative consequences of crowding in service settings, thereby improving customer service experiences.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: Crowding in service environments is a constant concern for many firms due to the negative consequences it has on consumers and companies alike. Yet, scant empirical research exists on firm-generated initiatives aimed at improving customer service experiences in crowded situations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information, a managerially actionable variable, influences social interactions (in the form of customer social withdrawal and citizenship behavior) and service experience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two experimental studies were conducted using an extended service context.\nFindings: This research demonstrates that receiving information about crowds in advance results in heightened social withdrawal, which improves customer service experience. However, providing consumers with a platform to share crowding information increases customers' citizenship behavior toward service employees and other customers, which, in turn, improves customer service experience.\nPractical implications: For extended service encounters (e.g. air travel) where social interactions are inevitable, companies should encourage customers to share their real-time experiences with other customers in hopes of creating more positive social interactions (e.g. citizenship behavior) within the crowded environment.\nOriginality/value: Existing investigations of crowding stem from an overemphasis on the physical and atmospheric aspects of the environment by treating crowds as a \"fixture\" in the servicescape, rather than as \"active participants\" involved in the crowding environment. While the mere presence of crowds alone has negative effects, this research takes it a step further by examining interactions among and between customers and service employees within the crowded service environment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Representing search tasks in an information use environment: a case of English primary schools
|
[
"Information retrieval",
"Children (age groups)",
"Classification schemes",
"Information searches",
"Schools",
"Information research",
"Educational institutions",
"Task analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Historically, search systems have been designed to respond to the topic of a search query; however, people often issue queries to accomplish specific tasks, i.e. \"a particular item of work\" in which they are engaged (Bystrom and Hansen, 2005, p. 1051). At present, developing systems that respond effectively to the broader task (rather than just to queries) remains an unresolved problem (He and Yilmaz, 2017). In part, this is because developing effective task-responsive systems requires the comprehensive capture and understanding of users' tasks. However, despite significant work completed to date (Kim and Soergel, 2006; Li and Belkin, 2008; Xie, 2009), we still do not have a prescriptive characterisation of tasks that could be used in developing requirements for task-based search systems.\nPrevious work: Conceptualisation of task and search task\nResearch design and methods: In related work, we investigated the way the IUE influences how and why children search for information at school (Rutter, 2019b). In this paper, the same data set is used to investigate the characteristics of school children's search tasks following the four stages shown in Table I.\nResults: In the following sections, the findings from each of the four research stages are presented.\nDiscussion: The overall objective for this study was to develop an approach for representing search tasks that originate within an IUE using the case of English primary schools. This led to two research questions. To answer the first research question (RQ1), we developed a succinct representation scheme. We found that as well as characteristics that are generic to all IUE (Table V), there are also characteristics specific to the primary school IUE (Table VI) that may not be present in anything but a learning environment. Together Tables V and VI identify all the objective characteristics of primary school search tasks. These schemes are based on what children actually do in schools, and provide new insights on the variety of search tasks within the primary school IUE. In Table AI, we also provide examples of search tasks that have been classified this way.\nLimitations and future work: In future work, we intend to test what we have identified here as generic task characteristics (Table V) in other environments, and also to identify other characteristics of tasks that are specific to particular environments. Furthermore, although this study was designed to identify a range of primary school search tasks and goes beyond just describing research assignments, we recognise that to gain a full picture further research in other schools is needed. Only two schools in England participated in this study and this has implications for the transferability of the findings.\nConclusions: To be able to make comparisons across studies, descriptions of tasks need to be consistent. Multi-dimensional schemes, such as Li and Belkin's (2008), provide a starting point but the findings of this study suggest that IUEs will require different representation schemes. A challenge for the research community is finding ways to describe the tasks of different IUEs in ways that are meaningful for a particular IUE, and allow for comparison across IUEs. We believe that our generic (Table V) and specific (Table VI) task representation schemes will help a move in this direction. We also suggest that developing effective task-responsive systems the generic and specific characteristics of tasks should be considered, depending on the remit of system. Furthermore, search systems should be tested for different information uses.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: To design effective task-responsive search systems, sufficient understanding of users' tasks must be gained and their characteristics described. Although existing multi-dimensional task schemes can be used to describe users' search and work tasks, they do not take into account the information use environment (IUE) that contextualises the task. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: With a focus on English primary schools, in four stages a multi-dimensional task scheme was developed that distinguishes between task characteristics generic to all environments, and those that are specific to schools. In Stage 1, a provisional scheme was developed based upon the existing literature. In the next two stages, through interviews with teachers and observations of school children, the provisional scheme was populated and revised. In Stage 4, whether search tasks with the same information use can be distinguished by their characteristics was examined.\nFindings: Ten generic characteristics were identified (nature of work task, search task originator, search task flexibility, search task doer, search task necessity, task output, search goal, stage in work task, resources and information use) and four characteristics specific to primary schools (curricular area, use in curricular area, planning and location). For the different information uses, some characteristics are more typical than others.\nPractical implications: The resulting scheme, based on children's real-life information seeking, should be used in the design and evaluation of search systems and digital libraries that support school children. More generally, the scheme can also be used in other environments.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to develop a multi-dimensional task scheme that considers encompasses the IUE.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Digital politics: internet and democracy in Africa
|
[
"Internet",
"Democracy",
"Causality",
"Pooled mean group",
"Digital politics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Digital politics is shorthand for how internet technologies have heightened the complex interactions between political actors and their constituencies (Vaccari, 2013; Miller, 2016). It describes how the digital revolution is disrupting politics and transforming political institutions and modes of political communication (Ferdinand, 2000; Vaccari, 2013; Miller, 2016). In Africa, the digital revolution has gathered momentum. Average citizens are increasingly and actively participating in online public discourses. In Uganda, a website called Yogera, or \"speak out,\" provides a platform for the citizens to complain about poor service, scrutinize the government or blow the whistle on corruption. In Kenya, a website called Mzalendo or the \"Eye on the Kenyan Parliament\", profiles politicians, scrutinizes public expenditure and highlights citizens' rights (Ridgwell, 2017).\n2. Literature review: There is a burgeoning literature on the effects of information and communication technologies on democratic processes. The scope and span of the debate is impressive, largely due to the historic implications of the information age and the complexity of democratic governance (Weare, 2002). The study of the relationship between internet and democracy has engaged many researchers using different approaches from conceptual and theoretical (Weare, 2002; Margetts, 2013; Grofman et al., 2014; Adibe et al., 2017; Mustapha, 2017; Ruijgrok, 2017) to empirical (Best and Wade, 2009; Nisbet et al., 2012; Salgado, 2012; Lee, 2017; Nam, 2017; Pirannejad, 2017; Shen, 2017; Evans, 2018a).\n3. Stylized facts: 3.1 Internet usage\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Data\n5. Empirical analysis: 5.1 The panel unit root test\n6. Summary and implications: 6.1 Summary\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between internet use and democracy in Africa. It examines the non-linearities and causality between the two variables in the short and long run for 38 countries in Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is empirical. It uses pooled mean group and causality tests for the sample of 38 African countries.\nFindings: The panel long-run and short-run estimates show evidence of significant non-linear relationship between internet usage and democracy. While internet usage is significantly and negatively related to democracy, squared internet usage is significantly but positively related. This suggests that internet usage increases with the decrease of democracy, but after a certain level of internet usage which is the turning point, democracy starts to increase. Additionally, there is uni-directional causality from internet usage to democracy. However, a bi-directional causality exists between squared internet usage and democracy.\nResearch limitations/implications: The empirical evidence from this study suggests that internet usage and democracy are highly interrelated to each other in Africa. The findings support that at the macro level, Africa is moving toward a new stage, where internet will lead to improved levels of democracy and digital politics.\nPractical implications: Remarkably, the paper shows that democracy displays a quadratic relationship with internet usage. As a whole, the findings indicate a U-shaped pattern: democracy decreases with internet usage, stabilizes, and then increases. In other words, internet usage increases with the decrease of democracy, but after a certain level of internet usage which is the turning point, democracy starts to increase.\nSocial implications: Many African Governments that have frequently imposed restrictions on internet and social media need to stop. The decline in democracy as internet usage increases may be explained by more severity of these restrictions. However, the findings support that at the macro level, Africa is moving toward a new stage, where internet will lead to improved levels of democracy and digital politics.\nOriginality/value: Contrary to previous conceptual papers, the current study empirically investigates the causality between internet and democracy in 38 African countries. The findings indicate a U-shaped pattern: democracy decreases with internet usage, stabilizes, and then increases. In other words, internet usage increases with the decrease of democracy but after a certain level of internet usage which is the turning point, democracy starts to increase.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Empirically assessing the continued applicability of the IUIPC construct
|
[
"Trust",
"E-commerce",
"Internet users’ information privacy concerns",
"Risk"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Corporations are confronting consumer privacy expectations in their e-commerce transactions (Sipior et al., 2009). Empirical evidence indicates that concerns about privacy are a principal factor discouraging consumers from participating in e-commerce (Bowie and Jamal, 2006) and government agencies concur. For example, in a report prepared by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), FTC Commissioner Sheila F. Anthony expressed concern \"that the absence of effective privacy protections will undermine consumer confidence and hinder the advancement of electronic commerce and trade\" (Federal Trade Commission, 1999). Nonetheless, the recent 2011 Christmas shopping season results show what has been termed online \"blockbuster sales,\" drawing revenue away from bricks-and-mortars (Woo, 2011). Online sales totaled US$35.3 billion between November 1 and December 26, 2011, an increase of 15 percent compared to 2010, according to comScore Inc (Woo, 2011). By contrast, overall US retail sales grew 3.8 percent, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (Woo, 2011). Recognizing the importance of maximizing consumer online purchase behavior, web retailers are increasingly conscious of the need to reduce any consumer concerns that might negatively impact consumer trust in web sites and consequently impact online purchase behavior, such as concerns regarding online information privacy. The privacy controversy over collecting information on the internet arises from the far-reaching unprecedented capability to collect more detailed information and disseminate greater quantities of information (Sipior et al., 2009).\nThe privacy construct: Privacy is a complex construct (McParland and Connolly, 2009). A broad spectrum of disciplines, including ethics (Platt, 1995), economics (Rust et al., 2002), marketing (Graeff and Harmon, 2002), management (Robey, 1979), as well as the legal discipline as far back as 1860 (e.g. Warren and Brandeis), have addressed privacy. The classic definition of information privacy was provided in 1967, well before the advent of internet use by consumers, by Alan Westin as \"the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others\" (Westin, 1967). However, the construct remains beset by conceptual and operational confusion. For example, Tavani (1999) remarks that privacy is neither clearly understood nor clearly defined while Introna (1996) comments that for every definition of privacy, it is also possible to find a counter example in the literature. Understandably therefore, many researchers choose to define privacy specific to the focus of their study or the lens of their discipline in an attempt to evade this problem (Smith, 2001), but consequently the conceptual confusion that surrounds the construct remains undiminished. Indeed, trends in privacy concerns continue to emerge (Kumaraguru and Cranor, 2005).\nResearch on the measurement of individuals' concerns about information privacy: Culnan and Armstrong (1999) observed that prior to wide availability of transaction processing on the web, few studies addressed information gathering practices. Conger (2009) notes that privacy research in the 1990s, including Conger et al. (2005), Culnan (1993), Culnan and Armstrong (1999), Loch and Conger (1996), and Smith et al. (1996), attempted to determine the scope of the privacy problem and how to frame privacy issues. To advance research in the information privacy stream, Smith et al. (1996) focussed on developing a measurement of individuals' concerns about organizational information privacy practices. Malhotra et al. (2004) provided a theoretical framework, addressing the specific nature of IUIPC, and proposed the IUIPC measure to consider the dynamic dimensions of privacy concerns of internet users. We focus on the IUIPC measure in the next section.\nResearch model and hypotheses: We revisit the research of Malhotra et al. (2004) by applying the IUIPC measurement instrument to test the relationships between IUIPC, trusting beliefs in an online company (TRUST), risk beliefs in providing personal information to an online company (RISK), and users' behavioral intention to provide personal information online (INT). Based on Malhotra et al. (2004), we apply the research model presented in Figure 1. Three variables, COLL, CONT, and AWAR, are posited to characterize IUIPC. These three variables are expected to affect the user's trusting beliefs, TRUST, and risk beliefs, RISK, of an internet user in releasing personal information at the request of an online marketer. These variables are discussed in this section in presenting the hypotheses.\nResearch methodology: A survey was utilized for this study because this methodology increases generalizability, facilitates replicability, and provides statistical power (Dooley, 2001). A small convenience sample of 63 part-time graduate students, drawn from the mid-Atlantic USA, served as subjects for this study. The respondents are members of the online population, the vast majority (88.9 percent) of whom have over seven years of experience on the internet. Further they have an average of six years of full-time professional work experience. To attain a 100 percent response rate, while maintaining anonymity, a paper-based questionnaire was distributed and collected.\nData analysis and results: All scales utilized were first validated using factor analysis, Cronbach's a, and reliability analysis. For hypothesis testing, multiple regression analysis was used. 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 et al., 2000). All analyses, including factor analysis, Cronbach's a, reliability analysis, and multiple regression analysis, were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 20. SPSS is commonly used for the analysis of data collected by means of questionnaires (Huizingh, 2006).\nDiscussion and research limitations: On-line privacy has been a user concern for many years (Smith et al., 2011). The vast majority of online users are concerned about their privacy in web interactions (Schiller, 2010). Indicative of users' concerns regarding privacy in web use are the results of a recent poll by Zogby International which revealed that 80 percent of consumers are either \"somewhat\" or \"very\" concerned about online tracking for the purpose of advertising (Schiller, 2010). This underscores the need to understand information privacy concerns.\nConclusion and future directions for research: Consistent with Malhotra et al. (2004), our results provide partial support for these relationships. Consistent are our results that the higher the trust a consumer holds for an online company, the less likely that consumer is to view providing personal information as risky. Also consistent is our finding that the higher the trust a consumer holds for an online company, the more likely is that consumer to intend to provide personal information online. Finally, we also found that the greater the risk a consumer has for providing personal information, the less willing that consumer is to reveal such information online. However, our results did not support a negative relationship between the IUIPC construct and consumer trust in an online company or a positive relationship between IUIPC and consumer risk in providing personal information to an online company.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to revisit the internet users' information privacy concerns (IUIPC) construct, a research model, and hypotheses based on Malhotra et al. (2004) to assess the continued applicability of this construct. The relationship among privacy concerns, trusting beliefs, and risk beliefs continues to be unclear. Empirical evidence about the impact of privacy concerns on behavior is mixed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A paper-based questionnaire was distributed and collected from 63 part-time graduate students of a private university in the mid-Atlantic USA. These respondents have an average of six years of full-time professional work experience and the vast majority (88.9 percent) has over seven years of experience on the internet. Questionnaire items measured the constructs of the IUIPC instrument. All measurement scales were validated using factor analysis, Cronbach's a, and reliability analysis. For hypothesis testing, multiple regression analysis was used.\nFindings: The results partially support those of Malhotra et al. (2004). Consistent are the findings that the higher the trust a consumer holds for an online company, the less likely that consumer is to view providing personal information as risky. Also consistent is that the higher the trust a consumer holds for an online company, the more likely is that consumer to intend to provide personal information online. Finally, the greater risk a consumer has for providing personal information, the less willing that consumer is to reveal such information online. However, the results did not support a negative relationship between the IUIPC construct and consumer trust in an online company or a positive relationship between IUIPC and consumer risk in providing personal information to an online company. The paper concludes that the IUIPC is not the valid scale to employ in measuring information privacy concerns.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of the findings is the use of a small convenience sample, limiting the insights into interrelationships between various dimensions of privacy concerns and the generalizability of the results.\nPractical implications: The results may provide guidance to online retailers in addressing the dimensions of privacy concerns related to trusting beliefs and risk beliefs.\nOriginality/value: IUIPC were measured using the IUIPC instrument. This responds to Malhotra et al.'s (2004) call to use the IUIPC scale and the associated research framework to further investigate consumer privacy concerns and the suggestion by Belanger and Crossler (2011) that more studies should explore this scale. Further, both Westin (1967), and Smith et al. (1996) recognize that privacy attitudes and concerns may change over time, providing motivation to revisit IUIPC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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