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Collaborative business process management: status quo and quo vadis	[ "Process management", "Strategic alliances", "Literature" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Recent developments in the economy, organizations, and management science led to the study of organizational boundaries (Newell et al., 2001). These developments, fostered by globalization, include the increasing importance of value chains (Gereffi et al., 2005; Sia et al., 2008) and production networks (Sturgeon, 2002), of interconnected firms (Lavie, 2006), collaboration dynamics (Chen et al., 2008; Katila and Mang, 2003), outsourcing (Walsh and Deery, 2006), and the increasing potential of information systems (IS) (Phelps, 2007). The boundary phenomenon has already been studied on the business process level as in supply chains or inter-organizational systems (Ashkenas et al., 1995). However, little research has yet systematically examined the implications of boundary-blurring business processes for business process management (BPM). So far, research in BPM acknowledges that boundaries are blurring in BPM as managing collaboration, networks, and governance is becoming increasingly important and can be regarded a key challenge to BPM research and practice (Rosemann et al., 2006). Also, early in the development of business process-oriented management, it was recognized that BPM projects can only be effective if BPM teams are made up of people from both inside and outside of the organization (Hammer and Champy, 1993). However, current literature does not provide theory, models, vocabulary, and frameworks (den Hengst and de Vreede, 2004) to a sufficient extent in order to understand BPM collaboration (Feller et al., 2008; von Hippel, 2001; Walsh and Deery, 2006).Collaboration (Latin: com - together, laborare - to labor, to work) is a concept widely used in IS (Bjorn and Ngwenyama, 2009; Kumar and van Dissel, 1996; Majchrzak et al., 2005; Munkvold, 1999). Collaboration plays an important role in BPM. BPM maturity research, for example, indicates that BPM collaboration with actors from inside and especially, from outside an organization's boundaries will be a major challenge that still lies ahead for most firms. Here, we argue that in order to get a better hold of the phenomenon, we need further conceptual differentiation and introduce two theoretical \"idealtypes\" (Weber, 1949) of collaborative BPM distinct in the degrees of collaboration:1. Non-collaborative BPM associates with one or more single individuals that conduct non-coordinated efforts to reflect on and to alter business processes.2. Collaborative BPM describes coordinated initiatives that involve actors from inside or from outside a defined entity. Here, we define the entity of analysis being the formal legal organization (the firm).Hence, these concepts specify prior theoretical perspectives on the collaboration phenomenon: collaboration addresses questions of working together while the two concepts elucidate the set and the relationship of actors involved. This paper thus poses the research questions:RQ1. To what extent has BPM literature yet embraced/articulated/explored the concept of collaboration?RQ2. Which areas could provide potentially fruitful avenues for future research on collaborative BPM?Accordingly, we make the following contributions. First, we develop a conceptual framework for understanding collaborative BPM. Second, we review relevant literature and identify trajectories and shortcoming. Third, we discuss potentially fruitful avenues for future research on collaborative BPM. Hence, we address all three reasons for systematic literature reviews proposed by Kitchenham (2004).Against this background, the remainder of the paper is structured as follows. First, we will provide basis theory background by conceptualizing BPM and BPM collaboration. After setting out the literature review methodology, we then present and discuss the results of our literature analysis. The last sections are concerned with action fields (AFs) for future research, conclusions, and limitations.\n2 Related work: 2.1 Business process management\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Scope of literature review\n4 Results: Following Webster and Watson (2002), we derive concepts from the literature in order to generate a concept matrix. Here, we concentrate on issues mentioned in Section 2. With the purpose of structuring the concepts, we organize them with reference to the classical triad of dimensions out of political and organizational science: polity, politics, and policy (Keman, 1999). In these terms, polity means the existing framework of rules - the structure. Politics is the process where actors interact with each other in order to develop coalescence and to achieve consensus. The last term, policy, is the result (or the content of the result) of the process. The three dimensions structure, processes, and content can be filled with concepts derived from the papers we reviewed.For the structure dimension (A), the articles fall into two complementary levels, the level of business processes (work system level) and the level of BPM (build system level). On the work system level, businesses activities are executed and given organizational structures and cooperative environments are utilized (Alter, 2002; Bergman et al., 2002; Lyytinen and Newman, 2008). These structures are designed by a separate build system which is a system that commands a set of resources and enacts routines to carry out the change of business activities and organizational or cooperative structures. By this, the build system addresses the issues of uncertainty, ambiguity, and complexity (Lyytinen and Newman, 2008; Lyytinen et al., 1996). This differentiation between, first, the conduct of business processes (work system) and, second, the management of business processes (build system) opens up for a more detailed analysis of the literature and constitutes one of the major group of concepts. Moreover, the literature covered in this review deals with several collaboration partners. Therefore, we derived a multitude of collaboration partners out of the BPM literature where it is widely accepted that a broad involvement of \"people\" inside and outside the organization increases the success and acceptance of BPM initiatives (Abdul-Hadi et al., 2005; Hammer and Champy, 1993). However, a coarse differentiation between collaboration partners does not yield much explanatory power. Hence, with this literature review, we study the involvement of different stakeholders in process management. These collaboration partners inside the organizational boundaries include:* Top management (Bandara and Rosemann, 2005; Rosemann et al., 2006).* Middle management and employees (Abdul-Hadi et al., 2005; Corbitt et al., 2000).* Technical specialists (Corbitt et al., 2000).However, as it is also suggested to include external partners in the process of BPM or BPR, we analyzed the literature for the following collaboration partners:* lawmakers (Abdul-Hadi et al., 2005);* customers (Hammer, 2007);* professional organizations (Balzarova et al., 2004);* suppliers (Rosemann et al., 2006; Wu, 2002);* distributers (Rosemann et al., 2006);* software consultants (Akhavan et al., 2006);* BPM consultants (Abdul-Hadi et al., 2005; Akhavan et al., 2006; Rosemann et al., 2006); as well as* other companies (Wu, 2002).As for the process perspective (B) on collaborative BPM, the review leads us to the concepts of collaboration scope. According to Jagdev and Thoben (2001), the scope can be distinguished in five classes:1. market transactions where the relationship between the parties is strictly transaction based;2. non-contractual agreements with a higher level of trust;3. contractual agreements as in supply chains or virtual enterprises;4. joint ventures; and5. integrated companies.This allows us for a comparison of the collaboration process, it can be a process out of the whole continuum from market environment to integrated companies. The collaboration scope is important as it allows to distinguish between a pure focus on a single company and other constructs as supply chains, virtual enterprises, or market-based collaboration (as with consultants).The main concept in the content dimension (C) named by the papers covered in the review is goals. BPM embraces a lot of sub-concepts. Based on Rosemann (2003), we were able to derive several purposes of BPM which form the goals dimension of the concept matrix:* documentation and training, where business processes are modeled in order to document the status quo and to be able to train new employees;* process-oriented reorganization following Hammer and Champy (1993);* continuous process management;* certification and auditing to show partner organizations that certain standards are fulfilled;* benchmarking to compare the structure with other organizations;* knowledge management to gain increased transparency of knowledge in the organization;* selection, customizing, or implementation of software, so that new software fits the business needs;* workflow management (WfM) as the automation of processes; and* simulation to find weaknesses in the business processes.As a result, in the concept matrix three dimensions with four main concepts and a multitude of sub-concepts exist (Table II). Here, we analyze the articles with regard to the above-stated dimensions, concepts, and sub-concepts. Each article was reviewed by both authors. In some cases, it was not possible to find explicit statements on the collaboration partners or on the desired goals. Here, we did not give any information. Moreover, no journal article did explicitly exclude collaboration partners. Therefore, blank cells in the matrix only refer to not-explicitly named partners, scopes, or goals. Moreover, we found two cases where a group of authors had published two articles covered by this literature review (Adam et al., 2005a, b; Magdaleno et al., 2007, 2008). In both cases, we grouped the articles to one single unit of analysis. In seven articles, we could not locate any collaboration partners (Blanc et al., 2007; Cai et al., 2005; Casati and Discenza, 2000; Klai et al., 2009; Liu and Shen, 2003; Ludwig and Whittingham, 1999; Silvestro and Westley, 2002) and in one article, we could not find a collaboration scope (Silvestro and Westley, 2002). In addition, two articles do not state the goal of the BPM/BPR effort (Bititci et al., 2003; Cloutier et al., 2001).Our literature review shows that the concepts are unequally employed by the literature (Figure 1). Regarding the structural dimension (A), half of all articles concentrate on collaboration on the work level while the rest does really deal with the inclusion of cooperation into the management of business processes. Great differences can be identified regarding the collaboration partners. Most articles concentrate on the \"classical\" partners outside the organization, i.e. on suppliers, customers, and distributers. Another group of articles deal with inter-organizational collaboration and concentrates on actors as top management, middle management, employees, and technical specialists. However, it is notable that the articles analyze the collaboration with (BPM or software) consultants or professional organizations very rarely. Moreover, we could not find a single article which included other companies or lawmakers into the collaboration network. In the process dimension (B), we notice that the choice of collaboration partners influences the collaboration scope. Most of the articles concentrate on contractual agreements. The underlying network is either a supply chain or a virtual enterprise. Gou et al. (2003) present an example for \"research on business process modeling, analyzing, and managing for virtual enterprises,\" while, e.g. Muckstadt et al. (2001) analyze business processes and note that they \"are often not designed properly, both intra- and inter-organizationally, to adapt to evolving supply chain conditions.\" Two other articles concentrate on the collaboration with third-party logistics providers with existing contractual agreements (Mortensen and Lemoine, 2008; Ying and Sang, 2005). Only a minority of articles analyzes collaborative BPM inside integrated companies. However, none of the articles discusses collaboration in pure market conditions or in joint ventures and only one analyzes non-contractual agreements as a basis for collaboration in BPM (den Hengst and de Vreede, 2004). In the content dimension (C), almost every article can be classified in one of the two following groups: most of the articles strive for process-oriented reorganization or continuous process management. Some of them have the minor target of documentation and training. The second group is focused on WfM. These papers mainly analyze how workflows can be used for inter-organizational cooperation and often take a more technical perspective on BPM (Klai et al., 2009). Only three articles discuss simulation and none strives for benchmarking or certification and auditing. Moreover, the concept matrix shows other phenomena when comparing the concepts used over all dimensions. First, the literature discussed the cooperation with consultants in the context of BPM only if the cooperation scope was in integrated companies. Second, cooperative WfM as a goal was only used with external collaboration partners, mainly with suppliers, customers, and distributors.\n5 Discussion and conclusions: Our research objective was twofold. First, we concentrated on the retrospective and elaborated on the extent current BPM literature has yet explored the concept of collaboration. We identified several concepts which are not embraced by current literature. Hence, we conclude that collaboration in the context of BPM is still a topic under growing research as the number of articles published per year is growing (ad RQ1). Out of this observation, we can answer our RQ2. For IS researchers with a BPM focus, the concept of collaboration becomes increasingly important (Section 2.2). Hence, our main research contribution is the identification of the following five AFs for future research.5.1 AF1: certification and auditing\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the status quo with regards to business process management (BPM) and collaboration and to show potential fields of future research in the area of collaborative BPM.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - To obtain results, authors employ the method of a systematic literature review using relevant existing guidelines. They not only search leading journals and conferences in the fields but also in ISI web of knowledge's web of science. Subsuming, 39 relevant articles are selected and analyzed with regards to concepts identified upfront.\nFindings: - The paper finds that collaborative BPM is a growing trend in information systems research, but that there still exist significant research gaps. Hence, it proposes a research agenda consisting out of five action fields pointing at potentially fruitful directions for future research.\nResearch limitations/implications: - First, this paper provides an overview of the status quo in the field of collaborative BPM to young scholars. Second, it identifies five distinct research gaps that could be worth studying. However, this paper may be limited by the choice of dimensions and the selection of relevant articles.\nPractical implications: - This paper informs practitioners about the status quo of research on collaborative BPM. Here, especially the analysis in the dimensions collaboration partner and BPM goals can help to evaluate the practitioner's strategy.\nOriginality/value: - The results of this paper present the status quo of collaborative BPM literature. Hence, it also identifies research gaps and derives a research agenda.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Determinants of successful implementation of donor-funded projects in Uganda	[ "Uganda", "Knowledge management", "Rationality", "Donor funding", "Project implementation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Developing countries have been the primary beneficiaries of donor-funded projects for more than half a century. Such projects have been useful to sectors such as public health, agriculture, education, social and community development and infrastructural development (Wood, 2005). In general, donor-funded projects are the backbone of substantial recorded strides in uplifting many developing countries out of dire social and developmental stagnation (Globerson and Zwikael, 2002). Despite the importance attached to donor-funded projects, their outputs in terms of quality, cost, time and stakeholder satisfaction remains the subject of abuse and debate in many developing countries (Azhar and Farouqi, 2008). Anecdotal evidence reveals that project organizations in developing countries are characterized by unpredictable and discontinuous personal interactions and incompatibility with organizational routines which points to the presence of implementation challenges (Prencipe and Tell, 2001; Schindler and Eppler, 2003), hence undesirable outcomes. In Uganda, many donor-funded projects that have been implemented show signs of irrationality and a deficient risk assessment and management mechanism. For example, the cost of the \"Northern By-pass Project\" went up by more than 100 percent of the initial budgeted cost and delayed for more than two and a half years with quality deficiencies on road lighting and narrow lanes (Assedri and Ssepuuya, 2009).\nPrerequisites for successful project implementation: Practitioners and researchers have not clearly identified a theoretical framework, recognizing all factors that could lead to the achievement of successful implementation of projects. This is partly supported by Belout and Gauvreau (2004) who note that studies attempting to predict the success of project implementation have tended to rely on the technical constructs of project implementation thereby ignoring the structural and organizational behavioral constructs. Nevertheless, there appears to a consensus among a number of practitioners and researchers that risk management, organizational rationality and knowledge management (KM) are prerequisites for successful project implementation (Bakker et al., 2009; Besner and Hobbs, 2012; Sammon et al., 2004; Turner, 2002; Zhou and Benton, 2007). For example, Slevin and Pinto (1986) argue that risk identification, assessment and management are linked to successful project implementation. The current piece of work brings on board all the above three CSFs and the main objective is to determine the individual and combined predictive power of the CSFs under investigation on project implementation success. The extant literature indicates that the above potential predictors of project implementation success have largely been investigated in isolation of each other. The current piece of work contributes through model specification which brings on board all the above three CSFs. The following section reviews, analyses and critiques the relevant literature on the study variables. In addition, the tested hypotheses are developed.\nLiterature review: This section presents a critical review of relevant literature on the relationship between project risk management, organizational rationality, KM and successful project implementation. It examines various ideas that support, evaluate and critic the cumulative knowledge growth in the subject. We then use it to develop hypotheses that are tested.\nHypotheses: The main objective of this study is to identify the relationships between successful implementation of donor-funded projects in Uganda and the three prerequisites: risk management, rationality and KM. As a result, four hypotheses have been developed based on the four relationships identified in the previous section:\nMethodology: Research design, population and sample size\nResults: In this section, we present the results and findings of our study.\nDiscussion of findings and implications: In H1, the study sought to test whether risk management has a significant impact on project implementation success. Indeed the results supported this view since project risk management was found to be significant predictor of project implementation success. From this study; we can rightly argue that attempts by project implementers to assess risk and act accordingly will be reciprocated with positive project outcomes. The ability of the project implementers to manage such risks as part of their daily practices will reduce cost and at the same time increase the level of satisfaction of the project stakeholders. The finding are in line with Cooper et al. (2005), Olson (2008), PMI (2004), Williams (1995) and Perminova et al. (2007) who contend that project risk management has an effect on project implementation success indicators, such as cost, time, scope or quality.\nConclusion: In order to determine the possible required changes to improve project implementation success, it was necessary to uncover the forces that drive the behavior in individual projects and the consequent outcomes such as improved quality, satisfaction and timeliness. We can therefore derive the following conclusions from the findings and discussion in this study. The results suggest a positive and significant relationship between each of the predictor variables, that is, KM, organizational rationality, risk management and project implementation success. These results are important because they provide evidence of the aggregate explanatory power of KM, organizational rationality and risk management for the endogenous variable project implementation success. The findings discussed on the association between KM, organizational rationality and risk management and; project implementation success lead to the conclusion that successful project implementation can be enhanced through appropriate KM, organizational rationality and risk management. Thus, KM, organizational rationality and risk management act as an impetus for successful project implementation. Accordingly, the learning point is that KM, organizational rationality and risk management are very fundamental in influencing project implementation success. This is true because, project success is shaped by the ability of the project to manage knowledge, rationality and risk-related issues.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine, empirically the relationship between organizational rationality, knowledge management (KM), risk management and successful implementation of donor-funded projects in Uganda.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were obtained from 195 project managers of donor-funded projects both managed within government systems and those outside government using a questionnaire. Zero-order correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were employed to analyze the data.\nFindings: The paper has two major findings: all the predictor variables are positively and significantly related to successful project implementation; and the relationship is strong enough to cause a 23 percent (R2) increase in the explanatory power in the presence of control variables.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study focussed on selected donor-funded projects in Uganda and this limited the generalization of the findings. Moreover, there was also limited availability of local empirical literature with respect to implementation and performance of donor-funded projects.\nPractical implications: The results suggest that organizations that embrace organizational rationality, risk management and KM succeed in project implementation.\nOriginality/value: There are many studies that investigate the practices adopted by organizations that implement donor-funded projects, however, this is the first study to the authors' knowledge that examines the relationship between KM, rationality, risk management and successful implementation of donor-funded projects in Uganda.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Abusive supervision and knowledge hiding: the mediating role of psychological contract violation and supervisor directed aggression	[ "Abusive supervision", "Knowledge hiding", "Psychological contract violation", "Supervisor directed aggression", "India" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Knowledge is an important and critical organizational resource that gives organizations a sustainable competitive edge in today's volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity world (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). Studies have stated that organizational performance and its innovativeness can be dramatically improved by sharing of knowledge among the employees (Arthur and Huntley, 2005; Lin, 2007). Employees are expected and even motivated to share their knowledge (both tacit and explicit) with their fellow workers (Cabrera and Cabrera, 2002; Gagne, 2009), and firms expend huge cost and effort in developing elaborate knowledge management systems and by creating conducive environment of trust and goodwill to facilitate this smooth transfer of knowledge (Wang and Noe, 2010).\n2. Theory and hypotheses development: 2.1 Abusive supervision and knowledge hiding\n3. Methods: 3.1 Sample\n4. Data analysis and results: In this study, we used partial least squares (PLS-SEM) to analyse the data. We first checked for common factor method bias using SPSS and AMOS, and then used SmartPLS 3.0 to analyse the measurement model and the structural model.\n5. Conclusion: 5.1 Discussion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test the relationship between abusive supervision and employee's knowledge hiding behaviour among Indian information technology (IT) employees. The paper also strives to theoretically discuss and then seek empirical evidence to the two mediational paths (namely, psychological contract violation and supervisor directed aggression) that explain the focal relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To test the proposed hypotheses, the study draws cross-sectional data from Indian IT employees working in various IT firms in India. Data were collected at two time points (T1 and T2) separated by one month to counter the priming effect and neutralize any threat of common method bias. The final sample of 270 valid and complete responses was analysed using SmartPLS 3 to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: Results showed that abusive supervision is positively related to employee's knowledge hiding behaviours. Also, both psychological contract violation and supervisor directed aggression partially mediates the abusive supervision-knowledge hiding behaviour linkage.\nOriginality/value: First, the current study has tested the positive relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviours unlike most of the previous investigations that have focussed on knowledge sharing behaviour (the two are different constructs having different antecedents). Second, the study also empirically investigated the two parallel mediational routes, namely, psychological contract violation and supervisor directed aggression that explains the blame attributed by the beleaguered employee that led to covert retaliatory behaviour, such as knowledge hiding.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Managing supply chain uncertainty with emerging ethical issues	[ "Supply chain uncertainty", "Ethical purchasing", "Multi-case study", "Parallel interaction", "Supplier collusion", "Supply chain ethics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The globalisation of supply chains means that the production of many goods and services is now affected by a variety of infrastructures, climates and cultures, and by the interactions between them. As a result, there is potential for increased supply chain uncertainty, risk, and complexity (Bhatnagar and Sohal, 2005; Merschmann and Thonemann, 2011; Pilbeam et al., 2012; Wiengarten et al., 2016). Identifying the major sources of uncertainty within supply chains, and developing strategies to manage them, is therefore an important challenge for industry. Although there is an emerging research literature on supply chain uncertainty and the associated fields, such as risk and complexity (e.g. van Donk and van der Vaart, 2005; Rodrigues et al., 2008; Christopher and Holweg, 2011; Simangunsong et al., 2012; Solomon et al., 2012; Wiengarten et al., 2016), much of the work is theoretical or survey based. Given that the latter research approach tends to focus on a limited set of uncertainties and strategies (see, e.g. Huang et al., 2014), there is a need to collect more in-depth empirical evidence using the case study method to further our understanding of multiple sources of supply chain uncertainty and of how they can be managed effectively in practice. In particular, there is a need for such evidence to be collected from emerging economies, given that they are key players in global supply chains and are under-represented in the literature to date (Huq et al., 2014; Zorzini et al., 2014, 2015).\n2. Literature review: This literature review begins with a discussion of prior research into supply chain uncertainty - focussing first, on conceptual models and explaining why the model by Simangunsong et al. (2012) is used as the starting point for this research. Second, more recent survey research into aspects of supply chain uncertainty is then briefly discussed to justify the research gap to understand how multiple sources of uncertainty can be effectively managed (RQ1). Third, the extant literature on ethical issues in the supply chain is reviewed to explain the need to investigate the impact of ethical issues on the effective management of supply chain uncertainty (RQ2).\n3. Research method: The case study method (see, e.g. Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007) has been adopted in this research, using the four stages described by Stuart et al. (2002) of: setting the research questions, instrument development, data collection, and data analysis. The remainder of this section follows this structure.\n4. Findings: the multi-case study evidence: Having completed the within-case analysis, as demonstrated in the Appendix and briefly described in Section 3.4, the cross-case analysis was carried out for each of the sources of uncertainty. The first step in this analysis was to tabulate each source of uncertainty found, indicating all the cases in which it had been identified and whether this confirmed the extant literature or added a new dimension. Table IV presents the material included in this type of table for \"parallel interaction\", labelled as U10 in the Simangunsong et al. (2012) model, as defined in Table I. This shows that one new dimension was identified for this source of uncertainty, and that for the other dimension, further empirical evidence is now available to support the existing literature. The second step was to consider all of the management strategies that had been identified as being effective ways to manage each source of uncertainty. This was also tabulated, as also demonstrated in Table IV for parallel interaction. Again, the contribution to the literature was noted, this time by highlighting any new strategies identified; and the cases in which this data had been found was also noted on the right-hand side. A discussion of these particular new findings is presented in Section 5 along with a discussion of the other findings that relate to ethical issues. A full set of these tables for all the sources of uncertainty, along with other tables that cross-tabulate the data, and a detailed discussion of all of the data including quotes from the interviewees, is given in Simangunsong (2010).\n5. Findings: the emerging ethical issues: Three key unethical practices are evident in the case study data: collusion or parallel interaction between firms supplying the same type of product to customers, firms influencing government regulations in their favour, and firms \"abusing\" their power and leverage at the expense of other firms. These are described in turn below.\n6. Discussion: The material presented in Tables V and VI provide a summarised answer to RQ1, which asked how multiple sources of uncertainty can be effectively aligned with management strategies to improve overall supply chain performance. It is of course not always possible to address all sources of uncertainty simultaneously, but the research has shed further light into how more than one source of uncertainty can be addressed by the same management strategy, and highlights both chain redesign and collaboration as key management approaches. In terms of the positive effects on performance identified, these have included financial improvements (e.g. reduced production costs) and non-financial measures (e.g. increased customer satisfaction). However, all of these measures can be described as conventional measures as defined by authors such as Beske-Janssen et al. (2015), with no sustainability measures identified. This adds further evidence to the conclusion of Beske-Janssen et al. (2015) who suggest that sustainability performance is receiving more attention in the academic literature than corporate practice. It also adds evidence to the arguments of authors such as Ntayi et al. (2013) who claim that social and ethical issues are viewed differently in emerging economies - as it could be argued that this lack of referral to these performance measures is a cultural issue. Thus further research is needed into methods to embed sustainable performance measures and management systems across global supply chains.\n7. Conclusions: A comprehensive picture of the alignments between sources of uncertainty and effective ways of managing them in the context of 12 companies in the food supply chain in Indonesia has been developed, as summarised in Table V. The data summarised in this table, along with Table VI, was then used to answer RQ1, which asked how multiple sources of uncertainty can be effectively aligned with management strategies to improve supply chain performance. Empirical evidence for the alignments included in Table V is only incorporated if the interviewees indicated that a particular strategy enabled them to either reduce or better cope with a given source of uncertainty, thus leading to improved performance for the firm and/or the supply chain as a whole. This data also adds further evidence to the debate on aspects of the broader supply chain management literature, such as the literature on collaboration and the contexts in which effective collaboration is more difficult to implement.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate effective management strategies for 14 sources of supply chain uncertainty, with a particular emphasis on uncertainties or strategies that involve ethical issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Manufacturing strategy theory, underpinned by alignment and contingency theory, is used as the theoretical foundation. Multi-case study data are collected from 12 companies in the Indonesian food industry, including four focal manufacturers, four first-tier suppliers, and four first-tier customers (retailers).\nFindings: Within the context of appropriately aligned management strategies to address 14 sources of uncertainty, three ethical issues are empirically identified: first, collusion amongst suppliers to ration supplies and increase prices; second, unethical influences on government policy; and third, \"abuse\" of power by large retailers at the expense of smaller competitors. Joint purchasing is argued to be a key strategy for combatting the first of these ethical issues.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is limited to the Indonesian food industry, and so further research is needed in other cultures/contexts.\nPractical implications: Management strategies that aim to reduce an uncertainty at its source lead to better overall supply chain performance than strategies that merely cope with uncertainty, which only have an impact on firm-level performance.\nSocial implications: The ethical issues identified have implications for fair negotiations between customers and suppliers.\nOriginality/value: This study is unique in its in-depth case study-based empirical investigation of the management of multiple supply chain uncertainties; and in its discussion of ethical issues in this context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Disability and beating the system: How inclusion practices vary in India and Germany	[ "India", "Human resource management", "Inclusion", "Disabled workers", "Germany" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: Of the many challenges multinational companies encounter as they grow and develop across different countries and cultures, one of the less-discussed areas centers around disability and inclusion. As with many other issues, human resource managers at the head office need to establish policies that are both consistent across the organization so that they are fair, but also respect local customs and beliefs in any given area. On top of that, there are also compliance considerations within each nation to ensure there is no risk of legal problems, language concerns so that policies are fully understood, and additional monitoring to ensure those workers with a disability receive any additional support they require.\nIndia versus Germany: This perceived lack of support in the industry is not just important because of what is fair and equal in terms of the rights of disabled people - which of course is extremely key for modern firms and the society they operate in - but there is a widespread belief that effective implementation of an inclusive policy for disabled workers will improve performance by utilizing often under-used capabilities and competences of those people. In addition, a proactive disability stance can develop and harness the benefits of having an open, transparent, and diverse workplace.\nContextual factors: The study was based on a series of detailed interviews with people directly involved in the implementation of the disability and inclusion policy. In India, the firms were in the software and banking industries, and in Germany, one firm was also in software and the other was in the area of manufacturing. Throughout the interviews, there emerged five unifying factors across all the different contexts, but there were also two key differences.\nSame difference?: Despite the numerous similarities, there were two major differences in the deployment of disability inclusion practices in Germany and India. First, in Germany, the impression was that support from its government was relatively good, while in India, it was thought to be severely lacking - this was by far the biggest difference noted. In India, there was little or no government help reported, and policies such as quotas or tax benefits were either absent or not compelling enough to encourage changes in behaviors.\nComment: The article \"Workplace inclusion of persons with a disability: Comparison of Indian and German multinationals\" by Kulkarni et al. (2016) is a pleasant surprise in the positive news it reports from both Germany and India and the inclusive policies in place for disabled workers. One might have expected large differences, but perhaps one overlooked benefit of globalization is that multinationals have spread proactive policies for disabled workers more effectively.\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: Of the many challenges multinational companies encounter as they grow and develop across different countries and cultures, one of the less-discussed areas centers around disability and inclusion. As with many other issues, human resource managers at the head office need to establish policies that are both consistent across the organization so that they are fair, but also respect local customs and beliefs in any given area. On top of that, there are also compliance considerations within each nation to ensure there is no risk of legal problems, language concerns so that policies are fully understood, and additional monitoring to ensure those workers with a disability receive any additional support they require.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An evaluation of agile manufacturing initiatives in the Indian manufacturing industry	[ "Manufacturing industry", "Agile manufacturing", "Business performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In today's dynamic business environment, organizations are looking for new principles and practices that can ensure long-term sustainability, enhanced operational and financial success of the organizations. As the manufacturing sector is under severe pressure to pursue business excellence and improve overall performance to provide cost-effective and high-quality products to customers (Vinodh et al., 2010), the manufacturing industry is focused on keeping itself aligned with business environment changes in the highly competitive markets (Nejatian et al., 2019), which can be achieved by successful implementation of agile manufacturing (AM) (Gunasekaran, 1999; Nabass and Abdallah, 2019). Earlier, product's price used to be the only competition basis, but now it has moved to speed in delivery with superior quality, and in a more specific way, customer voice and customer delight. The organizations need to re-engineer and restructure their structure to cope effectively with the increased dynamic business environment (Vazquez-Bustelo et al., 2007). During the last few decades, exceptional growth in the manufacturing industry has drastically reformed traditional strategies, leading to the development of the modern concept of AM (Matawale et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2017). Gunasekaran (1999) referred manufacturing process in AM as \"customer-supplier integrated process for product design, manufacturing, marketing, and support services.\"\n2. Contribution of agile manufacturing in enhancing business performance: The assessment of the organizational performance has become very important in the development of the organizational objectives and goals. Antunes et al. (2017) defined performance evaluation as \"the process to quantify the efficiency and effectiveness of production systems.\" AM has been recognized as a promising procedure in achieving greater customer satisfaction and superior business performance by firms (Vazquez-Bustelo et al., 2007). The adoption of AM principles helps the organization to reform itself according to the dynamic needs of customers and to reduce the time and cost of the new product and process development (Vinodh et al., 2010). An organization must effectively coordinate among the key enablers of AM in dynamic business environment to achieve business competitiveness. AM has received increasing attention from both academicians and industry professionals, and it has gradually developed from a niche topic into a broad cross-disciplinary research area. Over the last two decades, numerous research works have reported on defining agility. However, there is no general agreement among researchers on common terminology in defining agility (Vazquez-Bustelo et al., 2007; Nabass and Abdallah, 2019). Gunasekaran (1998) described AM as \"the capability to survive and prosper in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively to changing markets, driven by customer-designed products and services.\" Nabass and Abdallah (2019) defined AM as \"the firm's exceptional capacity to adjust its internal processes and activities through utilizing appropriate managerial and manufacturing methods and tools to respond to market changes.\"\n3. Need of agile manufacturing in Indian context: A number of noticeable transformations are happening in India these days. The government of India launched \"Make in India\" initiative to motivate industries to manufacture their products in India. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India has followed a remarkable positive trend. FDI equity inflows witnessed a growth of 63 percent, whereas FDI inflows hit the 55 percent mark. India is ranked as the 57th most innovative country in the world. E-commerce has also raised the height of customer expectations to a new level. In 2018, the economy of India became the world's fastest growing major economy, surpassing China. Further, it is the sixth-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and the third-largest by purchasing power parity. However, manufacturing sector contributes only 16.90 percent to GDP. The dynamic customers demand for reliable products with superior quality in shorter delivery time at competent cost is imposing pressure on the manufacturing sector to perform better and meet this floating demand. These challenges are motivating Indian manufacturing sector to foster high competency and responsiveness in manufacturing systems. Such challenges faced by Indian manufacturing industry can be addressed through implementation of AM (Gunasekaran, 1999; Vinodh et al., 2010; Matawale et al., 2016; Potdar and Routroy, 2017) to stay competitive and overcome the inherent deficiencies in the manufacturing sector. AM has been proved beneficial for manufacturing organizations in terms of rapid and cost-effective production facilities (Onuh and Hon, 2001; Vinodh et al., 2010; Dubey and Gunasekaran, 2015; Routroy et al., 2015; Sindhwani and Malhotra, 2017), competency and responsiveness (Routroy et al., 2015; Khatri et al., 2018), flexibility (Routroy et al., 2015; Mittal et al., 2017; Patel et al., 2017; Sindhwani and Malhotra, 2017; Khatri et al., 2018) and customer satisfaction (Dubey and Gunasekaran, 2015; Matawale et al., 2016; Potdar and Routroy, 2017; Sindhwani and Malhotra, 2017).\n4. Identification of attributes of agile manufacturing: Agility addresses vibrant solutions for running companies to meet demands of customers asking high-quality and low-cost goods and services. Several attributes for AM implementation are pointed out in the literature. For this study, eight attributes are selected after the literature review, and a discussion is held with experts. The attributes for successful implementation of AM with the literature support are tabulated in Table I and are explained hereafter.\n5. Research objectives and methodology: The present study aims to analyze the AM initiatives adopted by the Indian manufacturing industry for achieving responsive and competitive manufacturing and evaluating the business performance achievements accrued through successful implementation of AM. Figure 1 shows the employed methodology in the present study. India continued to remain the fastest growing major economy in the world in 2018-2019 (Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Government of India). The April, 2019 Report of the World Economic Outlook of International Monetary Fund projected India's GDP to grow even higher at 7.3 percent in 2019. Economic Survey 2018-2019 called for a sustained 8 percent growth rate for India to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024-2025. The Indian manufacturing industry contributes 16.9 percent to GDP and accounts for 12 percent of country's labor force (Indian Economic Survey, 2018-2019). Due to its importance in the Indian economy, the manufacturing sector was selected as the targeted population. The present study has been accomplished in the medium- and large-scale Indian manufacturing industries that have successfully implemented or are at various stages of AM implementation. The survey method was employed to collect responses from manufacturing organizations. The present work considers a manufacturing plant as a unit of analysis, targeting one respondent from each group to receive the answer on the designed questionnaire. Plant and operations managers were targeted because of their particular knowledge related to the manufacturing processes.\n6. AM questionnaire administration: A comprehensive and relevant AM questionnaire is designed and employed to collect the required data to fulfill the research objectives. The survey instrument starts with general organizational aspects that include name and address of the company, product manufactured, present annual turnover, number of employees and market share. Further, the questionnaire was divided into various sections.\n7. General organization summary of responses: Figure 2(a-f) depicts the general organizational summary of responses.\n8. Conclusions: Fast-changing business environment, advancements in technologies and the dynamic needs of consumers simultaneously offer opportunities and threats for the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing industry can achieve competitiveness by improving the quality of products and productivity, thereby meeting the customer requirements. However, the manufacturing sector must not merely rely on increasing the production; it must become highly responsive to the turbulent market environment and customer demands. Organizations can achieve business excellence by strategically aligning themselves between AM principles and business environment turmoil. Business changes have led the organizations to make their human resources and production facilities rapidly responsive by adopting strategies that facilitate rapid production. AM enables the organizations to trace and seize the market opportunities. AM has drawn the interest of the research community to find its enablers, role of AM in business performance enhancement of organization and barriers toward successful implementation of AM.\n9. Limitations and future directions: Like any other study, the results of this work are subjected to several limitations. This research work is carried out particularly in the manufacturing sector; thus, the findings cannot be generalized for other sectors. The research data have been collected from the manufacturing sector, so future investigation can also concentrate on other sectors. The current study is conducted in India, a developing country, in which the business environment differs from that of the developed nations. This work can serve as a reference for conducting similar studies in the developed nations. Further, future investigation may be done to drive inter-relationship among identified attributes of AM and to investigate the relationship between AM attributes and business performance measures using various statistical techniques.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of agile manufacturing (AM) initiatives in the Indian manufacturing industry and their influence on the business performance enhancement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey questionnaire was designed to attain the research objectives. The variables included in the questionnaire were adapted from the elaborated literature review and validated through discussion held with practitioners, academicians and the industry experts. AM questionnaire was sent to approximately 500 randomly selected manufacturing organizations in the northern spectrum of India through e-mails and posts, out of which 154 usable responses were received.\nFindings: The study identified that the Indian manufacturing industry has been reasonably successful in improving the business performance by implementing AM initiatives and has successfully reaped the benefits of AM implementation.\nOriginality/value: The present work develops an insight into the prevailing AM practices adopted by Indian manufacturing organizations. The study calculated the percent point score for each issue of AM initiative with respect to the Indian manufacturing industry and highlighted its impact on the enhancement of business performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Are strategic orientations and managerial characteristics drivers of performance in the US wine industry?	[ "Competitive strategy", "Decision making", "Leadership", "Environment", "Strategy", "Logit/ probit/ tobit", "Survey research", "Conceptual/ theoretical" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The core content of a strategy includes a diagnosis of the situation at hand, the creation or identification of a guiding policy for dealing with critical difficulties and a set of coherent actions (Rumelt, 2011, p. 79). In the global wine industry, for example, the highest predictors of sustainable growth have been found to be superior leadership and strategy execution (Remaud and Couderc, 2006; Swaminathan, 1995; Taplin, 2006). Yet the wine industry has weathered boom and bust and recovery cycles over the 2000-2015 period. When facing challenges in the external and competitive environment, however, it is vastly more difficult to invest time and money in a new direction (Jordan et al., 2007; Sull, 2009). In a recession, for example, it is difficult for businesses to consider learning new managerial skills (Gulati et al., 2010). So, \"the time to learn is when things are going well\" (Wells, 2012, p. 31). In other words, the moment to formulate and implement a strategy is before you realize you need one (Rhodes and Stelter, 2009; Wells, 2012, p. 5). How can a manager become more inspirational and resilient or at least deter overconfidence about environmental conditions and changing competitor power? (Kahneman, 2011; Sull, 2009) There have invariably been two answers to this question:\n2. Literature review: Managerial characteristics and strategic orientations of firms in different kinds of industries wield considerable influence over organizational performance. An organization's age and size are important factors that can create liabilities of smallness and newness (Stinchcombe, 1965), where age is a more significant factor in the ability to conduct environmental scanning activity (Mengistae, 1996; Mohan-Neill, 1995; Thomas and Ramaswamy, 1996; Yasuda, 2005). These earlier studies attribute increasing organizational size and age to significant downward pressure on performance. A study based on 2001-2008 sample data from French, Italian and Spanish manufacturers with more than ten employees elicited no country differences to explain the impact of firm age on rates of growth (Navaretti et al., 2014). Large firms show a higher propensity to adopt innovations than smaller firms, while a firm's innovation practices do not depend upon its age (Moohamad et al., 2014).\n3. Research methodology: Our mailing list of the USA wine producers consisted of members of the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium and members of the USA Wine Market Council, representing a sizable population of potential respondents among the reported 8.702 USA wine producers in 2015, according to Wine Business Monthly's annual State of the Industry report (Franson, 2016). Internet survey software (SurveyMonkey.com) was used to collect data; 3,622 wine businesses received the invitation and survey link. Two follow-up e-mailings sent two weeks apart ensued as per Dillman (1991). The response rate after two e-mailings resulted in 338 respondents, about 9.3 per cent, of the population. To test for non-response bias, the first wave of respondents (62.5 per cent) was compared to the remaining group using t-tests on the key descriptive and survey variables. No significant differences were found between groups indicating a low probability of response bias (Armstrong and Overton, 1977). Questions for this study were adapted from prior research (Gilinsky et al., 2000).\n4. Discussion: We set out to ascertain the strategic orientations of wine businesses in the USA, that is:\n5. Practical implications and future research: Strategic orientation is a set of values and beliefs that influences the direction of activities that firms undertake to sustain a competitive advantage (Liu and Chen, 2015). The relationship between firm-level entrepreneurship and organizational performance - if there is a consensus on growth and profitability as the appropriate measures - has been investigated in earlier studies (Antoncic, 2006; Zahra, 1991; Zahra, 1993; Zahra and Covin, 1995; Zahra and Garvis, 2000).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of strategic orientations and managerial characteristics on the performance of wine businesses in the US wine industry. Also considered is the power of firm size as measured by production and firm age since founding, as moderating variables that could attenuate or heighten their impact.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were gathered via an online survey, where 306 representatives of the US wineries responded. Data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, multinomial logistic regression, cross-tabulations and Pearson chi-square (kh2) analysis.\nFindings: Wine businesses that reported increased sales and profits over the previous three years made significant changes to organizational structure and staffing levels. Wineries that reported flat or decreasing sales and profits were less apt to make changes in organizational structure or staffing levels. Firm age was found to mediate performance in terms of incremental sales and profit growth; firm size was found to mediate only incremental profit growth.\nPractical implications: Developing skills in marketing, strategic planning and entrepreneurial thinking to build a defensible industry position and to create the staffing and structure to support that position appear to be of great importance to wine businesses.\nOriginality/value: This study develops and tests a model investigating how firm size and age impact strategic orientations and managerial characteristics on the performance of the US wine businesses. This study investigates which strategic orientations and managerial characteristics wine businesses need to be successful in the future.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementation and execution of industrial service strategy: A case study from the oil and gas industry	[ "Industrial services", "Service delivery systems", "Performance criteria", "Corporate strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and background: In Norway the oil and gas (O&G) industry is entering a new era of development as the production in some of the fields has entered or is entering the tail-end phase. In this phase unit operational costs increase due to declining production and stagnant or increasing operational and maintenance (O&M) costs (NPD Report, 2003). To prolong the economic lifetime of the field it is essential to reduce the operational expenses (OPEX), and/or to raise the production volume. This may be feasible if the involved parties manage to get control of the OPEX, and cooperate to optimize performance.Kumar et al. (2004), underline that \"...the role of supporting services needed to exploit product's function to an agreeable performance is becoming increasingly important\". Industrial service contracts need to be negotiated carefully to avoid disagreement and inadequate performance. Companies are becoming progressively more dependent on service providers to deliver performance at a competitive level according to stakeholders and market demands. However, to be able to achieve this the service delivery process need to be carefully defined, negotiated, and agreed upon considering involved parties' needs, wants and preferences. Moreover, a service strategy need to be defined on how to implement and thereafter execute the agreed on service strategy. One needs to assure that there is no force that can influence the process in such a way that it threatens to become critical and/or a stopper (Grundy, 1998).This demands a different business approach for both operator and service companies. Effective and efficient service strategies are needed where major influence and performance factors are considered, as well as customers' demands and requirements and providers' expertise and competence (Kumar and Markeset, 2005). In other words, a prudent organization needs to formulate a service strategy that is \"appropriate for the organization, appropriate for the industry, and appropriate for the situation\" (Alexander, 1991). He further emphasizes that effective strategy implementation and execution relies on maintaining a balance between preventing failures and promoting success simultaneously. When there is a proper alignment between strategy, administrative mechanisms and organizational capabilities, it will be easier to implement and execute the strategy and to achieve the desired objectives (Okumus, 2003).However, a well-developed service strategy does not automatically mean well implemented (see also Al-Ghamdi, 1998). Strategic management gradually is shifting from paying 90 per cent attention to strategy formulation and 10 per cent to strategy implementation, to paying equal attention to both (Grundy, 1998). Traditionally, it is believed that strategy implementation and execution is less glamorous than strategy formulation, and that anyone can implement and execute a well-formulated service strategy. Therefore, implementation and execution has attracted much less attention than strategy formulation or strategic planning (Alexander, 1991; Bigler, 2001). Organizations face difficulties while implementing and executing their strategies for different reasons. There is uncertainty about what these processes include and where they begin and end. Such uncertainty includes weak management roles in implementation, a lack of knowledge and communication to guide their actions, unawareness or misunderstanding of the strategy, poor coordination, inadequate capabilities, competing activities within the working team, unfortunate marketing timing, uncontrollable environmental factors, misaligned operation and insufficient monitoring and evaluation of the process (Alexander, 1985; Gilmore, 1997; Okumus, 2003).Considering the above discussed scenarios a performance-based service strategy framework was developed as shown in Figure 1. See Kumar and Markeset (2005) for details. In the framework, factors and their attributes are ranked based on their level of influence on a service strategy. A list of critical success factors, performance killers and cost drivers of service strategy and named as performance factors has been presented as well. The framework has been validated for the O&G industry, but can be used for other industry as well.In the service strategy implementation process, resources are allocated and an organization is designed and built to make it possible to carry out the strategic plan (see also Mintzberg, 1978). Alexander (1991) points out that \"strategy implementation addresses the issue of how to put a formulated strategy into effect - with defined time constraint, within budget, and human resources, and its capabilities\". In the service strategy execution process, the organization utilizes the resources to deliver the services, and to carry out the strategic plan on a continuous basis throughout the predetermined life cycle. \"Without an executable plan - and the resources needed to implement that plan - even the most innovative strategy is merely words on paper\" (Wery and Waco, 2004). For more details on the strategy formulation and strategy implementation see, for example, Porter (1980); Hope and Muhlemann (1997); Aaltonen and Ikavalko (2002). Service strategy implementation and execution is a complex, crucial and challenging part of the service delivery process. Figure 2 gives an overview of strategies and service strategy process phases.In this paper we will discuss the implementation and execution process of a performance based service strategy. We emphasize that strategy implementation and execution are different in the respect that implementation has to do with making resources available and setting up detail plans for strategy execution, whereas the execution phase the plans are enacted and the resources used. However, in the case study the main emphasis is on the execution phase. We will present obstacles and factors that can have a significant role and influence on service strategy execution. Furthermore, we will present performance factors (e.g. cost drivers, performance killers and critical success factors) that need to be considered in following-up a service strategy execution process. Our goal is to describe the complex issues that need to be considered in a service strategy implementation and execution process.\nCase study: To obtain a broad picture and to map the implementation and execution process of a developed service strategy, a case study was conducted where we studied the contract for two oil and gas production facilities in the North Sea. We focused the study on the implementation and execution process of a service strategy. Furthermore, we mapped two different types of ongoing contracts contents, i.e. a production facility maintenance and modifications (M&M) contract and a production facility performance based operational (PBO) contract.The main purpose of the case study is to map the implementation and execution process of the performance-based service strategy framework (as shown in the box with broken lines Figure 1).To get an overview of the complexity of a service contract we first compared the content of an M&M contract and a PBO contract. The M&M contract concerns the maintenance and modification of a production facility located on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), while the PBO contract concern the operation of a production facility located on the UK continental shelf (UKCS). Secondly, we conducted guided interviews with management and operative personnel from different companies who were involved in the implementation and execution process of these contracts.The interviews were summarized and verified. Some interviews were tape-recorded. We used the same questionnaire for all participants of the case study. A reference group with two participants from industry and three senior researchers was established to assure quality and to guide the research project. Initially, a draft copy of the questionnaire was sent to the reference group members and some relevant personnel from the targeted companies as a pre-test to improve the quality and to validate the questionnaire. They were requested to give their feedback concerning ambiguity, non-relevance of the survey for the study, etc. Their comments and suggestions were considered and implemented.The research data and information were gathered from four companies (i.e. the production facility owner, production facility operators, and service providers). We interviewed 13 employees from top management, middle management and operative personnel. Conclusions and suggestions are drawn based on collected information from documents, experience, and interviews.To get an overview of service strategy formulated goals and intentions we analyzed the contracts with respect to focus, differences and contents. Thereafter, we analyzed the interviewed participants' responses.Analysis part 1: contract comparison\nDiscussion of findings: Based on the case study findings, it is apparent that clear goals, scopes and objectives are essential for implementing and executing a service strategy. In the contract comparison it was observed that the contracts were similar with respect to content and structure. However, two major differences appeared. But in the M&M contract case, the service provider/customer relationship was more conventional (for more details about different types of relationships see, e.g. Gronroos (2004); Gummesson (1999); Eriksson et al. (1999); Berry (1995); Christopher et al. 1991). One participant from the M&M contract stated that they provide \"seamless and transparent services where the customer sees the finished and installed product delivered on agreed price and time\". In the M&M contract the contractor charges payment on an hourly basis. In the PBO contract the contractor was rewarded based on performance. In addition, we found that the PBO contract's conditions seemed to be more flexible than those of the M&M contract.The M&M case the service strategy concept implemented in the contract was a well tried over the last ten years on the NCS and the company had considerable experience with executing the service delivery process. The PBO contract was a new and focus was tail-end production. This demands a different focus on costs and production regularity as compared to production from a field in a plateau phase. A large production facility operator may not have the capacity and willingness to invest valuable competence and resources necessary to obtain the cost cutting and improvement of operational and production effectiveness and efficiency needed for a production facility in the tail-end phase. These resources may be better employed at O&G production facilities delivering substantial more O&G volume and profits.In PBO case during the service contract negotiation process neither of the parties had a complete overview of the planned and unplanned activities necessary to achieve the goals. However, the parties designed in contingencies to deal with the uncertainties through regular meetings, performance measures and contingency plans. Furthermore, the parties attempted to consider possible scenarios with respect to contract implementation and execution. It is advisable to consider services and scenarios that occur due to unpredictable failures and unforeseen events (see for example, Kumar et al., 2004). During the implementation and execution process, one should monitor and reassess the performance to ensure that the cost drivers and performance killers are under control.Excellent communications and transparency between involved parties, as well as clearly defined performance factors, play a vital role to create trust in the implementation and execution phase. Well-aligned communication and relationships are the foundation for trust- building between involved parties throughout the implementation and execution process. To become a successful strategy implementer and executor, the top management personnel should clearly communicate, \"what the new strategic decision is all about\" with involved parties and with operative personnel (Alexander, 1985). Any delay caused through poor communication or coordination could create conflict between parties and have an impact on business and relationships. Responsibilities and duties need to be clearly explained to reduce uncertainty, speculation and unfounded fears. The goal is to minimize the gap between required and delivered services, and to assure continuous excellent production assurance.The service strategy implementation and execution process is complicated, but is important for the organization to compete in the market. There are several factors that need to be considered and continuously monitored to keep the implementation and execution process updated. Figure 4 illustrates a simplified service strategy implementation and execution process.\nConcluding remarks: To realize the objectives and to create maximum value for involved parties, the service strategy needs to be implemented and executed appropriately. Moreover, to achieve customer satisfaction and to create a win-win situation in the market, gaps between required and delivered services need to be avoided (Kumar and Kumar, 2004). Thus, a service implementation and execution framework that responds to the requirements of all involved parties is needed. Hiles (1994) asserts, \"Whatever, service targets are set, they must be stretching but achievable. Under-promise and over-achieve\" seems to be the motto of successful implementers (also see Manarro-Viseras et al. 2005).The service strategy developers, implementers and executors should clearly understand the process requirements and preferences. Based on this, they should be able to predict obstacles and prepare for possible solutions before the strategy is implemented and executed. Moreover, it is necessary to monitor what is actually happening to analyze how to deal with emerging problems, to seek solutions and to decide what modifications might be needed. When developing a contract implementation and execution model, implementer and executor attempt to consider all possible influencing and performance factors and to predict what services will be needed.To ensure that a chosen strategy is effective as well as efficient, one needs to be aware of the related strategic and operational issues, challenges and opportunities that arise at various stages of the implementation and execution process as well as need to be flexible enough to adapt to changes to compete in the market. Services are based on relationships, finding solutions to customers' problems, and building relationships. The services' content is delivered in processes and driven by people.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of the paper is to discuss the complex issues, obstacles and factors that can have a significant role and influence on the implementation and execution of a performance-based industrial service strategy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A case study has been performed the oil and gas industry which maps the issues, challenges and opportunities in the process of implementing and executing a performance-based service strategy.\nFindings: - The study identifies differences in practice with respect to conventional as compared to performance-based contracts. Furthermore, performance factors (i.e. cost drivers, performance killers and critical success factors) of the service strategy implementation and execution process are discussed in relation to the oil and gas industry in the North Sea. A performance-based service strategy needs to be upgraded, modified and customized based on performance measurements, as well as needs, wants and preferences of the involved parties during the contract period.\nPractical implications: - The findings and discussions will help service strategy developers, implementers and executors to recognize the importance of a focused service strategy development process for industrial services. Moreover, the paper will guide developers, implementers and executors to decide about factors that need to be considered.\nOriginality/value: - The framework discussed can be used to develop a performance-based service strategy. The results of the research will ease the process of understanding and defining the implementation and execution process of a strategy by presenting the possible performance factors in advance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Outsourcing of strategic resources and capabilities: opposing choices in the commercial aircraft manufacturing	[ "Outsourcing", "Financial performance", "Supply chain management", "Aircraft industry" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Fixed graphic\n1. Introduction: One way of defining the boundaries of a company is to identify the capabilities and activities that it has to keep in-house and those that it has to outsource, thus defining an \"inside\" and an \"outside\". Together with the rising outsourcing in the years after the end of Golden Era of capitalism, two featured perspectives have especially dealt with questions around externalisation of corporate resources. The first belongs to a cost management and costs saving perspective, whereas the second deals mainly with the management of resources and capacities. Theorising the first perspective, transaction costs economics (Williamson, 1985) suggests that, when the degrees of uncertainty, asset specificity and the frequency of exchanges are high, vertical integration is the main form of productive organisation due to the important transaction costs of contracting out the economic activity. Being the unit of analysis, transaction defines the organisational forms and choices. The second perspective on the question of contracting in our out is concurrently studied by the resource-based view (RBV) (Wernerfelt, 1984; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Barney, 1991). For this view, the ability of a company to build and develop a set of core or strategic capabilities is a guarantee of its competitive advantage. The view recommends keeping them in-house, and holding them is a further source of competitive advantage (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Barthelemy, 2007). For aircraft manufacturers, flight controls constitute strategic resources which necessitate capabilities that are also critical to deploy them. In particular, as the failure of an aircraft's flight controls puts at risk the lives of the passengers themselves, the level of certification required for this critical component is maximal. The pivotal nature of the system obliges, a priori, every aircraft manufacturer to retain total control of it, to maintain the confidence of the airlines that are its clients. Moreover, the technologies included in flight controls are highly specific, which make the system difficult to imitate. Nevertheless, it may be seen that, although Airbus has insourced this system, Boeing has adopted the opposite strategy of outsourcing it. How can one explain these opposing strategic choices made by two competitors in defining their boundaries? This paper aims to provide an answer to this question.\n2. The VRIO model applied to flight controls: 2.1 The VRIO approach\n3. Case study: Airbus and Boeing, opposing strategies: 3.1 Research methods and data\n4. Outsourcing induced by financial motives: Our analysis has shown so far that, although the VRIO model explains Airbus bringing its flight control computers back in-house, it does not provide an analysis of the outsourcing choice made by Boeing. Two types of explanations can be proposed. The first one is the qualitative difference of two companies' outsourcing strategies which took shape along their historically distinct partnership strategies, and the second one is diverging financial motives behind their productive reorganisation efforts.\nConclusion: We have shown that Airbus has progressively brought the computer element, the core of the flight control system, back in house during successive programmes, whereas Boeing outsources this critical, strategic component in an accelerated fashion. The RBV is useful to understand Airbus' strategy, which seeks, as shown by the study of its technological bases, to extend and enrich its knowledge. At the same time, Boeing remains focused on technologies which deal with the integration of the equipment into the overall architecture of the aircraft. In terms of the number of patents filed in the field of flight controls, Airbus is clearly more dynamic, as it has developed an approach aimed at controlling these strategic resources and capabilities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to address the questions of different outsourcing strategies between Airbus and Boeing and point out the theoretical limits of the resource-based view (RBV) approach that must be broadened with a finance perspective. Owing to the complexity of systems, the aircraft industry is nowadays structured around a well-organised value chain of product development and manufacturing. However, according to the RBV, capabilities attached to some systems and components are strategic resources and must be kept in house to maintain competitive advantage. In commercial aircraft avionics, critical systems such as flight controls fall directly under this rule, due to substantial risks of passenger safety they deal with.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on two comparative studies concerning the A330/340 and A350 programmes at Airbus and their equivalents at Boeing, the B777 and the B787. The data are both primary (financial and patent data) and secondary (semi-structured interviews and documentation.\nFindings: The main result highlights the limits of the RBV model to understand why Airbus has chosen to re-internalise the development and production of flight control systems contrary to Boeing. For both, cost reduction is the main objective of outsourcing, but European firms are more careful with critical resources. The financialisation of aircraft manufacturers' strategies is another explanatory factor relevant to understand why Boeing outsources strategic resources such as flight controls.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors demonstrate the potential of multiplication of research methods to address a question. Second, they try to bring together different theories in a preliminary effort, which gives them some promising stuffy perspective for future works.\nPractical implications: By addressing both the RBV and the financialisation perspectives, the authors provide an interesting view of the COmplex Products and Systems (CoPS) challenges.\nSocial implications: The findings of this research must provide key of interpretation for business managers, which may consider the two faces, knowledge management and financial, to explain corporate performance.\nOriginality/value: Several originalities are relevant in this work. From a methodological point of view, the authors offer a comparison between the two main players of commercial aircraft manufacturing, an oligopolistic industry. Second, the data they choose to rely on are both qualitative and quantitative to strengthen the results. Third, at a micro level, this study is original in its approach of linking outsourcing to financialisation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
It's good to talk: Telephone help-lines for health professionals can support effective and safe working practices	[ "Ethics", "Health services", "Help desks" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The majority of doctors work in relatively stable, albeit on occasion stressful, environments where norms of practice are usually established. The policies and procedures within an organisation (either a large trust or a small practice) should reflect professional codes of practice and offer information about clinical support mechanisms that are available. These might include senior colleagues and managers and provide details of external sources as necessary, for example Trust lawyers, regional advisers, etc.There are occasions when even the most experienced clinician may wish to discuss confidentially the dilemmas and treatment (or no-treatment) options arising in a particular situation. If this relates solely to a difficult clinical decision or the management of an angry or distressed relative it may be straightforward to discuss this confidentially within the employing organisation using existing networks. However, the need may arise to share and discuss sensitive and highly personal information about a colleague (or themselves) or possibly a situation they have encountered which may compromise their own standing as a doctor. In these situations it is essential that an impartial, non-judgmental and supportive framework exists that can allow such interactions. This will ultimately be for the benefit of the profession and patients.A working party report published in 2005 by the Royal College of Physicians (Royal College of Physicians, 2005) made 42 recommendations with respect to the provision of ethics support in healthcare provision. The report noted that \"In many institutions a combination of current arrangements for informal advice from seniors and peers supplemented by national sources of advice (BMA ethics unit, medical defence organisations, and guidelines from the GMC, medical royal colleges and other bodies) may be considered adequate for much of the time. Even in these cases, however, it will be essential that key personnel who are to provide the advice are identified and are qualified to do so. Ready access to national sources of advice should also be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in a location that is known to everyone who works in an institution. Information should be made available in induction packs.\"The subsequent recommendation was that \"sources of advice should be widely advertised and accessible via an intranet site with links to national sources of support...\" While ethics is important, there are several other aspects of care (or caring) to be considered that are linked in with safe and supportable clinical practice that may not be dealt with effectively by a series of intranet links. In fairness to the working party, many valuable recommendations were made, although the scope was limited to clinical cases. A protection organisation is likely to deal with more wide-ranging subject matter.A recent publication from the Medical Protection Society stated that medicolegal advisers received 19,000 calls to the organisation's UK medicolegal help-line (a 24 hour service) during 2007 (Medical Protection Society, 2008). The analysis of the data shows that just over a quarter were requests for advice about ethical dilemmas and a very significant proportion were to do with more specific advice, such as record disclosure, confidentiality, complaints management, etc. (Table I).While, as mentioned previously, information is freely available for all doctors and health professionals in a variety of formats and accessed in a variety of ways, it is not always readily to hand when a particular question needs to be posed at short notice or in a situation where access to online information or library resources may be limited (although the latter is becoming less frequent).On-line access is beneficial but is a one-way process such that the doctor seeks out information and then interprets it in his or her own way. There is no dialogue involved and the questions posed may not be entirely answered by the information accessed. Some doctors may derive more benefit from telephone discussion with a medicolegal adviser as the specifics of a situation can be explained and themes developed. It is possible that through discussion the doctor can reach a solution or confirm their pre-existing views as to what may or may not be deemed appropriate or suitable practice in the widest sense.Telephone access to protection organisations on a 24-hour basis however is not available to all and only comes as a benefit of membership.The GMC also has a significant role to play as it is possible for doctors to seek advice during working hours about the interpretation of GMC guidance and codes of practice.Other organisations will address specific questions and concerns, but often these need to be formally addressed in correspondence (latterly with more emphasis on e-mail) before a response is generated. That may not be appropriate for the immediate response to a clinical dilemma or other question that the doctor poses. Indeed the expectation of an immediate response to a problem is becoming more common, whether for healthcare professionals, their patients, or society at large.Appreciation of the merits of a service that allows a discussion with an expert on a challenging dilemma seems to be widespread. In the USA, 72 per cent of interns said that they would find it helpful, while in Bulgaria 96 per cent of hospital physicians responded positively to ethics consultations (Duval et al., 2004; Aleksandrova, 2008). A Europe-wide study also found value in the service (Hurst et al., 2007).To ascertain what, if any, were the common themes and concerns, a random selection of 100 telephone advice calls to the MPS help-line during a two-week period in March 2008 were reviewed. The calls were made by doctors currently working within the UK and Republic of Ireland.Just over half the calls were from doctors working in primary care and 44 per cent were from the secondary care setting. The range of clinical and professional experience between callers varied from first year doctors and other training grades to experienced senior clinicians within primary and secondary care. One call was from a medical student.Some requests for advice could be dealt with simply and quickly, others required more protracted discussion with some ultimately necessitating correspondence with MPS. The length of the calls was related to the nature of the problem rather than the specialty or experience of the member. Many doctors of differing experience and professional position had a relatively brief interaction with the medicolegal adviser (Table II).\nPrimary care: A total of 56 per cent of the calls came from doctors or practice managers working in the primary care sector, the majority (64 per cent) were from GP principals with other enquiries from practice managers, GP locums, and salaried GPs and GP registrars (Table III).\nPersonal conduct and health - individuals and colleagues: Two enquiries during the study period concerned the appropriateness or otherwise of self-prescribing or prescribing for a relative overseas. It is encouraging that the doctors, who were uncertain of the appropriateness of their proposed course of action, chose to seek advice rather than engage in behaviour that they had cause to doubt. This is not an infrequent enquiry and unfortunately over the years MPS has encountered similar cases which have resulted in disciplinary action and ultimately GMC investigations for what is deemed inappropriate professional behaviour. The GMC guidance is relatively straightforward and unambiguous both for self treatment and for treating those who may be close to the doctor. The GMC web site is easy to use and current guidance can be found without difficulty.You should be registered with a general practitioner outside your family to ensure that you have access to independent and objective medical care. You should not treat yourself (General Medical Council, 2006a).Objectivity is essential in providing good care; independent medical care should be sought whenever you or someone with whom you have a close personal relationship requires prescription medicines (Good Medical Council, 2006b).Several requests for advice were specifically about the behaviour, professional conduct or potential ill health of colleagues. There were concerns about drink-driving convictions, inability to separate personal from professional lives in terms of potential relationships with patients and anxieties about the impact of these behaviours on patient safety. The medicolegal adviser has a role to play in steering the practitioner towards taking appropriate action be it supportive and empathic, advisory, reactive or ultimately taking decisions that may lead to a colleague being involved in disciplinary action.In these situations it is also possible that the doctor who may be vulnerable is separately seeking advice from a protection organisation to protect their position or ensure that they are treated justly.\nClinical records, disclosure and IT: A relatively small percentage of the advice calls involved questions or confirmation about methods of storage of clinical information, ability to disclose information to other parties and consent requirements bound up with this. As this is normally a relatively common type of question - members are often directed to the web site to access relevant fact sheets (www.medicalprotection.org/uk/factsheets) to obtain up-to-date guidance that is in accordance with good practice and current case law.\nSafeguarding: In its broadest interpretation, many doctors seek guidance as to how to manage clinical situations where there are safeguarding concerns for children and young people, elder abuse and in cases where disrupted families may be using healthcare information to further a court case in relation to access to children in divorce proceedings. The health professional may find themselves unwittingly caught in the middle of difficult family disputes and has to ensure that they are fair to all parties, respect confidentiality while protecting any young people who may be party to the proceedings. Often impartial advice and \"thinking aloud\" discussions are beneficial. At all times callers are advised to access the local guidelines and, where relevant, established multidisciplinary safeguarding teams.\nPatient safety concerns: Surprisingly few of the calls in the study were focused on patient safety concerns. In cases where either a process was seriously flawed or a colleague appeared to be compromised in their behaviour or decision making, the callers were seeking support in a variety of ways. These included the steps necessary to protect the patient(s) involved and the methods by which the health professional could legitimately express their views in a professional way. There is guidance on these matters available from the GMC, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and the National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS).However for the individual concerned, particularly if they are acting in a junior or locum capacity, it may be difficult to confront some of these issues without feeling professionally vulnerable. A recent paper establishes a typology of ethical problems faced by house officers and offers suggestions as to how these problems need to be prioritised during training (McDougall and Sokol, 2008). The existence and increasing use of the telephone help-lines demonstrate that it is not just junior doctors who experience these dilemmas.\nNature and value of the advice given to members: High quality advice must be provided by protection organisations as it may shape or confirm a course of action that a member has considered or embarked on. The advice must reflect current and accepted good practice, must be legally and professionally robust and be able to withstand challenge.Very often the medicolegal adviser has to encompass and promote what is essentially a distillate of the current thinking and accepted practice in many different fields. Enquiries can come from a range of differing specialties (24 specialties in 44 secondary care calls) and so advice has to be pertinent to that specialty and relevant to the practice of medicine in general. It is of course unreasonable to expect that a telephone adviser could have the depth of knowledge about any one specialty to equip them to deal with the minutiae of a particular problem - but in essence each dilemma tends to share the same common principles demanding a way of practising medicine that is safe, ethical and supportable. This is akin to undertaking clinical risk assessments in different clinical settings - for example the equipment, techniques and the range of drugs used may all differ but the goals are the same.\nConclusion: At a time when the focus of much healthcare provision is on the use of new technology and systems, it is vital that professionals still have access to a more discursive, dialectic process. Medicolegal and ethical issues are not easily reduced to a black-and-white protocol, and the provision of a national help-line service is a cost-effective way of providing a dedicated, expert resource to support healthcare professionals in resolving their dilemmas and promoting good practice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper's aim is to consider the value of medicolegal telephone help-lines for doctors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This is a brief review as to how members of a medical protection organisation use a medicolegal telephone help-line by analysing 100 random calls during a two week period in March 2008. The range of themes and concerns are compared with annual figures from 2007. Recommendations with regard to the need for national advice are considered.\nFindings: - The nature of the service provided gives doctors an additional opportunity to explore matters of concern. Doctors appear to need guidance to support decision making in a variety of ways where a clinical or professional situation needs resolving within an appropriate ethical and legal framework.\nPractical implications: - Health care organizations should reflect on what if any additional ethical / medicolegal training is required for their employees to assist in difficult professional decisions. There appears to be a significant need for doctors to be able to access independent telephone advice and the use of such services may need to be encouraged.\nOriginality/value: - The paper highlights the benefit for health professionals to have access to independent, objective advice and discussions to support ethical decision making.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Leadership: a matter of perception	[ "Leadership", "Personality", "Trust" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In the past few decades the phenomenon of leadership has reached ultimate heights as a topic of interest to authors, scholars, and students. There are literally thousands of definitions in existence of what a leader is or should be and what leadership should entail. Some of these definitions - as with every dynamic phenomenon - even downright contradict to each other.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Discusses the criteria for contemporary leadership as perceived by 200 working business and management students.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper explains the multiple, sometimes contradicting perspectives that exist about leadership, after which it presents the findings from a collection of assessment feedback from 200 working business and management students on what leadership should entail, what is indispensable for leaders, and what the main differences are between leaders and managers.\nFindings: - Leadership is an evolving phenomenon: not only as a research subject, but even more as an experience in our own lives.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings are presented as a viewpoint in this article, even though the data were gathered over the course of three years (nine course sessions). The fact that the study participants were all residing and working in the Los Angeles area should be considered in reviewing the findings.\nPractical implications: - Leadership is no longer a characteristic of a precious few, but is now more commonly understood as a way of living for all of us.\nSocial implications: - When everyone starts perceiving him- or herself as a leader, the general sense of responsibility may get elevated.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents leadership as a quality that we all can harbor and understand.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Promoting pre-service teachers' engagement in an online professional learning community: Support from practitioners	[ "Online professional learning community", "Practitioners", "Pre-service teachers", "SNA", "Knowledge-building", "Social interaction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, the online professional learning community (PLC) has been recognised as a useful collaborative learning environment to enhance pre-service teachers' professional growth (Kirschner and Lai, 2007). Pre-service teachers' collaboration in an online PLC can enhance their sense of collective responsibility for improving learning and teaching (Bond, 2013). The collaboration of pre-service teachers with experienced practitioners, such as expert, in-service teachers who are actively involved in the teaching profession and have experience in teaching, can engage pre-service teachers in the process of learning to teach (Dorner and Kumar, 2016). Prior studies concerning pre-service teachers have shown that networking with and establishing social relations with other practitioners can provide pre-service teachers with access to knowledge regarding the practice of teaching (Risser, 2013). Engaging with practitioners can provide cognitive and emotional support, which can prepare novice teachers to teach (Feiman-Nemser, 1998). Studies on engaging experienced practitioners with pre-service teachers found that practitioners enhanced pre-service teachers' satisfaction in engaging in online learning (Dorner and Kumar, 2017) and developed both their computer skills (Dorner and Kumar, 2016) and practical knowledge (Alebaikan, 2016).By contrast, there has been limited empirical research to evaluate the practitioners' effect on developing pre-service teachers' knowledge and network development in an online PLC. Recent attention has focused on how and why pre-service teachers within a PLC form networks (Risser, 2013). Van Waes et al. (2018) recommended the use of interventions to strengthen teachers' networks, to improve teaching and learning. In fact, most research on pre-service teachers' programmes has concentrated on enhancing knowledge acquisition (e.g. Al-Abdullatif, 2019). There has been limited focus on their development of cognition (knowledge construction) and social network growth (e.g. Author, 2018; Liou et al., 2016). Liou et al. (2016) argue that both social and cognitive aspects of pre-service teachers' professional learning play an important role in developing their teaching skills. There has been limited empirical research to examine the impact of practitioners on pre-service teachers' collaboration and engagement in an online PLC (Li et al., 2014). Therefore, this study responds to the paucity of research into the role of experienced practitioners in enhancing both the cognitive (knowledge construction) and social engagement (interaction) of pre-service teachers.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Knowledge-building in an online PLC\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Results: 4.1 Research question 1\n5. Discussion: In term of RQ1, which focused on the cognitive level of knowledge constructed by the pre-service teachers, after the involvement of practitioners, the experimental group posted on average more cognitive messages coded at the higher cognitive levels compared to the control group. One possible explanation may relate to the presence of the practitioners. Liu (2005) found that the online environment was appropriate for expert teachers to support pre-service teachers to collaboratively develop knowledge and to enhance cognitive thinking skills. Liu (2005) argues that pre-service teachers' cognitive skills can be improved through engaging in conversation with experienced teachers. Zeichner (1996) points out that pre-service teachers during campus-based experience lack access to the thinking and decision-making process of experienced practitioners, which is considered extremely important if they are to learn. It appears that in this current study pre-service teachers had opportunities to interact with experts and to learn how they think, which in turn may lead to an increase in higher level cognitive exchange. By contrast, Redmond and Mander (2006) found no increase in high-level cognitive discourse in the presence of experts, inferring that the experts had difficulty in coaching pre-service teachers to achieve a high level of cognitive engagement. They recommended work on enhancing the experts' role to develop higher-level cognitive exchange. It seems that the training programme for practitioners in this current study may have allowed them to establish how to facilitate pre-service teachers' higher-level cognitive thinking. The results demonstrate that although the experimental group increased the volume of messages coded at the highest \"resolution\" level, the number was low compared to other cognitive levels. Redmond and Mander (2006) found that restricted opportunity to test a solution was one reason for the limited number of resolution-level messages. In this current study, pre-service teachers had no opportunity to test any solutions in a classroom of pupils, due to their lack of engagement in teaching practice. Engaging pre-service teachers in micro-teaching within the university context to help them to test solutions prior to gaining classroom experience. According to Saban and Coklar (2013), micro-teaching can allow pre-service teachers to trial different teaching strategies which play role in enhancing their learning.Regarding RQ2, which focused on the level of professional collaboration, the findings show that individuals in the experimental group exhibited growth over time in the average size of their networks in both knowledge sharing and knowledge building, when compared to the control group. This was in line with significant growth in overall network density for the experimental group at the knowledge-building level, while the overall network density of the control group remained constant. This finding is consistent with a qualitative study by Willegems et al. (2018), who found that in-service teachers played a role in engaging and coaching peers in collaborative activity and supported them to work as a team. The low level of engagement in the control group, in terms of developing their ties in a collaborative environment, may relate to the lack of coaching from experts. Kervinen et al. (2016) found that some pre-service teachers lacked experience in engaging in collaborative planning of a science lesson and needed support to collaborate. The result of this current study suggests that the presence of expert practitioners, with appropriate training, can play role in establishing the norm of collaboration and reaching out for support in sharing and building knowledge among pre-service teachers. Several researchers found that skilful online practitioners provided effective coaching and scaffolding techniques in pre-service curricular to enhance the engagement (Dorner and Kumar, 2017; Redmond and Mander, 2006). They also placed an emphasis on practitioners needing to have both expert disciplinary knowledge, coupled with awareness of facilitation techniques, to enhance the level of collaboration.In terms of developing ties with pre-service teachers, both within and outside their departmental disciplines (RQ3), the presence of practitioners in the experimental group led to increased knowledge sharing across the two departments, resulting in decreased homophily of exchange over time. By contrast, the control group decreased its collaboration between the two departments and thus increased the homophilous level of exchange. One explanation for this result is that practitioners may have tried to enhance the norm of sharing resources by engaging pre-service teachers in interdisciplinary activities. Brown et al. (2018) argue that the lack of engaging experts with experience in an interdisciplinary environment with teachers may act as an obstacle in design of interdisciplinary team collaboration. In this current study, both practitioners had experience of working with teachers from different departments and from interdisciplinary team activities.Regarding the higher cognitive level of knowledge building, the results of this study indicate that pre-service teachers in the experimental group increased their external and internal ties over time, while the control group did hardly change over time. Although the experimental group saw development of both internal and external ties, the pre-service teachers still interacted more with peers from the same department, as indicated by the negative value of the E-I index. It would seem, therefore, that it is more challenging to promote growth in interdisciplinary engagement at higher cognitive levels. One possible explanation for this result in this current study is the type of online learning activity. In this study, there was no specific interdisciplinary task used - which may have increased the level of collaboration with different departments (Rienties and Kinchin, 2014). Perhaps dividing the pre-service teachers into small groups and mixing them would encourage engagement with teachers from different departments (Rienties and Kinchin, 2014). Moreover, Rienties and Heliot (2018) argue that mixing participants without providing effective coaching techniques may not enhance learning ties between departments. Although in this study the practitioners may have attempted to increase the interdisciplinary interactions of the pre-service teachers, their training did not include specific guidelines on enhancing interdisciplinary activity in higher level cognitive thinking with those outside their department.\n6. Limitations: Several limitations of the current study need to be considered. First, this study had a relatively small sample, as is typical within experimental studies. It is important therefore that future research is undertaken to replicate and build upon this work. Also, the current study only examined interactions within an online PLC, not face to face, not also those in any external support networks outside this online PLC that pre-service teachers build to enhance their learning. Several studies found that teachers developed external networks to develop their learning and teaching with people outside the professional development programme (e.g. Rienties and Kinchin, 2014). Another limitation is that this study did not examine any pre-existing relationships between pre-service teachers prior to engaging in the online PLC. Rienties and Kinchin (2014) found that existing friendships can play a role in forming groups.\n7. Conclusion: In this investigation, the aim was to assess the role of experienced practitioners in developing pre-service teachers' social interaction and knowledge construction in an online PLC. It has shown that practitioners with proper training play a role in increasing pre-service teachers' cognitive engagement and higher-level cognitive discourse. Practitioners' presence increases the social interaction among pre-service teachers; the experimental group experienced faster and greater levels of growth in the size of both its knowledge-sharing and knowledge-building networks, over time. Furthermore, the involvement of practitioners enhanced the collaboration between departments in the experimental group. Nevertheless, both groups were more likely to build knowledge with participants from the same department in the higher cognitive level knowledge-building network. This study has adopted a quantitative approach to assess knowledge construction and network development. This research could be extended in future to gain further insight into the qualitative nature of these interactions in an online PLC and to elicit the mechanisms by which practitioners influence these interactions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study investigated the role of experienced practitioners in promoting pre-service teachers' knowledge construction and social interaction in an online professional learning community.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A repeated measures design with control and experimental groups was adopted. Two practitioners supported pre-service teachers in the experimental group to discuss issues around teaching practice. Social network analysis (SNA) and content analysis (CA) were used in the analytical approach.\nFindings: CA revealed that the practitioners increased pre-service teachers' levels of knowledge construction and high-cognitive discourse. SNA showed that the practitioners enhanced pre-service teachers' professional ties. Though collaboration in high-level knowledge building occurred predominantly in peers in the same discipline, the presence of the practitioners facilitated the development of more cross-disciplinary ties in the experimental group.\nPractical implications: The practitioners can be considered as a pedagogical tool to enhance pre-service teachers' engagement in the process of professional learning. This study suggests that in order to enhance the collaboration among pre-service teachers from different departments, the online activity should be designed to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes new knowledge about the ways in which practitioners can enhance the collaboration among pre-service teachers in an online PLC. It also provides insight on how to combine CA and SNA, to examine professional learning.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Etourism advertising effectiveness: banner type and engagement as moderators	[ "Eye-tracking", "Customer engagement", "Advertising effectiveness", "Recall", "E-tourism", "Visual attention" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The tourism sector is being impacted by a rapidly increasing level of competition and a proliferation of new and emerging technologies. For the sector to remain successful, it must offer value-adding services that are, and continue to be, in sufficient customer demand (Chang, 2015). To achieve this objective, tourism firms require value-generating customer interactions (Raeisi and Lingjie, 2017; Hollebeek, 2013, 2018). In line with this rationale, Brodie et al. (2011) explore the theoretical foundations of interactive customer engagement (CE; Hollebeek et al., 2016; Solem and Pedersen, 2016), which reflects \"a consumer's [...] brand-related cognitive, emotional and behavioral activity during or related to brand interactions\" (Hollebeek et al., 2014). Given its interactive nature, CE has high applicability to (e)tourism services, which refers to electronic (vs traditional) tourism offerings or transactions, thus representing a particular form of tourism-related service innovation (Buhalis and Deimezi, 2004; Hollebeek and Andreassen, 2018; Hollebeek et al., 2018).\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Effect of visual attention on self-reported memory\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Fieldwork and data collection\n4. Findings: 4.1 Visual attention and banner recall\n5. Final discussion, practical implications, limitations and future research: 5.1 Main conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to analyze advertising effectiveness in terms of self-reported memory (recall) by measuring customers' visual attention, including consumer engagement with e-tourism 2.0 tools and the banner type used as moderating variables.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a within-subject, between-groups experimental design based on eye-tracking methodology, followed by a self-administered questionnaire. Participants were instructed to visit three e-tourism tools, namely, a hotel's blog, a social network (i.e. Facebook) page and a virtual community (i.e. TripAdvisor) page.\nFindings: This research uncovers the main determinants of consumers' self-reported recall of banner ads. The study offers empirical insight regarding the positive impact of fixation counts and visit duration on consumer recall. The findings also reveal that the impact of these measurements on consumer recall is moderated by the level of animation of the advertisement, while the number of fixations is moderated by the level of consumer engagement. Overall, the results suggest the usefulness of eye-tracking methodology in assessing the advertising effectiveness of e-tourism tools.\nResearch limitations/implications: The practical implications identified in this research, along with its limitations and future research opportunities, are of interest both for further theoretical development and practical applications. Scholars are therefore encouraged to further test the research propositions, including in longitudinal or mobile/smartphone-based research.\nOriginality/value: The authors offer a pioneering attempt in the application of eye-tracking methodology to online, e-tourism-based service innovations and examine the possible impact of visual marketing stimuli and their effects on user social network-related behavior.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Rethinking functionality and emotions in the service consumption process: the case of funeral services	[ "Emotion", "Service quality", "Service recovery", "Death", "Funeral services", "Unsought services" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Service quality that meets consumer expectations can lead to positive cognition (e.g. awareness), affection (e.g. consumer attachment) and behavior (e.g. purchase intentions) (Al-Hawari, 2014; Anderson et al., 2008; Black et al., 2014; Chavan and Ahmad, 2013; Choy et al., 2012; Liang et al., 2013; Singh and Kaur, 2011). Among a myriad of factors that determine service quality, scholars are interested in post-consumption and emotions. Post-consumption is reported to be a major element in gauging consumers' service experiences (Chang et al., 2014; Chua et al., 2015; Comm and LaBay, 1996; Grace and O'Cass, 2001; Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000), but as suggested by some scholars (Du Plessis, 2009; Gelbrich and Sattler, 2014; Lacey, 2012; Lamb et al., 2010; Oliver, 2015; Ostrom and Iaccobucci, 1995; Ottenbacher and Harrington, 2010; Tim et al., 2010), evaluating these experiences is not an easy task because consumers are uncertain of how to assess the quality of the services they purchase. For instance, in the health-care industry, consumers may find it difficult to determine whether they are receiving the best medical treatment (Grace and O'Cass, 2004). Grace and O'Cass (2004) add that consumers' lack of knowledge leads them to rely on the expertise of others.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Some particularities of funeral services\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Qualitative study and interview guide\n4. Results and discussion: Although, currently, death is gradually being commoditized (e.g. the opening of funeral hypermarkets in France), our informants say that it remains an atypical product or service in the way it is produced, delivered, consumed and evaluated.\n5. Research implications: This paper contributes to the scarce marketing literature on funeral services (Bonsu and Belk, 2003; Bonsu and DeBerry-Spence, 2008; Darmody and Bonsu, 2008; Gentry et al., 1995). Because of the sensitivity of issues surrounding death, the mortuary market is a very difficult industry to understand. The undesirability of funeral services greatly complicates the evaluation of experiential attributes (i.e. verified only during or after use of the service) and credential attributes (i.e. verified after use of the service). Additionally, because of consumers' unfamiliarity with funeral services, quality assessment is a complex issue. According to the interviewed funeral services managers, mourners tend to rely on tangible and intangible criteria as proxies for service quality evaluation. Because of consumers' lack of competency, funeral companies must guide their customers and educate them about criteria for evaluating service quality.\n6. Conclusion, limitations and research avenues: Because it is an emotional challenge and stirs clients' grief and distress, the evaluation of funeral services is a relevant concern for both academics and practitioners. Although these services share some characteristics of traditional services (intangibility, perishability and variability), funeral services are also different in many ways. Their unique properties are:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the service literature by investigating post-consumption evaluation in the context of unwanted services. In particular, it intends to delineate the main characteristics of funeral services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Given the lack of substantive literature on funeral services, a qualitative exploratory design was used from in-depth interviews with ten managers of funeral services companies in Quebec (Canada).\nFindings: The study shows that compared to other traditional services, funeral services are characterized by their strong emotiveness, non-recurrence, irreversibility, uncommonness, high level of symbolism and personalization and emotion control of the service provider. The study also argues that funeral services quality is strongly dependent on funeral houses' integrated logistics, proximity and integrity.\nPractical implications: Because of consumers' lack of competency, funeral companies need to guide and educate consumers about the criteria they should use to evaluate the service quality. Because funeral consumers are strongly emotion-driven at the purchase time, funeral services providers should find the right balance of emotions to express. Thus, more staff training is needed.\nOriginality/value: Because funeral services are emotionally challenging and deal with grief and distressed clients, the present study contributes in shedding light on service quality assessment in the funeral industry. Although they have some characteristics of traditional services (intangibility, perishability and variability), funeral services are also different in many ways.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding loyalty in multichannel retailing: the role of brand trust and brand attachment	[ "Brand attachment", "Online loyalty", "Brand trust", "Multichannel retailing", "Offline loyalty" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last years, many retailers, irrespective of size, have added an online channel so becoming multichannel retailers. Initially the online channel was implemented and run as a separate division, but today channel coordination and integration is a priority for retailers (Herhausen et al., 2015), signalling the move from a multichannel to an omnichannel retailing model (Verhoef et al., 2015). Retailers expect to achieve benefits from the substantial investment of implementing multichannel distribution. There is some evidence that multichannel customers provide higher revenues (Kushwaha and Shankar, 2013), and are more loyal because the increased portfolio of services increases satisfaction (Wallace et al., 2004). However, the bases of loyalty in the multichannel world are far from established, and multichannel retail managers are concerned about how stronger customer loyalty can be built through the combination of offline and online channels.\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: Figure 1 shows the relationships among the focal constructs that act as drivers of offline and online loyalty for multichannel retailers. Our research model has its foundations on cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957). This theory argues that when a consumer is faced with new stimuli from an object that is inconsistent with his/her existing cognitions about the object, a state of dissonance is created. One of the mechanisms to reduce the discomfort of that dissonance is to transfer the existing cognitions to the new stimuli. In the multichannel retail context, this theory will suggest that as shoppers want to keep consistency in their beliefs and attitudes, they will transfer their existing attitudes and beliefs towards the offline channel of a retailer to its online channel (new stimuli). Specifically this means, first, that offline loyalty will drive online loyalty, and second, that retail brand trust and attachment, which are built in great part from the offline network (Bock et al., 2012) will have a direct and indirect influence on online loyalty. The model controls for two types of variables: shopping motivations (i.e. hedonic orientation and product involvement) and technology acceptance model (TAM) variables (i.e. ease-of-use and usefulness).\n3. Methodology: The research model is tested in the context of vertically integrated apparel retailers that have added the online channel to their existing offline retail network, becoming multichannel retailers, and that sell their products under a brand name that is shared with the retail store name. This is a way to avoid possible confusion between retail store brand and product brands if they were different.\n4. Discussion of results: The results of the confirmatory factor analysis are shown in Table I. Adjustment indexes are over 0.9, thus indicating a good fit of the model, and the mean square error is low. The reliability of the scales can be confirmed, since both composite reliabilities and Cronbach's a coefficients are above the recommended value of 0.7 for all constructs, the variances extracted are above 0.5 and the standardized factor loadings are statistically significant for all items. This allows us to confirm the convergent validity of the proposed model.\n5. Conclusions and implications: 5.1 Theoretical contribution\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand loyalty in the multichannel retail context. The paper analyses the interplay between offline and online loyalty and the direct and indirect effects on loyalty of brand trust and brand attachment, in a cross-cultural study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Online survey answered by 761 multichannel apparel shoppers in two countries (UK and Spain). Structural equation model multigroup analysis is performed to test the hypothesized relations and the role of culture as a moderating variable.\nFindings: Online loyalty is largely driven by offline loyalty, which is also positively affected by brand trust and brand attachment. These relationships hold across the two different cultures.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings confirm the validity of applying the theory of cognitive dissonance to explain multichannel shopping behaviours. The authors did not find culture that affects the relationships in the model; however, the validity of these findings should be tested considering other cultural variables different from nationality.\nPractical implications: Multichannel retailers should focus on building trust and attachment towards the brand if they want to get online and offline loyalty. The efforts to build stronger bonds between the customer and the retail brand translate into higher loyalty, particularly towards the offline channels.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the literature on the interactions between online and offline behaviour by focussing on the power of the brand to build strong customer bonds. The model considers the role of brand attachment together with brand trust in offline and online loyalty simultaneously.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Evaluating essential liabilities on design professionals under earthquake's impact: Taiwan experience	[ "Taiwan", "Liability", "Building services", "Construction management", "Earthquakes", "Structural design" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Mega-earthquakes have occurred frequently in Asia. One example is the 2004 Sumatra earthquake, which reached 9.3 on the Richter scale in Indonesia (Yoshiaki, 2005). The island terrain of Taiwan is generally similar to that of Japan (Hatheway and Yuji, 2000), and their earthquake susceptibilities are also similar. The 1995 Kobe earthquake (7.2 on the Richter scale) destroyed 100,000 buildings and 183,000 buildings were partially destroyed (West and Morris, 2003; Horwich, 2000). Later, the 1999 Chichi earthquake (7.3 on the Richter scale) destroyed 53,661 buildings and 53,024 buildings were partially destroyed in Taiwan (Chen et al., 2002). To describe the magnitude of natural disasters in Taiwan, the deaths in earthquakes are compared with fatalities per million of population per year (Spence, 2003) in Asia and Europe. Chichi achieved 10.89, which is second after Turkey (14.97) while Greece is third (6.25).The built environment is controlled by a vast array of safety-related regulations intended to protect public safety and property under the Constitution. Design professionals (architects and engineers (AEs)) are burdened with professional responsibilities and liabilities to obey those regulations in their practices. Nonetheless, a large number of buildings are still damaged by earthquakes. The Minnesota Supreme Court held that professional service is under a duty of performing such care as people in that profession would ordinarily exercise under like circumstances in the City of Eveleth v. Ruble (1974), 302 Minn. 249, 225 N.W.2d 521. Furthermore, the design professionals' conduct is measured against the conduct of others in the professional's locality (Sweet, 2000). In other words, AE practice may have different standards of professional liability in city and rural areas. The reason is that the legal framework contains no coherent statement on defining the responsibilities of the parties and there is no system of continued responsibility for the quality of the design by either the designer or the checking authority (Gulkan, 2001a). In litigation, it is therefore difficult to define professional responsibility clearly in a dispute. In addition, architects and engineers cooperate in building activities, where their different professional backgrounds are essential. After an earthquake, the public policy tries to participate in the distribution of responsibility for risks through politics to mitigate the damages and injuries. It is estimated that one in every three design professionals will face a legal case during their career, but civil engineering programmes have failed to teach sufficient contract or tort law to their students (Singh and Sakamoto, 2001). Consequently, AE practitioners' responsibilities are such that disputes are fuzzy or complicated, while they are unable to foresee legal risks accurately. After Chichi earthquake, the society was awakened and starting to request AE taking more liabilities for damaged buildings they are responsible for. To the best of our knowledge, the impact of the earthquake on court cases has never been documented before. Our research is the first study showing how liability risks, disputes, conviction risks and project attributes risks are influenced by earthquake incidences. With the dearth of research on earthquake and court cases related, we provided an empirical examination of the relationship between earthquake incidence and court cases to fill this gap.Accordingly, we investigate the quantitative changes that were caused by the Chichi earthquake, who were exposed to high risks, what the complicated liabilities were, what the conviction rate was and which project groups were at risk. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 surveys previous research. Section 3 describes the data and the research methodology. Section 4 provides the statistical analyses and results. Section 5 summarizes and discusses the results. Section 6 concludes with some future research directions.\n2. Research review: 2.1 Liability risks are shared within architects and engineers unclearly\n3. Research methodology: The tragic consequences of building failures under earthquake attack that bring lawsuits against AEs in Taiwan. Cypser and Davis (1998) searched legal cases to find some relationship of professional liability and earthquake. Due to enrich education with knowledge of AE's responsibility is essential in disaster risk reduction (The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2006). Castro and Fernandes' (2004) methodology for failure analysis emphasizes that problem definition, background information obtaining, evidence investigation, failure mechanism evaluation, exemplar test's performing, analysis, risk assessing and conclusions drawing are fundamental for AE in their defending works. The UN guide of disaster risk reduction also suggests that AE should be liable for enriching education with knowledge (The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2006).Apparently, the reliability of data is quite essential for AE's defending. The current research surveys only litigation cases for three primary reasons. First, the settlement data of other cases cannot be collected completely because of privacy protection. Second, the litigation cases are final resolutions when other types of settlement can lead to further court actions. Finally, the court's judgement is more objective and reliable.For financial reasons, the victims are most likely to file claims against design professionals who are employers. We therefore survey cases concerning practitioners who were litigants and directly entrusted with contracts. In other cases, AEs hired by firms might share partial responsibilities.The period of investigation is between January 1994 and December 2007, during which time a total of 667 AE litigation cases were conducted, and 578 of these cases, about 86.66 per cent, listed AEs as defendants (see Figure 1). There are three levels of court in Taiwan: district, high and supreme. Because the law imposes time limits for court decisions, there are timing gaps among these litigation cases. Taking this time gap into account, we use the time of the Chichi earthquake as a benchmark, and classify the cases into two groups - one with earthquake treatment and the other without - for statistical analyses. Each case in the district courts was taken as a base, and integrated with cases in which the same litigants appealed to the Supreme Court or high court (or both).In the following, t-tests and ANOVA are used to investigate the impacts of the Chichi earthquake on four areas of concern:(1) the number of architects or engineers who were sued;(2) the time to appeal cases;(3) the conviction rate in final judgements; and(4) the number of public or private projects filed.\n4. Results: 4.1 Impact on the amount of litigation between AEs\n5. Summary and discussion: The traditional focus of AE professional programmes is on the solution of technical problems, with relatively little discussion of the legal and contractual issues for professional practice. Undergraduates are not oriented towards the discovery of liability-free strategies in Taiwan, although Sweet (2000) recommended that AEs should seek participation in projects that is at least sufficient to promote and protect professional interests and reputation, and should avoid assuming risks that they cannot control through their expertise. In fact, experienced AE practitioners found it difficult to escape the liability risks in the built environment that were induced by the Chichi earthquake.The foregoing findings can be summarized and discussed as follows. Our findings add richness to the understanding of which criminal liability will not escaped easily by court's conclusion, but the previous research (as Peters (1998)) found evidence for only the liability prevention techniques. This research indicates that civil cases against professional liability are also evoked in the course of architect than engineer. Taken together, this research implies that understanding the influence of earthquake factor on liability issues changed and liability judgements differed among court's level. The findings highlight the general importance in deploying the human resource among court levels after earthquake. It has important meaning for timely judging a great of AE liability controversies from many buildings damaged in earthquake:* Architects carry higher risks into civil litigation. The legal responsibilities and liabilities of the design professionals come from contracts and statutes. There was a substantial change in civil litigation against architects after the earthquake, but not against engineers. In other words, architects are burdened with higher civil compensation responsibility risks than engineers. This is in accord with the case materials surveyed, in which most architects, but few engineers, were expected to take charge of all defects within a building's design and to supervise the building process, because it is the architect who occupies the leading position in project delivery. Furthermore, the change reflects a general recognition by laymen that architects should carry the main professional liability for buildings.* Civil litigation is more complicated. There are no model contracts for AE services such as those in AIA documents, except that public works were specified in the Government Procurement Law. The circumstances of legal definitions of the professional responsibilities and liabilities are still comparatively unclear. That may be why liability litigation was appealed so frequently. Therefore, H1 has been verified, that the earthquake had a significant impact on civil litigation appealed to the Supreme Court. It is suggested that design professionals who practice in the built environment should transfer compensation risks by the insurance tool. The contractual clauses on professional obligation should be drafted more clearly, with no implied meanings. It is also suggested that fees in bids include provision for future legal costs.People will value what they have more than what they do not have (Posner, 1998). When buildings collapse in an earthquake, the majority of claimants will sue for economic recovery by valuing their own house more. Nonetheless, the defendants are practitioners who often cannot afford large amounts of compensation or settle quickly because of their low fees and because their business organization is not a firm in law, but is wholly owned or associated with other AEs. It is deemed to have no funds or capital, but unlimited responsibility on participating AEs. Moreover, liability insurance may be absent legally when AEs compete for private projects. Naturally, the civil disputants continue appealing to the highest court.The criminal cases appealed have not significantly increased, but H2 verifies the high risk of guilty verdicts against AEs after earthquake. AEs would prefer to settle their criminal liability disputes quickly and ethically, not by appealing persistently. This phenomenon is worth further examination.* Criminal liabilities have high risks of guilty verdicts. H2 has been verified: the conviction rate for criminal liability increased after the earthquake, although H1 could not verify that the earthquake had a significant impact on criminal litigation appeals. These two results show that design professionals have a risk of being found guilty in criminal lawsuits. Similarly, there was significant impact on civil litigation that was appealed, so we cannot conclude that design professionals have a high likelihood of dismissal of appeals in civil litigation.Design professionals' performance has high risks against public nuisance in most criminal cases under Article 193 of the Criminal Code that was issued after the earthquake. This risky legal circumstance is in accordance with the verification of H2.The high risk of guilty verdicts may have the side effect of encouraging the plaintiffs, because criminal convictions are related to practice certificates regulated in the Architect Act and Engineer Act. Practitioners are at risk of losing their qualification and professional reputation. A plaintiff's legal tactic may be to file criminal liability cases while hoping for success in civil litigation. Then, higher compensation may be settled more quickly in some cases. This indirect risk should be further studied.* Private projects have higher legal risks. H3 has been verified: the earthquake had a significant impact on private projects. In other words, design professionals have risks concerning civil litigation when working with private projects. This reflects that litigants from private projects will commonly choose the courts for settling disputes, because of the lack of a specific mediation system to solve liability disputes quickly, in contrast to the Government Procurement Law. Furthermore, the private projects with civil liabilities seem to have higher legal risks when H3 is combined with H1, for the following reasons. Experienced AEs know that the statutory limitations and contract management on private projects are looser, because the owners are usually inexperienced. There is a chance for the AE to perform with low quality that may cause building defects in an earthquake, as compared with public projects, where Government Procurement Law has formed a strict net of professional responsibility. Even though officials may be technologically inexperienced, the quality assurance system in public works will guide AEs to perform well. Thus, litigants in private projects will fight for their best rights or least compensation in lawsuits.\n6. Conclusion: The present research extends the literature on construction law. Our findings are novel in suggesting that AEs are burdened with specific liability risks that were substantially induced by the Chichi earthquake. Civil suits are filed against design professionals who practice in private projects. Therefore, this study is needed to prove that the lower fees followed more civil suits under the circumstance of competing unreasonable fees among limited new projects in Taiwan. In particular, architects have had significantly higher liability risks than engineers since the earthquake, although the AEs practice cooperatively in building projects. When design professionals are involved in the litigation of professional liability issues, they should be most careful in criminal cases, because of the high risk of conviction. Nevertheless, criminal responsibility disputes were not seen to be complicated, and did not increase significantly in number. In contrast, there is a notable phenomenon in which civil litigation is persistently appealed to the Supreme Court. Those results suggest that design professionals who have high risks will pay high costs in legal defence whenever they are defendants in civil liability cases.These findings are basic and preliminary. Note that the liability risks are incurred in the continental legal system. Most design professionals who are experienced in handling building technology are also familiar with controlling and preventing potential defects during design and supervision of construction. Nonetheless, earthquake risks are unforeseeable, and the legal costs are controversial and as yet unpredictable. This paper contributes to the evidence of the kinds of liability that have high legal risks, thus evaluating legal costs accurately in contract. We have found that the courts' judgements reflect the tendency of laymen to expect a steady increase in professional responsibility. The AE community should consider deepening the teaching materials on liability and risks. That will enrich AE continuing education and engineering programmes in college for public welfare thereafter.The following phenomena worth further examinations: the influenced of collectivism on AE defendants' behaviour; and the legal tactics of plaintiffs in civil litigation, who may file parallel criminal liability cases to increase their compensation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - There are few papers which deal with professional liability for buildings when architects and engineers (AEs) face disaster risks. The purpose of this paper is to find out the main legal risks for practitioners.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper uses t-tests and ANOVA to investigate the impacts of earthquake on four areas: the number of architects or engineers who were sued; the time to appeal cases; the conviction rate in final judgments; and the number of public or private projects filed.\nFindings: - The results show that design professionals have a high burden of legal liability risks that were substantially increased by the Chichi earthquake. The following risks have significant impact: architects are burdened with higher civil liability than engineers; civil liability cases are more complicated; criminal cases have high conviction rates; and more liability cases are filed for private projects.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The following phenomena are worth further examination: the influenced of collectivism on AE defendants' behaviour; and the legal tactics of plaintiffs in civil litigation, who may file parallel criminal liability cases to increase their compensation.\nPractical implications: - This paper contributes to the evidence of the kinds of liability which have high legal risks in practice, thus evaluating legal costs accurately in contractual negotiation.\nOriginality/value: - It enriches AEs' continuing education and engineering programs by strengthening the teaching materials on legal liability risks under earthquake attack.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Role of learning agility and learning culture on turnover intention: an empirical study	[ "Information technology", "Employee turnover", "Learning culture", "Learning agility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today, technology is creating change at an accelerated pace along with competition and globalisation, causing a skills revolution, which is likely to introduce both opportunities and threats for an organisation. Therefore, as per the new changes in the market, an organisation is supposed to adapt the changes and accordingly, business reengineering is essential, which can be complex in nature (Mack and Khare, 2016). A study conducted by Glauner (2016) demonstrated that the average age of listed companies on \"standard and poor's 500\" was 61 years in the year of 1958, while the average age of the companies was only 18 years by 2012. This figure is predicted to drop to 10 years in 2020. Therefore, a company has to be agile in terms of both organisational and employee factors. Previous studies (Arbussa et al., 2017; Evans, 2002; Heisterberg and Verma, 2014; Hugos, 2009) has shown that agility is essential for both organisations and employees as well. To remain attractive to employers, employees must seek out continuous professional development, whereas, in return, organisations should provide them with a suitable learning culture (LC) (Imperatori, 2017). In this competitive era, by doing so, employees and organisations both would be able to adapt new processes and technologies (ManpowerGroup, 2016). Previous research studies have also shown that organisations also need to focus on their selection of the employees at the time of recruitment who are willing to adapt the new changes and having the ability to learn something new i.e. employees having high learning agility (LA) (Gravett and Caldwell, 2016; Lombardo and Eichinger, 2000, 2004; Prange, 2016). Learning agile employees are not only crucial for the employers as they can adjust themselves with the market change by honing their skills and by having the ability to learn something new but also for the employees as it is a prime indicator of career mobility, which can lead them to create opportunities and choose how, where and when they work (ManPower, 2015). Previous research studies showed that in upcoming years, learning agile employees will be the world's great equaliser as we face a skills revolution (ManpowerGroup, 2016; Michaels et al., 2001) but on the other side, unprecedented technological growth is also constantly shifting demographics (Burke and Ng, 2006; Liu et al., 2019; Ng et al., 2010), which leads to shortage of employees - if the employees are not getting the right LC, raises the employee's turnover (Govaerts et al., 2011; Harhara et al., 2015). Hence, for keeping up the competitive advantage, companies must focus on retaining such learning agile employees by providing them with an effective organisational LC (Egan et al., 2004). Losing such employees indicates that the company is going to bear huge loss of investment as the company has to recruit and then train the new employees (Walker, 2001).\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: 2.1 Learning culture and turnover intention\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research methods and data collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Factor analysis\n5. Discussion: The main aim of this research is to analyse how LC and LA elements determine employees' TI within an organisation. The results (Table 4) indicate that the hypothesis testing H1 (LC-TI) is not supported, that in accord with prior research studies (Egan et al., 2004; Emami et al., 2012) but it also contradicted few studies (Ahmed et al., 2015; Islam et al., 2013, 2016, 2012a, 2012b), where LC influenced TI of employees. The outcome of this research reveals that LC does not influence the TI of employees directly. The finding of this study states that there is no direct effect of LC on TI. But, as we introduce LA between the LC and TI, it shows an impact on TI. Therefore, we can conclude that organisation can be able to decrease the TI of employees with the help of:\n6. Implications: The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between two dimensions of LC, i.e. \"II and EA\" together and four elements of LA, i.e. MA, PA, CA and RA, to assess the TI of an employee in a structured way. This study has covered existing literature significantly on LC, LA and TI. For analysing TI, this study has provided a novel way to the researchers.\n7. Limitations and recommendations for future research: Certain limitations of this research are discussed together with potential future work as follows. First, for data collection, quantitative survey method was being used, so it is recommended that future research would extend this research using an ethnographic methodology like collecting qualitative data through field studies, case studies and unstructured interviews with the companies' executives to obtain in-depth information. Second, in this study, cross-sectional methodology was used, so future research may focus on longitudinal design that will permit analysis of the possible changes over time and the relationships between the research variables over an extended period. Third, the limitation is that the study only covers middle level and entry-level executives of IT companies so future research may focus on top-level executives also in the companies, which may also influence TI. Fourth, the findings of this study are limited to the IT industry so future research may focus on other industries as well. Eventually, future research may be pursued with larger sample size.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of learning culture (LC) and learning agility (LA) on employee's turnover intention (TI) in connection to information technology (IT) industries in India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research study analysed 258 samples of entry-level and middle-level executives working in IT software companies constituted in Southern India. Data was collected both electronically and in hard-copy. The research model was tested by structural equation modeling technique with the aid of AMOS software.\nFindings: The findings illustrate the indirect effect of LC on TI while a direct effect on LA and also a positive and significant effect of LA on TI.\nResearch limitations/implications: The first limitation is that this study does not cover top-level executives, therefore, it has limited implications and the second is that the respondents filled the questionnaire voluntarily by their beliefs.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes towards the development of LC, which will help in building LA in employees thereby reduce the employee's TI.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Eyes on the frame: Explaining people's online searching behavior in response to TV consumption	[ "Eye tracking", "Information search", "Cross-media strategy", "Framing effects", "Multichannel information", "Online behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Modern television (TV) consumption has changed. Nowadays, a growing number of viewers tend to use a second screen when watching TV and describe this as a new form of enjoyment (Busemann and Tippelt, 2014; SevenOne Media, 2013); people use the internet parallel to TV or after TV consumption. In total, 45 percent of the German population say that they sometimes use both TV and internet at the same time (Busemann and Tippelt, 2014) or that they use the internet after TV experiences (for advertisements, see Linke and Park, 2015); for younger people the number who use the internet parallel to watching TV increases up to 80 percent (SevenOne Media, 2013).\nFraming, framing health, and the framing of science TV programs: Laypeople's perceptions of and knowledge about diverse issues increasingly depend on the journalistic representation of information (Chong and Druckman, 2007; Lecheler and de Vreese, 2011); this is particularly true in a health-communication context (Payton et al., 2014; Shen, 2010; Stryker, et al., 2008). The concept of framing is based on the general assumption that the ways issues are represented in the mass media not only affect people's awareness of those issues, but also how people think about those issues (Scheufele and Tewksbury, 2007). However, the research on framing has offered diverse conceptual definitions of frames and framing (see Borah, 2011, for an overview).\nFraming effects, framing effects in health communication, and framing effects of science TV programs: More psychologically oriented perspective of framing focuses on audience frames (Borah, 2011); i.e., the way that individuals apply schemas to classify and interpret information (Entman, 1993; Scheufele and Tewksbury, 2007). Audience frames are activated sets of cognitive schemas (Scheufele and Scheufele, 2010), and exposure to media frames can trigger and alter these schema sets (see equivalency framing and emphasis framing, Borah, 2011).\nFraming effects on online behavior: searching for and reading information: It is hard to overestimate the importance of the internet when it comes to searching for health information. \"The Internet is after all the world's largest medical library\" (Morahan-Martin, 2004, p. 497). Worldwide, about 5 percent of all internet searches are health related (Eysenbach and Kohler, 2003; Morahan-Martin, 2004; Payton et al., 2014; Powell et al., 2011), and health information is one of the most common issues that US internet users seek information about (see also Niederdeppe et al., 2008). This information seeking has effects, as the specific content of online health information can affect behavior (Fox and Raine, 2002; Payton et al., 2014).\nMethods: Eye tracking, in combination with a content analysis, was deemed the most appropriate method with which to answer the two RQs. Eye tracking - a tool that gathers data about eye movements and points of focus (Granka et al., 2008; Huang and Kuo, 2011) - has several advantages for the present investigation. There are growing numbers of research focus in using eye tracking to study human behavior (Yang and Wang, 2015). Eye tracking has been used in many areas such as decision processes (Huang and Kuo, 2011), information processing (Glockner and Herbold, 2011), business research (Yang and Wang, 2015), attitude expressions (Giesen et al., 2016), and online search (Enquiro, 2005; Granka et al., 2008; Lorigo et al., 2008). Eye tracking data can be used to explain online behavior due to the evaluative and cognitive nature of eye movements (Giesen et al., 2016; Glockner and Herbold, 2011; Huang and Kuo, 2011; Lorigo et al., 2008). These processes tracing data can help researchers to better understand users' behavior in various contexts (e.g. websites and search results). This allows researchers to offer a more complete interpretation of what happens before a user selects a search result, as well as a deeper understanding of how individuals view the information presented to them online (Giesen et al., 2016; Huang and Kuo, 2011; Granka et al., 2008). Additionally, eye tracking technology allows one to investigate whether individuals mainly scan information, or whether they compute information on a higher level of attention (use more thorough deliberate comparison of information and really reading information) (Glockner and Herbold, 2011).\nResults: As the sample was composed entirely of students, that participants had high levels of epistemological beliefs (M=61.15; SD=5.70; R=12-72); however, their need for cognition (M=25.63; SD=5.93; R=10-60), need for cognitive closure (M=49.26; SD=9.99; R=16-96), and issue-related involvement (M=19.69; SD=5.32; R=8-48) were all only moderate. While completing their five-minute online informational task, participants looked for information (i.e. typing input words into Google, viewing and (non-)selecting search results) for an average of about 32 seconds (M=32.17; SD=21.43), and spent an average of about 3 minutes and 19 seconds on websites (M=198.86; SD=63.70). More than half the participants used only one word for their online search (54 percent), of which \"Alzheimer\" was the most common (94 percent); about a third used two words (30 percent); 13 percent used three words; and only three percent used four or more words. The average participant viewed and selected about two search results (M=1.90; SD=1.42; ntotal=72), and viewed but did not select about two search results (M=1.82; SD=1.88; ntotal=72). Participants visited more than two websites on average (M=2.36; SD=1.59; ntotal=188). Based on a kh2 test for gender, and analyses of variance for the other variables, there was no significant difference by EG for these variables, indicating successful randomization of participants.\nConclusion: Summary\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Using the internet parallel to or after television (TV) consumption changes the way people receive news. The way information is framed by the media has been found to influence the behavior of news recipients. The purpose of this paper is to hypothesize that the exposure to TV media frames would affect a lay audience's online information-seeking behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In an experiment combining eye tracking and content analysis, participants (n=72) were exposed to one of three TV clips with different media frames (based on a full-sample content analysis) that focused on Alzheimer's disease. After exposure, participants informed themselves about the issue online. Eye tracking allows to investigate whether individuals mainly scan information, or whether they compute information on a higher level of attention (use more thorough deliberate comparison of information and really reading information).\nFindings: Three different frames of online content were identified. Framing was found to influence the individual online searching and reading of information on a descriptive level (entering search words and viewing website content) to some degree, but not on a procedural level (such as selecting online search results).\nResearch limitations/implications: This study makes a significant contribution to the literature embedding an established theoretical process like framing effects into the internet literature. Regarding the broader theoretical context, this study shed some light on cross-media framing effects on online behavior. Applying the psychological perspective of framing theory to explain and predict online searching behavior is beneficial for specific types of online search behavior. Main limitations are the not representative student sample and the forced task that participants had to inform themselves about Alzheimer's disease online.\nPractical implications: The results have practical implications for the creation of TV-related websites. There can be a positive, profitable synergy of TV and online websites. The websites can complement the TV programs with the focus on information needs of the recipients depending on the TV activated audience frames. Therefore, media managers would do well to plan the contents of their websites as internet-based resources that meet the activated information needs.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the first to investigate the framing effects of TV on the online information searching behavior of individuals. A deeper understanding of how media frames, especially from TV, are affecting online information seeking will allow researchers to better explain and predict online user behavior and information needs. But still, more research is needed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Quality audit experience for excellence in healthcare	[ "Health services sector", "ISO 9000 series", "Quality audit", "Quality management", "Oman" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) is situated in the gulf country, Sultanate of Oman, employing Omani nationals and multi-nationality workers by contract at a ratio of 40:60. As illustrated in the hospital mission statement, SQUH offers general medical and distinguished specialized services enabling it to provide teaching to the students of SQU College of Medicine and Health Sciences, continuing professional development of healthcare professionals, and is a base for research and innovations in care for the benefit of the community (SQUH, 2005). The source of motivation engines from the hospital's vision and mission, thus bringing the primary focus of auditing to a peak, thus enabling Sultan Qaboos University Hospital to reach closer to achieving their vision of excellence.\nAccepting the quality challenge: Without a doubt, \"quality\" is a known essential ingredient of all customer service industries (Abdelhak, 2001). Traditionally, health prevention and cure has always been the aim for the healthcare industry. However recently it has become the industry facing continuous pressure to improve quality and the one with the fastest-growing interest in quality (Evans and Lindsay, 2005). Achieving quality in health care is dependent on an effective and efficient monitoring system. No management system can be effective without a suitable means of measuring its performance. Internationally recognized standards require complying organizations to plan and implement processes of monitoring, measurement, analysis and improvement, collected as evidence of their management system. ISO 9000 (2000) has defined effectiveness as \"the extent to which planned activities are realized and planned results achieved\", and efficiency as \"the relationship between the result achieved and the resources used\" (Beckmerhagen et al., 2004). ISO 9001 standard states the requirements for implementation are \"the organization shall establish, document, implement, maintain, and continually improve a quality management system in accordance with the requirements of the International Standard\" (BSI, 2000). By performing internal quality audit, the system can be effectively monitored for conformity to the internationally recognized standards and create a cycle of continuous quality improvement (CQI). Furthermore, not only should the outcomes of audit be measured against the planned objectives, but the audit process should encompass planning, reporting, follow-up and resource requirements, including auditor skill and competency.A recent research study by Juran demonstrates that 30 percent of hospital costs are caused by poor quality of processes (Juran, 2003). This inevitably reflects as poor quality of patient care. In 1910, Ernest Codman, MD, proposed a tracking system to determine whether prescribed treatment was effective; a simple form of auditing. The American College of Surgeons developed Minimum Standards for Hospitals in 1917 and began inspection audits the following year. W. Edwards Deming originated the Deming Cycle (Bedi, 2006) commonly known as the PDCA cycle, in 1950, composed of four stages: plan, do, check, and act; yet another method of self-auditing. In 2004, TQM Magazine stated \"quality in terms of healthcare is dependent on an effective and efficient audit function\" (Beckmerhagen et al., 2004). During the last two decades, internal auditing of healthcare services has successfully introduced a team-oriented culture, determining whether quality activities comply with planned arrangements, whether these are implemented effectively, and whether these are suitable to achieve objectives.\nBuilding an audit quality culture: ISO 9001:2000 certification was our starting point for getting establishing with an effective quality management system and entering the road of healthcare excellence. Documented processes, procedures and policies were developed and made up the SQUH Quality Manual. Once documentation is established they generally remain constant, but inevitably the environment will change. In order to meet the new demands of the environment, continual improvement is a requirement. Auditing for continual improvement provides valuable data that verifies improvement is taking place and acts as a channel for further improvement. The ideal quality healthcare environment is designed to provide the best possible services to patients and customers in the best possible manner. Internal auditing allows monitoring of processes, procedures and clinical service delivery and satisfaction. As a first step to implement internal audit as a quality monitoring tool, a training phase was set to include an in-house workshop presented by the ISO 9001:2000 Project Consultant. This was specifically designed to train healthcare professionals in SQUH to be Internal Auditor/Change Managers and apply auditing tools and techniques to the ISO standards for effective auditing. Each department nominated a candidate considered to have auditor characteristics which include being observant, inquisitive, knowledgeable, responsible and reliable, and possess interpersonal skills among others. Being culturally sensitive and aware of such issues was felt to be of added value, considering the culture diversified environment.\nAudit process and design, styles and techniques: SQUH internal auditing was originally initiated to be carried out on its own system, by its own people, conducting repeated self-inspections on various processes. Since the hospital began cyclic auditing (June 2004), SQUH has designed, planned and experienced different audit styles (vertical, horizontal, cross-functional, internal, external), scopes (quality, health and safety, occupational health, clinical, risk, patient safety), audit forms (improvement notes, nonconformity report (NCR), audit summary report) and finally, different audit techniques (walk-the-process, checklist regulated, activity oriented). A comprehensive list of audits conducted by SQUH internal auditors matched with the type of audit and what it revealed, achieved and added-value advantage is illustrated in Table I. The audit planner schedules areas to be visited based on a deficiency, weakness or need in the hospital. Audits are designed with a specific aim, targeted to achieve accordingly, be conducted as planned, with findings ranging from observation to critical non-conformity; definitions (SQUH, 2005) are as follows:* Critical. Serious non-conformity that affects/threatens life or life saving service or product quality, delivered to patients.* Major. Strong evidence of main clause or main area within SQUH scope of main process that is not covered as per requirement of standard (trend) or culture (accepted norm).* Minor. A one-off or subjective evidence of failing to meet a certain sub-clause within the implementation, or ineffective implementation, or not maintaining documentation requirement.* Observation. Potential risk or practice that may lead to ineffective implementation or may lead to a malfunction service or product quality in SQUH.A designated time for proper closure and a re-visit is then scheduled and followed up. Audit cycles represent the awareness and readiness of the hospital at the different stages of ISO on the ladder towards excellence.\nSQUH audit journey: To begin our journey, an assessment or gap analysis was conducted in September 2003 by the Project Consultant as an external audit evaluation. It compared the existing activities, procedures, processes and clinical service delivery to the requirements of ISO 9001:2000 and the guidelines of ISO 9004:2000 suitable for healthcare service organizations. The gap analysis has been a main reference throughout, indicating areas of strength and weakness, improvement, documentation, communication and commitment required to reach the level of certification.Audit cycle 1\nAudit analysis: Internal auditing quickly became a way of SQUH culture; SQUH top management, quality and all the departments working together in joint harmony, creating an atmosphere of positive growth and development, specifically tailored to the needs of shared processes. DD Sharma defines quality audit system as \"a systemic and independent examination to determine whether quality activities comply with panned arrangements, whether these arrangements are implemented effectively and whether these are suitable to achieve objectives\" (Sharma, 2001). SQUH audit plan is constantly adjusted accordingly in relation to how findings and requirements dictate, based on self-departmental audits, number and types of nonconformities raised, status of readiness, and size and division of departments.Statistically, the number of nonconformities found in cycle 1 compared to cycle 2 was a tremendous difference. The number dropped from approximately 400 to less than 50 between the first few cycles. \"Inconsistency in documentation\" and \"insufficient record of calibration\" were the categories found to have the highest values of nonconformance during cycle 1, likely due to the immaturity of the quality management system (QMS) at that time, as compared to \"improper handling\" and \"patient/result delays\" discovered to be the highest nonconformities in the audit trail of cycle 2. Likewise, cycle 3 found similar trends to cycle 2 although the numbers were drastically reduced. Additionally, cycle 3 showed weaknesses of \"inconsistent process documentation\" and \"communication\". Cycle 4 displayed trends towards patient/staff \"safety\" and \"satisfaction\".Compiled statistics from the cycles showed an improvement to the categories identified as weak in previous cycles by the fact that they occurred less frequently or not at all. An important point to stress here is the new approach in cycle 2 of identifying root causes to bring about change was emphasized and proven to be effective on a much larger spectrum. One of the risks SQUH faced over and over was having the same nonconformity turn up within the hospital after some time had elapsed. Yet by identifying root causes and spreading awareness of the corrective action throughout the hospital, the chances of re-occurrence was significantly reduced. The indicating factors for the decrease in the trend point to the increased awareness among staff, improved communication, and the continuous quality improvement joint activities occurring across the hospital. During audit closure there has always been full cooperation and awareness from staff members and top management, which is an achievement in itself.\nAudit findings - evidence for improvement: There are two areas to be considered when auditing for improvement. Initially we audit the data analysis results, corrective and preventive actions documented and the output from Management Review, conducted biannually. If evidence of change is found, we then look for evidence of the change indicated in the process or system. Without change to the process or system, events will recur over and over again, resulting in no improvement. However, if change is apparent in results and the system or process has been adjusted accordingly, this is a measurable improvement. The second area to be considered is verification of actual changes taken place. In addition to re-analyzing new data collected, this may be done more thoroughly by reviewing documentation and by interviewing area staff for awareness and compliance.During the period from 2006 to 2008, an audit analysis was conducted to find trends in the hospital. The overall achievements included hospital-wide improvement in important areas such as communication, documentation and awareness. The top ten trends found are included on Table II. These findings acted as the seeds that led the hospital to adopt accreditation standards because of their specific design and applicability to healthcare organizations, in particular, the trends found in SQUH over a four-year period of auditing against ISO standards.Example 1 - average length of stay in ICU\nChallenges and obstacles: Resistance to change stemmed from staff not believing that certification could be achieved. We faced difficulty in getting people to understand that auditing is not about criticizing the person; it is about the compliance to established processes and procedures. SQUH adopted the concept of transparency and continuously promotes a \"no-blame\" culture reducing the risk of spreading a negative and apprehensive approach to auditing and encourages process ownership.Lack of awareness in certification (ISO) requirements also posed communication barriers. A total of 100 percent awareness training was first introduced early January 2004, covering the majority of staff (1,350 in number then). Training is repeated periodically to ensure all staff are updated and aware (1,900 current number) and help maintain the momentum of awareness throughout.Different cultural backgrounds played a significant part in the challenges faced. Being a multi-cultural society and workplace with an Omani national ratio of 40:60 to expatriate contract staff, standards of practice varied widely from professional to professional. It took time to achieve harmony so we would all speak the same language; the language of quality. Audit channeled the ultimate focus of patient care to follow internationally recognized policies and guidelines adopted in SQUH, while fully supporting expatriate experience, skills and expertise.SQUH auditors' limited experience in report writing, ISO clause familiarity and time management, was an obstacle during early audit cycles, however this improved significantly over time with audit experience and process ownership of the audit design and methodology.The loss of momentum felt throughout the hospital in the documentation phase was a challenge SQUH underwent during the project. One logical attribution to this would be the decision SQUH took to have the quality manual electronic as a means to controlling documentation, as per ISO requirements, clause 4.2.3. This process required enormous dedication from SQUH staff in weekly reviewing and revising existing documentation or by creating the detailed documentation necessary, as per ISO requirements.The risk of a nonconformity re-occurring in the same or a different area of the hospital was a major concern, although with the introduction, monitoring and subsequent sharing of corrective/ preventive action, this too has improved quite considerably.\nOutcome of change: Stage I\nMaintaining the improvement cycle: Stage II\nConclusions: As an improvement on a larger scale and continuing along the path of auditing for the purpose of improvement, the next step for Sultan Qaboos University Hospital is to seek healthcare accreditation. In our quest to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction, accreditation can only enhance the journey of continual improvement towards excellence and provide concepts, methods, tools and advice for attaining a total quality culture. In conclusion, and on behalf of the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital of Oman, this experience has essentially been a practical approach to implementing quality audit, where much has been achieved, but much more remains to be done.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To make an improvement on a larger scale and continuing along the path of quality auditing, this paper aims to identify the steps taken towards excellence for patient care in Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - SQUH, in the Gulf country Sultanate of Oman, has enthusiastically entered the challenge of improving quality in healthcare while traveling towards healthcare excellence. It began with the successful achievement of ISO 9001:2000 certification (May 2005) and re-certification (May 2008) and is now adopting accreditation standards.\nFindings: - Being a prominent 500-bed teaching research hospital in the country offering general and distinguished specialized clinical services while adhering to continuing professional development, the source of motivation derives from the hospital's vision and mission, thus bringing the primary focus of auditing to a peak. By performing internal quality audit, proper monitoring of conformity by measuring the effectiveness to the stated intention in a cycle of continuous quality improvement (CQI) is ensured.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Traditionally, health prevention and cure have always been the aim for the healthcare industry. Consequently it is the one industry that faces continuous pressures to improve quality and the one with the fastest-growing interest in quality.\nOriginality/value: - The paper puts forward a model that incorporates the fundamentals of quality improvement through quality auditing step by step in a systematic manner and shows measurable results.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Postponement and logistics flexibility in retailing: a multiple case study from Sweden	[ "Sweden", "Retailing", "Postponement", "Logistics flexibility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Extremely demanding customer requirements on availability and variety, combined with ever-increasing competition in the market are widely considered as the challenges of supply chains (see, e.g. Hilletofth, 2012). The increasing demand for adapting to diverse customer requirements, as well as increasing market volatility and uncertainty, are among the important drivers of flexibility in the supply chain (Tachizawa and Thomsen, 2007). Logistics flexibility corresponds to the ability to respond quickly and efficiently to changing customer needs in inbound and outbound delivery, support, and services (Zhang et al., 2005). Products not in their final state (regarding form or place utilities) offer more flexibility in the presence of demand uncertainty since they can be transformed into many final products (Graman and Magazine, 2006), and thus avoid incurring high finished-goods inventory carrying costs or stock-outs. A proven appealing option for tackling uncertainty is to delay, or postpone, the point of product differentiation (Boone et al., 2007; van Hoek et al., 1999; Hilletofth, 2009), or to consider a base level of predictable demand for products - that can be planned for - and to postpone the production or distribution of the demand above the base level (\"surge\") (Christopher and Holweg, 2011).\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Postponement\n3. Methodology and study design: It is increasingly becoming accepted that exploratory studies entailing \"why\" and \"how\" research questions can be approached effectively using a case study method (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2014). The case study method enables researchers to develop a better insight into a complex and relatively unexplored phenomenon, which is being implemented only recently and is expected to increase rapidly in use (Ellram, 1996). In line with our purpose, our case study is exploratory; however, some descriptive information is provided in our empirical study as well. Such approach helps to \"identify the appropriate explanation to be analyzed\" (Yin, 2014, p. 140).\n4. Empirical study: 4.1. Jysk\n5. Discussion: This study explored the instance of applying postponement in retailing along with reflecting on logistics flexibility of the firms. It is interesting to note the range of postponement types applied by the three price-oriented retailers. As shown in Table II, all of the case companies appear to have different practices in terms of postponement and speculation.\n6. Closing remarks: 6.1. Conclusions and implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how postponement is applied in retailing and how such application is connected to logistics flexibility.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An overview of the established typological classifications of postponement and logistics flexibility is presented followed by empirical results from three case studies of retailers of electronics, furniture, and grocery in Sweden. The study relies on primary qualitative data gathered on the retailers as well as secondary material on some suppliers including logistics providers for further insight.\nFindings: The results of the study show that retailers have different practices when it comes to postponement and speculation; however, there is a growing tendency toward postponement among retailers by exploring new means of applying postponement. The results reveal that retailers that have higher application of postponement seem to be more flexible in their logistics operations.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper provides direction for further empirical research of the topic, by indicating the application of postponement is not constrained to the point of purchase and could be extended by involving consumers as well as capitalizing on suppliers' competences and capabilities. Especially, sales services, software, and upgrades could provide opportunity for further expanding the concept.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to the existing literature on logistics practices of postponement and speculation, as well as logistics flexibility by focussing on retail firms in Sweden. Most of the prior scholarly work on postponement and flexibility is on the manufacturing context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Organizational performance management system: exploring the manufacturing sectors	[ "Performance management", "Performance measures", "Manufacturing sectors", "Organizational performance", "Performance criteria" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The success and sustainability of an organisation depends on performance of the organisation and how their objectives are carried out to its effect. Organisations are trying to manage performance of each employee, team and process to ensure that the goals are met in an efficient and effective manner consistently. Effective utilisation of performance management system is critical to enhance organisational performance, so as to achieve a competitive position in global marketplace (Kovacic, 2007; Neely, 2005; Guler et al., 2002; Neill and Rose, 2006 and Franceschini et al., 2010). With rapid introduction of new technologies and changes in the manufacturing sector, the manufacturers are struggling to measure and manage performance across their operations effectively. This need has given rise to the importance of a comprehensive performance management system, which would enable the manufacturers to improve all the facets of their operations and to attain competitive edge in the market. The purpose of this paper is to understand the various performance management system utilized by the manufacturing industries and its relevance to the pertaining changes in the economy.\nPerformance management system: concept and issues: In late 1970's Dr Aubrey Daniels coined the term performance management, as a science imbedded in application methods for managing both behaviour and results within an organisation. In essence, performance management is a shared process of the day-to-day management of employees based on their agreement of objectives, knowledge, skills and competence requirements. The traditional performance management system was focused on \"what gets measured gets done\". It was based on cost and accounting management techniques. It was carried out to meet the needs of expanding manufacturing industries during the 1980's. Lately, enormous changes have taken place in technology and production techniques that have made traditional performance measurement systems obsolete. There has been a shift in focus on \"how to manage what is measured\". This shift was caused for the need of new performance management system, which would assist in catering to the changing needs of the manufacturing sector. The performance measurement system forms the core of a performance management system which assists in managing the company strategy (Lebas, 1995; Neely, 2005; Otley, 1999).The steadily increasing maintenance related costs in manufacturing industries is emphasizing the need of a performance management system, in order to utilize the scarce maintenance resources more effectively so as to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation (Komonen, 2002; Eti et al., 2005; Tangen, 2004; Cohen and Kaimenakis, 2007; Tsang et al., 1999). A performance management system is needed which is able to pursue all maintenance efforts made by the organisation, which is synchronized to the organisational strategy. In a survey conducted by Cholasuke et al. (2004), on manufacturing organisations, it was found that only one-third of the organisations, with good maintenance management practices tend to realize the full benefits of their maintenance management initiatives. This has led to the utilisation of innovative performance management system such as, balance scorecard, performance benchmarking, etc. instead of the traditional performance management techniques (Rouse and Putterill, 2003; Lunnan and Haugland, 2008; Gomes et al., 2004; Yeniyurt, 2003). However, it has been realized that no single performance management system can imbibe all the critical areas of business nor can provide a clear performance target. In order to manage performance effectively, top executives of the organisation need to be aware of information processing tendencies and practices within the organisation to choose a suitable performance management system.In recent time, organisations are faced with new competitive conditions and need to cope with dynamic environments. These conditions require continuous improvement. Accordingly, the companies are requiring the need of a sustainable performance management system for improvement of organisational effectiveness. However the performance management system has to be carefully considered before implementation as various factors affect the process, such as:* Incentives. Performance measures can sometimes generate inappropriate behavior because of the way they are linked to formal or informal incentive structures. The incentives linked to a certain performance can create pressure to focus on the easily solved problems while ignoring more challenging problems (Bruttel, 2005). This creates a creaming and parking behavior. Therefore, the incentive structures associated with performance measures that is easy to place customers generate more attention (creaming) while more difficult to place customers are effectively ignored (parking).* Costs. According to Bouckaert and Peters (2002), the costs associated with producing performance information are often opaque. The costs associated with performance measurement are often immediate while the benefits of it are realized after a long period of time or sometimes are even uncertain.* Feedback is not strategic. When the feedbacks from the performance management system are concentrated solely on short-term results than on strategy implementation and success, then the success of the system becomes doubtful.\nPerformance management measures: A successful performance management system ensures that work performed by employees accomplishes the goals and mission of the organisation and that employees have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. Benefits of a successfully adopted performance management system include an organisation that is directly aligned to its goals and objectives and a motivated workforce where every employee understands his or her importance and role in the organisation. Some of the popular performance management systems utilized by manufacturing industries are:1. Balanced scorecard. The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively for both strategic and operational purposes in business. It is a measurement framework which has integrated the non - financial performance measures to traditional financial systems which gives the executives a balanced wholesome outlook on organisational performance. Previous research has depicted that 60 per cent of the Fortune 100 companies in the USA and 88 per cent of Australian and Finnish companies have experience with this. It is found that most of the high performing companies emphasise on innovation and growth perspectives of balanced scorecard (Silk, 1998; Olson and Slater, 2002). In a study conducted by Anderson and Lanen (1999), on Indian firms it was found that information on customer expectations, customer satisfaction, competitor's performance, internal information, on-time delivery, unit product cost and product quality assumed greater significance for strategy formulation through the balanced scorecard procedure. It was found that the traditional financial measures continue to dominate the performance scorecard, though there has been an increase in use of non-financial measures such as on-time delivery, customer satisfaction and productivity in addition to financial measures for performance evaluation in Indian firms (Anderson, 1999; Joshi, 2001).2. Performance benchmarking. Benchmarking is one of the most effective continuous improvement tool for transferring knowledge and innovation into organisations, which determines a positive impact on competitiveness of the business and work processes, as well as represents best practices which establishes rational performance goals (Riberio and Cobral, 2006). Performance benchmarking as a tool for continuous improvement is more prominently adopted among the developed countries than the developing countries (Longbottom, 2000; Jarrar and Zairi, 2001; Yusuff, 2004; Maire et al., 2005). The performance benchmarking in Indian manufacturing sector is a relatively new concept though it has been adopted worldwide as an instrument of continuous improvement. Benchmarking was initially developed by Xerox as a continuous, systematic process of evaluating companies recognised as industry leaders so as to understand the best practices and establish rational performance goals for itself. However it must be acknowledged that benchmarking initiative does not provide the solutions automatically. The organisation needs to find the right measures for comparison so as to analyse the performance gap and to realize some innovative solutions (Carpinetti and Melo, 2002; Rohlfer, 2004; Berrach and Cliville, 2007; Hinton et al., 2000).3. TOPP system. The Terminal Operated Production Programme (TOPP) system is a new performance measurement system which was developed by SINTEF (1992), in Norway in partnership with the Norwegian Institute of Technology, the Norwegian Federation of Engineering Industries and 56 participating enterprises. It is a type of questionnaire that determines the performance of a firm in all the areas of manufacturing. This questionnaire consists of three parts of which; one part obtains information regarding the firm as a whole, second part determines how the enterprise operates and finally the third part focusing on 20 specific areas within the enterprise that may need improvement, such as marketing, design, technological planning, product development, financial management, personnel management, etc. The TOPP system ascertains the performance measurement along three dimensions:* Effectiveness - to satisfy customer needs.* Efficiency - optimal utilization of enterprise and economic resources.* Ability to change - strategically handling changes.The TOPP questionnaire analyses the firm's areas of manufacturing and instigates the firm to consider the areas which earlier was of lower importance. This enables the firm to estimate their likely future status as well as to introduce improvements. It is therefore suitable for making comparisons between enterprises.4. AMBITE system. The Advanced Manufacturing Business Implementation Tool for Europe (AMBITE) system is a modern performance management system which can be used to assess impact of strategic decisions made by a firm. This system facilitates in translating the business plan into a set of performance measures which directly relates to the strategy of a firm. The AMBITE performance framework consists of five macro business processes (customer order fulfillment, vendor supply, design, co-ordination, co-engineering and manufacturing) and five macro measures of performance (time, cost, quality, flexibility and the environment). By mapping out these five macro business processes and measures of performance, a set of twenty-five strategic performance indicators for each manufacturing typology is devised. Each performance indicator is different from each other depending on the firm in consideration. As this system is a process oriented and generic framework, therefore, it can be applied to almost any firm irrespective of its size.5. EFQM model. The EFQM Excellence Model (European Foundation for Quality Management, 2010) was introduced initially at the beginning of 1992 as the framework for assessing and improving organisations, in order to achieve sustainable advantage. It is a non-prescriptive framework based on nine criteria. Five of these are the enablers while four of them are the results. The enabler criteria covers \"what an organisation does\" namely; leadership, policy and strategy, people, partnership, and resources and processes. The results criteria covers \"what an organisation achieves\" namely: customer results, people results, society results and key performance results. It provides an opportunity to the firm to benchmark and compare processes and results with other users and is applicable to all organisations. It facilitates the firm to develop a continuous improvement processes to understand their key strengths and potential gaps in performance as well as to integrate existing and planned initiatives to remove those gaps.The firms are now committing time and resources for the development of a new performance measurement system to enhance the performance of the firm as well as to increase the motivation and credibility of the entire process. These performance measures highlight the gaps between the best in class and the manufacturing unit's own performance over a period of time which accelerates the continuous organisational learning process.\nEmphasis on people: organizational initiatives: The rapidly changing business environment engenders difficult challenges in designing and implementing effective performance management systems in organisation, for the management.The performance management system needs be integrated with the strategies of the organisation to enable high degree of success. Therefore, several organisational initiatives, which can be ascertained in an organisation to enhance the performance of the employees through a performance management system, such as:* Top management. There should be clear agreement and commitment among the top management on strategy, goals, measures and performance targets to be implemented within the organization.* Involvement and participation. The involvement of all employees towards achieving the established performance parameters is crucial. Involvement of managers and employees in developing and implementing a performance management system enhances trust and ownership of the performance measures. Clearly defined measures of performance would enable the managers to select an adequate performance management system for their organization.* Review process. The managers should be focused on continuous review of the performance management system, so as to determine whether the actions plans to fill the gaps between performance measures and goals are being achieved or not. The focus of performance management system should be on improvement and learning rather than on control.* Feedback. A prompt and formal feedback system must be enabled for successful performance measurement. Efficient communication and feedback system would detect any loopholes within the system and would aid the manager to rectify it.* Compensation. A well defined compensation plan must be introduced for the employees so as to avoid any discrepancy.Many tools and frameworks have been proposed in the field of performance measurement and management but it is not necessary that all of them would give positive results. Therefore, it is necessary that the managers should select a balanced performance management system as per the requirement of the organization and its employees.\nConclusion: This paper demonstrates the various practices of performance management system in the manufacturing sectors. The literature review of the popular performance management system utilized by the manufacturing sectors depicts that no single system is successful in improving the performance of a firm. The correct match between the firm and performance management system is essential for its success. The performance management system's function has a significant positive impact on performance of the employees when it is implemented successfully. The review also depicted certain issues on implementation of performance management system in the manufacturing units like costs, lack of strategic feedback system and incentive schemes which undermine the efficiency of a performance management system. Improvisation of performance is an ongoing process and the organisation needs to strive to attain optimal level of value, so as to enhance the future potential business. Hence, the process of measuring the manufacturing performance management system needs frequent reviewing and monitoring to combat an increasingly competitive globalised business environment.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the various performance management systems utilized by the manufacturing units.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper reviews the performance management literature to extract the factors that would help to explain the effect of performance management system on manufacturing units.\nFindings: - This research revealed important issues and practices of performance management in manufacturing sectors.\nOriginality/value: - The paper improves understanding of the different approaches utilized to manage and measure performance management system in the manufacturing sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Coopetition among nascent craft breweries: a value chain analysis	[ "Value chain", "Small business", "Coopetition", "Craft brewing", "Nascent firms" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business is often viewed as synonymous with competition. The titles of popular business books encourage us to \"compete for the future\" (Hamel and Prahalad, 1996) and employ \"competitive strategy\" (Porter, 1980). Indeed, the foundations of the free market system espouse that actors in the economy individually pursuing their own self-interest are the driver of overall economic prosperity (Smith, 1776). Direct competitors working together is degraded as collusive activity that subverts the goal of \"perfect\" competition and must be regulated. Mere conversations amongst competitors will likely result in a \"conspiracy against the public\" (Smith, 1776, p. 145).\n2. Literature review: In the past 20 years, coopetition has found its way into the academic literature with a steadily growing number of articles focussed on the topic. With regard to the origins of the term coopetition, most observers point to the year 1992 when Raymond Noorda, former CEO of Novell, used the word to describe his firm's strategy. The concept was further developed by Brandenburger and Nalebuff in their 1996, best-selling book Co-opetiton. While there are a variety of definitions of coopetition in the literature (Mina and Dagnino, 2016), the defining characteristic of coopetitive behaviour involves simultaneous competition and cooperation among economic actors. A variety of reviews provide a comprehensive presentation of this literature (Czakon et al., 2014; Bouncken et al., 2015; Gast et al., 2015; Dorn et al., 2016; Bengtsson and Raza-Ullah, 2016). Key takeaways from the literature are that the term coopetition itself is broadly defined and being used to label a vast array of economic activity among a large variety of economic actors, coopetition has largely been studied in the context of established and/or larger firms, and the literature has focussed on firm innovation in high-tech firms.\n3. Methods: 3.1 Research setting\n4. Results: Figure 1 shows where in the value chain the collaborative behaviours among direct competitors that our study uncovered occurred. The figure also shows where the cooperative behaviour uncovered in support areas most influenced other activities.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: Returning to the empirical question we identified in our introduction, we find that despite limitations in resources small, nascent firms do indeed cooperate with direct competitors. This empirical discovery is important because it suggests cooperation can occur even in settings where firms face strong competitive pressures to establish themselves. In doing so, this finding enriches scholarly knowledge by expanding our understanding of the competitive settings in which coopetition occurs beyond larger and established firms. It also expands our understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour by calling attention to cooperative behaviour with direct competitors as a mechanism for firms to overcome the liabilities of newness and smallness.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to employ an inductive approach to explore how small, nascent, firms in the craft brewing industry use cooperative behaviours with direct competitors to achieve their goals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were gathered from interviews with the founders of seven small, newly established, craft brewers in a Midwestern city in the USA for this exploratory study. Data analysis followed the general tenants of inductive coding. Porter's value chain model was used as a framework to organise and conceptualise the coopetitive behaviour uncovered.\nFindings: The firms engage in cooperative behaviours with their direct competitors in areas such as process technology development, procurement, inbound logistics and marketing. A particularly interesting and common collaborative activity was breweries recommending/promoting competing breweries to their own customers.\nPractical implications: This study provides clear examples of how relationship building with competitors could be advantageous and help small, nascent firms overcome the liabilities of newness and smallness.\nOriginality/value: Research on coopetition has called for a greater understanding of the nature of cooperative behaviours in small firms, start-ups and firms outside of high-technology industries. Moreover, research has called for finer-grained approaches to conceptualising coopetition. This paper fills these gaps and shows how Porter's value chain is a useful tool for organising the types of collaborative behaviours that can be part of coopetition. The findings enhance understanding and facilitate future research by illustrating a broad array of cooperative activities that occur between direct competitors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Comparing Thai and US businesspeople: Perceived intensity of unethical marketing practices, corporate ethical values, and perceived importance of ethics	[ "Ethics", "Marketing", "Managers", "Thailand", "United States of America", "International business" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: An experienced businessman recently commented to one of the authors that \"the only interesting part of business ethics is international business ethics. In the US, you know what the right thing to do is; you just have to find the courage to do it. But ethics is really challenging in international settings\". Though some might differ with his conclusions about ethics in American businesses, most would agree that international business ethics is \"really challenging\", especially for Americans working in, or with, firms from countries that are significantly less developed. De George's book on international business ethics (1993) focuses almost solely on guidelines for American companies working in less developed countries, and Donaldson (1992) writes that all problematic issues in international business are rooted either in cultural or economic differences. Marketers operating between EU countries and the US have become aware of differing ethical standards for advertising to children; these are rooted in cultural differences. The principles investigated in this study should resonate with managers in multinationals based in any developed country, operating in less developed countries, including, for example, G-7 members in the EU moving production into new EU members in Eastern Europe.Not much comparative work has been done in the area, and managers who need guidance on ethical differences between specific countries might search the literature in vain, but it is growing. The day may even be approaching when marketing ethics scholars will need to consolidate results, in some type of meta-analysis, because there are so many variables to investigate. The present work examines differences in the ethical decision-making processes of Thai and American businesspeople, considering three broad variables. \"Perceived moral intensity (PMI)\" affects ethical decision-making at the intersection between the individual and the ethical issue. \"Corporate ethical values (CEV)\" assesses the influences exerted by the perceived ethics of the firm. \"Perceived importance of ethics\" gets at what the individual believes about the relationships between the business, ethics, and long-run profitability.\nConceptual foundations and hypotheses: Ethical decisions are conceptualized in models (Ferrell and Gresham, 1985; Ferrell et al., 1989; Hunt and Vitell, 1986, 1993; Jones, 1991) as being affected by almost innumerable variables. These include general societal values, the decision-maker's individual experiences and predispositions, including religious faith, attitudes within the firm and industry, and diverse emotional forces generated by the specific situation at hand. For this study, the authors have chosen to test variables at three of these levels, among businesspeople from two different countries, Thailand and the US. All these variables have been tested fairly rigorously in prior empirical studies, especially in the US.Cultural typology\nMethodology: This study used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data for both American and Thai managers. For American managers, the sampling frame used is a mailing list of US practitioner members of the AMA. For the Thai sample, managers enrolled in executive MBA or special MBA programs from eight public and five private universities throughout Thailand were selected as target respondents.Thai sample. Thai is the first language of Thailand, so for the Thai manager respondents, the questionnaire was professionally translated from English to Thai. A back-translation technique was also used to assure that the meanings are accurate. The questionnaire was administered during regular class periods.A total of 605 usable questionnaires were received from throughout Thailand (although mostly from the capital city of Bangkok or a Bangkok suburb). Most Thai respondents are men (65.2 percent), and the largest group of respondents is 30-39 years old (47.6 percent). Regarding their educational backgrounds, most of the Thai respondents (56.9 percent) have undergraduate-level education. This is consistent with the requirement of typical executive MBA programs, that students have at least an undergraduate degree and/or some working experience. The respondents represent various industries and management positions. A more detailed profile of the respondents is given in Table II.American sample. The total of 2,000 practitioner members of the AMA (approximately 15 percent of total US membership) was randomly selected as the sample. Of the 1,995 sets of questionnaires delivered by mail, 453 persons responded for a response rate of 23 percent, which is comparable to those of previous marketing ethics surveys that have also used an AMA mailing list as the sampling frame (Hunt and Chonko, 1984; Singhapakdi and Vitell, 1990). Only 442 of the 453 questionnaires received are usable and about half (51.4 percent) of the respondents were male (see a detailed profile in Table II). Most of the US respondents were under 39 years of age (54.0 percent) and a large majority (92.6 percent) had at least an undergraduate degree. The US respondents also represent various industries and management positions.Measures\nResults: The two groups of business people were compared using MANOVA, which resulted in a significant F-test (F=19.4, p=0.000) indicating that American and Thai managers are different on combinations of the important ethics variables included in this study. Consistently, our analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences between American and Thai managers on most of the variables tested. As summarized in Table III, our results indicate significant variation in most components of PMI and in CEV. However, our results reveal no significant difference between American and Thai managers in their perceptions regarding the importance of ethics.Specifically, according to our ANOVA results, American managers tend to score higher than Thai managers in terms of their perceived magnitude of consequences in all four scenarios tested. Therefore, H1 is supported. We can conclude that Thai businesspeople will estimate the overall harm created by unethical marketing behavior as lower than Americans do. The ANOVA results for the social consensus component of PMI are only significant for only two out of four scenarios tested. Therefore, H2 - that Thai businesspeople will estimate the social consensus about unethical marketing practices as lower than Americans do - is only partly supported.The result for the perceived probability of effect component is consistent with the hypothesized direction for three of four scenarios tested; H3, therefore, is generally supported. We can conclude that Thai businesspeople will tend to predict that unethical marketing practices will cause less harm than Americans will. Our results on the temporal immediacy component indicate that H4 is also supported (significantly different on all four scenarios). We can conclude that Thai businesspeople will be less likely than Americans to predict that any harms resulting from unethical behavior will occur in the near-term future.H5, regarding proximity, is not supported. According to the results, only one out of four scenarios tested is significant in the hypothesized direction. In fact, the directions for two out of four hypotheses are significant but in the opposite direction as hypothesized. Therefore, we cannot conclude that Thai businesspeople will be more likely than Americans to condemn an unethical marketing practice done to a personal friend. For concentration of effect, the ANOVA results reveal significant differences for only two out of four scenarios tested. Therefore, the hypothesis (H6) that Thai businesspeople will predict harm resulting from an unethical marketing practice to fewer people than Americans, is only partly supported.According to the ANOVA results for CEV, there are significant differences between the two groups. As hypothesized (H7), we can conclude that Thai managers, as compared to Americans, will perceive that their corporations have less ethical values. The hypothesis (H8) that Thais and Americans would differ in their perceived importance of ethics is not supported. According to our ANOVA results, there are no significant differences between the two groups - the mean scores between Thai and American managers are strikingly close. Therefore, we cannot conclude Thai managers will perceive ethics to be less important for business success than American managers do.\nDiscussion: For the researchers, one of the principal results of this study is a confirmation of Inglehart's claim (quoted under \"Social Consensus\", above) that economic development moves countries in a common direction, no matter how divergent their cultures and histories. Fukuyama's (1992) much-debated hypothesis that history is directional and terminates in capitalist democracy finds some support here, also. Economic development was a more powerful predictor, in this research, than Hofstede's results, at least in situations where the cultural variables pointed in opposing directions. Noted marketing ethicists Laczniak and Murphy (1993, p. 216) also argued in their book, Ethical Marketing Decisions: The Higher Road, that businesspeople in less developed countries might think of financial security as their primary goal, and see ethical business practices as more of a secondary goal. As investment becomes more globalized, it is imperative that managers understand that differing ethical perceptions can be a critical factor in working together successfully, and are occasionally an absolute limitation to establishing operations in a particular country. Comparison of ethical perspectives should be an integral part of the analysis that under girds decisions about where to locate facilities.In the present case, Thai managers tend to sense less moral intensity in the unethical marketing behaviors described in the scenarios than American managers do. Jones (1991, p. 390) emphasized that \"not all people see themselves as independent moral agents in work situations\". This is like ceding responsibility or accepting others' authority in moral matters. Individuals who do not see themselves as moral actors would be less likely to discern the moral intensity in a given ethical scenario. The greater acceptance of power differentials in Thai culture may explain why they would tend not to perceive themselves as moral actors in a particular situation, which would, in turn, explain their lower perception of moral intensity. Marketing and sales managers, then, should understand that they need to be very explicit about marketing and sales behaviors, like those in the scenarios, that have moral implications, because their employees may simply not perceive them.In addition, if Jones (1991, p. 389) is correct in his proposition that \"ethical behavior will be observed more frequently where issues of high moral intensity are involved than where issues of low moral intensity are involved\", this is a problem that Thai marketing managers should address. Training should focus on identifying ethical decisions that are typically made by individuals in the firm, and strongly encourage better ethical choices. Some firms have used videos or written case studies that describe likely situations employees might encounter (many are marketing-focused). These stop just at the point of decision, to encourage discussion that develops moral imagination. They also provide an \"ending\" to the scenario, to demonstrate clearly that the company considers some possible solutions unacceptable. It is very important that upper management, especially, is unambiguous about behaviors they consider unethical; trainers should focus on getting this message out to all employees. Essentially, this amounts to changing the culture or, specifically, the \"CEV\" of the organization itself. Training might also focus on highlighting the connection between good ethics and a number of ideas that are dear to marketers' hearts: customer service, trust, reliability, reputation, brand equity, and commitment, for example. Marketing managers might also educate their staff on the need for transparency, because of its connection with long-term profitability in a global market.Far and away, the most influential book about globalization is The Lexus and the Olive Tree, by Thomas L. Friedman. Combining a couple of his striking metaphors: the results of this study indicate that Thailand and Thai companies need to tighten the golden straightjacket, in order to attract the Electronic Herd (especially the long-horn cattle). Translated, Friedman means that Thailand must reduce corruption (one of the policies that make up the straightjacket) in order to attract investment from abroad, especially long-term investment. This implies at least two things for American marketers working in the Thai market, as for any marketers moving from a developed to a less developed setting: first, they need to realize they will run into unethical behavior, like bribery, that they know is not healthy for the company in the long run. This \"ethics gap\" is based on cultural and developmental factors, and will not be easily changed. Second, though, is that if the American marketers are truly committed to working with Thai marketers in the future, one of the best investments they could make toward long-term success is to work to raise awareness of the importance of ethics. According to De George (1993) and Donaldson (1992), two of the most eminent writers in international business ethics, this may involve working beyond the firm level, with industry groups, chambers of commerce, major business schools with strong ethics programs, and multilateral agencies, for instance. Paying a bribe is often the easy route, in this type of international business situation, and it may sometimes be necessary in the short term, but it does nobody any favors to continue the practice in the long run. American firms operating in Thailand (in fact, any firms moving from developed to less developed country settings) should consider establishing conversations within their industries, including their competitors, about how to raise ethical standards. While a single firm might not have the kind of leverage necessary to challenge entrenched corruption, an industry group will have more clout.The point here, for businesspeople from developed countries, is that you cannot expect to establish your ethics with your operations. While there are some actions that are always and everywhere wrong (Donaldson, 1992, for a list of ten of them), others may require short- or longer-term compromise, based on the history and traditions of the host country. Then there are standards that have become accepted in developed countries because they are simply good business. Bribery, the most common ethical problem in international business, is unethical because it makes \"the playing field\" uneven, setting up conditions where the rich company will always win the business, rather than the start-up with the great new idea. Instead of bringing their home country values abroad, therefore, it is sometimes more helpful for developed country managers to remember that in countries that have been living hand-to-mouth for generations, thinking long-term (where ethics really matter) is a new idea. Establishing ethical practices that will lead to trust, good business relationships, commitment and a reputation for fair dealing will take some time and effort. This approach should also avoid the common accusation that businesses are trying to export either American or \"Western\" norms.In fact, there may be some indication, in our findings, that pressures from globalization and increased focus on ethics are functioning as predicted. We found that Thai businesspeople perceived their corporations to be less ethical than did Americans, but also that there was a striking similarity in their perceptions about how important ethics are for business success. Some structural adjustments might improve corporate ethics (or perceptions, depending on where the heart of the problem is) in Thailand - firms might establish ethics offices and hotlines to report unethical behavior anonymously, design formal codes of ethics, and distribute ethics newsletters.Further research might include a longitudinal study to answer the question about whether globalization is indeed creating a greater awareness of the importance of ethics for business success, and especially in drawing investment into less developed countries.Limitations inherent in this research include the initial development of the measurements in the US, though the translation was done by native Thais. There were also some notable demographic differences between the samples, including gender, education level, age, and location (urban or non-urban). Demographic indicators simply cannot be interpreted in the same way across cultures, but the differences must also make researchers more cautious in their interpretation of results.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to examine differences in the ethical decision-making processes of Thai and American businesspeople, considering perceived moral intensity, corporate ethical values (CEV), and perceived importance of ethics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Survey respondents were professional marketers in Thailand (n=605) and US (n=453). Results were analyzed using MANOVA and ANOVA. Scales have been used previously in the literature, so we report reliability.\nFindings: - American managers were more likely to perceive the unethical marketing behaviors to be more serious. American organizations were found to have higher CEV than Thai organizations. The results revealed no differences between the two groups of businesspeople, however, on their perceptions about the importance of ethics.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Limitations inherent in this research include the initial development of the development of the measurements in the US and some notable demographic differences between the samples.\nPractical implications: - As investment becomes more globalized, it is imperative that mangers understand that differing ethical perceptions can be a critical factor in working together successfully, and are occasionally an absolute limitations to establishing operations in a particular country.\nOriginality/value: - The study should be especially useful to people who manage businesses in these two countries, but many of the implications will be valuable to anyone in international business situations, in dealing with differences in ethical perception.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring commercial friendships from employees' perspectives	[ "Relationship marketing", "Buyer‐seller relationships", "Older consumers", "Service industries", "United States of America", "Personal needs" ]	[ { "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 marketing literature is replete with articles highlighting the \"commercial friendships\" (Price and Arnould, 1999) that often form between service providers and customers (Adelman et al., 1994; Goodwin, 1997; Goodwin and Gremler, 1996; Swan et al., 2001). In addition, the literature streams in disciplines such as psychology (Cowen, 1982) and sociology (Oldenburg, 1999, 2001; Stone, 1954) reveal that retail employees often represent natural sources of friendship and social support to customers (Rosenbaum et al., 2007).Marketers traditionally conceptualize social support as verbal communication that facilitates service exchanges by reducing customers' uncertainties about the service delivery, improving customers' self-esteem, or by creating social connection to others (Adelman et al., 1994). Rosenbaum (2006, 2008) expands on this stance by noting that employees may offer customers social support in the form of companionship (i.e. friendship), emotional support (i.e. willingness to listen to personal and private issues), and instrumental support (i.e. assistance with tasks, such as cleaning or transportation) through verbal communication.The importance of these three social support types cannot be understated because social psychologists and health researchers have found that though other support types exist, these specific support types are most beneficial to people's health (Cohen, 2004; Helgeson, 2003; Sorkin et al., 2002) and to their longevity (Giles et al., 2005). Thus, service providers may assume a major role in their customers' lives (Kang and Ridgway, 1996; Price et al., 1995).The commercial friendship literature suggests that employees in high-customer contact positions, such as bartenders (Cowen, 1982), hairstylists (Price and Arnould, 1999), river-rafting tour guides (Arnould and Price, 1993), funeral planners (Gentry and Goodwin, 1995), and dating service directors (Adelman and Ahuvia, 1995), often demonstrate empathy to customers by providing complementary social support. On the one hand, many service providers are altruistic people who relish the opportunity to provide customers with support. On the other hand, many service providers may also consider the social support they provide to customers \"emotional labor\" (Hochschild, 2003; Steinberg and Figart, 1999) or a requisite of their positions, which is linked to their receiving remuneration through tips (Lynn and Gregor, 2001) or gifts (Lynn et al., 1993; Price and Arnould, 1999).Service providers whose income is primarily derived from customers' tips may be keen in realizing the financial rewards they might receive by providing customers with services that extend beyond their normal job roles. As a result, many commercial friendships may be feigned insofar as their existence depends on a customer's ability to reward employees monetarily for providing him or her with social support (Price and Arnould, 1999). This is not to say that all commercial friendships are fictitious. Indeed, it is possible that service providers who interact indirectly with customers (i.e. employees who do not receive direct compensation from customers for rendered services) may be less inclined than direct service providers (i.e. employees who receive tips from customers for services) to falsify or partially feign their commercial friendships. Given that researchers tend to focus on how commercial friendships enhance service exchanges between direct service providers and their clients, the discipline lacks an understanding of the \"dark side\" of these friendships.The objectives of this article are to address this research void by discovering the roles of direct and indirect service employees in extending social support to customers, and to uncover the monetary and non-monetary rewards employees receive from customers by doing so. Overall, this article contributes to the services marketing domain by illustrating that service employees who do not directly receive tips from customers may be fundamental to offering customers social support. Furthermore, this article extends the commercial friendship paradigm by revealing that commercial friendships are not merely touching marketplace occurrences. On the basis of collected data, commercial friendships emerge as mutually dependent relationships between employees and customers, in which employees extend social support to customers and receive both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards for doing so.The plan for this paper is as follows: first, a literature review is offered to place the article within the services paradigm. Second, data obtained from a social network inventory approach (Rook and Ituarte, 1999) and from qualitative data obtained from service employees are analyzed. The article concludes with the presentation of an interactive-type theoretical framework (Glaser, 1978), a discussion of managerial implications, and research limitations.\nLiterature review: Marketing researchers are increasingly recognizing that commercial places \"may sometimes transcend their commercial intent\" (Arnould et al., 1998, p. 90) by becoming integral to customers' personal lives and social experiences. After all, Bagozzi's (1975) marketing-as-exchange paradigm suggests that most marketplace exchanges are fueled not by people's utilitarian product or service needs but rather by their unfulfilled psychological and social needs, perhaps for emotional support or companionship.Outside of marketing, psychologists (Cowen, 1982), sociologists (Lofland, 1998; Oldenburg, 1999), and humanistic geographers (Tuan, 1974) have a long history of exploring consumers' psychosocial motives for patronizing commercial establishments. For example, research shows that peoples' needs for human contact and togetherness with like-others who share common backgrounds, interests, lifestyles, religion, ethnicity, and so forth, motivate them to patronize commercial establishments, that is, so-called third places (Oldenburg, 1999) or \"fields of care\" (Tuan, 1974), such as diners, gay clubs, secondhand clothing stores, corner taverns, department stores, and laundromats (Lofland, 1998; Oldenburg, 1999, 2001).Although commercial friendships are heartwarming, Adelman and Ahuvia (1995) link a service provider's gesture of companionship to positive customer responses, including satisfaction, loyalty, and word of mouth (Gremler and Gwinner, 2000; Gwinner et al., 1998). Given these responses, it might be speculated that some employees have an incentive to obtain financial benefits by falsifying their commercial friendships.Rather than explore a potentially unpleasant aspect of commercial friendships, researchers have tended to investigate commercial friendships in business-to-consumer exchanges as natural by-products of human interactions (Goodwin, 1997; Price and Arnould, 1999) or as outcomes related to employees' customer orientation (Beatty et al., 1996). Swan et al. (2001) perceive business-to-business salesperson-client commercial friendships as being characterized by discussions of personal experiences and family or by attendance at athletic events during sales calls.Yet it is intuitive that the majority of customers in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business exchanges do not enter into them to obtain social support. Indeed, both Surprenant and Solomon (1987) and Goodwin and Lockshin (1992) found that customers actually disdain unsolicited socially supportive overtures (e.g. questions about family, expressed concerns about dining alone) from retail employees and that these overtures result in customer dissatisfaction. These findings correspond with the \"matching hypothesis\" from social psychology (Cutrona and Russell, 1990), which postulates that people respond negatively to social supportive overtures when they do not perceive a need for additional social support. Thus, only consumers who sense unfulfilled needs or perceived deficits (Weiss, 1973) for social support will positively respond to commercial friendships. However, who are these types of consumers?Guided by House's (1981) research identifying work and home as vital sources of social support, social and community psychologists and health researchers have focused almost exclusively on the role of workplace relationships (Deelstra et al., 2003; Deeter-Schmelz and Ramsey, 1997) and social ties with family and friends (Brissette et al., 2002; Connidis and Davies, 1992) on reducing human isolation and promoting personal health and well-being. Although familial and work relationships usually provide people with ample provisions of social support, many older-aged and elderly people experience negative life events, such as death and illness, which diminish their available social support (Kang and Ridgway, 1996).For example, people who lose an emotional relationship through death, divorce, or separation lose the emotional support their spouses provided and a prime source of companionship (Stroebe, 2002). People who experience a chronic illness or disability are susceptible to companionship losses (Lyons and Sullivan, 1998), especially when the symptoms possess \"social severity\" due to their overt visibility (Eisenberg et al., 1982). Lastly, people who experience retirement and the empty nest syndrome often confront social challenges as retirees (Herr and Mobily, 1991) and female empty-nesters often incur intense boredom (Bovey, 1995). Empty-nest syndrome tends to affect women more so than men as many realize that they have sacrificed building engaging friendships as a result of family demands and related time constraints (Weiss, 1973). All these negative events erode or diminish people's social supportive resources, which leads them to experience symptoms associated with social (e.g. boredom) and emotional (e.g. anxiety) isolation.Furthermore, Lofland (1982) points out that the recently widowed often lack instrumental support after conjugal bereavement due to their following traditional household roles. For example, widowers often realize that they need assistance with household tasks, such as cleaning, laundry, and cooking, and widows often need assistance with household repairs, exterior maintenance, and financial matters. Although a lack of instrumental support is not linked to loneliness, it may exacerbate frustrations among the socially or emotionally isolated.All is not lachrymose for the lonely, however, as people may remedy negative symptoms associated with social or emotional isolation by obtaining new sources of companionship and emotional support, respectively (Russell et al., 1984), by forming commercial friendships. Given the personal and managerial benefits associated with commercial friendships, academics and service managers need to understand the possible role of employees in providing customers with companionship, emotional support, and instrumental support. Study 1 achieves this task.\nStudy 1: Methodology\nStudy 2: Methodology\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate which types of service employees provide their customers with social support and to understand why they do so.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article employs a network-based inventory method to evaluate a customer's commercial-based social support network and grounded theory to develop a framework illustrating the interdependence between service providers and their customers regarding the exchange of intrinsic support and extrinsic financial incentives and gifts.\nFindings: - Indirect service employees who do not directly receive tips from customers emerge as key providers of social support. Also, commercial friendships are not marketplace niceties. Service providers and customers engage in a mutually beneficial exchange of social support, gifts, and tips under the guise of commercial friendships.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The article is based upon service provider and customer relationships in an American diner. Researchers may want to apply the offered model to other contexts and locals. Also, researchers may want to reconsider the idea that service providers willingly provide social support to their customers.\nPractical implications: - The hiring and training of service employees, such as cashiers, hostesses, and \"bus boys,\" should be taken into consideration as they may be key providers of social support. Service providers should realize the extrinsic and intrinsic benefits or providing support.\nOriginality/value: - The paper empirically investigates the role of indirect service employees in providing customers with social support. Also, it demonstrates that commercial friendships are mutually beneficial relationships where service providers and customers realize extrinsic and/or intrinsic benefits from these relationships.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Factors impacting the usage of academic journal articles by PhD students in India	[ "India", "University libraries", "Electronic journals", "Journals", "Universities", "Research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Access to information on diverse themes pertaining to specific disciplines is facilitated by enriched libraries (Brandt, 1992; Hamade and Al-Yousef, 2010). Apart from libraries, Web resources are also considered as viable media for furthering information search and analysis. Academic community may tap many resources (for instance, search engines, e-print servers, websites, full-text databases, electronic journals and print resources) for pursuing their scholarly activities. Furthermore, electronic journals are preferred by the academic community on account of their easy accessibility and ready availability in terms of downloading them directly from the internet. Also, information search behaviors among PhD students show that electronic journals and print journals are being preferred for conducting robust research. However, in some cases, students do not have either an access to such academic resources or an exposure to these academic repositories (Bergart, 2002).\n2. Literature review: There has been expansive literature on the \"usage\" of academic resources in institutional settings. For instance, academic libraries are considered as repositories of knowledge, and they provide scope for information-seeking activities of the academic community. For instance, Okello-Obura (2010) probes the usage behavior of e-resources by postgraduate students of Library and Information Sciences from Makerere University, Kampala (Uganda). The author concludes that there are infrastructural impediments that are linked with the usage of e-resources. Likewise, Anaraki and Babalhavaeji (2013) investigate the extent to which medical students from three Iranian universities use e-resources. In their study, they find that there is limited awareness about the e-resources and their usage among the students. In another study, Song (2004) underlined the need for furthering information literacy in his study conducted among 143 students from business management discipline at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). The author also underscored the need for providing virtual reference service in the libraries. Arshad and Ameen (2015) investigated the library usage patterns among students of Punjab University (Pakistan) and found that there were variations in the usage patterns among the students in terms of their interest in tapping the e-resources. Furthermore, the significance of providing a robust ICT infrastructure for facilitating effective e-library use was investigated among students of a private university based in Kuwait (Alharbi, 2016). In the Chinese context, Zhang et al. (2011) investigated the usage of e-resources among graduate students and staff in seven Chinese universities and concluded that while there is ample usage of e-resources for research and statistical analysis, it is important that the quality of library services should improve as well. Likewise, in the Kenyan context, Makori (2015) underlined the factors impacting the usage of e-resources by the postgraduate students studying in local universities.\n3. Research methodology: For the present study, we solicited perspectives from PhD students enrolled in five Indian universities, including one private university and four public universities (two Central universities and two State universities). While two of these universities specialized in engineering disciplines, the others offered academic programs across humanities, sciences and management disciplines. As we had informal and formal contacts with PhD students of these universities hailing from diverse disciplinary backgrounds on account of our mutual association over a period or during interactions in conferences, workshops and seminars in different venues, it was relatively convenient to solicit their responses for the purpose of the study. Implicitly, we used a mix of convenience and purposive sampling for our purpose. Convenience sampling implies selection of respondents on the basis of ease with which the respondents are readily available and accessible for securing responses in line with the research aims (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). Purposive sampling is one where the selection of respondents is based on the criteria set by the researcher in line with the overall research objectives, and the questions are focused and specialized on that particular segment of respondents (Oliver, 2006). We emailed the structured interview questions to 147 PhD students in all, and we received completed responses from 134 PhD students. In cases where we required further clarification about the responses, we contacted the respondents again with a return email. This entire process was completed between September 2016 and January 2017. Table II provides a descriptive summary of the sample.\n4. Findings: As stated in the previous section, structured questions were posed before the respondents who were contacted via email. The four questions guiding the interviews and the responses have been summarized below. It may be added that the respondents were free to contribute any miscellaneous information relevant to the study.\n5. Discussion: Invoking the principles of grounded theory, following five factors may be identified that may influence the usage of academic journals (print and electronic journals) among PhD students in India: institutional; task complexity; relevance and application; information quality; and technical (Table III). The \"institutional factors\" may be counted as those that are a result of the university's non-committal stance in terms of providing the right environment for furthering the usage of academic journals by PhD students. Such factors may be linked with the absence of a well-furnished library, lack of manpower to manage the working of the libraries, indifference to the maintenance of libraries, inadequate infrastructure to establish and maintain academic libraries, etc. \"Task complexity\" factors are those that are linked with skills and motivation of PhD students to learn how the academic journals may be tapped for being referred for scholarly pursuits. For instance, such factors may be attributed to the sheer disinterest in tapping academic journals or lack of information about the access to academic journals. Thus, in many cases, it is found that the significance of cataloging of books and journals is unknown to PhD students. \"Relevance and application\" is the third factor that may be derived from the analysis, and it is linked with the utilitarian value of the academic journals as perceived by PhD students. For instance, PhD students may find that the journals subscribed by the universities are not in sync with the requirements of their academic research. The fourth factor is that of \"information quality,\" and it relates to the need for ensuring the quality of the academic journals such that the academic rigor of these journals is good. Finally, the last factor that may be identified in the study is that of the \"technical\" kind that may be linked with the need for maintenance of the requisite infrastructure to sustain long-term library needs. For instance, the universities must ensure that there is proper power supply to run the libraries. Likewise, there should be high-speed internet facility for checking the e-journals.\n6. Study limitations and directions for further research: The study is limited in its research methodology conceding that a small sample of PhD students hailing from only select universities was chosen. A follow-up study may be conducted comprising a large sample which is more representative for the whole of India. Empirical studies may be conducted to seek perspectives of students and faculty members on the usage patterns of academic journals. Another line of research relates to the underlining of usage patterns across comparative contexts wherein the perspectives may be sought across different academic disciplines and across different levels of academic programs. Furthermore, it may be interesting to assess the differences in library infrastructure and facilities in state-funded and private universities. Finally, it may be considered a viable research question addressing the personality and behavioral factors that impact the usage of academic journals by the concerned academic community. Likewise, each of the five \"factors\" as identified in the present study are amenable to empirical investigation.\n7. Practitioner implications: There are clear practitioner implications that are deducible from the study. First, the universities should institute a proper policy framework for ensuring that the academic libraries are maintaining quality standards in line with the international standards. Funding should be provided to maintain the academic libraries. Encouragement should be provided to the faculty members and the students for using the libraries. For instance, the universities may institute \"best researcher awards\" for students and faculty in line with their scholarly contribution. Finally, the universities should provide the required resources (manpower and infrastructure, for instance) for the upkeep of the libraries.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to underline the factors impacting the usage of academic journal articles by PhD students in Indian universities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Following a detailed literature review, the paper bases itself on a grounded theory and provides insights drawn from structured interviews conducted via email with 134 PhD students who were based in public and private universities in India.\nFindings: The paper underlines that there are five factors (institutional; task complexity; relevance and application; information quality; and technical) that are responsible for impacting the usage of academic journal articles by PhD students in their scholarly work. Such factors are linked with resource constraints faced by universities, lack of motivation on the part of teachers and students, non-availability of an electronic library, etc.\nOriginality/value: The present study is a major contribution to the extant literature on the usage of academic journal articles for pursuing scholarly activities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Role of resource slack in rapid international expansion of restaurant companies	[ "Growth", "Moderating effect", "Slack resources", "International expansion", "Firm’s value", "Available slack" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The US restaurant industry has reached a mature stage where high competition levels and low entry barriers are recognized in the home market (Lee et al., 2016). Restaurant companies are experiencing obstacles in generating profit because of market saturation (Hua and Upneja, 2007; Rhou and Koh, 2014). To overcome these obstacles, restaurant companies have adopted international expansion as a critical strategy to enlarge their competitiveness (Hua and Upneja, 2007; Sun and Lee, 2013; Williams and Shaw, 2011). International expansion is the process whereby a firm develops increasing involvement in operations outside the firm's home country (Welch and Luostarinen, 1988). In recent decades, the rapidly changing international business environment has stimulated fast international expansion. Firms appear to have changed their growth strategy by accelerating the international expansion process by adding new establishments overseas rapidly. An example of this is McDonald's, which experienced rapid growth since their first restaurant operations in the early 1950s. At the peak of the company's growth, McDonald had a new outlet opening every four hours, 365 days a year.\nLiterature review: \"Speed\" in rapid international expansion\nMethodology: Data collection\nResult: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: This study investigated and supported two main hypotheses regarding rapid internationalization and firm's value of publicly traded US restaurant companies from the years 1993-2016. First, the study hypothesizes that rapid international expansion negatively impacts the values of a firm. We found that a higher speed of internationalization harms rather than benefits firm's values in the restaurant industry. Despite much easier and faster information being exchange across borders, a business' operations in a foreign country still faces extra costs because of unfamiliarity with the local environment, even with franchising. Unlike manufacturing, companies need to be able to massively produce their products while serving many customers at the same time. Service companies are customizing the food, the service and the marketing need to satisfy local needs. For restaurant companies, these factors contribute to the success of their company going international, but adequate time is needed to learn and meet the local requirement such as feedback of local customers' likes or dislikes related to food and service, and as to whether the company's marketing strategy is effective. Lacking that would hinder restaurant companies in correspondingly adjusting their strategies and services, thus leading to lesser profitability or compromising the firm's performance standard (Lord and Ranft, 2000).\nConclusion, limitation and future research: Globalization of the business environment provides strong motivation to restaurant companies to expand internationally. However, rapid expansion to foreign countries is not necessarily beneficial and actually can decrease the firm's value. In the case of restaurant companies, as they commonly expand globally through master franchise developers who understand the local market, challenges involved with the liabilities of foreignness can be less impactful. However, that does not eliminate the liabilities of foreign issues such as local customer perceptions and adaptabilities towards foreign restaurant brands and cuisines. Normally, time is required to introduce the food and the service into a new foreign market. An important question is what dampens or might dampen the liabilities of foreignness. We argue that sufficient available slack is critical in rapid internationalization and a firm value relationship because it reflects franchisors' abilities to transfer their systems and know-how abroad and undertake concomitant costs and risk when immediate recovery of brand reputation is needed.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between rapid internationalization and firm value in US restaurant companies. This study also identified the moderating role of available slack, potential slack and recoverable slack on the relationship of rapid internationalization and the firm's value.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A hierarchical regression analysis with panel fixed effects was used in this study. Samples were drawn from publicly traded US restaurant companies, and span from 1993 to 2016 with 264 firm-year observations was used for the study's analysis.\nFindings: Drawing on Penrose's seminal theory of firm-growth that a firm needs excess resources to grow and that the amount of slack resources directly influences a firm's international growth, this study found that available slack alleviates the negative impact of rapid international expansion in achieving higher firm value.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the few analyses that examined the speed of rapid international expansion in the service context. In addition, this study contributes to existing literature by examining three different slack resources with regards to the speed of international expansion. The findings of this study shed light on restaurant companies whose financial resources are critical for value-adding international expansion.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Demystifying emergence of organizational routines	[ "Organizational change", "Organizational routines", "Emergence theory", "Routines’ dynamics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The current research on organizational routines is abundant and multifaceted (Feldman, 2000; Miller et al., 2014; Pentland et al., 2012; Rerup and Feldman, 2011; Salvato and Rerup, 2011; Schulz, 2008). Despite a growing body of research which contributes to the understanding of that concept, the consensus about its meaning is still missing. Scholars define organizational routines in different ways. As a result, there is no agreement on what routines are - and therefore on how or why researchers should explore them.\nThe emergence of organizational routines: In search of an organizational routine's definition\nThe emergence concept: Philosophical emergence embeddedness - emergent structures' properties\nRoutines as an emergent construct. Discussion: A conceptual framework\nConclusion and implications for research and practice: Concluding focal points of the paper and notwithstanding the arguments presented, our research has the potential to make important theoretical and methodological contributions to theory on organizational routines. Our paper has examined the routines as emergent properties and made an attempt to explain it favouring the emergence theory.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discourse the essence and utility of (re)emergence theory as the starting point of understanding and interpreting organizational routines dynamics as well as to propose a conceptual framework reflecting both epistemological and methodological value as the keystone of analysing the rationale of organizational routines and the process of their emergence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on extensive literature studies.\nFindings: Referring to the research problem concerning the reconciliation organizational routines and the emergence phenomenon, the findings complement the insights of the dominant theoretical perspectives in organizational routine theory, providing a more comprehensive understanding of organizational dynamics by directly addressing the heretofore intractable phenomenon of emergence. In addition, it is going to be a well-justified epistemological base to operationalize routines - not only per se, but also with regard to the mechanisms enacted.\nOriginality/value: Routines change over time and the current studies results are not sufficient to understand these changes yet. Interpreting organizational routines from the emergence theory perspective reveals their soft, indeterministic, and unpredictable nature and ought to render the scholars dealing with that phenomenon interpretatively and methodologically cautious. Emergence is a priori embedded in organizational routines' context. The considerations included in the paper are salient regarding ontological and epistemological issues as they emphasize specific thought and research directions in the field of organization study eventually. Emergence ideas may play a part in discussions of spontaneous order, particularly by implementing it to routines construct. A major issue is the role of these ideas and processes within organizational evolution.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding leader development: learning from leaders	[ "Self development", "Leaders", "Leadership development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This article considers leader development as an ongoing process of personal development. As such it adopts an intrapersonal focus, considering the development of individual leaders and their personal \"human capital\" (Day, 2001). McCauley and Van Velsor (2004) argue that leader development is one aspect of leadership development. Leadership development has been defined as:[...] the expansion of the organisation's capacity to enact the basic leadership tasks needed for collective work: setting direction, creating alignment, and maintaining commitment (McCauley and Van Velsor, 2004, p. 22).At the individual level, they view leader development as:[...] the expansion of a person's capacity to be effective in leadership roles and processes (McCauley and Van Velsor, 2004, p. 2).Our focus on individual leader development contrasts with the common focus on leadership development, which is concerned with expanding the collective capacity of organizational members to engage in leadership roles (Day, 2001; McCauley et al., 1998).From an organizational perspective, a growing body of evidence suggests that leadership can affect organization performance, (Agle et al., 2006; Waldman et al., 2004). This is reflected in the widespread investment in leadership development (Martineau and Hannum, 2003). This investment is also echoed in the academic literature, where leadership development has been considered from a training design perspective (e.g. Ladyshewsky, 2007), a programmatic perspective (e.g. Boaden, 2006) and a practice perspective (e.g. Leskiw and Singh, 2007). The common objective underpinning such interventions is to establish processes that expand the organizational cadre of individuals who can \"assume leadership roles\" and \"engage effectively in leadership processes\". (Houghton and DiLiello, 2009, p. 233).From an individual perspective, the major focus of leadership research has been on the human capital of individual leaders (Brass and Krackhardt, 1999 cited in Day, 2001). However, many studies consider leadership as either trait (e.g. Stogdill, 1974) or behaviourally driven (e.g. Shamir and Howell, 1999). From a behavioural perspective, the traditional focus has been on the transactional and relational dimensions of leadership behaviours (Judge and Piccolo, 2004). Although it has been noted that \"critical developmental experiences such as crises, failures and achievements create lessons that generate new perspectives or skills or a shift in character\" (Wood and Vilkinas, 2003, p. 187), with the exception of Avolio (2005), little explicit attention has been given to the personal development processes that leaders go through. As a result, the purpose this study was to consider the nature of individual leader development processes, including the formative influences on and key learning experiences of, now successful leaders.\nTheoretical background: For Day (2001) the differences between leader and leadership development are marked. In particular he notes that leader development focuses on human capital, an individual model of leadership, an intrapersonal competence base and is underpinned by core personal skills that include self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation and a shift towards \"relational dialogue\", rather than a traditional emphasis on \"personal power\" (Brower et al., 2000). In contrast leadership development focuses on social capital, is underpinned by a relational model, has an interpersonal competence base and is underpinned by core social skills that include social awareness and conflict management (Day, 2001). From the perspective of this study, the crucial differentiating factor is the focus on the individual in leader development. However, common to both approaches is the assumption that leaders can be developed. This assumption harks back to the earliest debate in the leadership literature; whether leaders are born or made. This is the first of five leader development oriented themes that we address in the paper. The second is an ongoing issue facing leaders - achieving a work life balance. The third examines the role emotions play in enhancing the development of leadership skills and behaviours. The fourth theme considers whether leadership is an individual or collective activity. Finally, the last theme addresses the assumption of universality of leadership by examining the effect contextual and individual differences have on leadership development.These themes reflect a balance between decades of leadership research, which we attempted to capture in our interview schedule (detailed in Table I), and the themes that emerged as particular concerns of the leaders, based on our analysis.Leadership theme one: are leaders born or made?\nMethods: Research approach and interviewee selection\nFindings: learning from leaders: In this section, we present our empirical data with regards to the five leadership themes identified.Leadership theme one: on whether leaders are born or made\nDiscussion: This study focused on individual leader development, and drew out five themes emphasised in prior literature and which were salient features of the leaders\" developmental experiences - and ongoing struggles. Based on our learning from the findings presented above and the associated literature, we identify five considerations for leaders, in their personal processes of leader development.1. Using your drive to make the most of early life and career experiences\nLimitations: A clear and significant limitation of this paper is the small number of interviewees on which the paper is based. However, it is our belief that the paper has begun to reveal the personal journeys of leaders as they develop - and the value of this approach. As a result we believe that our work will serve to generate further research in this vein and to highlight its potential pragmatic value. In addition we note that an alternative approach could have been adopted in the presentation of this research - one that explores the development journey of individual leaders in the form of coherent and in-depth narratives.\nConclusion: This study begins to shed light on individual processes of leader development, including key learning points and their associated challenges for individuals. These include the difficulty of attaining balance, the role of emotion and the collective nature of leadership. The paper has also drawn attention to the personal experiences and characteristics underpinning leader development - and to the importance of sector context to the leadership activities required. These issues are of significant pragmatic interest to organizational leaders interested in further enhancing their leadership capacity. However, they also pose challenges to researchers and educators in the field of leadership. They emphasise the significant demands placed on leaders, reflected in their struggle to attain balance and their need for advanced emotion management skills, in conjunction with managing collectives of people and adapting to contextual demands.In considering the formative experiences, underlying drivers, leadership style and contextual influences of each leader the paper has begun to draw attention to the very personal nature of leader development, which has to date been lacking from the trait, behavioural and intervention-focused nature of much leadership development research. Although the assumption that leaders can be developed underpins the significant investment in leader and leadership development by organizations, we have begun to move away from the sanitised \"zero to hero\" narratives evident in the practitioner literature, and to illustrate the messy and personal nature of leader development. This shift raises the issue of how leadership development programmes are currently undertaken and the best way to develop leaders. Inline with Byrne and Rees (2006), we argue that leadership development requires a tailored and individual-focused approach to meet needs of the individual leader and the organizational context in which s/he is embedded as opposed to a generic \"one size fits all\" development model. In moving forward, attention must now turn to how individual leaders can be supported in addressing the development themes identified above - and the personal and organizational challenges that accompany them.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to integrate senior managers' personal experiences of leadership development with theory to provide insights into leadership development for aspiring and developing leaders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative research design was adopted. Empirical data were gathered from 11 semi-structured interviews with senior leaders in the Irish public, voluntary (non-profit) and private sectors.\nFindings: - The analysis led to the identification of development-oriented themes in the leadership literature, and the provision of insights regarding the developmental influences, core activities (vision and mobilisation) and the contextual influences (sectoral and societal) which affect appropriate leadership behaviour.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the study is limited by its small sample it provides a basis for further research and draws attention to personal leader development processes. In particular the importance of formative experiences on leaders' development, their struggle to attain balance, the need for advanced emotional management skills, the capacity to work with collectives of people and to adapt to contextual demands are emphasised. The study suggests that future research investigate how contextual factors influence the adoption of certain leadership styles.\nPractical implications: - The study explores personal perspectives on fundamental leadership development themes, of pragmatic value to established and aspiring leaders interested in enhancing their capacity to lead.\nOriginality/value: - This paper considers leader development from the viewpoint of front-line actors. As such it adopts an intrapersonal focus, considering the development journeys of individual leaders. The paper extends the traditional focus on the transactional and relational dimensions of leadership behaviours to incorporate the formative experiences and contextual factors that influence leadership.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Nuclear electricity generation in South Africa: a study of strategic innovation for sustainability	[ "Innovation", "Sustainability", "South Africa", "Utility", "Emerging markets", "Electricity", "Nuclear power", "Capital projects" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: South Africa has the largest economy in Africa and generates 45 per cent of the continent's electricity, over 90 per cent of which is from coal- and gas-fired power stations. The country is thus a major contributor to the continent's CO2 emissions. In the past 40 years South Africa has made some progress in utilising nuclear and hydroelectric generation as alternative sources of energy. In the 1990s, South Africa embarked on a pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) nuclear electricity generation venture, which is the subject of this paper.\nElectricity in South Africa: The IMF forecasts that GDP growth in 2013 in sub-Saharan Africa will be 5.25 per cent, although that of South Africa will only be 22.5 per cent (International Monetary Fund, 2012). There is no consensus about the responsibilities and opportunities of business in Africa as this increased economic activity in developing countries naturally leads to higher demands for energy. The main supplier of electricity in South Africa is Eskom, a public company whose sole shareholder is the Government of the Republic of South Africa. Its mandate is to \"provide sustainable electricity solutions to grow the economy and improve the quality of life of the people of South Africa and the region\". In order to achieve this, an increase in generating capacity of some 40 GW (to 80 GW) is planned by 2030. The 2007 plans envisaged 27 GW of new nuclear capacity, 75 per cent of which was to come from conventional pressurised water reactors (PWRs), and 25 per cent from pebble bed modular reactors (PBMR) (Eskom, 2005-2011). These optimistic projections have since been curtailed.\nBackground to the PBMR: The programme commenced in 1998, under the auspices of Eskom, when the PBMR technology was acquired from Germany. The term \"PBMR\" will be used to refer to the technology and the project. A completion date for a demonstration plant was scheduled for 2004 at a cost of $250m. Eskom signed a letter of intent to buy 24 generating units; the intention was to sell further units globally. However, Eskom, the main potential beneficiary, made no further financial contributions after 2003. By 2007 only a demonstration power plant and limited supporting facilities had been commissioned. In 2009, a revised plan was announced to complete a pilot pebble bed nuclear reactor and a pilot fuel plant by 2011, with commercial production scheduled to commence in 2012 (South African Department of Public Enterprises, 2009). It was important to demonstrate the success of the project, which had effectively become a matter of national pride.\nMethodology: This paper aims to contribute to the body of knowledge concerned with the implementation of sustainable innovation projects in developing countries. Research teaches us to learn from both successes and failures, and this research investigates what can be discovered from a failure. Eisenhardt (1989, p. 544) encourages research that supports and contradicts existing theory. Findings that diverge from present theory can provide \"deeper insight into both the emergent theory and the conflicting literature, as well as sharpening of the limits to generalizability of the focal research\". Results that support the literature lead to a \"theory with stronger internal validity, wider generalizability, and higher conceptual level\". The generalisability of results from case study research is a subtle process: similar findings in a different context can result in strong internal validity, which in turn leads to wider generalisability. The extent to which results from this research can be generalised will be addressed later.\nInnovation projects in emerging countries: This section considers themes encountered in the literature on technology/innovation projects in emerging countries. Lenssen and van Wassenhove (2012, p. 403) examine the dynamics and collaboration required for sustainable and equitable development strategies, asserting that orthodox parameters of development will be \"challenged and reshaped by new institutional interests\". They envisage the need for businesses to find partners in national and regional governments, local communities, NGOs and social entrepreneurs. De Faria and Schmidt (2012, p. 303) declare that with complex innovation projects \"firms are faced with a demand for knowledge they cannot satisfy with their internal resources alone. Tapping external sources of know-how becomes a must\".\nDiscussion of PBMR: Developments in the PBMR project may be viewed from a number of theoretical perspectives. Using the ideas of Foxon et al. (2005; cited in Nill and Kemp, 2009), the PBMR may be seen as a project that would:\nConcluding remarks: Nill and Kemp (2009) point out that policy cannot be divorced from societal dynamics. The PBMR project ostensibly represented a clear demonstration of euphoric government commitment to an innovative solution for a sustainability problem. In many respects this was an ideal \"solution\" in that it addressed dependence on fossil fuels, it enhanced skills, and it raised the country's image in the international community after years of exclusion. De Faria and Schmidt (2012) identify public support, export activities, size and being part of a group, and the nature of the industry as being important motives for international R&D and innovation co-operation. The PBMR represented an anticipatory and forward-looking approach, characterised by innovation. The project enjoyed public support in terms of total government backing and a friendly press. Kolk and van den Buuse (2012, p. 554) make the general comment that society welcomes long term aims of creating an \"incubator of economic activity\". Opinion in South Africa believed in the beneficial impact of the PBMR for the country. Long-term aims were certainly directed at the export market. As part of Eskom, one of the largest corporations in South Africa, the project had powerful allies in the industry. Yet, despite these factors, it failed. The risks were initially downplayed or ignored, so when difficulties arose, PBMR leaders refused to accept the reality that the project was perhaps worthy but over-ambitious. While one readily recognises this after the failure of the project, it was perhaps not easy to appreciate at the time.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The literature on sustainable business development in emerging economies deals predominantly with the entry modes of multinationals and how they adapt to local conditions. Little has been written on how organisations in developing countries innovate and employ innovations in a sustainable manner. This paper presents a case study of an innovation business in a partially developed country, but which was taken over by a South African organisation. The purpose of this paper is to study why the venture failed and what lessons this case study offers to future developing country innovators.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper refers to the literature that addresses business projects in emerging countries and analyses the actions of a South African company that set out to develop commercial nuclear electricity generation using the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) technology. The approach adopted in the paper is an assessment of the events and actions that led to the project's failure.\nFindings: The management of the project was flawed from the start because of a lack of measurable milestones and budgetary constraints. The South African government continued to fund the project while not controlling it. Technically, the project was too ambitious and it is not certain whether the project could ever have come to fruition.\nResearch limitations/implications: The generalisability of results from case study research needs to be treated with some caution, but similar findings in different contexts may strengthen internal validity, and in turn lead to wider generalisability.\nPractical implications: The paper reinforces the challenges faced by businesses in emerging countries when developing innovative products. The need for financial control and technical milestones is emphasised even though innovations are by definition uncertain.\nSocial implications: The benefits from the PBMR could have been significant, but the project failed at a cost of $1bn, which a country such as South Africa could ill afford. The knowledge gained during the duration of the project will be of little benefit to the country, particularly as the knowledge context was extremely narrow.\nOriginality/value: The paper addresses a topic that has not been dealt with before in the academic literature. It highlights a number of shortcomings in the way in which a developing country embarked on an innovative project.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Detecting potential technological fronts by comparing scientific papers and patents	[ "R&D management", "Technology roadmap", "Research front", "Bibliometrics", "Citation Analysis", "Patent Analysis", "Research and development", "Patents" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In today's knowledge-based economy, competitiveness and growth depend on the ability to discover the seeds of innovation in science early and swiftly develop technological applications. It is also important to not only understand both science and technology, but also construct high-quality roadmaps to integrate the two (Kostoff and Schaller, 2001). Therefore, R&D managers and policy makers focusing on emerging technology need to understand how science and technology are related. There are three main stages in technology-oriented innovation; scientists create the seeds of innovation, companies take up these seeds, develop technologies, and then industrialize. Although knowledge transfer occurs non-linearly (Williams and Edge, 1996; Niosi, 1999), technological inventions tend to be strongly connected to material in scientific outcomes (Fleming and Sorenson, 2004). Martino (2003) modeled stages of technological innovations as basic research, applied research, development, application, and social impact. For example, 10 percent of new products and processes would not have been developed in the absence of recent academic research (Mansfield, 1991). Moreover, as the innovation cycle shortens, the linkage between technology and basic science is increasing (Narin et al., 1997; Narin and Olivastro, 1992).In a recent paper, Shibata et al. (2010) suggested four categories representing the relationship between science and technology based on the existence of academic papers and patents as shown in Figure 1(a). Some knowledge is in area X, where science and technology co-evolve. In this area, we expect science and technology to have a reciprocal influence while the intensity of integration varies depending on the level of science linkage. In area Y, although academic papers exist, there are few patents, whereas the opposite applies to area Z, and area W is an area to which neither scientists nor engineers pay attention. The topics in area Z could be regarded as overly applied research or reflect a possible lack of science. Conversely, although topics in area Y might be too basic, they could represent opportunities for industry in the near future. Therefore, investigating the correlative relationship between science and technology is significant in enabling detection of the gap between both stages, like area Y as shown in Figure 1(b). Shibata et al. (2010) categorized technologies by expert judgment, however it is not clear how to measure the relatedness between scientific papers and patents.Therefore, in this paper, we investigate a method of detecting emerging research fronts that have few corresponding patents, like area Y in Figure 1. How can we extract the relationship between the scientific outcomes and the pieces of industrial technology? One straightforward method is to analyze the science linkage, which is a citation from a patent to a non-patent reference such as a scientific paper. Although the number of science linkages supports the hypothesis that public science pushes technology development (Narin et al., 1997; Narin and Olivastro, 1992), counting the science linkage in order to track the relationship between academic papers and patents has the following problems. The first problem is the differences among countries in terms of how non-patent references are cited (Michel and Bettels, 2001). The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) requires applicants to indicate the scientific sources related to the technology on the front page. Moreover a lack of such scientific references could be a reason for rejection. In contrast however, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) has no such requirement. These differences could be problematic if we were to analyze the patent data globally. Secondly, especially in the US, citations from patents to papers might not always be intended by the authors themselves. To avoid rejection caused by a lack of citations to related papers, agents such as attorneys tend to add more citations to related scientific research. The final problem is the semantic similarity between a patent and a paper cited by the same. Meyer pointed out that the contents of patents are not always related to the paper (Meyer, 2000). Therefore, we cannot analyze the semantic relationship between papers and patents with science linkage, especially when there is small linkage and we aim to analyze the cases categorized as area Y and area Z in Figure 1.The other method of investigating the relationship between academic papers and patents should involve measuring the relationship based on the similarity of topics in both stages. Before comparing the topics in science and technology, we have to extract the representative topics discussed in each layer by categorizing documents having similar topics into the same group. There are two main methods of categorizing the documents and extracting the topics: text-mining and citation-mining. Kostoff et al. extracted the taxonomic structure of energy research by analyzing multi-word phrase frequencies and phrase proximities (Kostoff et al., 2005). The latter approach, namely citation-based, is widely applied to investigate the structure of knowledge and it is assumed that citing and cited documents have similar topics, even if the document is an academic paper or a patent. For instance, Small investigated the co-citation network of academic publications in order to track the emerging growth of a certain research area (Small, 2006), while Mowery et al. explored the citation pattern among patents to measure the interfirm knowledge transfers within strategic alliances (Mowery et al., 1996). In this paper, we applied a citation-based method, which is appropriate for detecting the emerging topics (Shibata et al., 2008). Using the topological clustering method, we categorized the documents (papers/patents) in each layer, compared the topics of each group, and detected the gap between science and technology.The aim of this paper is to develop methodology for discovering research areas in which there are scientific activities, but no technological applications, by investigating the corresponding relationships between academic papers and patents. The value of this process is emphasized by illustrating the case of solar cells as described below. Firstly we categorize the documents (papers/patents) in each layer by a citation-based method, which is appropriate for detecting the emerging topics (Shibata et al., 2008). Secondly, in order to investigate the corresponding relationships between academic papers and patents, semantic similarities between each scientific cluster and each patent cluster can be calculated and compared to the judgment by experts as in the previous study (Shibata et al., 2010). In this paper, we focus on comparing three semantic similarity measurements: Jaccard Coefficient, cosine similarity of term frequency-inverse document frequency (tfidf) vector, and cosine similarity of log-tfidf vector.\n2. Research methodology: 2.1 Methodology\n3. Results: Scientific papers and patents published up through 2008 were divided into clusters. Table I indicates major clusters of scientific papers that contain more than 1,000 papers and of patents that contain more than 100 patents.Scientific clusters S1, S2, S3, and S4 contained 6,937, 3,853, 3,604, and 2,876 papers, which were published in 1996.9, 1999.6, 2005.1, and 2005.0 on average, respectively. Of the four, two clusters, S3 and S4, were so young that they could be regarded as emerging research fronts at that time. The topics of S1, S2, S3, and S4 were silicon- and compound-based dye-sensitized and polymer solar cells, respectively. Patents clusters T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, and T7 represented the cell design of silicon-based solar cells (517 patents, published in 1991.6 on average), metal contacts (438 patents, published in 1991.7), battery and converter (436 patents, published in 1994.9), panel (368 patents, published in 1994.9), diode (223 patents, published in 1994.4), CIS (149 patents, published in 1994.6), and solar concentrator (104 patents, published in 1988.7), respectively.Based on the clustering division, three similarity measurements and similarity judgment by the expert between scientific clusters and patent clusters are shown in Table II. Our expert regarded only two pairs, which are boxed in red as shown in Table II, to be semantically similar: (S1, T1) and (S2, T6). As a result of comparison among three measurements, the similarity measurement by tfidf was the closest to the judgments by our expert and the one of Jaccard was the worst. The normalized semantic similarity by Jaccard Coefficient djaccard did not seem to correlate with the judgment by our expert. The similarity by log-tfidf dlog-tfidf correlated the size of clusters as the upper-left cells of the table tend to be colored. The similarity by tfidf dtfidf strongly correlated to the judgments by the expert. In this case, each scientific cluster s semantically corresponded to the patent cluster t, which satisfies dtfidf(s,t) was the largest for among all t and dtfidf(s,t) was equal or greater than 2.5.\n4. Discussion: In this experiment, the similarity measurement by tfidf was the closest to the judgments by our expert and the one of Jaccard was the worst. The reason why the similarity by the Jaccard Coefficient was the worst is that the Jaccard Coefficient cannot consider term frequencies. In the formulation of the Jaccard Coefficient, technical terms that specify the topic and common terms, which appear in many documents, have the same weight (significance). Besides, the similarity by tfidf outperformed the one by log-tfidf. Log-tfidf has less weight on term frequencies by taking the logarithm. These results indicate that since significant terms tend to appear several times, term frequency should be considered as significant in measuring the semantic similarities.Next to the comparison among three similarity measurements, the potential to discover opportunities for industry is discussed in this paragraph. In the case of solar cells, scientific research has tended to focus on more basic research, such as cell design, while patents have tended to focus on more applied technology, including the components used in solar cell modules. Some scientific research fronts, such as silicon- and compounds-based solar cells, correspond to the patents, while others, such as dye-sensitized and polymer related solar cells do not as shown in Figure 4. The research fronts, such as dye-sensitized and polymer related solar cells, which are recently emerging and have not been patents, have the potential to be opportunities for industry. On the other hand, patents that do not correspond to any scientific clusters could be regarded as overly applied research or reflect a possible lack of science. Our results indicate that comparing the cosine similarities of tfidf vectors between major scientific papers and patents enables us to obtain, at least, the candidates of unexplored research fronts. This proposed approach not only provides a new viewpoint for developing a technology management strategy (MOT) to determine the domain in which to focus and invest but also offers an intellectual basis for discovering future technological options for industry.However, our proposed method has some limitations. The first limitation is the broadness of the query to be used for identifying scientific and technological knowledge. There are two methods of extracting scientific or technological domains: by search as we do in this paper and by journal category or patent category. There is no perfect way of retrieving knowledge exactly. Although a broader query extracts knowledge with more unrelated topics, it is critical, especially for emerging topic detection, to use the journal or patent category because that cannot cover cross-domain knowledge. Therefore, we search documents and remove documents are not included in the largest connected component in citation networks. Secondly, the proportion of patents involved in the largest connected component is smaller than that of academic papers. Since patents tend to have fewer citations than academic publications, there is a possibility that citation analysis itself could not capture all the characteristics of patents. As for the case of solar cells, 143 and 150 patents contain \"dye-sensi\" or \"polymer or organ*\" in the title or abstract respectively but most of which were not included in the largest connected component because they had no citation linkage to existing patents. Although significant and valuable patents tend to be cited more (Harhoff, 1999), there is still room to improve our method for general purposes. The final limitation is the selection of terms. In this paper, entire sets of nouns or nominal phrases are used to calculate Jaccard coefficient, tfidf, or log-tfidf. Although the cosine similarity of tfidf vectors works well, there may be better ways of selecting terms rather than using all terms.\n5. Conclusion: We performed a comparative study to measure the semantic similarity between academic papers and patents. Research fronts that do not correspond to any patents may be uncommercialized and opportunities for industry. Therefore it is significant to investigate the relationship between the scientific outcomes and the pieces of industrial technology. We compared structures of citation networks of scientific publications with those of patents by citation analysis, measured the similarity between sets of academic papers and sets of patents by natural language processing, and discussed the validity of the results with the expert. After the documents (papers/patents) in each layer were categorized by a citation-based method, we compared three semantic similarity measurements between a set of academic papers and a set of patents: Jaccard Coefficient, cosine similarity of tfidf vector, and cosine similarity of log-tfidf vector. A case study was performed in solar cells to develop a method investigating the corresponding relationship between papers and patents. As a result, the cosine similarity of tfidf was the best way of discovering the corresponding relationship. This proposed approach enables us to obtain candidates of unexplored research fronts, where academic researches exist but patents do not.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to propose a method of discovering uncommercialized research fronts by comparing scientific papers and patents. A comparative study was performed to measure the semantic similarity between academic papers and patents in order to discover research fronts that do not correspond to any patents.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors compared structures of citation networks of scientific publications with those of patents by citation analysis and measured the similarity between sets of academic papers and sets of patents by natural language processing. After the documents (papers/patents) in each layer were categorized by a citation-based method, the authors compared three semantic similarity measurements between a set of academic papers and a set of patents: Jaccard coefficient, cosine similarity of term frequency-inverse document frequency (tfidf) vector, and cosine similarity of log-tfidf vector. A case study was performed in solar cells.\nFindings: - As a result, the cosine similarity of tfidf was found to be the best way of discovering corresponding relationships.\nSocial implications: - This proposed approach makes it possible to obtain candidates of unexplored research fronts, where academic researches exist but patents do not. This methodology can be immediately applied to support the decision making of R&D investment by both R&D managers in companies and policy makers in government.\nOriginality/value: - This paper enables comparison of scientific outcomes and patents in more detail by citation analysis and natural language processing than previous studies which just count the direct linkage from patents to papers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Management systems integration: survey results	[ "Portugal", "Surveys", "Integrated management systems" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The phenomenon of management systems (MSs) integration caught the attention of academic scholars and researchers due to the \"unsuspected and innovative paths\" adopted by each company to achieve a fully, effective and manageable organizational system and to deal with its inherent complexity (Domingues et al., 2015). The integration of MSs has been developed by a large and increasing number of companies (Cabecinhas et al., 2016) in order to promote the optimization and successful articulation of the requirements from various implemented organizational subsystems, namely, the quality (QMS), environmental (EMS) and occupational health and safety (OHSMS) (Domingues et al., 2011a). These features could be better understood if one research into the companies looking for \"the why,\" \"the how,\" \"the when\" and \"the outputs\" of the integration process.\nLiterature review: IMS issues addressed over the last 15 years\nMaterials and methods: Two surveys were held online: the first one focusing companies (Tables AI and AII) and the second one an academic and industrial experts panel (Tables AIII-AV). A 30 Q/Sts comprehensive online survey was held focusing on Portuguese companies with more than one certified MS according to the following standards: ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. The survey was conceptually supported on a Likert-type scale, categorical and multiple option answers being its structure reported in Table AI. A pre-test performed on three companies was used to validate the survey due to the reported limitations of using online surveys including sampling, representativeness, selection bias and response rate issues. When developing the surveys several meetings were held with experts on the IMSs domain. A first version of the survey was developed after the revision of literature and querying the most noticeable databases with some keywords, such as \"integration,\" \"IMSs,\" \"efficiency and effectiveness of IMS\" and related subtopics. This first version was improved by industry and academic experts. A relevant feature was the conduction of several interviews (not reported in the current work) where a non-structured approach was adopted due to the expected diverse information flow. Statistical analysis was carried out by IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS statistics) version 20. The adoption of statistical methodologies (Cabral and Guimaraes, 2010; Johnson and Wichern, 2002; Montgomery and Runger, 2010; Spiegel, 2000) disclosed the type and intensity of the correlation between some variables as well the identification of the ones with soundest results. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov with Lilliefors correction and Shapiro-Wilk tests were adopted to evaluate the normality of data considering a significance level (a) of 0.05. In the case of data sets that did not follow a normal distribution, the option relied on non-parametric methodologies (Cabral and Guimaraes, 2010; Spiegel, 2000) in further statistical analysis. An alternative approach could be the normalization of variables but the option relied on the non-parametric tests due to their statistical robustness. The non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test (Cabral and Guimaraes, 2010; Spiegel, 2000) was adopted to compare the results of means, i.e., as a decision criterion concerning the sample means and if their differences were effective differences or just some random variations (a=0.05). Ultimately, this test is adopted to decide if k independent samples may be extracted from different populations and establishes a decision criterion on the statistical differences within the samples, namely, if they represent effective differences between the populations or just some random variations. The validation of the asymptotic p-value took into account the number of distinguishable groups (k) and the kh2 distribution with k-1 degrees of freedom of the Kruskal-Wallis statistics. The reduction of dimensions (variables) was performed by a Varimax matrix by the optimization of Cronbach's a coefficient. Cronbach's a coefficient was adopted as the main index to monitor the reliability of the results reported in the present paper.\nResults and discussion: Companies' survey characterization\nConcluding remarks: Concerning the survey conducted among companies it should be pointed out that the surveyed companies accurately translate the population concerning the geographic location, IMS typology and activity sectors. The respondents, mainly medium enterprises, do not properly translate the population if one considers their dimensions, since a great deal of the certified Portuguese companies is SMEs. The results suggest that a set of common characteristics is present on the majority of the surveyed companies. On one hand, an effective integration of the policies and the existence of an IMS manager on the organizational structure of the companies. On the other hand, training was provided to top management concerning integration issues, an integrating concept was taken into account during the implementation process and tools, methodologies and objectives of the MSs are aligned. In addition, a great deal of surveyed companies reported that management procedures were integrated and that the MSs integration did not extend solely to the documental structure. The dimension reduction (variables) performed by a Varimax matrix identified two viable components. Concerning the first component it was proposed as the underlying concept \"organizational awareness and monitoring.\" This concept relates with all the six validated items (training to top management, integrating concept taken into account, organizational interactions, perception of the IMS as an add value, and promotion and adoption of integrated objectives). This set of features would be difficult to identify in companies without awareness by the top management and proper procedures. Concerning the second viable component it was proposed as the underlying concept the organizational vision. Tools, methodologies and targets alignment, integrated management procedures and the implementation of KPIs, OPIs and MPIs are the items that reveal organizational vision by the top management. The Kruskal-Wallis statistical test and other combinatorial-based methodology highlighted the following features:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the results from a survey carried out among Portuguese companies with their management systems (MSs) certified according to, at least two of the following standards: ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. In addition, the results from a second survey conducted amid a group of experts that pointed out several aspects that impact on the integration level will be dissected.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The phenomenon of MSs integration is hardly transferable to a contained environment so some of the common research methods traditionally adopted include case studies, surveys, interviews and observation in situ. The findings from two surveys online among Portuguese companies and Portuguese experts are reported in the current paper.\nFindings: The results suggest that a set of common characteristics is present on the majority of the surveyed companies. On first hand, there is evidence of an effective integration of the policies and the existence of an integrated system manager on the organizational structure of the companies. On the other hand, results suggest that training was provided to top management concerning integration issues, an integrating concept was taken into account during the implementation process and tools, and methods and objectives of the subsystems are aligned.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper addresses the issues raised in the mainstream scientific bibliography through the collection of information amidst Portuguese companies. At this stage, it is not possible to infer at which extent the conclusions may be transferable to other geographic contexts. The small number of companies that completed the survey precludes the statistical generalization of the findings but the analytical generalization is not impaired.\nOriginality/value: The authors believe that the conclusions of this paper may aid both practioneers and scholars in the understanding of a complex but manageable organizational phenomenon. In addition, through the contents of this paper companies may collect information regarding the pertinent issues to address when developing their IMSs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Translating customer needs into project decisions: identifying knowledge brokers in project networks	[ "Knowledge", "Projects", "Knowledge brokers", "User expectations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It has been long since Francis Bacon called knowledge power. Contemporary scientists indisputably regard knowledge as a key strategic organizational asset where access to the right knowledge is real power. Organizational research has repeatedly found that to remain successful, organizations must efficiently and effectively create, identify, capture, and disseminate knowledge held in their routines, processes, databases, and people and then strategically leverage this knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). However, these processes rely on social relationships within organizations - relationships being channels through which knowledge is processed and furthered. It is, therefore, important that the nature of knowledge networks and characteristics of disseminators (knowledge brokers) are understood well by managers.\nNeed to understand knowledge brokerage in projects: Practitioners agree that projects are becoming increasingly complex, unpredictable, and multi-dimensional. They are expected to fulfil a diverse spectrum of customer expectations including social, psychological, technological, financial, and physical needs. For projects to be successful, it is essential that customer expectations remain at the heart of what management does. This requires knowledge transfer between various project actors (Waheed and Ogunlana, 2018). The transient nature of projects, however, makes knowledge transfer absurdly complex (Lindner and Wald, 2011). This is worrying for managers, as projects need to be equally adept at knowledge sharing (if not more) than regular organizational work.\nResearch, findings, recommendations: This research used a mixed-method case study of real estate and academic program integration of two educational institutions in Scotland. Data on knowledge transfers between 91 project actors was analyzed using Ucinet 6 software and triangulated through qualitative analysis of observational, archival, and interview data. These actors were individuals representing firms (such as the legal advisory firm) or groups or departments (such as the student body or library services). Once all instances of knowledge transfer over the project's life cycle were mapped, the actors with high centrality were identified [an actor with high centrality was measured by their degree of centrality (\"where the action is\"; Scott, 2017)] in the network. The actors with high centrality retain prominence, occupy a central location, and are a major source of knowledge. Another specific type centrality called betweenness centrality was used to measure the extent to which any actor could play the part of a \"broker\" or \"gatekeeper\" (Scott, 2017), linking clusters with other parts of the network. Calculating betweenness centrality required taking every pair of the network (j, k) and counting how many times an actor could interrupt the shortest path (geodesic distance) between the pair.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: It is essential for projects to fulfil a wide spectrum of customer expectations including social, psychological, technological, and physical ones. The purpose of this paper is to identify roles within project networks that act as transmitters and linkers of this important knowledge, thereby resulting in appropriate and timely on-ground decision-making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative case analysis coupled with social network analysis (SNA) is used to map project actors and identify key knowledge brokers within a complex co-location project. The project network comprised 91 actors from a range of project partners from public and private sectors.\nFindings: The research identifies key knowledge brokers where selection appears to reflect their \"heavyweight\" stature, high social capital, technical expertise, and personality. The research recommends early identification of brokers from within and outside the parent organization/s.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research covers a single, inductive, and interpretive study of a co-location project involving mature project organizations. Wider generalizability of findings to less mature organizations or those operating in vastly different sectors may be limited.\nPractical implications: This study contributes to the existing body of literature on knowledge brokerage in projects and assists project managers in identifying and developing relevant brokers.\nOriginality/value: The study provides further evidence behind the argument that customer needs are translated into appropriate project decisions through key knowledge brokers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Effects of 8Ps of services marketing on student selection of self-financing sub-degree programmes in Hong Kong	[ "Hong Kong", "Higher education", "Community college", "8Ps of services marketing", "College choices" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Hong Kong has transformed its economy from a manufacturing-based to a service-based industry from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. In order to train enough skilled workforces to meet the future development, the Hong Kong Government of Special Administration Region (HKSAR) has provided more and more full-time degree places (Education Bureau, 2009). The Chief Executive of HKSAR Government announced in the annual policy address that 60 per cent of secondary graduates will receive post-secondary education opportunities by the 2010/2011 academic year (Education Commission, 1999). Many self-financed higher education providers are interested in offering associate degrees programmes. Some self-financed higher education institutes receive assistance from the Hong Kong Government to provide more self-financed diploma, higher diploma and associate degree programmes for secondary school graduates (Education and Manpower Bureau, The Hong Kong SAR Government, 2001). The self-financing higher education sector has grown rapidly. Students can obtain a local bachelor's degree by transferring their credits from the community colleges to publicly funded universities in Hong Kong (Education Bureau, 2009). They may apply to overseas universities, self-financing local degree programmes for further study.\nStudents as customers of higher education: Wambsganss and Kennett (1995) define that students are regarded as customers because they receive the programmes offered by paying the tuition fees. As noted by Yadin (2002), a person making decision to buy can be named as customers. The findings by Smith et al. (1998) support the definition that customers can be defined as students make decision and pay the bill themselves. Other scholars define students as consumers (Coates, 1998) and clients (Bailey, 2000).\nDevelopment of 8Ps of services marketing: The evolution of McCarthy's 4Ps originated from the price theory of microeconomics. Culliton (1948) suggests the addition of Ps such as production planning, profit and so on (Vignali and Davies, 1994). In 1960s, the view of Culliton's ideas have been adopted and developed by McCarthy to become the core marketing mix strategy. It includes products, prices, promotions and places (McCarthy, 1964). This marketing strategy is commonly used by firms which offer tangible products.\n8Ps of services marketing for students' choice of higher education: Product elements\nResearch hypotheses: The following eight specific hypotheses about students' college choices are developed:\nResearch method: The aim of this research is to study how 8Ps of services marketing affects the students' college choices. The research model was based on the framework of 8Ps marketing mix model from Lovelock and Wirtz (2007). This model was used to present the hypothesized relationship existing between 8Ps marketing mix and students' college choices in Hong Kong. Multiple regression method is used to find out the relationships between dependent and independent variable of 8Ps. Convenience and judgment sampling were the sampling methods that were adopted in this research. These two types of sampling were designed to obtain useful information from the sample in a fast and inexpensive way.\nResults and discussions: Table I shows the sample characteristics of the respondents. The data were analysed to examine the 8Ps of services marketing that affect students' selection of a community college. The results were discussed with suggestion to the institutions that provide self-financing sub-degree programmes (Tables II and III).\nComparison of 8Ps of services marketing: The results show that \"Productivity and Quality\" (M=5.7304) is the most important element of 8Ps. The result supports the ideas of Henninger (1998) that top management of higher education needs to improve quality by meeting the accreditation standards and monitoring accrediting process. It is also important for self-financing institutions to have a quality assurance team to ensure the quality of different programmes.\nLimitations and further research: This research has its limitations. The results of the study cannot be generalized because the information collected is specific to a particular community college. There are some recommendations for future research. Parents can be invited to conduct research as they pay tuition fees and affect the selection of college. Besides, the data collected of this research was carried out at CCLU. Conducting similar research at different self-financing institutions in Hong Kong may validate the results of this research. Qualitative research with students and parents can be conducted to collect information about how the 8Ps of services marketing affects the decision making of self-financing institutions. More information about the 8Ps of services marketing can be collected to have a better understanding of the selection of self-financing institutions in Hong Kong. In addition, the use of qualitative research can act as a triangulation with the quantitative research.\nImplications of this research: Self-financing institutions should have their programmes accredited so that the qualifications of their graduates are recognized by the local government. They should also develop quality assurance systems for their programmes. They can cooperate with universities overseas to offer articulation opportunities for sub-degree graduates. Students can transfer their credits to study the programmes offered by partner universities. Self-financing institutions should establish a recognition mechanism with professional organizations. Exemptions can be given to the graduates when they apply for membership.\nConclusions: This research studied the effects of 8Ps of services marketing on student selection of self-financing institutions in Hong Kong. The main contribution of this research is to help senior management of self-financing sub-degree programmes to identify the factors that affects the students' choices. It can act as a reference for senior management to develop the right marketing strategies to meet the needs of the students. It can act as a guide for community colleges to retain students to study in the same community college. Students may select the same or another college to promote from lower to higher level of study programmes. Management can apply the 8Ps of services marketing to attract the students to stay in the same college to study other programmes. In this research, stepwise regression was used for finding the important factors affecting student college choices. The findings show that \"Product Elements\", \"Price and Other User Outlays\", \"Place and Time\", \"Promotion and Education\", \"People\", \"Process\", \"Physical Environment\" and \"Productivity and Quality\" are important for students' selection of self-financing institutions. The research finds that \"Productivity and Quality\" is the most important element and \"Promotion and Education\" is the least important element among the 8Ps.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the effects of 8Ps of services marketing affect students' selection of self-financing sub-degree programmes in Hong Kong. The factors that affect students' selection of self-financing sub-degree programmes have not been studied in higher education market of Hong Kong. This research is to fill the gap by examining the effects of 8Ps (\"Product Elements\", \"Price and Other User Outlays\", \"Place and Time\", \"Promotion and Education\", \"People\", \"Process\", \"Physical Environment\" and \"Productivity and Quality\") on self-financing sub-degree programmes in Hong Kong.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research taken was a quantitative survey of students at Community College at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.\nFindings: The results reveal that \"Productivity and Quality\" is the most important element of 8Ps of services marketing. Accreditation of programmes seeking recognition in Hong Kong and overseas can increase student enrolment. \"Promotion and Education\" element is the least important element of 8Ps of services marketing. Self-financed higher education institutions should develop strategies to build relationships with the secondary school teachers and counsellors rather than invest money on advertising.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data were collected from a particular community college in Hong Kong only.\nPractical implications: Management can increase student recruitment by allocating minimum amount of limited resources to recruit maximum number of students.\nOriginality/value: This research adds knowledge to the marketing of higher education in Hong Kong. The management of self-financing sub-degree programmes can use the findings of this research as a reference to develop their marketing strategies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Knowledge sharing and individual work performance: an empirical study of a public sector organisation	[ "Knowledge sharing", "Individual work performance", "Knowledge-Sharing behaviour", "Micro-Foundations", "Public organisation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Nowadays, public sector organisations are widely regarded as knowledge-based organisations that focus on developing and providing knowledge services for stakeholders (Luen and Al-Hawamdeh, 2001; Huang, 2014). This means that knowledge is considered their key resource (Willem and Buelens, 2007; Sandhu et al., 2011; Siong et al., 2011); therefore, facilitating knowledge sharing and improving the management of knowledge are seen as critical challenges in the public sector (Silvi and Cuganesan, 2006; Kim and Lee, 2006). In the knowledge-based economy, the ability of organisations to create, transfer and adopt knowledge, rather than allocate efficiency, determines their long-run performance (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). An increasing number of public sector organisations are therefore making an effort to set up knowledge management (KM) systems and practices to more effectively share and use the knowledge they possess. Moreover, an expanding body of research has highlighted the importance of knowledge in organisations.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: In this section, the authors formulate the theoretical basis for the main argument. The setting is structured around the knowledge governance perspective, specifically the notion of micro-foundations of knowledge sharing (Felin and Foss, 2005; Abell et al., 2008; Foss et al., 2009, 2010; Minbaeva, 2013). From this perspective, organisational performance is oftentimes measured with organisational-level antecedents and outcomes, while, in reality, these are formed from individual (i.e. micro-level) activities, processes, behaviours and outcomes (Felin and Foss, 2005; Abell et al., 2008; Foss et al., 2009, 2010; Minbaeva, 2013). This line of argumentation is then followed by focusing on knowledge-sharing propensities and behaviour at the individual level and examining the effects of this process on individuals' work performance outcomes.\nKnowledge sharing in organisations: Knowledge sharing generally refers to moving knowledge between different organisational actors, both within and between departments and hierarchical levels (Bhatt, 2001; Szulanski, 1996). The key goal of knowledge sharing amongst employees in an organisation is to transfer knowledge into organisational assets and resources (Dawson, 2001). Knowledge sharing is important because it enables the spread of knowledge as organisational collective knowledge and helps the company use available resources in an efficient and effective manner (Grant, 1996; Argote and Ingram, 2000). Furthermore, knowledge sharing leads to better utilisation of existing knowledge and is also a key to knowledge creation (Nonaka, 1994; Kogut and Zander, 1996) and innovation (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990). The key issue from the organisational perspective is that knowledge should be transferred to where it is needed and where it can be applied to productive use. Various channels can be used in knowledge sharing: official (e.g. trainings) or unofficial (e.g. coffee table discussions), personal (e.g. work rotation) or impersonal (e.g. company databases) (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). The sharing process can occur either explicitly, through direct advisory communication, or implicitly, without the recipient being able to articulate the acquired knowledge (Argote and Ingram, 2000). Knowledge sharing is an important basis for competitive advantage in firms (Kogut and Zander, 1996; Argote and Ingram, 2000). It has been argued that encouraging knowledge sharing is the most important aspect of consciously managing knowledge (Bock and Kim, 2002). Correspondingly, several reviews in the field of KM have found knowledge sharing to be the most common concept explored in the related literature (Hislop, 2010; Edwards et al., 2009).\nKnowledge-sharing propensity, behaviour and work performance: As argued above, knowledge-sharing activities cannot be forced; they ought to be voluntary (Kaser and Miles, 2002). The authors posit that an individual's propensity to share knowledge consists of three elements: a general positive attitude towards sharing knowledge; the perceived benefits of knowledge sharing and knowledge sharing-related self-efficacy. Taken together, these three factors represent an individual's likelihood for sharing knowledge in his/her work organisation and impact the extent to which they engage in knowledge-sharing behaviours.\nMethods: Data collection and sampling\nAnalysis: First, the authors validated the measurement model, including knowledge-sharing propensity, behaviour and individual performance by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Thereafter, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test each hypothesis. All cases were processed through LISREL. PRELIS was used to compute the covariance matrix. The maximum likelihood estimation method was also used. The survey relied on self-report measures. The authors therefore used Harmon's one-factor test to check for common method variance (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986) and included all the independent variables and the dependent variable in an exploratory factor analysis. The data would have had a common method bias problem if a single factor emerged that accounted for a large percentage of the variance in the resulting factors. However, no single factor emerged: the first factor accounted for 37 per cent of the total variance, and all the items retained in the factor analyses accounted for 69 per cent of the total variance.\nMeasures: The multi-item measures for the key constructs were adopted and modified to fit a survey-style questionnaire based on existing measures in the extant literature. The aim was to reach an empirically sound model with a high level of construct and discriminant validity, which meant that some items were dropped based on their low loadings to their respective constructs, and that the remaining items indicated a good fit with the overall model (see Table I for full list of measures and eventual empirical constructs). Knowledge-sharing propensity was measured by asking the respondents to answer items relating to knowledge sharing in terms of their attitude, benefits and self-efficacy on a scale from 1-7 (1 = totally disagree, 7 = totally agree). The measure was based on Collins and Smith (2006), and it covers the key facets impacting an individuals' propensity towards sharing knowledge: attitudes towards knowledge sharing, estimation of the benefits of knowledge sharing and related self-efficacy beliefs. Knowledge-sharing behaviour was measured by asking the respondents how frequently they shared specific types of knowledge with their organisational members on a scale from 1-7. The measure covers the sharing of different types of knowledge - tacit, implicit and explicit - and is based on Chatzoglou and Vraimaki (2009). Individual performance was measured by asking the respondents to compare their performance, on a scale from 1-7, with that of their colleagues who were doing similar work. This comprised items covering the key issues of overall work performance, including the substance, quality, creativity and collaboration in relation to the job profile and relative to the respondents' colleagues. The measure was adopted from Walumba et al. (2008). The control variables included four educational levels: elementary, high school, vocational and university education. This helped to control for whether one's educational level affected relative work performance.\nMeasurement model, reliability and correlations: CFA was used to build and confirm the overall measurement model. Items with poor loadings were omitted; for the remaining items, the loadings were high and statistically significant (Table I). This supports the verification of the relationships between the indicators and the latent constructs. The construct reliability of all the dimensions by far exceeded the recommended level of 0.60; therefore, the model provided a reliable measurement of the construct. Furthermore, all the constructs exceeded the acceptable level of 0.70 when measured with Cronbach's alpha. The measures of extracted variance on all dimensions were also on the cut-off of 0.5 or exceeded the suggested cut-off of 0.50. In summary, the assessment of the models provided good evidence of the validity and reliability of the measured constructs as well as of the discriminant validity between the constructs (chi-square = 45.77, df = 32, p = 0.5449, RMSEA = 0.027, NFI = 0.985, NNFI = 0.993, CFI = 0.995, AGFI = 0.974). Note that there are statistically significant positive correlations between them all, suggesting an empirical linkage between these dimensions (Table II).\nResults: The path coefficients and fit indices are presented in Tables III-VII (one table includes all educational levels and one for each educational level). The path models reflecting the positive relationship between knowledge propensity, knowledge sharing and individual performance were estimated to test the hypotheses.\nDiscussion: The results obtained from the overall dataset provide support for the three hypotheses. Knowledge-sharing propensity leads to knowledge-sharing behaviour (H1), and behaviour leads to improved individual job performance (H2). Further, the results support that knowledge-sharing behaviour acts as a moderator between propensity and performance (H3). Interestingly, when examining the different models with various educational backgrounds, the arguments herein seemed to work only for individuals with higher education. Overall, these results contribute to the literature on organisational knowledge sharing on an individual level along the entire length of the propensity-behaviour-performance chain, which has until now remained unexplored.\nConclusion: In this study, the authors examined the effect of knowledge-sharing propensity on knowledge-sharing behaviour and on individual work performance among employees in a public sector organisation. A hypothesis model was proposed such that knowledge-sharing behaviour mediates the linkage between propensity and performance. This model was empirically tested using a field survey of 595 members of a Finnish-based public sector organisation. The model found strong support for the stated hypotheses. The results have several theoretical and practical implications.\nImplications for research: The present study makes several contributions to the literature. First, several studies have noted the lack of research on knowledge sharing in the public sector (Willem and Buelens, 2007; Syed-Ikshsan and Rowland, 2004). The present study addressed this gap by empirically examining employees in a government organisation in Finland. The results demonstrated that in the public sector, the propensity to share knowledge predicts the likelihood of engaging in knowledge-sharing behaviours. This means that extrapolating the findings of studies addressing private sector firms to public sector organisations in terms of knowledge sharing might be more valid than previously argued (Yao et al., 2007; McAdam and Reid, 2000). In fact, it can be argued that public organisations are nowadays rather knowledge-intensive, and focusing KM research efforts on them would be a feasible area for research.\nImplications for practice: For managers of public organisations, a key lesson in the knowledge-based view is that the role of human capital and individual employees is highly important. Individuals are no longer mere elements of a production system but owners and controllers of the most important factor of production - knowledge. The results herein present practical implications, especially for managers and professionals in knowledge-intensive organisations who endeavour to assess the role of knowledge sharing in work performance outcomes. Knowledge sharing was in general found to be positive for work performance, which is a well-recognised suggestion in the KM literature. However, as the results propose the linkage with work performance, it is worthwhile to take this into account in work design. For instance, barriers to knowledge sharing should be minimised, while efficient knowledge-sharing areas should be made available. In addition, as the propensity towards knowledge sharing eventually influences actual behaviour, it is important to focus on how to affect those propensities among organisational members, e.g. through management practices, compensation and culture. Especially interesting is the finding that the knowledge-sharing-propensity-behaviour-work performance linkage works only among the highly educated workforce. Thus, managers should consider providing various kinds of knowledge-sharing support mechanisms and systems for different employee groups.\nLimitations and further research directions: The present study has a specific research setting and survey study design that are suggestive of several limitations. First, the study did not address the underlying issues that are likely to impact the individual's propensity towards knowledge sharing (such as the individual's propensity to trust others, or organisational issues such as rewarding practices). Moreover, the study did not examine other potentially relevant antecedents such as social capital or involvement (cf. Chang and Chuang, 2011), group-based norms (Quigley et al., 2007), organisational climate (Bock et al., 2005) or rewards and different types of motivations (Wang and Hou, 2015). Rather, the model focused on the effects of individual propensity on actualised behaviours and work performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether individual-level knowledge sharing (in terms of attitudes, benefit estimations, self-efficacy and actualised behaviours) affects individual work performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hypotheses are tested through structural equation modelling of survey data collected from 595 members of a public organisation.\nFindings: The findings confirm the hypothesis that knowledge-sharing propensity impacts positively on knowledge-sharing behaviour. Additionally, knowledge-sharing behaviour mediates the relationship between knowledge-sharing propensity and individual performance. The latter effect is also significant amongst the most highly educated members of the organisation but not among those with the lowest educational levels.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides insights into the knowledge-sharing-attitude-behaviour-work performance linkage. It thus addresses a relatively neglected area in knowledge management (KM) research, namely, that of individual knowledge behaviours and their performance impact, with an aim to better understand the micro-foundations of KM. It also contributes to knowledge on KM in the public sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Does lending to women lower sustainability of microfinance institutions? Moderating role of national cultures	[ "National cultures", "Female entrepreneurship", "Financial self-sustainability", "Microfinance institutions", "Women borrowers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The most common instrument of microfinancing is microcredit, an issuance of small loans without guarantees or collaterals to individuals or groups for starting or expanding their businesses. Due to limited information on the past behaviors of the borrowers, microfinance institutions (MFIs) usually provide loans through group-lending programs (Hermes and Lensink, 2007). In particular, several impoverished entrepreneurs come together as a group to apply for loans and other services, while they are jointly responsible for the loan repayment. Such microfinance mostly relies on subsidies emanating from international organizations, aid agencies, charitable foundations and local public authorities (Gonzalez and Rosenberg, 2006). Therefore, the ability of MFIs to generate sufficient revenues from such donation and from interests paid by borrowers to cover operating costs (self-sustainability) is a very important issue in microfinance.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses: 2.1 Sustainability of microfinance institutions and targeting women borrowers\n3. Data and estimation methods: 3.1 Data sources and sample selection\n4. Empirical results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusions and discussion: Prior studies have investigated whether increasing more women borrowers in the MFIs' loan portfolio improves the MFIs' repayment rates (Cull et al., 2007; D'Espallier et al., 2011). The literature has mostly concurred that lending to women increases the repayment rate. However, gaining a high repayment rate does not always warrant the sustainability of MFIs because borrowers may take on more loans to repay the earlier ones (Kar, 2011; Khavul, 2010). The sustainability of MFIs is indeed not only represented by the repayment but also by the success of their clients in using the loans to start or expand their businesses successfully. To extend the literature in the sustainability of MFIs, this study investigates the effect of lending to women on the self-sufficiency of MFIs. The results demonstrate that lending to women indeed reduces the self-sufficiency of MFIs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate whether lending to women decreases sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and how regional characteristics where MFIs are located moderate this effect.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Financial and operating data of MFIs and national cultures are available from the MIX Market database and the Hofstede's publications. These data are analyzed by using multiple regression models with the financial self-sustainability, proportion of women borrowers in the MFI's lending portfolio, and dimensions of national culture as dependent, explanatory and moderating variables.\nFindings: Lending to women tends to reduce sustainability of MFIs. This negative effect is more pronounced in countries ranking higher on power distance and individualism, but the effect is less serious in countries ranking higher on masculinity and uncertainty avoidance.\nOriginality/value: Many studies demonstrate that MFIs improve their repayment rates by targeting women borrowers. The increase in repayment rates, however, may not always improve their sustainability. Further, as microfinance industry increasingly diversifies geographically, regional characteristics where MFIs are located play a vital contingent role in their sustainability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Characteristics of effective leadership networks	[ "Leadership development", "Network effectiveness", "Principal interaction", "Principal learning teams", "Principal networks" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study used path-analytic techniques with data provided by school and district leaders in Ontario to answer questions about: first, the characteristics of effective school leadership networks; second, contributions of such networks to the capacity development of individual members; and third, the relative contribution to individual capacity development of networks, as compared with other typical sources of such development.\nContext for the study: This study was undertaken as part of the annual evaluation and research work associated with Ontario's Leading Student Achievement (LSA): Networks for Learning project. In its tenth year at the time of writing this paper, the LSA project is funded by the Ontario government and led by the province's three principal associations. Its goal is to nurture the development of school leadership in the province as a means of improving student achievement and well-being[3].\nConceptual framework: The framework for the study was developed from an extensive review of existing evidence about effective networks in both school and other organizational contexts. The review began with a search for relevant empirical research completed between 2000 and 2015. This search was conducted initially through ERIC and Google Scholar using the keywords \"network effectiveness,\" \"principal learning teams,\" \"principal networks\" and \"principal interaction.\" Abstracts of 1,316 scholarly articles identified using this procedure were scanned to identify articles that reported empirical evidence of research on networks. In total, 45 of these articles were selected for careful reading but only 14 were included in the final set to be analyzed; the remaining papers reported changes in network members' actions without explicitly describing features of the network that helped network members to implement changes in their organizations. A scan of the reference lists of the 45 articles, along with suggestions from others familiar with the network literature, resulted in the addition of 17 more empirical studies, a total of 31 for inclusion in the analysis giving rise to the framework for this study[4]. As our reference list indicates, however, this initial set of studies was expanded considerably over the duration of the project.\nMethod: Sample\nResults: Descriptives and correlations\nDiscussion and implications: This section of the paper is primarily concerned with results and implications concerning three of the variables in the model of effective networks tested by the study - network leadership, health and structure. About other variables included in the model, it is sufficient to note that:\nConclusion: Several limitations of the study should be acknowledged as part of this conclusion. First, while the size of the sample providing data for the study was adequate for the types of analyses that were conducted, the representativeness of the sample remains uncertain. Second, the study was limited to leadership networks intentionally organized within (and often by) districts, not networks organized by school leaders themselves or networks arising spontaneously by their members; at least some characteristics of these other network types might differ from those examined in this study. Finally, the study included a dependent variable (individual capacity development) that does not reflect some of the collective organizational outcomes (e.g. a more learning-oriented culture) that a district might aim to accomplish through the establishment of leadership networks.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to inquire about the characteristics of effective school leadership networks and the contribution of such networks to the development of individual leaders' professional capacities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study used path-analytic techniques with survey data provided by 450 school and district leaders in Ontario to test a path model of effective network characteristics. Variables in the model included network leadership, structure, health, connectivity, outcomes and unintended challenges.\nFindings: Results confirmed that the model was a very good fit with the data, and as a whole, explained 51 percent of the variation in network outcomes. Network leadership had the largest total effect on network outcomes (R2=0.56), followed closely by the effects of network health (R2=0.49) and network connectivity (R2=0.46).\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was limited to leadership networks intentionally organized within districts, not networks organized by school leaders themselves or networks arising spontaneously by their members. Results cannot be generalized to other types of networks.\nPractical implications: In addition to a focus on single unit leadership development in districts, systematic initiatives should be designed to help prepare network leaders to foster the forms of collaboration that are so central to professional capacity development.\nOriginality/value: Results of the study offer explicit guidance to network leaders about how to improve the contribution of network participation to their colleagues' capacities; it is one of a very small number studies in educational contexts to provide such guidance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Gendered scripts: studying hidden assumptions in business contexts	[ "Gender", "Decision making", "Gender stereotypes", "Negotiating", "Memory", "Social interaction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In recent decades especially the sex-based differentiation has called the interest of many researchers in the business field in particular in the context of negotiation behavior. Theorists as well as practitioners paid more attention to the feminization in negotiations as well as in bargaining and suggested that managers need more feminine qualities. More and more the stereotypically feminine attributes like passivity, emotionality, a higher cooperativeness, or a higher sensibility were said to enrich negotiation, especially to turn a win-lose situation into a win-win situation (compare, e.g. Craver, 2002; Kolb, 2002). Women are said to use power differently than men and to solve conflicts in a different way than men. It is assumed that women are intuitive, socially oriented, and verbally expressive and that they have good listening skills whereas men are assertive, rational, task-oriented, and are good problem solvers.But despite making stereotypically feminine attributes more attractive for negotiations the enforcement of stereotypically feminine traits has unfortunately not helped to get more women into management positions. Nevertheless, the enforcement has helped to turn the picture of the typical manager into another light. In the meantime successful managers are described as being emotional, intuitive, and relation-oriented instead of being only assertive and rational. Although a manager should possess a good mixture of soft and hard skills the picture of a successful manager is still masculine. Studies showed that feminine qualities were valued more highly in male managers than in female ones (Deal and Stevenson, 1998).The stereotypical picture of a manager is not the only field of interest. Different studies on negotiation and bargaining focus either on the behavior of women and men in negotiations or on indicators which make the sex of a person in negotiations salient. To mention just some examples: on the one side there are studies - especially in game theory - in which the behavior of women and men in an experimental bargaining situation is observed. To measure the observable behavior it is necessary to form hypotheses like women are less selfish than men, women avoid conflict situations, men are competitive whereas women are cooperative, women are influenced by the attractiveness of a person, men are interested in increasing their gain. Sometimes there are more or less significant results, sometimes the hypotheses are confirmed and sometimes the participants show exact the opposite behavior (Brown-Kruse and Hummels, 1993; Eckel and Grossman, 2001; Nowell and Tinkler, 1994; Rapoport and Chammah, 1965; Solnick, 2001; Kauer, 2008).On the other side there are studies which have a closer look at the negotiation situation. Women are said to be influenced by the framing of the situation. When the negotiation is framed as a competitive situation women are less inclined to negotiate; is the situation instead cued as an asking situation, women are positively influenced and ask for more (Small et al., 2007). Further, gender triggers or situational ambiguity make the sex of a person in a negotiation situation salient. It makes a difference if a woman for example negotiates for herself or for another person. Studies showed that women negotiating for others have higher outcomes than when negotiating for oneself (Bowles et al., 2005).As the presented, brief literature survey showed the majority of studies have one aspect in common - they did not investigate gender differences (in terms of social constructions), they rather had a look at sex differences taking the a priori attribution as granted. Owing to this women and men are divided along a biological line and by doing so, sex-related stereotypes are reproduced and the results are gender-biased.However, there is a completely different aspect which has been neglected in the scientific discourse so far, namely, the gendered construction of people and of the bargaining situation itself. As in gender-studies discussed very broadly it is rather the social understanding and the gender-roles of being a man or a woman than the biological sex to be influential in social interactions. However, because sex is simply a central and widely used system of classification, it is difficult - theoretically and practically - to show the social construction of gender. By studying gender the intention is not to undo gender or to ignore it but to shift the focus of scientific investigation towards ways of \"doing gender.\" Gender scripts are rarely conscious; they are collectively used and shared in daily business. Women and men as managers do not only behave according to measurable sex-related stereotypes but they use unreflected, gendered a priori assumptions, which themselves are based on sex stereotypes. And these cognitive structures and hidden assumptions have in turn an impact on the decision-making process. Furthermore, the use of gender scripts constitutes an internalized process which cannot be examined by applying usual empirical - that means mainly quantitative - methods. Therefore, to make this internalization visible and to reflect on the gendered constructions, it is necessary to apply innovative methods. In our special case we were interested how the internal gender scripts do influence negotiation processes. To make the gendered scripts in negotiations visible, mind scripting, a qualitative method, which will be explained in more detail in the following chapters, was applied.\n2 Conceptual background: Since, generally spoken information processing is time consuming and rather complex, everyone relies on internal mental models, namely schemata and scripts allowing for reducing complexity (Weick, 1985) and efficiency in terms of knowledge generation in social interactions. Consequently, the advantage of such cognitive structures lies in the quicker information processing; the disadvantage of course is that schemata as well as scripts are to a high degree resistant to disconfirmation and to changes. Both, the advantage as well as the disadvantage influence decision-making processes. The acquisition of schemata and scripts begins in childhood and manifests in the socialization of the child. Later on schemata and scripts are validated and reconfirmed in daily business (Levy and Fivush, 1993; Schank and Abelson, 1977).By using schemata and scripts situations are classified according to salient characteristics. Different studies show for example the existence of collectively shared scripts and schemata in organizational behavior (Gioia and Poole, 1984), the existence of a bargaining or negotiation script in the minds not only of experts but already of bargaining-novices (O'Connor and Adams, 1999).In connection with negotiation in general Bazerman and Carroll (1987) and Carroll and Payne (1991) discuss \"a variety of simplifying assumptions that people may adopt when generating a representation of a negotiation problem\" like implicit theories of people, generic negotiation schemata, schemata of the opponent or schemata for negotiation procedures (Carroll and Payne, 1991, p. 17).However, not only situations are classified also people are categorized according to specific characteristics. The strongest characteristic of a person is his/her sex. The sex of a person is omni-present, which means any time when a person interacts with another person the sex of the interaction partner becomes prevalent in terms of recognizing somebody as woman or man and by assigning gender-roles (stereotypes) and according expectations. Stereotypical sex differences have a pan-cultural generality and are easy to learn since the separation between women and men by stereotypical characteristics is a deeply ingrained system:Men were typically seen as stronger and more active characterized by high needs for achievement, dominance, autonomy and aggression. Women, in contrast, were viewed as weaker and less active, more concerned with affiliation, nurturance and deference (Deaux and Kite, 1989, p. 99).If a person is asked to mention stereotypically feminine or stereotypically masculine attributes, the list will be pretty the same, since they are usually socially constructed (Hanappi-Egger, 2004). So everyone is aware that such stereotypes do exist, but hardly anybody realizes that she or he uses them in daily life.As already mentioned, in our research case we were interested how the internal gendered scripts do influence negotiation processes. Consequently, a qualitative study applying the qualitative method mind-scripting was conducted in order to make the unaware use of sex-based stereotypes as well as of collective constructions transparent.2.1 Mind-scripting\n3 The case-study: hidden assumptions in business contexts: 3.1 Research design and framework of the case-study\n4 Discussion and conclusion: As already mentioned social interactions in particular as emerging in business contexts are heavily influenced by diverse aspects such as structure, involved people and their specific knowledge, the organizational framing of the situation under consideration, and the like. Studying those aspects means usually to explicitly ask people in business studies either in forms of interviews or questionnaires, or to observe people in business contexts or applying ethnographic methods. In order to investigate the gendered nature of social interactions - such as bargaining - an innovative method, namely mind-scripting was applied.Consequently, it was shown that bargaining is a strongly manly constructed social interaction. Participants use their hidden - in our case masculine - scripts to gain control over the bargaining situation. Contrary to the mainstream studies in the field of bargaining - where a difference-oriented and therefore sex-biased perspective is taken, the presented research was focusing on \"doing gender.\" Bargaining behavior therefore was not seen as biologically determined but as gendered process. It was shown that \"gender-switching\" in terms of reacting dynamically masculinely, respectively, femininely is an interesting bargaining strategy independent from the sex of the involved parties.In connection with the social construction of gender it is necessary to change the perspective of investigation. Of interest is not \"the\" woman or \"the\" man, who behaves according to sex-based stereotypes or not, it is the gendered situation which comes to the fore. As the selected results showed bargaining is a masculine construction. The bargaining parties mainly have masculinely connoted scripts and schemata in their minds when it comes to bargain. According to these constructions maleness or masculinity seems to be the key for successful and effective bargaining. But it is more than that, also the play of dominance (masculine) and submission (feminine) either in the form of for example the construction of power or in the form of the dependence on another person is present. The use of stereotypes thus does not depend on the sex of the person alone - as is argued in other studies - it depends on the gendered construction of the situation.By looking behind the constructions, we showed that bargaining scripts and schemata are gendered constructions. Once learned, these mind scripts are used without recognizing that especially masculinely connoted constructions are basically pseudo constructions. Why pseudo? First, as could be shown masculinely connoted hard bargaining tactics need a feminine counterpart to come to an agreement at all. Second, to maintain the ability to act, the agreement is constructed as positive and satisfying, although the buyer despite his/her assertive appearance has in the end to give in. Those insights in the gendered constructions of the business context under consideration (namely bargaining situations) would not have been possible without a research method allowing for accessing the unconscious and hidden knowledge of the actors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper's aim is to make the a priori gender scripts visible in order to discuss their role in decision-making processes in business contexts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In order to get access to hidden and unconscious gender scripts, an innovative qualitative method, called mind-scripting, was applied. Mind-scripting is a discursive method based on \"memory work\" and allows for analyzing and deconstructing implicit assumptions in social interactions.\nFindings: - The selected results show on the one side that people are steadily using their hidden assumptions and scripts to make sense out of specific social situations. On the other side it could be shown that the application of sex-based stereotypes does not depend on the sex of the person alone, but depends strongly on the gendered construction of the interaction. In the case of bargaining it could be shown that bargaining is (still) a rather masculine construction with respect to manly connoted scripts and schemata.\nSocial implications: - The paper gives a substantial incentive to change the perspective of bargaining research related to gender issues: instead of simply searching for sex differences or for sex-based stereotypes it is necessary to have a closer look at the gendered constructions of the according social interactions.\nOriginality/value: - The method of mind-scripting is used to analyze gender scripts in a bargaining context. Furthermore, the paper is the first which deals with a combination of gendered scripts and schemata and sex-related stereotypes in this way.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Multifunctional organisation models: A systems - theoretical framework for new venture discovery and creation	[ "Discovery", "Opportunity", "Business models", "Creation", "Social differentiation", "Social systems theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today, organization and management scholars broadly agree that that the increasingly dynamic and turbulent business environment (Al Humaidan and Sabatier, 2017) as well as the inexorable challenges of social and environmental sustainability call for the appropriate business model innovation and the corresponding change management strategies (Chesbrough, 2010; Gambardella and McGahan, 2010; Spieth et al., 2014; Zott and Amit, 2010; Millar et al., 2012). Business model innovation has led to dramatic organizational change in a wide variety of business contexts, including digital transformations (Wargin and Dobiey, 2001; Jackson and Harris, 2003), strategic management challenges (Chesbrough, 2006; Richardson, 2008; Zott and Amit, 2008), technology and innovation management (Pateli and Giaglis, 2005; Chesbrough, 2007; Gambardella and McGahan, 2010; Zott and Amit, 2010; Huang et al., 2013; Basile and Faraci, 2015), or sustainability management (Millar et al., 2012; Schaltegger et al., 2016).\n2. The Luhmannian theory of social differentiation: a reconstruction: The systems - theoretical platform for Luhmann's approach to the sociological concept of social differentiation is his general understanding of systems as differences between themselves and their outer environments. Autopoietic systems are those systems that create and maintain this difference, which amounts to the complexity differential between the system as a form of reduced complexity and \"the environment (that) is always more complex than the system\" (Luhmann, 2013b, p. 121). Autopoietic systems, including social systems, accordingly co-evolve with their environments. Luhmann took \"complexity reduction\" to be the main function of autopoietic systems in view of their limited ability to process large amounts of environmental signals. The function of complexity reduction means that social systems ignore most environmental signals and thus avoid informational overloads while enabling individuals to make sense of the of the surrounding world which is overwhelmingly complex.\n3. The form of organizations: True to Luhmann (2003, 2005), in the modern society, organizations are another major type of social systems beside the function systems. Luhmann held that organizations consist of decisions and nothing but decisions, which he took to be specific forms of communication that communicate their own contingency. The complexity-reducing function of organizations boils down to the continuing production of decisions out of decisions. Just as with other types of social systems, the complexity-reducing function may expose organizations to a precarious regime of system-environment relations. This is particularly true for organizations because decision communication implies the communication of alternatives. Hence, the more decisions there are, the more alternatives emerge, and accordingly greater is the need for further decisions. Thus, organizations may indeed be \"conveniently conceptualized as social systems, whose complexity-reducing function leads them to disregard their critical environmental dependencies and thus undermine their own sustainability\" (Thompson and Valentinov, 2017, p. 18), especially in view of the cultural fit problems aggravated by the regime of functional differentiation.\n4. Multifunctional business models: Roth, Melkonyan, Kaivo-Oja, Manke and Dana (2018, p. 586) have argued that \"(m)arket research in general and new venture discovery in particular implies the identification of key variables that influence the outcome of entrepreneurial ventures. The main variables processed in this context are identified by segmentation, centralization, and stratification, while the variables of functional differentiation remaining largely, if not fully, ignored.\" The authors go on to give numerous examples of how the strategic navigation of borders between segments, centers, and peripheries, or strata of society leads to the discovery or creation of new business models, and how first movers across these borders may be observed to have considerable competitive advantages such as the \"the blue ocean of a more or less durable monopoly\" (Roth, Melkonyan, Kaivo-Oja, Manke and Dana, 2018; Roth, Valentinov, Agustinaitis, Mkrtichyan and Kaivo-oja, 2018). In a similar fashion, the systematic navigation of the borders of functional differentiation allows for the discovery and creation of the new inter-functional horizon of opportunities that may be exploited by the multifunctional business models. These models involve the strategic observation and navigation of the borders between ten function systems of society. Roth, Melkonyan, Kaivo-Oja, Manke and Dana, 2018; Roth, Valentinov, Agustinaitis, Mkrtichyan and Kaivo-oja, 2018, p. 588ff) give three examples of \"interfunctional\" business models - the selling of indulgences and its contemporary variant, carbon offsetting (Brouwer et al., 2008, p. 310; Gossling et al., 2007; Mair, 2011); new public management, and patent trolling (Chaudhry and Walsh, 1995; Durand and Vergne, 2013; Penin, 2012) - to which this article adds further two illustrative examples.\n5. Outlook: business model innovation as special cases of organizational change: The systems - theoretical framework developed in the present paper shows that business opportunities are both detected and created by those organizations that skillfully harness the value creation potential offered by the alternative regimes of social differentiation, such as segmentation, centralization, stratification, and functional differentiation. Each of these regimes engenders social boundaries whose systematic navigation holds the potential to create value and to give rise to a host of innovative business models. We moreover found that the multifunctional business models, i.e., business models that explicitly draw on the creative potential of functional differentiation as the distinctive feature of the modern society, remain largely uncharted in the traditional spectrum of new venture discovery.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Are entrepreneurial opportunities discovered or created? The debate around this question has crucial implications for successful organizational change management in the business world. The present conceptual paper transcends this debate by embedding the concept of the entrepreneurial opportunities within a Luhmannian systems - theoretical framework which accentuates the unique role of organization and change in the age of functional differentiation. The purpose of this paper is to show how the strategic navigation of the borders between function systems such as politics, science, education, religion, art, or, of course, economy leads to the discovery or creation new opportunities for both business and social entrepreneurship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper combines Niklas Luhmann's theory of social differentiation with Kim and Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy. The key argument is that the alternative regimes of social differentiation, such as segmentation, centralization, stratification, and functional differentiation, create distinct pools of entrepreneurial opportunities to be discovered, created, and exploited by adequate business models. (Business) Organizations, therefore, need to strategically adjust the amount of attention they devote to the different forms of social differentiation. The argument is buttressed with illustrative examples of business models related to the regime of functional differentiation.\nFindings: A paradoxical finding is that the multifunctional business models which explicitly draw on the value creation potential of the most recent form of social differentiation, functional differentiation, remain little known even though they infuse business organizations with a unique capacity of new venture discovery and creation in the modern society.\nOriginality/value: Multifunctional business models have so far remained unexplored in entrepreneurship theory and practice. This paper develops a first strategic approach to the discovery or creation of both multifunctional business models and a broader framework of multifunctional organization models.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
High-performance work systems and open innovation: moderating role of IT capability	[ "High-performance work systems", "HPWS", "IT capability", "IT ambidexterity", "Open innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Innovation scholars have increasingly focused on innovation that leverages the discoveries of others, which encourages firms to source knowledge for innovation across the boundaries of firms (Bogers et al., 2018; Dahlander and Gann, 2010; West and Bogers, 2014). Chesbrough (2003) suggested that many innovative firms have shifted to an \"open innovation\" model by using various external actors and sources to help them achieve and sustain innovation. Some scholars have indicated that firms' openness to external sources of knowledge is an important driver of innovation performance (Bogers et al., 2018; Laursen and Salter, 2006; West and Bogers, 2014). These studies have suggested that a large number of external sources of innovation make the firm's search strategy highly open, and this situation generates increased benefits on the firm. Open innovation is a key business imperative, and firms are motivated to explore ways to achieve innovation openness.Open innovation has been explored from various perspectives, including knowledge management capability (Martinez-Conesa et al., 2017), absorptive capability (Kim et al., 2016), social capital (Laursen et al., 2012; Yli-Renko et al., 2001), organizational learning (OL) capability/culture (Wang et al., 2017; Garriga et al., 2013) and empowering leadership (Naqshbandi and Tabche, 2018). These perspectives are useful for firms to understand how to achieve open innovation; for example, firms with high learning capability can acquire and learn knowledge from other organizational members (Naqshbandi and Tabche, 2018). Among the previous perspectives, human resource management (HRM), which is a key perspective that influences the learning ability of organizational employees, has been ignored in the open innovation literature. Knowledge-related issues are closely related to HRM approaches. Searching for external knowledge is a task that relies on various organizational employees (Ardito and Petruzzelli, 2017). The openness of external search depends on how a firm sets practices to manage the searching behaviors of knowledge workers. The model of high-performance work systems (HPWS) is based on an HRM approach that elicits employees' commitment and involvement with the organizational goals to motivate them to learn considerable knowledge and achieve high work performance (Walton, 1985; Wood and Albanese, 1995). This approach has been rarely investigated in open innovation field. Our first objective is to answer the question, \"how does HPWS influence a firm's open innovation?\" From the OL and knowledge management perspectives, HPWS can promote and sustain organizational innovation because it manages employees' learning of knowledge (Fu et al., 2015). The way in which an organization investigates and acquires information about its customers, competitors, markets, products and services can be strongly dependent on the management of employees' work performance in terms of their daily knowledge searching and absorption. HPWS supports employees to actively learn and achieve high work performance, and this situation enables employees to acquire and exchange knowledge with external sources.Today's business firms rely heavily on information technology (IT) resources to learn the current business environments. The capability of firms to use IT plays a central role in influencing the relationship between HRM and open innovation. Our second research objective is to answer the question, \"how does IT management moderate the relationship between HPWS and open innovation?\" IT provides organizational members with quick and effective access to right amounts of information (Hope and Hope, 1997) and increases the ability of employees to acquire and disseminate information in a highly efficient and effective manner (Tippins and Sohi, 2003). The existence of IT facilitates the efficiency and effectiveness of employees' learning from external sources. IT ambidexterity (i.e. IT exploration and exploration) is a key IT management strategy that is necessary to survive in today's challenging environment. We explore the effects of IT ambidexterity on the relationship between HPWS and open innovation, given the rapidly changing business environments. IT ambidexterity is the ability of firms to simultaneously investigate new IT resources and practices (IT exploration) and utilize their current IT resources and practices (IT exploitation). Firms with IT capabilities can effectively allocate IT resources and applications to help employees learn from external sources.This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by focusing on HPWS and open innovation literature to determine the impact of HPWS on open innovation. We investigate the impact of strategic management of organizational IT resources on the relationship between HPWS and open innovation. From the learning perspective, we propose that HPWS can motivate employees, especially the key knowledge workers that constitute the innovation base, to learn from external sources. IT capability plays a vital role in facilitating this process. Our study contributes to HRM by suggesting that a new antecedent should be taken into account when considering the influence of HRM on the searching for knowledge resources. Our study has significant implications for HPWS, IT capability and open innovation; open innovation can be improved by using HPWS and IT capability. We also expand IT ambidexterity to HRM and innovation studies.\n2. Theoretical background and literature review: 2.1 Open innovation\n3. Hypothesis development: 3.1 HPWS and open innovation\n4. Research method: 4.1 Sample and data collection\n5. Data analysis and results: 5.1 Common method bias\n6. Discussion and conclusions: The results of this study suggest that HPWS significantly and positively affects open innovation. A possible explanation is that the practices in HPWS can promote employees' learning orientation, which can support and facilitate employees to learn, manage and use external knowledge. Some HR practices may increase the interaction opportunities between employees and external source by improving their motivation of external search, increasing employees' ability of learning and information searching and increasing the exchange among employees and external sources. Thus, HPWS helps employees improve their learning orientation and the openness of firms' external search.In addition, the current research shows that IT exploration capability positively moderates the influence of HPWS on open innovation. In other words, IT exploration capability supports firms to find the newest and appropriate IT tools that can accelerate the learning process (knowledge acquisition and assimilation) and provide the necessary mechanism to store external knowledge (Trantopoulos et al., 2017; Sambamurthy and Subramani, 2005; Roberts et al., 2012; Von Krogh, 2012). IT exploration capability improves IT flexibility, which helps firms quickly and economically adopt IT applications for supporting the evolving knowledge sharing requirements with external sources (Cui et al., 2015).The coefficient of IT exploitation capability moderating the relationship of HPWS and open innovation is negative and significant. One possible explanation is that the returns from exploitation are short term (March, 1991). IT exploitation capability can support current learning and external knowledge searching. However, existing IT applications in a dynamic environment may become obsolete, and new IT applications that can meet the new learning requirements may be utilized.Contrary to our expectations, our study finds that the coefficient of IT ambidexterity moderating the relationship of HPWS and open innovation is negative and insignificant. We suggest from the results that IT exploration capability positively impacts the relationship between HPWS and open innovation, whereas IT exploitation capability negatively impacts the relationship. During external knowledge searching of employees, firms that simultaneously pursue exploration and exploitation in their management of IT resources and practices cannot support and facilitate the improvement of employees' learning orientation. 6.1 Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to explore the impact of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on open innovation and the moderating role of information technology (IT) capability on the relationship between HPWS and open innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study conducted a questionnaire survey in the industrial parks of the Yangzi River Delta in China and obtained 108 useful responses.\nFindings: HPWS positively impacts open innovation. IT exploration capability strengthens the relationship between HPWS and open innovation, whereas IT exploitation capability and ambidexterity do not strengthen such relationship.\nResearch limitations/implications: Firms should use HPWS to improve employees' motivation of external learning and searching for enhancing innovation openness. They should acknowledge the enabling role of IT exploration capability in facilitating employees' learning and searching toward open innovation and discreetly develop IT exploitation capability and ambidexterity during external knowledge searching, which may not achieve the desired facilitation purpose.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to human resource management (HRM) by suggesting that a new antecedent, which is HPWS in our case, should be taken into account when considering the influence of HRM in the process of open innovation. This study has important implications for HPWS, IT capability and open innovation; open innovation can be improved by using HPWS and IT capability. This study also expands IT ambidexterity to HRM and innovation studies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Why is collaboration minimised at the accident scene? A critical study of a hidden phenomenon	[ "Accidents", "Emergency services", "Sweden" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This article deals with the reasons why organisations choose to minimise collaboration at accident scenes. Previous research has shown that collaboration between organisations at the accident scene is difficult to achieve (Granot, 1999; Neal and Younis, 2006; Devitt and Borodzicz, 2008). Collaboration can, therefore, almost be compared to a rhetorical ideal, a mantra that is repeated again and again but is difficult to practise (Scholtens, 2008). Even during collaboration exercises, collaboration has proven to be an under-represented phenomenon (Berlin and Carlstrom, 2008a). The basis for this article has been gathered through personal interviews with personnel from ambulance, police and fire services, as well as from accompanying observations of the work at the accident scene. In this article, we ask ourselves \"why is collaboration minimised at the accident scene?\".During the past two decades, collaboration has become a predominant organisational trend (Axelsson, 2000; Axelsson and Bihari Axelsson, 2006). It has come to be a solution for organisational fragmentation and professional task distribution (Drucker, 2007). It is thought that collaboration has a decentralising, democratising, and efficiency-promoting effect (Barker, 1993). Collaboration as a horizontal seamless and prestige-less process is considered to be able to break traditional organisational boundaries (Savage, 1996).Collaboration takes place more as an exception rather than a rule. Ridley (1996) emphasises collaboration to be a reflexive response developed from the gain that results from exchanges in human societies. In contradiction to this theory, collaboration takes place only after consideration of advantages and disadvantages. In a study of collaboration exercises, the three organisations - i.e. the police, fire and ambulance services - were observed to seek stability by repeated and well-known behaviour (Berlin and Carlstrom, 2009). A valid question, therefore, is whether a real accident would contain a different pattern as compared with an exercise. Stallings (1973) has indicated that real events have socially mobilising effects contributing to collaboration. Others believe that regardless of the seriousness of an accident, professional interests can lead to differentiation of work at or away from the accident scene (Rosenthal et al., 1991; MacConell and Drennan, 2006).Boin et al. (2005) argue that accident work does not automatically mean that collaboration takes place smoothly. The organisation, which is built up, is based largely on the preconditions created at previous meetings. The climate created between organisations is, therefore, of great importance (Sjoberg et al., 2006). In an acute situation where fire personnel face pressures, it can lead to increased tensions and misunderstandings. For example, a demand to be at the centre and to get to exert influence may gain the upper hand over the motivation to collaborate (Berlin and Carlstrom, 2008a). An organisation whose members bear a collective self-image to always be in the first ranks, act decisively and have a high level of competency can find it difficult to stand aside and leave room for others. This behaviour has in previous studies been referred to as \"impression management\" (Boin et al., 2005). This means the show of superior skill and courage in order to impress their colleagues, members of other organisations and bypassing spectators. Such behaviour can lead to capacity constraints. This leads to a situation where different action options are not examined, risk assessments are not carried out, and difficulties arise in interacting across organisational boundaries. This may lead to a distorted selectivity in the handling of the accident. Members from each organisation choose to act following established behaviours and a well-known action repertoire (Weick, 1996).The simultaneous application of different agendas may lead to the development of competitive and rival behaviours, which prevent collaboration. Boin et al. (2005) call this phenomenon \"The Battle of the Samaritans\". This means self-reinforcing behaviour which, instead of collaboration, builds internal hierarchies and territorialities (Manz and Neck, 1997). Boin et al. (2005) who studied this type of organisational process, describe this as follows: \"Such agencies will, consequently, be bent on asserting themselves and their modus operandi to the maximum extent - with or without cooperation of other agencies in the crisis network\" (Boin et al., 2005, p. 59). The larger and more complex an event, the worse those involved are trained in how they should collaborate. A hierarchical organisation with long decision channels has a tendency to prevent collaboration. Similarly, strong decision-making organisations with a dominant leadership can lead to downward inaction in the organisation (Rockett, 1994). Difficulties in making objections and protests have a negative impact on the possibility of collaborating (Boin et al., 2005).Previous studies have pointed to the problem of bureaucracies and comprehensive decision hierarchies (Rockett, 1994; Granot, 1999; Neal and Younis, 2006). Shapira (1995) showed that no less than three quarters of a group of nearly 700 management staff had an exaggerated confidence in their ability to exercise complete control. No one acknowledged any shortcomings. They said that they could, without exceptions, manage complex situations in a quick turn of events. Such an approach contributes to a demand to adhere to long formal decision-making channels between management and operational activities, no matter how hard-driven and complex the situation may be (Granot, 1999). Nevertheless, it is well known that organisations where hierarchies have many levels suffer from long lead times and an inability to make decisions and take action (Clarke, 1999; Neal and Younis, 2006; Fredholm and Uhr, 2007).The relationship between police, ambulance and fire services in Sweden\nTheoretical framework: Various forms of collaboration\nMethodology: The study data were collected through observations and semi-structured interviews with personnel from police, fire and ambulance services (Jorgensen, 1989; Kvale, 1996). Data were collected in two of Sweden's most densely populated counties in 2007-2008. During the observations, we accompanied and observed the employees in each organisation during several work shifts (Spradley, 1979). The data material consists of 248 hours of observation on 20 occasions and 57 interviews with 80 people. In the interviews, we were looking for key personnel who had extensive experience with collaboration. Most of the interviews were carried out individually and only some were carried out in groups. In the interviews, the interviewees were asked about their experience with different forms of cooperation, their ability to exert an influence, the importance of trust, ingrained habits, change over time, as well as their practical experience with collaboration. The interviews were recorded on tape and processed by categorising and coding (Constas, 1992; Miles and Huberman, 1994). By combining both data collection techniques, we were able to ask questions which arose in connection with the observations during the personal interviews, and vice versa (Mason, 1996).\nCollaboration at the accident scene: Different priorities\nConclusion: The conclusion of the study is that the organisations at the accident scene avoid excellent forms of collaboration because these lead to uncertainty and because of the lack of incentives for collaboration. Synchronous collaboration techniques require efforts outside the area of competency and behaviour outside the established framework. One assumption is that despite the fact that it is rhetorically correct to be a supporter of synchronous collaboration, this would not always favour operative accident work. The most usual approach, by applying sequential and parallel collaboration techniques, is more relevant in practice. However, exceptions can also exist, for example during large-scale accidents or in situations with resource asymmetries. Under such circumstances, it can be necessary to climb over organisational and professional boundaries and apply synchronous collaboration. Future research projects need to identify such exceptions and develop and exercise the need for interaction between different forms of cooperation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to study why collaboration among police, fire, and ambulance services is minimised at accident scenes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Observations and semi-structured interviews were carried out during 2007-2008. The data material comprises a total of 248 hours of observations on 20 occasions and 57 interviews with 80 people.\nFindings: - The study identifies the difference between rhetoric and practice in connection with accident work. Collaboration is seen as a rhetorical ideal rather than something that is carried out in normal practice. Asymmetry, uncertainty and lack of incentives are important explanations as to why only limited forms of collaboration are actually implemented.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper shows a distinction between collaboration as rhetoric and practical collaboration at accident scenes.\nPractical implications: - The article proposes a multi-faceted collaboration concept. In this way, collaboration can be developed and refined.\nOriginality/value: - The results of the study show that police, fire, and ambulance services want to develop excellent forms of collaboration at the accident scene, but avoid this as it leads to uncertainty and asymmetries and because of a lack of incentives. However, simpler forms of collaboration may be realistic in the organisation of everyday work at accident scenes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Pitfalls in planning flexibility: Knowledge deficit threat to work-life-balance	[ "Government policy", "Industrial relations", "Line managers", "Work life balance", "Family roles", "Flexible labor" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The concept of flexible working arrangements, particularly for people with responsibilities for child care or those who look after elderly or infirm relatives, isn't exactly novel. It's been part of the employment landscape for such a long time that it shouldn't surprise any employer to be asked for flexible working arrangements, nor should it faze any employee in asking for it.\nOpinions of line managers seen as key factor in determining outcomes: Following an investigation into how policies enshrining the right to request flexible working arrangements \"come to life\" - i.e. how they are translated from policy into practice - in two large, multi-divisional private sector organizations in Australia, Associate Professor Rae Cooper and Professor Marian Baird of the University of Sydney concluded:\nUnexpectedly low-levels of knowledge about the policies: The study highlighted that, while the formal policy context is important to at least establishing a floor of employee rights, this does not in itself determine the ways in which requests for flexible working are dealt with in practice. The authors discovered that:\nEmployees, typically women, left shouldering unrealistic workloads: Sometimes things did indeed work to the mutual benefit of the employee and the supervisor, and in these cases, employees reported feeling \"grateful\" to their supervisor and the organization for allowing access to flexible working, suggesting that employees do not see this as a right so much as a privilege to which they are lucky to have access. However, it was also found that managers can unduly, and in the view of many employees, irrationally influence outcomes for employees in need of flexibility because of their personal approach and views. This situation arguably undermines the intention of the policy and any notion that there has been a construction of a \"right\".\nComment: This review is based on \"Bringing the 'right to request' flexible working arrangements to life: from policies to practices\" by Cooper and Baird (2015). Two large Australian organizations were the subject of a study into understanding how such arrangements are implemented in the workplace, and uncovered unexpectedly low levels of knowledge among employees and supervisors.\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 paper comments on the understanding and use of \"right to request\" flexible working arrangements, from both an employee and manager/organization perspective. There was a considerable knowledge deficit among employees making requests for flexible working, and also among their managers, and a high level of informality in the processing of requests. Managers play a critical role in structuring both the procedure and the substantive outcomes of flexible working arrangement (FWA) requests. Managers' personal experience and levels of commitment to FWAs are critical in the process.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The voice of tourists with mobility disabilities: insights from online customer complaint websites	[ "Service failures", "Critical Incident Technique (CIT)", "Disabled tourists", "Online customer complaint", "Recovery" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The disabled population has become a significant consumer segment. According to the US Census Bureau, the number of persons with disabilities is estimated at 51.2 million, which is 18.1 percent of the US population. That number is anticipated to double to around 100 million by the year 2030 (Ozturk et al., 2008). The hospitality and tourism industry is beginning to recognize the economic benefits of serving people with disabilities (Ray and Ryder, 2003). According to a report by the National Organization on Disability (NOD) (2003), American travelers with disabilities spend $13.6 billion on 31.7 million trips annually. In addition to the market potential, another critical issue for the travel industry are governmental regulations regarding the disabled. The ADA, enacted in the United States in 1990, and the Rehabilitation Act, passed in 1970, provide some guidelines and parameters with regard to persons with disabilities for businesses and for society as a whole. The enactment of regulations has brought increased economic and political attention to the disabled population, especially for service providers in the hospitality and tourism industry (Shaw and Coles, 2004).Even as the prospect for disabled individuals to enjoy the benefit of leisure travel has been improving as the hospitality and tourism industry attempts to increase accessibility to accommodations, transportation, and attractions for this population, a disproportionately small number of disabled individuals participate fully in mainstream tourism activities (Yau et al., 2004). Tourists with disabilities have special and sometimes individualized needs that must be accommodated. For instance, compared to the general traveling public, someone with disabilities can put more emphasis on easy access or availability of hospitals when they choose a vacation destination. Within the disabled population, differences in physical, mental or emotional conditions may lead to different needs, interests, and limitations for their travel activities. Varied special needs have to be carefully addressed if the hospitality and tourism industry intends to serve this market segment with quality. A study by Miller and Kirk (2002) explored how the United Kingdom's tourism industry adopted the \"access to all\" standards specified in the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act and concluded that most tourism industry professionals do not understand the specific needs of customers with disabilities.Earlier literature was mostly related to the issues of perceived benefits/barriers of leisure travel and of physical accessibility (Shaw and Coles, 2004; Ray and Ryder, 2003). While such approaches are important, they are also indicative of a rather limited research agenda. The increasing importance of servicing the disabled as a consumer segment has prompted a recent surge of academic attention on travelers with disabilities. The most recent attention has turned to tourism experiences with specific industry components and dimensions such as in-flight, museum, hotel, and restaurant experiences among people with disabilities (Chang and Chen, 2010; Lazar et al., 2010; Poria et al., 2009, 2010a, b; Lovelock, 2010). The specificity of experiences of the disabled population and gaps in service and experience delivery are clear areas that have drawn increasing research scrutiny.Service failures and complaints, in particular, have been topics of increasing interest to researchers as well as practitioners. While service failure and complaints have been systematically investigated for the general traveling public (McCollough et al., 2000), understanding of service failure issues for the disabled tourists has been rather inadequate. It is not well understood whether existing tourism services and products provided to disabled individuals are sufficient or relevant. Building upon existing literature, this research attempts to assess disabled tourists' service-failure experiences with tourism services and products utilizing data evidences from online customer complaint web sites.The purpose of the current research is to contribute to a better understanding of tourism experience of individuals with disabilities. It aims at analyzing the current status of service quality provided by the hospitality and tourism industry, with an emphasis on service failures, by identifying the types of failures that occurred. In addition to investigating the types of failures, this study further attempts to examine, from the perspective of disabled travelers, the relationship between service failures, the context in which they occurred, and the types of recovery efforts. It is, however, important to acknowledge from the outset of our research that the analysis can only be interpretable and applicable to people who were able to and decided to visit the online complaint sites. There may be a large portion of the population of people with disabilities who may not be able to or have decided not to express their opinions on these sites.\nLiterature review: Travel for individuals with disabilities\nMethodology: This study was designed as a part of larger research project and focused on the word-of-mouth online complaining behavior of individuals with disabilities and their family members. CIT is a methodological tool used by researchers to capture descriptive stories or episodes about a given experience (Stitt-Ghodes et al., 2000). The procedure of CIT involves:* developing plans and specifications for collecting factual incidents;* collecting episodes/critical incidents from knowledgeable individuals;* identifying themes in the critical incidents;* sorting the incidents into proposed content categories; and* interpreting and reporting results.Data can be collected from observations or from viable self-reports (Stitt-Ghodes et al., 2000). Interviews are regarded as the most common method for the collection of recalled data (Flanagan, 1954). The current study did not follow the classic CIT interview procedure, but instead used a modified approach in that it collected data from the narrative documents publicized on third party complaint websites to identify the key complaint themes related to services provided for the disabled travelers. The modified approach to collecting data is useful for specific populations with disabilities since interviewing people with various types of disabilities (vision, hearing, mental, and developmental) is naturally limited. However, collecting critical incidents from complaint domains could result in a lack of details and the inability to verify demographic information due to the nature of data collection for this study. Therefore, log data could be collected to enhance the reliability of the content analysis results of critical incident from public domains (Park et al., 2008).While CIT has many subjective decisions enclosed in it (Flanagan, 1954), this approach allow researchers to understand critical incidents that contributed to an overall experience by asking specifically what incident during a service experience had either the most negative or the most positive effect on the overall experience (Petrick et al., 2006). CIT is founded on the assumption that critical factors will emerge as consumers recall consuming episodes. These factors would not emerge if other, more quantifiable methods, such as a survey, did not ask the right questions. Judges with research training will then independently classify the incidents into categories. Inter-judge reliability statistics can be calculated (Meuter et al., 2000). Since service is experienced and recalled by customers as a sequence of incidents rather than as individual attribute (Ovretveit, 1992), a number of researchers in the hospitality field have utilized the CIT method (Petrick et al., 2006). Park et al. (2008), for instance, utilized the CIT method to dissect the service failures in the family travel market based on the three dimensions of the justice theory. Also utilizing CIT, Ravenscroft and Rogers (2003) examined service encounters and noted that collecting anecdotal evidences can yield new insights into previously intractable management problems in spite of its difficulties in modifying the technique to fit the research setting.This research followed the CIT procedure to identify the dimensions of service failure in the disabled traveler market. Since research on disabled traveler satisfaction is still in its early exploratory stage, this approach is particularly useful for uncovering disabled travelers' service concerns. While a full CIT application can take the form of combining both qualitative and quantitative responses and involve the solicitation of both exceptional positive and negative incident, this research adopted Park et al.'s (2008) approach to analyze only the negative incidents that were reported in the online public domains. It is reasonable to assume that the online public complaint sites' environment can be the result of extreme negative experiences, i.e. critical incidents. Due to the fact that the data was derived from textual content on the Internet, close-ended questions were not possible.A total of 378 customer complaints were gathered from online consumer complaint/review websites. These entries provided needed experience-based data from travelers with disabilities or individuals who cared for disabled travelers. This research culled from 11 popular online complaint/review web sites including complaints.com, consumerboard.com, consumeraffairs.com, my3cents.com, pissedconsumer.com, igougo.com, tripadvisor.com, virtualtourist.com, memorable-beach-vacations.com, mytravelguide.com and travellerspoint.com. Customized keyword function such as \"disabled\", \"disabilities\", and \"handicap\" allowed researchers to search for relevant episodes on these web sites. Since consumers are not rewarded for expressing negative opinions on these websites, it can be reasonably assumed that all complaint episodes are true to what occurred to the individuals who submitted these entries. Data was collected from May to June in 2008. Complaint entries related to nine sectors of the industry were included in the dataset. These nine sectors include hotels, airlines, land transportation, car rental, cruises, restaurants, destinations, e-travel and attractions. While a total of 378 text-based episodes were harvested, 62 cases were discarded due to incompleteness or lack of clarity. The final valid textual data points totaled at 316.Classification of incidents\nResults: According to the findings, 23.73 percent of the incidents were hotel-related and 14.24 percent were airline-related. Other industry sectors included attractions (12.03 percent), cruises (9.49 percent), destination (9.18 percent), e-travel (9.18 percent), restaurants (8.86 percent) and land transportation (7.59 percent). Car rental (5.70 percent) was the least represented. Most of these disabled tourists were individuals with limited mobility (87.97 percent) and tended to have traveled with their spouses and/or children (38 percent). Of complaints 52.21 percent took place while experiencing tourism services or products, and 39.0 percent of complaints occurred before experiencing them.Service failure classification\nConclusion and implications: The goal of this research was to uncover the critical service failures experienced by travelers with disabilities. The experiences of individuals with mobility disabilities in this study suggest a complex world where personal, social and environmental factors contribute to the various types of service failures. The concerns and complaints of this population are mostly manifested in three broad areas: service/product delivery, special request/need accommodation and employee conduct. These three dimensions of failure incidents were consistent with the framework developed by Bitner et al. (1990). However, the specific categories under each dimension diverge from Bitner et al.'s findings. For the most part, the failure categories in our classification scheme that are not accounted for in the Bitner et al. are due to the unique aspects of services of the hospitality and tourism industry and those related to disabilities.It is meaningful to examine industry sector variations in service failure as travel product is in essence a total experience product composed of services provided by multiple business units. Industry sectors such as the travel agency, the airline, hotels, and restaurants as well as destination attractions and guiding services all play a role in the production and delivery of the total tourism product (Park et al., 2008). As a result, service failure in any part of the whole puzzle will significantly impact on the final experience outcome. This research compared the service failures across different industry sectors. It appears that when compared to the literature of service failure and recovery concerning the general traveling public, the types of service failures encountered by the population of travelers with disabilities can be quite different.Design technicality\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - While the topical areas of service failure and complaints have been systematically investigated for the general traveling public, service failure issues for disabled tourists have been widely ignored. This exploratory study attempts to provide some insights into this phenomenon by analyzing disabled travelers' complaints reported through online customer complaint websites.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 316 customer complaints were collected and analyzed utilizing a modified procedure of the Critical Incident Technique (CIT). Differences in service failure dimensions in industry sector and recovery type were investigated through the correspondence analysis.\nFindings: - Critical incidents of disabled travelers were classified into three dimensions of service failures including service delivery failure, unfulfilled special requests, and unsolicited employee conduct. Significant relationships in service failure dimensions were identified in the industry sectors and types of recovery.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitations of this study are unidentifiable demographic information and lack of necessary details, since this study is based on textual data collected from online complaint/review websites. For further research, more inclusive quantitative data could provide a more complete picture.\nPractical implications: - The findings of this study could represent a valuable step toward assessing the current status of service failure provided by hospitality and tourism industry, and thus provide useful insights for practitioners to more effectively serve this market segment.\nOriginality/value: - This study serves as exploratory research and contributes to a better understanding of the tourism experience of individuals with disabilities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Change leadership in the 21st century	[ "Twenty-first century", "Leadership change", "Process issues", "Content issues", "Change leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Understanding and effectively practicing change leadership is critical in organizations. Trends evolving in the environments surrounding organizations exert tremendous forces for changes in the way we work together in organizations (Holman et al., 2007). These include rapid advancements in, and global dissemination of communications technology; increased participation and democratic principles, education levels, and global mobility, conflicting demands of multiple stakeholders; tight time and work/life balance; declining participation in community, and changes in family and social life.\"Familiar ways of working and our commonly held assumptions about work are rapidly disappearing\" (Anderson, 2012, p. 326). Many popular leadership models are insufficient to deal with constant, rapid, and complex change. The \"once-celebrated individual leader\" model is called into question, as change is difficult to achieve and leaders need to adapt their leadership approaches to specific strategic situations (Ahn et al., 2004). This puts more pressure on leaders to change organizations, to search for the next major innovation that will help organizations become more competitive (Holbeche, 2006; Cawsey et al., 2012). The field of change leadership has become more integrated and strategic. Its focus has shifted from personal and group outcomes to organizational ones. Change occurs throughout the organization, requiring a team to bring about needed change, often applying an understanding of human relationships to improve organizational results (Cawsey et al., 2012).\nOur analytical meta-framework: This paper builds on a comprehensive review of the change leadership literature including the Sage Publications Benchmarks in Leadership series (Dumas and Beinecke, 2015a, b, c). We focus on the change leadership literature from the year 2000 going forward. We consulted with colleagues and conducted extensive literature reviews, looking for representative themes that are pivotal to the field in the twenty-first century. We organized our review into the following meta-framework of process issues and content issues (Armenakis and Bedeian, 1999).\nProcess issues: The majority of change leadership research is process oriented, addressing actions during the enactment of an intended change. These actions take place at the external environment, firm, and individual levels. At the environmental level, various federal, state, and local bodies engage in a myriad of activities that affect the external environment of organizations. The research reviewed in this category deals with actions taken to implement changes within organizations and the nature of employee responses to such efforts; this research addresses how to bring about the change (e.g. Cawsey et al., 2012 identify the following stages to bring about change: awakening, mobilization, acceleration, institutionalization, as an iterative process to bring about change; building and energizing the need for change; frameworks for leading change; navigating change through formal structures and systems; navigating organizational politics and culture; managing recipients of change and influencing internal stakeholders; becoming a master change agent; action planning and implementation; sustaining change; measuring change; designing effective control systems). By (2005) argues that many current theories and approaches to change management are often contradictory, lacking in empirical evidence and supported by unchallenged hypotheses about the nature of contemporary organizational change management. His critical review of some of the main theories and approaches to organizational change management highlights the need for a new and pragmatic framework for change management. Graetz (2000) asks if one can identify factors that are critical to leading change effectively. Effective change leaders should blend the charismatic and instrumental dimensions of change leadership. The top-down, hierarchical leadership is an anachronism and we need to move to less technical and more personal, participative, and collaborative leadership and organizations.\nContent issues: The theme of content issues focuses on the substance of contemporary organizational changes. This research seeks to define the elements of successful and unsuccessful change efforts and how they relate to organizational effectiveness. These include alternative strategic orientations, organization structures, and performance-incentive systems. Content issues focus on an organization's long-term relationship to its environment and define its overall character, mission, and direction. Burnes (2011) asks why change fails and he wonders how organizations can manage change successfully. While Burnes looks for successful change models that have stood the test of time, such as organizational development (Burnes, 2011; Cummings and Worley, 2005; French and Bell, 1999) and emergent change (Beer and Nohria, 2000), he cautions against believing that only one or two approaches to change can offer solutions for the myriad of change situations that may arise.\nConclusions: There are many myths about change: change always begins at the top; efficiency comes from control when every detail is mapped out, prediction is possible, and change is manageable. Rather, change often has unanticipated and unintended consequences. There is no one right answer or one right way. Order is emergent not hierarchical. A complex system's history is irreversible. It is in a constant state of change. Its future is unpredictable. We must shift from a \"puzzle solving\" to a \"mystery solving\" perspective. This is an iterative process. It is an ongoing interaction of system members that may lead to an emergent pattern of self-organization. As parts of the system interact, new patterns emerge over time. Facilitating this process requires a container to hold it all together. Significant differences must be addressed and communication amplified. An open and fully transparent environment is created in which the many differences of potential relevance to change are opened for analysis. Transformative changes may then occur among system players. From this, new ideas and behaviors emerge.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the field of change leadership at the beginning of the twenty-first century.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The meta-framework presented in this study is a review of the field of change leadership over a 16-year period. The authors reviewed hundreds of peer-reviewed refereed journal articles and books.\nFindings: The authors identify the key themes in the study of change leadership through the lens of content and process frames of reference.\nOriginality/value: The authors identify how these new perspectives of change leadership change the way we think about/approach the field of change leadership.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Price reduction strategy: Effect of consumers' price unfairness perceptions of past purchase on brand equity	[ "Pricing strategy", "Customer-based brand equity", "Elapsed time since purchase", "Post-purchase evaluations", "Price reduction strategy", "Price unfairness perceptions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Firms in the consumer electronic goods industry have a widespread practice of launching a new product/model with a higher price and then within a short span of time (sometimes even in months) considerably reducing the price of the product. This price reduction strategy is practiced commonly across all the brands except for a few and even these few have tried this strategy occasionally. For example, Hewlett Packard (HP) reduced the price of its popular model Pavilion DM1 laptop to $399 from $499 within a year of its introduction (Shah, 2011). Recently, Apple reduced the price of its laptop brand MacBook Pro Retina by $200 (Cheng, 2013; Tsukayama, 2013). When firms reduce the price of their new product after some time, it could be attributed to a reduction in the cost of production due to learning curve effect and the firms might want to transfer the cost saving benefits to its customers (Bulow, 1982). Also, some firms reduce the price of their new product once after skimming the market of early buyers with the high price (Bulow, 1986). The customers who had paid higher price earlier consider this strategy to be unfair and consequently, this strategy negatively affects satisfaction and behavioral intentions (Gebhardt, 2006). In a field experiment study involving 50,000 customers, Anderson and Simester (2010) investigated customers' reaction when a retailer sells the product for a lesser price which they had purchased earlier with a higher price and found that these customers reacted by making fewer subsequent purchases from the firm. Thus, in the process of these price reductions within a short period of time, customer-based brand equity (CBBE) is possibly affected as the early buyers of the new product/model may feel cheated (O'Brien, 2007; Coursey, 2010).\nPUPoPP and CBBE when the price is reduced: Keller (2013) presented a brand resonance model that creates CBBE. According to this model, brand building is a sequence of four steps, in which the objectives of a later step are dependent on the objectives of the previous step. The first step ensures identification and association of the brand in the minds of the customers. The second step deals with establishing brand meaning in customers' minds by linking tangible and intangible brand associations. The third step elicits customer responses in the form of judgments and feelings toward the brand. The last step deals with the development of customer resonance from customer responses through intense attachment and active loyalty toward the brand. Similarly, Aaker (1991) identifies five components in CBBE such as brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, brand associations in addition to perceived quality and other components such as brand patent assets, trademarks and channel relationships. The core component of CBBE is consumer loyalty which is primarily determined by evaluations of past purchase (Keller, 2013). The consumers evaluate the past purchase on the basis of product quality, after-sales service (Ahmad and Butt, 2012) and the price paid for the past purchase and these evaluations would consequently affect CBBE (Raghubir and Corfman, 1999). The price lowering practice can damage the brand equity and reduce the profit margins in the long run (Bertini and Wathieu, 2010; Zoellner and Schaefers, 2015). The short-term promotional deals negatively affect brand equity (Villarejo-Ramos and Sanchez-Franco, 2005; Valette-Florence et al., 2011). The consumers tend to evaluate the price paid for the past purchase and this evaluation affects brand image and also influences repurchase intentions (Hunt and Keaveney, 1994). This study's proposition to connect PUPoPP with CBBE is drawn from extant research on price fairness perceptions and CBBE.\nEffects of ETSP: When a firm does not reduce the price of a durable product even after a long time of the consumers' purchase, it should enhance the consumers' trustworthiness of the firm and increase their value perceptions of the product. The value perceptions of the consumers who bought the durable product should increase further when the firm increases the price. In a hypothetical situation, when a consumer who has bought a computer laptop for US$1,000, sees its price increased (instead of getting reduced) to US$1,200 after a year of his/her purchase, he/she shall have increased value perceptions on the past purchase of computer laptops. In this case, the consumer might feel that he/she possesses a higher value product. Alternatively, when the firm reduces the price after a consumer's purchase, the consumer perceives this as an act of betrayal. The consumer feels let down and is angry with the seller when the latter commits such transgression. As time passes by, the consumer has a tendency to forget and forgive. This results in mellowing down on the consumers' anger (Mogilner and Aaker, 2008; Zourrig et al., 2009; Tsarenko and Strizhakova, 2009; Tsarenko and Tojib, 2011). The consumers' anger is high initially and fades away as the time passes by (Mogilner and Aaker, 2008; Tsarenko and Strizhakova, 2009; Zourrig et al., 2009; Tsarenko and Tojib, 2011). This paper argues that longer the ETSP, higher the CBBE even in situations where the consumers are aware that the price of their past purchase is reduced. This argument does not negate that there would be strong positive effect of ETSP on CBBE in \"no price reduction after purchase\" and \"price increase after purchase\" situations as compared to \"price reduction after purchase\" situation.\nEffects of MPR: When the firm reduces the price of durable products, the customers who had paid a higher price for that product earlier get antagonized and feel betrayed and develop negative emotions toward the firm (Gebhardt, 2006; Anderson and Simester, 2010). The customers who encountered higher price reduction would have stronger negative emotions toward the brand in comparison to the customers who encountered lesser price reduction. According to cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957), when consumers encounter contradictory information, they would try to find reasons to reduce their dissonance. If the MPR is less, even though there would be negative emotions toward the firm but could easily be mitigated by generic observable justifications (Kivetz and Zheng, 2017) such as technological obsolescence, competitive pressures, reduction of production cost, etc. Thus, the customers would forego with the price reduction, if the MPR is less. When MPR is higher, the above mentioned generic reasons would not be sufficient for the adjustment process that happens after the negative emotions get generated. When the price is reduced, the customers would derive negative quality perceptions (Rao and Monroe, 1988; Blattberg and Neslin, 1990; DelVecchio and Puligadda, 2012; Rao and Schaefer, 2013) and reduced value for the product (Grewal et al., 1998; Raghubir and Corfman, 1999). These negative emotions and reduced quality and value perceptions would further affect their loyalty intentions toward the firm (Aaker, 1991; Gedenk and Neslin, 1999; Yoo et al., 2000). Therefore, it is intuitive to expect that the MPR to negatively affect the CBBE perception of the customers who paid the higher price earlier (Winer, 1986; Buil et al., 2013):\nThe study: Measures\nAnalysis: Demographic profile of the respondents\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address consumers' post-purchase perceptions toward the brand when it adopts price reduction strategy. The study specifically conceptualizes the effect of consumers' price unfairness perceptions of past purchase (PUPoPP) on customer-based brand equity (CBBE) with a moderating effects of elapsed time since purchase (ETSP) and magnitude of price reduction (MPR) in situations where consumers were aware of the reduction in price of the product that they had purchased earlier.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted among consumers who were aware of the reduction in the price of the computer laptop which they had purchased earlier. A sample size of 214 respondents was utilized for the study. The hypotheses were tested by using partial least squares-structural equations modeling.\nFindings: The results of the study show that there is a significant negative impact of PUPoPP on CBBE and the ETSP was found to enhance CBBE and also weaken the negative effect of PUPoPP on CBBE. Furthermore, the MPR was found to strengthen the negative effect of PUPoPP on CBBE.\nOriginality/value: The findings of this study are unique and contribute to both pricing and branding areas of research. While extant research in these areas has focused on price fairness perceptions in situations where the price of future purchase increases, particularly for frequently purchased non-durable goods, this study explored PUPoPP in situations where the firm reduces the price of a durable good such as a computer laptop.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Ethnomethodology: Foundational insights on the nature and meaning of documents in everyday life	[ "Documents", "Recordkeeping", "Social theory", "Document theory", "Ethnomethodology", "Information creation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Every key thinker gives the social world his or her own distinctive perspective, shining a torch on parts of that world and leaving other parts in the dark, leaving them ready for the arrival of another theorist holding her torch at a slightly different angle. Each of them colors the social world with the sort of quirky and obsessional brilliance that is necessary in order to illuminate aspects of our social world that would otherwise go by unnoticed. They are the chemists and physicists of the social world, perceiving and describing social elements, forces, particles and compounds, explaining reactions, behaviors and mechanisms, mapping the statics of social orders and disorders that need a creative, technical, specialist eye to fathom (Stones, 1998, p. 5).\nThe intellectual roots of ethnomethodology: Ethnomethodology has been identified as an attitude, a worldview, a research perspective, an independent sociological perspective, a methodological style, an intellectual posture, and a form of life (Mehan and Wood, 1975; Coulon, 1995; Vom Lehn, 2014; Have, 2004). Whether or not ethnomethodology actually constitutes a theory in its own right is the subject of debate (Rawls, 2008). Equally contentious is its relationship to sociology, as well as ethnomethodology's conception of the nature of sociological knowledge.\nEthnomethodology and the study of documents: One of ethnomethodology's contributions to the understanding of social life is its capacity to produce a deep wonder about what is regarded as obvious, given or natural. Whether it be the interpretation of documents, the utterance of \"uh-huh\" or the flow of everyday interaction, ethnomethodology has provided a way of questioning which begins to reveal the richly layered skills, assumptions and practices through which the most commonplace (and not so commonplace) activities and experiences are constructed (Pollner, 1987, p. ix).\nDiscussion and conclusion: The rise of the bureaucratic organization, and the attendant routinization of recordkeeping, has led to the \"embedding of organizational actions in the processing of documents so that, in significant respects, document work (often paperwork) has become the work\" (Hartswood et al., 2011, p. 151). The fundamental premise of this paper is that ethnomethodology is an appropriate worldview from which to study the nature of this document work. If the case has been made in this paper that those in the information disciplines should embrace ethnomethodology as a way of forming deeper insights into the relationship between people and recorded knowledge, all that remains to do here is to outline what such a program of study would entail, from a methodological perspective. To begin with, all ethnomethodological studies need to share a commitment to certain immersive methodological approaches and \"investigative tendencies\" (Lynch, 2009, p. 88). In particular, ethnomethodology requires that any investigative method be capable of studying and recovering social reality at the level where it is constructed - in the very concrete realm of action and interaction (Leiter, 1980). In an organizational setting, any study of documents and document work would therefore involve a close examination of the practical details of everyday activities, including work processes (how members carry out their work tasks), institutional talk, the organization of interaction, and the way in which members make decisions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to argue that researchers in the information disciplines should embrace ethnomethodology as a way of forming deeper insights into the relationship between people and recorded knowledge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper introduces the core concepts of ethnomethodology as a means of articulating what this perspective brings to the understanding of the way that society is accomplished. A selection of key studies are then examined to highlight important ethnomethodological findings about the particular relationship of documents to human actions and interactions.\nFindings: Ethnomethodology highlights the fact that people transform their experiences, and the experiences of others, into documents whose status as an objective object help to justify people's actions and inferences. Documents, as written accounts, also serve to make peoples' actions meaningful to themselves and to others. At the same time, ethnomethodology draws attention to the fact that any correct reading of these documents relies partly on an understanding of the tacit ideologies that undergird people's sense-making and that are used in order to make decisions and get work done.\nOriginality/value: This conceptual framework contributes to the information disciplines by bringing to the fore certain understandings about the social organization of document work, and the attendant social arrangements they reveal. The paper also outlines, from a methodological perspective, how information science researchers can use ethnomethodology as an investigative stance to further their knowledge of the role of documents in everyday life.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The balanced scorecard: a new challenge	[ "Balanced scorecard", "Performance management systems", "Human capital", "Customers", "Organizational culture", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As we embark on the twenty-first century, managers are challenged by sweeping changes in the global arena. Add to these transitions - sweeping economic fluctuations in an economically interdependent world, and the burgeoning use of computers, and a dynamic global business environment emerges. Skilled managers face a complex business environment, full of opportunities but pitted with risks, in which they can make effective business decisions, improve interpersonal relations and meet societal obligations with the right strategy.This paper focuses on one such strategy known as \"The Balanced Scorecard\". This paper discusses how to develop a balanced scorecard performance system and explores issues that organizations face in building and implementing scorecard systems, and shares lessons learned from Australian organizations that have taken the balanced scorecard journey.This approach to strategic evaluation was developed by Kaplan and Norton in the early 1990s, it is claimed that the scorecard with four perspectives- financial, customers, internal business processes, and innovation, learning and growth provides an excellent balanced solution for facing these challenges. The concept of the balanced scorecard enables organizations to achieve an integrated and aligned balanced focus between these four perspectives, which collectively underpin the achievement of the organization's vision.The process by which a firm's managers evaluate the future prospects of the firm and decides on appropriate strategies to achieve long- term objectives is called strategic planning. Strategic planning is often tempered or changed at some point by a more incremental, sometimes messy, process of strategic decision making by some managers. \"When a new CEO is hired, for example he or she will often call for a radical change in strategy. That is why new leaders are very carefully chosen on the basis of what they are expected to do. So while this paper discusses the rational strategic planning process here, because it is the ideal, inclusive method of determining long-term plans, we need to remember that, throughout, there are people making decisions, and their own personal judgment, experiences and motivations will shape the ultimate strategic directions\" (Gautreau and Kleiner, 2001).This paper puts forward a balanced scorecard approach to strategic management via Australian case studies. There are various important key success factors to look at whilst developing a balanced scorecard but the one most important aspect not to be forgotten are the people in the organization.In an environment dominated by innovation, social responsibility and constant change it is argued that recruitment and retention of high quality employees must be the primary focuses of any business that wishes to succeed in the 21st century. Can the Balanced Scorecard approach work here?\nLiterature review: Several years ago, the Balanced Scorecard was introduced by Kaplan and Norton. At the time, we thought the Balanced Scorecard was about measurement, not about strategy. We began with the premise that an exclusive reliance on financial measures in a management system was causing organizations to do the wrong things. Financial measures are lag indicators; they report on outcomes, the consequences of past actions. Exclusive reliance on financial indicators promoted short-term behaviour that sacrificed long-term value creation for short-term performance. The Balanced Scorecard approach retained measures of financial performance, the lagging indicators, but supplemented them with measures on the drivers, the lead indicators, of future financial performance (Brown, 2000).But what were the appropriate measures of future performance? If financial measures were causing organizations to do the wrong things, what measures would prompt them to do the right things? The answer turned out to be obvious: Measure the strategy! Thus all of the objectives and measures on a Balanced Scorecard - financial and nonfinancial - should be derived from the organization's vision and strategy. Although we may not have appreciated the implications at the time, the Balanced Scorecard soon became a tool for managing strategy - a tool for dealing with the 90 percent failure rate (Kaplan and Norton, 2001b).The concept of the balanced scorecard (BSC) was first presented in the early 1990s. By 2000 some surveys indicated that a majority of firms in the United States, and Scandinavia used scorecards - or at least intended to do so soon. Others, like Bain's management tools survey, indicated a slight drop in usage to 36 per cent, but with a high average satisfaction with the tool. The number of software packages for scorecard on the market was growing and exceeds 100 today. In only ten years, the idea of the balanced scorecard has certainly made its mark. (Gadenne, 2000)\nWhat is the balanced scorecard?: Robert Kaplan and David Norton from Harvard Business School first presented the \"Balanced Score Card\" in an article \"The Balanced Scorecard - Measures that Drive Performance\", Harvard Business Review, January/February 1992.There is nothing new or original about the notion of combining a number of measures in a compact description of an operation. Traditional methods of measuring performance focussed on financial indicators.Even within the profit sector, financial statements cannot properly capture the kind of measurements that companies need today. High quality services, intellectual capital, skilled employees, prompt and reliable services, responsiveness efficient and adaptable business processes are all intangible assets which are important but their presence or absence does not show up on a balance sheet and does not alert employees, customers, shareholders and the community to the real worth of an company or enterprise. The Balanced scorecard emphasizes that financial and nonfinancial measures are all part of a system that gives information to every part of the organisation (Brewer and Speh, 2000).They are part of a top down driven process, driven by the mission and strategy of the \"Business Unit\". The measures are a balance between external measures for customers and shareholders and internal measures of business processes, innovation and learning and growth. A balance must also be struck between measures of past performance and measures that drive future performance. It is possible to use the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system to manage strategy over the long run (Poll, 2001).\nThe process of balanced scorecard in a nutshell: * Clarify and translate vision into strategy.* Communicate and link strategic objectives and measures.* Plan, set targets and align strategic initiatives.* Enhance strategic feedback and learning.Traditionally, organisations measured their performance on short-term financial measures; however the balanced scorecard approach extends this to including measures of performance relating to customer, internal processes and learning and growth needs of their people (Latshaw and Choi, 2002).This broader focus brings in a longer term, strategic dimension to the business, by not only looking at the short-term financial performance, but also how the organisation is going about delivering the results, and checking on the overall \"strategic health\" of the organisation. By also focusing on these non-financial dimensions, the organisation can assess its performance in building key capabilities, required in terms of its strategy to survive and prosper into the future. This is particularly relevant to companies seeking longer-term superior returns, embarking on new strategies or under competitive threat, where the lack of these organisational capabilities will threaten the organisation's longer-term sustainability (Hagood and Friedman, 2002).At the highest level within an organisation the strategy will define the specific performance measures and standards required in each of these non-financial areas. This process requires the leadership to define in very specific terms the \"definition of success\" in each of these non-financial areas, together with their relative importance weightings, to enable employees to embrace these requirements in their day to day activities. Once this is completed for the organisation as a unit, these measures are transferred to individuals throughout the organisation, by creating individual \"Balanced Scorecards\":A key part of the Balance Scorecard approach is the feedback and learning step, where an organisation is able to quantify where it is on its strategic capability building journey, in the context of its current performance, and possible changing business environment. This information should enable the leadership to determine whether the organisation is on track, and what, if any, interventions/changes need to be made. If changes are required, these could be in the definition of the destination, the pace of the journey, or the redesign of the initiatives designed to build the capability.This information and the subsequent decision to change something is critical to the strategic learning process, which should continuously modify strategies to reflect this \"real time learning\" (Johnsen, 2001).The Balanced Scorecard approach extends into linking employee rewards to performance in all four areas, with suitable weightings applied reflecting the relative importance of each area. In some instances companies see the non-financial measures of such importance that a \"threshold\" level of performance is set for each of the non-financials. Only if an individual exceeds these threshold levels, can they qualify for performance related rewards linked to the financial performance results. This approach clearly indicates to employees the level of importance the organisation places on future capability building and strategic issues, while at the same time recognising shorter-term financial performance (Gadenne, 2000).A Balanced Scorecard is a format for describing the activities of an organization through a number of measures for each of the four perspectives. A simplified balanced scorecard may resemble Figure 1. Business activity is described from four different perspectives, using a small number of measures for each. The description may refer to the business's current performance or to its goals for the next period (Brown and McDonnell, 1995).Some would say that this is just another performance report, combining financial and non-financial metrics. But there is more to the scorecard than immediately meets the eye. The scorecard is made up of the following four perspectives:(1) Financial perspective: to succeed financially how should we appear to our shareholders?\nCase 1: The Big W case - \"Live Big for Less\": Faced with plans for significant business growth, Big W developed an HR strategy to help realise the company's vision.Big W (n.d.) is the discount department store division of Woolworths. Once Woolworths' main poor performer, Big W was rated by Business Review Weekly (4 August 1997) as a remarkable success story. In the past ten years its annual sales have risen from $530 million to $1.8 billion - moving from a loss of $47 million to a profit of $60 million. In the six months to 11 January 1998 it posted a record Earnings before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) to Sales margin of 5.13 per cent.Paralleling the growth in turnover and profitability has been the growth in the number of stores and staff. In 1993, Big W operated 58 stores but the last five years have seen a 41 per cent increase to 85 stores. Staffing levels at the end of March 1998 are approximately 19,500 with the majority (12,000-13,000) being front line staff. Big W plans to have a number of additional stores opened which will give it the critical mass to optimise returns to shareholders without the need for investment in additional infrastructure.The business imperative\nCase 2: Standards Australia - managing performance into the twenty-first century: Standards Australia is a not-for-profit organization that employs in excess of 600 people and is Australia's leading standards and technical information provider. Standards Australia have also pioneered the move to internationally aligned Standards and related services and is the Australian representative on the two major international Standardizing bodies, the International Standards Organization(ISO) and the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC). It also coordinates the attendance of Australian experts at international meetings.Change management imperative\nConclusion: Based on business principles and corporate objectives, the balanced scorecard is tailored for each part of the organisation to allow each to contribute in a holistic way to the corporate objectives. Downward alignment of vision and direction allows each business unit to tailor its own objectives to contribute effectively to the company's objectives. Business unit scorecards turn further into individuals' personal scorecards, which become the subject of regular dialogues (known in another dialect as \"performance appraisals\".The process of creating the balanced scorecard is a fairly involved process which requires a lot of understanding and commitment, and for some business unit leaders, a lot of facilitation (help). The business unit also has to focus on those aspects of corporate objectives to which it can realistically contribute.Translating the corporate scorecard into a business unit scorecard, and indeed a personal scorecard, requires one to \"think customer\". Ask - \"what are the customers' expectations?\"When considering external customers, one has to think of the customers' expectations as well as corporate expectations with respect to those customers.How do you find out what the customers' expectations are? Ask them!The Balanced Scorecard is balanced in another dimension - not just a balance of measures of essential areas of the business, but also a balance of goals versus accountability. If people do not accept accountability for achievement of the balanced measures and goals of the balanced scorecard, there is no balanced scorecard.The balanced scorecard approach may require some substantial changes in culture within the business. The balanced scorecard requires understanding, commitment and support from the very top of the business down.The balanced scorecard will evolve. As culture changes and develops to accept the new approach and members of the organisation mature within the new culture, the organisation will find new things to measure, new goals in different areas, to make the balanced scorecard even more balanced and effective in supporting a living, growing, viable organisation.Different organisations have quite different needs, market areas, people, products and services, and will end up with significantly different balanced scorecards than Siemens or Big W above if they are successful in implementing such a scorecard.Business models are often made to appear easy to adopt, probably with the aim of selling them to a company. The balanced scorecard model describedHere seems to be hard to implement. It seems to take a lot of work and effort and time to achieve a result that, and constantly evolving, will help the business grow.We can conclude that if we want to use a balanced scorecard or any other business model we have to be prepared for some difficult learning, substantial culture change, and a lot of hard work, especially for those who champion such a change.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to focus on one strategy known as \"The Balanced Scorecard\", discussing the growing importance of balanced scorecard performance systems, exploring issues that organizations face in building and implementing scorecard systems, and sharing lessons learned from Australian organizations that have taken the balanced scorecard journey.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach taken is the case study methodology to depict the real world examples of organisations that have confidence in the \"Balanced scorecard performance system\" so that other organisations can follow suit.\nFindings: - The paper concludes that the balanced scorecard approach may require some substantial changes in culture within the organization.. The balanced scorecard requires understanding, commitment and support from the very top of the business down. The balanced scorecard will evolve. As culture changes and develops to accept the new approach and members of the organisation mature within the new culture, the organisation will find new things to measure, new goals in different areas, to make the balanced scorecard even more balanced and effective in supporting a living, growing, viable organisation. Different organisations have quite different needs, market areas, people, products and services, and will end up with significantly different balanced scorecards.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The outcomes were based on two multinational corporations and may differ with small and medium enterprises.\nPractical implications: - The balanced scorecard is balanced in another dimension - not just a balance of measures of essential areas of the business, but also a balance of goals versus accountability. If people do not accept accountability for achievement of the balanced measures and goals of the balanced scorecard, there is no balanced scorecard. The people of the organisation are the key to the success of the balanced scorecard system.\nOriginality/value: - The paper specifically looks at the implementation of the \"Balanced Score Card Performance Management System\" in Australian corporations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Visual priming of pharmaceutical advertising disclosures: effects of a motivation factor	[ "Pharmaceutical advertising disclosure", "Visual priming", "Corporate social responsibility", "Responsible advertising practice", "Trust", "Attitudes", "Consumer behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act requires that pharmaceutical companies disclose certain information about their products' uses and risks in their advertisements. This Act requires pharmaceutical advertisements to contain disclosures relating to side effects, contraindications, and effectiveness, whereas print advertisements must include disclosures that contain each of the risk concepts from the approved package labeling. However, the effectiveness of advertising disclosures depends significantly on the basis of how they are displayed in advertisements (Polonsky and Hyman, 2007).In theory, pharmaceutical companies should clearly identify important disclosures in their advertisements in order to give consumers a better understanding of their products (Wagenhofer, 1990). However, companies usually opt to display disclosures away from persuasive messages in their advertisements to avoid undesirable responses from consumers (Myers and Majluf, 1984; Torres et al., 2007; Wang, 2009). This practice of information asymmetry, when one transacting party tries to make important information less noticeable to the counterparty, is a well-known market failure (Faulhaber, 2010).Advertising disclosure is of particular issue in pharmaceutical markets with information asymmetries. This is because pharmaceutical companies often possess information that cannot be easily discerned from inspecting a product pre-transaction by consumers. One relevant study examined the impact of the placement of labels in pharmaceutical advertisements on consumer responses. In particular, Torres et al. (2007) found more positive consumer responses for recall, attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand, purchase intention, and attitude toward responsible advertising when warnings were overtly rather than discreetly placed in pharmaceutical advertisements.Different from the previous study focusing on the placement effect of pharmaceutical disclosures on attention and attitude (Torres et al., 2007), this study suggests an important communication context, visual priming, that may influence how consumers perceive pharmaceutical disclosures and advertisements. This study also examines the visual priming effect on consumer trust. Visual priming refers to changes in a person's ability to identify an object with the visual displays associated with the object (Mandel and Johnson, 2002; Stein, 1998). In other words, visual priming enhances an individual's awareness of an object by making the object visually noticeable. This study argues that pharmaceutical companies may improve consumer trust and attitude by priming the disclosures in their advertisements.It should be noted that it seems rather intuitive that visual priming may enhance attention, trust and attitude. However, the purpose of this study does not suggest the visual priming effect will hold true and be effective in normal advertising. Based on previous research and assumptions derived from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices (David et al., 2005; Mohr et al., 2001; Myers and Majluf, 1984; Richardson and Welker, 2001; Torres et al., 2007), attitude toward advertising practice, trust and attitude toward a pharmaceutical advertisement may be enhanced when responsible advertising practices are perceived by consumers (Polonsky and Hyman, 2007; Torres et al., 2007). If the study's propositions hold true, the results of this study may encourage advertisers to work at preserving relationships by meeting consumers' expectations toward socially responsible advertising and adopt prudent advertising disclosure practices.\nTheoretical background: Visual priming\nMethod: Study design and procedure\nResults: The first hypothesis tests whether the participants exposed to a visually primed pharmaceutical advertising disclosure would notice the disclosure more than consumers exposed to a pharmaceutical advertising disclosure without visual priming. Since the measure used a close-ended question, a chi-square test was performed to examine whether the participants noticed the disclosure in the visual priming condition versus the condition without visual priming (see Table I). The results revealed that 239 (59 per cent) out of 406 participants noticed the disclosure. The participants in the visual priming condition (92 per cent) were more likely to notice the disclosure than the participants in the condition without visual priming (19 per cent), kh2 (1)=221.317, p < 0.001. Thus, the hypothesis H1 was supported. The results also served as a manipulation check for the effectiveness of visual priming manipulations.It should be noted that the experiment was devised to create a natural viewing of the advertisements. There was no coaching to what information the participants should pay attention. As a result, it was expected that a large proportion of the sample did not consciously notice the disclosure. This was especially evident for the participants in the condition without visual priming. Thus, the three dependent variables, attitude toward responsible advertising practice, perceived trust toward the advertisement and attitude toward the advertisement, should surely only be sensibly answered by the participants if they had noticed the disclosure. Since it was unlikely that the participants could answer questions regarding these three dependent variables without even noticing the disclosure, data analysis regarding H2, H3 and H4 only used the data from 239 participants that noticed the disclosure.Bivariate correlations tests were conducted to test the relationships between the three continuous variables. These tests were conducted to confirm the need for using MANCOVA. The results determined that attitude toward responsible advertising practice (M=4.95, SD=1.48), perceived trust toward the advertisement (M=4.44, SD=1.48) and attitude toward the advertisement (M=4.08, SD=1.54) were all correlated with each other (p < 0.001). As a result, MANCOVA was used for further data analysis. An advantage of the MANCOVA procedure is that the set of dependent variables are considered simultaneously. That is, the test considers the correlations among the set of dependent variables. If there are main effects for the independent variables, condition differences with respect to the dependent variables are established. Consequently, this study can determine on which dependent variables the conditions differ.MANCOVA was run on perceive responsible advertising practice, perceived trust toward the advertisement and attitude toward the advertisement as the dependent variables. Visual priming was used as the independent variable, whereas gender and allergy status were used as covariates. The multivariate tests in Table II revealed that visual priming (Wilks' l=0.83) had a significant main effect on the dependent variables, F (3, 233)=15.587, p < 0.001, whereas gender (Wilks' l=0.97), F (3,233)=2.579, p < 0.054 did not contribute to the model. The tests of between-subjects effects based on the individual univariate tests were reported in Table III.The second hypothesis was to test whether the participants exposed to a visually primed pharmaceutical advertising disclosure would form better attitudes toward responsible advertising practice than the participants exposed to a pharmaceutical advertising disclosure without visual priming. The tests of between-subjects effects revealed that the participants in the visual priming condition (M=5.19, SD=1.40) formed better attitudes toward responsible advertising practice than the participants in the condition without visual priming (M=3.61, SD=1.15), F (1, 235)=36.938, p < 0.001. The third hypothesis tested whether the participants exposed to a visually primed pharmaceutical advertising disclosure would perceive higher level of trust toward the advertisement than consumers exposed to a pharmaceutical advertising disclosure without visual priming. Based on the tests of between-subjects effects, the participants in the visual priming condition (M=4.57, SD=1.40) perceived higher level of trust toward the advertisement than the participants in the condition without visual priming (M=3.71, SD=1.68), F (1, 235)=8.161, p < 0.005. Thus, the hypotheses H2 and H3 were supported.The final hypothesis tested whether the participants exposed to a pharmaceutical advertising disclosure with visual priming would have better attitudes toward the advertisement than consumers exposed to a pharmaceutical advertising disclosure without visual priming. Based on the tests of between-subjects effects, the participants in the visual priming condition (M=4.11, SD=1.47) did not have better attitudes toward the advertisement than the participants in the condition without visual priming (M=3.89, SD=1.90), F (1, 235)=0.045, p < 0.833. Thus, the hypothesis H4 was not supported.The condition differences on the three dependent variables were depicted in Figure 1. The figure was set up so that the X-axis listed the conditions of visual priming and allergy status. The Y-axis listed the three dependent variables. Based on the multivariate tests, allergy status (Wilks' l=0.94) had a significant main effect on the dependent variables, F (3, 233)=5.323, p < 0.001. However, the participants with allergies (M=5.11, SD=1.31) did not form better attitudes toward responsible advertising practice than the participants without allergies (M=4.85, SD=1.57), F (1, 235)=2.401, p < 0.123, according to the tests of between-subjects effects. The participants with allergies (M=4.59, SD=1.40) did not perceive higher level of trust toward the advertisement than the participants without allergies (M=4.34, SD=1.52), F (1, 235)=1.950, p < 0.164, according to the tests of between-subjects effects. Finally, the participants with allergies (M=4.52, SD=1.37) did have better attitudes toward the advertisement than the participants without allergies (M=3.79, SD=1.58), F (1, 235)=13.591, p < 0.001.\nDiscussion: The results in this study generate several implications for academic researchers. First, the results of this study support the value of responsible advertising practices, which is consistent with the previous research (Torres et al., 2007; Wang, 2009). When the disclosure is visually rather than discreetly displayed in a pharmaceutical advertisement, more attention may be directed to the disclosure. Moreover, positive attitude toward responsible advertising may also materialize. The results of this study also extend the previous research (Torres et al., 2007) by examining the effects of a visually primed pharmaceutical advertising disclosure on enhancing consumer trust. Compared to the previous research that has examined the placement effect of warning label (Torres et al., 2007), this study focuses on examining a visual sign and the priming effect that may enhance consumer trust. When the disclosure is visually rather than discreetly displayed in a pharmaceutical advertisement, consumer may perceive higher level of trust toward the advertisement.These results are in concert with the principle of transfer-appropriate processing that plays a critical role in guiding interpretation of processing (McDowall and Moriarty, 2000; Mulligan, 2003). Reading a disclosure in a pharmaceutical advertisement requires more visual priming than remembering specific information (Barry, 2007). This is consistent with the distinction between perceptual and conceptual processes as processing focusing on perceptual processing maximizes visual analysis (Mulligan and Dew, 2009). Consequently, encoding that emphasizes perceptual processing should materialize based on visual priming (Mulligan, 2002; Roediger et al., 2002; Roediger and McDermott, 1993).Besides this study's extension of previous research, the unique contribution of the present study is centered on the examination of attitude toward the advertisement. The previous study (Torres et al., 2007) found that the placement effect of the disclosure in a pharmaceutical advertisement had a positive effect on attitude toward the advertisement. However, this study did not find the positive effect of visual priming on attitude toward the advertisement. Rather, a motivation factor, allergy status was found to influence attitude toward the advertisement in this study. In essence, this study recognizes the motivation factor as an influential variable to attitude toward a pharmaceutical advertisement.The results of this study suggest that the degree of motivation consumers have to process an advertisement may be a more important factor than visual priming to form better attitudes toward a pharmaceutical advertisement. The results are not surprising as personal involvement, the motivation to process information, is a well-known construct in advertising research (Greenwald and Leavitt, 1984; Krugman, 1965). In fact, research suggests that an individual usually exhibits a greater degree of interest when high personal involvement is present (Wang, 2006). As a result, a high level of personal involvement should lead to a stronger evaluation of the content of an advertisement (Feltham and Arnold, 1994; Laczniak et al., 1999).Practical implications\nConclusion: Given the increasing concern over pharmaceutical advertising disclosures, this study examines the visual priming effects on consumers' attitudes toward responsible advertising practice, perceived trust and attitudes toward the advertisement. Importantly, this study focuses variables on specific settings and raises questions relating to the importance of responsible practices of pharmaceutical advertising. The results suggest that the positive effects of a visually primed pharmaceutical advertising disclosure are encouraging for pharmaceutical companies. While visual priming can enhance consumers' attitudes toward responsible advertising practice and perceived trust toward the advertisement, visual priming itself may not directly influence consumers' attitudes toward the advertisement. Nonetheless, it is important for pharmaceutical companies to continue enhancing their practices of advertising responsibly.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study seeks to examine how consumers perceive a pharmaceutical company's advertisement through visual priming of the disclosure featured in the advertisement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An online study with a convenience sample consisting of college students is used to examine the effects of a visually primed pharmaceutical advertising disclosure on attitude toward responsible advertising practice, trust toward the advertisement and attitude toward the advertisement.\nFindings: - The results reveal that consumers form better attitudes toward responsible advertising practice and higher levels of trust toward the advertisement when the disclosure is visually primed in the advertisement. However, visual priming of the disclosure may not enhance consumers' attitudes toward the advertisement. Further evidence indicates that allergy status, a motivation factor, has the main effect on attitude toward the advertisement. When consumers have allergies, they tend to form better attitudes toward the advertisement.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Despite the inherent limitations of this study that have to be confirmed in future research, this study suggests that visual priming of advertising disclosure may enhance consumers' attitudes toward advertising practice and trust toward the advertisement. However, consumers' attitudes toward the advertisement are enhanced directly by personal relevance to the advertisement instead of visual priming.\nPractical implications: - Based on the results of this study, the study provides a more realistic and socially responsible advertising disclosure practice for attracting consumer attention and processing toward pharmaceutical advertising.\nOriginality/value: - This paper adds value to the existing literature on corporate social responsibility and promotes the effective management of socially responsible business through two main approaches: adopting visual priming of pharmaceutical advertising disclosure; and implementing more responsible pharmaceutical advertising practices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Workplace information literacy skills: Library professionals' competency at university libraries in Karachi, Pakistan	[ "Academic librarians", "University librarians", "Academic librarian competencies", "Information literacy competency", "Job skills" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The traditional tasks of librarianship, e.g. collection development, reference, classification, cataloging and instruction, have evolved to include a heavy reliance on technology and Web 2.0 tools. For example, librarians now support online acquisition, digital reference services, Web page design, online tutorial development, citation management, data management and institutional repository management. In this context, information literacy (IL) skills have become an integral part of the librarian's workplace.\n2. Related work: Researchers have written widely about the importance of IL in the workplace, regardless of profession. According to Lloyd (2013, p. 10):\n3. Objective: IL is an essential tool for librarians. The purpose of this paper is to identify the basic workplace IL requirements related to professional library positions in universities in Karachi, Pakistan. A secondary aim is to support the course development process by identifying the specific knowledge and skills that are presently in demand in the workplace, with particular regard to IL. Another secondary objective is to determine whether relevant professionals have undertaken any professional training as per the skills requirements of their jobs.\n4. Methodology: This is an exploratory research project. Survey methodology has been used for this study, with a questionnaire as the research tool. Data were collected through an online Google Doc form. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire was pre-tested; library experts were interviewed for their feedback. Respondents were asked to rate 18 subject-specific and six generic competencies in terms of their importance to the profession; they were also asked to indicate the levels of competency they had personally achieved during their respective service tenure. Responses were collected from different public and private sector universities within Karachi. N = 77 were received from a total of 115 distributed questionnaires, which represents a response rate of 66.95 per cent; respondents represented a range of levels, i.e. library head to semiprofessional library staff. Staff members participated in this survey from nine public sector universities (41 participants) and from 16 private sector universities (36 participants). Participants were from 25 universities as listed in Appendix; there are a total of 36 universities in Karachi.\n5. Results: 24 IL workplace and generic questions were divided into six different segments (Workplace Library System, Workplace information Resources, Searching Techniques, Research Support, and Workplace Personal Attributes) as shown in Table I.\n6. Discussion: IL in the workplace is a very important and topical issue for university level librarians. Analysis of the six sets of collected data shows that university library professionals have, in general, a low level of awareness regarding:\n7. Conclusion: IL is a continuous part of life learning and is closely associated with technological development in the library profession. The authors undertook a survey of the level of IL skills competency among university library professionals in Karachi. From a positive perspective, results have shown that librarians have good IL skills in information searching and locating information resources. However, the average of all survey responses was 54.17 per cent, with 12 of the 24 competencies receiving scores of less than 50 per cent, thus indicating a generally overall low level of IL competency in the workplace.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of information literacy (IL) skills competency among university library professionals in Karachi, Pakistan and to address areas of concern.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online survey was designed, using Google Forms, to collect data from 77 academic librarians working in 25 universities in Karachi, Pakistan. The questions covered six generic attributes: library systems, information resources, searching techniques, research support, IL and generic/personal attributes.\nFindings: The results indicate that the librarians who were surveyed had good IL skills in information searching and locating information resources. However, the average of all survey responses was 54.17 per cent, with 12 of the 24 competencies receiving scores of less than 50 per cent, thus indicating a generally overall low level of IL competency in the workplace.\nResearch limitations/implications: As the study was limited to universities in Karachi, it would be useful to apply the same methodology to other administrative units within the country. Further research is indicated on the potential impact of gender on aspects such as level of IL skills and motivation to enhance workplace competencies.\nPractical implications: The authors have suggested a number of strategies, which would be applicable globally to any university library wishing to improve the IL skills competencies of its staff.\nOriginality/value: There have been no previous published, non-discipline-specific, research studies on the IL skills competencies of academic librarians in Pakistan.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An empirical examination of the direct and indirect effects of geographic diversification on stock market and financial performances of multinational corporations	[ "Financial crisis", "Mediating effect", "Operational performance", "Geographic diversification" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The global financial crisis of 2008-2010, the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, caused significant demand shocks in global supply chains. As the world economy has become increasingly more integrated, leveraging operational flexibility has become a critical issue for multinational corporations (MNCs) to effectively respond to turbulent business environments. However, it remains unclear in the literature whether MNCs are able to take advantages of geographically diversified operations to mitigate the impacts of widespread demand shocks in the presence of a global financial crisis. For decades, offshoring productions in the emerging economies including China, India, and Vietnam have become more desirable and popular to MNCs because of low labor costs, cheap raw materials, and favorable foreign exchange rates (Ferreira and Prokopets, 2009). Other benefits of global production may include access to new local markets and the creation of new knowledge and new value (Handfield, 1994; Dunning, 1998; Cantwell, 2009; Ellram et al., 2013). More importantly, by leveraging a portfolio of global production bases across borders, MNCs have been able to reduce overall operational risk and improve firm performance (Lee and Makhija, 2009; Christopher and Holweg, 2017).\nLiterature review and hypothesis development: Recently, there has been a strong push for \"bringing jobs back home\" from an increasing number of multinational manufacturers and US politicians, resulting in a reignited discussion of insourcing (Hartman et al., 2017). While re-shoring or right-shoring may be favored due to increased labor costs in emerging countries, lower energy costs in the USA, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, and concerns of intellectual property theft (Sirkin et al., 2011; Tate et al., 2014; Tate and Bals, 2017), MNCs should not overlook the benefits of GD enabled by multi-location strategy, especially in the presence of a financial crisis (Lee and Makhija, 2009).\nModel and data: Measurement of variables and model specification\nResults: Sample analysis\nDiscussion: The negative effects of GD on financial performance\nConclusion: Empirical studies have documented the relationship between an MNC's multi-location strategy and its financial and stock market performances. However, extant studies (e.g. Allen and Pantzalis, 1996; Tang and Tikoo, 1999; Tong and Reuer, 2007; Lee and Makhija, 2009) have not considered the mediating effects of changes in inventory levels, thus, the estimated net effects of GD on an MNC's financial and stock market performances may be inaccurate and misleading to practitioners. This study shows that GD directly affects two important performance indicators: Tobin's q for stock market performance and ROA for financial performance. While controlling the inventory mediating effect model, our study shows that GD has a direct positive impact on Tobin's q and a negative direct impact on ROA. Our findings also show that GD leads to a negative indirect effect on financial and stock market performances through increased inventory levels.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Literature indicates that global geographic diversification (GD) has mixed effects on a multinational corporation's (MNC) performances. The purpose of this paper is to examine how an MNC's GD influences its stock market and financial performances directly and indirectly via operational performance (i.e. changes in inventory levels).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using firm-level data collected from Compustat database for the period 2000-2011 and estimating a mediating regression model, the authors examine the direct and indirect effects of GD on an MNC's stock market (Tobin's q) and financial performances (ROA), with inventory level being a mediator. Additionally, the examination is implemented separately under two economic situations: financial crisis vs without financial crisis.\nFindings: The results show that GD enhances an MNC's stock market performance, while deteriorating its financial performance in the presence of a financial crisis. In contrast, GD has little direct impact on an MNC's stock market and financial performances during periods without financial crisis. The indirect effects of GD are mediated by changes in inventory levels.\nPractical implications: This study suggests that MNCs need to carefully weigh the benefits and costs of global strategy obtained through GD. The results also indicate that GD is highly appreciated by the stock market investors during economic downturns and tighter inventory management may further enhance firm values.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first empirical research to estimate both direct and indirect effects of GD via inventory in the operations management literature, highlighting the value of GD depending on the different economic situations and echoing the role of operations in implementing GD.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Economic empowerment of Iranian women through the internet	[ "Iran", "Internet", "Women", "Economic empowerment", "Working online" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The continued growth of information communication technologies (ICT) in Iran has created new opportunities for economic empowerment. They open new ways for their users, particularly women, to move into the electronic marketplace in the contexts of employment, online purchasing, commerce, and advertising. The internet allows Iranian women to engage in new forms of business, enabling them to have a greater economic role both in the home and in the workplace through control over decisions regarding purchases, savings and investment. However, at the same time, women are confronted by numerous barriers associated with online activities in Iran, such as lack of computer literacy, low internet speeds and undeveloped infrastructure. Based on in-depth interviews with Iranian women in Tehran, this article aims to explore the extent to which the internet has created new opportunities for them by enhancing the ways in which it has improved their quality of life in economic terms. This research is based on thirteen semi-structured interviews with female internet users between the ages of 20 and 55 years. Participants were identified as internet users and selected through the snowballing sampling technique. The qualitative data was collected through open-ended questions in face-to-face interviews. The study analyses and compares the online activity of the participants. In this study, the interviewees reported that the internet has opened up a new space for them, creating opportunities for them to participate in wider aspects of economic life. This technology has significant impact on the economic lives of Tehrani women by enabling them to engage in new forms of online business. In online economic space, women internet users are eager to enhance their economic status despite the potential barriers they face. These women also stated that online working contributed to becoming visible in the online economic environment by connecting to the wider community. In addition, in recent years, most of the current research into economic empowerment through the internet has been focused on empowerment of consumers and generally on the point that internet has provided unique opportunities for women to make them more visible in the public sphere. The key contribution of this paper is to fill this gap in the context of the Iranian internet landscape, and in particular by offering insights into the ways in which women use the internet to overcome the boundaries of physical space and become empowered. The article analyses both challenges and opportunities that the internet offers to Iranian women as a means of economic empowerment.\nIranian women's space on the internet: the concept of economic empowerment: In Iran, the use of new technologies has created a platform for debating economic empowerment. During the past decade, despite an undeveloped infrastructure and low speed internet, the adoption of the technology has helped Tehrani women to create new employment and self-employment opportunities. The online economic activities of these urban women, and their perceptions regarding their economic empowerment, will be discussed. It has been shown that internet access can be an effective mechanism through which specific economic goals for individuals can be facilitated. According to UNDP (2008) 'women's economic empowerment [involves] expanding women's economic opportunity [...] and ensur[ing] their voice, inclusion and participation in economic decision-making' (UNDP 2008 cited in Kabeer, 2012: p. 9). Golla et al. define economic empowerment as 'the ability to succeed and advance economically and the power to make and act on economic decisions' (Golla et al., 2011, p. 4). Some studies (Parmar, 2003; Parrott and Madoc-Jones, 2008) indicate that the internet can foster the process of economic empowerment. Many individuals participate in online economic activities to increase economic independence. The internet can allow users \"access to new careers and increase their role in shaping their societies\" (Melhem et al., 2009, p. 27).\nMethod: The main aim of this research is to attain information on women's use of the internet and their perceptions regarding empowerment, mainly focusing on how much the use of the internet contributes to their economic empowerment. The study uses ethnography as a research tool to explore the question of whether the internet has made a difference in the economic lives of Iranian women. Ethnography \"is tied to a field work tradition in social science which is intended to develop the analysis with the aim of obtaining a clear picture of what the realities are on the ground in particular local settings\" (DeVault, 1999, p. 47). The ethnographic approach also involves paying attention to details and relying on face-to-face interaction (Murchison, 2010). The ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in September 2011 in Tehran (Iran), where the majority of internet users are educated to degree level. I examine economic empowerment, specifically from the point of view of Tehrani women, who have different opportunities from those who live in less privileged towns and villages. The former encounter more opportunities to access technology and engage in new forms of online business. Women from privileged areas such as Tehran have better opportunities to receive training and education, and to obtain computer literacy. Although the internet has allowed Iranian women to enhance their economic strength, this opportunity is limited to the affluent, educated citizens of urban areas.\nSample: This research is based on thirteen semi-structured interviews with female internet users between the ages of 20 and 55. Participants were identified as internet users and selected through the snowballing sampling technique. The study analyses and compares the online activity of the participants. Initially, this sampling technique 'relies on previously identified members of the group to identify other members of the population' (Fink, 2002, p. 72). The sample group started with a personal friend, who provided a single referral. This person was recruited into the sample group and she also provided one new referral. This pattern was continued until the sample group was fully formed.\nData collection: The qualitative data was collected through open-ended questions in face-to-face interviews. This method is particularly valuable as it allows interviewees to explain their answers from their own point of view. For the collection of the data, I used an MP3 recorder, and interview respondents initially received a telephone invitation containing details of the purpose of the research and their rights as participants, including the right to withdraw and confidentiality assurances, plus the researcher's contact details. In addition, the consent form was given to all informants before the interview. Some of the participants preferred to do the interview either at their home or at their workplace.\nData analysis: The responses from the interviews were examined qualitatively using thematic analysis. 'Thematic analysis is a method for systematically identifying, organizing, and offering insight into patterns of meaning (themes) across a data set. Through focusing on meaning across a data set, thematic analysis allows the researcher to see and make sense of collective or shared meanings and experiences' (Braun and Clarke, 2012, p. 57). This method allowed me to identify the data and place them together to form a comprehensive picture of participants' collective experience (Aronson, 1995). It was a useful tool for examining the participants' perspectives and generated unanticipated insights into Iranian women's experience of interactions with the internet.\nBarriers to the achievement of economic empowerment online: According to the findings of this research, Iranian women have shown an increasing interest in working online. However, a number of barriers also limit their activities, ranging from lack of computer literacy in terms of online participation to undeveloped infrastructure. In Iran, computer literacy among urban young people is increasing, and many ICT (Information Communication Technology) centres offer essential computer skills to internet users (Moghadam and Khatoon Abadi, 2013). Nevertheless, women suffer from a widening digital gap as the ability to learn computer skills is influenced by economic factors and financial support. In recent decades, the Government of Iran has emphasised to foster women's economic empowerment. After the eight-year war with Iraq (1980-1988), the Iranian state planned to invest in infrastructure such as electricity, telecommunications and literacy for women. Although after this period women's economic and social role were stressed, Arasti and Bahmani explain that 'only 17.4 per cent of women are economically active despite accounting for half the population of Iran' (Arasti and Bahmani, 2017, p. 110). Sohrab and Karambayya highlight how discrimination, low income, family issues and lack of growth opportunities at workplaces are the factors that exclude women from employment: 'women face overt discrimination and are systematically deprived of promotion and employment opportunities. While many of these factors are similar to what women in other countries experience, there is a factor that seems to be unique to Iran which is related to socialised gender role and promoted by hard conservative clergies [clerics], which see men responsible for breadwinning and women responsible for family care' (Sohrab and Karambayya, 2016: p. 300). Based on this assumption, one would not expect women's economic empowerment to be reinforced in terms of managing their households. Although the government of Iran has passed laws to foster women's economic empowerment (by supporting their livelihoods and access to job opportunities), the discriminatory system forcing women to limit their participation in paid economic activities is still in place (Janghorban et al., 2014). In addition, Iranian women face social and cultural stereotypes when involved with online business. Widespread bias against women in both private and public life also constitutes a significant barrier in women's economic life. As Ebo argues, 'such gender bias serves to undermine the self-esteem of women and girls, effectively channelling them away from the public sphere' (Ebo, 1998: p. 23). According to Godwin and colleagues, \"women entrepreneurs face unique obstacles in securing access to resources for their ventures\" (Godwin et al., 2006, p. 623). In Iran, male focused attitudes give rise to particular challenges for women entrepreneurs. While 9.2 per cent of entrepreneurs in Iran are women, they hold only 4 per cent of management positions (Jozi, 2014). Despite the internet having the potential to open up new opportunities for women to find channels to display their abilities, many experience internal barriers such as lack of self-confidence, fear of failure, and weakness in entrepreneurial networks, all of which make it difficult for women to start their own business (Modarresi et al., 2017).\nWorking online in Iran: empowerment zone: The internet for Maryam, a 27-year-old swimming teacher, is a crucial tool. As well as surfing swimming techniques, this technology has helped her to promote her career. She uses the internet to advertise her job, diffusing her skills to a wider population at a lower cost. For her, magazines and newspapers would have limited customers and time to publish such advertisements. Thus, the internet has helped her to increase her income. This participant stressed that by using this medium she could become more visible in the public space and also encourage more women to learn swimming. In Maryam's view, economic empowerment through the internet may also improve the means of investment for women. Based on this viewpoint, Kabeer argues that empowerment is the 'expansion in people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them' (Kabeer, 1999, p. 437). Therefore, having choices over income opportunities is a crucial element of empowerment. Likewise, online advertising has helped Roshan, a 36-year-old language teacher, to increase her earnings. By using free advertising websites, she said that the internet helps her to develop relationships with potential and existing learners. For Roshan, who is single, using online advertising allows her to attract more clients and expand her work giving private tutorials.\nDiscussion: The present study identifies the areas of online economic empowerment and the barriers which Iranian women face in terms of their access to the internet. Most previous studies regarding women and the internet in Muslim societies focus on the point that the internet has provided unique opportunities for women to become more visible in the public sphere (Amir-Ebrahimi, 2008; Senjen and Guthrey, 1996), and barriers to women's online business have been a particular subject of investigation (Fuchs, 2008; Jamali, 2009). However, the outcome of their research cannot be assumed to be applicable to all women, as the impact of the technology is different from country to country, especially in terms of culture and gender.\nConclusion: Limitations and implications for future research\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the extent to which the internet has created new opportunities for Iranian women in Tehran. It analyses both challenges and opportunities offered to Iranian women by the internet as a means of economic empowerment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a qualitative approach and based on 13 semi-structured interviews with female internet users between the ages of 20 and 55 years. The qualitative data was collected through open-ended questions in face-to-face interviews. This study uses ethnography as a research tool to explore the question of whether the internet has made a difference in the economic lives of Iranian women.\nFindings: Result reveals that the internet and working online have significant impact on the economic lives of Tehrani women by enabling them to engage in new forms of online business. This technology is being used for online advertising to attract more clients, to establish business contacts with peers and to manage households positively.\nResearch limitations/implications: The result of the research cannot be regarded as applicable to all women in Iran, as the opportunity to access online economic activities is only available to those women who are highly trained and well-educated. In addition, the result of the research may not reflect the barriers that women from different social classes and ethnic groups have faced in the achievement of economic empowerment online.\nPractical implications: The study highlights that due to a generally lack of computer proficiency, women in these areas are unable to effectively maximise their participation in the online economic sphere. This barrier must be removed by enhancing women's computer literacy and ICT (information, communication and technologies) and establishing development networking programme centres for internet skills training.\nOriginality/value: The internet has created opportunity for Iranian women to expand their participation in the online economic sphere. However, research in the field of online economic activities in Iran, especially concerning women working online, is scant. The key contribution of this paper is to fill the gap in this area of study, in particular offering insights into the ways in which women use the internet to overcome the boundaries of physical space and become empowered.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Elements impacting the utilization expectation of various health-care apps in India: a study conducted on smartphone users	[ "Health-care application", "Time", "Cost", "Utilization expectation", "Perceived usefulness", "Protection", "Ease of use" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: India has positioned herself as unsurpassed health-care service provider in the world and is steadily gaining a name and positioned herself in the field of \"medical tourism\" yet the infuriating fact is that health-care is still under a significant challenge because of the dearth of good doctors.\nExisting review of literature: Expanding on existing writing, Davis (1985) invented the technology acceptance model which is used as a base for the applied structure of this examination. Pikkarainen et al. (2004) mentioned that the model has been well known in earlier investigations and has turned out to be valuable with regards to end-clients and their selection of innovation. According to the various researchers namely, Castro et al. (2010) and Akesson et al. (2014) illustrated that health applications are a type of Self-Service Technology where factors tried in earlier examinations inside this field were sensible to be incorporated into the calculated system for this investigation. Dabholkar (1996) and Featherman and Hajli (2016) expressed that auxiliary research in the field of self-service technology, introduces the variables that were incorporated into the starter calculated structure.\nObjective: To identify the factors influencing the usage intention of health-care apps in India\nResearch methodology: The research is framed to conceptualize a workable plan (Kumar, 2014) so that the research plan can generate utmost information and reliability of the data (Thamilarasan, 2015) and drive towards the intent of the study. The study is a descriptive research which facilitated us to extract definite conclusion (Kothari, 2004). The present study is based on primary data which has been collected from consumers and non-users of health-care apps in India. The data for the study has been collected through a formal questionnaire. Structured and standardized questions have been framed to empirically test the hypothesis and draw an inference (Mohan, 2016). In all, 23 close-ended questions have been designed for better collation and tabulation of data. A five-point Likert scale has been used to derive responses from the respondents to quantify the degree of favorableness or un-favorableness of their expressions (Kothari, 2004). The review has been scattered among the assorted advanced mobile phone clients of metro urban zones of India, which are Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. The point of reference has been gathered with the assistance of Stratified Random Sampling from different metro urban systems of India. The researcher has amassed the aggregate of 360 reactions from smart phone users and out of those just 331 reasonably had filled and finished reactions was returned to the inspector.\nData analysis and interpretations: Before starting the analysis, the researcher had gathered the information from various respondents that whether are using any health-care apps and in response it was seen that only 26 of them are using any one of the health-care mobile apps. The construing fact is that only 7.85% of the people are using health-care mobile apps and rest 92.15% are not using it. In the next stage of the research, out of 331 respondents, 226 are male and 105 are female. That means more than 68% of the respondents are male. Another question was asked to the respondents to ascertain the prominent age group using of health-care apps currently or had a potential to use these apps in near future. 97 respondents in the age bracket of 16-25 had asserted that were currently using these apps or had a strong inclination to use them in near future and to be precise only 11 of them were actually using them in the age group 26-35 years, 102 respondents of this particular age group were using the health-care apps or had an intention to use them with only 15 of them being actual users. In the age group 36-45, only 56 respondents were willing to use health-care apps whereas 46-55 age group only 43 respondents responded. Among the respondents whose age was more than 55 years, only 33 were the real users.\nFindings: One critical finding of this examination was that more than 92% of the respondents had never used a health-care application which demonstrated an absence of experience and learning about health-care applications. Alternate discoveries of this examination should be broken down dependent on this critical finding. It is also found from the responses that young consumers, especially age group of 16-35 years had responded that 60.12% of the total respondents used health-care apps through mobile or wanted to use them. It was also revealed that from this age group only 7.85% of the people used at least a health-care app and from other age groups none of the consumers were using it.With respect to the little measure of individuals who had used a health-care application before this outcome was normal. It was inferred that a high level of the respondents could not identify with the inquiries and therewith the things, as they had never used a health-care application. Of late in the fundamental poll, the researcher got the input from the vast majority of the members that it was hard to react to every one of the inquiries, as the members had never used a health-care application. The absence of experience and the therewith-associated absence of information appear to be an important factor to clarify the missing inward unwavering quality. The absence of learning about health-care applications has most likely prompted speculated answers which are exceedingly far-fetched to coordinate the normal answers got from the hypothesis and are in this manner far-fetched to result in inner dependability.\nManagerial implications: The day-by-day utilization of the Web and the high measure of individuals using cell phones and applications demonstrates that the use of this innovation is a piece of individuals' everyday lives. The dread for security and loss of private information is less of a hindrance as applications are inescapable in different circumstances and matters. The equivalent applies to the apparent unwavering quality of the result of the administration. They trust in the execution and result of a health-care application as they trust applications in different fields, for example, cash exchange too. As cell phone applications are a set up highlight in Indians day by day lives, they are used to apply applications routinely and do not consider the download or use of the applications as any issue. In addition, as applications are such a prominent element, they see the usability of them as guaranteed and do not consider convenience as a vital factor that should be guaranteed any longer. By and large, the members did not appear to put health-care applications and the utilization of them in another classification as some other application they are using in their everyday lives.\nPractical implications: One key finding of this investigation anyway was that more than 92% of the members had never used a health-care application. This exhibits a spearheading and very significant viewpoint which sets another bearing for further research inside the field of health care. There is a gigantic absence of information and mindfulness about health-care applications. The creators added to the writing not just with variables that impact end-clients in their goal to use health-care applications, yet in addition with the finding that the health-care application showcase is at its beginning time for end-clients. The consequences of this examination demonstrate that respondents do not vary between different sorts of applications. This gives an extraordinary favorable position to the business world as elements as improvement and configuration can be summed up. Further, respondents said they were eager to use health-care applications later on in the event that they had more data about them. An effective presentation and appropriation of health-care applications among the Indian end-clients speaks to one conceivable answer for the lack in human services experts. When end-clients understand that by using health-care applications, the scrutinized holding up times could be decreased, this arrangement could prompt a general increment in fulfillment of health-care administrations. Above all, health-care application engineers and advertisers need to concentrate on the showcasing of health-care applications as far as illuminating end-clients about the presence and points of interest of these applications.\nSocial implications: The health-care apps are also having impact on society. The health-care apps have become one of the important assets of the older people who cannot run from one place to another place searching for a particular medicine. With the health-care apps, they can order it from the home and they will receive the medicine at their doorstep only. It will simultaneously reduce the effort and time as well as it will be served to the people at an appropriate price. It will also help in employment generation as the people who are delivering these medicines to different households they will work as an employee of the organization and they will get payment for that. The medicine apps are helping the society in the context of the employment generation as well as they are helping the people who are in need of some medicines which might not available in the physical stores. Health-care apps can also provide the medicines to those patients who are unable to walk or the patient who has went to a tourist place and fell sick. Therefore, with the help of these apps they can buy the medicines. Health-care apps also creating opportunities for other firms where they can come to the market and provide some innovative ideas to attract the customers. The marketers can establish new companies not only in the urban setting they can also try for rural and semi-urban market. It will give a major help to the rural people and also companies can generate business.\nConclusion: While the measure of health-care applications accessible and the quantities of health-care application distributers has expanded in recent years but downloading of those apps are not increasing in a faster way. For advertisers and application suppliers it is vital to know factors that impact end-clients in their utilization goal of health-care applications. This examination inspected factors that impact end-clients in their utilization expectation of health-care applications. In view of writing audit, the speculations were led and the writer anticipated that all elements should positively affect the use goal of health-care applications. While the elements cost, increased dependability, increased protection and perceived ease of use were non-noteworthy, the variables time, perceived usefulness and enjoyment positively affected the expectation to use health-care applications. Further, an expanded utilization of cell phones and applications in the medicinal services segment gives patients apparatuses that can gather information later to be imparted to a doctor. This will spare time for the two gatherings, as there is no social insurance proficient required in the information accumulation and observing procedure.\nLimitations and further scope of research: The study examined that interior dependability could not be guaranteed because of an absence of learning and experience of health-care applications among the members. In spite of the fact that this outcome was not the first aim of the investigation, it is of high importance for the further promoting procedures inside this field. In view of the outcome that consumers in India do not know about health-care applications and their favorable circumstances, advertisers can receive their promoting efforts towards a progressively instructive heading.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to find out the impact of seven important factors towards behavior intention on various health-care applications in India. The spectacular rise of uses of smart phones in India has introduced various mobile applications in the market. The mobile applications have become very useful and popular amongst the urban consumers due to several reasons such as reducing time, effort, money, etc. Health-care applications which are used in various smart phones are still in an infancy stage in India. Health-care applications have several advantages and facilities and consumers receive few alerts or suggestions for free. Though the health-care applications have various benefits for everyone, still people are less aware of the services they provide. Fewer studies have been done on this particular subject, and people may find the apps interesting if they understand the benefits of these applications.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study aims to find out the impact of seven factors towards behavior intention on various health-care applications in India. The 331 samples have been chosen with the help of a structured questionnaire. The researcher has used stratified random sampling to collect the data for conducting the study, and the samples have been collected from four metro cities of India, namely, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. Exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis have been conducted to find out the most influencing factor towards intention with SPSS v 21.\nFindings: The result reveals that out of seven factors, perceived usefulness, enjoyment and time are the most influencing and significant factors towards utilization expectation. The other four variables, namely, cost, increased dependability, perceived ease of use and increased protection do not have a significant impact on the dependent variable. The paper has also revealed that marketers need to penetrate the market with some innovative marketing strategies. The findings of the study is providing the hint for implementing the strategies.\nOriginality/value: The study is unique in the context of a country like India where no such studies on this subject have been conducted before.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Behavioral genetics of deception detection performance	[ "Training", "Decision making", "Experiment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBody: Deception detection is instrumental in business management. From employment interviews (Roulin et al., 2014), to audit investigations (Lee and Welker, 2007), the manager often finds it necessary to determine if someone is being truthful or deceptive. Deception is a significant concern for organizations (Arthur et al., 2010; Stewart et al., 2010) and therefore deception detection is a critical skill for managers. For example, deceptive tactics are often used by job applicants during employment interviews for impression management (Gilmore and Ferris, 1989; Levashina and Campion, 2006, 2007), which consequently compromises the validity of employment interviews (Delery and Kacmar, 1998; Marcus, 2006). Managers want to accurately assess the potential employees' skills and abilities (Vrij et al., 2010) but they differ quite substantially in terms of their abilities in accurately determining if an impression management tactic is deceptive or not (Roulin et al., 2014). Similarly, the ability to detect deception is important in the financial world, especially in audit inquiries (Lee and Welker, 2007). Auditors are required by audit standards to conduct interviews with clients' personnel. Not being able to detect deception may miss opportunities for discovering frauds.\nLiterature review: Deception is ubiquitous: lying takes place in business transactions, political campaigns and romantic relationships (Ekman, 2009). Based on a national survey of 1,000 US adults, Serota et al. (2010) report that on average people tell 1.65 lies per day. Another study reports that people can tell two lies in ten minutes (Feldman et al., 2002). In an experimental study, 81 percent of job candidates lied about themselves during employment interviews (Weiss and Feldman, 2006).\nMethod: The empirical data collection was conducted at the annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. This event usually attracts more than 2,000 pairs of twins and the participating twins have opportunities to participate in research studies on site. Therefore, this event has been used by various behavioral genetic researchers to collect research data (e.g. Chung and Galletta, 2012; Settle et al., 2009; Wise et al., 2007).\nResults: MZ vs DZ comparisons\nDiscussion: This study was designed to examine the extent to which deception detection performance is genetically determined, and how malleable deception detection is by environmental influences, such as education or corporate training. To assess the genetic basis of deception detection performance, this study employed the classic twin design which allowed for empirical estimates of the three components of the ACE model: genetics (A), shared environments (C) and non-shared environments (E).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Deception detection is instrumental in business management but professionals differ widely in terms of deception detection performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the genetic basis of deception detection performance using the classic twin study design and address the research question: how much variance in individual differences in deception detection performance can be accounted for by the variance in genetics vs environmental influences?\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 192 twins, with 65 pairs of monozygotic (identical) twins and 31 pairs of dizygotic (fraternal) twins participated in an experiment. A series of behavioral genetic analyses were performed.\nFindings: The variability in deception detection performance was largely determined by differences in shared and non-shared environments.\nResearch limitations/implications: The subjects were solicited during the Twins Days Festival so the sample selection and data collection were limited to the natural settings in the field. In addition, the risks and rewards associated with deception detection performance in the study are pale in comparison with those in practice.\nPractical implications: Deception detection performance may be improved through training programs. Corporations should continue funding training programs for deception detection.\nOriginality/value: This is the first empirical study that examines the complementary influences of genetics and environment on people's ability to detect deception.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of cognitive validity testing in the development of CALL, the comprehensive assessment of leadership for learning	[ "Leadership", "Assessment", "Organizational development", "Methodology", "Cognitive validity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Educators operate in an age of assessment; consequently, researchers and policy makers work to develop assessments that accurately measure school success. A critical charge for developers of these assessments is to create tools that prove useful for the practitioners being assessed. Cognitive validity testing is one process to ensure a particular assessment is relevant to school-wide practice. This paper discusses the importance of cognitive validity testing in the development of Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL). Funded by the Institute for Educational Sciences (IES), CALL specifically focusses on using technology to support data-driven instructional leadership. Data-driven instructional leadership has become commonplace for school leaders, which has led researchers to examine the type of data leaders use. Student test scores and trait-based surveys illuminate areas of strength and weakness in schools, but school leaders do not have information on the work behind making improvements in those areas (Anderson et al., 2010). CALL is an online formative assessment of school leadership designed to examine school-wide leadership tasks, and it uses a task-based distributed leadership framework to examine leadership practice across a school. The CALL assessment tool measures leadership practice in five core domains:\nLiterature review: Research has documented that school leadership plays a key, yet often indirect role in student learning (Leithwood and Louis, 2011; Heck and Hallinger, 2009; Leithwood and Riehl, 2005; Leithwood et al., 1999; Hallinger and Heck, 1996). More specifically, research has demonstrated that particular actions by school leadership play a vital role in allowing schools and teachers to meet the learning needs of their students (Bryk and Driscoll, 1985). While school leaders take on multiple responsibilities, research has shown that their work as instructional leaders is most impactful on student learning outcomes and overall school effectiveness (Hallinger and Heck, 1996). However, while the idea of instructional leadership has been studied and promoted over the past few decades (Hallinger and Heck, 1996), with the onset of the high stakes accountability era, the term \"data-driven\" has commonly been placed before \"instructional leadership\" as scholars have called for a new type of information-based leadership approach (Elmore, 2000). In developing the CALL, researchers sought to develop a system that would produce formative data, rather than summative data, to guide school leadership practice. With formative data, school leaders would have actionable information that would guide their practice rather than provide measurement scores on themselves and their schools.\nMethods: From the beginning stages of developing the CALL instrument, researchers sought practitioner expertise and input in constructing each survey item (Blitz et al., 2011). In Year 2 of the four-year grant from IES, the CALL research team conducted a pilot test of the survey instrument. The purpose of this pilot was to conduct cognitive validity testing to refine the CALL instrument. In the spring of 2011, CALL researchers administered the online survey in three middle schools and three high schools in the state of Wisconsin (at this time, the CALL instrument was intended for secondary schools only). One middle school and one high school were located in a low poverty, suburban area. The other four schools were located in a high poverty urban area. A CALL researcher visited each school, introduced the survey and research project to the school staff and provided instructions on how to administer and take the CALL assessment. In taking the CALL survey, all but one school opted to provide a two-week window for the staff to complete the survey. The outlying school administered the survey in one sitting with the entire school staff taking the survey at the same time in the same room.\nFindings: As part of the cognitive validity testing, we presented the participants with specific items from the survey to help us refine the instrument. Within this process, we also learned how developing a task-based leadership assessment survey informs what we know about how leadership practice is perceived across various school community members. In the following section we present three representative survey items on which the participants reflected and provided feedback. The findings are organized around these items since they were either the direct source of the findings or provide specific examples of more general findings. The following categories of findings are located within discussion of the three sample survey items:\nDiscussion: lessons learned and implications for research: In conducting this pilot study for CALL, researchers acquired input for refining the instrument, but also gained insight into the process of measuring leadership practice, especially when holding the perspective that leadership is not limited to a single individual. Constructing a non-traditional survey tool lead to a number of challenges in addition to the inherent values. The following section presents an informal \"cost-benefit\" analysis of constructing and using a multi-source task-based assessment of instructional leadership based on conducting cognitive validity testing of the instrument. Based on the findings, we identified three tradeoffs that accompany the development and use of such a tool. This insight gleaned from the results of conducting cognitive validity testing should contribute to the work of developing leadership assessment tools as well as confirm we know about the complexity of school leadership and school culture.\nConclusion: In developing assessment tools, each design decision is accompanied by tradeoffs and compromises. Survey developers need to consider these within a cost-benefit analysis. Engaging participants in the iterative design of a tool would greatly inform developers in this analysis. While this study explored the results from the cognitive validity testing of a formative assessment tool measuring distributive leadership, the lessons learned should also promote the value of conducting cognitive validity testing in the development of any tool for practitioner use. Schools are inundated with assessments and evaluations, most of which are for policy makers' purposes. In order for these assessments to serve the ultimate purpose of school improvement, they must be beneficial directly to those charged with generating the improvement. Furthermore, if a given assessment is intended for practitioners, then the assessment should be by practitioners, as much as is reasonably possible. Practitioners should be given the tools and opportunities to contribute to the instruments by which they will be measured and assessed. In a practice-based survey, the input of those engaged in the practices is invaluable. Researchers and developers should continue to challenge assumptions about survey design in order to create tools that benefit multiple stakeholders. Engaging in processes to develop such tools will produce tradeoffs, to be sure, but it also will produce insight into school-level practice and practitioner engagement in design.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) is an online task-based assessment of distributed instructional leadership. In developing CALL, researchers faced the challenge of structuring survey items that would measure leadership practice rather than individual traits. Critical in this work was developing items that accurately reflected current leadership practice. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to pilot the CALL instrument and conducted cognitive validity testing on the instrument.\nDesign/methodology/approach: CALL researchers piloted the survey in six schools in Wisconsin in order to test and refine the survey instrument. Researchers conducted cognitive walk-through interviews with five participants from each school: principals, associate principals, teachers, department chairs, guidance counselors, and activities directors. The interviews focussed on specific items in order to observe the users' thought processes and rationale in choosing a response for each item. The researchers focussed on relevancy, clarity, and accuracy of survey items in collecting and analyzing the resulting data.\nFindings: Three specific survey items were identified that exemplify these challenges and opportunities such as: accessible language, extended leadership, socially desirable responding, 360-degree perspectives, applying appropriate terminology, and identifying appropriate practices. These findings provided insight into survey development work and implications of distributed leadership. The authors discuss the challenges of creating a task-based leadership assessment.\nOriginality/value: Developing a formative assessment of school leadership is valuable in supporting school leaders' work. The process of utilizing a qualitative approach to develop a quantitative instrument has proven critical in measuring task-based distributed leadership.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Building conditions in Norwegian local governments: trends and determinants	[ "Public sector", "Local government", "Policy", "Maintenance", "Investment", "Building life cycle" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Public buildings play a vital role in the production of public welfare services, and decaying public facilities give rise to concerns in even some of the most affluent countries in the world. Low levels of maintenance and poor facility management can adversely affect service production through two mechanisms. First, inadequate maintenance means that facilities decay faster than what they would under an appropriate maintenance schedule. Inadequate maintenance thus creates an expenditure backlog that must be covered in the future, either by major renovations of existing facilities, or investment in new. Hence, inadequate maintenance means that the local government shuffles expenditures into the future. As a consequence, the service production in the future must be reduced, since more resources must be spent to keep the local government facilities in operative condition.\n2. Related literature: Public buildings are best understood as inputs of real capital in the production of public services, and enter the production function along with labor and equipment. Building conditions are mainly affected by maintenance of older buildings since buildings are in use for several decades. Investments in new buildings is less important for the overall building condition since new buildings in most cases make up a small share of the existing building stock.\n3. Institutional setting: As in other Scandinavian countries, Norwegian local governments are important providers of welfare services such as child care, primary and lower secondary education, primary health care and care for the elderly. Other important tasks are culture and infrastructure. The local public sector accounts for around 50 per cent of government consumption and local public sector revenues make up 18 per cent of GDP. After labor, buildings are probably the most important input in production of local public services. Local government buildings amount to 50 square meters per employee and make up as much as about 25 per cent of all non-residential buildings in Norway. Schools make up nearly half of the total local public building mass and constitute the most important building type, followed by nursing homes (22 per cent), office buildings (11 per cent) and childcare centers (7 per cent)[3]. The main revenue sources for local governments are taxes, grants from the central government and user charges. Whereas the local governments have a large degree of discretion on the expenditure side, revenues are heavily regulated under central standards. The opportunity to influence current revenues is in practice limited to property tax and user charges that are limited to covering costs.\n4. Data collection and empirical specification: 4.1 Collection of survey data\n5. Results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Concluding remarks: Public facilities and maintenance of these represent substantial expenditures for local governments. That maintenance of public facilities is underfinanced and not prioritized is more or less a stylized fact (Borge and Hopland, 2012, 2017). A possible factor in this lack of priority is that maintenance returns - in terms of long-run facilities conditions - and what constitutes an appropriate or optimal maintenance schedule is not well understood (Hopland and Kvamsdal, 2016). By studying determinants of the condition of local public facilities, and how conditions vary over time, we contribute to this understanding.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In light of evidence of low levels of maintenance of public buildings, this paper aims to investigate trends and determinants of public building conditions in Norwegian local governments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors consider data from surveys and public records in regression analyses.\nFindings: On average, the condition of Norwegian local public facilities has improved slightly in the period 2004-2016. The survey data suggest substantial fluctuations in building conditions and a negative relationship between building conditions in 2004 and 2016. Local governments with poor building conditions in 2004 had higher investment in the following years. The authors find no systematic relationship between the conditions in 2004 and maintenance expenditures in subsequent years. They conclude that if maintenance levels are too low, the results suggest that investment levels are too high. Further, they find that both political and fiscal factors are important in explaining building conditions.\nOriginality/value: The authors provide insight into determinants and trends of building conditions in Norwegian local governments. The results hint at an unhealthy balance between maintenance spending and public investments.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sports lottery game prediction system development and evaluation on social networks	[ "Satisfaction", "Websites", "Systems development", "Agents", "Social networks", "Community networks" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Social media, which is defined as a platform that provides users with Web 2.0 and mobile technologies to communicate, share, and discuss with each other (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010; Kietzmann et al., 2011), have developed rapidly and numerous community websites emerge constantly (Boyd and Ellison, 2008; McCarthy et al., 2014). The value of a social network is that 58 per cent of people have used at least one type of social network. The most famous websites are Facebook (with 1,415 million users), QZone (with 629 million users), LinkedIn (with 347 million users), Google+ (with 300 million users), and Twitter (with 288 million users)[1]. Facebook (belongs into social-network platform) offers its members sophisticated privacy control (Acquisti and Gross, 2006, Light and McGrath, 2010) and has changed users' community website usage behaviour by providing functions, such as instant messaging service, audio, video, and links to friends. According to the 2014 Pew Research Centre survey results of social media, approximately 73 per cent of adults use social-network sites, and Facebook - with 71 per cent of online adults - is the most popular social-network platform. Nearly 70 per cent of Facebook users visit the site at least once a day and approximately 45 per cent of users browse multiple times in a day with high levels of engagement (Duggan et al., 2014). Therefore, this study involved combining the features of communities and social networks to enhance the interaction between users who may be friends or share mutual interests to develop a sports lottery system.\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Sports lottery overview\n3. Methodology: We extended a prototyping website development methodology (Che and Hou, 2008; Walters et al., 1994). Figure 1 shows an outline of the adopted model. The procedures performed in developing the system were designing and analysing the hybrid social-network and community sports lottery system, developing interaction and prediction mechanisms, implementing the prototype website, and evaluating questionnaires. The model is a continuous improvement cycle involving prototype systems, and each phase involved reassessing the results of the previous phase to ensure that the design goals were achieved. Based on the case studies and research literature, several website development models have been established through an informal development method. Cunliffe (2000) identified the main stages and tasks involved in website development (Schefels and Zicari, 2012). They discussed the essentiality of understanding users and information providers (Cunliffe, 2000); therefore, they used questionnaires to understand user preferences and evaluate the system. In this study, a questionnaire approach involving four facets was used to ensure that the system design met the users' expectations; the questionnaire results are discussed in Section 4.\n4. System evaluation and analysis results: A total of 277 respondents completed the questionnaires. Among the respondents (Table IV), 176 were men and 101 were women. Most of the respondents were aged 18-29 years, 74.37 per cent of the respondents used Facebook daily, more than half of the respondents watched an NBA game one to two times weekly, 48.38 per cent of the respondents had lottery purchasing experience, and most of the respondents had experience in placing bets in the TSL. The mean score for each question was computed. The mean scores for CP1-CP3 were higher than 3.8. The respondents expressed the greatest satisfaction with the ability of the website to predict the results of future games. The respondents expressed the lowest satisfaction with the mechanism through the website automatically sends virtual gifts to friends.\n5. Summary and suggestions: 5.1. Findings and managerial implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish a social-network sp.orts lottery system to support users in predicting and simulating sports lottery betting. The community data were generated to support user decision and featured instant game records and odds data synchronisation. Furthermore, the next development cycle were evaluated through a questionnaire.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An extended prototype website development methodology was applied to develop the system. An online sample was collected to evaluate the function, interface, operation, and prediction designs. The kh2 test and variance analysis were used to determine the association between facets and basic demographics. Finally, the regression model was used to identify the potentially essential predictors that influence the measurement facets.\nFindings: The high frequency of Facebook users, sports lottery purchases, and sports game viewers prefer the ability to predict the results of future sports games as advanced decision-making functions. However, the agent-based virtual gift presentation function was the least preferred function.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study sample was limited only to users: who used PTT and Facebook; were of uneven age, education, and gender; and none segment groups. The study sample primarily comprised Taiwanese respondents. These differences might influence the practicality and prediction bias of the designed website and related models.\nPractical implications: The proposed method integrates social-network messages with real-time data access by using APIs, crawler schemes, and prediction mechanisms that enable developers to devise strategies for obtaining high system satisfaction. The system can be improved by adding the results of future sports games and excluding authorised Facebook message posts.\nOriginality/value: A social-network-based sports lottery and prediction prototyping website was evaluated through a user-preference survey regarding design functions. The measurement results indicated that users share their opinions, predictions, and personal betting results and interact with their friends.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Socioeconomic status and the allocation of government resources in Australia: How well do geographic measures perform?	[ "Socio‐economic status", "Young people", "Tertiary education", "Australia", "Young adults", "Social groups", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The persistent social and economic marginalisation of individuals and groups within society has significant detrimental direct and indirect impacts. Such marginalisation tends to create a \"vicious cycle\" of disadvantage, limiting access to educational opportunities, which in turn leads to poor labour market outcomes and low earnings. Many governments, including Australia's, have the policy aim of breaking this cycle of economic and social marginalisation by targeting educational assistance programmes to lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups.Policy initiatives aimed at increasing the social inclusion levels of those of low SES rely, to a great degree, on accurate measures of SES. SES, while very real, is an abstract notion. Determining the specific criteria by which the SES of individuals, families and groups is established can be a complex and nuanced task. While access to financial or other tangible resources (in the form of income or assets) is of fundamental importance, SES is also influenced by the interaction, moderation and mediation of a variety of other social and economic determinants.One easy to determine, and hence frequently used, approach is based on an individual's geographic location. Although geographic measures, such as the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA; Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2008) are widely used to report the SES status of groups, these measures have been criticised for their poor construct validity in determining SES at the individual level (Coelli, 2010; Jones, 2001). In essence, the imprecision of the measure arises due to significant \"within region\" variance in SES within geographical areas. When assistance is targeted at individuals or groups based on geographical measures alone, assistance may well flow to individuals of substantial economic and social means. This results in a sub-optimal mechanism for resource allocation.This paper proceeds as follows. We begin with a brief discussion of variables that should be included in an ideal measure of SES. We then introduce four area-based SES measures that are frequently used in the Australian context. Subsequently, we use data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) to create an individual measure of SES. We use our newly created SES measure as a reference against which we assess the performance of the area-based measures in terms of classification bias (i.e. the degree to which different SES measures correctly identify a respondent's SES). We conclude by examining the effects of using the different SES measures on participation in post-compulsory education.\n2. Approaches to measuring SES: SES has been defined as a:[...] short-hand expression for variables that enable the placement of persons, families, households and aggregates such as Statistical Local Areas (SLA's), communities and cities into some hierarchical order, reflecting their ability to produce and consume the scarce and valued resources of society (Western et al., 1998, p. 5).Occupational status, education, income and wealth, as well as general access to social and cultural resources all contribute to SES (Bourdieu, 1973; Coleman, 1987). Health, family structure, social contacts and migration history are additional and have also been shown to be covariates of an individual's socioeconomic position (Pantazis et al., 2006; Saunders et al., 2007; Scutella et al., 2009).Most young people are in some way affected directly or indirectly by parental influences. Therefore, SES measures for children and youth should include variables based on parental attributes. Such attributes usually include one or more dimension of parental occupation, parental educational attainment, household income or wealth, and access to societal and cultural resources.2.1 Area-based measures\n3. Method: We used data from the 2003 cohort of the LSAY to create a reference measure for SES. LSAY is a nationally representative survey that tracks young people in Australia from the ages of 15 to 25 as they move from school into further study, work and other destinations. LSAY contains a rich set of individual background variables, which is an important prerequisite for creating an accurate SES reference measure. Although LSAY is affected by attrition bias, we remedied this issue by applying appropriate weights. Thus, LSAY attrition bias did not have a detrimental effect on our comparisons with regard to SEIFA. Furthermore, our measure of SES was derived using variables from the first LSAY wave from the 2003 base year, which was not influenced by longitudinal attrition effects. We used a set of 16 SES-related background variables as a basis for creating our SES reference measure (Table II).We conducted a latent-class factor analysis to create an individual reference measure of SES. Traditional factor analysis assumes all of the variables included in the model to be continuous. It further assumes that the emerging factors of interest follow a continuous distribution. In our case, however, the majority of the 16 variables used in the model were dichotomous or categorical, thereby violating basic distributional assumptions for traditional factor analysis. We addressed this issue by using tetrachloric (dichotomous) and polychloric (categorical) correlations in a latent class factor analysis, which was a better fit for the particular distributional properties of our SES-related variables.Our reference measure was designed to measure SES at the individual, rather than aggregate, level. For the purposes of this analysis, and due to its empirical foundation, we assumed our reference measure to achieve an unbiased classification of individual SES. Classification bias resulting from different SES measures was determined using standardised differences and cross-tabulations of quintiles.\n4. Results: 4.1 Factor analysis\n5. Conclusion: Given sustained policy interest in improving the social inclusion of disadvantaged youth, we examined two fundamentally different approaches to measuring SES. The first approach was based on the average economic profile of a given geographic location (i.e. SEIFA). The second approach was based on a mixture of possessions and individual background variables. Our investigation was motivated by the frequent use of SEIFA in directing economic resources to disadvantaged youth. Doing so assumes that SEIFA can properly identify youth from low-SES backgrounds. Results from our analysis question the adequacy of this assumption.SEIFA measures perform satisfactorily with regard to the aggregate measurement of SES, as evidenced by our model for overall participation in higher education. Yet, the foremost concern of social inclusion policies lies with the ability to channel resources towards disadvantaged individuals rather than aggregate population averages. It is at the individual level, then, that our analysis reveals the shortcomings of area-based measures as SES classifiers.SEIFA and other region-based measures are often used by governments to assess the SES of individuals and groups as they are readily derivable and do not raise concerns regarding privacy and intrusiveness. For example, the Australian Government has allocated $168.5 million to increase enrolment in higher education among low-SES youth. The allocation of these funds is primarily based on SEIFA. Given the extent to which SEIFA misclassifies the SES of young individuals, the efficiency of policies that seek to increase access to higher education and other critical resources for disadvantaged stakeholders may suffer.Results from our investigation prompt us to discourage the use of SEIFA in the context of social inclusion. Instead of employing geographic measures, recently developed social inclusion frameworks for Australia (Saunders et al., 2007; Scutella et al., 2009) and the EU (Atkinson et al., 2004) collectively emphasise the importance of individual SES parameters, including education, access to services, as well as economic, social and political participation.A potential solution to this measurement conundrum may lie in the use of extensive administrative and other individual-level data held by, or available to, governments. All developed economies have various forms of social support systems in place that are criteria-based and allow, to a greater or lesser degree, some insight into the \"true\" SES of households and individuals. Given the increasing availability of individual-level administrative data, we suggest that such data be used as a substitute for geographic SES measures in categorising the SES of individuals. Achieving a better understanding of the SES of individuals and groups is the first step to effectively improving the SES of marginalised groups within the community.\n6. Implications for practice: Our analysis suggests that SES is complex and multifaceted, and clearly, as such, will be challenging to measure. Any measurement of SES is somewhat subjective, as indeed is the measure proposed in this paper. The measure that we have adopted takes a possession-based approach to cultural and educational resources in addition to parental occupation and education.An implication of our work is that governments should utilise a measure of SES that is focused on an assessment of individual household attributes and resources. Governments do have some of this information available, and indeed in Australia undertake household-level assessments of financial resources to determine eligibility for a variety of welfare benefits (Mendes, 2009). This \"administrative data\" includes a significant amount of detail allowing governments to identify low SES households. For example, where households contain recipients of Australia's Disability Support Pension, details of the nature and severity of the illness are held, along with information relating to an independent determination of the claimant's capacity to undertake work, their financial resources and disposable income (Cai et al., 2008).More commonly, for recipients of unemployment benefits, Australia's government collects detailed information regarding address, age, assets and income, whether the claimant has children and, if so, whether the claimant pays or receives payments for these children. When claimants are young people (under 25) the government also, in some cases, collects information on parental assets and income.In different jurisdictions, the use of this data is controlled in different ways. Few governments, however, preclude the matching of anonymised data for group or population-level comparisons (e.g. at the institutional level) (Jutte et al., 2011). Indeed, in Australia, part of the allocation of low SES participation funding for universities is based on an assessment of the proportion of an institution's students whose parents are in receipt of various welfare benefits.Given increasing access to relevant data for measuring individual SES, governments and other stakeholders may benefit from using such data to devise more accurate measures of SES. In the absence of such measures, institutions or individuals who might be beneficiaries of targeted government policies may miss out due to misclassification. Likewise, situations in which government resources are misdirected can be avoided. We thus argue for better use of administrative data to foster the development of more accurate SES measures for individual classification. This would require negotiating issues of privacy and data-security.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to compare the performance of area-based vs individual-level measures of socioeconomic status (SES).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using data from the longitudinal surveys of Australian youth (LSAY), a multidimensional measure of individual SES is created. This individual measure is used to benchmark the relative usefulness of socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA), a geographic set of measures often used in Australia to assess the SES of individuals. Both measures are compared in terms of classification bias. The effects of using the different SES measures on participation in post-compulsory education are examined.\nFindings: - SEIFA measures perform satisfactorily with regard to the aggregate measurement of SES. However, they perform poorly when their use is aimed at channelling resources toward disadvantaged individuals. It is at the individual level that the analysis reveals the shortcomings of area-based SES measures.\nResearch limitations/implications: - While region based measures are relatively easy to collect and utilise, we suggest that they hide significant SES heterogeneity within regional districts. Hence, the misclassification resulting from the use of regional measures to direct support for low SES groups creates a risk for resource misallocations.\nOriginality/value: - The finding that region-based measures are subject to significant misclassification has important research and policy implications. Given the increasing availability of individual-level administrative data, the paper suggests that such data be used as a substitute for geographic SES measures in categorising the SES of individuals.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
What influence domestic and overseas developers' decisions?	[ "Entrepreneur", "Overseas", "Domestic", "Stated preference", "Property developer", "Residential market" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The economic prosperity in Australia is evident (The Economist, 2017). Also observed is the rising market influence of real estate developers whose business origin is overseas. In the 2016 financial year, they have contributed to 48 and 46 per cent of residential projects in Sydney and Melbourne, respectively (Knight Frank, 2016, 2017a). The rising global trade is evident by China becoming a major consumer and investor attracts prime Chinese capital and firms into the Australia economy (Kushman and Wakefield, 2018; Tevfik and Boey, 2014; KPMG, 2018; Knight Frank, 2017b). Since 2009, Chinese firms have been significantly increasing direct investment in Australian residential markets (Rogers and Koh, 2017). In 2016, $2.4bn Chinese capital was invested into Australian residential sites, a tenfold rise from 2008 to 2016 (Jones Lang LaSalle, 2017a, b). The Australian property boom attracts global interest to the local markets, though domestic developers operate across submarkets, while overseas firms appear more geo-sector constrained.\nInternational trade and developer decision: International trade and state theories explain why organisations and asset holders are motivated to engage in international resource exchange and collaboration. Specialisation in production to achieve efficiency and productivity and economy of scale in consumption to expand the market size are two often quoted reasons. The theories also attempt to explain the nature of \"global\" transaction cost where risk at market, project and firm levels are measured and evaluated. Both market choice and institutional structure influence firm decision. Based on the comparative and competitive advantage principles, international trade theory offers the basis to explain overseas property developers' decision-making preference. The theory suggests that firms' relative competitiveness is strongly influenced by the socioeconomic resources they are able to command; domestic and overseas firms are subject to different resource controls, which provide them with comparative advantages.\nDeveloper decision and evaluation: It is widely held that maximising investors' wealth is the main driver of property development and appraisal is conducted to predict project feasibility and profitability. Project decision is often multi-stakeholder and hierarchically arranged. However, the literature on property development processes and its decision making is silent on preference. Early development decision-making literature focusses on models of project delivery as a vertically integrated production process. Risk profit is evaluated basing on the classic theory of price. Risk closely relates to returns in property development, affecting decision making and project outcome (Atherton et al., 2008; 1995). Risk in property development relates to factors such as political climate, market condition, organisation size, decision makers' behaviour. Perceived development risks are defined by project outcome, i.e. the decisions actually made. Many recent literature studies have shifted towards decision makers' risk perception, cognitive process and bias. Individual choice is not purely based on expected profit as decision is affected by information flows throughout the development process and perception of the information (Gallimore et al., 2000). The developer decision is profit driven to reduce perceived risk; therefore, the literature also suggests that a developer relies on past experience to assist decision making.\nProject ecology, organisation structure and decision making: The property development industry is project intense, and project specifics affect the developer decision as well as the organisational structure. Property development decisions are heavily project planning and control-driven to maximise potential profit, minimise potential loss or optimise their trade-off. What is worth noting is the project/asset level diversity of organisational goals and decision processes (Wu and Kou, 2016; Wu et al., 2017). Soderlund (2004) reviewed project management models to give insight into the key elements in typical building processes. As development decision making in the real estate industry is hierarchically organised, a deterministic factor structure provides a higher theoretical consistency.\nA conceptual model of developer decision making: The property market is geographically, structurally and motivationally segmented. In property markets and development decision making, information quality and liquidity is a critical factor where experience and rational knowledge facilitate rational decision making (Adams, 1994). Under the premise that development process consists of several distinctive inter-related parts, decision makers rely on past experience to identify risk. They acquire and possess essential information such as rules, norms and project critical path for decisions to reduce risk and cost.\nHypotheses and sample: This study examines the developer decision at the firm-project level. Developers are classified as domestic, overseas and multinational firms. Domestic and overseas developers differ in scale, headquarter location, company type and financial structure, and firm ownership. To evaluate preference variance of domestic and overseas developers, we classified the sampled developers under four sub-groups based on firm attributes: listed domestic (LD), listed overseas (LO), non-listed domestic (NLD), and non-listed overseas (NLO) (Table I).\nExperimental survey and data: Based on the three-level hierarchical criterion system (Figure 1), a pairwise discrete choice survey was created to gather data from a small sample of residential developers active in Melbourne. The survey contained a total of 75 discrete choice questions. A 1-5 scale was used to indicate relative importance of factors. Table II outlines the scale and judgement rule. The survey also included questions to identify the locations of respondents and their headquarters. The remaining question asked the respondents to compare and score the relative importance of the principal and sub-criteria. The survey was made available on an online survey tool Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com/r/22HDDVJ).\nAHP evaluation for developer decision: AHP is a widely applied technique to evaluate multi-criterion expert judgement for complex decision (Saaty, 1990; Alharthi et al., 2015; Schmidt et al., 2015). It consists of four stages, namely, construct pairwise comparison matrices; perform consistency test for all levels (principal factors and sub-factors); calculate weights of each principal factor and sub-factor; and synthesise results. It helps break down a complex decision into discrete comparative pairs (factors). Results are presented in a matrix system, and a consistency index is calculated to derive the consistency ratio. The AHP is popular in built environments research largely because investment and development decisions are usually hierarchically distributed. The developer who controls financial, social and knowledge resources has access to decision power to influence project process, decision and performance. The literature of AHP decision analysis covers a complex project ecology of land and buildings: construction project or risk management (Preece et al., 2016; Seboni and Tutesigensi, 2015; Raisbeck and Tang, 2013; Doloi, 2008; Cheng and Li, 2004); investment, financing and valuation rationales (Wu et al., 2017; Hsieh, 1997); asset facilities management (Chadawada, 2015, Hardie and Newell, 2011); planning policy evaluation (Mosadeghi et al., 2015; Cay and Uyan, 2013; Bahadur and Yuji, 2008); and complex asset, e.g. brownfield, public and heritage evaluation (Wu and Kou, 2016; Wu et al., 2017; Kutut et al., 2014). The decisions range from single to multi-objectives with collective to competitive behaviours (Wang and Zeng, 2010; Cay and Uyan, 2013; Henneberry and Parris, 2013; Wu et al., 2017).\nAggregate score and rank: Just like choice making is socially constrained, group behaviour and decision are context dependent. Figure 2 shows that the developers generally follow the project stages to rank relative importance of the principal factors. At aggregate, developer preference scores are consistent with project's critical path (stages). Site potential and project feasibility evaluation are rated the highest, illustrating that developers consider initial site selection, financial health and planning constraint the most significant. The two principal factors count for 42.3 per cent of overall score. In contrast, property asset operation and liability score the lowest (7.8 per cent), suggesting asset holding and operation being least priority among the sample developers.\nDomestic vs overseas developers: This study hypothesises the collective distinction between domestic and overseas developers based on principal and sub-factors for their decision-making preference. Results show that they are highly consistent in terms of principal criterion score and rank. In other words, they \"think alike\" and follow similar project decision patterns. Figure 3 shows that the score of overseas developers is slightly higher (3 per cent) for site potential evaluation. They have the same score on project feasibility evaluation, construction management, and property asset operation and liability. H1 is rejected based on high consistency in principal factor scores and ranks.\n(Non) listed domestic vs (non) listed overseas developers: Tables VI and AI report scores and ranks of the principal and sub-factors of listed and NLD and overseas developers. It is sometimes argued that listed firms develop similar decision patterns, whist private firms have diverse strategies. There is consistency in principal factor scores across four sub-groups suggesting similar overall decision pattern. H1a and H1b are, therefore, rejected. The score variation of the LD and LO developers suggests that the LOs value more initial and later stages principal factors and score them highly, showing their asset holding operation and liability. The LDs value more highly project delivery. Initially, LOs focus more on-site potential than LDs (34 vs 30.2 per cent), possibly suggesting LOs' relative disadvantage on local market knowledge and experience. NLDs rate project initiation and cost planning, and project commission and disposal more highly, possibly for a similar reason. Interestingly, LOs and NLDs score property asset operation and liability (9 per cent) possibly for asset value-oriented strategy relative higher.\nConclusions: The phenomena of foreign ownership and foreign direct investment are widely observed. Foreign firm entering into domestic real estate industry and foreign investment control are significant in global \"hot markets\" such as Australia. One of the government policy temptations is to discriminate against the overseas firm, which, in this case, is overseas investor, or \"protect\" the domestic firms using fiscal/tariff means by government agencies e.g. the FIRB. One may argue that the control of capital and organisation will be subject to different costs. Despite their market impact and policy sensitivity (FIRB, 2017; Jones Lang LaSalle, 2017b; Knight Frank, 2017a), the developer choice in the Australian market is rarely studied.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Foreign firms entering into the domestic real estate industry and foreign investment control are significant in global hot markets such as Australia. Despite their market impact and policy sensitivity, developer choice is rarely studied. The purpose of this paper is to study domestic and overseas property developers for their motive and preference in response to market growth and market barriers including regulatory constraint.\nDesign/methodology/approach: International trade theory suggests local and overseas firms can vary significantly for their risk profile when engaging in location-specific development opportunities. Using a comprehensive decision factor system for the residential development process, the authors conducted an experimental survey to collect the prime data to measure stated preference of domestic and overseas developers in the context of the Melbourne residential market.\nFindings: Results suggest high consistency between the samples of domestic and overseas developers. Possible explanations include vertical integration by innovative contracting, strict regulatory constraint dictates domestic and overseas firms' preference or sample selection bias. This micro-analysis of developer stated preference highlights their entrepreneurial ability to combine substitution and integration for innovative contractual strategy. This ability to join asset holding and project management enables firm flexibility to mitigate business risk in rapidly globalising capital and factor markets.\nPractical implications: These insights of firm-level decision making contribute to the decision literature of real estate developers and are relevant to the broader literature of industrial economics and international trade. Government may evaluate policy strategies based on the explicit entrepreneur (e.g. developer) preference for their \"comparative advantage\".\nOriginality/value: This paper highlights developer's ability to jointly consider investment and project management for decision making. It found that other than political cost such as national interest and domestic interest group pressure, domestic and overseas developers in the Melbourne residential market actually think quite alike. It suggests that irrespective of property ownership conditions, market integration occurs in the Melbourne residential sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Characteristic points of Auckland commercial property cycles	[ "Property cycles", "Cycle turning points", "Entropy", "Chaos", "Oversupply of space", "Space competitiveness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, we would like to expand our understanding of processes governing commercial property cycles. Second, we would like to provide tools, which enable reasonably precise identification of property cycles' turning points location. The work expands on the one done by Szweizer (2018, 2019), which compares a commercial property cycle to a process described in physics. We start with a short presentation of the cycle described in that work and provide a precise definition of cyclic processes as applicable to the commercial property markets.\nLiterature review - property: This work expands findings presented by Szweizer (2018) in relation to property markets being modelled through the techniques available in Physics. The assumed basic structure of a property cycle, which is compared to a thermodynamical cyclical process, is repeated here. While the work presented by Szweizer provides for a structural understanding of a property cycle as modelled in this way, it does not deliver any precise method for locating of characteristic cyclic points. A collection of such methods is described here.\nLiterature review - physics and mathematics: Entropy is one of the building components of thermodynamics. The concept was introduced in the nineteenth century by Clausius and then Boltzmann and Gibbs as a part of the research on heat and other forms of energy. At the macroscopic level, it relates to the non-productive loss of energy in any process. At the microscopic level, it relates to the system order. See Muller (2007) and Jaynes (1965) for detail. The concept of entropy was expanded to include information entropy by Shannon (1948).\nData source: Data were provided by CBRE and consists of Auckland CBD office series since 1998, and Auckland industrial series since 2001. The space series has been collected through biannual on-site surveys. The financial series was generated through in-house quarterly assessments. The data are split by building quality, with office data representing premium, Grade A, B and C, and limited to space data only in Grade D. The industrial sector is represented by prime Grade A, and secondary Grades B and C.\nRent-vacancy chart and the thermodynamic cycle: This paper builds upon work done by Szweizer (2018). The attention is placed on characteristic points of a property cycle which are assumed to follow a procession based on a thermodynamic model as shown in Figure 1. The figure illustrates the rent-vacancy relationship as postulated for cycling property markets. It is assumed that a cycle starts at Point 1 when the oversupply (if any) due to the previous cycle has been absorbed. Subsequently, the vacancy decreases as a response to the growing demand for space, until Point 2 is reached when there is no more space available to be taken up by the market. The shortage of available space and a continuation of demand creates an overheated market, with rents growing as the vacancy remains constant. At Point 3 the space supply, which is a response to the growing demand, results in oversupply, and the market peaks. Finally, the market relaxes due to an oversupply of space reaching Point 4. If the oversupply of space is still persistent, the market needs to absorb it before a subsequent cycle may start. This is reflected in the dashed line joining Points 4 and 1. The attractors' inflexion point, shown in Figure 1, is explained in detail and elaborated upon, later in the body of this work.\nPart I - supply-demand dynamics - Points 4 and 1 - market bottom: Auckland office cycles\nPart II - entropy and its' financial and space-related components - Points 2 and 3: The concept of entropy was introduced in the nineteenth century as a part of thermodynamics development and is closely related to the formulation of the second law of thermodynamics. In physics entropy is understood to relate to the amount of order in a system, with a highly ordered system having low entropy. Since its first formulation, the concept of entropy has been extended to numerous other fields, these include information, where Shannon's work introduced a quantitative measure of information through entropy. In property, we introduce entropy as relating to market conditions, with depressed markets having high entropy and strong markets, characterised by high demand for space, as having low entropy.\nPart III - chaos theory, limits, attractors and property markets: In mathematics, an infinite sequence of numbers may converge to a specific value, called a limit. A precise definition of a limit was provided by Augustin-Louis Cauchy. The definition assumes that a limit, if it exists for a given sequence, is always a singular number. One of the roots of chaos theory is in the observation that a sequence of numbers may tend to more than one limit, alternatively jumping from one to the next as the sequence progresses. To avoid confusion with the concept introduced by Cauchy, the collection of such limiting numbers is called attractors, as if to say that these numbers attract the sequence for large n.\nConclusion and discussion: The analysis presented here subdivided the Auckland property market into three groups. These include high-quality space that cycles (Prime Office), high-quality space that does not cycle (Prime Industrial), and lower quality space that does not cycle (both office and industrial). The main differences between the Prime Office and the Prime Industrial space are the construction cost and the completion lag, with the office buildings drastically more expensive and slower to build than industrial. Thus, we conclude that the main reasons for a property sector to cycle are associated with construction time lag and the cost.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to expand our understanding of processes governing commercial property cycles, and to provide tools, which enable identification of property cycles' turning points' location.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is divided into three parts. The first looks at the demand-supply dynamics and the location of two characteristic cyclic points, the market bottom and the cycle commencement. In the second part a property relevant formula for entropy is derived, and its relation to the cycle overheated stage and the market peak is studied. In the third part, we discuss still another characteristic point of the cycle, which relates to the stage when developers elect to undertake new projects. This analysis is done by employing the chaos theory, and its relation to the cyclic evolution.\nFindings: It is found that some markets cycle, while others fluctuate only. A clear method for distinguishing among these is provided. The bottom of a cycle may overlap or be time separated from the start of a subsequent cycle. Market peaks are characterised by a sharp decrease in financial component to entropy for top quality building grades. A cycling market is characterised by crossing of a distinct vacancy rate during the cycle progression.\nPractical implications: The tools developed in the paper allow for clear characterisation of the market types and their cyclic behaviour. This in turn allows for timely characterisation of the market state and for short time-frame forecasting. The depth of a cycle may be calculated and the subsequent correction level estimated.\nOriginality/value: The paper utilises cross-field approach by taking methods from both physics and mathematics and applying them to property markets. It breaks new ground both in property research and in applied mathematics by showing how the current frontier in pure mathematics may be applied to property.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
CGIJ review	[ "Clinical governance", "NHS reform", "Commissioning", "Innovation", "Community partnership", "Delphi survey", "Multidisciplinary team" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The first article reviewed for this issue of CGIJ is: \"Development opportunities in the 'new' NHS for personal, population and system care: the coming of age for clinical governance?\" In this topical and highly relevant paper, David Colin-Thome asks some hard questions about where the NHS is headed and how far it has come in achieving clinical governance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to enable busy clinicians to review the contents of the journal quickly. They can then choose which articles have the most relevance for them and focus on these.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides a brief synopsis of the main content of the journal prepared by the review editor.\nFindings: - Changes to healthcare commissioning and delivery will have long-term consequences for the way in which the NHS functions.\nPractical implications: - It is important that all NHS staff have a clear understanding of recent and proposed changes so that they can participate in dialogue about the implications for their roles.\nOriginality/value: - The review editor has no affiliation with any of the authors and no financial or other interest in commissioning and therefore is able to provide an independent overview of the journal contents.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The new product development process: let the voice of the salesperson be heard	[ "Sales force", "Product development", "Marketing intelligence" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The successful development and market introduction of new products/services continues to be of critical importance for an organization's survival, particularly in a globally competitive business environment. Unfortunately, the failure rate of new products and services for US companies is in the range of 40-90 percent (Clancy and Stone, 2005; Goldhill, 2005; Newmaster, 2005; Stevens and Burley, 2003; Wells, 2005). Both the marketing and the management literatures report studies designed to identify why product/service innovations fail, and to suggest strategies to improve success rates. A common theme found throughout the studies is that companies that are successful in identifying customer needs and wants, and can subsequently develop and bring to market products and services to address those needs and wants, tend to fare better than companies that cannot (Pooltan and Barclay, 1998; Li and Calantone, 1998; Calantone et al., 2002; Di Benedetto, 1999; Song and Montoya-Weiss, 1998; Rogers et al., 2005).Identifying customer needs and wants and developing innovations to address those needs and wants suggests that organizations need to collect and act on customer-initiated feedback and input. One functional area that exists within companies and should be well suited for this purpose is the sales force. It is the sales force that is uniquely equipped to understand how to best serve customers' needs and wants (Avlontis and Gounaris, 1997; Pelham and Lieb, 2004). Despite the apparent opportunity to utilize the sales force as a resource in soliciting customer input in the new product/service development process, there has been little formalized research conducted on the specific role that salespeople play or could play in this process.This research seeks to fill this void by empirically examining the role of the salesperson in the new product/service development process. The study explored the extent to which salespeople are involved in the product development process, the outcomes of such involvement, barriers to successful use of salespeople to gather information, and identification of variables affecting the role of salespeople in the product/service development process. The research may provide strategic guidance to organizations with respect to the role of salespeople in the critical new product/service development process.\nBackground: If the traditional management directive \"successfully innovate or perish\" holds any truth, then a multitude of US companies may be in trouble. Results from a recent study conducted by a Product Development Management Association Foundation indicate that new product sales fell from 32 percent of total company sales in 1990 to 28 percent in 2004 (Cooper, 2005). Further, the same study reported that business profits derived from new products are down from 33.2 percent to 28.3 percent during the same period. Business Week (2005) has called for US companies to renew their commitment to innovation or risk falling behind more nimble competitors from Asia.More than ever, companies are faced with the challenge to reduce new product/service failure rates while simultaneously guiding their products to market faster (Strategic Direction, 2003). On the one hand, new products provide increased sales, profits, and competitive strength to companies (Sivades and Dwyer, 2000). Indeed, numerous authors claim that new product development (NPD) holds the key to competitive success and is the lifeblood of companies (Song and Parry, 1997; Lynn et al., 1999). Conversely, NPD remains a risky and uncertain endeavor (Bstieler and Gross, 2003; Ozer, 2004). Regardless of whether one considers new product development a blessing or a bane for organizations, one thing is for certain: NPD is increasingly viewed by organizations, both large and small, as a strategic priority (Nijssen et al., 2002; Ozer, 2004). In a recently completed study of executives, \"bringing new products to market\" was named as the second most critical activity to be undertaken by their organization (Maddox, 2005).New product development success\nResearch objectives: Based on a review of the new product development, CRM, sales training, sales force communication, innovation, and salesperson's role in the new product development process literatures, the following research objectives guided the research:* Objective 1 - to assess and describe the role of the salesperson in the NPD process in general.* Objective 2 - to assess and describe the role of the salesperson in the NPD process relative to other individuals in various functions within the organization.* Objective 3 - to assess and describe the role of the salesperson in new product development teams.* Objective 4 - to assess the extent of formalization of the process for gathering customer information from salespeople.* Objective 5 - to determine the results of new product/service idea generation from salespeople.* Objective 6 - to assess the use of incentives to encourage salespeople's contributions to the NPD process.\nMethodology: Drawing on the new product development and professional selling literature in marketing and management disciplines, a survey instrument was developed to address the research objectives. The instrument was pre-tested with 30 members of a professional selling advisory board. The pretest results and feedback were used to refine the survey to a six-page, 29-item instrument. The survey was mailed to 2,650 sales managers representing US firms across the nation whose contact information was obtained primarily from a list rented from a list broker. The resulting sample size consisted of 246 respondents with a response rate of 9.3 percent. According to one direct mail list broker, a response rate of 5.0 percent is deemed acceptable for business-to-business surveys (Greatlists.com, 2006). The survey sample included firms with a business-to-business emphasis, and those with a minimum of 50 employees. All respondents held position titles of \"Sales Manager\" or \"Sales Director\". Survey respondents were offered an executive summary of the results as an incentive to participate.\nResults: Table I presents the results of the survey items assessing the degree of responsibility various organizational units have for overseeing the new product development process. Respondents were asked to indicate on a six-point scale (with 1 being \"no responsibility\" and 6 being \"full responsibility\") the degree of responsibility each unit has for overseeing the new product/service development process in the organization.Not surprisingly, product development teams have primary responsibility for the development of new products. What is somewhat surprising, though, is that sales does have a moderate amount of responsibility for new product/service development within organizations.Table II shows the results of sales managers' perceptions of the degree of responsibility various organizational units have for gathering information related to new product/service ideas generated by customers. Respondents again indicated on a six-point scale (anchored by \"no responsibility\" and \"full responsibility\") the extent of responsibility each unit had for gathering information. While two-tailed paired sample t-tests were conducted on all tables to search for significant differences within the ranked means, Table II reflected the highest percentage (six of the 11 pairings) of significantly different means as ranked.Specialized development teams have primary responsibility for gathering new product/service information from customers for new product development. Field salespeople and sales managers have a moderate amount of responsibility for gathering information. Inside salespeople, though, have a limited amount of responsibility, despite the fact that they interact with customers regularly.Table III reports the outcome of sales managers' beliefs that certain types of information are reported to those with responsibility for new product development by salespeople. Respondents were asked to indicate on a six-point scale anchored by \"never\" (1) and \"always\" (6) how often they reported specified categories of information about new products/services.The most common type of information reported is the customer's current level of satisfaction with existing products, followed by the types of products customers are using. Both types of information are very basic inputs to the product/service development process, and the information is not likely to directly generate new product/service ideas. It may, however, serve as an input to new product/service idea generation.Table IV reports the primary reasons for new product/service ideas to be communicated to the salesperson by customers. Respondents indicated on a six-point scale (anchored by \"never\" and \"always\") how often various reasons led to salespeople communicating new ideas for products/services.Not surprisingly, customers are most likely to report on problems or unmet needs with existing products/services. This information can, however, serve to fuel new product/service idea generation. Similarly, input on ways to reduce costs, competitor information, and information on changes in the industry all serve to influence the idea generation stage of new product/service development.Table V summarizes the outcome of ideas collected by salespeople from customers. Respondents indicated on a six-point scale anchored by \"never\" and \"always\" how often several outcomes were generated as a result of ideas that came from customers through salespeople.Ideas and input from customers communicated via salespeople are most likely to lead to the addition of a feature to a current product or service or to improve the quality of a current offering. This is not surprising given that the primary types of information provided relate to issues with existing products. What is surprising and perhaps encouraging is that totally new products/services are generated at least occasionally from salespersons' ideas.New product/service ideas identified by salespeople may be reported to a number of internal groups in an organization. Table VI summarizes how often salespeople communicate ideas to key new product development groups in the organization. Respondents indicated on a scale of 1 (\"never\") to 6 (\"always\") how often salespeople communicated new product/service ideas to the six key internal groups.Salespeople are most likely to report ideas from customers to a sales manage or sales team. This reporting relationship is not surprising, given the standard hierarchy in sales organizations. As long as mechanisms exist for the sales manager/sales team to pass on the ideas, the use of the sales force as a source of information can be effective. Interestingly, salespeople report new product/service ideas from customers directly to a new product/service development group or a marketing research group quite often.Table VII summarizes the communication tools used by the sales force to communicate new product ideas to the appropriate parties. Respondents indicated whether each method of communication was used by salespeople in the organization.The most common method for communicating new product/service ideas in the organization is oral or face-to-face communication. This is likely in the reporting relationship between salespeople and a sales manager or sales team. Over half of salespeople also use written communication as a tool to share ideas from customers. The written communication suggests a more structured, formal process for communicating ideas in the organization. Surprisingly, less than 20 percent indicated that a CRM system is a tool for communication of ideas. Despite efforts in recent years to incorporate CRM systems, it appears that most salespeople prefer to use traditional oral/written communication tools to communicate new product/service ideas.Table VIII summarizes the frequency of use of various incentives and rewards for salespeople for gathering new product/service ideas from customers.Most salesperson incentives for gathering new product/service ideas are rewarded through positive feedback or company praise. Less than a quarter of sales managers surveyed indicated any tangible incentives, such as a bonus or a raise, for new ideas collected by salespeople from customers.Finally, Table IX summarizes the percentage of new product/services launched by an organization that have come as a result of ideas generated (or collected from customers and reported) by salespeople over the past five years.Although salespeople have minimal incentives and responsibility for collecting information for new product/service idea generation, Table IX suggests that salespeople have been responsible for new product/services in organizations as a result of such information gathering. Roughly three-quarters of respondents indicated that at least some new products/services launched in the past five years were the result of salespeople's ideas.\nManagerial implications: Organizations today must continue to innovate to remain competitive. The generation of new ideas has historically been delegated to R&D, marketing, and new product development teams. Recently, though, firms have begun to recognize the value of another resource for input in the development of new products and services; the salesperson. Salespeople have first-hand interaction with customers and are in an ideal position to extract customer input on products and services. Salespeople must have a mechanism to communicate that information within the organization and ideally will be rewarded for sharing those ideas with the organization. This research describes the current practices of organizations with respect to using salespeople as resources in the new product development process. Its findings can be used by managers as a benchmark for assessing sales force participation in the new product/service development, and to identify ways to encourage increased participation by the sales force in this critical aspect of a firm's survival.The purpose of this research was to explore the role of the salesperson in this important organizational activity. The initial findings suggest several things. First, the salesperson today is contributing to the new product/service development process both indirectly and directly. The salesperson has some responsibility for gathering information and in many cases has a formal, written method to communicate the ideas in the organization. In most firms, the communication of new product/service ideas goes through traditional reporting channels (i.e. through a sales manager) and much of the information communicated is derived from customers discussing problems with current products or identifying how a current product/service is not meeting current needs. The primary outcomes of salesperson idea input is primarily product revisions or extensions, with few truly innovative product/service ideas derived directly from salesperson input. The contributions, though, must still be viewed as very valuable. Extensions and product/service improvements all contribute to firms' success and bottom line. The communication from the customer through the salesperson is the most direct communication tool available. In some firms, salespeople are directly rewarded for communicating ideas, although surprisingly many firms do not acknowledge submission of ideas through incentives. Although the salesperson clearly can make a significant contribution to new product/service development, in many firms, this contribution is not yet directly rewarded.This study indicates that salespeople rarely use CRM systems to communicate new product development information. Consequently, sales managers should be alerted to this weakness in the CRM function and encouraged to offer incentives to salespeople to enhance this feedback mechanism. To achieve this end, organizations must first determine their level of commitment in engaging the sales force in the NPD process. Second, sales managers must provide direction to the sales force and outline the most effective methods to collect customer feedback. Third, formal reporting methods must be established to facilitate the submission of customer-initiated feedback to the sales manager who can then forward it to the appropriate product development groups. Fourth, salespeople must receive feedback on a regular basis summarizing their efforts to provide customer-initiated input to the NPD process. Lastly, sales managers must seek to motivate salespeople and encourage their participation in the NPD process by providing incentives. In order to provide appropriate incentives to salespeople, sales managers may need to align organizational systems within their firm accordingly. In addition to performance evaluations, other systems that may need further development in order to incorporate salespeople incentives include employee training, recruiting and selection, sales support/customer follow-up, information management, and physical distribution (Marshall et al., 1999).Clearly, salespeople can play an important role in gathering and communicating new product/service ideas to the organization. Salespeople typically have the most direct, in-depth contact with customers. Through this interaction, salespeople can help customer needs be fulfilled through new products/services, and they can help their organizations to generate profits through new products and services.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to provide an empirical examination of the role of the salesperson in the new product/service development process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey was mailed to 2,650 sales managers representing US firms across the nation, and the resulting sample size consisted of 246 respondents with a response rate of 9.3 percent. The survey sample included firms with a business-to-business emphasis, and those with a minimum of 50 employees.\nFindings: - The majority of the respondents reported that salespeople are indirectly or directly involved in the new product/service development process. In spite of this contribution, many firms do not directly reward salespeople for their involvement. Offering appropriate incentives could greatly increase their efforts to collect information for new product/service idea generation.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Suggested future research includes the perspectives of salespeople, new product development directors, etc. In addition, the study was strictly domestic and could benefit from an international focus, as well as a comparison of products versus services sectors.\nPractical implications: - The findings from this study can be used by managers as a benchmark for assessing sales force participation in the new product/service development, and to identify ways to encourage increased participation by the sales force with incentives.\nOriginality/value: - Little formalized research has been conducted on the specific role that salespeople play in the new product/service development process. The findings from this study may provide strategic guidance to organizations with respect to the role of salespeople in the critical new product/service development process.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A confirmation perspective on perceived service quality	[ "Customer services quality", "Services marketing", "Expectation", "Perception" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers can be found at the end of this article.\nPerceived service quality constructs: Discussions of the conceptualization and measurement of PSQ center around three constructs:1. expectations;2. perceived performance; and3. disconfirmation (see, for example, Parasuraman et al., 1988; Bolton and Drew, 1991).Expectations\nThe gap conceptualization: The gap conceptualization conceptualizes PSQ as \"the extent of discrepancy between customers' expectations and their perceptions (perceived performance)\" (Zeithaml et al., 1990, p. 19). This conceptualization implies that a consumer who perceives a positive disconfirmation (i.e. a consumer who perceives performance as being greater than what was expected) would perceive the service provider as being higher in quality than a consumer who perceives a negative disconfirmation. Increases in positive disconfirmation are thought to correspond with equivalent increases in PSQ. Conversely, increases in negative disconfirmation are thought to correspond with equivalent decreases in PSQ. In other words, a liner relationship between disconfirmation and PSQ is implicitly assumed (see Figure 1). Exceeding expectations, therefore, is viewed as invariably preferable to meeting or failing to meet expectations. Additionally, exceeding low expectations is thought to result in the same level of quality perceptions as exceeding high expectations.Theoretical foundations and measurement\nThe confirmation conceptualization: The confirmation conceptualization is offered as an alternative explanation of the PSQ formation process, and is consistent with the available empirical evidence. The confirmation conceptualization builds upon the gap conceptualization by developing a more complete explanation of the key role played by expectations in the PSQ formation process.The confirmation conceptualization's view of expectations\nMethodology: Some of the implications of the confirmation conceptualization have received support from previous empirical research. However, other implications have not been empirically tested. Thus the research objectives were:* to test the hypotheses that are unique to the confirmation conceptualization; and* to replicate previous research findings in this area.Including replication hypotheses permitted an assessment of the convergent validity of this study with previous research. Finding consistent results for the replication will provide evidence of the internal and external validity of the study and increase the level of confidence for the empirical results bearing on the unique hypotheses.The hypotheses developed in the previous section were tested using data gathered from a 2 (expectations)x3 (performance) between-subjects experimental design. A total of 143 respondents, drawn from a pool of undergraduate business majors at a large midwestern university, participated in the experiment with sample size of the individual cells ranging from 25 to 31.Procedure\nAnalysis and results: The results of the tests for each of the hypotheses is summarized in Table I, and discussed in detail below.The relationship between expectations and PSQ\nDiscussion: Multiple levels of expectations\nLimitations: Perhaps the most noticeable limitation of this study is the use of a student sample. While care was taken to select a product category with which students had familiarity, students have been criticized as inherently inferior to \"real\" people for the purposes of consumer research (see, for example, Wells, 1993; Winer, 1999). However, Lynch (1999) argues that the use of students does not inherently limit the external validity of a study. Rather, external validity is limited if some background variable held relatively constant by the study interacts with some internally valid effect. The background variables that were likely to be relatively constant due to the use of students as respondents in the present study include age, education level, geography, involvement and earned income. The internally valid effects found in this student are the effect of expectations on quality perceptions, the effect of perceived performance on quality perceptions, and the interactive effect of expectations and perceived performance on quality perceptions. The author knows of no research that would suggest that any of the background variables listed above interact with any of the internally valid effects. One possible exception is presented by involvement which, intuitively, could have an effect on the experiment's effects. However, as the experiment investigates an information processing phenomenon that would seem to operate automatically, the use of relatively uninvolved students would not seem to be problematic (Lynch, 1999).The generalizability of the findings of the present research study is limited by the use of a laboratory setting. The laboratory setting is of course an artificial setting and the respondents were reacting to artificial situations that were presented to them via written scenarios. The respondents may have reacted differently if they were actually experiencing the situations in a real-world setting.The generalizability of the present research study may also be limited by the study's experimental design. First, the experiment used a single service category. Although there is no reason to believe that the process by which consumers evaluate the service provided by film developers is different from the process by which consumers evaluate other types of services, it is unknown whether the results of this study will hold across all service categories. Second, the present study's experimental manipulations attempted to manipulate the expectations construct as a whole, rather than attempting to manipulate each level of expectations independently. Despite this limitation, the relationship between the levels of expectations and perceived quality found in the present data set are consistent with the same relationships that were found in other research studies that did manipulate the levels of expectations separately.\nSummary and future research: The confirmation conceptualization makes important managerial, theoretical, and operational contributions to the service quality literature. Managerially, the confirmation conceptualization suggests that service practitioners should place increased focus on raising their customers' expectations in order to raise their customers' perceptions of quality. To accomplish this objective, research is needed to determine effective ways to increase consumers' expectations. Existing research (e.g. Zeithaml et al., 1993) suggests that service firms have control over several variables that can be used to increase consumer expectations. These variables include advertising, salesperson communications, price, etc. However, there is no empirical evidence in PSQ research concerning the relative effectiveness of these different variables.Theoretically, the confirmation conceptualization contributes to the service quality literature by applying consumer decision making theories to service quality judgments. Thus, the confirmation conceptualization provides a theoretically grounded and empirically supported explanation of the service quality formation process. The application of consumer decision making theories has also led to a more complete understanding of the role played by expectations in the formation of service quality perceptions. The confirmation conceptualization suggests that the various levels of expectations are parts of a single reference range. However, more research that views expectations as a range rather than discrete points is needed. Further, while the confirmation conceptualization is supported by the present data set, replications of the present study using a different methodology may provide insight into the external validity of the findings.The present study offers considerable evidence of the significant role played by expectations in the formation of service quality perceptions. However, the work of Dawar and Pillutla (2000) suggests that role of expectations is amplified when consumers are presented with ambiguous stimuli. As the present study's experimental manipulation was designed to present material in an unambiguous manner, the methodology used may have resulted in an underestimate of the impact of expectations on service quality perceptions. Thus, a survey methodology may result in data that suggest the role of expectations is more significant than implied by the present data.Operationally, the confirmation conceptualization suggests that PSQ should not be measured as the arithmetic difference between performance and expectations. Rather, perceived performance and expectations should be averaged to measure PSQ. While this change is theoretically significant, it is computational from a measurement point of view. Traditional administration of existing instruments (e.g. SERVQUAL) can be used to effectively measure perceptions of quality. However, expectations and perceived performance should be measured separately (as opposed to a direct measurement of disconfirmation) and their scores should be averaged rather than subtracted.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper seeks to provide a theoretical and empirical investigation of the relationship between consumer expectations and consumer perceptions of service quality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The theory of cognitive reference points, adaptation-level theory, and assimilation-contrast theory are used to formulate hypotheses concerning the relationships between perceived service quality, consumer expectations, and perceptions. These hypotheses were empirically investigated through an experiment that manipulated expectations and perceptions while measuring perceived service quality.\nFindings: - The principal finding is that consumer expectations are positive predictors of perceived service quality (i.e. higher expectations lead to higher perceptions of quality). Another finding is that the relationship between expectations and perceived service quality is much stronger than prior literature suggests.\nPractical implications: - The practical implication of this study is that practitioners should seek to actively manage their customers' expectations to increase those expectations.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is valuable to practitioners who are seeking to use expectations to achieve higher perceptions of quality among their customers. It is also valuable to researchers who are seeking to understand the relationship between expectations and quality perceptions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Leadership development in the Asia-Pacific region. Building capacity in the Indonesia defence environment: A case study	[ "Leadership development", "Organisational learning", "Capacity building", "Cross-cultural awareness", "Defence management", "Post-colonial critique" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This exploratory paper provides further discussion about the role of education and leadership development in adding value by sustaining the function of capacity building in emerging countries, and states in development. First, drawing on the ongoing debate about the State and international development management, it focuses on value dimensions which are concerned with perspectives on capacity building. (Brinkerhoff, 2008; Stoddard and Harmer, 2010). To provide grounding to this discussion a backdrop of the emergence of security as well as international development is highlighted. This is prompted by increased expectations and challenges including for example, the rise of non-state actors, more porous borders, energy security, and migration, intrinsic religious and ethnic conflict. This has promoted the security sector to inhabit the same analytic and policy spaces as international development, in recent years (Brainard and Chollet, 2007; Barnett, 2005; Rondinelli and Cheema, 2003).\nCapacity building and leadership development: Within development management, capacity building encompasses building the capacity of the state to engage effectively with non-state actors and support indigenous groups to develop their capability to work as developmental partners, as well as exercising their rights (Goldsmith, 2007; Fukuyama, 2004). A key challenge to support the aim of good governance is also effective capacity building. More specifically, it highlights the increasing call for more effective leadership and transparency in both public as well as private institutions to overcome widespread endemic corruption and miss-management. However, it is argued such capacity building must also be seen within a wider context. For it can be argued development strategy and management is moving away from standardized technical fixes to an emphasis on the importance of context specificity, as well as political factors and a concern with sustainability (Brinkerhoff, 2008). That includes effective capacity building which can be seen as essential to sustainable economic growth whilst also encouraging strong and credible institutions including the military and police forces, a fit for purpose civil service, the transparent rule of law and financial management devoid of corruption, as necessary goals (Moyo, 2010).\nCross-cultural awareness: One overarching key dimension running through this paper is the influence of culture on managing defence and security educational programmes, exemplified in leadership development interventions. Indeed, the transfer of knowledge, practices and technologies across national and international boundaries has received much attention (Adler, 2002; Bartlett et al., 2004; Nye, 2004). However, discussion of the transformative power of the transferred knowledge has also raised questions about the process being an expression of geopolitical power relations between those states that export the management models (and political, civil and military models) and those in which they are implemented; and if it's used as a method to reproduce the exporter's dominance in the modern global order (Focault, 1990, 1976; Frenkel and Shenhav, 2006; Djelic, 1998). Often there is a paucity of debate about the transfer of knowledge and the importance of geopolitical power relations in defining the \"appropriate\" knowledge, practices and technologies for transfer in evaluating the success of the transfer process; and in shaping the management and leadership discourse concerning the process. Clearly, in terms of educational programmes, there is a danger of the predominance of a western epistemological framework for security sector co-operation presenting biased, western ethnocentric course content aligned with inappropriate teaching methods.\nCase study: international institutional capacity building in Indonesia: From an Indonesian perspective, within the Asia-Pacific region, new security and by association, leadership challenges need to be faced, in the years ahead. For example, the shift from being an oil exporter to an oil importer, the impact of climate change, water shortages in major urban centres, the increasing pressures of a rising population on food supplies, endemic corruption in a nascent democracy and the prevalence of natural disasters and terrorism add increasing pressure on natural and human resources. Concomitantly, the focus on the linkage between capacity building, human resource management, involving leadership and institutional development highlights the importance of these key factors for the political, economic and social growth of key institutions within developing nations like Indonesia within the wider Asia-Pacific region.\nCurriculum design: Course content\nResearch design: The research adopted a case study approach incorporating a common strategy related to leadership development (Baron and Morin, 2010; Block and Manning, 2007; Boaden, 2006). The case study organisation was chosen to provide an eclectic mix from the public, private and voluntary sectors, with various organisational sizes, different corporate governance, all working within international and multicultural environments and operating in the wider defence and security sectors over a number of years.\nData collection and analysis: Data collection was gathered from multiple sources to provide corroborative evidence on the key themes. This included primary data from a range of participants and case study organisations but also secondary data including reviews of organisation's web sites, annual reports and various relevant documentary evidence distributed by the participating organisation. With regard to the primary data, the interview protocol was pilot tested and subsequently refined to improve clarity. The semi-structured interviews were conducted on a one-to-one basis and averaged 45 minutes in duration. On completion of the recorded interviews reflective notes were made to record feedback issues and observations of respondents. Finally, interviews were transcribed verbatim after recording. Data were collected over the course of six months.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This paper contributes much needed further discussion about the role leadership development interventions play in supporting capacity building in states in transition and development. Using the Indonesian context in particular within the Asia-Pacific region, it predominantly focussed on the design and delivery of educational programmes which incorporated leadership development for defence and security sector management. The key factor of capacity building was highlighted as playing a pivotal role in international development management. More specifically for this research, given the dearth of research on defence and security management, the study was prescient.\nConclusion: In conclusion, using an example of an educational intervention involving leadership development established over many years in a bi-lateral partnership between the Indonesian and British governments, it revealed that caution is counselled in assuming that success will be guaranteed and will continue unaided and unchallenged. This study highlighted the dangers of the survival of a western-centric epistemological framework still predominating in such interventions. It further signalled the need to recognise both contradictory and ambivalent discourses within changing power relations between providers and receivers of such courses.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide further discussion on the role of educational support adding value by sustaining the function of capacity building in emerging countries and states in transition and development. The Asia-Pacific region is noted for being in a continuous and rapid state of change dramatically affecting both private and public institutions. One such institution involves the provision of education with specific emphasis on leadership development in the defence sector; and the on-going education and development of military personnel, civil servants and civilians from different professions, in the wider Indonesian society. This exploratory research paper highlights one bi-lateral educational initiative that has acted as a catalyst for change which was developed in partnership between the Indonesian and British governments and Cranfield University in the UK. The findings highlight a challenge to dominant western perspectives on educational provision in general and leadership development in particular; and focused on the potential for a schism between content and process issues in the provision in particular of leadership development that is not contextually situated and can be dominated by Anglo-American perspectives. Key factors including capacity building, knowledge management, the learning process and the influence of culture were identified as fundamental and integral for a more appropriate design of leadership development programmes in defence and security, within the Asia Pacific region.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a case study approach, it utilises one educational institution involved in the provision of education with specific emphasis on leadership development in the defence sector; and the on-going education and development of military personnel, civil servants and civilians from different professions.\nFindings: The findings highlight a challenge to dominant western perspectives on educational provision in general and leadership development in particular; and focused on the potential for a schism between content and process issues in the provision of education and leadership development that is not contextually situated and can be dominated by Anglo-American perspectives.\nPractical implications: It is a potential guide in helping practitioners in identifying, designing and implementing leadership development courses to manage the complexity of the processes of change in an international context.\nOriginality/value: Given the dearth of research on defence and security the study was prescient. This paper contributes much needed further discussion about the role leadership development interventions play in supporting capacity building in states in transition and development.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Who defines ethics in your organization?	[ "Ethics", "Training", "Trust", "Leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Presumption of innocence is a fundamental right in most civilized countries. In criminal trials, the burden of proof rests on the prosecution which is required to meet a threshold of reasonable doubt in the presentation of evidence. So indoctrinated are we to the concept that a presumption of guilt is regarded as immoral. To that end, business practices, such as pre-employment drug testing, are frequently the target of rights activists who believe such practices violate the principle by requiring job candidates to prove themselves innocent.\n1. Champion safeguards in the organization: Remind yourself that the presumption of innocence afforded to an individual does not require naivete when considering large numbers of people that surveys reveal bend rules and later rationalize their own bad behavior. Assume the best in others while also championing the establishment of safeguards to reduce both temptation and the ease of wrongdoing by individuals inclined to breach ethics.Facilitate process improvement events that seek to move beyond simply improving efficiencies and also flag or prevent ethical breaches. It has long been a standard practice in accounting that the individual responsible for paying the bills is a different person from the one responsible for reconciling the bank statement. Similarly, a company policy that requires the most senior person at a business function to pick up the restaurant tab, naturally ensures that expense approvals are made by a third party who was not at the event and can evaluate the expense on its merits. Seek to introduce checks and balances throughout the organization whenever process-improvement is on the agenda.Trust and also verify. Ask for details. Ask for information to be repeated. Ask lots of questions. Ask about different topics. Ask for written summaries of steps taken and actions agreed. Even the most skilled liar will often stumble when required to fabricate many answers or when required to record their deeds on paper.Provide a mechanism for individuals in the organization to ask questions about ethics and report misdeeds without risk of negative consequence.Remember that deception is difficult to detect. Mechanized lie detectors and polygraph tests have proven unreliable in detecting lies and in providing an alarming number of false-positives. Similarly unreliable are many human attempts to accurately diagnose deception, even by highly trained professionals like police officers and judges who get a lot of practice being lied to. Collect data and rely on the systems in place to do the job they were designed to do. When systems reveal deception, resist the temptation to transfer your feelings to others who may be worthy of trust.\n2. Provide leaders with training, feedback and coaching: Leaders establish principles concerning the way goals should be pursued and the way people should be treated. They set examples for others to follow. James Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge (Kouzes and Posner, 1993), surveyed over 15,000 people and asked them how they would like their leaders to behave. The overwhelming first-choice was honesty. Honesty was followed by the ability to be forward-looking (to think about the future and what it will be like), the ability to be inspiring (to get people excited and motivated about things), and competence (knowing what they need to know to do a good job). When these four qualities are added together they make up a key quality of leadership and that is credibility.The root word for credibility is the word \"credo\" which means I trust or I believe. It is the same root word for credit. When you get a loan or apply for a credit card, they do a credit check on you. The reason they do this is to see if they can trust you or believe you. It is the same with leaders. Followers want to know that they can trust their leaders. That is presumably why the research showed that people valued credibility over everything else and is an excellent starting point when providing training for leaders on the subject of ethics.Teach leaders how to build their credibility. Provide them with their own credit report in the form of a 360 degree leadership assessment that will inform them about how their behaviors are perceived by others. Make training and coaching available for leaders to reconcile the differences between how they see themselves and how others see them.Provide leaders with opportunities to learn how to do the two most critical things leaders are called on to do:1. select people who not only possess the skills and knowledge to carry out job responsibilities but also fit within the corporate culture and reflect the ethics desired by the organization; and2. create an environment where people can thrive and be most successful.\n3. Provide training throughout the organization designed to build relationships and foster the development of interpersonal skills: Healthy relationships are those that consistently are characterized by collaborative behaviors that result in mutually beneficial outcomes. In healthy professional relationships, ethical behavior is more likely than in relationships among strangers or where mistrust exists. One does not have to look far in organizations to discover that collaboration is not the norm.We interact with others all day, every day. Effective interpersonal skills rank high on the lists of the qualities we value in others and others value in us. In spite of the strong awareness we all seem to have for the importance of these skills, the average person does not relate well to others. As a result, many of us resort to situational ethics where the ethical choices we make are driven largely by the nature of the relationship we enjoy with others. When we stretch the truth when interacting with a stranger or customer but think twice about that same behavior when interacting with a close colleague, friend or relative, we are guilty of employing situational ethics.Trust is built over time. A valuable lesson to learn and to teach others is to slow down and seek to build a relationship with the other party before reaching an agreement, negotiating the solution to a problem, or closing a deal. The odds of being deceived are much higher in transactions that involve a single interaction over those that involve a series of interactions over time.It is interesting to note that as the means of electronic communication becomes easier, people often find face-to-face communications more difficult. In pursuit of relationship-building, encourage personal face-to-face training and communications. It is easier for people to lie when the communication is more impersonal such as on the phone or via email. The expediency of electronic communication is small reward if you have been deceived.It has become clear by now that the government and the traditional education system is not going to ensure that the future members of the workforce graduate with a solid foundation in personal and interpersonal skills to bring to their careers. To foster a culture of ethics, companies must equip people with critical skills such as communication, etiquette, listening, judgment, decision making, teambuilding, negotiation and conflict resolution.\n4. Bring intercultural training to your organization: Culture is a shared system of meaning. It determines what we pay attention to, how we act and what we value. Culture determines the interpretation we assign to another person or organization's behavior. Even for members within the same organization, a person's national culture will color and reflect how goals and missions of the organization's culture are understood and met. What is considered to be a fee for service in one culture is considered a bribe in another.With a growing global economy and an increasingly international community, attention to varying interpretations of values and ethics must command top priority. It is not enough to communicate corporate values. In-depth training on company expectations and how the values translate into day-to-day behaviors is critical.Integrity is a word found in many company value statements. Conduct an experiment by asking people to talk about what integrity means to them in specific behavioral terms. You may be surprised to discover the creative rationalizations people use to justify their own behavior in the name of integrity.With a diverse workforce, the complexity of defining ethics and agreeing on standard protocols becomes complicated. When business is conducted across the globe, the picture is even more complex. Yesterday's diversity training designed to promote understanding and teach individuals to value and appreciate differences is not enough when it comes to ethics.To be effective, we need to be culturally wise. We must learn to realize that superficial understanding can have a tremendous negative impact on people and business itself. Differences in values mean differences not only in \"how\" but \"why\" people behave the way they do. Training by a skilled interculturalist addressing the underlying attributes of world cultures is essential today.\n5. Above all, do not contribute to the problem: Hold yourself to a higher standard. Become the rare person who carefully and consciously chooses your behavior. Constantly question and challenge yourself. Are you judging yourself by your good intentions or by your actions? Are you rationalizing a bad act after-the-fact to justify it or did you act from your core values?Remind yourself that your acts of omission are just as dangerous as acts of commission when the result is another person missing critical information or inferring an untruth. Many of us create a double-standard by refusing to lie on principle (innocent of commission) yet fail to disclose important information (guilty by omission).If you have a naturally trusting nature (many of us do) and believe others until you have a reason to distrust them, balance it with a strong sense of curiosity and awareness, especially early in the relationship-building process.Foster a culture of trust by talking about ethics, go public in your commitment to honesty and openness, and role model the behaviors you want to see. And when you make a mistake, as you inevitably will, 'fess up and make it right.Who defines ethics in your organization? If not the leaders and champions in the learning function, defining ethics will be left to the individuals themselves. A frightening thought when the survey results on ethics of the future workforce are considered.A culture of ethics is within the grasp of every individual, family, organization, community and nation. It is not easy and does not happen instantly. Like all growth, the process is long and mistakes along the way can represent critical learning moments. Take small steps, celebrate successes, and be kind to each other along the way.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore ethics at work and present the inherent challenges facing both leaders and learning professionals in encouraging ethical behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Survey results are presented that reveal large numbers of people who consider themselves ethical also confess to lying, cheating and stealing. Five practical tips are provided to help learning professionals address these contradictions.\nFindings: - People often rationalize their bad behavior, after the fact, to preserve their own internal beliefs that their behavior is indeed on high moral ground. This reality presents unique challenges for those charged with defining ethics in organizations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The 2006 survey, conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics (the CHARACTER COUNTS!SM organization) was extensive in that it involved over 35,000 respondents. While it paints a picture of the future workforce and informs readers of associated challenges, it does not include representatives of the current workforce.\nPractical implications: - Organizations seeking to promote ethics must translate their values statements into specific behavioral terms and provide training to help leaders and employees alike clearly understand and demonstrate the desired culture.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides an analysis of research around (un)ethical behavior of the members of the future workforce, along with useful actionable steps for learning professionals.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Continuing vocational training in Belgian companies: An upward tendency	[ "Vocational training", "Training management", "Belgium" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Aiming to achieve the Lisbon strategic goal for the European Union (European Council, 2000) to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based society in the world, measures and indicators of investment in human resources are indispensable. In this framework, information on continuing vocational training (CVT) provided by enterprises sheds light upon one main aspect of lifelong learning. This information is interesting to assess both competitiveness of enterprises (Frazis et al., 1995; Sels et al., 2000) and employability of the workforce through training (OECD, 1999; Unesco, 1996). Investment in CVT by enterprises reflects their willingness to devote resources to responding to the evolution of the labour market and the potential they have for doing so. Furthermore, it is vital to establish policies and strategies with a view to adapting human resources to changes in structure of production and service processes as well as technologies in the different sectors of economic activity.With these factors in mind, the European Commission and Eurostat launched a new survey of CVT, which is a continuation of the first survey. The first survey was conducted in 1994 among the then 12 member states of the European Union and the reference year was 1993. The second survey (CVTS2) was conducted in 2000/2001 in all the member states, Norway and nine accession countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia) and it related to the investments companies made in CVT in 1999.Both studies aimed to provide comparable statistical data on the volume and content of CVT within enterprises as well as background information on training policy and training management throughout Europe. The results not only allow for a comparison between the training efforts of European companies, but also allow examining the evolution of training over the last decade.Within the scope of this research project, current paper gives an overview of the evolutions in CVT in Belgian companies over the past ten years, by comparing both the results of the survey of 1994 and 2000/2001. The trends in the provision of CVT by Belgian companies is described both in terms of the volume of training efforts and in terms of more qualitative characteristics of CVT within enterprises.Growing interest in continuing vocational training\nMethods: In order to provide comparable statistical data on continuing vocational training within enterprises throughout Europe a large-scale survey was conducted based on a standardised questionnaire. The research project was part of the action programme for the development of continuing vocational training in the European Community (FORCE). The research project team consisted of Eurostat and partners from the 15 member states of the European Union, Norway and nine accession countries. An external contract team assisted the commission and the research project team. Starting late autumn 1998, four meetings of the research project team took place up to the beginning of 2000 preparing the survey. The same procedure was followed in each of the participating countries to ensure comparability.Sample and procedure\nResults: Training enterprises versus non-training enterprises, by size class and economic activity\nConclusions: CVTS 1 gave a first broad outline of the efforts devoted to continuing vocational training in Belgian enterprises (De Brier et al., 1996). By making use of a representative sample of enterprises, taking into account two relevant criteria for stratification (i.e. company size and economic activity), the results indicated significant differences on continuing vocational training between size classes and sectors. The second survey, referring to the efforts in 1999, allows reassessing and adapting the Belgian picture. It appears that during the last decade there were some clear changes. At the same time, other previously detected tendencies continued in the same direction. In general, we can conclude that a positive evolution has taken place since 1993 and that this evolution was manifested most strongly in places where improvement was a priority.As we expected, based on previous research, Belgian enterprises increasingly invested in continuing vocational training. In 1999 about 70 per cent of the Belgian enterprises with more than ten employees provided continuing vocational training against 46 per cent in 1993. Primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SME's) augmented their investment in training during the last decade.Also the results on the reasons for not providing CVT lead one to suspect that employers do not want training needs to be unanswered and that they attach more and more importance to competent employees.Furthermore, the results concerning \"access to CVT courses\" and \"efforts in financial terms\" show a positive evolution. In 1999 41 per cent of the Belgian employees had the opportunity to participate in CVT courses, compared to 16 per cent in 1993. Although the intensity of training declined, taking into account the average number of course hours per participant, the results on \"access to CVT courses\" indicate an extension of the target group. The financial participation in CVT increased from 1.4 per cent in 1993 to 1.6 per cent in 1999.Furthermore, the results on the types of continuing vocational training show an increase in on-the-job training in Belgian enterprises. More particularly, within industrial enterprises the low investment in CVT courses appears to be compensated by a higher investment in on-the-job training. It's important to notice that this type of CVT is primarily used for blue collar and white collar workers.Finally, the study reveals that there is not only an increase in the quantity of CVT efforts but that there is also a positive evolution with respect to the quality of CVT. More and more employers are investing their energy in finding a way to formalise the CVT-policy through policy tools such as competency management and evaluation. This type of evolution tends to say that the rise of the training efforts coincides with a rise in general interest for the training quality.Despite the general positive tendency, some important remarks have to be made. Not all employees have the same opportunity to take part in continuing vocational training.Size class appeared to be the most important determinant for investment in CVT. In line with the results of 1993, even today the rule is: \"the larger the enterprise, the higher the investment in CVT and the more employees have access to CVT.\" This can be explained by a lack of time, the CVT-costs and/or the absence of an internal training function or department. For small enterprises, the manpower problem is more pressing and these enterprises do not benefit costadvantage by economies of scale. Furthermore, only for the enterprises with more than 250 employees it is reasonable to have an internal training centre.Also the economic activity of enterprises determines, although to a lesser extent than size class, the efforts made to continuing vocational training. Service enterprises still invest more in CVT than industrial enterprises. The higher investments of service enterprises can be explained by the fact that these enterprises employ primarily white-collar workers, whilst industrial enterprises primarily employ blue-collar workers. As previous studies (Sels et al., 2000, De Brier et al., 1996, Buyens et al., 2003) have shown that enterprises invest more in continuing vocational training for white-collar workers than blue-collar-workers, the difference in workforce can be considered as a possible explanation for the gap between service and industrial enterprises. However, it is important to notice that industrial enterprises primarily make use of the other forms of continuing vocational training (e.g. on-the-job training). The latter are often not considered as \"training\", but as a necessary part of the job, which could distort the results. Moreover, this study focused on CVT courses to measure the efforts devoted to continuing vocational training. This restriction implicates that the enterprises that primarily provide less formal types of CVT to train their employees are not depicted in this study as they should be.\nDiscussion: In line with the Lisbon European Council (March 2000), Belgium confirmed lifelong learning as a basic component of the social model (Flemish Government, 2000). Lifelong learning is considered as a key element for promoting a skilled, trained and adaptable workforce. In this respect, employers are highlighted for developing the competencies of their workforce: \"enterprises should be facilitated to become learning organisations, where everyone learns and develops through the work context.\" (Flemish Government, 2000). The CVT survey is a useful source of statistical information for monitoring lifelong learning as a process and assessing progress towards the implementation of related policies. Both policy-makers and employers can benefit from this statistical information on the effort devoted to continuing vocational training in Belgian enterprises.For the policy-makers, the results of the survey are important to analyse differences among types of enterprises, in training organised and, more particularly, on the evaluation of the need for support in an area which benefit at the same time employers and employees. Based on the results, we can conclude that in Belgium a two-track policy is required to stimulate both training and non-training enterprises to invest in their human resources. Since 1993, the gap between large and service enterprises on the one hand and SME's en industrial enterprises on the other hand has decreased. Nevertheless, we can conclude that if training efforts are to be revitalised and more workers are to be given access to training opportunities, primarily small and industrial enterprises need to be made aware of or encouraged to adopt continuing training programmes. Firstly, the opportunities of on-the-job training and external CVT courses should be taken into account and enhanced as the results indicate that small, industrial enterprises primarily make use of these types of CVT. Secondly, it is recommended to examine which role the different providers can play. In Belgium, public training institutions and industrial organisations are strongly involved in policy-making aimed at increasing the investments in CVT by enterprises. The results show that the enterprises know the way to these public institutions. Also in the future, these public institutions can play an important role in the pursuit of lifelong learning. Furthermore, the possibilities of involving schools, colleges and universities in training adults should be examined.For the enterprises, CVTS provides benchmarking at several levels (country, enterprise size and economic sector) on training provision, on access to and participation in training, on the intensity and the costs of training. It also provides a description of the context in which they operate, from the point of view of training for their employees.Despite the added value of the CVTS data, some limitations should be pointed out.First, continuing vocational training in enterprises has changed during the last decade. Attention is paid to CVT courses as well as to informal forms of CVT. However, the CVTS 2 included a rather \"classic\" approach towards continuing vocational training as the definition was restricted to \"planned\" CVT. This restriction was necessary because CVTS 2 had to be comparable with CVTS 1, and so both studies had to be based on the same definitions.Second, by focusing on CVT courses in analysing the efforts in financial terms and in terms of access and hours spent to CVT, the results should be dealt with care. Concerning the other forms of CVT, only qualitative questions were included because, in this respect, it appeared to be difficult to distinct training hours from working hours. This implicates that the results give only a partly outline of the efforts devoted to continuing vocational training in Belgian enterprises. As the methods to assess less formal CVT are, this restriction was necessary. However, taking into account the growing interest in on-the-job training within the industrial sectors, further research should also include the other forms of CVT.Third, analysis of inequalities or disparities in access to continuing vocational training is an important field of inquiry in any evaluation of vocational training systems that seeks to assess their selectiveness and effectiveness in supplementing the training offered. As in any analysis of forms of inequality involving the relationship between training and employment, those under investigation here may be caused by at least two factors. The first is the characteristics of enterprises, the second those of individuals, or even both at the same time. The CVTS 2 data are taken from enterprises; consequently, they do not enable us to take into account the individual heterogeneity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - As part of the European continuing vocational training survey, this paper aims to give an overview of the evolutions in continuing vocational training (CVT) in Belgian companies, by comparing both the results of the survey of 1994 and those of 2000/2001.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In Belgium 1,129 companies took part in the survey of 2000/2001. The sample was representative of Belgian companies with more than ten employees, making use of two criteria: company size and economic activity. The data were collected by telephone, post and face-to-face interviews based on a standardised questionnaire.\nFindings: - The findings suggest that the Belgian companies increasingly invested in both formal and informal learning. The results concerning \"access to CVT courses\" and \"efforts in financial terms\" also show a positive evolution. Finally, the study reveals that the CVT-policy within companies has become more formal. Despite this positive tendency in general, not all employees seem to have the same opportunities to take part in CVT. The company size and, to a lesser extent, the activity of the company are two important determinants for the investment in CVT.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study focused on the formal types of CVT; consequently, it gives only a partial outline of the training efforts in Belgian enterprises. Future research should also include the other forms of CVT. Furthermore, the data are taken from enterprises; as such, they do not enable us to take into account the individual heterogeneity.\nPractical implications: - A two-track policy is required to stimulate both training and non-training enterprises to invest in their human resources. More specifically, the opportunities of on-the-job training and external CVT courses should be enhanced and it is recommended to examine which role the different providers can play.\nOriginality/value: - The CVT survey is a useful source of statistical information for monitoring continuing vocational training by both policy-makers and enterprises.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Integrating contractor and property developer for product system innovations	[ "Facilities management", "Green issues", "Corporate strategy", "Business development", "Technological innovation", "Clients" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: How is a contractor to profit from product innovations? The literature shows that the ability to capture value from an innovation depends on the type of product innovation. For the building industry, Slaughter (1998) distinguished between incremental, radical, modular, architectural and system innovations. For incremental or minor, modular or \"isolated\" innovations, competitors are likely to imitate rapidly and erode any competitive advantage in the absence of intellectual property rights protection. While radical innovations may be of great importance, they are very rare in the building industry. An architectural innovation requires change in the relationship among components, whereas a system innovation requires the integration of multiple independent innovations, arising from different sources and possibly belonging to different varieties. The key issue for architectural and system innovations is that adaptations need to be integrated across technological and organizational boundaries. Once implemented, system or architectural innovations should, therefore, be harder to imitate, increasing the probability that the builder will profit from them.\nTechnology risks and costly signalling: The fundamental asymmetry of information regarding the durability and long-term behaviour of a facility implies that external clients face a higher degree of uncertainty than contractors do when traditional technologies are replaced by innovations. If government regulative action is insufficient for lowering customer risk, producers may engage in signalling (Akerlof, 1970; Riley, 2001). As any actor may signal, not all signals are valuable; useful signals from the perspective of the sender are the ones that are perceived as reliable by the receiver. Following Spence (1973), it has been shown that reliable signals at least for the discerning receiver need to be costly, i.e. cumbersome, expensive or time consuming to send.\nMarket demand and the scope of firms: A construction group with capabilities to produce more or less innovative office buildings can operate in two different markets: either for external clients or for property investors, using an in-house developer as the intermediary. These alternative models are shown in Figure 1.\nReasons for vertical integration in construction: A vertically integrated firm includes output processes where the output of one upstream process is an intermediate input into a downstream process. Currently, studies of vertical integration in construction (Bridge and Tisdell, 2004; Brahm and Tarzijan, 2013, 2014) operate with syntheses of transaction costs economics (Williamson, 1985) and the knowledge or capability-based view of the firm (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Jacobides and Winter, 2005). The combined approach is usually applied to the issue of boundaries between main contractors and specialty trade subcontractors. Brahm and Tarzijan (2013) have extended the analysis of subcontracting and related it also to the integration of design and construction.\nCapabilities in firms in general: Capabilities determine what a firm can do in normal circumstances, and they can be described as based on routines, defined as repeated action sequences, which may have their roots in algorithms and heuristics about how the enterprise is to get things done (Teece, 2012). A firm's capabilities are based on the individual skills of its employees and the collective learning based on their collaboration, as well as on available physical resources. This means that the capability or the knowledge-based view of the firm explains the existence and scope of the firm from the comparatively better ability to share and transfer individuals' knowledge within a firm rather than by using the market. Thus, a reason for the existence of firms is that knowledge and capabilities are \"sticky\"; tacit and cognitive limitations prevent others from understanding knowledge possessed by the firm even if described although frequent interactions among firms can mitigate the problem (Afuah, 2001).\nInnovation and the scope of firms: System innovations are associated with risk and a firm's scope of activities can be analysed as a response to uncertainty. There are many reasons why uncertainty may increase in an industry, including changes in demand and consumption patterns, institutional and political reorientations, and certainly also innovations. In the context of system innovations in construction, it is relevant that Harrigan (1984) found that the major reason for pioneering firms within \"embryonic industries\" to undertake many stages of integrated activity would be to create and signal credibility for a radically new industry. Technological complexity together with design specificity and complexity tends to lead to integration of production within a single firm, according to Masten's (1984) study of the aerospace industry. Riordan and Sappington (1987) studied a two-stage production process, where cost realizations at each stage might be correlated and observable to the producer. If these are negatively correlated and small, it can be shown that the customer will prefer the supplier performing the first stage to perform the second stage. With large or uncorrelated costs arising from the two stages, integration might be less valuable to the customer.\nA case: integration and green innovation within a construction group: Relying on the Skanska annual reports from 1995 to 2014 as sources, the links between integration and product system innovations can be outlined. In the mid-1990s, the conglomerate character of the Skanska group was strong, with several examples of upstream integration into manufacturing. Downstream integration was obvious in large property holdings, but a divestment strategy began taking effect in 1998. As of 2003, the group was reorganized with four business streams, one of which was commercial project development, relying on internal construction contracts within the group. At this point, the property operations were to be concentrated on developing, leasing and divesting new projects.\nImplications for construction and facilities management: Can these theories and empirical findings from very different industries be transferred to the domain of project-based businesses? The answer is neither obvious, given that heterogeneous markets and unstable demand within these are old challenges for construction firms, nor clear why opportunities for product system innovations should be thought to have an identifiable effect on patterns of integration. It is possible to formulate a set of propositions that concern the links between innovation and integration for construction and FM.\nConclusions: For this paper, the broader underlying question is why in-house property developers are created. As found in recent publications on the theories of the firm and applications in the construction economics literature, it is clear that no single theory is sufficient to explain the creation, scope or existence of in-house developers in relation to innovations. There appears to have been no attempts in prior research to link the phenomenon of in-house developers to product system innovations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explain why construction groups facing opportunities for product system innovations, such as green buildings, may choose to integrate construction and property development, taking on facilities management (FM) for a limited period.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Conceptual analysis based on prior literature and illustrated by a single case of integration.\nFindings: For product system innovations, an in-house developer should be more able to reduce uncertainty than independent developers, due to unobservable long-term technological quality for customers, because the property becomes associated with lower risk after having been owned and operated. Alternatives such as building certification systems support incremental innovations, warranties suffer from double moral hazard in the long run and risk allocation in public-private partnership projects often fails to encourage system innovations. Integration allows the contractor to work continuously with innovative projects, developing new capabilities, which allow the firm to signal proficiency to the market, employees and the investment community.\nResearch limitations/implications: The phenomenon is new, and further empirical surveys are needed to confirm the hypothetical conclusions drawn here.\nPractical implications: The value of close collaboration between those who develop innovative green building technologies and facilities managers is outlined.\nOriginality/value: The relation between the scope of corporate activities in construction groups, technological innovations and FM has not been studied before.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Firm size and risk taking in Malaysia's insurance industry	[ "Insurance", "Malaysia", "Large enterprises", "Assets", "Underwriting", "Risk finance", "Total assets", "Too big to fail", "Firm size", "Underwriting risk" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the last few years that marked the close of the twentieth century right until the first decade of the present era, the financial industry worldwide has certainly had its share of downturns. In light of widespread reports of unforeseen business failures and financial closures that rocked economies globally, debates on the size of insurance companies and excessive risk taking began surfacing and becoming a vital cause for concern, being inextricably linked to a host of financial bailouts. One such bailout that left an indelible mark in America's financial industry is that of American International Group Inc. (AIG), which occurred in the year 2008.Karnitschnig et al. (2008) postulated that the Federal Reserves Bank had taken an unusual step in providing aid to AIG in this context, bearing in mind that AIG hailed neither from a banking sector, nor did it fall under the purview of the federal government. Consequently, the first question that arises following this USD 85 billion bailout is why AIG was given such preference. Many factors could have contributed to the procurement of such massive rescue funds by AIG, incidentally, the largest insurer in the USA, the most likely being that if AIG was allowed to go under, it would have inevitably led to a large-scale financial panic in the nation. It was partly for this reason that the Federal Reserves Bank sprang into action and seized control of the company, thus branding it the biggest bailout in American history.One important consideration underlying the AIG bailout pertains to firm size, premised on the too-big-to-fail (TBTF) theory. Advocates of the TBTF theory believe that government support and the guarantee of a financial bailout are warranted for large financial institutions facing crises for the main purpose of avoiding disruptions within a country's economy. The drawback, however, may be that the TBTF doctrine is the culprit behind excessive risk taking by insurance firms of large proportions.The TBTF doctrine, according to Zhou (2010), has a dark side to it - apart from diminishing market discipline, larger institutions are also spurred to take on more risk, buffered by their certainty of policy preference towards large-scale firms believed to be TBTF. Karmin and Ng (2012) found evidence revealing that huge bets on the US real-estate market, coupled with the complex derivative unit used by AIG, constituted some of the excessive risks that drove the firm to the brink of mere survival. It can be deduced, therefore, that the TBTF theory paves the way for the expansion of an organisation in terms of size, thereby enabling it to obtain a privileged position, and also provides a catalyst for the organisation to become a greater risk taker (Stern and Feldman, 2004). Inadvertently, firm size has become a critical issue which supervisory authorities need to address. This study, therefore, examines issues pertaining to the relationship between corporate size and risk taking by insurance companies. Due to various constraints, the time frame used in this study is limited to the period between 2000 and 2010, while the data are sourced only from one country, which is Malaysia, mainly due to the nation's status of being one of the fastest growing economies in south-east Asia.In a relatively small economy like Malaysia's, market size and the number of insurance operators may be at a seemingly insignificant point; yet, oversight of the importance of the size-risk nexus could potentially lead to not just a national crisis, but also to investors' panic, which could likely escalate and seriously challenge neighbouring countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. Based on this notion, this paper first contributes to existing research by empirically examining the size-risk relationship of insurance firms in an emerging economy. Second, it aims at expanding the availability of research on the interplay of firm size and risk, a factor largely neglected in current studies involving insurers. This is mainly in lieu of the fact that similarly with the banking sector, potential damage from insurer failures would also lead to vulnerability of the public. Third, while it is undeniable that research on company size and risk level is not absolutely new, the recurrences of financial turmoil worldwide, such as the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and the American sub-prime mortgage crisis in 2008, strongly justify the need to conduct this study using more recent data. Finally, with evidence of the relationship between company size and risk being rather weak (Barrell et al., 2011a; Boyd and Runkle, 1993), there arises a compelling need for firm size to play a more significant role in empirical studies rather than merely functioning as a treatment group, as indicated in prior studies. Firm size is unique and plays an essential role in economic policy. Hence, corporate size has been accorded with much more serious attention in this study. The outcome from this research is expected to enable relevant governments to concentrate on firm size and integrate it into policy formulation. In so doing, the supervising unit would embrace initiatives that would help ensure resilience and soundness in the insurance sector.This paper is organised as follows: in the next section, previous works on size and risk taking are briefly discussed followed by an explanation on the research framework and the sources of data for analysis. In the Empirical results section, the relationship between firm size and risk taking is analysed, after which comes a summary of the study, together with its policy implications.\nLiterature review: Within the present century, one can roughly pinpoint to mid-2007 being the start of the global financial crisis of this era, from which time began an intensified debate on the effectiveness of risk control systems then in existence. Among several regulatory issues brought under public scrutiny, the moral hazard problem induced by the TBTF policy has been one of the major causes of trouble in the financial industry (Pais and Stork, 2011).Premised on the TBTF theory, Boyd and Runkle (1993) argued that failures of larger banks are to be more dreaded than smaller bank failures due to the macroeconomic implications involved. Therefore, it is posited that when an institution is characterised to have systemic importance, policymakers are more willing to intervene to prevent its collapse (Ennis and Malek, 2005) since total damage could jeopardise and destabilise the whole financial system (Zhou, 2010). This sheds some light on why most governments would hardly ever allow large financial institution to be in default. Reinforcing this belief is the growing evidence of government rescue missions in the past, indicative of the vital role played by the TBTF theory in an economy.In the case of the USA, for instance, the AIG and Bear Stearns bailouts by the Federal Reserves Bank constitute persuasive evidence that the TBTF policy had been extended to protect not only large banks, but also other sectors, including insurance and investment banking (Brewer III and Jagtiani, 2013). These instances had undeniably led market participants to expect liquidity provisioning from financial regulators in the event of unfavourable trade-offs (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 2011). Ultimately, the ball lands in the court of taxpayers who mainly bear the brunt during bailouts of troubled institutions (Lu, 2011). As such, the bailout plan for a large institution, which is implicitly designed to help minimise systemic risk, has its limitation in encouraging moral hazard problems and excessive risk taking. It is, therefore, imperative to take into account whether larger companies are more likely to assume greater risks based on the TBTF policy.As reiterated by Boyd and Runkle (1993), because the collapse of banks with a bigger operating size is considerably worse than the collapse of those with a smaller size, market expectations are shaped by the notions of how valuable a government guarantee is to large banking companies. Their study, however, which involved empirical tests using data from 122 banks over the period of 1971-1990, provided only limited support for their hypothesis on the relationship between firm size and the risk of failure.In a study that delved into the Korean banking industry, Lee (2008) hypothesised that larger banks might operate with a small capital and get involved in riskier strategies to exploit diversification advantages. Consistently, the finding shows that larger banks have unprofitable risk taking incentives from 1994 to 1997; this effect, however, disappears between 1998 and 2005, leading to the suggestion that the moral hazard of larger banks prevails only when regulations are not tight, which may have been the scenario in the latter time frame.Barrell et al. (2011a), in a similar study on bank size and risk involving OECD banks spanning from 1993 to 2008, provided clear evidence that larger banks are associated with higher risk. This is very much due to the luxury extended by the lender of last resort policy which provides an incentive for banks to increase size and take on more risk (Barrell et al., 2011b).By using more comprehensive sample coverage, Lu (2011) extended the study on size and risk taking beyond commercial banks to include investment banks and life insurance firms. This study, conducted from 1998 to 2008, concluded that size and risk taking are positively related.It is consistently reported that risk diversification is associated with larger institutions but this benefit is typically offset by higher financial leverage that can pose significant risks to the firm (Boyd and Runkle, 1993; Liang and Rhoades, 1991). The empirical findings regarding the effect of firm size on risk taking support that larger banks tended to follow riskier strategies by holding less capital and hence larger banks did not necessarily associate with total risk reduction (Demsetz and Strahan, 1997).Does a smaller firm size then imply better risk control? According to Boyd and Runkle (1993), with reference to the theory of modern intermediation, a larger firm is more cost efficient and less likely to fail. This theory suggests that being bigger proffers an advantage in reducing pooled risks through a large number of contracting parties, thereby reducing the possibility of failure. As such, larger institutions are believed to have more profitable investment opportunities, higher efficiency, more diversification and a lower risk level. Consistently, Boyd and Runkle's (1993) findings suggest an inverse relationship between firm size and asset return volatility. As pointed out by Mainelli and Giffords (2010), firms larger in size can enjoy economies of scale and scope, and also pass an important criterion to enable them to compete globally.Having reviewed the various studies aforementioned, it can be deduced that both the moral hazard theory and modern intermediation theory are undeniably important in predicting the relationship between firm size and risk taking. While each theory provides relevant arguments and weaknesses using valid statistical findings, although somewhat limited and contradicting, it can be hypothesised that risk taking is related to the size of insurance companies.\nModel specification: sample, methodology and variables: Sample\nEmpirical results: Descriptive analysis\nDiscussion: Excessive risk taking can be destructive to the financial system as well as the economy of a country. With this in mind, this study is motivated to examine how insurance firm size is related to risk taking, particularly underwriting risk, in the developing economy of Malaysia. Underwriting risk, represented by the loss ratio, is reported to be positively related to insurance firm size. This finding is consistent with prior studies and the hypothesis that risk level increases when the company size is larger. More specifically, the moral hazard theory predicts that the TBTF doctrine distorts market discipline and leads to excessive risk taking due to the certainty of possible bailouts. As a result, a firm would most likely be a greater risk-taker and engage in expansion activities to achieve a larger size, in order to be entitled to a government bailout should the need arise.Given these findings and other regulatory concerns, several recommendations were made in this study to minimise the negative impacts of excessive risk taking in relation to size. Since it is not easy to determine the correct size threshold, capping the size of a firm is not always the best regulatory response. Recognising this, it is important to distinguish between the safest and riskiest insurance company across the category of firm size through periodic monitoring. The risk disclosure, in addition to other supervisory information should be made more readily accessible to the public on a regular basis. With this measure in place, not only will there be a more timely identification of high risk activities, market discipline will also limit the opportunities for risky firms to conduct moral hazard activities. Such irregularities that arise at the firm level must then prompt a series of regulatory and corrective action to address the adversities. Next, the approval of M&As must be totally justifiable, subject to more stringent requirements. Regulatory bodies must exert significant effort and time towards understanding the motivations of M&As and examine the potential benefits of such moves. While in most cases, M&As offer a number of strategic benefits like risk diversification, higher efficiency and economies of scale and scope, the positive association between firm size and risk taking evidenced in this study does cast a shadow of doubt on those purported benefits. It is a challenge indeed but without thorough examination, sector consolidation will create giant companies that would be a threat to the economy based on the TBTF theory. It is imperative, therefore, that supervisory bodies leave no stones unturned when weighing the overall synergistic effects of establishing firms which are too big to fail.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide insights on how a firm's size is related to risk taking of Malaysia's insurance companies, from 2000-2010.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The sample used for empirical testing in this study comprised direct insurance firms licensed under Malaysia's Insurance Act 1996, for the time frame between 2000 and 2010. Pearson's correlation, fixed and random effects models, and the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method were used in this study.\nFindings: - Both the fixed effects and the system GMM panel data regression models suggested a positive link between the insurance firm size and underwriting risk. For the robustness test, the results of the analysis using changes in data broadly resemble the outputs of the levels estimation.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample of this study is limited to Malaysia's insurance sector only.\nOriginality/value: - Advocates of the too-big-to-fail (TBTF) theory believe that government support and the guarantee of a financial bailout are warranted for large financial institutions facing crises, for the main purpose of avoiding disruptions within a country's economy. The drawback, however, may be that the TBTF doctrine is the culprit behind excessive risk taking by insurance firms of large proportions. A number of regulatory concerns have been raised and addressed from this study.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Chinese study finds helping proactively improves employee wellbeing	[ "Helping behaviour", "Meaningfulness", "Workplace well-being" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A Chinese research paper has demonstrated that proactive helping is positively related to the helpers' wellbeing. But the same study found that the relationship between reactive helping and helpers' wellbeing was not significant. The authors said their study of 448 employees and their immediate supervisors in the South Jiangsu province was one of the first to consider the multi-dimensional nature of helping.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The study was intended to find out if there was a difference between reactive and proactive helping in terms of developing wellbeing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: There were two studies. Study One involved doing interviews with employees in Chinese businesses, then creating a scale that was used to test a series of hypotheses in Study Two.\nFindings: The results showed that proactive helping behavior has a significantly positive effect on employees' well-being. But the coefficients of reactive helping behavior toward work well-being were not significant. Finally, the results showed the significant effect of meaningfulness as a mediator for employees' wellbeing for both proactive and reactive helping.\nOriginality/value: The authors felt their research had practical implications for both employees and managers. Specifically, their insights into the nature of different forms of helping could help them manage their careers. Many previous research papers have shown that those who help others are more likely to have successful careers. But the paper suggests that employees who help proactively may gain much more benefit than those helping reactively.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Language mining: Analysis of the innovation of dominant product languages in design-intensive industries	[ "Innovation", "Design", "Semantics", "Product specification", "Furniture industry", "Italy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While design is still commonly considered to be a complementary aspect of product development where companies call upon designers to tackle defined features such as styling and ergonomics, in today's business environment there are a growing number of companies that are exploring new ways to involve design consultants in their innovation processes. In fact, in some very advanced cases, design is seamlessly integrated throughout the NPD process making it a true competitive weapon that links design to both innovation and business strategy. To further demonstrate this phenomenon, in an interview in 2004, Tony Blair sustained:Good design is not simply about aesthetics or making a product easier to use. It is a central part of the business process, adding value to products, and creating new markets (Design Council and CBI, 2002).This dialectic of \"Function versus Form\" is for the most part a classic that very often leads to confine the interpretation of the term \"Form\" to the aesthetic appearance of a product. In today's marketplace, however, products are more and more defining their own presence not only through their functional attributes and aesthetic form, but also through the meanings they convey and through the dialogue they establish with the consumer (Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Margolin and Buchanan, 1995). With this in mind, a restricted number of successful Italian manufacturers (e.g. Alessi, Artemide, Kartell, B&B Italia) have developed a unique approach to involve designers and other stakeholders in their innovation process. These companies tend to adopt a peculiar strategy based on radical design driven innovation whereby the novelty of the messages and languages embedded within their products is more significant and prevalent when compared to the novelty of their functionality and embedded technologies. In fact, what sets these companies apart from the rest is primarily their ability to identify, capture and interpret user needs and trends and transform them into quality product system offerings with intrinsically higher socio-cultural value for the market(s) they serve. This capability to understand and interpret social needs however is very hard to create as the analyses and research related to socio-cultural models and product semantics is extremely complicated. In fact, developing a product language as a set of signs (materials, colors, forms, etc.) that connote product messages and meanings that match emerging socio-cultural models is primarily considered by the majority of people to be an activity conducted by design experts in a qualitative manner. In contrast to this current view in this research field, this article aims to:* develop an objective process capable of identifying dominant product languages;* map the dynamics of dominant product languages over time; and* verify the possibility to transfer dominant product languages from an industry to another (brokering of dominant product languages).Consequently, the structure of the article begins with an analysis of the existing literature pertaining to two fields of research:1. innovation and its various approaches; and2. product semantics.It then continuous by describing our research process in terms of sample definition, mapping tool development, as well as the statistical techniques used to analyze the collected data. In turn, it then discusses the obtained results from this empirical analysis in order to conclude with some general remarks and possible guidelines related to the composition of product languages, their dynamics over time, and the possibility to transfer them from one industry to another.\nTheoretical background: Innovation is commonly considered a necessary tool used by firms to compete successfully in the market. Moreover, in today's marketplace, consumers show rising attention to satisfying their socio-cultural needs and desires that prompt them to look for more complete products that can go beyond normal and simple consumption. In fact, more than ever before, products are able to define their own presence not only through their physical and functional attributes, but also through the relationships, meanings and symbolisms that they are able to establish with the user. As such, in the section below, we will look at how different approaches to innovation coupled with the growing importance of product semantics can have on a firm's ability to successfully compete in the market.Approaches to innovation\nResearch objectives: In the majority of cases, the innovation process acts concurrently on several product dimensions in order to try and exploit possible synergies among them. For this reason, with the theories and models previously described in mind, the main objective of this article is to propose an interpretive model that attempts to decipher a product's basic values in terms of functionality, meaning and usability. In particular, this article proposes the use of an interpretive model that defines a product along the following three dimensions: technology, aesthetics and use. Through this model, we believe that a product's language can be described as a combination of each dimension. Consequently, the term \"product language\" can be considered partially enriched in comparison to the interpretation proposed by Verganti (2003) in Figure 1 in order to help companies identify successful innovation strategies that integrate the analysis of product languages. Therefore, given that the heart of this paper is to develop an interpretive model that can support the innovation process, our three research objectives can be structured as follows:1. Research objective 1: The identification of dominant product languages. Many scholars and design experts have developed theories about product language. Most of which are based on a qualitative approach. In fact, very often, they are based on the observation of a small set of representative products that allow one to advance very subjective considerations on product languages. Consequently, the first research objective of this article is to develop a mapping tool able to collect principal characteristics (signs) of a product in terms of technology, aesthetics and use that can be statistically analyzed in order to identify dominant product languages defined as product languages that in the eyes of society become dominant signs present in as many product categories as possible. For example, Figure 4 shows two completely different desktop computers in terms of product signs. In fact, the Apple iMac and the IBM PC use different materials, colours, forms, architectures, etc. They can be considered examples of two different dominant product languages for the computer industry.2. Research objective 2: Mapping dominant product languages over time. The second research objective of this article is to map the evolution and dynamic characteristics of dominant product languages over time. From a managerial perspective, the historical analysis of product languages (from 1980 to 2004) can provide interesting inputs. In particular, it not only can underline recent trends in terms of product languages, but can also describe different design approaches adopted in the past years so as to suggest the reinterpretation of actual product offering from different points of view. For example, the Apple iMac has changed its product language over time. In fact, the current first iMac is radically different from the current model, where the former is characterized by transparent plastic and bright colours, while the latter is more minimal and pure (see Figure 5).3. Research objective 3: Brokering of dominant product languages. The nature of product languages, and particularly their abstractness, seems to favour the transfer of a language from a product typology to another, or from an industry to another. From a managerial perspective, this property of product languages can constitute a great stimulus in terms of innovation and creativity. For this reason, the third research objective aims to verify the possibility to \"broker\" dominant product languages. Figure 6 can be considered an example of language brokering where the Apple iMac and the chest of drawers \"Mobil\" produced by Kartell use similar material, transparency and colours.\nResearch process: Coherently, with the research objectives and questions stated above, thanks to the to continuous collaboration with Webmobili, an internet spin-off of the Italian Association of Furniture Manufacturers, we were able to conduct our research by looking at the products of an innovative industry that continuously tries to seamlessly integrate product aesthetics, usability and technology: the Italian furniture industry. In particular, through the use of the internet database (www.webmobili.it, see Figure 7 for a sample web page of the web portal) developed by Webmobili that catalogues more than 18,000 products divided into 12 compartments (and 4 accessories compartments): kitchen, tables and chairs, sofas, living room, bedroom, children, lighting, office, bathroom, furniture complements, garden and doors, we were able to look deeply into what it truly means to think about product semantics and innovation. In fact, considering that the Webmobili database contains product information about all Italian furniture companies that boast an industrial and managerial structure (500 companies)[1], it constitutes a good representation of the actual offering of the Italian furniture industry. This characteristic is turn complemented by the fact that all the products within the Webmobili database are also currently sold in the market.As shown in Figure 7 the Webmobili database provides a synthetic sheet for each product that reports name of the product, producer, designer, production year, dimensions, materials, price range and award. Close to these information the Webmobili database provides a photo and a description of the product in terms of materials, surface treatments, colours, etc. According to the indications of some experts of Webmobili and considering the time required to map each product, we decided to restrict the analysis on three compartments very innovative and dynamic: tables, chairs and lamps. At the moment of sample selection (September 2005) the Webmobili database counted 906 tables, 982 chairs and 575 lamps (table and floor lamps). For each product typology we applied a random selection obtaining a sample with the following characteristics (see Table I).Mapping product signs\nResults and discussion: Within this section, the reader will find that the empirical results described in the previous section of this paper are articulated in three parts according to the three aforementioned research objectives. In particular:1. we discuss the results obtained by applying the Principal Component Analysis in order to identify the dominant product languages (research objective 1);2. we analyze the dynamics of dominant product languages over time in order to facilitate the identification of emergent trends (research objective 2); and3. we verify the possibility to transfer dominant product languages from one product typology to another (research objective 3).The identification of dominant product languages (Research objective 1)\nConclusions: The conclusions of this article are organized in two parts: first of all, we underline the managerial implications of our research providing some examples of their application. Then, we list the limits of the obtained results and we identify some possible further researches that can overcome the limits and enriched the managerial implications.Managerial implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The main objective of this article is to propose an interpretive model that attempts to decipher a product's values in terms of functionality, usability and meaning. This model can support companies in better integrating these values in their product offering and in defining the most adequate innovation strategies that they can adopt.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors conducted an empirical analysis on more than 450 products from the Italian furniture industry. Moreover, using an interpretative model 50 product signs were mapped (materials, surfaces, colours, etc.) for each product. The obtained database was analyzed via the principal component analysis (PCA) statistical technique with the intent to identify dominant product languages. In fact, interpreting a product language as a set of product signs, the article describes an objective process able to identify dominant product languages as combinations of different product signs.\nFindings: - The interpretive model described in this article represents a first result in itself. In addition, by mapping the dynamics of dominant product languages, it has been demonstrated that they evolve differently in relation to several product typologies. In turn, the possibility of \"brokering\" dominant product languages from one product typology to another and from one industry to another has been verified.\nPractical implications: - First of all, this model can support companies in the identification of emerging trends and, consequently, allows them to develop product semantic forecasts. In addition, the analysis of dominant product languages over time can also allow a company to propose combinations of product signs typical of past periods. Finally, the identification of dominant product languages can also allow companies to analyze the state-of-the-art of the industry and, consequently, identify different ways to propose innovation to the market.\nOriginality/value: - Most of conducted researches related to product languages have shown primarily a qualitative-based approach, in which the observations are made by a restricted set of design experts on a subset of representative products. In contrast with the current literature in this research field, this article describes an objective process that is able to identify dominant product languages.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of administration and faculty in developing character education within public and private universities in Kuwait	[ "Kuwait", "Administration", "Private university", "Public university", "Character education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Higher education institutions play a vital role in the foundation of any nation's intellectual, economic and moral capital (Annette, 2005; Grootenboer, 2010; Harland and Pickering, 2011). Today's students will become tomorrow's leaders, whether they be scientists, teachers, philosophers, doctors, engineers, business managers, politicians, etc., and they must all be capable of playing those roles in an effective manner - which also includes living up to their personal and social responsibilities (Levine, 2012; Quinlan, 2011). Palmer and Zajonc (2010) indicated that a higher education institution's role must not be limited solely to advancing a student's knowledge and cognitive abilities, but should go beyond to also nurture a student's social, spiritual and emotional growth as essential elements for developing the \"whole\" student. Furthermore, several studies have highlighted a group of characteristics involved in comprehensive student development and these reveal some common themes (Quinlan, 2011, p. 2): \"that knowledge and skills extend to include details other than the individual simply being a person in society, and these include emotion, spirituality, moral judgment and embodiment; and an integrated view of student growth linking thought, feeling and work together as mutually inclusive, as opposed to separating cognitive development from the emotional and the moral.\"\n2. Statement of the problem: While researchers have devoted significant attention to moral and character development in K-12 education over the last few decades, this has not extended significantly into higher education institutions. As mentioned previously, higher education institutions aim to provide more than just academic learning for their students; they also endeavor to help them grow positively as people by providing an environment and opportunities to integrate character education into their university experience (Kashdan, 2004; Mezirow and Taylor, 2009; Srikanthan and Dalrymple, 2004).\n3. Methodology: This study consisted solely of a stratified random sampling of faculty members selected from higher education institutions in Kuwait, with (124) teaching at private and (174) at public universities, for a combined sample population of (298). After obtaining official permissions and participant consent, the study took place throughout the first and second semesters of the 2018/2019 academic year.\n4. Results and discussion: RQ1. What perceptions do faculty members have about the role that public universities play in developing character education in Kuwait?\n5. Conclusions and recommendations: Character education is about developing good student character at any schooling level, including higher education. This study examined university Faculty Member perceptions regarding the role that higher education institutions play in developing character education in Kuwait. At public universities, faculty members rate a high level for their role. However, within the same institutions, their administrations rated only a medium level role. This contrasted with opinions regarding private universities, where both elements - faculty members and administration - rated a high level. While overall, both public and private universities appear to be working well in developing student character, data analysis, particularly as outlined in question three, shows that private institutions are performing better, and most prominently regarding the role their administrations play.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of administration and faculty members in developing character education within public and private universities in Kuwait. It further aims to explore the value of character education in effecting the quality experience of higher education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The researchers employed a quantitative research paradigm, using a questionnaire survey method to collect data from faculty members at major public and private Kuwaiti universities. They used Statistical Package for the Social Sciences to analyze a total of 298 questionnaires.\nFindings: The findings revealed that universities do indeed play a \"strong\" role in student character education. However, within public universities, it is the faculty themselves who form the key ingredient in the process rather than the administrative body, which is perceived to have a \"Medium\" effect. Conversely, at private universities, the administration and faculty both merited a \"strong\" role in developing character education.\nPractical implications: The study will provide leaders with several recommendations to improve the integrated development of universities through fostering character education.\nOriginality/value: While K-12 education has received significant attention regarding the moral and character development of students over the last few decades, this study, extends this research significantly into higher education; focusing upon character development at university and comparing its implementation at both public and private institutions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Strategic B2B customer experience management: the importance of outcomes-based measures	[ "B2B services", "B2B customer experience", "Outcomes-based measures" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Customer experience is an important driver of business success and competitive advantage (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016) and has attracted a great deal of attention across private and public sectors, business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) markets. Recognising that \"what people really desire are not products but satisfying experiences\" (Abbott, 1955, p. 40), practitioners have sought to better understand customer engagement for some time (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2015). More recently, academic attention has also turned in this direction, belatedly recognising the links between customer experience, customer satisfaction and long-term relationships (Palmer, 2010), although this interest has tended to come from B2C rather than B2B researchers.\nTheoretical background: Customer experience\nReconceptualising business-to-business customer experience: In building on the ideas above, we offer a framework that attempts to capture a more strategic, dynamic and co-creation-oriented approach to understanding B2B customer experience that is grounded in the notion of value-in-use and network interactions. In doing so, we need to be cognisant that understanding customer experience in a B2B context is going to involve multiple interactions across different touchpoints with a variety of personnel involved and ensure that we prepare for the different expectations that may well relate to these interactions.\nConclusions and implications: What is clear from the literature is that there are numerous approaches to collecting customer feedback, some of which measure customer experience and some of which do not. There are also a similar number of critiques of these approaches. To paraphrase Silverman (2006, p. 390), in objectively studying the conditions and consequences of customer experience, or in qualitatively examining customer responses to interventions intended to improve their experience, the phenomenon of \"customer experience\" disappears. That is, existing measures of customer experience, whether quantitative or qualitative, end up a-contextual. If we then look at what firms do in response to these data, as a mechanism to achieve \"satisfied\" customers, they focus on the wrong metrics that are largely input- and output-based. We, therefore, need to seriously question whether these measures are being used simply as hygiene factors, i.e. minimum standards deemed necessary to prevent customer dissatisfaction. Furthermore, they generally only focus upon one part of the experience, neglecting to explore the experience of customers and users across various service touchpoints and ignoring difficult to measure but key customer experience aspects, such as emotional response.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critique the adequacy of efforts to capture the complexities of customer experience in a business-to-business (B2B) context using input-output measures. The paper introduces a strategic customer experience management framework to capture the complexity of B2B service interactions and discusses the value of outcomes-based measurement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a theoretical paper that reviews extant literature related to B2B customer experience and asks fresh questions regarding B2B customer experience at a more strategic network level.\nFindings: The paper offers a reconceptualisation of B2B customer experience, proposes a strategic customer experience management framework and outlines a future research agenda.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper is conceptual and seeks to raise questions surrounding the under-examined area of B2B customer experience. As a consequence, it has inevitable limitations resulting from the lack of empirical evidence to support the reconceptualisation.\nPractical implications: Existing measures of customer experience are problematic when applied in a B2B (services) context. Rather than adopting input- and output-based measures, widely used in a business-to-consumer (B2C) context, a B2B context requires a more strategic approach to capturing and managing customer experience. Focussing on strategically important issues should generate opportunities for value co-creation and are more likely to involve outcomes-based measures.\nSocial implications: Improving the understanding of customer experience in a B2B context should allow organisations to design better services and consequently enhance the experiences of their employees, their customers and other connected actors.\nOriginality/value: This paper critiques the current approach to measuring customer experience in a B2B context, drawing on contemporary ideas of value-in-use, outcomes-based measures and \"Big Data\" to offer potential solutions to the measurement problems identified.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
LTFS puts the sparkle back into training: Program cuts employee turnover and improves morale	[ "Call centres", "Employee turnover", "Training", "Customer service management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Training and development proved to be the \"magic sauce\" that helped a company massively to reduce employee turnover in the call centers where 85 percent of its people work.\nGetting the right recruits: First it introduced QWIZ products for contact-center and sales-aptitude tests, to get the right recruits for the business. LTFS needed to find people who were assertive without aggression; could deal with difficult customers and angry callers and use customer-service skills to negotiate payment plans.The company tested 292 people and 112 met the benchmark to move on to phase-two training.\"We now knew that we had the right people for our business. If our training wasn't successful, we could no longer avoid the issue by saying we had selected the 'wrong' people,\" said Kathryn Spencer. \"We had objective proof that our new people had the capability to succeed. We needed to support them, and help them to achieve their potential.\"The company developed a training after-care team (Tact), which built on the existing training by providing a realistic, but less pressurized, \"nursery\" environment for recruits to find their feet. Separate from operations, Tact areas dealt with real calls but with additional support for staff.Employee turnover among the first Tact teams fell dramatically, to below 30 percent. The company, which had 30 percent redundancies in 2003, created 25 new jobs in LTC in the first quarter of 2006.It needed some \"magic sauce\", said Kathryn Spencer, and the business found it through training and development.\nGreater productivity without diluting quality: In a second call-center training initiative lauded in the National Training Awards, a desktop-training program resulted in increased revenue of PS8 million a year for cross-Channel ferry operator P&O Ferries.The business operates a virtual call center over three sites in Dover, Calais and Europoort, in The Netherlands, that can handle as many as 20,000 inquiries a day.Because of intense competition, the contact center needed to increase productivity, with greater emphasis on sales, without diluting customer service and call quality. The aim was to generate a further PS4 million revenue by matching products to customers' needs.\"Staff consistently provide a high standard of customer service and possess good communication skills,\" said contact-center head Barbara Ratcliff. \"But they were not actively selling our service, opportunities to offer customers additional products were missed and bookings were lost by allowing customers to shop around.\"\"A new dedicated team was to be introduced to call people just before their travel date to confirm arrangements and offer additional services such as club upgrades or meals.\"P&O's training team delivered workshops to more than 250 employees across all three call centers, in the preferred specified language. Weekly coaching sessions enabled team leaders, managers and trainers to focus on individuals' needs.The Desktop Doctor database and NautiCall online scripting tool proved to be useful aids for staff, and a focus group was established to provide a forum for suggestions for improvement. The success of the training was assessed through course-evaluation sheets and by monitoring the transition of skills into the workplace.As a result of the program, an additional PS8 million revenue a year was generated, with sales-booking conversions up from 45 to more than 60 percent, meals up 25 percent year on year, complaints down to fewer than 0.2 per 1,000 passengers and average call-handling time reduced to four and a half minutes.\"Our staff are the experts on our customers and are encouraged to contribute suggestions that will make a difference to customer service and additional revenue generation,\" said Barbara Ratcliff. \"We were amazed at the range of ideas and initiatives received from the two online training tools to a disruption package for customers affected by severe delays.\"\nDramatic impact on profitability: Direct Line Insurance is a third company whose training for contact-center representatives was lauded at the UK National Training Awards.Direct Line had introduced a new performance framework, Rewarding Excellence, which set out the behaviors and technical competences expected of the staff. It created a tier system to allow contact-center representatives to improve, progress and be financially rewarded.There was, however, no specific plan to help the company's 1,743 contact-center staff to achieve the competencies, until its training team devised Developing Excellence. The program covers customer focus, communication, continuous improvement, teamwork, managing self and information collecting.On customer focus, for instance, Direct Line wanted its staff to present the company in a helpful and positive way, by treating each call with excellent customer focus regardless of whether there is a potential sale involved. Staff were trained in workshops and through coaching and mentoring.Nikki Conroy, operational learner developer at RBS Insurance, the parent company of Direct Line, said: \"Developing this program has enhanced the learning of employees and has had a dramatic impact on the increase in efficiency and profit for the organization.\"Staff turnover among Direct Line contact-center staff has fallen from more than 50 to 12 percent - saving the company in marketing, recruitment and training costs.\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest editor, wrote this article.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to describe how award-winning training initiatives have improved performance at call centers operated by three companies - Legal & Trade Financial Services Ltd, P&O Ferries, and Direct Line Insurance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Examines the specific problems in each of the call centers and details the training initiatives that helped to overcome them.\nFindings: - Highlights reductions in employee turnover, improved morale, better customer service and increased efficiency and profitability as among the benefits.\nPractical implications: - Reveals, through the three examples, that well focused training initiatives can have a powerful impact on call-center employees.\nOriginality/value: - Demonstrates that, in the call-center environment, increased efficiency need not lead to reduced customer service.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Welcome to the jungle! The neuromarketing literature through the eyes of a newcomer	[ "Neuromarketing", "Consumer neuroscience" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The earliest appearance of the term \"neuromarketing\" in the title of a scholarly publication can be traced back to mid-2007, when both Lee et al. (2007) and Fugate (2007) published papers (at approximately the same time), in the International Journal of Psychophysiology and the Journal of Consumer Marketing, respectively[1]. Prior to this, marketing-relevant topics had been examined in scholarly research in the emerging field of neuroeconomics (Braeutigam, 2005; Braeutigam et al., 2001; Camerer et al., 2005) and also in commentaries about marketing practice in the neuroscientific literature itself [July Editorial (2004a) of Nature Neuroscience and February Editorial (2004b) of The Lancet].\nAnalysis of literature: method: Figure 1 presents a process describing the various steps we believe a typical marketing researcher, who may be at least somewhat experienced in the classic marketing and social science research methods, but not in neuroscience, would likely conduct to enter the field of neuromarketing. The obvious first steps revolve around the availability and accessibility of relevant publications, the scope of neuromarketing itself and gaining an appreciation of the existing state of knowledge. From there, it is to be expected that most researchers would begin to explore the different ways of conducting neuromarketing research and what would differentiate good quality work from weaker research. At this point, a typical researcher's attention may turn to methods of getting established in the field, including identification of networks to develop and how to generate funding. Figure 1 also shows the various informational needs at each stage of the process of entering the neuromarketing field, and our view of whether the current state of the literature provides for that need. Specifically, we use a \"tick\" to indicate a good fit between a newcomer's information needs and the content of the most visible articles in the field; a \"cross\" to indicate a poor fit, and a \"-\" to indicate neither a good nor bad fit (i.e. if there are both good and poor aspects of fit). We discuss the reasoning behind our conclusions in the balance of the present paper, beginning with the details of our literature search.\nThe field's answers to a newcomer's key questions: We structure our discussion according to the key questions, and a newcomer's information needs as previously displayed in Figure 1.\nHow neuromarketing literature can help the field develop: Drawing from the above discussion, along with recent research in neuroscience, we can put together a set of important issues that future neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience work should take into account if the field is to grow strongly in the future. As already mentioned, to facilitate such growth, the field needs to facilitate a growth in high-quality researchers, able to design rigorous research that makes the kind of significant contributions and strong inferences that should be de rigueur at the highest levels of marketing science. Indeed, we were struck by how rarely empirical neuromarketing research appeared in the highest-impact journals in marketing, particularly if one removes the single special issue of Journal of Marketing Research, which comprises almost 60 per cent of the total number (8 out of 14) of top-ranked neuromarketing publications in the marketing literature over the past decade (see Figures 6 and 7, empirical papers). It occurs to us that if the application of neuroscientific methods to marketing research problems really does lead to significant new knowledge, commensurate with its resource intensity and impact on subjects, it should appear with far more frequency in our discipline's top journal outlets. Again, raising the number of researchers who are willing and able to conduct high-quality research in neuromarketing will significantly help raise the profile of such work in top marketing journals.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: To grow, any field of research must both encourage newcomers to work within its boundaries, and help them learn to conduct excellent research within the field's parameters. This paper aims to examine whether the existing body of neuromarketing literature can support such growth. Specifically, the authors attempt to replicate how a newcomer to the field of neuromarketing would go about orienting themselves to the field and learn how to conduct excellent neuromarketing research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 131 papers, published in the areas of \"neuromarketing\" and \"consumer neuroscience\" were downloaded and then identified as conceptual or empirical in nature. A separate database was created for each type of research paper and information was recorded. For both conceptual and empirical papers, the citation details, notably year of publication, journal, journal ranking and impact factor were recorded. Papers were then descriptively analysed with regards to number of publications over the years, content and journal quality.\nFindings: It is found that interest in the field is growing, with a greater variety of topics and methods appearing year on year. However, the authors also identify some issues of concern for the field if it wishes to sustain this growth. First, the highly fragmented literature and the lack of signposting makes it very difficult for newcomers to find the relevant work and journal outlets. Second, there is a lack of high-quality, user-oriented methodological primers that a newcomer would come across. Finally, neuromarketing as it appears to a newcomer suffers from a lack of clear guidance on what defines good vs bad neuromarketing research. As a large majority of the reviewed papers have appeared in lower-ranked journals, newcomers might get a biased view on the acceptable research standards in the field.\nOriginality/value: The insights from the analysis inform a tentative agenda for future work which gives neuromarketing itself greater scientific purpose, and the potential to grow into a better-established field of study within marketing as a whole.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Inventory management of perishable health products: a decision framework with non-financial measures	[ "Perishable inventory management", "Substitutable", "Decision systems" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Management of inventories involving health products, which are typically perishable and substitutable, is a difficult problem with many particular challenges (Salehi et al., 2019). These challenges come from the fact that these products have a limited lifetime and the requirement for the trade-off between inventory costs and the fill rate (Dreyfuss and Giat, 2019). For example, consider blood platelets, which are a standard product in hospitals. Blood platelets can be stored up to seven days before their function is destroyed (Lin et al., forthcoming). An inventory manager aims to lower the inventory level of blood platelets to lower inventory costs and the loss from outdated stock. On the other hand, when required, patients should be able to be transfused with the same blood platelet as their own or a compatible platelet; otherwise, lives may be lost. In dealing with this challenge, the objective of hospital inventory management is to develop a framework that enables information sharing (Yu and Cao, 2019) and identifies replenishment policy that reduces inventory levels without lowering the fill rate level (Moons et al., 2019).Hospitals often generate replenishment policies by minimising total cost or maximising total profit functions, which may include some or all relevant financial factors (e.g. holding cost, ordering cost) (Lin et al., forthcoming). This financial approach is based on the inventory theory in which cost factors are assumed to be known exactly. However, the exact value of these factors could be challenging to define. Consequently, the optimal policy may not result in the minimum cost or maximum profit (Elgazzar et al., 2019). Additionally, financial measures have been criticised as too one-dimensional (Micheli and Mura, 2017); e.g. focusing too much on the fill rate level may lead to high inventory level or high expired quantity. Rather than optimising a financial measure, researchers (e.g. Dreyfuss and Giat, 2019; Dweekat et al., 2017; Vidalis et al., 2014) have called for the use of non-financial measures when generating replenishment policies. Using non-financial measures enables the connection of performance measures to strategy and hence provides enhanced control of the overall performance in a more cooperative and integrated routine (Dweekat et al., 2017).Motivated by that call, this research aims at answering questions: is it possible (RQ1) and how (RQ2) to use non-financial measures to define a replenishment policy for perishable health products? To answer the RQ1, we base on the work of Cannella et al. (2013), who proposed a set of non-financial measures to evaluate performance for a whole supply chain. We identify the most common costs in perishable inventory models, namely, holding cost, purchase cost, lost sales cost and outdated cost (Kouki et al., 2014). These costs are translated into non-financial measures including fill rate (FR), average inventory (AI) and order rate variance ratio (ORVR) by using the definition of non-financial measures from Cannella et al. (2013).To answer the RQ2, we develop a framework including simulation, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to use these non-financial measures and identify a replenishment policy. A simulation tool is useful for evaluating various performance measures of complex systems (Heidary and Aghaie, 2019). These measures usually conflict with each other. Furthermore, the preferences for which performance measures to use vary between managers. Therefore, the simulation tool should be combined with other multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods (Choi et al., 2016). Among MCDM methods, AHP has been used widely as its abilities in quantifying criteria (Moktadir et al., 2019). The AHP has been integrated with DEA to avoid difficulties when having too many alternatives (Ho and Ma, 2018). The integration of simulation, AHP and DEA can take advantage of the strengths of each method (Choi et al., 2016) and support framework for complex systems (Bonney and Jaber, 2014; Ho and Ma, 2018). The framework is demonstrated with a numerical example. The results are shown to be comparable with those from Kouki et al. (2014), where a similar system is studied with financial measures, and thus the similarity confirms the contribution of this research to the literature. The results prove that non-financial measures can be used effectively to generate replenishment policies.Two interesting findings emerged from this research. First, this research uses non-financial measures (AI, FR, and ORVR) by themselves to define a replenishment policy. These are the most common measures in the blood supply chain problem, i.e. the number of outdated units, the number of units short of demand and the stock level (Ahmadi et al., 2019). The direct use of non-financial measures helps stakeholders better understand the overall performance of a company or its subordinates (Esch et al., 2019). While Vidalis et al. (2014) demonstrated the transformation of non-financial measures into a profit function and selection of the replenishment policy that maximised total profit, it is not easy in practice to transform all non-financial measures into a profit function due to delays in collecting information or the inaccuracy of information over the supply chain (Moons et al., 2019). In contrast to Vidalis et al. (2014), this research does not transform non-financial measures into cost factors; therefore, replenishment policies are easily communicated and comprehended. The framework, therefore, prioritises non-financial measures and addresses issues of lacking information sharing and employee involvement (Moktadir et al., 2018) to enhance overall hospitals' performance.Second, the framework is relevant to the call of developing a user-friendly approach which can be used by healthcare managers to evaluate a set of limited scenarios rather than developing a sophisticated programme or model (Ahmadi et al., 2019). There are practical difficulties in managing trade-offs between requirements when developing replenishment policies for blood products, as demand is difficult to forecast because it is affected by the availability of other items (Syntetos et al., 2016). The use of mathematical algorithms to define an optimal replenishment policy that reduces costs while achieving fill rate levels has been criticised due to the complexity of the calculations (Zhang et al., 2014). Moreover, as cost factors change across suppliers and hospitals, the optimal replenishment policy will change accordingly. Thus, an easily used and understandable framework to define the optimal replenishment policy in hospitals must be developed to enhance practice.The next section reviews inventory management of perishable health products, the use of non-financial measures in inventory management, and defines the gaps in the literature. Section 3 describes the research methodology and presents the framework to define the most favourable replenishment policy. Section 4 presents a numerical example and illustrates the application of the framework. Section 5 discusses the results. Section 6 concludes the research and provides future research directions.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Perishable health products\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Basic model\n4. Numerical example: In this section, we conduct a numerical example to illustrate the utility of the framework in finding the most favourable replenishment policy. The mathematical formulation of the basic model is described next. 4.1 Model description\n5. Findings: In this research, the selected policy (1, 26) was comparable to the findings from Kouki et al. (2014). The AHP method conducted in this research showed that FR was the most important measure (71.7%), followed by AI (21.7%) and ORVR (6.6%). In this context, it was preferable to have a policy that has high FR or low lost sales quantity. Kouki et al. (2014) showed that for a given order-up-to level, the longer review period has a higher quantity of expired products and lost sales. Moreover, a short review period decreases the fluctuation of order quantity and, thus, ORVR. The short review period and order-up-to level also reduce the daily inventory level and the AI level. Therefore, the selected policy (1, 26) was reasonable and comparable with findings in Kouki et al. (2014). Because of the advantages of the non-financial measures, the framework is an alternative for decision-makers to select the replenishment policy in a blood centre or hospitals.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: This research considered inventory management for perishable health products. The perishable and substitutable nature of these products causes complexities in balancing objectives and identifying a suitable replenishment policy. This research argued that non-financial measures reflect the multi-dimensional nature of supply chain management. This research, to our knowledge, is the first work to develop a framework that balances non-financial measures to define a replenishment policy for perishable and substitutable products. It provides a way to effectively reduce the loss of quality and quantity and an alternate approach to manage inventory and improve hospital performance. 6.1 Theoretical contributions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This research proposes a decision framework for using non-financial measures to define a replenishment policy for perishable health products. These products are perishable and substitutable by nature and create complexities for managing inventory. Instead of a financial measure, numerous measures should be considered and balanced to meet business objectives and enhance inventory management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research applies a multi-methodological approach and develops a framework that integrates discrete event simulation (DES), analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques to define the most favourable replenishment policy using non-financial measures.\nFindings: The integration framework performs well as illustrated in the numerical example; outcomes from the framework are comparable to those generated using a traditional, financial measures-based, approach. This research demonstrates that it is feasible to adopt non-financial performance measures to define a replenishment policy and evaluate performance.\nOriginality/value: The framework, thus, prioritises non-financial measures and addresses issues of lacking information sharing and employee involvement to enhance hospitals' performance while minimising costs. The non-financial measures improve cross-functional communication while supporting simpler transformations from high-level strategies to daily operational targets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Maximizing player value through the application of cross-gaming predictive models	[ "Consumer behavior", "Database marketing", "Table games", "Predictive analytics", "Cross-selling", "Slots" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Cross-selling is an important marketing strategy for many businesses across different industries. It helps sellers increase customer-wallet share, generate additional sales revenue and extend a company's relationship with existing customers (Bolton et al., 2004; Makens and Bowen, 1996). Kubiak and Weichbroth (2010, p. 3) defined cross-selling as \"a strategy of providing existing customers the opportunity to purchase additional items offered by the seller\", and explained that the additional product or service is often related to or complementary to the original purchase. The gaming industry is not an exception to cross-selling. Casino operators have striven to create play between different types of casino games, such as slots and table games (Brokopp, 2008; Green, 2010). For example, PartyGaming, an online gaming company, reported a significant increase in overall gaming revenues by promoting blackjack to its existing poker players (Fleming, 2006; Pollard, 2008). Since its success in cross-selling blackjack, PartyGaming has introduced a variety of games, including themed slots and bingo, to its poker players, as evidenced by the following statement made by Richard Segal, Chief Executive of PartyGaming:\nLiterature review: Marketers use predictive modeling for various marketing purposes, including prospect identification, patron segmentation, prediction of customers' responses to marketing offers and customer-value estimation. In gaming research, however, there has been relatively little attempt to predict players' gaming behavior at the individual player level. We identified only a few studies which utilized individual data obtained from casinos' internal records or customer databases to predict gaming behavior (Lucas et al., 2005; Suh, 2012). Much of the existing research in the casino operations and marketing fields has focused on understanding players' attitudes and loyalty to the casino (Baloglu, 2002; Hendler and Latour, 2008; Lucas, 2003) or measuring the effects of carnival games (e.g. poker and bingo) and casino amenities on gaming volumes at the aggregated daily level (Lucas, 2013; Suh, 2011; Suh et al., 2012). The paucity of predictive modeling research at the individual level might be partially explained by the relative difficulty of obtaining proprietary data from casino operators. Given that the purpose of this study was to identify variables predicting the likelihood that a slot player (table game) will play table games (slots), we reviewed earlier research on gaming behavior in the following section.\nMethod: Data source\nResults: Table II presents the descriptive statistics for the predominant table-game players. For lifetime trips, the number ranged from 1 to 246. More specifically, about 58 per cent of predominant table-game players had a single lifetime trip, while about 25 per cent had two to three lifetime trips. The remaining 17 per cent had three plus lifetime trips. For the predominant slot players, about 63 per cent of the sample had a single lifetime trip, while 21 per cent had two to three lifetime trips. The remaining 16 per cent had three plus lifetime trips.\nDiscussion: Hypothesis testing results\nConclusion: This study aimed to gain insight into players' cross-gaming behavior by examining individual players' gaming propensity. The analysis results indicated that a player's cross-gaming propensity can be predicted using gaming-related behavioral data. The multiple dimensions associated with cross-play identified herein are likely to be of interest to casino operators and marketers who try to develop marketing strategies to promote cross-game play or those who are currently engaged in cross-game promotions. The findings of the study provide casino marketers with better understanding of players' cross-gaming behavior. Furthermore, the model advanced herein could help casino marketers identify the best prospects for their cross-gaming promotion and more effectively target potential cross-gamers based on their cross-gaming propensity. Casino marketers can use the model to measure their customers' propensity to cross-game play and make more accurate predictions and informed data-driven decisions. This in return will make cross-marketing efforts more cost-effective while improving the relevance of marketing offers and response rates. Finally, the model provides researchers with the foundation for future research, given the paucity of research on cross-gaming behavior prediction.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to, considering the potential to generate additional revenue from cross-gamers, identify variables predicting predominant slot-players' propensity to play table games, as well as predominant table-game players' propensity to play slots (cross-game play). Casino marketers often promote cross-game play through game lessons and coupons for game trial.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Logistic regression analysis was performed on the player data provided by a destination hotel casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Furthermore, the authors described how to estimate propensity scores, the probability of cross-game play, at the individual level, using a logistic regression equation.\nFindings: Comparisons of cross-gamers versus non cross-gamers indicated that the amount of play and gaming values of cross-gamers were much higher than those of slot-only players. The results of a logistic regression analysis show that a player's cross-gaming propensity can be predicted using gaming-related behavioral data. More specifically, cross-gaming propensities were associated with the frequency and recency of casino trips, the amount of money won or lost in gaming, player values to the casino, the duration of play and the length of a customer-casino relationship.\nResearch limitations/implications: It is recommended that future research apply the model tested herein to other samples and investigate other predictor variables to develop a better predictive model for cross-game play.\nPractical implications: The findings and the model introduced herein could help casino marketers identify players with cross-gaming propensity and develop more targeted strategies for customer-relationship management and database marketing.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first attempt to estimate the cross-gaming propensity at the individual level and offers detailed guidance on how to use the propensity scores for targeting specific customers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Measuring retailers' commitment toward regional foods: the CIBLE-Chaire Bombardier Index	[ "Food industry", "Retailers", "Community development", "Canada", "Regional marketing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Governments are manifesting a growing interest in regional or local foods (Ilbery et al., 2006; Friedmann and McNair, 2008). This interest is generally justified by economic considerations such as job creation. For instance, the government of Quebec in Canada launched an advertising campaign in 2007 to encourage consumers to buy regional food products, with job creation as the central focus. The campaign stressed that a 1 per cent increase in sales of regional products would result, directly and indirectly, in the creation of 1,800 jobs (MAPAQ, 2007). Among the other arguments used is that an increase in regional buying would make small farmers and food processors more competitive and create wealth in the regions (Jones et al., 2004). More recently, sustainable development considerations have also been evoked (Rimmington et al., 2006). In view of the tremendous distances a number of foods must travel before reaching our plates, many see buying regional products as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support a more environmentally friendly type of production (Johnson, 2006). This last argument, however, has been challenged since transportation accounts for a small portion of greenhouse gas emissions in the production cycle of many foods (Desrochers and Shimizu, 2008).This is the spirit that has prompted many countries, states and regions to put in place identification programs aimed at promoting regional foods. The success of these programs relies to a large extent on the market accessibility of these foods. However, a number of retailers are reluctant to give shelf space to regional foods (Jones et al., 2004). To stimulate retailers to promote regional foods, governments can either consider coercive and persuasive policies or try to educate retailers about the importance of promoting regional food production (Johnson, 2006). The initiative of developing an index to assess retailers' efforts to promote regional foods is in line with the latter educational approach.In this paper, we first define regional foods, describe regional food programs and stress the importance of increasing market access for this type of foods. We then describe the methodology used to develop the index. Finally, we present the major conclusions of an evaluation of 278 Canadian food retailers.\nDefinition of regional and local foods: There is no consensus on the definition of regional and local foods. The two terms are used interchangeably and may mean very different things to different people (Jones et al., 2004; Ostrom, 2006). They are often used to describe foods which were produced close to the point of sale (e.g. foods produced, processed and sold within a radius of 12 miles (Pretty et al., 2005), 30 miles (Flint, 2004), 100 miles, even 200 miles (Nabhan, 2002), or within a radius corresponding to a one-day round trip (Devine, 2004)) or within a given geopolitical zone such as a city, region, state or country (Ostrom, 2006; Kuznesof et al., 1997; Morris and Buller, 2003). The terms are also used to refer to a type of agriculture that is an alternative to large scale intensive farming (Morris and Buller, 2003; Ostrom, 2006; Kuznesof et al., 1997); regional or local foods will thus be associated with better quality (e.g. fresher, tastier, purer) and greater authenticity (e.g. old-fashioned food, home-cooked food).Our goal is not to try to settle this debate but rather to specify exactly what is meant by regional and local foods in the research described here. We use the term \"regional product\" for foods produced and sold within the same geopolitical region of a country for two main reasons. First, the majority of consumers and producers seem to share this conception. Focus groups conducted with 58 consumers in England found that the majority of participants associated regional foods with a region within the UK (Kuznesof et al., 1997). In another study conducted with 1,166 farmers and 950 consumers in the state of Washington in the United States, the meaning most often advanced by both groups of respondents related to a geopolitical unit: a city, region, state or country (Ostrom, 2006). Second, this definition has the advantage of coinciding with existing socio-administrative units, making it easier to develop and to implement food programs and policies for regional products (Ostrom, 2006).\nRegional food labelling programs: A wide variety of regional labelling programs exist to indicate the origin of foods1. These may be grouped according to the size of the territory concerned. The first category comprises programs that promote food products of a given country on export or internal markets. On the export market, such programs highlight the unique characteristics attributed to the country's food products. For instance, building on the fact that Canadian food products are perceived by external markets as being safe and high quality, Agriculture Canada developed a program to boost Canada's brand image on export markets around the signature \"quality is in our nature\" (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2008). On internal markets, such programs emphasize the importance of supporting the economy. These programs may take the form of advertising campaigns promoting regional buying (e.g. Buy America (Granzin and Olsen, 1995), Buy Australian Made (Fischer and Byron, 1997)), regional purchasing policies on the part of public institutions (Rimmington et al., 2006; Ostrom, 2006; Friedmann and McNair, 2008), or regulations requiring labelling to indicate the origin of foods (Miranda and Konya, 2006). The issues surrounding the promotion of products of a given country and the effects of country of origin have been dealt with extensively in the literature (for a review, see Papadopoulos and Heslop (2002); Verlegh and Steenkamp (1999)).A second category of programs promote foods that are produced and processed within a country's main administrative regions. For example, almost all US states and Canadian provinces have their own regional product promotion programs (e.g. Illinois Product, Maine Made, CA Grown, Make Mine Mississippi, Minnesota Grown, Foodland Ontario). These programs may be managed by public agencies or by members of the industry, or both. In Canada, for instance, the agency responsible for promoting products from the province of Quebec, Aliments du Quebec, brings together representatives of the provincial government, producers, processors and retailers. Its members may use two logos to promote their products: Aliments du Quebec (i.e. foods of Quebec) and Prepare au Quebec (i.e. prepared in Quebec).In the last few years, programs to promote foods from smaller administrative regions have also emerged. These programs are intended to support the development of rural areas and small farmers and processors. These initiatives bank on the fact that residents feel more connected to their immediate region than to the state or country they live in (Bourgault, 2007). As an example, the province of Quebec is divided into 17 administrative regions. Each of these regions has established a consultation committee to promote its agri-food industry. Many of them have set up regional identification programs (e.g. the Estrie campaign, Goutez l'Estrie comme c'est fin (The taste of Estrie: how fine it is); the Lanaudiere campaign, Goutez Lanaudiere (Taste Lanaudiere)).\nMarket access for regional foods: The success of identification programs at the small-region level depends heavily on market access for regional foods (Jones et al., 2004). Small-scale farmers and food producers can access markets directly via various distribution modes: farmers' markets, roadside stands, pick-your-own, entertainment farming, subscription farming, community-supported agriculture and mail order (Tippins et al., 2002). While there are no credible estimates of the scope and importance of these distribution modes, they remain marginal in comparison with the conventional distribution network.In order to grow, small food producers and processors must reach consumers via the conventional distribution network. But with the consolidation of the distribution sector that is taking place around the world (Artz and Stone, 2006; Wrigley, 2002), it is increasingly difficult for these small players to gain access to shelf space in the major grocery chains. Retailers hesitate to give more space to regional products, generally citing reliability, quality, volume and price imperatives as reasons for their reluctance (Jones et al., 2004).To ensure market access for regional products, governments may resort to three types of policies: advisory, regulatory and economic (Johnson, 2006). The first seek to educate retailers about desirable practices; the second, to legislate the adoption of mandatory practices; and the third, to tax poor practices and reward good ones. In keeping with the spirit of the first type, the Bombardier Chair in Brand Management and the Conseil de l'industrie bioalimentaire de l'Estrie (CIBLE) embarked on a series of research studies aimed at designing an index to evaluate food retailers' efforts to promote regional products. The resulting categorisation helps governments to underscore and highlight the efforts of stores that are notable for their good regional product promotion practices.\nDevelopment of the index: Identification of types of promotional efforts\nA case study: Quebec retailers' commitment toward regional foods: Quebec is the second-largest province of Canada. The agri-food sector makes an important contribution to the Quebec economy, accounting for 6.4 per cent of the GDP and generating over 465,000 jobs. The food distribution sector is highly concentrated, with three chains, Loblaws, Metro and Sobeys, controlling over 70 per cent of the food market.The province is divided into 17 administrative regions. To promote the development of its food industry, each region has set up a consultation committee of representatives from the main industry players. The access of regional foods to markets constitutes an important issue identified by these committees. To make retailers more aware of the importance of providing shelf space for regional foods, seven regional consultation committees have decided to implement the CIBLE - Bombardier Index.Table V shows the administrative regions of Quebec, with the demographic load, the relative importance of the agriculture and food processing sectors, and the number of stores participating in the study for each region. As can be seen, the agriculture and food manufacturing sectors represent a significant proportion of the employment in many regions: Monteregie (12.3 per cent), Centre-du-Quebec (9.7 per cent), Chaudiere-Appalaches (8.4 per cent) and Bas-Saint-Laurent (6.0 per cent).Sampling and data collection procedure\nConclusions: In recent years, the promotion of regional foods has become a salient issue. In order to increase the market penetration of these products, regional food producers need to gain greater access to conventional distribution networks. This could be achieved by raising retailers' awareness toward regional foods. Toward this end, an index designed to measure retailer's commitment toward regional foods was presented. The index was developed based on a literature review, interviews with experts and a Delphi approach. It includes five dimensions: supply assortment, quality of shelf space, point-of-sale advertising, mass-media advertising, and store policies.Since the creation of the index in 2006, 278 retailers from Quebec have been evaluated using it. Overall, the results reveal a weak level of commitment toward regional foods. Only a small group of retailers, 16 per cent of the sample analysed, have adopted practices that demonstrate commitment toward regional foods. A lower level of commitment was observed among corporate stores and large discount stores.In terms of limitations of this research, three points are worth mentioning. First, the decision rule used to evaluate a retailer's level of regional food supply does not take into account the range of regional food supply within the category. This may result in an underestimation of the performance of some highly committed retailers. Second, the determination of the relative importance of the five dimensions of the index was based on judgements from a sample of food experts from Quebec. Since the dynamics of the agri-food sector are likely to vary across regions and countries, the index should not be taken as a generalised measure. Third, data collection is based on in-store observations and interviews with managers or owners. Therefore, the validity of the results depends to some extent on the accuracy of the information provided by managers or owners.In terms of future research avenues, further research is needed to refine and validate the index. For instance, it may be interesting to get the consumers' point of view about the relative importance of each dimensions of the index and to compare consumers' perceptions of retailers' commitment toward regional foods with the findings from the index. Also, more research is needed to better understand the impact of consumers perceptions of retailers' commitment toward regional foods on consumers purchase decisions and supermarket selection.This research has several policy and managerial implications. From a regional or national government's perspective, a policy aiming to increase regional foods penetration among supermarkets should rest on suitable goals, include clear targets and use indicators to measure the progress realized. A policy avoiding concrete goals is intrinsically weak (Johnson, 2006). The CIBLE-Chaire Bombardier Index, with its five dimensions, can be used by governments as indicators to monitor regional foods penetration and retailers' commitment toward regional foods.In addition, the initiative suggested provides governments with an alternative to coercitive policies, for example, requiring retailers to adopt specific behaviours (for instance, purchase a specific amount of regional food) and which may generate strong political resistance from supermarkets and wider agro-food industries lobbying. The initiative proposed here is likely to receive a high level of acceptance amount retailers. Indeed, it is worth mentioning that almost all the retailers contacted agreed to participate in the study, despite the fact that many of them were not expected to perform well on the classification. This high level of participation may be explained by the strategy adopted to disseminate the results. All retailers were ensured of the confidentiality of the results. Indeed, each retailer received its personal rank and scores with respect to the five dimensions from the Bombardier Chair of Brand Management. Only the names of the most committed retailers (usually from three to five) were publicised. This approach spotlights the stores which made particular efforts to promote regional products, without undermining the reputation of those who show little concern for regional foods.From a regional promotional agencies perspective, the CIBLE-Bombardier Index provides an overview of retailers' commitment toward regional foods that is simple to use and yields results that are easy to communicate. These agencies can use the information provided by the index in order to increase the efficiency of their actions by focusing on the retailers that are most likely to collaborate in their promotional activities. In addition, by publicizing the name of the most committed retailers, these agencies can stimulate competition amongst retailers.From a retailer perspective, the participation to the study provides a benchmark that enables each participant to compare his practices with those of their competitors. It also facilitates the diffusion of best practices amongst retailers. Furthermore, the most committed retailers may get a competitive advantage over other retailers.Finally, from a producer perspective, the use of the index, as well as the dissemination of the results, may facilitate the penetration of their products among supermarkets and may offer them a competitive advantage over the producers from other regions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to present the methodology used to develop an index for assessing retailers' efforts to promote regional foods, and to provide an analysis of the evaluation of 278 retailers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A three-step procedure was used to develop the index. First, the dimensions of the index were identified through a literature review and interviews with retailers. Next, face-to-face interviews with retailers, food producers and regional development experts were conducted to define the best way to measure the index dimensions. Finally, a Delphi approach with an expert panel was used to determine the relative importance of the dimensions. The index was used to evaluate 278 food retailers from the province of Quebec in Canada. Data collection was conducted through store observation and interviews with managers or owners.\nFindings: - The results reveal a weak level of commitment toward regional foods. Only a small group of retailers, 16 per cent of the sample analysed, adopted practices that demonstrated commitment toward regional foods. A lower level of commitment was observed among corporate stores and discount supermarkets.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The index provides an overview of retailers' level of commitment toward regional foods within a region. It is simple to use and the results are easy to communicate. However, further research is needed to validate the index dimensions and their relative importance.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study to provide a means of measuring retailers' commitment toward regional foods based on their behaviour.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Dynamic interactions between sustainability and competitiveness in construction firms: A transition perspective	[ "Competitiveness", "Sustainability", "Construction industry", "Transition", "Conceptual framework", "Theory building" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The construction industry is involved in creating the physical assets which are the foundation of virtually every aspect of human development (Spence and Mulligan, 1995). With the rising significance of the sustainability concept, the sustainability issues of construction industries have received a considerable amount of attention from scholars (Shen et al., 2010).\nMethodology: Conceptual frameworks form the foundation for research activities by providing an understanding of the underlying dynamics of concepts (Burnard and Bhamra, 2011). This paper follows a theory-building approach to develop a conceptual framework linking sustainability and competitiveness, namely, the SCDIF, referring to the conceptual theory-building methods indicated by Meredith (1993), Lynham (2002) and Wacker (1998).\nLinking sustainability with competitiveness: Sustainability of construction firms\nThe transition perspective: The fact that competitiveness and sustainability have uncertain and complex relationships presents a challenge, i.e. what are the underlying dynamics leading to the complex relationships? The SCDIF aims to explain the underlying dynamics, the theoretical basis of which is the transition perspective explained in this section. To understand the transition perspective, the relationships between firms and their environments need to be first explained.\nSCDIF for construction firms: The SCDIF has been developed to explain the dynamic interactions between sustainability and competitiveness from a transition perspective. The proposed framework consists of three interacting components, namely: construction firms, in which sustainability and competitiveness have positive and negative interactions; economic environment; and socio-political environment (Figure 1).\nConclusions: Sustainability and competitiveness within the construction industry have been extensively studied. However, the linkage and interactions between sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms are largely overlooked. A SCDIF is proposed in this study to illustrate the dynamic interactions between these two issues from a transition perspective.\nLimitations and recommendations for future research: This study develops the SCDIF following the methodology of conceptual theory building. Such an approach enables researchers to express new conceptual perspectives on theory to better explain the investigated relationships. However, this approach is not able to produce precise quantification of the relationships since no empirical data are used. Therefore, future researches could gather empirical data and employ quantitative models, e.g. statistical models, structural equation modeling and system dynamics, to provide deeper insights into the interactions between sustainability and competitiveness. For instance, this paper has revealed that sustainability and competitiveness have various positive and negative influences on each other. Future studies could build on this conceptualization to develop an indicator system of the positive and negative influences. Consequently, a questionnaire survey could be conducted to investigate how various indicators are perceived by construction enterprises with different sizes and sustainability levels.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Sustainability and competitiveness have received extensive attentions. Despite a large number of studies on sustainability and competitiveness in the construction industry, little research has been conducted to holistically explore the interactions between these two concepts. From a dynamic transition perspective, the purpose of this paper is to link sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms by developing a Sustainability-Competitiveness Dynamic Interaction Framework (SCDIF).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Conceptual theory-building approach was adopted to develop the conceptual framework. It is an iterative analysis and synthesis process, which involves reading literature, identifying commonalities and differences, synthesizing, proposing an initial framework, collecting additional literature, and revisiting and revising the framework.\nFindings: There are complex interactions between sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms. This leads to uncertain relationships between sustainability and competitiveness, which is context dependent. Under evolving economic and socio-political environments, sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms could transition from mutually exclusive to mutually supportive, and finally merge into \"sustainable competitiveness.\"\nResearch limitations/implications: A SCDIF proposed in this study demonstrates that the interactions between sustainability and competitiveness evolves according to the evolving economic and socio-political environments and firms' strategies, and thus the relationships and interactions between sustainability and competitiveness are context dependent. This framework helps corporate managers to understand how corporate sustainability and competitiveness interact with each other, thereby informing their decision-making of sustainability strategy. Similarly, the framework provides useful references for policymakers to understand the mechanisms of transitioning industries toward sustainable competitiveness.\nOriginality/value: The proposed framework offers a new perspective for understanding sustainability and competitiveness. From the dynamic transition perspective, this study effectively illustrates that the interactions between sustainability and competitiveness evolves according to the evolving economic and socio-political environments and firms' strategies. Compared to existing approaches, the dynamic and holistic approach proposed in this paper provides the capacity to capture the complexity of sustainability and competitiveness.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The winding path for foreign companies: building R&D centers in China	[ "Talent management", "Political connections", "Good enough products", "Chinese system of innovation", "International R&D strategy", "IPR management", "Localization strategies" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: China technology creation is rapidly increasing. The need to increase the value created by Chinese industries is a key dimension of the authorities' policies. As such, officials are very sensitive to any opportunity that can give China the chance to climb the technological ladder. The question raised in this article is not to decide whether to do R&D in China because the answer is obvious. Few companies can escape having an R&D unit in the largest market in the world, a market that now wants to become a global player in science and technology. The question is rather what type of R&D to conduct in China and how and where to do it.\nFind and leverage government support for your objectives: Nothing can be done in China without government support. This is the case for any business, and it is also true for R&D programs. Every project needs the imprimatur from a public authority before starting. By definition, all public authorities include people who are members of the Chinese Communist Party. Foreign companies should therefore not fall into the trap of thinking that public authorities play a similar role to that in the West; in China, political connections are key!\nUse R&D to prepare long-term battlegrounds: The Chinese system of innovation has changed dramatically over the past ten years to increase the quantity and quality of results (Haour and Jolly, 2014). The government favored the emergence of 100 universities among the 2,300 in the country. Those 100 universities are now doing significant research, unlike the remaining 2,200 which are essentially teaching universities. Research institutes have received significant resources to gain international recognition. Most of them are part of the Chinese Academy of Science, while some are still related to some ministries or even hospitals. According to Thomson Reuters, the scientific production of universities and research institutes increased from 20,000 scientific articles in 1998 to 120,000 in 2009. It reached 150,000 in 2010. According to Chinese statistics, the increase is even higher. China represented 7 per cent of the world's scientific literature in 2010 (compared with 30 per cent for the USA) and reached 14 per cent in 2012 according to Thomson Reuters (while the USA fell to 28 per cent).\nManage intellectual property rights and compliance: Competition for future market share includes acquiring local know-how and developing intellectual and business rights for future technologies and innovation. As China is encouraging homegrown technology, enormous investments in intellectual property and patent filing have been made in recent years by both foreign and Chinese companies.\nDevote unprecedented efforts to people and talents: Starting R&D activities in China for reasons of cost is less and less meaningful. Companies that initially came to China to reduce development costs are now switching their R&D to market-driven or knowledge-driven activities because labor costs have significantly increased (by 10 to 15 per cent annually for several years), thus reducing the gap with Western nations. Cost-driven strategies can still be pursued in inner cities like Chongqing or Chengdu, but companies may not find suitably qualified employees.\nLeverage constrained-based innovation and good-enough market strategies: R&D activity in China started with the extension, adaptation and redesign of existing Western products and technologies, destined for Western (and now also for local) markets. The initial goals were significant cost reduction, selection of cheaper materials and suppliers and potential opportunities in the Chinese market. Consequently, the focus was to leverage the natural Chinese talent toward fast and frugal innovation, low-cost engineering, efficiency and quick delivery, resource-intensive design, and test and maintenance, all to obtain a \"good enough\" product that could be sold at affordable prices.\nAdapt your processes to fully leverage local characteristics: With the goal of gradually increasing quality and efficiency, the most successful R&D centers have proactively established management processes and systems in several areas, including talent and leadership development, finance and budget control, design cycle and on-time delivery, standards and certifications and intellectual property and knowledge management. The challenge has been to implement practices and processes which fit the unique needs of R&D in China, but without excessive change to the global approach and corporate goals.\nConclusions: Cost-driven R&D was the original model that pushed foreign companies to start people-intensive product development activities in China, but this pattern is no longer relevant because the costs of labor, space and equipment have risen rapidly. For cost concerns, companies are now better off going to India where there is still a gap with Europe or the USA. The current dominant pattern is the marketing-driven R&D model exemplified by the automotive industry and the example of GM. The aim is to adapt technologies imported from outside China to the Chinese market.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Only a few foreign companies have started significant R&D activities in China. Although these forerunners have opened the door, their experience now needs to be transferred to followers. The purpose of this paper is to use this experience to offer some guidance to foreign companies wishing to launch R&D activities in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors' recommendations are based on their investigation into 50 existing foreign R&D centers in China and one pioneering experience into the management of one of those centers. The authors especially investigated the questions of location, people and intellectual property rights, and relationships with authorities.\nFindings: Foreign companies wishing to do R&D in China will have to adapt to an environment different from those they are used to. The authors draw up recommendations that should help them to find their way. They particularly emphasize location in or close to clusters, the type of relationships to be developed with public authorities and with the communist party, the specific characteristics needed by workers in those centers, the need for a cautious intellectual property rights approach and the key role of returnees in R&D centers. These findings are based on previous experience and lessons learned directly by the authors as well as through meetings with R&D executives and managers of medium/large foreign companies or joint ventures s in China.\nResearch limitations/implications: The Chinese research, development and innovation landscape has evolved rapidly and has still not stabilized. Consequently, the authors' recommendations, which capture best practices and recently learned lessons, are applicable for the next five years. Some of them might change in the future as the overall national and international situation evolves.\nPractical implications: These recommendations offer guidelines to companies without R&D centers established in China for expanding their international technology strategy. They will help companies already operating successful R&D centers to better leverage previous investments and efficiently set up and operate R&D activities in China.\nOriginality/value: China has been on the R&D map for only a few years as exemplified by the surge of scientific publications and patent deposits, making China the country with the most patents in the world. No foreign company engaged in R&D can ignore this fact. Yet, few papers have been published with \"how to?\" guidelines.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Experimental public administration from 1992 to 2014: A systematic literature review and ways forward	[ "Causality", "Experiments", "Literature review", "Methodological innovation", "Public management research", "Replication" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In contrast with other social sciences, such as psychology, economy and more recently political science, public administration research does not have a tradition of experimentation. Various leading public administration scholars have called for more experimentation in our field in addition to the current methodological toolkit (e.g. Margetts, 2011; Perry, 2012), which is currently mainly focused at qualitative and survey research (Groeneveld et al., 2015).\n2. A framework to assess experimental public administration: For our analysis of experiments in public administration, we develop a framework based on the following core elements: experimental type and design, sample and external validity. Each element will be specified below.\n3. Method and data: We conducted a systematic literature review according to the PRISMA guidelines (Tranfield et al., 2003). First, we selected the public administration category from the ISI-Web of Science database. From this category we listed the top-30 of public administration journals based on five-year impact factor (ISI-Web of Science) (Figure 2).\n4. Assessing experiments in public administration: 4.1. General assessment of experiments in ISI ranked PA journals\n5. Potential ways forward for experimental public administration: Based on our assessment we present the following main findings. First, there has indeed been a recent rise of published experiments in the major public administration journals. Particularly, JPART, IPMJ, JPAM, PAR and PA have published a variety of experiments. Second, we have seen that experimental public administration has a strong emphasis on the external validity of experimental designs. Third, in a substantial part of the experiments the sampling is still rather narrow, with a large proportion of studies focusing on convenience and/or student samples. Fourth, we have found that the designs currently used by public administration scholars can be mostly qualified as \"basic designs\" (i.e. one control, one treatment group). The fifth finding is that various domains in public administration have not yet seen any experimental work, but could benefit from this. Based on these findings we have formulated six potential ways forward for experimental public administration, which are summarized in Table VII.\n6. Conclusion: Our review shows there has been a remarkable rise of reported experiments in public administration journals in recent years and in leading journals. Also, experiments tend to have high experimental realism and use rather large samples. This trend is likely to continue with two themed issues in public administration journals in 2015 and 2016 (James et al., 2016; Blom-Hansen et al., 2015), a projected handbook of experimental public administration, and a variety of articles that have been published already in 2015 (e.g. Jilke et al., forthcoming, 2016; Marvel, 2015; Tummers et al., 2015). Our study indicates that experimental public administration is on the rise, here to stay, and that there are various ways to go forward and improve experimentation in our field.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Based on previous inventories, the purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge on public administration experiments by focusing on their experimental type, design, sample type and realism levels and external validity. The aim is to provide an overview of experimental public administration and formulate potential ways forward.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors examine the current state of experimental public administration, by looking at a systematic selection of ISI ranked experimental publications in major public administration journals (1992-2014) and recommend ways forward based on this review.\nFindings: The review indicates a rise in experimentation in public administration in recent years, this can be attributed mostly to some subfields of public administration. Furthermore, most experiments in public administration tend to have relatively simple designs, high experimental realism and a focus on external validity. Experimental public administration can be strengthened by increasing diversification in terms of samples, experimental designs, experimental types and substantive scope. Finally, the authors recommend to better utilize experiments to generate usable knowledge for practitioners and to replicate experiments to improve scientific rigour.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to experimental public administration by drawing on a systematic selection of papers and assessing them in depth. By means of a transparent and systematic selection of publications, various venues or ways forward are presented.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring company ability to meet supply chain security validation criteria	[ "Rasch model", "AEO", "Authorized economic operator", "Supply chain security" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In response to the continuous growth of international cargo transportation, many countries have been advocating for measures such as customs clearance facilitation to simplify trade procedures, eliminating barriers to trade and speeding up the circulation and transportation of cargo. However, the efficient operation of international logistics was significantly affected by the 9/11 tragedy in 2001. In response to the tragedy, the US government launched several initiatives to tighten border security for both imports and exports (Sheu, 2006), including the Customs-trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), the Container Security Initiative (CSI), and the 24-Hour Advanced Vessel Manifest Rule (i.e. 24-hour Rule), in an effort to efficiently maintain supply chain security (Thibault et al., 2006; William et al., 2008; Yang and Wei, 2013).\nResearch design: Currently, companies must meet the requirements of AEO validation items to be certified. Likening AEO validation requirements to the items in an examination, companies are like examinees that must pass the examination to become AEO certified. Generally speaking, whether a company can pass AEO validation is determined by the degree of supply chain security that it can provide and how difficult the requirements to be accomplished are. Let us call this degree of supply chain security that one company can provide \"company ability,\" and this level of difficulty for one item to be achieved \"item difficulty.\"\nEmpirical study: Taiwan is an export-oriented country with an export total of USD 308.26 billion and an import total of USD 281.44 billion for a net trade value of USD 26.82 billion in 2011 (Taiwan Bureau of Foreign Trade, 2012). Similar to other countries in Asia, the products manufactured in Taiwan, particularly 3C electronic products, are primarily exported to the USA and other European countries. Thus, the world trend of supply chain security is particularly important to both the Taiwanese government and companies. The government hopes to establish a set of effective AEO validation requirements to secure their goods for both import and export while facilitating the inspection procedure of these goods. Conversely, the companies are concerned with whether they are able to comply with the requirements of AEO validation and enjoy the incentive advantages of being certified as AEO. Therefore, identifying target companies that are anxious to obtain AEO validation is the primary task for this empirical study.\nResults: Findings from estimated item parameters\nDiscussion: This study developed an approach to explore companies' abilities to obtain AEO validation and investigate companies' perceived difficulties to meet the requirement of each security item for AEO validation. Applying the Rasch model, the companies' ordinal responses to the required security items for AEO validation could be converted into the values on an interval scale to measure companies' abilities and items' difficulties to obtain AEO validation simultaneously. The study results can be used as important reference material for the government to generate future policies and counselling agencies.\nConclusion: Whether companies can meet AEO validation is affected not only by their security abilities, AEO validation items' difficulties, and the government's policies toward foreign trade and customers but also by the overall system or pressure from their competitors and partners (DiMaggio, 1983). The outcome of this process will also affect the companies'-related supply chain delivery costs, risks of loss, and expenses such as insurance fee rates. Thus, for a comprehensive insight into the AEO validation system, the aforementioned factors are suggested to consider for future studies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a method to measure the difficulties of items required to achieve Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) validation and investigated companies' abilities to obtain AEO certification based on an empirical analysis of 201 supply chain-related companies in Taiwan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Rasch model was applied to convert the ordinal raw data collected from questionnaire surveys into values on an interval scale to measure companies' abilities and item difficulties for AEO validation. The model was estimated using WINSTEP, which is an iterative computer program.\nFindings: The study results show that self-risk assessment and the formulation of security policies are the most difficult items to accomplish for AEO validation, whereas establishing security facilities is the easiest task to accomplish. Additionally, a company's ability to obtain AEO validation was found to be positively correlated with a company's turnover volume and its number of staff.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research focusses on supply chain-related companies in Taiwan. Thus, the findings may not be transferable directly to other companies, circumstances, or countries.\nPractical implications: Using the Rasch analysis, both company's abilities and item difficulties could be measured numerically and compared meaningfully. The study results could be used as references for the government to create polices to guide companies to meet the requirements of AEO validation in the future.\nSocial implications: According to the study results, only 43.28 percent of the respondent companies have sufficient confidence to completely comply with all 26 security items for AEO validation; this implies that AEO validation criteria should be adjusted or some programs should be provided by the government to improve companies' abilities for AEO validation, if the government genuinely wants to effectively encourage companies to obtain AEO certification.\nOriginality/value: This study introduced a method to estimate items' difficulties and companies' abilities for AEO validation with values on a consistent interval scale. Thus, a comparison between companies' abilities and items' difficulties could be graphically illustrated. The results of this study provide a useful tool to investigate whether the AEO validation criteria are appropriate for the potential companies that can apply for AEO validation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Linkage between knowledge management and R&D management	[ "Knowledge management systems", "Research and development", "Design" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, knowledge management (KM) has aroused growing interest in academic research and corporate practice alike (Arthur D. Little, 1998; California Management Review, 1998; Ernst & Young, 1998; Harvard Business Review, 1998; Pavitt, 1984, World Bank, 1998). Owing to the meteoric rise in the use of information technology and expert knowledge, a lot of pioneering researchers have developed KM algorithms and leading companies have employed KM as an indispensable managerial tool. At the same time, the imperative of research and development (R&D) has never been more compelling than today. The increased degree of competition and the accelerated pace of technological change now make the successful management of R&D at the same time more important but more difficult. Accordingly, the past decade has witnessed the emergence of new R&D management practices that are more systematically designed and more attuned to corporate strategy.The relationship between KM and R&D management is intrinsically close, because R&D processes can primarily be seen as KM processes, transforming information on technological advancements and market demands into the knowledge needed for new product concepts and process designs. Interestingly and even surprisingly, however, the link between KM and R&D management has been virtually inexistent. Little attention has been paid to the development and implementation of KM for the R&D organization. Although the functional spectrum of KM is wide, the R&D organization serves as the primary actor in the process of KM since it is the major source of knowledge generation and dissemination. Furthermore, the R&D organization may constitute a challenging test bed for KM, in that it needs to coordinate collaborative work among knowledge workers and ill-defined workflows across knowledge nodes (Rothwell, 1994). In fact, studies on technological innovation are now experiencing a paradigm shift from R&D management to KM (Nieto, 2002) and management practices and knowledge communications are gradually moving toward an online mode through a single common interface, the world wide web (WWW) browser (Bolisani, 2000; Dennis et al., 1998).We also note that, just like the innovation process, both KM and R&D management are going through an evolutionary and ecological path of development (Nelson and Winter, 1982). In the case of R&D management, some researchers recognize the changing pattern of managerial principles and practices and describe it as generation-wise chronology (Amidon, 1996; Miller, 1995; Miller and Morris, 1999; Schreiber et al., 2002; Tiwana, 2000). Likewise, knowledge itself and, in turn, KM practices are evolutionary in nature (Bowonder and Miyake, 2000; Park et al., 2002; Tiwana, 2000). Hence, the linkage between KM and R&D management needs to be examined from the perspective of dynamic ecology and constructed in response to the changing environment.In this regard, the main purpose of this article is two-fold. First, based on a literature survey, we review the evolutionary profile of R&D management systems. In the process, different versions of the chronological classification are presented, wherein the whole process of change is divided into several generations. By doing so, we attempt to illustrate how R&D management systems have changed over time in terms of their innovation pattern, strategic disciplines, organizational structure and management practices. Second, we suggest a set of needs and design variables for integrating R&D management and KM. For each generation, the salient features of R&D management systems are identified and the corresponding requirements for KM are presented.\nEvolution of R&D management systems: R&D management systems, along with their basic principles and detailed practices, have changed over time, in order to respond better and more rapidly to changes in the internal demands and external environment of the organizations that use them. In today's increasingly competitive environment, management discipline is becoming more purposeful and demanding. At the same time, as R&D activity becomes more complex and delicate, management practices are becoming more sophisticated.Although it is difficult to generalize the managerial principles and operational practices of a particular era, these changes may be described as a generation-wise evolutionary process. In fact, a number of researchers have proposed classification schemes that describe the stepwise process of evolution. To illustrate this, as summarized in Table I, Roussel et al. (1991) proposed a scheme that comprises three generations. Each generation exhibits its own salient characteristics, albeit not entirely new, in terms of strategy, organizational form, funding criteria and methods of control.Rothwell's version is more detailed in that it consists of five generations (Schreiber et al., 2002). As shown in Table II, however, it focuses on the idiosyncratic pattern of innovation of each generation. Starting from the simple linear process of innovation, it becomes more complex and systematic over time.More recently, Miller (1995) and Miller and Morris (1999) proposed another version that is composed of four generations. As depicted in Table III, this version is similar to the previous schemes as regards the first three generations, but is differentiates itself from these other schemes in that it emphasizes discontinuous innovations and dominant designs in the fourth generation. Architecture and capability are the two watchwords of the newest generation and, in this respect, it is also noteworthy that the authors emphasize the strategic importance of knowledge in the fourth generation.Finally, Amidon (1996) presents another version that is made up of five generations. In essence, as indicated in Table IV, the proposed scheme characterizes each generation as a series of assets, made up of technologies, projects, enterprises, customers and knowledge. Accordingly, the organizational structure of R&D systems is evolving from an independent and hierarchical form to a collaborative and global one. The author also points out that the role of information technology has become more sophisticated over time, evolving from the processing of explicit documents to the extraction of tacit knowledge.Based on the literature review, we present a modified classification of R&D management systems. This version, comprising four generations, basically follows that proposed by Miller and Morris, but is modified to some extent, in order to accommodate some of the additional features of other versions, as delineated in Table V.The longevity and traits of the first generation are clear. They account for the isolated, science-based R&D labs which existed before the Second World War, at which time the R&D organization acted as an independent island, staffed and managed only by scientists and engineers. During this period, R&D was considered as an overhead cost and resources were allocated to R&D cost centers without any strategic disciplines and definite objectives. The assessment of R&D performance was omitted or loosely conducted as a ritualistic process. Therefore, the overall R&D process was researcher oriented and the market was not taken into consideration at all.Although it is rather difficult to identify a precise demarcation between the second and third generations, the former is characterized by the \"scientific\" management that was in operation during the 1970s-1980s, whereas the latter is distinguished by the \"strategic\" management that was in favor during the 1990s. In the second stage, the notion of project management emerged, due to the increasing size of the R&D organization and the growing complexity of R&D activities. Some quantitative tools were introduced for the purpose of economic evaluation, and systematic procedures were employed for project scheduling. The position of R&D manager, which could be held by a general manager, began to emerge, involving the planning, management and execution of R&D. The market became a consideration in the R&D division partially, while the non-R&D-divisions of a firm began to support R&D.In the third generation, the concept of strategic and purposeful R&D management was recognized. The R&D organization was no longer isolated from the other functional organizations, and the close linkage between business strategy and technology strategy was emphasized. Such predictive tools as technology roadmaps and life cycle analysis were used for long-term planning. In addition to internal R&D, outsourcing activities and external sources were more actively sought after. Consequently, the R&D portfolio was carefully monitored and priority-setting criteria were rigorously applied. More realistic cost-benefit analysis was conducted and more objective risk-reward systems were implemented, based on performance evaluation. All the divisions of a firm supported R&D. R&D was decentralized to the business unit level, and decisions were made individually by each business unit on the basis of the R&D strategy. Namely, the organizations themselves began to follow a distributed model.The fourth generation may be represented by \"innovative\" management. This stage is characterized by such keywords as architecture and capability. The advocates of change consider that the majority of the existing product concepts are entering into maturation or are in the declining stages of the life cycle (Utterback and Abernathy, 1975) and, thus, argue that the imperative challenge of modern firms is to create next-generation dominant designs through discontinuous innovations. As discontinuous innovations comprise new market creation, as well as new product development, a radical change in the perspective of R&D is needed. In other words, while R&D originated from inside the organization up until the third generation, the fourth generation is characterized by customer-oriented R&D.Although previous systems may be appropriate and sufficient for continuous and incremental innovations, the discontinuous innovations required for producing dominant designs demand a radically new R&D management system. This new system necessitates the restructuring of the organizational architecture, in order to enhance the capability for creating dominant designs.\nGeneration-wise needs of KM: The evolutionary pattern of R&D management systems has meaningful implications for KM. As explained above, the pattern of innovation is becoming more complex and hence necessitates more complicated models, in which not only sequential, but also parallel and feedback processes are involved. R&D systems are becoming intractably large and, thus, need more sophisticated management practices. Accordingly, KM for R&D organizations needs to be updated and expanded over time.As summarized in Table VI, a list of critical needs for KM is suggested in accordance with the characteristics of each R&D management generation. In first generation R&D, the major knowledge activities were acquisition, sharing and utilization and the subject was scientists and/or researcher since it is he or she that made all the decisions. Accordingly, the architecture of KM was simple. In second generation R&D, knowledge of projects as well as R&D itself was included in the profile of the R&D manager, whose emergence characterized this generation. Therefore, KM for second generation R&D should provide a simple workflow tool to provide for the work management needs of the R&D manager, and intranet and groupware for the purpose of cooperation with the non-R&D-divisions of the firm.In third generation R&D, individual projects, as well as global projects reflecting the overall R&D strategy of the firm, should be carried out simultaneously. Therefore, it is necessary for the knowledge and information required to support decision making be provided, since decision making is carried out in parallel by each business unit. To accomplish this, knowledge should be modified depending on who makes a decision during the process of knowledge storage and retrieval. As tacit knowledge management such as skill sets, professional networks and organization memory is required, there is a need for collaborative groups, such as communities of practice (CoPs), in order to allow for the sharing and diffusion of knowledge that is difficult to render explicit. A roadmap is made use of, in order to manage all of the R&D projects for the firm strategically, using the concept of the portfolio. In addition, a web-based system should be constructed, so as to support R&D in a dispersed environment.KM for fourth generation R&D comprises brand-new needs as well as conventional needs. In fourth generation R&D, in which customers play a critical role, it is necessary for external actors, such as customers, suppliers, distributors and external experts, to participate in R&D. Accordingly, the whole system should be web-oriented, and collaborative workflow tools, knowledge agents and intelligent algorithms are required for the collaborative and parallel R&D and innovation knowledge map.It should be noted that the change in needs over time is additive, in that the list of requirements for the subsequent generation includes both the old needs of the previous generation and the new needs of the contemporary generation. Also, the demarcation between the generations does not necessarily mean that the most recent generation is better than the preceding generations. The difference between the generations is discernible, but the next generation is not intrinsically new, in that the underlying concepts of the subsequent generation are still based on the merits of the preceding generation, while extending and/or modifying it to some extent, in response to contemporary needs. Therefore, in general, the shift to the more recent system is desirable, but the choice of the best-practice system is still a firm-specific decision.\nGeneration-wise characteristics of KM system: System domains and variables\nImplications for managers: The proposed requirements for KMSs constitute crucial variables for the design of KMSs and provide the building blocks for integrating R&D management and KM. In doing that, a number of issues arise that need to be addressed in creating innovation-based KMS. First, in designing KMS, KM activities and KMS functions should be customized in accordance with the specific needs and conditions of individual systems. The former represents the process perspective of KM whereas the latter accounts for the technology perspective. Thus, even for the same KM activity, individual KMS may differ from one another in terms of the conceptual design of the KM functions and the practical implementation of the KM tools.Second, KMS should be connected with other IT systems, because firms make use of a wide range of information technologies, in addition to the KMS. Figure 1 shows the general IT system, not a full-set that should be considered. A variety of IT systems should be considered, depending on the characteristics of the firm (e.g. CAD in an architecture firm, simulation in an automobile firm). Third, in response to the evolution in R&D, the set of knowledge should be extended and elaborated. Consequently, it is important and necessary to take advantage of multimedia DBs, as well as conventional DBs. The multimedia DB can capture a much wider range of information than the traditional forms of knowledge capture (Lample et al., 2004).\nConclusion and future research: In this article, we reviewed the evolutionary development of R&D management systems and identified those characteristics which changed from one generation to another. Then, we presented the corresponding requirements for KM systems that can accommodate the ever-increasing demands of contemporary R&D organizations. Based on these requirements, a framework for the design of KM systems was proposed. Next, a KMS architecture was designed from an evolutionary perspective on the basis of this framework. The proposed architecture can constitute both a milestone and a starting point for the implementation of KMSs in accordance with the R&D characteristics of a particular firm.It is evident that a KM system for an R&D organization needs to be expanded and elaborated over time. In order to reflect the diverse and sophisticated needs of the R&D system, the capacity of the KM should also be widened in size and deepened in quality. The KM system may necessitate the support of facilitating agents, if R&D projects become intractably large and complex (Barthes and Tacla, 2002). Most importantly, however, the KM system has to be designed not to improve the efficiency of knowledge processing, but to enhance the effectiveness of innovative capability. No matter how large the database is, how fast the engine is, or how exquisite the portal is, the KM system is futile unless it contributes to the creation of lucrative innovations and the development of new products.The contents presented here represent merely the initial reference of the preliminary stage of our long-term project. We are now carrying out a multi-year project that attempts to develop a next-generation KM system for R&D organizations. Thus, the nature of the current article is exploratory and the scope is quite limited. The gradual progress that we make and the tangible outcomes of our research will be reported in the future whenever the opportunity arises.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The relationship between knowledge management (KM) and research and development (R&D) management is intrinsically close. However, little attention has been paid to the development and implementation of KM systems for R&D organizations. The main objective of this current research is, from the perspective of evolutionary ecology, to suggest a framework of system design to link KM and R&D management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The chronological profile of R&D management systems over the past few decades is reviewed and the salient features of respective generations are identified. Then, the list of requirements for KM systems is suggested for each generation.\nFindings: - Finds that these requirements constitute crucial variables for the design of KM systems and, as a whole, provide the building-blocks for integrating R&D management and KM.\nOriginality/value: - The proposed architecture is considered as a starting-point and serves as a milestone in implementing KMS in accordance with the R&D characteristics of a particular firm.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Regional growth patterns and growth contagion	[ "Trade", "Regional development", "Economic growth" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In a cross-country empirical analysis of growth, a natural test of the robustness of results is whether they survive the inclusion of a few indicator variables for different regions of the world (Barro, 1998; Bleaney and Nishiyama, 2002; Easterly and Levine, 1997). If they do not, then the suspicion is that the variable in question may only be statistically significant because of its collinearity with unidentified regional factors that have not been captured in the regression.In recent years, panel data have been more frequently used in empirical growth analysis. The same issue arises, but potentially in a more complex form because unidentified regional effects may vary over time. Arora and Vamvakidis (2005) use a data set of growth rates over eight five-year periods (1960-1999) for 101 countries to investigate whether the growth rate of trading partners affects a country's growth. They conclude that \"[a] general implication of the results is that countries benefit from trading with fast-growing and relatively richer countries\" (p. 39). In a somewhat similar vein, Sachs and Warner (1997) suggest that the growth of neighbouring countries significantly influences growth. These variables capture the idea of \"growth contagion\" - that growth in one country is affected by growth in other countries in the same time period. If growth has pronounced regional patterns, however, there will be apparent growth contagion from other countries in the same region, even if the true explanation is some common factor affecting the whole region. Here we investigate the robustness of estimated growth contagion to the inclusion of appropriate controls for regional effects.The paper is organised as follows. In the next section we examine regional and temporal patterns in per capita growth rates, using the data set of Arora and Vamvakidis (2005), kindly supplied by the authors. Dividing the world into five regions, we find that about 30 per cent of the variance of per capita growth is \"explained\" by time-varying regional dummies. The predicted values from this regression capture time-varying regional effects, and in Section 3 we consider how robust the results of a standard growth regression are to the inclusion of these predicted values. Then we add growth contagion variables to the regression and repeat the test. Estimated contagion effects are shown to be highly sensitive to the inclusion of the regional predicted values. In Section 4, we consider whether any remaining contagion effects derive from the time-series or cross-section dimensions of the data. Section 5 concludes.\n2 Regional growth patterns: We treat the industrial countries as one region, and divide the rest of the world geographically, into: Latin America and the Caribbean; Asia and the Pacific (west as far as Pakistan); sub-Saharan Africa; and the Middle East and North Africa. The Appendix lists the regional distribution of countries in the sample. Table I shows the unweighted average annual per capita growth rate by region in each of the eight five-year periods, and indicates where this average was significantly different from that of the industrial countries in the same period. Per capita growth rates have varied substantially both by region and over time. With the exception of Asia there is a pronounced growth deceleration after 1974 (or 1979 in the case of the Middle East and North Africa). Growth was significantly slower than in the industrial countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in four five-year periods (the 1960s and the 1980s), and in sub-Saharan Africa in every period. In Asia growth was significantly faster than in the industrial countries in two periods (the early 1990s especially) but slower in 1960-1964. Asian growth was actually slower than that of the industrial countries in 1995-1999, for the first time since 1970-1974, presumably because of the East Asian crisis. The only significant difference for the Middle East and North Africa was exceptionally fast growth in 1975-1979, probably driven by oil price increases.Suppose that we carry out a regression such as the following: Equation 1 where git is annual average per capita growth in country i in five-year period t, r is an index of regions, drt is a dummy variable that equals one for region r at time t, but is zero otherwise, and uit is a random error. The predicted values from this regression capture time-varying regional growth effects. The regression has a R2 of 0.299 and a standard error of 2.53 per cent per annum. Thus, these time-varying effects explain about 30 per cent of growth variation, but the unexplained portion remains substantial. If we omit the interaction between regions and time, increasing the degrees of freedom by 28, the R2 falls to 0.234.\n3 Robustness of growth regressions: In this section we investigate how much controlling for time-varying regional effects influences a standard growth regression. We pool the data and regress five-year per capita growth (per cent p.a.) on the log of per capita GDP at the beginning of the period, the investment/GDP ratio, the inflation rate, the population growth rate, the secondary school enrolment ratio, and trade openness (the ratio of exports plus imports to GDP). We then add the fitted values from equation (1) to this regression, to capture time-varying regional effects. The results are shown in Table II.Introducing the controls doubles the R2, but does not change the regression much, with the signs of all coefficients remaining the same. The variable most affected is the log of initial per capita GDP, which has a coefficient of virtually zero without these controls, reflecting the widespread failure of poorer areas of the globe to grow any faster than the richer ones. Once regional dummies are included, these help to \"explain\" the slow growth of some poor countries such as sub-Saharan Africa, and the coefficient of initial per capita GDP becomes much more negative.We now repeat this exercise, adding two variables that capture growth contagion - the simultaneous growth of a weighted average of other countries. For distance-weighted growth the weights are the inverse of the distance between the capitals of the countries concerned, so nearest neighbours have the greatest weight. Trading partners' growth uses trade between the two countries as weights. Because trade tends to be inversely related to distance, this variable is also biased towards nearer neighbours, and towards larger, richer countries (as in the gravity model). Table III shows that, without controlling for any time or regional effects, both of these variables are highly significant. A country's growth is estimated to increase one-for-one with that of neighbours or trading partners. Thus, there appears to be a great deal of growth contagion in the world. When the fitted values from equation (1) are added, however, the picture changes drastically. The coefficients of these variables fall dramatically and only trading partners' growth remains statistically significant.These variables are so dramatically affected by controlling for time-varying regional effects because they tend to capture growth in the same time period in the same region. This is most true of distance-weighted growth, but it is also substantially true of trading partners' growth. To illustrate this point, Table IV shows how much of the variance of these variables can be explained by differing specifications of regional and time effects. Time dummies explain over 60 per cent of the variance of both variables. This reflects the dramatic deceleration in world growth shown in Table I. Adding regional dummies as well raises the proportions explained to 82.6 per cent for distance-weighted growth and 68.8 per cent for trading partners' growth. Including interactive dummies pushes the R2 up to 88.3 per cent and 71.5 per cent, respectively, (an F-test shows the interactive dummies to be significant at the 0.05 level).Thus, these variables capture the fact that growth rates have fluctuated over time, and in a way that is not uniform across regions. If the true cause of these growth fluctuations is omitted variables, then variables that reflect the simultaneous growth of other countries suffer from enormous parameter bias, as Table III shows. Controlling for time-varying regional effects helps to address this issue.\n4 The temporal and cross-section dimensions: In a panel, it is possible that a variable explains only the temporal variation in the dependent variable, and not its cross-section dimension, or vice versa. Suppose that we accept growth contagion as the true explanation, and conclude that regional patterns in growth result from growth contagion. There still remains the question whether growth contagion explains temporal or cross-country fluctuations in growth, or both. It is known that the business cycle is correlated internationally (Kose and Yi, 2006), and trade is probably a major driver of this, so trading partners' growth may be explaining fluctuations of growth about trend, and not trend growth rates. If this is the case it would be an overstatement to conclude that a country can improve its trend growth rate by reorienting trade towards faster-growing partners.First we explore the time-series dimension by estimating the regression with fixed country effects. This effectively adds 100 country dummies to the regression, so that the independent variables are now explaining only the time-series variation in the dependent variable. As Table V shows, both distance-weighted growth and trading partners' growth have highly significant coefficients greater than 0.8. Thus, these variables help to explain why countries have grown faster in some time periods than others (though if time dummies are added to this regression, the coefficients fall by a half).Since, there are only eight time periods, we explore the cross-section dimension by estimating eight cross-section regressions, one for each time period, and recording the coefficient and t-statistic of distance-weighted growth and trading partners' growth. If these variables help to explain the cross-section dimension of per capita growth, their average coefficient should be positive, and the average of the eight t-statistics should be significantly positive as well. Table VI shows that, when regional dummies are omitted from the regressions, the average t-statistic is positive, but not significantly so. When four regional dummies are included in each regression, the average t-statistic is either significantly negative (distance-weighted growth) or very close to zero (trading partners' growth). Thus, there is no convincing evidence that these variables explain why some countries have higher trend growth rates than others in a given period.\n5 Conclusions: Growth has a strong time-varying regional component. This is probably because of a combination of factors, such as deep-seated problems in sub-Saharan Africa, the debt crisis of the 1980s and its subsequent resolution for Latin America, oil price increases in the late 1970s for the Middle East, and the East Asian crisis in the late 1990s. This creates a problem in testing what might be called \"growth contagion\" - whether growth spills over to neighbours or trading partners. Growth of neighbours or trading partners will capture time-varying regional effects, even if there is no true growth contagion, so the existence of regional patterns to growth is likely to make these variables highly statistically significant in a growth regression. We have shown that, when time and regional effects are properly controlled for, the estimated coefficients of growth contagion variables decline drastically, and it is far from clear that significant growth contagion exists. Even if we accept that it does, it tends to explain only the temporal variation of growth rates, and not its cross-section variation, especially once regional effects are taken into account. Thus, the results may simply reflect international business cycle correlations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to assess the importance of time-varying regional patterns to countries' per capita growth rates, and their effect on the conclusions that can be drawn from growth regressions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Pooled ordinary least squares on a data set of five-year average growth rates for 101 countries over the period 1960-1999 are used.\nFindings: - It is shown that time-varying regional dummies explain more of the variance of per capita growth rates than do commonly used independent variables. This may indicate a problem of omitted variables with a strong regional dimension, or alternatively that growth is highly \"contagious\" within a region, perhaps through trade. Variables such as the growth of neighbouring countries or trading partners appear to be highly statistically significant when time-varying regional effects are ignored, but are much less so when they are properly controlled for, and may simply be capturing unobserved regional effects. There is evidence that these variables reflect international business cycle correlation rather than the advantages of trading with, or being close to, faster-growing countries.\nResearch limitations/implications: - There are strong regional patterns to growth of which one is still far from a full understanding.\nPractical implications: - Growth of neighbouring countries or trading partners may be much less important for a country's per capita growth than is sometimes claimed.\nOriginality/value: - The findings show the importance of applying appropriate robustness checks to empirical results, and (in a two-dimensional data set) of exploring whether variables explain the time-series or the cross-section dimension.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A meta-regression on the effect of online ratings on hotel room rates	[ "Hedonic pricing", "Hotel pricing", "Meta-regression", "Online ratings" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the advancement of internet technologies and their widespread adoption in the tourism and hospitality industry, travelers have come to rely increasingly on online reviews prior to booking hotel rooms (Ayeh et al., 2016). The number of travelers who tend to post reviews on social media after taking a trip has grown over time (Anderson, 2012). Online reviews, which represent a common form of electronic word of mouth (eWOM), have surpassed traditional word-of-mouth channels (e.g. recommendations from family and friends) to become the most important product information source (Goldsmith and Horowitz, 2006). Given the critical role that online reviews play in affecting consumers' behaviors, hospitality practitioners growingly realize the necessity of online reputation management and thus proactively involve in the interaction with consumers on online review platforms (Xie et al., 2016).\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: 2.1 Theoretical background\n3. Research method: We searched the empirical literature investigating the effects of online ratings (review valence) on hotel prices in February 2017 from several leading databases, such as Google Scholar, SSRN, EBSCO Hospitality and Tourism Complete and ProQuest. Search terms included \"online rating,\" \"hotel price,\" \"room rate,\" \"average daily rate,\" \"online reviews,\" \"social media,\" \"review valence,\" \"electronic WOM,\" \"booking.com\" and \"TripAdvisor.\" We included only studies using hotel room rate/price as the dependent variable and online ratings as one of the independent variables. The references in collected papers were then applied in a search for additional relevant studies. Four criteria were applied to exclude inappropriate articles from the data set:\n4. Estimation results: Table II presents the estimation results from the HLM meta-regression. Model 1 included all proposed independent variables; however, as indicated in Table AIII (Appendix) of the correlation coefficient matrix, the strong correlation between price_measure = 2 and log_DV presented a potential multicollinearity problem. Therefore, we estimated additional model specifications. Model 2 excluded log_DV and Model 3 eliminated price_measure = 2 from Model 1. The estimated coefficients of other variables changed little in terms of statistical significance, sign and magnitude, reflecting the robustness of our model specification. The variables of price_measure = 2 and log_DV were each estimated to be statistically insignificant in models 1-3. These results indicate that the choice of price variable and logarithm transformation of the dependent variable did not influence the elasticity estimate; therefore, H6 and H8 were rejected, respectively. According to the goodness-of-fit indices, Model 2 was the best-fitting model among Models 1-3 as indicated by the lowest demonstrated values of the Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion (Greene, 2007). Accordingly, we used the estimates from Model 2 to explain the results of our hypothesis tests.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Online ratings (review valence) have been found to exert a strong influence on hotel room prices. This study aims to systematically synthesize research estimating the impact of online ratings on room rates using a meta-analytical method.\nDesign/methodology/approach: From major academic databases, a total of 163 estimates of the effects of online ratings on room rates were coded from 22 studies across different countries through a systematic review of relevant literature. All estimates were converted into elasticity-type effect sizes, and a hierarchical linear meta-regression was used to investigate factors explaining variations in the effect sizes.\nFindings: The median elasticity of online ratings on hotel room rates was estimated to be 0.851. Meta-regression results highlighted four categories of factors moderating the size of this elasticity: data characteristics, research settings, variable measures and publication outlet. Among sub-ratings, results revealed value rating and room rating to exert the largest impact on room rates, whereas staff and cleanliness ratings demonstrated non-significant impacts.\nPractical implications: This study provides practical implications on the relative importance of different types of online ratings for online reputation and revenue management.\nOriginality/value: This study represents the first research effort to understand factors moderating the effects of online ratings on hotel room rates based on a quantitative review of the literature. Moreover, this study provides beneficial insights into the specification of empirical hedonic pricing models and data-collection strategies, such as the selection of price variables and choices of model functional forms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Assessment of sustainable development and knowledge of environmental management: Internal auditors' perspectives	[ "Sustainable development", "Environmental management", "Internal auditing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has promulgated the international ISO-14000 series of environmental management standards, the most evident development being a complete \"environmental management system.\" This ecological whirlwind has quickly grabbed the attention of business executives, increasing the importance they attach to environmental awareness. Related studies (Klassen and McLaughlin, 1996; Russo and Fouts, 1997; Andrews et al., 2002; Govindarajulu and Daily, 2004) also point out, that the results of company environmental management are better than before, and indeed help increase the financial performance of the companies. Sufficient integration among environmental information, environmental performance and financial performance has become an important key in raising a company's environmental awareness. When they consider their economic performance and awareness of international, sustainable economic operations, companies actively pour resources into environmental management, and realize their goal of \"green\" business operations through disclosing environmental information in financial reports and actively engaging in activities related to ISO 14010 (1996) and so forth.If a company is unable to implement a flawless environmental auditing procedure, thus posing a danger to society in addition to being penalized by the government, its good name will be damaged which will be detrimental to the company's goal of sustainable business operations. This study seeks to investigate, under the current environmental auditing system, what the environmental awareness, environmental knowledge, and recognition of environmental auditing of companies' internal auditors are like. The study is completed through real-life surveys and analysis of the attitude and recognition toward environmental topics maintained by company internal auditors in the manufacturing and the service industry, to provide executives with information they need to refer to when formulating sustainable development policies.\nStructure of an environmental auditing system: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA, 1986) defines environmental auditing as procedures of any business or other regulated entity involving the systematic, regular, documented, and objective reviews of internal operations to comply with environmental laws. The International Chamber of Commerce (1991) defines it as part of a management tool, using systematic, documented, regular and objective evaluations, through control and appraisal that promotes environmental management, beneficial for compliance with the company's environmental policies and environmental protection regulations, to attain an environment with good environmental management and save operation of equipment. Environmental auditing is not restricted to compliance with laws, but involved the entire strategy of the organization's activities. Wee and Quazi (2005) develop and validate seven critical factors of environmental management that could be used by managers in assessing and improving their environmental management practices. The factors include top management commitment, total involvement of employees, training, green process design, supplier management, measurement, and information management.According to Thompson et al. (1993), environmental auditing is divided into seven categories: compliance audits, environmental management system audits, transactional audits, treatment, storage and disposal facility audits, pollution prevention audits, environmental liability accrual audits, and product audits. However, researchers (Marzulla and Kappel, 1991; Josephine, 1999) divide it into two broad groups: internal environmental auditing and external environmental auditing. Marzulla and Kappel (1991) suggest that companies should consider overall viewpoints on internal and external environmental auditing from the perspective of a third party in reviewing its environmental management performance in order to ensure objectivity. Josephine (1999) stresses the auditor's independence and suggests using different manpower sources to form the company's own environmental auditing team. In addition to auditing the company's own suitability for an environmental management system, it can balance the differences between internal and external environmental auditing, to ensure the quality of environmental auditing. Table I compares the differences between internal and external environmental auditing for the reference of executives in setting up an environmental auditing system.\nLiterature review: The importance of environmental auditing to businesses\nHypothesis development: According to Jaggi and Zhao (1996), the importance that business managers attach to environmental effectiveness is mainly because companies engaging in pollution reduction activities are naturally endowed with a competitive advantage, resulting in a better company image. Thus, company investment in environmental protection not only helps reach environmental goals, but is also beneficial to the company's long-term profitability. In addition, companies can raise their image of sustainable development through their efforts in environmental protection and by having the courage to bear social responsibility, complying with executives' goals to maximize company value. Thus, there is a recent trend for company internal auditors to be environmentally aware, and this should be a criterion for a company's appointment of an auditor, and companies should rid themselves of prejudice based on degree of industry sensitivity. Therefore, we first argue that the environmental awareness of internal auditors among varied industries in Taiwan is demonstrated similarly and formulate the following hypothesis:H1. There is no difference in the environmental awareness maintained by internal auditing personnel in companies belonging to the manufacturing industry and those belonging to the service industry.\nResearch subjects and data analysis methods: The scope of this study covers internal auditor in listed and over-the-counter companies in Taiwan. Taiwan has clear laws that require all listed and over-the-counter companies to have an internal auditing department, so we selected the Top 1,000 public listed and over-the-counter companies in the manufacturing industry and the Top 500 corresponding companies in the service industry, as published in the May 2004 special edition of Commonwealth Magazine as subjects for research.We sent questionnaires by mail to 240 companies in the higher-polluting manufacturing industry and 120 companies in the lower-pollution service industry, contacting them by telephone in advance and following up by telephone afterwards in order to increase the retrieval rate (Fitch, 1988; Schneider and Rodgers, 1990). We received 119 and 109 completed forms, respectively, for a retrieval rate of 30.28 percent, which is not much different from ordinary retrieval rates for mailed questionnaires. With respect to choosing the distribution and retrieval of the sample, Table II shows that we received 69 valid samples from the manufacturing industry and 40 from the service industry for a total of 109.In this study we first organized the raw data we gathered, then carried out statistical analyses using version 12.0 of the SPSS statistical software package for Windows, including descriptive statistical analysis, reliability analysis, Student's t-test for independence, and others.\nResearch findings: Analysis of differences in environmental awareness between internal auditors in the manufacturing and service industries\nConclusion and recommendations: In the past, environmental auditing received greater emphasis in high-risk occupations (such as chemical or petrochemical industries), but recently the concept of environmental auditing has gradually become universal, spreading to less dangerous industries and to many small and medium sized businesses. Considering the four development stages for accounting posited by Rubenstein (1992), it is currently in the fourth stage, and the disclosure of accounting information is starting to include other values, analyzing certain non-business issues such as environmental and occupational safety. Accounting and auditing are two sides of the same coin with a complementary relationship: the auditor should understand the responsibility he has in environmental management, and can apply his work experience and expertise to help a business increase its sensitivity toward the environment.Therefore, the main goal of this study is to clarify whether a company's internal auditors will be influenced by the degree of environmental sensitivity of the business they work in, leading to differences in degrees of response among internal auditors in environmental topics (environmental awareness and knowledge, recognition of environmental auditing). Integrating the above analyses, this study has found that there is no difference between the environmental awareness maintained by internal auditors in the manufacturing and service industries in Taiwan, such as responsibilities of increasing the environmental awareness of their businesses and implementing government-imposed environmental regulations. Next, with respect to understanding opinions on the potential losses and gains involved with environmental pollution and improving the image of a company, internal auditors in the manufacturing industry and the service industry can help companies fully disclose environmental information and ensure that interested parties understand the benefits in order to mold a good environmental image. Regardless of whether the internal auditors were in the manufacturing industry or the service industry, their environmental awareness was not affected by the environmental sensitivity of the industry to which they belong, and they all possessed a positive environmental awareness.In addition, there is a difference in environmental knowledge between internal auditors in the manufacturing industry and those in the service industry. The findings of this study show that internal auditors in the manufacturing industry have greater environmental knowledge than internal auditors in the service industry. This shows that, currently, the environmental knowledge of internal auditors in Taiwan's manufacturing industry is affected by the environmental sensitivity of the industry to which they belong, which is more thorough than that of internal auditors in the service industry. Thus, internal auditors belonging to the service industry should strengthen the gaps in their own environmental knowledge, especially with respect to professional knowledge of environmental auditing, so that they can raise the quality of their own auditing and increase the competitiveness of their organization.The Processual Analytic Model devised by Lin et al. (2001) can provide auditors with information to foster knowledge of environmental management. They believe that in accordance with the past, future environmental management in business will attach importance to industry structures and laws, and adjust to the implementation of the operation procedure. They can divide environmental management into three major constructs: analysis of strategies and policies, analysis of business culture and organizational behavior, and employee attitude cognizance and motivation. Auditors wishing to foster environmental management can first start by establishing environmental accounting information, strengthen the learning incentives of organization members, and then through the establishment of a green company and through procedure auditing, realize the strategic goal of sustainable development for the company.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To examine whether there are differences with respect to internal auditors' attitude toward environmental protection, cognizance of environmental auditing and environmental knowledge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire survey based research method is used and a Mann-Whitney U-test as well as a T-test is applied on this data.\nFindings: - There is no difference between internal auditors in the manufacturing industry and those in the service industry with respect to environmental awareness and cognizance of environmental auditing. Yet there is a significant difference with respect to knowledge of environmental protection.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study is limited to that of internal auditors' perspectives.\nPractical implications: - Internal auditors are the \"watch dogs\" for firms to implement environmental management so that strengthening their environmental knowledge is required.\nOriginality/value: - This study reveals internal auditors' perception toward environmental management in both high- and low-pollution industries that go beyond green auditing issues.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Product diversification, business structure, and firm performance in Taiwanese property and liability insurance sector	[ "Firm performance", "Panel data", "Product diversification", "Business structure", "Property-liability insurance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the early 2000s, the Taiwanese Congress introduced the Financial Institutions Merger Law and the Financial Holding Company Act to enhance the economic efficiency of the financial services industry. As a result, some insurers have been acquired or merged with other firms in the past several years, which allowed the financial sector to cross-market their products through various channels. Consequently, the Taiwanese property-liability (P/L) insurance industry is expected to face more challenges and increased competition. As the market has become more competitive, keeping the cost structure low is crucial for the firm's long-run survival. The conventional opinion is that product diversification is associated with both costs and benefits. Insurer expect diversification in the insurance industry are largely attributable to the ability to cross-sell products, generate cost savings, enter new markets, create hybrid products and enhance brand image, all while developing new sales channels (Seol, 2000; Best's Review, 2000). Furthermore, with the global financial market liberalization, insurance companies in many countries are increasingly using the product diversification strategies to expand their market shares (MSs) and improve their financial performance (Elango et al., 2008). In addition, insurers with highly volatile business lines may exhibit higher underwriting risk (Zou et al., 2012), so that business structure would influence firm performance. Therefore, given the smaller size of Taiwan's P/L insurance market and intense market competition, it has become an important strategy to seek product diversification and appropriate business structures.\nRelated literature: Product diversification and firm performance\nMethodology, data and variables: Data sources\nMethodology: I use ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model, fixed effects model (FEM) and random effects model (REM) for the analysis of panel data to examine the effects of product diversification and business structure on performance in P/L insurers. Through literature review, we construct an empirical regression model below:\nEmpirical results: Model specification and descriptive statistic\nConclusions and discussion: This study investigates the effects of product diversification and business structure on firm performance using a panel data on Taiwanese P/L insurers from 1999 to 2010. The main findings from the empirical analyses are summarized as follows. First, there is a negative relationship between product diversification and firm performance, which implies that potential benefits from diversification are likely to be offset by the extra costs associated with product diversity. The results are consistent with the findings of other studies on diversification-performance relationship (Liebenberg and Sommer, 2008; Shim, 2011). Second, focusing on the business structure, the relationship between an insurer's business line profit and firm performance is analyzed. The reported results show that insurance companies with higher concentrations on fire insurance business would have higher firm performance, whereas firms with higher concentrations on marine insurance business would have less profit. These findings are consistent with the results in Tien and Yang (2014). Specifically, they find that if life insurers focus more on specialized products, this might encourage growth. The reason is an insurer can maximize value by focusing on one or a few specialized lines of business in which the firm has a comparative advantage. Third, the interaction term (product diversification x FS) has a positive and significant impact on insurer performance, which implies product diversification significantly increases the performance of large-sized insurers. These findings are not similar to the results in Berry-Stolzle et al. (2013). This study indicates that diversification of larger insurers could significantly increase the performance in developing capital markets, but not in less developed capital markets.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze product diversification, business structure and insurer performance with a comprehensive look at the property-liability (P/L) insurance operations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a panel data, this study employs an ordinary least squares regression model, fixed effects model and random effects model to examine the impact of product diversification and business structure on the performance of P/L insurers. The study assesses insurer performance using both risk-adjusted return on assets and risk-adjusted return on equity.\nFindings: The study finds that product diversification is significantly negatively related to the performance of P/L insurers. The results are consistent with the diversification discount theory. The empirical results reveal that business lines have significant impacts on firm performance, particularly on the lines of fire and marine insurances. Furthermore, the interaction between product diversification and firm size implies that product diversification significantly increases the performance of large-sized insurance firms.\nOriginality/value: The study provides some valuable insights into the effects of diversification and business structure on the performance of P/L insurers in a developing country. The study's findings suggest that management of P/L insurers should clarify their objectives and carefully assess the company's resources when dealing with product diversification and business structure. The results have practical implications for the financial services industry in Taiwan.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
E-learning: a nutrition and HIV/AIDS information tool	[ "E‐learning", "Distance learning", "Nutrition", "HIV", "Acquired immune deficiency syndrome", "Mature students" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The distance learning landscape in Africa is transforming at a rapid pace and it is driven by diverse economic, technological and social trends. In South Africa, as in other countries, there is an increasing demand for higher education institutions to provide accessible, quality distance learning that meets the needs of adult students, many of whom are from previously disadvantaged communities (Badat, 2005; Norman, 2004; Van Brakel and Chisenga, 2003). To address these needs, higher learning institutions are progressively incorporating ICTs (information communication technologies) and distance learning to provide flexible learning opportunities at a time and place that is convenient to students within a framework of lifelong learning (Badat, 2005; Chari and Haughey, 2006; Zentel et al., 2004). Student demands are shifting from just-in-case learning, where students are expected to complete degree programmes long before they actually need the knowledge, to just-in-time learning, where students seek customised certification when they need it and where the learning programmes are tailor-made to meet the particular and well-defined lifelong learning needs of students (Hochberg, 2006; Smart and Cappel, 2006).The HIV and AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome) pandemic is having increasingly devastating socio-economic effects on South Africa and other African countries (Piwoz and Preble, 2000; Steenkamp, 2000). As the HIV and AIDS pandemic grows, so does the demand for training and health promotion strategies in this field (Mokwena et al., 2007).There is a growing need and appreciation among prospective students, especially working adults with families, who cannot attend residential universities or who live in rural areas, for the flexibility and fewer time constraints that distance learning offers (Carnevale and Olsen, 2003; Hochberg, 2006; Mokwena et al., 2007). Distance learning and technology has the potential to bridge the gap between educational disparities of race, income and region, and to deliver learning to adults on a scale hitherto undreamt of (Badat, 2005; Hopey, 1999). It can also \"contribute to accountability by reinforcing learner-centred instruction and outcomes-based education while overall improving the relationship between teaching, learning, assessment, and effectiveness\" (Hopey, 1999, p. 26). To gain more insight on how to implement and use e-learning, students' perception of e-learning should be taken into account (Smart and Cappel, 2006). Although research has been conducted regarding e-learning (Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006) more information is needed on how and when e-learning can be implemented effectively as part of a blended mode of teaching and learning in open distance learning (ODL) in South Africa.\nBackground: The Sociology Department at Unisa, in consultation with other departments at Unisa, developed the Social Behavioural Studies in HIV and AIDS Honours Programme. The purpose of the degree programme is to provide the necessary skills in and knowledge of the social behaviour aspects of HIV and AIDS and to address the socio-economic impact of HIV and AIDS. It is an interdisciplinary programme offering outcomes-based courses where students are assessed through theoretical questions, authentic learning and skills development activities.During the development phase of the programme a need for a course that would focus on the nutritional needs of PLWHA (people living with HIV and AIDS) was identified. For years the focus on the management of HIV and AIDS was on drugs - while the relationship between nutrition and HIV and AIDS was largely ignored. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted the importance of nutrition and diet in the management of HIV and AIDS (FAO Newsroom, 2003). In poverty stricken countries where malnutrition and its side effects are commonplace, and where resources, health care and drug therapy are expensive and not readily available, it is increasingly recognised that diet and nutrition can play an important role in the health management of PLWHA (FAO Newsroom, 2003; Huber et al., 2000). \"Nutritional care and support are essential components of health care management for people with HIV/AIDS\" (Veldman, 2002).Offering the distance learning course in nutrition and HIV and AIDS poses unique challenges. The majority of students enrolled for this programme have qualifications in the Social Sciences, Education, and Nursing from residential institutions. Although most students had no formal qualifications in nutrition, it was anticipated that they would have at least some degree of reliable knowledge about nutrition. To provide students with the basic points of reference in the science and practice of nutrition, the students were initially provided with a study guide comprising an overview of basic nutrition in the first section followed by basic nutritional care and support to PLWHA, and addressing some of the social implications of nutrition and HIV and AIDS.However, when the course was offered for the first time it became apparent that the students had even less basic nutritional knowledge than had been anticipated and they (as individuals) had different levels of nutritional knowledge. They also entertained many misconceptions about nutrition in general and nutritional care for PLWHA. It also became apparent from the low marks that students achieved, as well as informal discussions with students, that they found the course content unfamiliar and difficult. They contributed these difficulties to the fact that they had no or very little prior knowledge about basic nutrition. Facilitators from some of the other modules in the programme reported the same problem. It thus became evident that the paper-based mode of presenting the nutrition and HIV and AIDS course did not meet the needs of these students and the outcomes of the course.For years, distance learning institutions in South Africa relied mainly on paper-based study materials, the post, telephone calls and, in some cases, television. The quality of interaction between facilitators (lecturers) and students depended on (and was limited by) the capacity and format of study material and communication channels such as telephone, facsimile and later e-mail. The initial paper-based course on nutrition and HIV and AIDS comprised a printed study guide, three readings (a compilation of sections extracted from reliable textbooks, refereed publications and other sources that had a bearing on nutrition and HIV and AIDS in the African context), assessments and three one-week face-to-face sessions. Considering that most students are from previously disadvantaged communities and the high cost of overseas textbooks (there are limited local textbooks on nutrition), students cannot be expect to buy three to four textbooks to get the information they require. To obviate this textbook problem, students were provided with a selection of readings. Due to the high costs of the paper format, more information about nutrition could not be added to the existing readings. Therefore, it was necessary to investigate other modes of presenting the course and of providing easily accessible resources that did not depend on a paper format.While providing relevant and reliable content, the degree programme (including the nutrition and HIV and AIDS course) also aimed at guiding students in developing skills and competencies to engage in independent lifelong learning. Such skills and competencies include (Ginsburg, 1999; Mutula, 2002):* Information skills, i.e. acquiring and evaluating data, interpreting and communicating data.* Systems skills, i.e. understanding social, organizational, and technological systems.* Thinking skills, i.e. critical thinking, thinking creatively, making decisions, solving problems, quantitative reasoning, knowing how to learn.* Interpersonal and communication skills, i.e. working with peers and teaching others.These skills cannot be learned in isolation; they have to be learned in a context where the skills concerned are valued, modelled and assessed (Ginsburg, 1999; Smart and Cappel, 2006). Therefore the course and assignments were structured to support outcomes-based education and authentic learning while engaging students actively in their learning. Students had to submit four compulsory formative assessments during the year and a summative assessment at the end of the year. They had the option of two dates by which to complete and submit the formative assessments. When students submitted their assessment before the first due date, it was assessed with feedback and returned to them. They could then rework their assessment, resubmit it before the second due date and so improve their marks. They could also submit the assessments only on the second due date, but then the mark given was final.However, due to staff constraints, facilitator workload, time limitations and the physical distance between facilitators and students, the facilitators need tools to assist them in the teaching and learning process. Technological applications (properly implemented and presented) can meet this need. E-learning minimises the educational role of the facilitators as the sole source of knowledge and rather allows them to become a collaborator, mediator and facilitator in the learning process; it supports students in developing process skills and building knowledge, rather than only gaining information (Beller and Or, 2003; Johnston et al., 2005).In spite of the opportunities and challenges that the world wide web (www) provides for delivering nutritional education, it appears that ICT is still underutilized in this field (Kolasa, 2002). Limited research was available on the integration of basic nutrition and health education into non-medical disciplines at post-graduate level. No research could be found on e-learning, especially on the www, that had either investigated or described the offering of a distance learning course on public nutrition and HIV and AIDS, supported by e-learning. The available tertiary level e-learning courses are mostly designed for medical and dietetic students where it complements the face-to-face instruction.\nAims and objectives of this study: The aim of this study was to develop a course web site as part of a blended distance learning nutrition and HIV and AIDS course. The course site had to address the limited nutritional knowledge of the post graduate students and communicate knowledge about nutrition and HIV and AIDS while encouraging self-directed, explorative knowledge formation.The objectives were to:* Establish a student profile.* Explore students' access to computers and the internet and determine if they had the necessary facilities and computer skills.* Explore students' evaluation of the design and layout of the learning web site.* Explore whether the web site assisted students (or not) in familiarizing them with the content and whether the self-evaluation activities assisted them in understanding the subject principles better.* Explore students' experiences of learning at a distance.Data collection\nFindings: A total of 107 (95 per cent) completed questionnaires were returned and analysed.Student profile\nDiscussion: The findings will be discussed under the question topics as stated under the aim and objectives of the study.Student profile\nConclusion: Some researchers are of the view that distance learning and e-learning may be a more appropriate way of delivering education to students who come from different ethnic backgrounds, and whose needs and expectations, prior education and life experience, personal learning styles and abilities vary significantly (Mutula, 2002; Beller and Or, 2003). The results of this study on the student profile indicate that the students enrolled for the Social Behavioural Studies in HIV and AIDS Honours Programme fit this profile and that delivering their educational needs by means of distance learning and e-learning will be more appropriate.Utilising e-learning as a means of instruction offers students access to appropriate web sites and other documentation that provide them with immediate and relevant knowledge and whatever other information they may need. From these links they can venture out to other sites and resources. Second, there are students located in more rural areas with very limited resources of the kind that we associate with an urban society. The learning web site provides students with the means of finding at least some of the relevant information and knowledge that they need. The availability of the web site as a component of the distance learning course means that students at least have a choice of travelling (for many a long distance) either to a library in the hope of finding some information on the subject, or a much shorter distance to the nearest internet cafe or University student centre to access the internet and learning web site there.New teaching and learning possibilities need to be explored in spite of the many constraints associated with e-learning and the internet as modes of instruction. E-learning in this study provided:* Valuable support for a printed mode of distance learning in nutrition and HIV and AIDS.* Students with access to immediate information and resources about the basic concepts of nutrition and HIV and AIDS.* An interactive alternative and more pleasant learning experience while encouraging self-directed explorative knowledge formation.* A means to develop skills, methods and modes of communication that are needed for independent, lifelong learning.For an e-learning project to succeed, a balance should be established between the target group student needs and expectations, and the requirements, strategic objectives and values of the organisation and its brand. E-learning developers should also consider the constraints placed on a particular project such as time, resources (including the available budget) and the technologies accessible to the target user base (Preston, 2003).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine how e-learning can add value to a postgraduate distance learning course using a combination of media for teaching and learning in the field of nutrition and HIV and AIDS.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were gathered through the survey method using questionnaires, group discussions and interviews. Descriptive quantitative statistics supported by qualitative techniques were used to gather data.\nFindings: - Findings from this research indicate that implementing e-learning as a mode of teaching and learning (provided that it is properly implemented and presented) can add value to an outcomes-based, distance learning course. E-learning provides: support for a paper-based, distance learning course in nutrition and HIV and AIDS; students with access to information and knowledge about the basic concepts of nutrition and HIV and AIDS; an alternative and interactive learning experience while encouraging self-directed explorative knowledge formation; and a means to develop critical thinking skills and methods of communication needed for independent, lifelong learning.\nPractical implications: - The selected instructional media can be applied successfully to adult and distance learning in the field of HIV and AIDS as well as nutrition.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shares findings on the integration of e-learning into a HIV and AIDS nutrition course (for non-medical students), offered in an African context through open distance learning and demonstrates how the course addresses student profile and limited resources.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring internal segregation in the South African medical profession	[ "Feminisn", "Doctors", "Gender", "Work identity", "Workplace learning", "South Africa" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and literature review: Any reader of this journal might question the relevance of this article to the broader debate around workplace learning. I would locate its value in the fact that it aims to stimulate debate and thinking around how and if certain gendered work identities influence decision-making in professions, and how they are learnt and perpetuated. Articles focusing on the impact of workplace learning is particularly relevant in the medical profession, due to the very early exposure to clinical practice that students receive. Thus it is quite plausible to expect work experiences and learning to greatly impact on students' specialty choices. We will use the conceptualisation of workplace learning as that which implies \"human change or growth that occurs primarily in activities and contexts of work, however it is defined and located\" (Fenwick, 2001, p. 4). In other words, we are investigating the outcomes due to the process of increasing feminisation of the medical profession, and how this creates a space to reconsider the relevance of gendered work identities as a way in which to conceptualise specialty choices in medicine.Extensive literature in the field has evidenced the likelihood of female medical doctors to not only fall disproportionately in general practice, but in terms of specialisation, in the so-called softer specialisms of paediatrics, dermatology, family medicine, and obstetrics and gynaecology, while they are underrepresented in the high status specialities of surgery and internal medicine (Walker, 1997; Hinze, 1999; Armstrong and Armstrong, 1992; Riska, 2001; Gjerberg, 2002). Thus, women are not spread evenly across the different fields of medicine but tend to concentrate in those that are somewhat lower-status and perhaps more easily sex-typed feminine (Wright and Jacobs, 1994; Adams, 2005). This phenomenon is termed internal segregation (also referred to as ghettoization by Reskin and Roos, 1990), and it is evident in the South African medical profession. These trends held in studies on gender in the medical profession across a number of countries, Canada, the UK and the USA.This phenomenon confirms that although women are not blatantly discriminated against in terms of entry into the medical profession, instances of internal segregation are evident. Lester (2008) in his study on women health faculty members in an academic setting for instance, shows how gendered practices can be replicated and maintained although formal gender discriminatory structures are no longer present (Davies, 1996). Crompton and Le Feuvre (2003, p. 36) in this regard note that \"the entry of women into higher-level professional occupations has not resulted in their equal distribution within these occupations\". The traditional view is that this is an expected outcome, based on gender preferences resulting from socialisation. I argue for a more comprehensive interrogation of the position of women in medicine (Wildschut, 2008a, b), as unchallenged \"patterns of occupational distribution within professions also reflect the (re)production of the gender division of labour within the professions as well as in the wider society\" (Crompton and Le Feuvre, 2003, p. 37).The concern and interest in this field is evidenced in the growing attention being paid to gender shifts in the work orientations of doctors (Gjerberg, 2001; Shields and Shields, 2003; Levinson and Lurie, 2004; Jovic et al., 2006, Breier and Wildschut, 2006; Wildschut, 2008a, b). The importance of studying this subject is underscored with Williams' (1999, p. 115) assertion that even though women are infiltrating the profession and male dominated specialisations increasingly, \"many factors continue to militate against women in the profession: there are relatively few women in the senior ranks of organised medicine, faculty in medical schools are still predominantly male, specialties such as surgery remain male-dominated although more women are becoming surgeons, and the powerful homogenizing impact of selection into, and socialisation within, a historically male-dominated profession remains\". Although Williams' study refers to a decade earlier, unfortunately most of his assertions are found to still ring true today.Much of the literature investigating the reasons why men and women end up in disproportionate numbers in certain specialisms, attributes this outcome to mainly two aspects. Women have been found to increasingly enter the so-called \"softer specialisms\" within medicine. They were so termed, because of their \"female-friendly\" characteristics, in that they are perceived to be compatible with the more traditional perceptions of the physical, and emotional nature of women. These can be classified into two main areas, which will be elaborated on next:1. the physical and practical characteristics of that specialty which are considered to be more accommodating to women with families; and2. the more conceptual understanding of that specialty.Physical and practical characteristics\nProviding a South African context: To provide a context within which to evaluate this phenomenon in the South African case, let us consider the current situation of female medical doctors in South Africa.The increasing feminisation of the medical profession in South Africa has been confirmed by many (Wildschut, 2008a, b; Walker, 1997, 2003, 2005, Breier and Wildschut, 2006; Brink et al., 1991; Hudson et al., 1997). This is true for medical schools as well as the profession in South Africa. The latest (2007) available medical school enrolment figures indicate that females now form 56.2 per cent of overall enrolments, up from a minority of 49.7 per cent in 1999. In terms of graduation women have managed to increase their proportional share from 46.6 per cent to 55.1 per cent during the same period.When we move to an examination of women's position in the profession, although we see noticeable gains over the period (2002-2008), women still firmly remain the minority as the Table I indicates.When we interrogate the situation further, we find that men by a much bigger margin still very clearly form the majority of specialists in South Africa (roughly 80 per cent). More specific to the discussion in this paper is Table II which indicates women's proportional representation in selected specialisms (three specialisms traditionally associated with men, and three specialisms traditionally associated with women). Although gains have been made in terms of female proportional representation in traditionally male specialties, the latest (2006) figures shows that women are still more favourably represented in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (17 per cent), Peadiatrics (35 per cent) and Dermatology (32 per cent), compared to much lower proportional representations in Surgery (5 per cent), Orthopeadics (3 per cent) and Cardio-thoracic surgery (4 per cent).\nResearch method and sample: Research method and analysis\nFindings and discussion: Essentially this section will evaluate whether these assumptions around women doctor's motivations to enter a specialism hold in the cases of these six female medical specialists practising in these specialisms traditionally associated with females. In analysis of the interview transcripts three key themes of motivation emerged, and are discussed and elaborated on below.Exposure not interest\nImplications: Research aiming at a better understanding of the factors impacting on the continued gender segregation we see in medicine has practical, social and economic implications (see also Kilminster et al., 2007). The practical implications are evident in that a better understanding of the relevance of perceived gendered work identities for specialisation preferences, has the potential to impact better retention and recruitment (Maiorova et al., 2008). In a country where we are faced with severe shortages of health care practitioners, it is important to understand their motivations to enter certain areas within a profession, so that we can create the conditions under which to optimally recruit and retain them. The social implication is also important, as unchallenged gendered trends serve to perpetuate gender unequal outcomes in the wider society, which can be constraining or discriminatory. Lastly, an aspect which is not always considered is the fact that gender inequality in the workplace and professions has a potentially negative impact for the economy as inequality negatively impacts on productivity and is thus economically inefficient (Cavalcanti and Tavares, 2007).\nConclusions: Analysis of these interviews with six women specialists suggest that doctor's choices of specialism cannot be explained in dichotomous terms (i.e. that female doctors choose specialisms specifically because of the female or male characteristics associated with that specialism and vice versa). As shown in the paper, female specialists in these so-called softer specialisms can identify with both male and female characteristics of a specialism, and the ambivalence in their answers suggests that work identities that may in the past have been seen as fairly constant is definitely changing in the South African context.In support, Maiorova et al. (2008, p. 554) also asserts in their study on the impact of clerkship on student's specialty preferences that \"gender differences regarding career choice appear to be not only based on typical male and female choices\". This confirms assertions by others (Williams, 1999; Lester, 2008, Wildschut, 2008a). It suggests that the reasons women enter these specialities, are not specifically, or exclusively related to the gender appropriate characteristics inherent in that specialty.Thus, simplistic assertions around motivations are proving inadequate to explain women's specialisation preferences in the present time. These findings, although based on small sample, suggests that the past assumptions around gender segregation being an outcome of gender-appropriate preferences would not hold in these cases, and we need to consider its future relevance for explaining women's specialisation choices.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore the motivations underlying the specialisation choices of six female specialist doctors working in Cape Town, South Africa and to investigate whether the specific gender work identity associated with that specialism resulted in their motivation to enter it.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research methodology comprised conducting semi-structured interviews, where female medical doctors were asked to provide an account of their general experiences as medical doctors in a male-dominated profession, as well as a more specific question related to their choice of specialisation.\nFindings: - These female medical specialists entered these so-called soft specialisms mainly for three reasons: so-called female-friendly characteristics; exposure to, not necessarily fuelled by interest in, certain specialisms; and so-called male characteristics.\nOriginality/value: - The importance of such research is threefold as it has practical, social, and economic implications. The practical implications are evident in that a better understanding of the perceived gendered work identities has the potential to impact better retention and recruitment. The social implication is also important, as unchallenged gendered trends serve to perpetuate gender unequal outcomes in the wider society, which can be constraining or discriminatory. Lastly, an aspect which is not always considered is the fact that gender inequality is economically inefficient. The scientific value is found in the space it provides for reconsidering the relevance of the use of the terms \"soft and hard\" specialisms to explain the drivers of internal segregation in the medical profession.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How do managers make sense of strategy?	[ "Managers", "Sensemaking", "Social representations", "Strategy", "Strategy lens" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the broader context of the current crisis of capitalism, the question of sense given by managers to their work has become a topic of major interest (Hofstede, 2009; Canals, 2010). The fact that managers are essentially motivated by their increased personal power and by the accumulation of wealth, to the detriment of the mid- and long-term strategy development of the company, is no longer acceptable. Positing that strategic management is practiced under the influence of discourses (Knights and Morgan, 1991) and values and can never be neutral (Payne et al., 1992; Canals, 2010), this research recognizes that the strategic decision-making process cannot be isolated as a pure rational process. This study aims to establish empirically that managers differ in the types of representation of strategy they adopt and to understand why they differ. Indeed, \"the strategist has a creative and imaginative role to perform; s/he must produce a vision and a set of representations that help to make sense of events\" (Rouleau and Mounoud, 1998, p. 5).\nFrom representations to strategy development: Strategy, an activity of sensemaking and sensegiving\nA research design for the study of the social representations of strategy: The theory of social representations\nPresentation of the results: Organizing principles of individual positions\nDiscussion and conclusion: From a statistical perspective, the following discussion aims to confirm the validity of the proposed classification and to explain various choices.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: As a result of the global financial crisis, the meaning of action has reemerged as a central focus of the current debates. This paper seeks to analyze the meaning given by managers to their contribution to the strategy development process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The core underlying assumptions in this research are that social phenomena such as strategy are determined by representations shaped by discourse and that education is a major vector for promoting strategic discourses. Through the concepts of social representation and strategy lens, the paper examines the beliefs and paradigms underlying the strategy development process. Based on a sample of 1,033 managers, this research constructs a holistic typology of the social representations of strategy among managers.\nFindings: Four different groups of social representations of strategy are identified and characterized. Links are established between these groups and a range of socio-demographic, social, occupational and structural variables.\nPractical implications: By clarifying various paradigms and providing reference points, this research encourages increased awareness of these paradigms among managers in order to promote emancipation from them.\nOriginality/value: The study is primarily synthesis-based at a theoretical level, but also in the analysis and interpretation of the role of strategists. It also helps to close the gap between research, teaching and practice.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Experiences of implementing process management: a multiple-case study	[ "Process management", "Business process re‐engineering", "Organizational structures", "Sweden" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Processes and process management are becoming an essential part of contemporary organizations in all industries. Quality management, Six Sigma and Lean all build on components of working with and improving organizational processes (Andersson et al., 2006; Dahlgaard and Dahlgaard-Park, 2006). The new ISO 9001:2008 standard is placing considerable emphasis on processes (ISO, 2009), and process management is a significant part of most excellence models, such as the Malcolm Balridge National Quality Award (NIST, 2009) and the EFQM Excellence Model (EFQM, 2009). When exploring if Six Sigma and Lean are new methods, or if they are repackaged versions of previously popular methods - total quality management and just-in-time - Naslund (2008) emphasises the importance of placing organizational change and improvement methods in general under a process management umbrella.Zairi (1997) stated, based on a literature review, that the word \"process\" had become a part of everyday business language. Hammer and Stanton (1999) argued, on the basis of a study of IBM and Microsoft among others, that for most companies there is no real alternative to shifting from a traditional business to a process enterprise. Organizations in Sweden have been working explicitly with process management since the end of the 1980s. The methodology has been used in order to reduce lead times and increase customer focus both inside and outside the organization, and this development has been attributed to escalating demands from customers regarding quality (Egnell, 1995).Even though process management is a common approach today, many organizations express concerns about problems with implementing and maintaining a process management approach. In a study of quality award recipients in Sweden, Hansson (2003) found that many small organizations perceive work with process management to be problematic. Based on a survey of the application of process management in Swedish organizations Forsberg et al. (1999) state that the expectations for results are unreasonably high. Implementing process management appears to be rather demanding: \"In practice, however, the process approach seems difficult to understand and to put into action\" (Rentzhog, 1996, p. 13).In a paper on the definitions and models of process management, the Palmberg (2009) concludes that in both research and in applications in organizations there is a string focus on the technical parts of process management; the definitions of a process, the levels and categorizations of processes, and the techniques for mapping and documenting processes on an activity level (Palmberg, 2009). Many organizations devote extensive resources to web-based documentation systems, presenting their processes in several levels, from main processes down to individual tasks, without achieving the planned effects. This is combined with the often seen confusion and discontent among senior management regarding the perceived lack of clear results from implementing process management.Through a literature review of the area, Hellstrom and Peterson (2005) conclude that the literature is foremost built on theoretical reasoning, resulting in a large number of how-to-do checklists. Furthermore, they argue that there is a lack of empirical research into the effects of process management. Hellstrom and Peterson (2005) believe that \"despite a decade of experience of practicing process-oriented management, certain fundamental problems still beset its successful application and causes practitioners concern.\" Based on a literature review, O'Neill and Sohal (1999) reach the same conclusion, and state that more empirical research is needed.Several empirical articles covering tools and methodologies for mapping and improving single processes have been identified (Kung and Hagen, 2007; Sandhu and Gunasekaran, 2004; Ongaro, 2004, among others). However, few empirically based articles have been found on the organizational issues of implementing process management, how to handle the relationship between the functional organization and a process perspective, and on the roles of managers, teams, and individuals.Based on the arguments above that process management is becoming essential in organizations, that many organizations experience problems during implementation, and the expressed need for empirical research, the purpose of the paper is to explore and describe the organizational implications when implementing process management. It describes the experiences of introducing process management in three different organizations. The overarching questions have been:* What was the purpose and what were the results of implementing process management?* How is the ability to drive improvement affected when implementing process management?* What are the effects experienced by individuals when implementing process management?* How are organizational structures, roles and responsibilities affected when implementing process management?The paper is displayed as follows: as a part of a further introduction of process management, the next sections present definitions of process management, the purposes and results of implementing process management found in the literature, and different process maturity models. The next section describes the methodology used when performing the case studies, followed by case descriptions of the organizations studied. The case descriptions are then summarized and analyzed. Finally, conclusions are drawn and a discussion of the implications is presented.1.1 Definitions of process management\n2 Methodology: The purpose of this paper and study is to explore and describe the implementation of process management in order to increase understanding among practitioners and researchers. A case study approach is used, as it is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context (Yin, 2003).2.1 Purposeful selection\n3 Results - case descriptions: 3.1 Organization A\n4 Analysis: The analysis has been guided by the purpose and research questions of the paper, by earlier empirical results described in the introduction, and by the empirical material of the studied cases. The analysis has been performed on an organizational level, not on the individual level. A summary of the cases, using the initial questions posed in the introduction as variables, is shown in Table II.4.1 Changes on organizational structure, roles and responsibilities, and the experienced results\n5 Summary and conclusion: It seems that all three organizations have found ways to use process management not just as an approach for improving single processes (movement A in Palmberg (2009) and the process enablers in Hammer (2007)), but also as a perspective for managing the whole organization (movement B in Palmberg, 2009, and the enterprise capabilities in Hammer, 2007). The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the organizational implications of implementing process management. The results will be summarized below:1. What was the purpose and what were the results of implementing process management? To summarize, there seems to be almost as many purposes of implementing process management as there are organizations attempting it. The results found in the three studied organizations cover:* increased understanding among employees of strategies and customer needs;* standardization of work procedures, enabling cost savings;* more effective use of employees;* sharper economic control; and* easier to drive improvement.2. What are the effects experienced by individuals when implementing process management? People at the organizations studied express an increase in well-being and that the employees find the work with process management positive. But this is combined with a concern about the risk of stress caused by increased individual responsibility among employees.3. How is the ability to drive improvement affected when implementing process management? In all three organizations, the process organizational structure, with process owners and process leaders as facilitators and process improvement teams of employees driving change, has strengthened the organizations' capability to change and improve.4. How are organizational structures, roles and responsibilities affected when implementing process management? All three studied organizations have introduced a process management structure into their functional organizational structure, including the introduction of new management positions such as process owners and process leaders. The relationships between the process organization and the functional organization differ between the three organizations, but all match Stage II in Figure 1.\n6 Discussion and implications: There appears to be a conflict when the old functional and more hierarchical structure, where you are told what to do, meets the new process organization, where the individual has a larger responsibility for taking his or her own initiatives. The companies question it if it, for those who like to take on challenges, presents too many opportunities. It is also reflected upon whether this way of working does not suit everyone or if it is a question of the individual having the right support to handle the new responsibility.In the introduction of this paper, two different discourses were identified. On one hand, a full transformation from a functionally orientated organizational structure (Stage I in Figure 1) to a fully process-oriented organizational structure (Stage III in Figure 1) is favored; on the other hand, a more moderate transformation where a process management structure is \"matrixed onto\" the existing organization is preferred (Stage II in Figure 1). The analysis of the three studied cases could be interpreted as supporting the second line of reasoning, where the functional and process structures co-exist in the organization, creating a constructive dynamic. The implication of this line of reasoning is that complexity is created rather than reduced in the organizations to handle the need of several parallel perspectives on the business. How to manage complexity instead of reducing it could be seen as a challenge for the management of contemporary organizations.This is in line with Silvestro and Westley (2002) who promote the matrix structure because of its relative strengths of both the horizontal and vertical structure. But, they also highlight the risk that the matrix structure becomes complex and unwieldy. They suggest that viewing the organization as a network of activities may be more realistic than the matrix.The contribution of this paper is two-folded. First, the empirical descriptions and analysis of the three organizations that have implemented process management. This contributes to the knowledge and understanding among both practitioners and researchers. Second is the identified need for the co-existence of a process and functional perspective, and the implication that complexity is created rather than reduced in the organizations.The implication for practitioners could be interpreted as instead of trying to control the functional and process structure separately, the challenge is to collaborate and negotiate between the functional and process perspective. To put it in another way: the solution is not functional or process management, but functional and process management. It could be suggested that this calls for improved management approaches within areas such as leadership and culture. For example, Organization C gather all their managers, one day a month, to discuss current issues together, with the objective to unite and align managers from different perspectives. This is an example of creating an arena for negotiation and collaboration. See further descriptions of approaches from Organization C in Palmberg and Garvare (2006).The implication for researchers could be the indication of a need to further explore the issues of managing complexity, as a suggestion in relation to the knowledge of complex adaptive systems. A suggestion for future research is to further explore the relationship between the functional and organizational perspective, and structure in organizations working with process management, both empirically and theoretically. A suggestion is to use the framework of Hammer (2007) to further investigate empirical cases. Possibly with an interactive research approach where the researcher work with the management team of the organization under study, including process owners, and coaches the organization to increase their process management maturity according to the framework, while simultaneously exploring their process management initiative.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Process management is becoming an essential part of contemporary organizations in all industries. However, many organizations experience problems during the implementation of a process management approach. The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the organizational implications when implementing process management, how to handle the relationship between the functional organization and a process perspective, and the roles of managers, teams, and individuals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A multiple-case study approach is used to get an extensive picture of and analyze how three Swedish organizations have worked with process management.\nFindings: - The studied organizations have introduced a process management structure into their functional organizational structure, including the introduction of new management positions such as process owners and process leaders. A discourse is identified in earlier research between those arguing for a full transformation from a functionally oriented to a fully process-oriented organizational structure, and those promoting a more moderate transformation where a process management structure is \"matrixed onto\" the existing organization. The analysis could be interpreted as supporting the second line of reasoning, where the functional and process structures co-exist in the organization, creating a constructive dynamic.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides two major contributions. First, the empirical descriptions and analysis of implementing process management contribute to the knowledge and understanding among both practitioners and researchers. The second major contribution is the identified need of co-existence of a process and functional perspective, and the implication that complexity is created rather than reduced in organizations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A systematic literature review on Wikidata	[ "Literature review", "Survey", "Applications", "Empirical studies", "Wikidata", "Knowledge graphs" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Wikidata is an open, collaborative project started on October 30, 2012 by Wikimedia Deutschland, hosted and supported by the Wikimedia Foundation (Abian et al., 2018), continuously increasing its popularity since its creation (Vrandecic, 2013; Vrandecic and Krotzsch, 2014) and whose main goals are two: to be the central storage for the structured data of all its Wikimedia sister projects (such as Wikipedia itself), avoiding duplicate and contradicting information, but also facilitating multi-language capabilities and management; and to provide data to other third-party projects and initiatives, and allowing complex queries on the existing base of knowledge. Wikidata does not only store facts, but also the corresponding reference sources, allowing data validation and the creation of timelines (e.g. a country's population is a variable that can be referenced to the census and changes across time). Labels, aliases and descriptions of entities in Wikidata are provided in more than 350 languages. The basic structure of Wikidata consists of items (that have a label, a description and any number of aliases, known as terms), properties and values, linked in statements that closely resemble an RDF triple. However, the model of Wikidata statements is slightly more complex, as they can be enriched with qualifiers (providing additional context for the claim) and references (which support the claim). As of October 2018, Wikidata has more than 60,000 registered authors (contributors with ten or more edits) who, together with anonymous users and automatic bots, have contributed to more than 53.5m data items (https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikispecial/EN/TablesWikipediaWIKIDATA.htm). Furthermore, the number of authors and articles has been steadily increasing since its conception (https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikispecial/EN/ChartsWikipediaWIKIDATA.htm).\n2. Research questions: The research questions addressed by this study are:\n3. Methodology: In order to identify and review how Wikidata is addressed in academic research articles and what applications are proposed, a systematic literature review was conducted. We used a rigorous and systematic process, aiming not only to summarize existing studies and research on the topic, but also to include an element of analytical criticism and a perspective on gaps and future research (Okoli, 2015). Systematic reviews employ carefully defined protocols to determine which studies are to be included, as well as to analyze their contribution in as unbiased a form as possible (Kitchenham, 2004; Webster and Watson, 2002). This study has been undertaken as a systematic literature review based on the original guidelines as proposed by Kitchenham (2004) combined with the guidelines in \"software engineering\" by Budgen and Brereton (2006).\n4. Results: 4.1 How much research activity has there been since the introduction of Wikidata?\n5. Discussion: The current review has shown how research on Wikidata is on the rise; we focused in surveying the existing empirical studies and the proposed applications for this rather recent knowledge database. A relatively large number of papers have been published in the recent years, specially in 2018, although the vast majority of them have been restricted to conferences and only a few are available in high impact journals. This is not only an indication of the novelty and technicality of the topic, but also a sign of Wikidata's research immaturity. This is further amplified by the fact that most of the papers are descriptions, proposals or implementations of applications, models or tools that take advantage of Wikidata's structure or knowledge graph, demonstrating how present efforts are mostly restricted to finding uses for Wikidata instead of conceptualizing its raison d'etre or going further and deeper in some of its potential fields of application, which might bring new approaches and contribute to a real breakthrough in Wikidata's research, use and purpose.\n6. Conclusion: Despite the optimism around Wikidata's potential and the rise in research activity, the current systematic review shows how the field is still in the early stages. In summary:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the current status of research on Wikidata and, in particular, of articles that either describe applications of Wikidata or provide empirical evidence, in order to uncover the topics of interest, the fields that are benefiting from its applications and which researchers and institutions are leading the work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review is conducted to identify and review how Wikidata is being dealt with in academic research articles and the applications that are proposed. A rigorous and systematic process is implemented, aiming not only to summarize existing studies and research on the topic, but also to include an element of analytical criticism and a perspective on gaps and future research.\nFindings: Despite Wikidata's potential and the notable rise in research activity, the field is still in the early stages of study. Most research is published in conferences, highlighting such immaturity, and provides little empirical evidence of real use cases. Only a few disciplines currently benefit from Wikidata's applications and do so with a significant gap between research and practice. Studies are dominated by European researchers, mirroring Wikidata's content distribution and limiting its Worldwide applications.\nOriginality/value: The results collect and summarize existing Wikidata research articles published in the major international journals and conferences, delivering a meticulous summary of all the available empirical research on the topic which is representative of the state of the art at this time, complemented by a discussion of identified gaps and future work.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumer centric antecedents to personal financial planning	[ "Personal finance", "Cognitive style", "Consumer behavior", "Financial planning", "Time orientation", "Self–other orientation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to the Federal Reserve's Flow of Funds report, as of the third quarter of 2017, households held $74.7tn in assets, compared to only $25.7tn held by corporations (www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/). However, relative to its size, the consumer finance sector receives far less research attention than the capital markets (Ackert et al., 2015; Baker et al., 2017; Campbell, 2006; Tufano, 2009). While the majority of personal finance research is primarily grounded in rational economics (Hirschleifer, 1965; Markowitz, 1952; Sargent, 1987; Sharpe, 1964; Von Neumann and Morgenstern, 1944), alternate explanations for irrational decision-making in personal finance exist grounded in behavioral and psychological literature (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979; Thaler, 1980, 1985). Recent evidence from the marketplace has been somewhat supportive of these behavioral theories (Ackert, 2014; Baker and Nofsinger, 2010; Baker and Ricciardi, 2015; Baker et al., 2017; Bartels and Johnson, 2015; Campbell, 2006; Finke, 2005; Petersen et al., 2015; Tufano, 2009). Surprisingly, not enough research attention has been devoted to this topic despite the fact that personal finance affects everything we do as consumers. It determines household buying power and influences day to day decisions such as eating out, retail store selection and paying by cash or credit; strategic decisions such as getting a mortgage or renting, investing in financial markets and planning for retirement; and life decisions such as going to college, getting married and having children. Some of these decisions have long-term implications while others have short-term implications. Hence, this study uses an individual's short- or long-term planning horizon (Lynch et. al., 2010) as outcome variables and examines their psychological determinants rooted in social science and marketing literature.\nTheoretical background: Consumer finance literature focuses on the household's financial decision-making process related to moving funds, managing risk, borrowing and investing (Tufano, 2009). The field lacks a theory that unifies these four functions and existing studies present limited solutions to the complex real-world consumption-investment choices faced by consumers (Ackert et al., 2015; Baker et al., 2017). One hurdle is the mix of assets owned by households. Most household wealth consists of non-tradable and difficult to value assets like human capital and real estate (less than 20 per cent is held in tradable capital assets). There are two diverging viewpoints on how individuals trade assets. In standard financial economics, equilibrium asset prices are expected to reflect all available information. This literature draws from utility theory (Von Neumann and Morgenstern, 1944; Hirschleifer, 1965), modern portfolio theory (Markowitz, 1952), asset pricing models (Fama and French, 1993/1996; Sharpe, 1964), rational expectations (Sargent, 1987) and efficient markets hypothesis (Fama, 1970/1998).\nHypotheses development: Self/other orientation\nResearch method: Data for this study were collected using a self-administered survey from state government employees at a large Southwestern public university. An e-mail list of all employees was obtained from the HR department. The list contained 4,248 unique e-mail addresses out of which 293 bounced back as non-deliverables, reducing the effective e-mail list to 3,955. Three emails (including two reminders) were sent to everyone in the mailing list separated by seven days. These e-mails contained a personalized letter and a link to the questionnaire. This resulted in 206 responses in the first wave, 82 after the first reminder and 184 after the second reminder. In all, 348 other recipients clicked on the link but did not complete the survey. Hence, the click-through rate was 23 per cent, the completion rate 14 per cent, and the click-through to completed rate 61 per cent. Data were also collected from the employees who did not respond to the email survey using a paper and pencil survey. This resulted in 204 additional unique responses. The four waves of respondents (three sub samples from the online survey and one from the paper survey) were compared on demographic variables, focal constructs, and focal and behavioral dimensions (financial resource allocated to different areas) and found to be statistically similar. Given the absence of non-response bias (Armstrong and Overton, 1977) within the four waves of respondents, all responses were combined into one group. The final sample size of 676 full time employees was used for subsequent analyses. Table I presents the demographic distributions of the sample.\nHypotheses testing and results: Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analyses. Two separate sets of regression analyses were conducted with STF and LTF as dependent variables and five focal constructs (SLF, SOTH, ANLT, INTV and TOF). Four control variables (age, annual household income, number of children, and RSKP) were first introduced in each model (models 1 and 2) before including the five focal constructs in a sequential manner (model 3 is the final model). The initial analysis also included other control variables such as gender, marital status, and academic level, but these did not have any significant effect on the dependent variables. In addition, the R2 did not change substantially when removed. The results of the two regression analyses are presented in Table III. The results in model A pertain to STF as the dependent variable, and model B to LTF as the dependent variable. The results provide support for H1 (a and b), H2, H3 (a and b), and H5 (a and b). Results did not provide support for H4. Interestingly, while the beta weights for TOF in both models are positive and significant, the effect is larger on LTF. Further, while beta weight for SLF is significant for both models, the effect on STF is larger than LTF. Of the control variables, household income is negatively associated with STF and positive with LTF, and the number of children is positively associated with STF.\nDiscussion: This study's aim was to investigate the relationship between short- and long-term financial planning and three psychological determinants of decision-making. The results of this study indicate that short-term financial planning is positively associated with self-orientation, significant other-orientation, analytical decision-making style and future time orientation. In comparison, long-term financial planning is influenced by self-orientation, analytical decision-making style and future time orientation. Intuitive decision-making style has no effect on financial planning at all. The results also show that the effect of future time orientation is larger on long-term than on short-term financial planning, in line with Rettig and Schulz's (1991) suggestions.\nLimitations, conclusions and future research directions: This study has limitations typically associated with any cross sectional survey based investigation. Given that both long and short-term financial planning are analyzed, a longitudinal investigation might have given a better picture of the temporal choices made by respondents. In terms of the target population, the focus was primarily on the working middle class segment of the US population, specifically State government employees. Future research could focus on other segments, such as lower economic and more vulnerable social groups, to see if they behave in a manner similar to what this study reveals. Furthermore, the notion of self, other, time orientation and decision-making style has strong cultural roots. Future research should replicate this study in a cross cultural setting, either across different cultures and countries, or across different subcultures within a country. Finally, it would also be naive to presume that the focal constructs (time orientation, self and significant other orientation, and the decision-making style - analytical and intuitive) are the only drivers of personal financial planning and resource allocation. Future studies should investigate the effect of other psychological factors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Personal finance influences everything we buy and is a key driver of all economies. It has attracted significant research attention, mostly grounded in rational economics. However, it has not received adequate research attention in the consumer behavior literature. This study aims to address this gap by looking at some of the consumer-centric antecedents of short- and long-term personal financial planning, i.e. self-other orientation, cognitive style and time orientation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A self-administered survey was used to collect data from full time employees. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analyses.\nFindings: Both short- and long-term financial planning are positively associated with non-impulsive and analytical decision-making styles; whereas self and other orientation are only associated with short-term financial planning. Intuitive decision-making is not associated to either short- or long-term financial planning.\nResearch limitations/implications: While analytical and long-term orientation are still important for personal finance, in the short run, consumers are also driven by self and other orientation.\nPractical implications: The results are relevant for both products and services that have long-term and short-term financial implications for consumers.\nOriginality/value: This study explores financial planning decision-making from a consumer behavior perspective, and addresses a gap in consumer behavior literature.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The influence of virtual communities on distribution strategies in the internet	[ "Internet", "Communities", "Product differentiation", "Market segmentation", "Brand awareness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The new and growing possibilities which the internet offers for business are introducing important changes in distribution channels (Webb, 2002; Rao, 1999). As a result, managers are increasingly considering the options provided by new technologies when they design their product or services distribution system (Alba et al., 1997; Frazier, 1999; Gorsch, 2001). Specifically, a significant number of organizations have undertaken the strategic reorientation of their business activities giving the internet a more relevant role in their business models (Sabel, 1993; Geyskens et al., 1998; Bauer et al., 2002). However, these attempts have not always obtained the results initially expected. These differences with the initial plans have led both managers and researchers to revise the planned business models and try to spot the factors which may contribute to the success of their online business initiatives (Geissler, 2001; Luo, 2002; Yao and Liu, 2003).This work thoroughly examines one of the phenomena that is reaping the most success on the internet and yet, paradoxically, has received the least attention from researchers. Specifically, we shall be analyzing the use of virtual communities by various companies that distribute their products over the internet. Through the descriptive study of various actual cases, we shall see how virtual communities are an effective tool for reaching a large number of consumers, segmenting the market with low promotional costs, or increasing consumer trust, among other benefits. In short, the aim of this work is to present the virtual community as a strategy that can increase the chance of success in the distribution of products over the internet, especially in terms of market segmentation, differentiated products distribution and brand awareness. First, we shall describe the concept of a virtual community. Second, we shall analyze how five well-known companies are using virtual communities to back up the distribution of their products over the internet. Following the study of the various companies, we shall be explaining the additional benefits arising from the use of virtual communities and a series of recommendations for managing them. Finally, we shall state the final conclusions of the work and suggest further lines of research.\nAn approach to the concept of virtual brand community: The first sociological studies concerning the concept of community date back to the nineteenth century. Then, the community was regarded as a familiar and emotional issue. In the sociological context, a wide variety of communities have been typified according to different criteria. Nevertheless, in this work we will focus on the analysis of the so-called brand communities, as they are the ones that provide the most pertinent implications for the marketing of products[1]. A brand community is a relational structure created around the admiration for a brand (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001). It is a set of individuals who voluntarily relate to each other for their interest in some brand or product. In fact, from the marketing perspective the concept of community has been recently introduced in several studies (e.g. Mitchell and Kirkup, 2003; Hogg et al., 2003; Parker et al., 2003).Brand communities share some features which may generally characterize all types of community (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001): consciousness of kind, the community's rituals and traditions and the moral responsibility of the community's individuals:* Consciousness of kind. This is the most important factor when defining a community. It refers to the feeling which binds every individual to the other community members and the community brand (e.g. admiration for Elvis Presley, the passion for owning and driving a Volkswagen Beetle). Consciousness of kind is determined by two factors: legitimization, the process of establishing a difference between true and false members, that is, those who have opportunist behaviors and those who do not; and opposition to other brands. In fact, identification with the rest of the group is mainly based on opposition; in other words, brand community is usually defined in comparison with another brand (e.g. the rivalry between fans of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones).* Rituals and traditions. Rituals and traditions are processes carried out by community members which help to reproduce and transmit the community meaning in and out of the community. Members relate to each other with the memory of major events in the history of the brand and certain behaviors, such as a specific way of dressing. All these processes help to reinforce brand consciousness and improve instruction on communal values.* Sense of moral responsibility. This reflects the feelings which create moral commitment among the community members. Sense of moral responsibility encourages conjoint behaviors and enables stronger group cohesion. As a result of moral responsibility, there are two types of fundamental actions: integration and retention of members, which guarantees the community survival (e.g. by spreading bad experiences suffered by those individuals who chose a different brand); and support in the correct use of the brand (e.g. by sharing resources and information about product properties).The concept of virtual community\nVirtual brand community case studies: In this section we shall be analyzing the way in which some companies are using virtual communities in their internet marketing strategies. The aim of this study is to examine how much the virtual brand community can back up internet distribution in terms of market segmentation, differentiated products distribution and brand awareness. Specifically, we shall see how the virtual brand community increases the company's capacity for advertising and selling its products in well-defined segments. Similarly, we shall show how the virtual brand community helps boost product differentiation. Finally, we shall analyze how certain organizations increase awareness of their product with lower advertising costs, thanks to the effect communities have on the transmission of word-of-mouth messages. Specifically, we analyze the case of a virtual community created by one of the biggest European distributors, Tesco, and two communities created by companies which have seen the internet as a way of creating a new distribution channel which enables them to develop a business line completely different to their traditional activity, Guinness and Manchester United. In the fourth case, we analyze a virtual community created by one of the internet distribution leaders, Amazon, a company whose brand recognition on the internet is, to a large extent, due to the wide virtual community associated with their internet web site. Finally, we analyze the communities created by Apple and its consumers, a leading company in the marketing of products closely related to the internet, such as software and hardware. The cases were selected following a process in which four basic criteria were taken into account:1. how each company was represented in the internet sector;2. the degree of brand awareness at an international level;3. the degree of significance of a brand community in the company's marketing activities; and4. the set of companies chosen should include traditional companies with an internet marketing division, as well as companies that distribute their products exclusively over the internet.With these criteria in mind, a focus group made up of seven experts in e-commerce (three academics and four professionals) selected the cases to be studied.iVillage case study\nOther benefits from the use of virtual communities: As we have shown in the study of the aforementioned cases, virtual brand communities provide highly significant benefits in terms of market segmentation, differentiated product distribution and brand awareness. However, the analysis has enabled us to verify the existence of three additional benefits that increase the appeal of these business models, as we explain below:1. Income from advertising in the community. In this case we would also have to emphasize that various companies are using iVillage or Manchester United virtual brand communities to promote their products (e.g. Vodafone, Budweiser). This allows iVillage and Manchester United to generate additional advertising income and attract more investors, since they perceive the possibilities of using these virtual brand communities to advertise their products (e.g. Vodafone, advertised on the Manchester United t-shirts, also use the Manchester United virtual brand communities for promotion).2. Information source. The virtual community is a relevant information source for the taking of strategic decisions. It involves customers in the development of new products and improves consumer relationships and understanding of their behavior. For example, Manchester United offers two types of access to its web site, depending on the amount of information the customer provides about himself.3. Increased security and trust. Belonging to a virtual community calls for its members to comply with the norms that the group has imposed on itself. This self-regulation brings about a situation whereby those in the community meet their commitments, which in turn brings about an increase in trust. Thus the community creates a climate of security based on reputation, which complements or even outdoes the most sophisticated technological systems.\nSome key aspects for the development of virtual brand communities: The analysis of the previous cases proves the major benefits associated with the development of virtual brand communities as a meeting point for an organization's customers. A similar analysis might identify the existence of some key aspects to guarantee the success of these organizations. More specifically, these actions may center on the following points:* Analyzing members' needs. Logically, the community should be created according to its members' needs, and not with those of the company which promotes it, their advertisers or any other group alien to the community (Cothrel and Williams, 1999). This aspect is clearly present in iVillage. Their virtual brand community consumers, mainly young women, have needs such as socialization, work or health. All these aspects appear in this community; thus it is reasonable to conclude that the success of this virtual brand community may be due to the correct analysis of its members' wishes. Similarly, to guarantee a suitable management of the group's needs without the influence of external elements, the community should be run by veteran members and the evolution of its members' needs and interests should be constantly analyzed (Wang et al., 2002). This is something we can see in Apple users, who are led by consumers who are highly experienced with the organization's products.* Promoting self-management. If self-management is technically possible, it should be encouraged that part of the community contents be generated and published directly by its own members, thus obtaining a higher commitment with the community (Cothrel and Williams, 1999; Guthrie, 2000). The case of Apple groups shows an example of self-management, as in all of them the virtual brand community support is its own members' responsibility.* Minimizing control. As for the previous point, the community should be free to grow, and control mechanisms as to how the community members are required to relate or the topics they should deal with in their conversations (Cothrel and Williams, 1999) are not advisable. Nevertheless, some basic working rules for the community should be established[5]. Apple user groups are a good example of how the brand does not interfere with the community's evolution.* Using the most suitable technological structure. The type of technology and tools used for a virtual community management obviously has important implications, since in this type of community most communication between members is held on the internet. In the literature, several authors (e.g. Guthrie, 2000; Whittaker et al., 1997) have recommended the use of technological systems which are flexible, easy to use and visually attractive. In this respect, some virtual brand communities use complex technologies (e.g. iVillage) while others need simpler systems (e.g. Apple or Guinness user groups). The degree of complexity will depend on the community members' needs.* Specializing roles. In various sociological studies it has been proved that in any type of community the individuals often take different roles which provide more dynamism. Taking these findings as a reference, some authors (Cothrel and Williams, 1999) have recommended this type of role assignation in virtual communities[6]. Apple user groups tend to show this type of specialization. In fact, some of these groups have become non-profit organizations and they have a real administrative hierarchy.* Strengthening the community feeling. Logically, the links between members of a community have a different intensity depending on the case. This intensity will depend on the value the individuals give to their membership of the community. If these links are not strong enough, the community may disappear or become unstable. To avoid this problem, community managers may undertake several actions such as (Cothrel and Williams, 1999): organizing physical meetings between members; associating the community to charitable causes; proposing advantageous offers of outside products to the community members; creating international community networks. Apple international user net is a good example of how to strengthen the feeling of belonging to the group.\nConclusions and future research lines: The influence of the internet on marketing strategy is remarkable. In fact, according to Yao and Liu (2003), the development of direct distribution activities on the internet is inevitable for most organizations, whether this type of distribution is exclusive (e.g. Dell Computer) or there is a combination of the internet and traditional distribution (e.g. Barnes & Noble). The coexistence of traditional channels and internet sales inside the same organization is feasible, but this coexistence may cause the disappearance of intermediaries who do not provide enough value for the distribution chain. Likewise, some researchers have concluded that direct distribution profitability is facing the challenge of improving its systems of support and customer service, since this is the point where traditional distribution seems to have some advantage over services provided by online distributors.Considering this situation, this work shows the virtual community as a tool that can increase the chances of success in the marketing and distribution of products over the internet. The analysis of the case studies has demonstrated that the virtual community can boost a company's product differentiation by increasing commitment and emotional ties with the brand. Furthermore, brand awareness is increased, since the community acts as a catalyst in the transmission of word-of-mouth messages. Third, the results show that the virtual community brings about a more effective market segmentation. We have also seen how the virtual community increases consumer trust and security, acts as an information source and can even become a major source of direct income. Finally, both the case studies and the recent literature have enabled us to define various management recommendations, such as self-management or role specialization.As may be seen in Table I, the results obtained may be applied to any type of distribution model, whether it is direct and exclusive distribution on the internet (pure-direct) or a combination of the internet and traditional channels (adopt-direct).The impact study of virtual communities on marketing strategies is in its preliminary stages. Consequently, there are several lines of research that might be followed in the future. Foremost among these might be a study that gave rise to a quantitative assessment of the impact of virtual communities. In this respect, the literature shows that the success of virtual communities lies in the degree of consumer commitment to them (Cothrel and Williams, 1999). Thus it is necessary to design reliable measuring scales for the degree of individual involvement in the community. These measurements will need to be based on aspects such as the increase of the degree of commitment or the trust put in the brand as a consequence of belonging to the community. A thorough assessment of the effect of virtual communities on various sectors will also be needed. Up to now, the best-known impacts have been seen to be on sectors such as online auctions, and the retail market in general. However, the use of virtual communities could also address broader types of relationships. Thus, the study of the virtual community as a knowledge management system in the corporate or educational fields would be particularly useful.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to present the virtual community as a strategy that can increase the chance of success in the distribution of products over the internet.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First, this paper describes the concept of a virtual community. Second, it analyzes how five well-known companies are using virtual communities to back up the distribution of their products over the internet. Following the study of the various companies, the additional benefits arising from the use of virtual communities are explained and a series of recommendations for managing them.\nFindings: - Through the conceptual analysis of the virtual community and the descriptive study of five real cases of companies that use the virtual community in their online marketing strategies, this paper shows, among other things, how it is possible to attain greater brand awareness, more precise market segmentation and the highest degree of supply differentiation.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Virtual community is a tool that can increase the chances of success in the marketing and distribution of products over the internet. Therefore, there are several lines of research that might be followed in the future. Foremost among these might be a study that gives rise to a quantitative assessment of the impact of virtual communities. A thorough assessment of the effect of virtual communities on various sectors will also be needed. Thus, the study of the virtual community as a knowledge management system in the corporate or educational fields would be particularly useful.\nPractical implications: - The case studies and the recent literature have enabled us to define various management recommendations, such as promoting self-management of virtual communities, minimizing control or promoting specialization of their members.\nOriginality/value: - This work thoroughly examines one of the phenomena that is reaping the most success on the internet and yet, paradoxically, has received the least attention from marketing researchers: virtual communities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Examining the moderating role of personality traits in the relationship between brand trust and brand loyalty	[ "Partial least squares", "Trust", "Brand loyalty", "Personality traits", "Consumer satisfaction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The key objective of marketers is not only to satisfy customers (Hess and Story, 2005) but also to develop and maintain enduring relationships with them (Elbedweihy et al., 2016). Customer loyalty, which is central to marketing scholarship (Kandampully et al., 2015; Toufaily et al., 2013), is among the most important assets for a brand. The creation and maintenance of customer loyalty help brands develop long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with their customers (Pan et al., 2012). Loyal customers exhibit brand attachment and commitment and are not attracted to competitors' offerings; they are also willing to pay more. Thus, it is important for brands to have loyal customers (Kandampully et al., 2015).\nTheoretical framework and hypothesis development: Brand loyalty\nMethods: Sample and data collection\nData analysis and results: SEM is one of the most commonly used methods in marketing research (Baumgartner and Homburg, 1996; Chin et al., 2008; Martinez-Lopez et al., 2013), particularly for the estimation of causal models and hypotheses (Ringle et al., 2013). SEM enables researchers to simultaneously test a set of interrelated hypotheses by estimating the relationships between multiple independent and dependent variables in a structural model (Gefen and Straub, 2000). Researchers have distinguished between two major types of SEM: covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM), developed by Joreskog (1978), and partial least squares SEM (PLS-SEM), developed by Wold (1974, 1980). Although CB-SEM and PLS-SEM are different methods with different advantages, they are considered complementary statistical methods (Hair et al., 2012a; Sarstedt et al., 2014a). According to Hair et al. (2012a, p. 312), CB-SEM is:\nDiscussion and conclusions: General discussion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate both the relationships among brand satisfaction, trust and loyalty and the moderating effects of personality traits, namely, consumer innovativeness, variety-seeking and relationship proneness, in the context of fast-moving consumer goods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected using a survey of 443 consumers. Structural equation modeling, specifically partial least squares regression, was used to test the theoretical model.\nFindings: The findings indicate that brand loyalty is the most affected (both directly and indirectly) by satisfaction through the mediation of brand trust in both product categories studied. Moreover, variety-seeking behavior negatively moderates the relationship between brand trust and brand loyalty for fruit juices.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research was conducted in the context of fast-moving consumer goods within a limited geographical region. Future research could apply this model to different contexts and countries.\nPractical implications: Companies that produce fast-moving consumer goods are advised to consider the important role of satisfaction in the generation of trust, which leads to brand loyalty.\nOriginality/value: This study proposes and tests a theoretical model that is more comprehensive than the models used in previous studies because it investigates the relationships among satisfaction, trust, loyalty and personality traits. It is the first attempt to examine the moderating effects of consumer innovativeness, variety-seeking and relationship proneness on the relationship between brand trust and loyalty.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Precisiated information retrieval for RSS feeds	[ "Internet", "Information retrieval" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: RSS feed has become one of the most popular web applications after e-mail and web browsing (John et al., 2004). Unlike the conventional web browsing that requires users to open a web browser and look for relevant content, RSS technology pushes content to users at scheduled intervals. Users can subscribe to various RSS feeds sites of interest to them and get the content delivered automatically. RSS has wide applications in commercial and educational areas. Like other popular web applications, e.g. e-mail and web browsing, how to effectively manage the content of RSS feeds is now an important subject.There are numerous successful applications of RSS technology in practical use. One example is the use of RSS in libraries to manage large amounts of continuously changing, increasing, and/or updating information. RSS technology provides useful information to online library users with the newest items and most reserved books (Zeki, 2004). A prototype system called FeedTree subscription system for RSS was developed to speed up the RSS delivery process (Dan et al., 2004). The proposed architecture leverages upon peer-to-peer event notification to address the bandwidth problem suffered by web content providers. It is reported to be able to greatly increase the efficiency of distributing timely data to large number of end-users. However, when RSS technology is extensively used the new problem of RSS content management will arise. Most existing RSS readers deliver the content of the selected feed sites to users without filtering. One may control the size of information delivered by picking a longer scheduled interval but can do little except to accept all feeds coming from one's selected RSS sites. This soon would become a nuisance such as the one caused by e-mails, for many RSS users when they subscribe to too many sites or request too frequent a content update. Another emerging problem is the issue relevance of the delivered content with respect to subscriber's intention. Since, the RSS site delivers a broad range of RSS feeds under the subject, not all content delivered would be of interest to the subscribers. We will focus on the issue of how to better deliver matching RSS content to users.There are extensive studies on how to effectively retrieve information through granular computing (Murai et al., 2004), perception computing (Pal, 2004), and constraint rules (Brand and Monfroy, 2003). Many of the techniques are specialized for information retrieval over the internet, or sometimes known as smart search engines (Baeza-Yates, 2003; Crestani and Lee, 2000; Liu and Singh, 2004; Liu et al., 2002; Janus and Slawomir, 2001). We will study this issue for the emerging internet information delivery format, i.e. RSS feeds, in this paper. Imposing a filter with configurable keywords proves to be an effective means to cope with this issue. Crawling into the URL page content of RSS feeds will make sure matching content is delivered by not just searching on the feed title like most RSS feed readers do. A combination of filtering methodology coupled with expanded semantic search on feed page content will ensure the RSS users would get the right content with expanded relevant scope.We begin by presenting an overview of the existing RSS technology and its XML components in the next section. In Section 3, we study how configurable filtering of RSS feeds can help in getting more relevant information as validated by some experimental results. The concept of synonym semantic is used to expand the scope of relevant matching in RSS feeds and is shown to be able to deliver more relevant content in Section 4. To ensure more relevant RSS feeds can be delivered, we demonstrate in Section 5 how searching for matching information beyond just the RSS titles will increase more relevant feeds delivery. Future research direction is included in the conclusion in Section 6.\n2 RSS and its components: RSS (rich site summary or really simple syndication) is a lightweight multipurpose extensible metadata description and syndication format. RSS is an XML application that conforms to the W3C's RDF specification and is extensible via XML-namespace and/or RDF based modularization (www.w3.org/2002/01/rss/rss1_namespace). Even though e-mail is popular and delivers information efficiently, it is notorious for the many annoyances it generates. Some well know examples include the spam e-mails we receive daily and the virus that may hack into our computer systems via e-mail. The obvious problem with e-mails is, just like a telephone, anyone can send message at any time to you once they know your e-mail address and you can do little about it. Unlike e-mail, RSS allow users to subscribe to specific feeds and designate how often the updated content gets delivered.Initially, RSS is a favorite way to deliver headline news to subscribers for obvious reasons. By now, it has found its acceptance in numerous areas including, blogs, newsletter, event calendar, and special discounts. Creating or editing an RSS feed is easy. Since, RSS feed is an XML document, one can either use a text editor or some RSS editor for this purpose. The edited XML document must be validated against an RSS schema. Some of the latest XML schema for RSS can be found in www.w3.org/2002/01/rss/rss1_namespace. Typically, there is some information one needs to provide to describe the RSS feeds and we will address such in Section 2.2. RSS 0.90 (www.purplepages.ie/RSS/netscape/rss0.90.html) was designed by Netscape for use with my.netscape.com in 1999 (www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3_80051). The newer version, RSS 1.0, was introduced in 2000 and made use of namespace of RDF document. The specification and schema of RSS 1.0 can be found in www.w3.org/2002/01/rss/rss1_namespace2.1 Overview of RSS\n3 Precisiated RSS content retrieval with configurable filtering: Just like e-mails and web sites, the primary need in RSS feeds is not about the number of feeds available. Rather, with the growing number of RSS feeds available users need a methodology that would allow them to get more specific and relevant content. Typical RSS readers allow users to subscribe to feeds and deliver all feeds to users periodically. Subscribers to these feeds need to manually browse through the feeds to select what might be of interest to them. When the size and the update frequency increase, users may receive many irrelevant feeds. We propose a filter methodology to allow users to pre-configure exactly what they want in the feeds they subscribed and request only those feeds matching the users' need be delivered. In so doing, there would be fewer feeds to browse upon and every feed would more likely be what the users are looking for.To illustrate our precisiated methodologies we propose and implement the smart RSS aggregator (SRA) that reads, filters, and regularly delivers RSS feeds to users. Our SRA is an extension of the feed-on-feeds (FOF) application (www.feedonfeeds.com/). FOF is a PhP software which provides a simple interface for user to add feeds and view the feed items. SRA is an extension to the FOF with extensive enhancements for supporting the newly added features. Features supported by SRA include pre-filtering, post-filtering and other sophisticated feeds and items management.3.1 SRA: a Smart RSS Aggregator\n4 Content retrieval improvement with synonym semantic: The concept of semantic web was introduced by Tim Berners-Lee to enable a more effective way of searching the web by taking advantage of the semantic of web information in its infrastructure (Michael et al., 2004; Berners-Lee et al., 2001). When the internet search system can understand what the users really are looking for, it is expected the search result will be more relevant and efficient. One way to achieve this is to understand the user's search intent by analyzing the semantic of user's search phrase. It was shown that when synonyms, weighted with respect to their relevancies to the original search keywords, are presented to the internet search, there is a 50 percent improvement in search relevancy (Tseng and Yu, 2006). When the concept of linguistic to numeric variable mapping was integrated into the web search process, a similar 50 percent increase in search relevancy was observed (Tseng and Yu, 2006). The concept of relating linguistic variables like big, medium, small to numeric variables like 10, 5, 1 in the domain of application is common in fuzzy logic and has proved to be useful in many applications (Zadeh, 2001a, b, 2002).We will integrate synonyms into our filtering system and demonstrate in this section how this semantic can help to improve the delivery of more relevant RSS feed items as compared with just using the original filtering phrases.4.1 Expanding RSS feeds with synonym semantic\n5 Expanding content retrieval by searching RSS feed page content: Typical RSS readers get the title and other sketchy information of the incoming RSS feeds. Although the title has a brief summary of what the feed may contain, the detail information of the RSS feed can only be found in the content of the RSS feed. By navigating through the content of the RSS feed URL link, one should be able to know more about the information the RSS feed may contain. By validating the filtering phrase to the content page of the RSS feed item for possible match, we should have a much higher relevance rate in the delivered RSS items. It may take longer to parse for the matching RSS feed items when the filtering phrase is validated against each RSS item's URL page content. Nevertheless, since RSS readers are scheduled to performed periodic update this extra processing time will not be visible to the users when they viewed the filtered result in a later stage.5.1 Comparison of validating against title and content of RSS items\n6 Conclusion: With the ever increase in the number of RSS feeds, smart filter schemes for incoming RSS feeds are needed to ensure relevant feeds are delivered to users' RSS readers. Users have to browse through lots of RSS feeds to select which RSS items are relevant to their need. We study this problem and introduce several effective filtering schemes to ensure fewer but more relevant feeds are delivered to users. Fewer feeds are delivered due to the fine information granularity imposed by filtering. By incorporating semantically related synonym phrases as additional possible filtering phrases it is shown the system is able to improve its relevant RSS feed delivery by two to three times. Extending the search for possible match with the filtering phrase, beyond the RSS feed title, into the content page of RSS feed link proves to be another successful scheme. It is believed that one should be able to get more relevant RSS feed delivery by integrating appropriate semantic schemes, e.g. synonyms in our case, into the content matching process. Future research calls for other semantic study to improve relevant content delivery.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Aims to report a novel method of filtering RSS feeds for obtaining more precise and related information without having to browse through all the incoming feeds.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Improve relevance ratio of incoming RSS feeds with configurable filtering phrases on feed title and feed page content. More relevant RSS feeds are obtained when additional semantically related synonym filtering phrases are used.\nFindings: - Finds that filtering leads to more precise RSS feeds and extending the filtering phrase with synonym semantic can increase the number of relevant feeds by 3-5 times.\nOriginality/value: - The system documented here has been found to be able to help RSS feeds subscribers to browse fewer items with higher matching rate.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Characteristics, preferences and motivation of avid non-fiction readers	[ "Mixed-methods", "Non-fiction", "Borrower characteristics", "Borrower motivation", "Borrower preferences" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Amongst the wide range of functions performed by a contemporary public library, provision of quality books to meet the needs of avid readers remains an important role. Public libraries have long been acknowledged as repositories of knowledge, supplying free access to quality non-fiction reading materials. Kelly (2015) argued that public libraries:\nMethodology: The data were collected through an online survey distributed to diverse reading communities throughout the world. This mixed-methods survey was designed to collect a holistic picture of the areas of research inquiry (Plano Clark, 2017), while at the same time to optimize possibilities of inquiry in the under-researched sample and area of inquiry. The project aimed to collect demographic information from avid readers from around the world, as well as collect data broadly exploring a range of areas, including, but not limited to, preferred book reading modes and access preferences (Merga, 2016; Merga, 2017a), situational influences on reading (Merga, 2016) and motivation for regular reading (Merga, 2017b). Institutional ethics approval was granted (permit number 2015/185) and after piloting the study with a small but culturally diverse convenience sample, the tool was adjusted and amendments approved.\nAnalysis: quantitative: The quantitative survey data were subsequently analysed using three different types of statistical tests, namely, contingency kh2, Mann-Whitney U and binomial logistic regression. We sought to explore the following comparative research questions through the analysis of quantitative data, with comparison between avid fiction and avid non-fiction readers:\nAnalysis: qualitative: In addition to the quantitative data, we collected qualitative data from the survey respondents using open field questions in the survey to explore the following exploratory research questions that required a more in-depth approach:\nResults: Further detailed reporting of our results can be found in the Appendix. The contingency kh2 test was conducted on gender and its association with fiction or non-fiction reading preferences, or those whose preferences were reportedly almost similar in both types (Question 18). The result showed that there was a statistical significant difference between men and women on their reading material preferences.\nMotivation and the avid non-fiction reader: When we asked students about their reasons for reading books in the context of recreational reading, we wished to gain greater insights into the relationship between avid non-fiction reading and pleasure. When asked, \"Why do you read books?\", avid non-fiction readers commonly made reference to six often interrelated themes. Their diversity could relate to individual differences, but they could also be reflective of the vast diversity of genres and styles within the non-fiction space.\nBarriers faced by the avid non-fiction reader: Only seven avid non-fiction booking reading respondents felt that they faced no barriers to reading, with one commenting:\nDiscussion: Our quantitative data analysis suggests that men were four times more likely to be avid non-fiction readers than women. This should not be read as implying that all men prefer non-fiction, as an overall preference for reading fiction is typically observed in men in this sample. However, men are more likely than women to be identified as avid non-fiction readers (e.g. as explored in Merga's study [2017a]). We also found that non-fiction readers tended to be slightly older than avid fiction readers, though the difference was not very significant, and that they also tended to read less frequently, though avid non-fiction readers tended to read a greater volume of books, perhaps because of the differences in book size or engagement factors, such as sustained concentration. Avid fiction readers reported greater library usage, and thus unsurprisingly were found to have a greater borrowing tendency than non-fiction readers. These findings are valuable, as understanding the characteristics, preferences and motivation of avid non-fiction readers can help librarians to meet their needs in a better way. As the quantitative data suggests, this cohort may underutilize the library as a source of books. Further research is needed to determine why this was the case so that readers advisory and/or resourcing strategies can be tailored to increase borrowing.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to provide insights into the characteristics of avid non-fiction book readers, exploring their typical demographic characteristics in relation to reading volume and frequency. It also investigates their comparative library usage in relation to avid fiction readers, as well as their motivation to read, and barriers to reading. Findings from the subset of self-identified avid non-fiction readers from the 2015 International Study of Avid Book Readers are interrogated to provide insights into this under-researched group.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors have used a single-stage mixed-methods approach, using data from both qualitative and quantitative items in an international survey.\nFindings: The quantitative data analysis of this study suggests that avid non-fiction book readers were more likely to be men and older than avid fiction readers, and that they also tended to read less frequently, though avid non-fiction readers tended to read a greater volume of books. Avid fiction readers reported greater library usage, and thus unsurprisingly were found to have a greater borrowing tendency than non-fiction readers. Our qualitative findings around reading motivation identified a range of recurrent themes. The authors also found three key barriers to reading: time, book access and concentration.\nOriginality/value: The findings of this study provide unique insights into the characteristics, preferences and motivation of avid non-fiction readers, with the relationship between pleasure and the reading of non-fiction of particular interest.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Beneficiaries of gambling and moral disengagement	[ "Finland", "Gambling", "France", "Moral disengagement", "Beneficiaries", "Civil society organizations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Gambling has a long history as a supplementary funding source for a variety of public services. Gambling operations can raise public revenue through taxes, licensing fees and direct grants to charities or civil society organizations (CSOs). In European jurisdictions, public revenue from gambling typically makes up between 1 and 2 percent of total national tax revenue, equaling and often exceeding revenue from tobacco and alcohol (Sulkunen et al., 2018). Gambling is also a controversial source of revenue, as it can cause a variety of social harms, including problem gambling, crime, health issues, family problems and economic difficulties (Sulkunen et al., 2018). The reduction of gambling harms is an important policy goal, and also highlighted in gambling policy recommendations of the European Commission (European Commission, 2014).\nGambling profit redistribution and beneficiaries in Finland and France: Finland and France differ in regard to their gambling cultures and institutions. Gambling is widely spread in Finland, and Finns lose on average $780 on gambling per annum. In comparison, the French lose on average $300 on gambling every year (see Sulkunen et al., 2018). According to population studies, 3.3 percent of the Finnish population are possible problem gamblers, compared to 2.2 percent of the French population (Salonen and Raisamo, 2015; Costes et al., 2015). Previous studies have also shown that gambling is more widely accepted amongst Finnish than French consumers, particularly owing to the earmarked good causes funded with the profits (Poysti, 2014).\nMD and the consumption of gambling profits: Accepting money from the gambling industry may represent a variety of ethical issues, and the ways in which beneficiaries respond to these may also vary between systems. Beneficiaries operate inside specific regulatory and policy contexts, which could be understood as systems that follow their own logic (Luhmann, 1969). This logic is not deterministic, but negotiated and legitimated through justifications. Actors therefore have the critical capacity to morally assess the system (Boltanski and Thevenot, 2006). Different theories have addressed the question of how stakeholders make these justifications or morally distance themselves from questionable activities. In sociological theory, justifications are close to what Mills (1940) has called vocabularies of motive. Other theoretical approaches, including the neutralisations theory by Sykes and Matza (1957) or the MD model by Bandura (1990, 2002) have come to similar conclusions from a socio-psychological perspective.\nMethods and data: This paper uses qualitative interviews with beneficiaries of gambling profits in France and Finland to compare beneficiaries under different models of redistribution of gambling profits. The differences between the models of the two countries are also reflected in the types of beneficiaries that were included in this study. The Finnish data consist of 20 interviews conducted with 18 CSOs during 2015-2017. Ten interviews were conducted in groups of two to four people from the same organization. The interviewees were in positions of financial, coordinating and managing responsibilities in the CSOs they represented. The gender division of respondents was about equal. The final sample consists of 12 CSOs funded by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health or the former Slot Machine Association. Eight organizations receive grants from the Ministry of Education and Culture or from the old Veikkaus. CSOs were approached via e-mail and most agreed to participate.\nResults: A summary of the results is presented in Table I. In total, 143 quotes were coded in the French data and 82 in the Finnish data. Some discourses represented various types of MD. The totals, therefore, reflect the number of codes, not the number of quotations. These frequencies and percentages are used to illustrate the general tendencies that emerged in the interviews rather than to turn qualitative data into a numerical form. As has been highlighted in the tradition of quasi-statistics (Becker, 1970), the frequencies are not meant to serve as statistical data but as illustrations of how emphasized different topics were in the data. More codes were attributed in the French interviews than the Finnish, due to the unwillingness of the Finnish participants to evoke the topic of the morality of their funding in comparison to other topics. This may be because the Finnish participants are more implicated in the national system, and therefore less willing to criticize it.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This paper has focused on whether the mechanisms of MD are different in a CSOs as beneficiaries system, represented by Finland, in comparison to an administrative actors as beneficiaries system, as in France. The results of the analysis reveal differences and similarities. In line with previous research (Azmier and Roach, 2000), moral justification was the most common means of displacing moral responsibility in both data sets. This is not surprising, as beneficiaries of gambling in both countries represent a variety of public interest objectives. Advantageous comparison and euphemistic labeling were also typical strategies in both contexts. Euphemistic labeling allows beneficiaries to distance themselves from gambling and related problems by framing them as something that cannot be prevented. Advantageous comparison was also expected, particularly in the Finnish case, where the national gambling monopoly system is very positively regarded and supported (Poysti, 2014).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Gambling is used to raise public funds through taxes, fees and direct contributions. The rent generated can be distributed through two basic models: absorbing the surplus into state budgets and institutions, or channeling funds to civil society organizations (CSOs). However, gambling also causes negative externalities. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how the beneficiaries of gambling in two societies representing these opposite models respond to the moral issue of accepting funds from a source that causes harm to some.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis is conducted by applying the moral disengagement (MD) model to qualitative interviews conducted with beneficiaries of gambling in Finland and France. In Finland, the majority of gambling revenue is redistributed to CSOs, who also exercise a strong influence and are heavily involved in the system. In France, most gambling proceeds are directed to the central state, making other beneficiaries less powerful.\nFindings: The results of this paper show that in France, where the state is a strong beneficiary, other actors express more political awareness and debate than in the Finnish model in which CSOs benefit and are tightly implicated in the system. On the other hand, the involvement of Finnish actors in the system encouraged them to accept moral responsibility for the harm caused by gambling.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides policymakers information on beneficiaries' implication and position in different types of models of dividing the rent of gambling, and the academic audience with a comparative and sociological application of the MD model.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A framework for effective crisis response	[ "Commitment", "Toyota", "Singapore Airlines", "Crisis response", "Readiness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nCrises as common events: Here is a good trivia question to pose to business students and managers. What do the following companies have in common: Johnson\nLiterature review: The extensive literature on crisis management has addressed several broad themes: genesis of crises (Roux-Dufort, 2009); different \"types\" of crises as in those involving matters of product performance (e.g. product failures, manufacturing faults, product recalls) vs those involving social or ethical matters (e.g. workplace discrimination, sweatshop labor) (Pullig et al., 2006); conditions that lead to crises (Pauchant and Mitroff, 1992); various stages involved in the progression of a crisis (Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt, 1996; Yan, 2010); crisis preparedness and its antecedents (Heath, 2004); impact of a crisis on the reputation of a company (Coombs, 2007; Gaultier-Gaillard and Louisot, 2006; Jones et al., 2000) and also the factors that might attenuate the impact of a crisis on a firm. The last group of studies have themselves examined a variety of factors including good reputation (Siomkos and Shrivastava, 1993; Siomkos and Kurzbard, 1994; Helm and Tolsdorf, 2013) and engagement in CSR activities (Minor and Morgan, 2011).\nToyota's product quality and recall crisis: In 2007, the Toyota Motor Corporation was in an enviable position. It had just passed General Motors to become the world's largest car maker and could also boast high profitability (Kim et al., 2010). Toyota's advance seemed especially remarkable given the lackluster economy of its home market (Japan) and the slow growth characteristic of its core industry, at least in the developed countries, implying that Toyota's growth had been achieved through global market share gains. The company's success went well beyond its market share gains and financial results and it was the subject of many books which praised it for management excellence (e.g. Hino, 2007; Liker and Corvis, 2004; Magee, 2007).\nSIA: proactive management of crises: SIA is a relatively young company, existing only since October 1, 1972, when it broke off from the predecessor Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (or MSA). In seven short years following its separation from MSA, SIA had leapt in the airline league tables from the 57th to the 9th position. In the first two decades after its separation, the airline pioneered a number of innovations and set new benchmarks of performance in the industry. By 1996, SIA had been acknowledged as the world's most profitable airline (\nThe SQ006 crash in Taiwan and SIA's response: At 11.18 p.m. on October 31, 2000, flight SQ006 bound for Los Angeles was trying to take off in inclement weather at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek airport. After taking a wrong turn down a closed runway, the Boeing 747-400 ploughed into construction equipment and broke into three parts before bursting into flames. Out of the 179 people on board the flight, including 159 passengers, 83 were killed in the accident and 56 more were injured (\nA framework for effective crisis response: My synthesis of the two detailed and contrasting cases studies suggests that two factors are critical determinants of whether a company would have an effective response to a crisis or not (see Figure 3): the company's readiness and its commitment.\nConcluding remarks: As noted by several studies in the literature, crises are commonplace and can sometimes impact even well-prepared companies. Though there is extensive literature on crisis management, the literature tends to focus either on developing typologies or on pre-crisis drills and during- and post-crisis communications strategies. While these aspects are no doubt important, in this paper, I focussed on strategic aspects - specifically the commitment of an organization to its stakeholders and its readiness to do the right thing. I argued that readiness goes well beyond drills. The amount of resources available to an organization critically impacts its readiness but is not the sole determinant of an effective crisis response (Penrose, 2000). Based on the two dimensions, I proposed a 2x2 matrix where organizations with high commitments and high readiness are most likely to an effective crisis response. I believe that the framework can be useful for future researchers as well as managers who wish to be prepared for any crises that their organizations might face.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for effective crisis response.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology involves a qualitative examination of responses by companies that have been judged by analysts to be varyingly effective. Toyota, for instance, had a poor response to its product quality and recall crisis. Singapore Airlines on the other hand, is often cited as an exemplar for an effective response to the crash of its flight SQ 006 in Taiwan.\nFindings: This research finds that organizations with a strong commitment to doing the right thing for stakeholders and a high readiness are most likely to effectively respond to crises. Organizations lacking in one of the two critical dimensions (commitment to stakeholders and/or readiness), on the other hand, are likely to have ineffective responses with possible post-crisis losses in competitive (e.g. market share) and financial (e.g. penalties) terms.\nResearch limitations/implications: The case study methodology implies limitations about generalizability. The framework may also be less useful in crises where there is ambiguity about the genesis of the crisis and its implications, such as the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines' MH 370 flight.\nPractical implications: Since crises are commonplace and can impact any company, the framework can be useful for a wide range of companies.\nOriginality/value: The proposed framework fills a gap in the understanding about why some companies have effective responses to crises and others do not. Prior literature has often adopted narrower perspectives such as the skills and the personality of the CEO, pre-crisis drills and effective communication strategies post-crisis. This study argues that while these factors are important, they are not sufficiently strategic.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Disentangling the driving factors of logistics outsourcing: a configurational perspective	[ "Logistics outsourcing", "Transaction cost", "Dynamic capability", "Inter-organization imitation", "Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the increasing complexity of market demands and the growing competition among business enterprises, logistics outsourcing (i.e. \"third-party logistics\" (3PL)) has been widely accepted as a way to improve customer services, reduce costs and increase competitive advantages (Zhu et al., 2017). However, the rate of logistics outsourcing failure is discouragingly high (Yang et al., 2016). Gulla and Gupta (2011) suggested that outsourcing performance is closely related to the degree of outsourcing. For example, a high degree of outsourcing may cause more risks, such as overdependence, information leakage and loss of expertise (Konig and Spinler, 2016; Lau and Zhang, 2006). In contrast, when the extent of outsourcing is low, the external resources from 3PL providers are insufficient in satisfying 3PL users' logistics needs, thus lowering the outsourcing performance (Gulla and Gupta, 2011). Hence, it is critical for managers to make prudent decisions on logistics outsourcing by balancing its benefits and risks.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Logistics outsourcing\n3. Methods: An empirical methodology was used in this study. First, an instrument for all constructs was developed from previous studies by following rigorous measure development procedures. Second, data were collected and cleaned for further analyses. Third, the measures were checked for their reliability and validity. Last, a structural analysis was taken to examine our research questions. QCA, fsQCA in particular, was used to analyze the data. The details of these procedures are described as follows.\n4. Results: 4.1 Necessity analysis\n5. Discussions: 5.1 Major findings\n6. Conclusions: Drawing on the IT, DCV, and TCT and overarching under the complexity theory, this study examines how critical drivers (i.e. external imitation pressures, internal 3PL management capability and transaction attributes) interplay with each other to influence the extent of outsourcing different types of logistics activities (i.e. asset based and non-asset based). A configurational approach (i.e. fsQCA) is used to empirically analyze the survey data collected from 250 listed manufacturing companies in China.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how external pressures, internal capability and transaction attributes of logistics outsourcing synergically influence the extent of asset-based and non-asset-based logistics outsourcing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the data surveyed from 250 manufacturing companies in China, this study employed fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to deduce multiple configurations for logistics outsourcing decisions.\nFindings: The results suggest that asset-based logistics outsourcing is primarily driven by external imitation pressures or internal demands for logistics technologies, while non-asset-based logistics outsourcing is mainly driven by the demands for external management-based logistics services. Asset specificity plays a positive role in promoting both asset-based and non-asset-based logistics outsourcing. The requirement for third-party logistics (3PL) management capability depends on the outsourcing types and outsourcing causes.\nPractical implications: This study provides guidance to practitioners for them to make outsourcing decisions. It suggests that asset-based logistics outsourcing is more appropriate when there are high external imitation pressures or more internal logistics demands, while non-asset-based logistics outsourcing should be used only when a firm needs management-based logistics services. Besides, 3PL users are suggested to outsource their logistics when their 3PL providers are required to make specific investments. In addition, managers should carefully evaluate firms' capabilities in managing outsourcing relationships.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies largely ignored the interaction effects of a set of factors on logistics outsourcing decisions, and to date, little research empirically examined how outsourcing is driven in terms of different types of outsourcing. Drawing on the institutional theory, dynamic capability view, and transaction cost theory and overarching under the complexity theory, this study examines how institutional, organizational and transactional factors interplay with each other to influence different types of logistics outsourcing (i.e. asset based and non-asset based). Methodologically, the configural analysis (i.e. fsQCA) is applied to explore complex causal configurations that drive logistics outsourcing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
GIS: an annotated guide to selected resources	[ "Geographic information systems", "Bibliographies", "Geographic information system data" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: American Slavery, Dayton Peace Negotiations, and Hurricane Katrina emergency management maps have one thing in common: the use of GIS data and tools to create visually striking images to further one's understanding, in the case of the first two, and to aid in the emergency recovery efforts, in the later. What is GIS? United States Geological Survey (USGS) defines GIS as a geographic information system technology, which can be used for scientific investigations, resource management, and development planning. It is a system capable of capturing, storing, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced information; that is, data identified according to location. Practitioners also define a GIS as including the procedures, operating personnel, and spatial data that go into the system (USGS, 2008). At the heart of every GIS is a map. For centuries people have been using maps to show places, chart new pathways, and better understand the world. With technological advances, maps became digital, enabling scholars to analyze patterns and assess their impact on everyday lives. Potential applications for GIS are broad, ranging from archaeology to economics, oceanography to family medicine. Working with GIS involves using specialized software to display, analyze, and organize information, often utilizing maps or other visual displays, in addition to helping manage data.The review of library literature on GIS showed emergence of two trends: research dealing with implementing and use of GIS services in libraries - GIS as a tool and GIS as a collection development subject.A library in charge of GIS collection development policy would need to consider cost, availability, license agreements and distribution policies, documentation, data structures, and software and hardware (Florance, 2006). Some of the challenges of collection development policy for GIS data include the massive amount of data created, proprietary software files formats are harder to interpret than their open source counterparts, and a large number of file formats, many of which require contextual information in order to be understood in the future (Sweetkind-Singer, 2009).While there are many library web pages with GIS research guides only a few bibliographies exist in literature. For instance, GIS and Business bibliography, aimed at helping academic and public librarians who are relatively new to business geographics and GIS in general build a core collection, as well as learn about GIS in libraries (Galbraith and Coonin, 2001). A bibliography on geospatial web services (GWS) research tool for information specialists and science technology librarians seeking to build and understand GWS permit describes access, exchange, delivery, and processing of geospatial data and products on the World Wide Web, no matter the platform or protocol (Dietz, 2010).A geology bibliography with links to and brief descriptions of a variety of web resources, including reference works, publication indexes, style and citation manuals, photographs and images, earth science education resources as well as sources related to specific sub-disciplines of the geological sciences, that can be used to teach and learn about the geosciences, as well as resources that might be useful to a wide variety of users, including students, researchers and the general public (Zellmer, 2011). Because data sets are particularly difficult for students to locate, priority was therefore given to that resource type in this paper, which makes it unique and one of a kind. Other criteria for inclusion in this annotated guide include authority, currency, stability of source, and interface ease of use.\nPrint and Electronic Reference Sources: Shekhar, S. and Xiong, H. (Eds) (2008), Encyclopedia of GIS, Springer, New York, NY\nData sets: Data sets underlie all GIS applications. Without the geographic, social, political, and other data points, no map-based analysis could occur.\nUS Government resources: There is a multitude of government data on the web. Although most, if not all, federal agencies produce some type of data, finding it can be a challenge. Many sites provide data sets that are ready to import into GIS programs. Others provide files that are compatible with GIS files or that provide additional layers of information to the GIS. Still others provide dynamic maps that allow the viewer to zoom in on the specific area needed and to select the layers of information desired at any one time. Geography, geology, demographics, and epidemiology are just a few of the topics covered in the vast number of files available. Luckily, there are several sites that aggregate information so that it is easier to find. Included in the listing which follows are sites that are databases that allow for the discovery of information, individual sites that provide information on a specific topic or area, and sites that are gateways or clearinghouses of information that lead the user to an ever deeper well of information.Data.gov, available at: www.data.gov/\nUS State level resources: * For state, county and even some city level GIS data it is sometimes necessary to look beyond national sites. Instead of listing every state level web site that includes GIS data, Google searching is recommended. GIS data sets in this category can include cultural, geographic, zoning, business, school, transportation networks information and more. Most states have a GIS portal page to information that is state specific. To find these pages use the search string in Google or a similar search engine: state _____ geographic information* Universities are another good resource for state level GIS data, to search for these, use the search string: ____ GIS data site:edu* Another state GIS data resource is the state's Geologic Association or Survey. A map index to these associations can be found at: www.stategeologists.org/, with a searchable database of the state surveys on the left side of the page.* MIT has created a web page tracking state level GIS data and information: Spatial Data on the Web by State http://libraries.mit.edu.pitt.idm.oclc.org/gis/data/datalinks/statedataweb.html\nNon US Government resources: Center for International Earth Science Information Network, available at: www.ciesin.org/\nConclusion: A paradigm shift from print to digital maps and developments in computer software propelled adoption of GIS across various disciplines; no longer are map collections restricted to paper shelved in drawers. GIS as a discipline will continue to evolve with new technological advances in software and hardware applications. The future will expand practitioners' ability to analyze more data and make vital decisions in improving quality of human life and environment. As librarians, we support the mission and goals of our educational institutions, and have responsibility to advance scholarly and creative endeavors of researchers. Creation of subject guides or electronic resources pages, or the cataloging of the data sets, will be crucial to the development of a comprehensive GIS collection.This annotated guide to GIS resources aims at introducing useful data set resources.Additionally, collaboration with GIS faculty and students, volunteering to serve on the university GIS committee, and keeping up with developments via listservs or blogs is beneficial in understanding the needs and resources of the university community.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This article aims to provide an annotated bibliography of some of the geographic information system (GIS) resources, specifically data sets, available to libraries and researchers. Drawing on the collective authors' experience working with the GIS resources, this article aims to help librarians interested in developing and building their GIS collection.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A literature review was performed using library databases, as well as consulting various library subject guides on the topic. Idaho State University is home to the GIS Training and Research Center and the university offers Master's degrees in Geographic Information Science and Historical Resources Management; the authors consulted graduate GIS students on resources used in the program.\nFindings: - There is a large body of literature on GIS. This annotated guide, while not comprehensive, is a solid start to a GIS resources collection.\nOriginality/value: - No other annotated bibliography currently exists for those interested in building a library collection of GIS data sets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Impact of brand familiarity on brands experience dimensions for financial services brands	[ "Brand experience", "Sensory brand experience", "Behavioural brand experience", "Brand familiarity", "Emotional brand experience", "Relational brand experience" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Customers look beyond utilitarian and functional benefits of a brand, resulting in a focus toward experience. It is observed that brands that offer exciting experiences thrive in the market. As a result, experience has become an important factor for customers to associate and engage with a brand. Through experience, firms develop higher loyalty from customers, thereby resulting in a competitive advantage. Loyal customers are willing to pay a higher price for a brand with a superior brand experience, and firms are keen to associate with loyal customers. The concept of brand experience has evolved over time. Various disciplines of cognitive science, philosophy, experiential marketing and spirituality have contributed to the development of the concept. It was Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) who first introduced the concept of experience in marketing literature, although the concept of sense, feel, think, act and relate resides in the ancient Indian spiritual literature. Brakus et al. (2009, p. 52) defined brand experience as \"the subjective, internal and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand's design, identity, packaging, communication, and environment.\" The topic of brand experience has been subject to extensive investigation by Pine and Gilmore (1998), Schmitt (1999, 2003), Shaw and Ivens (2002), Caru and Cova (2003), Lasalle and Britton (2003), Chattopadhyay and Laborie (2005) and Brakus et al. (2009). With the development of research in brand experience, there is a major focus on consequences of the brand experience. Brand experience is considered as an important factor and has emerged as a broader construct. The research on brand experience has gained lot of importance in recent years as the marketing practitioners have come to realize that understanding how consumers experience the brand is important for the success of a brand. While considerable studies are available on other brand constructs (Bapat and Panwar, 2009), we argue that both marketers and academicians can benefit by understanding brand experience dimensions, as there is increased importance of brand experience in both research and practice. The impact of brand experience on brand personality, brand satisfaction, brand loyalty, brand relationship trust has been investigated.\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: Brand experiences happen during various events of consumers associating with the brand such as searching for products, shopping for products or services and consuming products or services (Arnould et al., 2002; Brakus et al., 2009; Holbrook, 2000). Experience has been studied from the point of view of product experience (Hoch, 2002), shopping and service experience (Hui and Bateson, 1991), customer experience (Gentile et al., 2007) and brand experience (Brakus et al., 2009). Consumption experience is a multi-dimensional construct and includes feelings, fantasies, and fun (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). Pine and Gilmore (1998) presented the perspective of experience and showed how the experience has evolved from a commodity. McAlexander et al. (2002) suggested that customer experience plays an important role in strengthening the brand community. Although various perspectives of experience in the form of product experience, service experience and service experience are available, the brand experience can be considered as the broadest construct, covering both customers and prospects.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Data analysis: The respondents comprised of 61 percent male and 39 percent female. In total, 51 percent of respondents in the age group of less than 23 years, and 40 percent respondents in the age group of equal and more than 24 years. We conducted both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The model was tested using the structural equation model from IBM SPSS 23. Manipulation was performed to find significant differences in brand familiarity. We observe a significant difference for brand familiarity with a mean value of less familiar brand of 4.54 and mean value of more familiar brand of 5.33 and using independent sample t-test, we found a significant difference with the t-value of -2.995 and p-value of 0.004. While ICICI brand generated a higher score, Bank of Baroda brand showed a lower score on brand familiarity.\n5. Conclusions: It is recognized that compelling brand experiences can help engage customers for long-term relationships. Many studies recognized the role that brand experience has in developing brand loyalty through satisfaction. Most studies on brand experience examined the consequences of brand experience by analyzing brand loyalty, brand satisfaction, brand personality, brand trust and brand commitment. While validating Brakus et al.'s (2009) brand experience dimensions, Nysveen et al. (2013) divulged a fifth dimension, the relational or social dimension, for services. Brand experience dimensions between product and service brand exhibit a difference, as four-factor structure relates to product brand experience, and five-factor structure corresponds to service brand experience. The fifth dimension was established in a study on the telecom brand for service brand experience.\n6. Managerial implication: It is important for brand managers to know how brand familiarity and brand experience are related. Managers should know the impact on individual brand experience dimensions with the change in brand familiarity. The brands in developed market face fierce competition. With the higher growth and greater potential, the competition is getting intense in emerging markets. The consideration of brands from emerging market adds to existing strands of literature which has focused on brands from the developed markets. The study will be useful not only to the managers of developed markets who are considering to enter the emerging market, but for the existing managers who face competitive pressure from their peer banks and entry of non-banks.\n7. Limitations and future directions: Since the data were collected using convenience sampling and consist predominantly younger sample. Hence, the generalizability of results requires further validation. It is suggested that further research can be performed with larger samples and differences can be explored between various age groups. Since the study is based on self-reported experience, it is likely that the methodology has its inherent limitations. Future research can incorporate other methodological approaches to capture the brand experience and can capture the brand experience at a time when respondents are exposed to different brand-related stimuli. The study used positively worded items for examining brand experience. Since we covered low familiarity brands, we suggest using negatively worded items for the future study. There is a need for examining valence-based experience construct. Future research can incorporate non-banking brand which has recently entered into banking. As financial technologies are transforming the banking landscape, there is a need for a study on the impact of entry on brand experience dimensions. It will also pave the way of testing and validation of the dimensionality of brand experience in the context of non-banks or new entrants. Furthermore, the inclusion of additional relevant construct can help in examining the relationship with other branding and related constructs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of brand familiarity on the various dimensions of brand experience, and to identify the factor structure of brand familiarity for financial services brands.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used a convenience sampling technique by contacting 216 respondents, and examined the relationship between brand experience dimensions and brand familiarity. An independent sample t-test was performed to assess the differences for brand experience dimensions. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed for both low familiarity and high familiarity service brands to highlight the differences.\nFindings: The improvement in brand familiarity is positive for sensory, emotional, behavioral and relational brand experiences for high familiarity service brands. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis found a four-factor brand experience model for low brand familiarity and a five-factor brand experience structure for high familiarity financial services brands. The study of financial services brands validates the service brand experience framework of Nysveen et al. (2013) for high familiarity brands, but not for low familiarity financial services brand.\nPractical implications: There is a need for marketers to comprehend various dimensions of brand experience in the context of financial services brands which are experiencing increased competition with non-banks.\nOriginality/value: The study makes a contribution to the existing literature as the concept of brand familiarity and its relationship with brand experience have received scant attention in the past.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
"And never the twain shall meet": Investigating the hospitality industry-education relationship in Cyprus	[ "Hospitality services", "Hospitality education", "Hotel and catering industry", "Experiential learning", "Students", "Cyprus" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The relationship between the hospitality industry and education has captured the attention of many hospitality scholars throughout the years. Nevertheless, there has been a dearth of research into the overall \"quality\" of this relationship with the status of a hospitality programme. In an effort to provide conceptual clarity on the issues affecting the hospitality industry-education relationship, we introduce a model which, we believe, goes some way towards identifying and thereby articulating the discrepancies between hospitality education and the industry. By identifying the five relationships and by taking into account the input of all primary stakeholders; students, the industry and academia, we propose the development of a model that measures the status of the relationship between the hospitality industry and hospitality education. The model was developed from an empirical study undertaken in the hospitality industry in Cyprus, an industry which is victim to the vagaries of seasonality; the employment of a small number of core staff; and a reliance on peripheral labour which is brought in to cover for the periods of high demand, and are then discarded during the low/no demand periods.In addition, by providing close to 13 per cent of the country's GDP (tourism receipts PS1,014 billion CYP[1]), the hospitality industry has a significant impact on the Cyprus economy. Close to 2.5 million tourists visited the island in the year 2005, with the United Kingdom market being the largest contributor, followed by the Nordic countries and Germany (Cyprus Tourism Organization, 2005). As well as the issues of seasonality, and labour shortages; the effects of the country's European Union accession, and its close geographic proximity to some of the planet's conflict areas, give the Cyprus hospitality industry a distinctive flavor. In this environment, local educational institutions are striving to make their own contribution, by educating the next generation of hospitality professionals who can then begin to alleviate some of the experienced problems.\nReview of related literature: Scholars investigating the status of the hospitality industry-education relationship have argued that it is a complex one. Airey and Tribe (2000, p. 277) inform us that, \"in its origins, the education developed from on-the-job training in hotels\", thereby reiterating its vocational focus which \"emphasised the important links between an educated workforce and a strong economy ... the basis of knowledge about hospitality originally drew strongly from studies generated directly from the industry and the world of work rather than from the many disciplines or other fields of enquiry which help explain hospitality\" (Airey and Tribe, 2000, p. 277).In response to this practice, hospitality educators argued that the multidisciplinary, or for some the interdisciplinary, nature of the industry requires individuals with abilities to integrate and synthesize their skills, knowledge, and attitudes. During the early 1980s, both industry professionals and academics agreed that professional work experience was an essential component of the student's academic preparation to become a future hospitality professional (Morrison and O'Mahony, 2003). As a compromise, and in order to strike a balance between theory and practice, higher education institutions saw a rapid development of internship components in their hospitality curricula. Despite their agreement in principle, differences evolved as to the content, structure, and administration of the internship experience (Downey and De Veau, 1987, 1988). Even today, it is difficult to define hospitality internships in absolute terms because each academic programme requires some flexibility due to its unique nature, variations in curriculum design, resources, and mission.In his critique, almost two decades ago, entitled \"Academic credibility and the hospitality curriculum\", Michael Evans (1988) posits the view that hospitality education was chastised by the purists whose glances towards it were somewhat patronizing. He argued, quite convincingly that their disdain for the professional schools (including hospitality), were unfounded, and stressed the fact that hospitality curricula aimed at developing \"well-rounded\" individuals, who would graduate with a diverse range of skills and competences. The prevailing observation which emanated from the article was that:We should encourage our students to explore other interests in the sciences, theatre, music and the arts. Hospitality educators and industry professionals should seriously consider further study in the liberal-arts area and should communicate their involvement in the area and the ways that involvement has changed their perspective and their thinking about hospitality management (Evans, 1988, p. 45).Interestingly, his vision included industry professionals, implying that the development of a hospitality curriculum should not be the prerogative of one sector of society. The significance of a closer industry/academe relationship is supported and affirmed by others, such as Goodman Jr and Sprague (1991), McHardy and Allan (2000), Jayawardena (2001), Barrows and Walsh (2002), Littlejohn and Watson (2004) and Zopiatis (2007). While Connolly and McGing (2006, p. 56) are quite adamant in their assessment regarding the quality of graduate sought by the industry:... [industry] has a strong preference to hire people with strong practical skills and \"soft\" people management skills ... To ensure survival, the challenge, therefore, for the designers of curriculum and the providers of courses is firstly to meet the needs of industry in order to have a robust discipline that will survive. This must remain a priority. This can be achieved by more placements, more practical skills training, more case study work based on the world of hospitality, and by industry representatives being closely involved in all aspects of course development.They also include, in their critique, the role of the student who is the primary beneficiary of the education experience:Students must be challenged to examine how they contribute to business development and improve the competitiveness and performance of the organizations they will work for. When graduates are seen to be contributing to \"the bottom line\" then they will be sought after (Connolly and McGing, 2006, p. 57).In addition, studies reveal that images of what constitutes the hospitality industry impacts directly on students' choice regarding their future in the industry. Studies, such as those conducted by Jenkins (2001), O'Leary and Deegan (2005) and Raybould and Wilkins (2005), suggest that students' expectations on entering the industry are mismatched with the realities. Consequently, many of them drop out of the industry altogether. Realigning student expectations and thereby reducing the risk of dropout can be addressed with the use of internships or job placements (Barron and Maxwell;, 1993; Waryszak, 1999; Harris and Zhao, 2004).Internship-related research studies revealed that hospitality educators strongly support the inclusion of an experiential learning component in the hospitality curriculum since such training develops students' managerial skills (Casado, 1992; Petrillose and Montgomery, 1998; Tas, 1988). Industry professionals share the views and opinions of educators in supporting the notion that internship practices develop students' leadership, problem solving, and customer relations competencies (Petrillose and Montgomery, 1998). Hospitality students view the internship as an opportunity to enhance their personal and interpersonal communication skills and gain a better understanding of the organizational issues that surround the hospitality industry (Leslie, 1991; Zopiatis, 2007). The students' ability to attain these competencies will depend on a number of factors such as \"the type of placement, level of work experience and the quality of supervision in the workplace\" (Walo, 2001, p. 18).The evolution of hospitality education\nResearch methodology: The primary purpose of the research study was to investigate the relationship between hospitality education and the industry of Cyprus as it relates to students' internship practices. By acquiring new knowledge, related to and of value to its primary stakeholders, our aim was to enhance the education-industry relationship in order to create a valuable and pedagogically sound educational experience for students. Foremost, such an innovative learning experience will provide the foundation for students' future career development and enhance the working relationship between hospitality students, the industry and educational institutions offering related programmes.We set out to find answers to the following:RQ1. How do hospitality stakeholders view the existing relationship between hospitality education and the industry in Cyprus?RQ2. What are the factors that influence the 'quality' of the industry-education relationship?The research involved all three primary hospitality stakeholders; the students, the educators and the hospitality professionals. The unique characteristics of the three groups under investigation necessitate the utilization of different research methods and techniques, an approach known as methodological triangulation. According to Jick (1979), methodological triangulation enhances research studies since the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods minimize and or neutralize the prejudices and weakness of each method. The combination of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies was necessary since it overcomes the sterility of single-method approaches and enhances the validity and reliability of the findings. The participation of hospitality students, educators, and professionals enabled the researcher to conduct comparative statistics in order to identify their similarities and differences on internship-specific issues.The target population of the study included all students pursuing an accredited hospitality degree in a private or government sponsored educational institution in Cyprus, and who have completed at least one hospitality internship practice; thus have had exposure to the country's hospitality industry. Based on figures published by the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture (2005), 402 students were included in the study's population. In order to avoid the danger of under or over-representing some members of the population, a probability-stratified sample was used.The research population for hospitality professionals included individuals employed in hotels (five, four, and three star) in all the major cities of Cyprus. According to figures published by the Cyprus Tourism Organization (2005), 150 properties were included in the research population. Due to the population's small size, and the typically low response rate, a common problem in hospitality research, the researcher decided to include all 150 establishments in the study. Only one survey questionnaire was sent by mail to each of the 150 hospitality establishments. The survey questionnaire was personalized and addressed to either the General Manager or the Human Resources Manager of the establishment by name. A mixed distribution method that included postal and face-to-face distribution was used to administer the hospitality professionals' questionnaire.Finally, due to the small size of the population under investigation, it was decided to incorporate both quantitative and qualitative techniques, in collecting the opinions of hospitality educators; the third major stakeholder. Personal face-to-face interviews were conducted in order to reveal hospitality educators' views on the issue under investigation based on their extensive experience and knowledge of the industry. Complementing the personal interviews, a small quantitative questionnaire was administered to all interviewees just before the actual interview. The research population of this particular measurement tool included hospitality educators responsible for overseeing students' internship practices in their respective educational institutions. All participating educators had long-term experience and knowledge of the topics and issues under investigation and their participation and input greatly enhanced the significance and value of the current research study. It is important to note that only educators of accredited hospitality programs in Cyprus were included in the research study.Based on a review of related literature and a number of focus group sessions with hospitality students, the authors developed and administered quantitative questionnaires to hospitality students, professionals, and educators. Prior to administration all three questionnaires were tested for reliability and validity with the utilization of the test-retest method and a panel of experts. In addition, qualitative semi structured interviews were conducted with the ten participating hospitality educators. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to present and analyze the quantitative data, and determine if there were significant differences in opinions, perceptions, and attitudes amongst the hospitality stakeholders. The general analytical procedure consisting of the three concurrent activities of data reduction, data display and drawing conclusions and verifications was utilized for qualitative data analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994).\nResearch findings - the five relationships/gap model: The overall response rate for hospitality students was 70.60 per cent (n=166) and for hospitality professionals 51.33 per cent (n=77). Quantitative questionnaires were completed by all ten hospitality educators interviewed.The findings enabled us to identify five distinctive relationships, presented in Figure 1, which influence the overall quality of this relationship. The five relationships are:1. the relationship between the individual student and the educational institution;2. the relationship between the students' academic and industrial experience;3. the relationship between students working in the industry and their hospitality host organization;4. the relationship between the hospitality industry and education; and5. the educational institution's control over their students' industrial placements.It is important to note that students are the only stakeholder whose presence is in both the academic and the hospitality industry environment.We provide a brief explanation of the five relationships that define the triangular relationship between hospitality students, educators and the industry and our findings which support the existence of this relationship.Relationship 1: expectations of students and educational institution\nWhat now?: We believe that a model that reliably measures the quality of the relationship between the hospitality industry and education needs to be developed. Such a model is of value and will find a multitude of uses for all stakeholders involved. In particular, such a tool will enable hospitality educators to measure the degree with which their hospitality programmes meet the demands of the industry. It can be utilized in order to assist students in reliably measuring the particular programme's acceptance by the industry; while hospitality professionals could enhance their involvement and thus invest in the development of the next generation of hospitality managers. Foremost, such a tool will provide useful insights into the current status of the triangular relationship between the stakeholders.In an attempt to fully investigate and understand the education-industry relationship in Cyprus, these five relationships must be thoroughly examined from the perspective of all stakeholders involved. It is important to understand that any gaps or discrepancies in any of the five relationships may directly or indirectly impact on the students' professional development. Our goal should be to identify whether such gaps exist and to proactively intervene in order to minimize their effects, thus enhancing the quality of the learning experience offered to our students. And even though the paper is based on empirical findings from the hospitality industry, we believe that it is of relevance for scholars wishing to investigate other industry-education-internship relationships in other industry sectors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The primary purpose is to investigate the relationship between hospitality education and the industry of Cyprus as it relates to students' internship practices. The mismatch between the educational experience delivered to hospitality students and the \"real world\" practice they experience is investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Methodological triangulation was utilized in order to investigate the unique characteristics of all three primary hospitality stakeholders; the students, the educators and the hospitality professionals. Quantitative survey and qualitative semi-structured interview data were utilized to provide conceptual clarity of the discrepancies between hospitality education and the industry.\nFindings: - Analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data produced a five-element model and revealed a number of respective gaps on the issues affecting the hospitality industry-education relationship in Cyprus.\nOriginality/value: - The article proposes the development of a model which measures the relationship, gaps or commonalities, between the hospitality industry and education. Such a model is of value and will find a multitude of uses for all stakeholders involved.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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