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Financial distress cost of Italian small and medium enterprises: A predictive and interpretative model
|
[
"SMEs",
"Intangible assets",
"Debt",
"Financial distress cost",
"Local banks",
"G21",
"G24",
"G28",
"G32",
"G33"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: To pursue the declared research objectives, I have proposed a model finalized to estimate the expected costs of financial distress and quantified in terms of product among financial distress likelihood (FDL) and costs sustained by the insolvent society. The useful data to the investigation have been drawn out from the BvD databases: Aida and Mint Italy.\n2. Theoretical framework: The literature on the SMEs underlines that one of the principal characteristics of the SMEs are the elevated FDL (Keasey and Watson, 1993; Frank and Goyal, 2009; Mac an Bhaird, 2010), and it needs to investigate their financial structure to understand fully the reasons for the failure.\n3. Financial distress costs: research hypothesis: The (ex ante) financial distress costs are esteemed on the basis of the FDL, and owing to the following consequences to the financial distress status, these ex post constitute the total value lost by the enterprise at the end of a period of financial difficulties.\n4. The model of financial distress costs: My model is established to offer a representation of the value loss of the SME with financial difficulties. This section explains how the two components (the likelihood of financial distress and the ex post financial distress costs) can be valid drivers in the construction of a useful model to estimate, ex ante, the financial distress costs.\n5. Econometric methods and data set: Coherently with the objectives of the paper, the analysis considers the last seven exercises (period 1999/2006) of a sample of 25.000 SMEs (volume of sales: < 20 mlns; number of employees: < 250) organized in the form of Ltd.\n6. Findings and conclusion: The Table II gets the synthesis of the emergent findings from the statistical analysis of the sample of Italian SMEs. As it is deduced in the table all the coefficients are statistically meaningful and with the expected sign.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to propose a theoretical model designed to predict the likelihood of financial distress of an enterprise and to quantify the damages whenever the financial crisis became full-blown.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Coherently with the objectives of the paper, the analysis considers the last seven exercises (period: 1999/2006) of a sample of 25.000 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (volume of sales: < 20 mlns; number of employees: < 250) organized in the form of Ltd. The empirical investigation has been affected through the use of BvD database: Aida and Mint Italy.\nFindings: The analysis shows that the ex post costs of financial distress decrease in relation to the company's increased ability to use intangible assets and in relation to the local roots of the banks (local banks rather than international banking groups).\nResearch limitations/implications: The instruments used for this study need to be subjected to more statistical tests to establish a more robust validity and reliability. Replication of this study using larger samples and a broader geographic base (extended at European level) is suggested.\nPractical implications: The timely monitoring of investigated variables allows you to mitigate the costs of exit from the market.\nOriginality/value: Following the global financial crisis, this paper sheds new light on the financial distress cost of Italian SMEs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investigating the possibility to use differentiated authentication based on risk profiling to secure online banking
|
[
"User authentication",
"Online banking",
"Security",
"Access control",
"Differentiated authentication",
"Risk profiling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The phenomenal growth of online banking has transformed the way in which consumers interact with their financial services providers. Both banks and customers have recognised the benefits of this new medium, such as increased convenience and efficiency for customers and a decrease in cost and expanded customer base for banks (Moscato and Altschuller, 2012, p. 51; Ravi et al., 2006, p. 62). As the use of online banking increases, security issues relating to confidentiality, integrity and privacy remain a foremost concern in the minds of online banking service providers and users. Due to the sensitive nature of online banking information and transactions, security-related concerns are regarded as one of the major issues affecting the adoption of online banking by users (Moscato and Altschuller, 2012, p. 52). These concerns are indeed well founded.\n2. User authentication: User identification and authentication when transacting online remain a foundation for computer security (Conklin et al., 2004, p. 1). User authentication uses something a user knows, something a user has or a characteristic unique to the user (Hunton et al., 2004, p. 139) to identify and authenticate the user.\n3. The user challenge: An important departure point to improve security systems is to recognise that proper password security systems involve both human and technological aspects (Brostoff and Sasse, 2002, p. 41). Technical measures incorporated into security systems are of little value if users do not understand the measures, risks or consequences associated with improper use of these measures. Researchers (Pfleeger and Caputo, 2012; Anderson and Agarwal, 2010) suggest a greater understanding of the behaviour of users to prevent them from being the \"weakest link\". Conklin et al. (2004, p. 5) support this view by arguing that the untrained user represents one of the weakest links in a security system.\n4. Differentiated authentication: Financial institutions have for some time now used segmentation or profiling of their customers for amongst other credit scoring and marketing purposes (Ravi et al., 2006). This segmentation is a key method used by banks to better understand their customers to subsequently provide the services required (Durkin, 2004, p. 485).\n5. Research problem and objective: Proposing a differentiated authentication regime for users is dependent on the ability to differentiate between users' security practices as well as the ability to uniquely identify the user, or user group, to impose the additional measures. Raising additional entrance requirements after initial identification is not complex, as the identification action provides user specific attributes that could be used to infer a potential risk profile. More interesting is the use of information known at, or even before, authentication. That is, whether it is possible to identify user group attributes that correlate to security practices.\n6. Methodology: 6.1 Survey\n7. Results: The results of the statistical test for variance (ANOVA) in sample means for a confidence interval of 95 per cent for the individual dependant variables are shown in Tables III-VII. In each instance, the test checked to see if F\n8. Limitations of the research and recommendations: The following three limitations of the recommendations and hence the research have been noted:\n9. Conclusion: Continued technological innovation and competition among existing banks and new market entrants has led to a growing array of banking products and services. These include traditional activities such as accessing financial information, obtaining loans and opening deposit accounts, as well as relatively new products and services such as electronic account payment services, personalised financial portals, account aggregation and business-to-business market exchanges. The dependence on technology for the provision of these services while ensuring the necessary security present additional risks for banks and new challenges for banking regulators.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to determine factors that could be used to create different authentication requirements for diverse online banking customers based on their risk profile. Online security remains a challenge to ensure safe transacting on the Internet. User authentication, a human-centric process, is regarded as the basis of computer security and hence secure access to online banking services. The increased use of technology to enforce additional actions has the ability to improve the quality of authentication and hence online security, but often at the expense of usability. The objective of this study was to determine factors that could be used to create different authentication requirements for diverse online banking customers based on their risk profile.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A web-based survey was designed to determine online consumers' competence resecure online behaviour, and this was used to quantify the online behaviour as more or less secure. The browsers used by consumers as well as their demographical data were correlated with the security profile of respondents to test for any significant variance in practice that could inform differentiated authentication.\nFindings: A statistical difference between behaviours based on some of the dependant variables was evident from the analysis. Based on the results, a case could be made to have different authentication methods for online banking customers based on both their browser selected (before individual identification) as well as demographical data (after identification) to ensure a safer online environment.\nOriginality/value: The research can be used by the financial services sector to improve online security, where required, without necessarily reducing usability for more \"security inclined\" customers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Discovery behaviour and creation behaviour of Ethiopian entrepreneurs: the implications for the performance of their small tourism firms
|
[
"Firm performance",
"Ethiopia",
"Entrepreneurial behaviour",
"Small tourism firms",
"Creation behaviour",
"Discovery behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Opportunity identification has become one of the main themes in the field of entrepreneurship (Busenitz et al., 2003, 2014; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000; Short et al., 2009). Alvarez and Barney (2007) argue that it is possible to interpret entrepreneurs' behaviour and the actions that they take at the start-up phase as either discovery or creation oriented, i.e. \"the actions that entrepreneurs take can be thought of as manifestations of the assumptions they make about the nature of the context within which they are operating\" (Alvarez and Barney, 2007, p. 17). Nonetheless, explaining entrepreneurial behaviour through creation is more recent than discovery and is not well articulated in the literature (Alvarez and Barney, 2007; Sarasvathy et al., 2010).Scholars argue that early stage strategies and decisions have an impact on later-stage firm performance (Baron et al., 1999). Likewise, the entrepreneurs' behaviour through which they identify and pursue new opportunities may have a considerable effect on the subsequent performance of their newly established firms. Hence, this paper contributes to the literature of entrepreneurship by applying entrepreneurial behaviour types, i.e. discovery and creation, as determinants of small firms' performance in a developing country context.The study is conducted amongst Ethiopian tour operators, which are formally established small tourism firms. Ethiopia is a north-eastern African country that is endowed with tourist attractions owing to its physical, biological, and socio-cultural diversity. The altitude, ranging between 116 m below sea level to 4,620 m above sea level, has resulted in varied agro-climatic zones and diverse fauna and flora. The long history of the country also enabled it to be rich in material, spiritual, and archaeological heritages. Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, the tourism industry did not expand until the 1990s. In the past, drought, famine and political instability negatively affected the tourism industry. Recently, the number of tourists visiting the country has increased and this can be attributed to the prevailing peace and stability. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT), 468,000 individuals visited Ethiopia in 2010, which reports an increase of 61.4% within four years, as compared to 290,000 visitors in 2006 (MoCT, 2016). The number of visitors reached 933,000 in 2017 (World Bank, 2019).In the current study, a developing country context is chosen because creation behaviour is more likely to occur in such a context than in Western countries (Eyana, 2017). It has also been noted that for entrepreneurs in developing countries the pursuit of opportunities through discovery behaviour is costly (Hausmann and Rodrik, 2003) and the discovered opportunity is easily copied and imitated, as Mambula (2002) noted among Nigerian entrepreneurs. In the current paper, the following research question is addressed: Which entrepreneurial behaviour leads to a higher level of firm performance in a developing country context: discovery or creation?The contribution of this study is twofold. First of all, it provides a scale for measuring the extent to which discovery and/or creation behaviour in opportunity identification played a role in the start-up phase of a business. Measuring constructs through validated scales obviously is of key relevance, as any consecutive analyses involving the focal constructs will depend on valid and reliable measurement. Second, the study investigates the effects of discovery behaviour and creation behaviour in opportunity identification on firm performance in a developing country context. By doing so, it adds new knowledge and insights in researching the entrepreneurial behaviour types at the start-up phase and their eventual effects on firm performance.In the next section, an overview of discovery behaviour and creation behaviour of entrepreneurs is presented. Then, the literature on the operationalisation of opportunity and opportunity related processes as well as the relationship between entrepreneurial behaviour and firm performance is reviewed, followed by the hypothesis. Consecutively, the research methodology of the empirical results, the discussions, and conclusion are reported. In the final section, further research suggestions are presented after discussing the academic contributions and managerial implications of the reported findings.\nLiterature review: Discovery behaviour and creation behaviour of entrepreneurs: an overview\nMethodology: Sampling\nResults: Operationalisation of discovery behaviour and creation behaviour of entrepreneurs\nDiscussion: The first main contribution of this paper is that the reported empirical results support discriminant validity between discovery behaviour and creation behaviour for all seven entrepreneurial actions that were defined by Alvarez and Barney (2007). From a methodological perspective, the study has contributed 47 items (both valid and reliable) to entrepreneurship literature. This study, therefore, serves as a stepping-stone by providing validated items to develop a measurement scale.Notwithstanding the scale validation and the prove in this study that discovery behaviour and creation behaviour are distinct constructs in a developing country context, 14 of the developed creation behaviour items were dropped after the convergent validity tests. The underlying reasons for this finding could be related to the nature of small businesses and partly to the sector studied. For example, one of the items developed to measure finance under creation behaviour reads that I relied on finance obtained from \"equb\" for career development, since entrepreneurs exhibiting creation behaviour finance their activities through bootstrapping or from the \"wealth of those closely associated with them\" (Alvarez and Barney, 2007, p. 20). Equb is an indigenous informal financial institution in Ethiopia, where it is not uncommon to find cooperative activities among small business owners to pool resources, since informal self-help institutions like equb have existed for a long period of time. However, owing to its formal business nature with a relatively large capital investment, the owner-managers of Ethiopian tour-operating firms rarely pool finance through equb. Thus, further research should also assess the relevance of such items for small, formal entrepreneurs in developing countries such as Ethiopia.The three items of leadership under creation behaviour yielded a very low Cronbach's alpha value (a = 0.332). These items were carefully worded based on the descriptions provided by Alvarez and Barney (2007). This raises a question about the applicability of the conceptual description by Alvarez and Barney (2007) of a leadership style based on charisma in the context of developing countries. It is believed that this low level of reliability could also be related with the context of this research. Ethiopia is a diverse country, with a varied culture, manifested through diversified ethnicity, language and religion. Hence, further probing on the possible leadership styles of entrepreneurs in such a diverse context is needed.As a second contribution, the paper provided insights into the relationship between entrepreneurial behaviour types (discovery versus creation) and firm performance. Consistent with the main hypothesis, the reported findings suggest that creation behaviour rather than discovery behaviour in the start-up phase leads to a relatively high firm performance. This finding is consistent with previous research outcomes in other developing countries. Hausmann and Rodrik (2003) remarked that success is difficult and costly for discovery opportunities in developing countries because the identified opportunities are easily copied and imitated (Mambula, 2002). Conversely, the fact that creation behaviour enhances firm performance in such a context is perhaps related to the way in which start-ups sustain their competitive advantages because their opportunities were identified through tacit learning in a path dependent process (Alvarez and Barney, 2007) and, thus, cannot be easily copied and imitated by others.\nConclusion: This paper examined the effects of entrepreneurial behaviour (discovery and creation) on firm performance. Nonetheless, the two entrepreneurial behaviour types have not been operationalised before, at least in an African context and in the tourism sector. Hence, this study began by operationalising discovery behaviour and creation behaviour among Ethiopian entrepreneurs in the tourism sector (i.e. tour operators). Accordingly, in this study, a new scale for measuring discovery behaviour and creation behaviour of entrepreneurs have been developed and validated. This scale should be further refined and assessed in consecutive empirical studies in both developing and economically developed countries.The findings of this study provide consistent support for the hypothesis that tour-operating firms in Ethiopia founded through creation behaviour instead of discovery behaviour are performing better. All coefficients point in the right direction, although not all differences are significant. The findings of this study also revealed that even though the dimension of discovery behaviour is negatively associated or not significantly associated with firm performance measures, the negative coefficients on sales, employment, profit and assets suggest that discovery behaviour has negative effects and creation behaviour has positive effects on firm performance in developing countries.\nLimitations and implications for future research: This study is one of the few that provides data on formal businesses in Africa. Most previous studies that studied firms in this context concentrated on informal businesses (e.g. Garoma, 2012), which are more common and easier to approach. The formal small businesses (here tour operators) deserve attention because of their substantial contribution to the economy and employment. The study therefore has policy-making implications for the government of the country, in this case Ethiopia. By concentrating on start-up processes, this empirical study can be used to determine future assistance programs (e.g. provision of training and education), aimed at improving the firm performance and survival of small businesses (in the tourism sector in particular). For instance, the study has shown that the application of creation behaviour among Ethiopian entrepreneurs, such as tour operators, in opportunity identification results in a higher firm performance, in terms of change in sales, profit and assets. Therefore, it seems appropriate to claim that that the provision of entrepreneurship education (e.g. in Ethiopian higher education institutions) aimed at enhancing the decision-making, strategy and finance skills of small business owners and founders, will be more effective through the creation approach rather than the common way of teaching through the discovery approach.While the current study of Ethiopian tour operators provides a first insight into how opportunities are identified and pursued through creation behaviour rather than discovery behaviour impact firm performance, a number of limitations must be addressed. First, this study is industry specific focusing on the tour operating business alone. This may limit its generalisability for all small businesses. Second, the study was conducted in one African country (Ethiopia) and may not be generalisable to all developing countries. Third, a cross-sectional research design was employed in this study, while Davidsson et al. (2006) pointed out that studies assessing firm performance from an earlier point in time up to the time of the investigation (like the three years difference in the current paper) are subject to selection and retrospection biases. Hence, further empirical research on the effects of entrepreneurial behaviour types on firm performance is needed in order to compare with other sectors in a different context and setting, for example by employing a longitudinal study.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of discovery and creation behaviour in opportunity identification on firm performance in a developing country context. By doing so, the study adds new knowledge and insights in researching the entrepreneurial behaviour types at the start-up phase and their eventual effects on firm performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was conducted amongst Ethiopian tour operators (n = 118), which are formally established small tourism firms. A survey questionnaire, which is the main data gathering tool in this study, was prepared based on a distinction between discovery and creation behaviour with regard to the seven entrepreneurial actions described by Alvarez and Barney (2007). Hence, 14 multiple-item measurement scales were derived to define the entrepreneurial behaviour types. Firm performance was measured using four indicators. A regression analysis was conducted to predict the effect of entrepreneurial behaviour at the start-up phase on firm performance.\nFindings: The findings of this study provide consistent support for the hypothesis that tour-operating firms in Ethiopia founded through creation behaviour instead of discovery behaviour are performing better in terms of sales, employment, profit and asset size change.\nResearch limitations/implications: The theoretical contribution of this study is two-fold. First, it provides a scale for measuring the extent to which discovery and/or creation opportunity identification played a role in the start-up phase of the business. Second, the study assesses the effects of discovery behaviour and creation behaviour in opportunity identification on firm performance in a developing country context.\nOriginality/value: The entrepreneurs' behaviour through which they identify and pursue new opportunities may have a considerable effect on the subsequent performance of their newly established firms. It is, therefore, important to understand effects, which result from differences in entrepreneurs' behaviour at the start-up phase, in terms of outcomes such as firm performance among small businesses. Nonetheless, there is little empirical research conducted in this regard, particularly in the context of developing countries. This study contributes to the literature of entrepreneurship by applying entrepreneurial behaviour types, i.e. discovery and creation, as determinants of small firms' performance in a developing country context. Furthermore, it is one of the few studies concentrating on formal instead of informal operations in an African context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Supporting quality improvement in the development of medical guidelines in Austria
|
[
"Austria",
"Evidence‐based medicine",
"Evidence‐based practice",
"Medical guidelines",
"Quality improvement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Best practices, such as evidence-based-medicine, are notoriously slow to gain ground within the health care sector (Porter and Teisberg, 2006). Beyond that, international studies strongly point to the fact that less than half of all medical measures are based on the results of highly-valued clinical studies (Neises and Windeler, 2001). However, evidence-based medical guidelines have the potential to represent an effective tool to implement state-of-the-art procedures. Acceptance of this amongst users is strongly dependent on the quality of the published results (Ollenschlager et al., 1999). Different approaches by writers of medical guidelines to the assessment of evidence can lead to different specifications on the quality of the evidence or to different recommendations on the same question (McAlister et al., 2007). Taking the diagnosis and treatment of the so-called carpal tunnel syndrome as an example, four different guidelines created by neurologists, neurosurgeons, orthopaedic surgeons and GPs could be found in Germany, prior to the development of one interdisciplinary guideline of the highest level (Heier, 2007). In this context, a long-term study in Canada also shows that guideline development is undertaken by many different organisations and so it is challenging to retain an overview of the different activities (Kryworuchko et al., 2009). In order to retain an overview of the quality of existing international guidelines, different professional organisations from different countries have founded the Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) (Assums et al., 2008). Regarding the international comparability of guidelines, it should, however, be noted that this has to be developed with consideration of the complex field of a health care system with its ethical, economic and judicial aspects (amongst others) in mind. From this comes the necessity to revise guidelines adopted from other countries and regions or to check their adaptability (Europarat, 2002). A national guideline register, therefore, appears necessary. Such a platform would have impacts onto the dissemination of evidence-based findings, e.g. it could be used as an ideal starting point for the development of clinical paths, since the search for available evidence can be made considerably shorter (Vanhaecht et al., 2009).Currently, there are no national publicly accessible and central sources for guidelines in Austria where quality assured, medical offers of information from Austrian scientific and medical associations and federal professional groups are available. This is despite the fact that more than two-thirds of all Austrian scientific and medical associations and federal professional groups have devoted time to the development of medical guidelines (Pferzinger and Pferzinger, 2009). The guidelines which have been developed have all been published in one form or another, e.g. in respected professional journals (Pferzinger et al., 2010). The efficiency of distribution and implementation strategies is difficult to judge, as there is currently no significant data available (Grimshaw et al., 2004). At least a common electronic platform, which would be available to everyone, would assist in the coordination of the development of national guidelines. Such as the international guidelines library of the Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) does in providing already developed medical guidelines on an international level. The standardisation of the methodology when creating guidelines would also improve their quality (Pferzinger and Pferzinger, 2009).The present study involves evaluating the current situation from the perspective of guideline developers in Austria such as scientific medical associations and federal sections of the Austrian General Medical Council. Which existing web sites and instruments, such as guideline libraries, do they know of, and do they actually use them when developing guidelines? The aim of the study is to identify important success factors in Austria in order to fully support the activities of organisations developing guidelines.\nMethod: Development of the questionnaire\nResults: Of the 108 Austrian scientific and medical associations and 29 professional groups belonging to the Austrian General Medical Councilm, which were invited to participate, 51 responded. From this figure, a response rate of approximately 37 per cent can be calculated. The chair people of the aforementioned associations and groups were asked about existing web based guideline libraries as well as certain instruments and the recommendation of the Council of Europe Rec(2001)13.Knowledge and use of web sites\nDiscussion: Within the framework of this study, 137 Austrian scientific and medical associations (108) as well as the federal professional groups (29) belonging to the Austrian General Medical Council were asked at the chairperson's level by means of a questionnaire containing 101 items. Of high importance is the fact that the results from the questionnaire, with a response rate of around 37 per cent (n=51), could be strongly linked to a \"positive selection\". Because of the low response rate additional qualitative methods such as interviews would be suitable to verify the present findings. It also has to be pointed out that the quality of the medical guidelines, which were stated by the respondents as already developed, was not evaluated in this enquire.The results of this study show that more than two-thirds know of at least one of the internet addresses implicated in this questionnaire. The majority of respondents stated that they anticipate an improvement in the quality of guidelines by using an online platform. Remarkable is that in this context almost all stated to know at least one of the mentioned web sites.It is noticeable that the web site of the German Cochrane Centre, with a figure of 75 per cent, is well-known but still not used by most Austrian guideline developers. The reason for this might be that unlimited access to the Cochrane Library - and therefore to systematic reviews - is for registered members only. A national licence as well as accessibility for non-members does not exist in Austria. For instance, countries like Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Spain, just to name some of them, have such a free online access through funded provisions. In this context it would be necessary to evaluate the effects onto the usage by implementing co-financed licences in those countries that was not part of the present study.The degree of publicity of the web site of the Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) is, with a figure of 13 per cent, low amongst Austrian guidelines developers, even though half of them claimed to use it. The international guideline library of G-I-N includes more than 7,000 guidelines but is available to registered members only and the registration is subject to cost. It is self-evident that first of all the level of familiarity of the G-I-N guidelines library has to be increased.The most popular internet addresses are those of the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF) www.AWMF-online.de and www.leitlinien.net as well as the collection of guidelines by the Medical Centre for Quality in Medicine (AZQ), www.leitlinien.de. Around three quarters make use of these internet addresses for the development of guidelines as well. Low-threshold access to these guidelines might be responsible for this result. Registration is not compulsory and the user has unrestricted access to the offered guideline register. In addition, most of the content of the mentioned domains is in German language and therefore no additional language barrier has to be taken for natives.More than half of Austrian guideline developers associate an improvement in the quality of the developed guidelines with the common, national guideline register. In this way, the coordination of the activities of the different organisations that deal with guideline development has been made more manageable and access to the best available evidence has been simplified. The results point towards the conception of an openly accessible online guideline register on a national level, whereby low-threshold access without complicated registration and additional costs should be ensured. The guidelines provided should be developed under consideration of the Austrian health care system with its ethical, economic and judicial aspects, as stated in the recommendation of the Council of Europe. As a consequence, national guidelines would be provided in the native language of Austrian physicians and patients. It can be expected that these guidelines will be used more often and evidence-based findings will gain ground within the Austrian health care sector. Besides that organisations like hospitals would get access to assured national evidence-based guidelines in order to get these findings into consideration whilst developing clinical pathways. However, it has to be pointed out that existing results from professional and scientific societies of other countries are often quite useful to start developing national guidelines. Therefore, international initiatives like the Guideline International Network (G-I-N) as well as the activities and results of the increasing number of cross-border collaborations (e.g. Coordination of Cancer Clinical Practice Guidelines in Europe) have to be considered in the development process of national guidelines, independent from national guideline registers. To support the coordination between the developing associations supra-regional international guideline platforms should be offered as a link to push the level of familiarity within these groups and at the same time to advise them, if applicable, to use these sources as a starting point.When compared to the level of awareness of web sites, the results regarding the level of familiarity with instruments for methodical evaluation of guidelines and the recommendation of the Council of Europe Rec(2001)13, were very contrasting. More than two-thirds of the Austrian scientific and medical associations and federal professional groups of the Austrian General Medical Council, which claimed that they had already developed medical guidelines, do not know of any of the instruments highlighted by the recommendation of the Council of Europe with regard to developing a method for adapting guidelines for optimal medical usage. It is remarkable that all guideline developers, who are familiar with the recommendation of the Council of Europe, do also use it. The instruments for methodical evaluation of guidelines AGREE and DELBI show a similar level of use.The results related to the involvement of patients and/or representatives for patients or representation of other interests are rather surprising with regard to the development of guidelines. All those interviewed, who claimed to know of the recommendation of the Council of Europe, are of the opinion, that an involvement of this group is not necessary, although it is explicitly called for in the recommendation. It is very probable that the recommendation is not known in detail or that it is simply not accepted regarding the involvement of the groups. Nevertheless, the instruments or the recommendation seem to be acknowledged by most potential guideline developers. This statement primarily underlines the fact that approximately 63 per cent of those interviewed believe that a standardised method for developing guidelines would be beneficial to the quality of publicised guidelines. The considerable shortcoming with regard to the level of familiarity with already existing instruments and the recommendation of the Council of Europe would suggest that these tools have so far not been successful in Austria. The implementation of a standardised method for guideline development in Austria has to be accompanied by comprehensive means of communication amongst potential guideline developers. It is only in this way that such a method will be considered by the different organisations and then put into practice. The resulting benefit is the improvement in the quality of published medical guidelines.\nConclusion: The present study shows the results of the first complete inventory count of guideline developers in Austria and can be used for orientation. Due to the fact that the response rate was limited (51 out of 137) further systematic methods such as interviews could be used. In doing so, additional arguments from the responders could be gained and the arguments of the non-responders could be evaluated. However, the actual findings can be summarised as follows:Austrian guideline developers are calling for an interdisciplinary guideline register. For this purpose, the organisations involved are expected to improve the quality of publishable medical guidelines. The access to the results of others will have to be made easier and free of charge, otherwise such results will only be able to be used in a limited way.Instruments for the methodical evaluation of guidelines as well as the recommendation of the Council of Europe are not recognised by the majority of the potential guideline developers. If they are aware of the existence of certain instruments, it is likely that they use precisely those and no others. In order to implement a standardised method for the development of guidelines in Austria, extensive means of communication will be necessary amongst target groups.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Until today a central register for medical guidelines has not been established in Austria. Hence, the study at hand aims to identify important success factors for medical guidelines in Austria in order to fully support the future activities of organisations developing these guidelines.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a specially-developed questionnaire, 137 potential Austrian guideline developers were asked about the anticipated benefits of a common guideline register and a standardised method for guideline development by means of a complete inventory count for Austria.\nFindings: - Approximately 73 per cent of Austrian guideline developers know of existing online guideline registers. Nearly 77 per cent know neither of an instrument to evaluate the guidelines in a methodical way, nor of the Council of Europe's recommendation. Around 63 per cent expect an improvement in the quality of the guidelines by implementing a standardised method.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The present study provides the results of the first complete inventory count of guideline developers in Austria and can be used as an orientation for future activities.\nPractical implications: - The realisation of the success factors would increase the quality of national guidelines and would boost the implementation of best practices such as evidence-based-medicine into the Austrian health care system.\nOriginality/value: - The study shows for the first time the necessity of support in order to improve the quality of Austrian guidelines from the point of view of potential developers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The role of internal auditing in corporate governance: a Foucauldian analysis
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Power",
"Enterprise risk management",
"Foucault",
"Internal auditing",
"Governmentality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Internal auditing remains a neglected area of research (Gendron and Bedard, 2006; Roussy, 2014), despite its rise as an integral component of the corporate governance fabric of contemporary organizations, particularly in the wake of the spate of corporate collapses of the 1990s and 2000s (Carcello et al., 2005a; Sarens et al., 2009; Maijoor, 2000; Gramling et al., 2004). The function has increasingly been regarded as a key component of risk management (Spira and Page, 2003; Selim and McNamee, 1999; Arena et al., 2010; de Zwaan et al., 2011; Leung et al., 2003) that helps organizations fulfill corporate goals (Spira and Page, 2003; Gramling et al., 2004). The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA)[1] defines internal auditing as \"an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations.\" It further elaborates that internal auditing \"helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes\" (Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), 2004, emphasis added)[2]. The agency theory perspective (Jensen and Meckling, 1976), which continues as the dominant theoretical view informing internal auditing research (Adams, 1994; Mihret, 2014), has contributed to the internal auditing literature grounded in the positivist research approach. Under this research tradition, the origin of the demand for internal auditing is traced to the contractual relationships between management and shareholders of firms as part of addressing the agency problem in shareholder-manager relationships (Healy and Palepu, 2001). Nevertheless, agency theory's explanation for the demand for internal auditing rests on the theory's underpinning positivist ontological assumption that empirical phenomena represent an objective reality unaffected by context - a view that can be challenged from interpretive research perspectives.\nGovernmentality: In attempting to formulate a conceptual basis of the role of internal auditing in corporate governance, we employ, as an illustrative lens, the function's role in assisting management and the board of directors to manage risk. The Foucauldian concept of governmentality (Foucault, 1980) provides useful insights into this endeavor, and it has been increasingly adopted in accounting and management research (Carter et al., 2002). We have noted that the term is derived from the concepts of government and rationality (governmental rationality). In the case of government, it is necessary to comprehend both the epistemic and the ethical status of this phenomenon as an \"art\" rather than the exercise of legitimate authority. Furthermore, at a particular point in his work, Foucault (1977) investigated the transposition of sovereign power from the site of the monarch to the modern state, where the latter was defined in terms of institutionally specific practices (the Benthamite prison, for example). However, rather than governmentality merely being a totalizing instrumental/moral narrative - and despite the fact that, as Gordon (1991, p. 3) observed, Foucault saw it as characteristic of Western societies to both \"totalize\" and \"individualize\" - governmentality is equally applicable to technologies of \"micro-power\" and the corporation, for example, as it is to public institutions charged with tax collection, law and order, and national defense. Foucault (1991, p. 54) was clear in this regard and, while his own investigations ranged across the development of the modern prison (Foucault, 1977) as well as psychology and medicine (see, e.g. Foucault, 1981), scholars deploying this approach have applied it to a diverse range of phenomena (see, e.g. Dean and Hindess, 1998). Integral to the concept of governmentality, rationality refers to the centrality of knowing what is being governed to ensure goals are met (Townley, 1993). As such, the two phenomena are inextricably bound: the desirability of government requires not merely knowledge of what is to be governed, which is necessarily post facto, but knowledge of that subject when it is being governed, which is necessarily ex ante and thereby involves the calculation of risk (see e.g. Defert, 1991; Ewald, 1991). Furthermore, in his essay \"Governmentality,\" Foucault (1991, p. 92) observed that \"[t]he art of government [...] is essentially concerned with answering the question of how to introduce economy - that is to say, the correct manner of managing individuals, goods and wealth within the family\" (emphasis added). This is immediately paralleled with the conception of the modern state, where \"the essential issue in the establishment of the art of government [is the] introduction of economy into political practice\" (Foucault, 1991, p. 92).\nCorporate governance, risk management, and internal auditing: development of propositions: Corporate governance\nConclusion and research implications: This paper has attempted to establish the conceptual foundations of the role of internal auditing in corporate governance using, as an illustrative lens, the function's role in assisting management in dealing with risk. It has argued that internal auditing can be conceptualized as providing: ex post assurance about the execution of economic activities within management's preconceived frameworks and ex ante advisory services that enhance the rationality of economic activities and the accompanying controls of organizations. Nevertheless, both activities allow room for Esmark's (in press) \"regulatory game of freedom and security\" that nevertheless tends toward increased security. This overall heuristic does not discount that variations in corporate governance practices across both countries (see e.g. Macdonald and Beattie, 1993) and companies can influence the power/knowledge dynamics of the governance setting. This discourse-specific and, thus, institution-specific understanding of the Foucauldian framework can be set against the tendency to view governmentality as an account of overarching power/knowledge, as cautioned against in our account of governmentality above and as explicitly rejected by Foucault (see, e.g. Foucault, 1991, p. 53). The way in which internal audit services are predominantly used may be influenced by key concerns and operating characteristics of the relevant governance framework.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to articulate the conceptual foundations of the role of internal auditing in corporate governance by drawing on Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is a literature-based analysis of the role of internal auditing from a Foucauldian perspective.\nFindings: It is argued that Foucault's notion of governmentality provides conceptual tools for researching internal auditing as a disciplinary mechanism in the corporate governance setting of contemporary organizations. The paper develops an initial conceptual formulation of internal auditing as: ex post assurance about the execution of economic activities within management's preconceived frameworks and ex ante advisory services to enhance the rationality of economic activities and accompanying controls.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper is expected to initiate debate on the choice of theory and method in internal auditing research. The propositions and research agenda discussed can be used to address research questions of an interpretive nature that could enrich the current understanding of internal auditing.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the Foucauldian analysis of accounting to incorporate internal auditing. It offers original propositions as a research agenda and discusses ontological and epistemic considerations associated with adopting the Foucauldian framework for internal auditing research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Non-conformance in apparels: exploring online fashion retail in India
|
[
"Performance",
"Fashion",
"Apparel",
"Prioritization",
"E-tailer",
"Non-conformance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Indian apparel industry is the second largest contributor to the retail industry after grocery and food items. It adds to nation's gross domestic product by a huge extent. Indian fashion retail market that was worth the $46bn in 2016 will develop at a promising compound annual growth rate of 9.7 per cent to achieve the $115bn by 2026 (IMAGES Business of Fashion, 2017). With the deep penetration of internet due to technological advancement and cheap data rates, there has been a surge in the online apparel purchases. People now spend more time on the internet, which is directly proportional to the intent to do online purchase (Lohse et al., 2000). In global e-commerce market, India ranks fourth after USA, China and Japan (eMarketer, 2015). As per e-commerce Foundation, 2016, India ranks first with 129.5 per cent e-commerce sales growth rate (Van Welie et al., 2015). The Indian Institute of e-commerce predicted that by 2020, India will be generating $100bn, of which $35bn will be through online fashion retail (Khosla, 2017). A study asserted on the basis of Porter's Diamond model that India has a highly competitive environment for apparel retailing (Mann and Byun, 2011). Some of the prominent fashion e-shops in India are Jabong, Myntra and Limeroad. Recently, many other online fashion retailers have also joined the online delivery platform. Some of the online retailers are ajio.com, voonik.com, jabong.com, limeroad.com, koovs.com, myntra.com, reliancetrends.com, cilory.com and zivame.com. According to EY white paper report on Indian internet usage in 2015, it was found that 75 per cent of the population using the internet is under 35 years of age and majority of its population is young so there is a huge potential of online shopping in India. With these staggering growth rates, it is obvious that e-shopping has a tremendous potential in the country. However, there are several challenges associated with apparel products, such as the customers want to touch, try and feel the products before purchasing them.\n2. Literature review: Non-conformance within the online product and the delivered product has been a major problem that thrives the profit of online fashion retailers. Several studies have been discussed in this section that elaborates the non-conforming factors.\n3. Research methodology: This study uses an integrated framework of EFA and the AHP. The main ideology behind the research is exploring and prioritising key factors that cause non-conformance in apparels purchased online.\n4. Data analysis: 4.1 Data statistics\n5. Result and discussions: This study has given an insight into the evaluation of the variables that are responsible for the non-conformance in apparels purchased from an online store. The collected variable via literature and discussion are then analysed through EFA in R software (R Core Team, 2017). The variables obtained signify the reasons for the non-conformance. The aim of the study is to identify and prioritise non-conforming factors that arise right after the product has been delivered to the customer.\n6. Implications: In terms of theoretical contribution, the study is among the first attempts to identify non-conforming factors in the online fashion industry of India. Also, this study contributes new factors of non-conformance in apparels that have not been studied earlier. The application of the qualitative and quantitative approach to study online fashion retail can give new dimensions to further research. The study provides notable insights from the managerial point of view that can be practically employed as below:\n7. Limitations and future scope: There can be other reasons for non-conformance that may arise due to psychological, logistic, and inconvenience aspects. The study is solely based on the primary data collected through online and offline modes and the authenticity of data is proved by using Cronbach's a. In future, this study can be extended by taking secondary data from machine learning of e-shopping websites. Also, the data are taken in variable-to-respondent ratio, 1:10, which is good for psychological studies and can be made even better by increasing the ratio to 1:20. However, the study can be a stepping stone for further confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis and structured equation modelling to understand the relationship between variables and explored factors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study, explore and rank the non-conforming factors in apparels purchased from e-shops.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected by visiting and interacting people in colleges and through the structured online questionnaires (n=222). The exploratory factor analysis was performed using \"R\" software. Identified factors were ranked using AHP methodology; 12 experts from various fashion institutes participated in identifying the factors.\nFindings: Based upon the results of the exploratory study, non-conforming factors such as \"visual variation\", \"functional inconvenience\", \"cloth attribute variation\", \"haptic variation\", \"aesthetic variation\" and \"fit variation\" were identified. The priority ranking of factors and sub-factors was done.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample primarily comprised of the young adult population (19-27 years) and most of them were females (71.6 per cent). There can be other demographic factors. Research is limited to online apparel retailers. Advanced methods of prioritisation can be used.\nPractical implications: The paper can be useful to online apparel retailers, vendors and manufacturers to understand the factors that may be important for improving their business.\nOriginality/value: There is no study that identifies the non-conformance factors related to online apparel retailing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Data envelopment analysis for estimating efficiency of intensive care units: a case study in Iran
|
[
"Hospital",
"Efficiency",
"Data envelopment analysis",
"Intensive care unit"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Increasing health expenditures in the healthcare sector imposes a considerable pressure on hospitals to use their available resources more efficiently. Therefore, policy makers and managers in most countries try to improve their health system's performance, both in terms of quality and efficiency, through planning for efficiently use of input resources (Caballer-Tarazona et al., 2010). Despite the huge amount of resources devoted to hospitals and the health sector, there is always a gap between available and needed resources. In Iran, more than 4.6 percent of GDP is spent on health system expenditures, of which half is related to hospital costs (Emami-Meibodi, 2005). Therefore, paying attention to efficiency and related issues has become more relevant.\nResearch question and method: This was a descriptive, analytical study which has been conducted in ICUs of seven training hospitals affiliated by YUMS using DEA in 2015. To rank hospitals based on their technical, management and scale efficiency, DEA was applied on the basis of an optimization series in linear programming as a nonparametric method. Statistical data on activities performed by study ICUs were collected using different methods including observation, interview and document reviews. The number of physicians, nurses, active beds and equipment were considered as input variables. Bed occupancy rate, the number of discharged patients, economic information such as bed price and physicians' fees were selected as output variables of the study. Available data from study variables were retrospectively gathered and entered in designed forms for the purpose. Then, each variable's data were analyzed through an Excel program and at that time were transferred to the Deap 2.1 software for DEA using the variable returns to scale (VRS) methodology. VRS is one of the DEA models which develops efficiency measures and compares them among different units. Where a definite change in inputs does not lead to similar amount of change in outputs and decision-making units are not similar regarding their size, the application of VRS DEA is required. In the method, an efficient frontier curve was shaped through a number of points determined by linear programming. As a result, it would be possible to evaluate the efficiency of points under or above the curve. After a series of optimization, the linear programming model tested the hypothesis that whether decision-making units were located on efficiency line or not. To consider ethical issues, the study results for each hospital were presented to management.\nResults: The study findings indicated the average scores of technical, managerial and scale efficiency to be relatively 0.883, 0.89 and 0.913. Regarding to these types of performance measures, five hospitals were efficient. Returns to scale measurement revealed an increase rate in output measures and showed three main modes in terms of efficiency analysis. First, if output increased by more than proportional change in inputs, there was increasing returns to scale (IRS). Second, if output increased by less than proportional change in inputs, there was decreasing returns to scale (DRS) and finally in a case that output increases the same as proportional change there was constant returns to scale (CRS). Based on such findings, those units with IRS should have increased the input resources' use to achieve higher levels of performance, while inversely units with DRS should have decreased their utilization rate. In units with constant returns to scale, change in inputs' value had no impact on efficiency. The results of three types of measured efficiency are shown in Table I.\nConclusions and recommendations: This study was conducted to estimate technical, allocative and economic efficiency of ICUs in seven training hospitals affiliated by YUMS in 2015. As the findings revealed, the mean score of technical efficiency in ICUs was 0.883 depicting the potential of study units to save about 12 percent of their input resources toward achieving maximum performance. In a study conducted by Hajialiafzali et al. (2007) and Zahavi et al. (2015), similar values were estimated in relation to the three types of technical, managerial and scale efficiency. Noohi (2011) also found technical efficiency to be 0.953 depicting the potential of 5 percent increase in study units' efficiency (Noohi, 2011). In another study, the potential to improve technical efficiency in hospitals affiliated by Tehran University of Medical Sciences was 3 percent (Pourreza et al., 2010). In our study, the lowest level of technical efficiency belonged to ICUs of specialized heart hospitals. The reason might be due to a smaller number of patients receiving specialized medical care from such kind of hospitals comparing to those referring to public or multidisciplinary ones. To confirm this reason, Amiresmaili et al. (2012) concluded that bed occupancy rate and average length of stay had the most influences on hospital's efficiency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: As hospitals are the most costly service providers in every healthcare systems, special attention should be given to their performance in terms of resource allocation and consumption. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate technical, allocative and economic efficiency in intensive care units (ICUs) of hospitals affiliated by Yazd University of Medical Sciences (YUMS) in 2015.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This was a descriptive, analytical study conducted in ICUs of seven training hospitals affiliated by YUMS using data envelopment analysis (DEA) in 2015. The number of physicians, nurses, active beds and equipment were regarded as input variables and bed occupancy rate, the number of discharged patients, economic information such as bed price and physicians' fees were mentioned as output variables of the study. Available data from study variables were retrospectively gathered and analyzed through the Deap 2.1 software using the variable returns to scale methodology.\nFindings: The study findings revealed the average scores of allocative, economic, technical, managerial and scale efficiency to be relatively 0.956, 0.866, 0.883, 0.89 and 0.913. Regarding to latter three types of efficiency, five hospitals had desirable performance.\nPractical implications: Given that additional costs due to an extra number of manpower or unnecessary capital resources impose economic pressure on hospitals also the fact that reduction of surplus production plays a major role in reducing such expenditures in hospitals, it is suggested that departments with low efficiency reduce their input surpluses to achieve the optimal level of performance.\nOriginality/value: The authors applied a DEA approach to measure allocative, economic, technical, managerial and scale efficiency of under-study hospitals. This is a helpful linear programming method which acts as a powerful and understandable approach for comparative performance assessment in healthcare settings and a guidance for healthcare managers to improve their departments' performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Islamic macroeconomics?
|
[
"Microeconomics",
"Macroeconomics",
"Economic theory",
"Islam"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: This paper extends the argument posed by Choudhury (1991, 1995a, 1997, 1998) in his series of papers questioning first, the validity of Islamic economics and finance as a mainstream economic development as it has been to date, and particularly, the so-called idea of macroeconomics and the duality between microeconomics and macroeconomics in current Islamic economic studies. The basis of the argument rejecting the economic methodology demarcating microeconomics and macroeconomics, which came to be accepted in Islamic economics, is the impossibility of such duality to exist and an altogether new premise to be studied in the midst of the following three interacting, integrating and dynamic evolutionary perspectives: the moral guidance (Ilm) on the premise of unity of knowledge; The source of Islamic Law; and the cognitive world-system established by its interaction and dynamic convergence according to unity of knowledge in the framework of Islamic Law. Such interactions followed by dynamic convergence and subsequent evolutions are formed in the milieu of an embryonic discursive process. We refer to such an embryonic discursive process as the process of extensive participation between individual, society, institution and the functional order of causal relations.\nObjective: The focus of our paper will be on this: systemic unity of knowledge, and within it, meanings of ethics and morality are derived from the epistemological premise of unity of knowledge. They establish circular causality in an essentially behavioral model that lends itself to an interactive, integrative and dynamic framework (IIE-process=Shuratic process) of preference aggregation. Such a behavioral premise is not the domain of macroeconomics. Interactive aggregation of dynamic preferences is unknown both in microeconomics and macroeconomics. Yet it forms the basis of preference formation in Islamic economic behavior through the milieu of the Shuratic (discursive) process.Section 1 will commence with a critique of the literature on economic theory in general. The criticism here is regarding the absence of preference formation in either microeconomics or macroeconomics that could describe a process towards formulating a dynamic theory of economic policy. The section will close with a general criticism of macroeconomics that has failed to integrate in its methodology both Keynes' dream of making economics as a handmaiden of ethics and values emulating Moore's (1903) Principia Ethica and its Keynesian methodological failure.Section 2 gives the formulation of the dynamic preference formation basis of Islamic socio-scientific reasoning according to the essence of unity of knowledge in systems. How is economic aggregation explained in terms of such dynamic preferences? This will be the principal focus of the building block of the theory of dynamic preferences in the framework of the epistemology of unity of knowledge vis-a-vis the IIE-process or equivalently the Shuratic process.Section 3 develops an ethico-economic general equilibrium model for treating dynamic preference aggregation in the context of a particular example of money and real economy linkages by circular causation arising from the epistemological methodology of unity of knowledge.Section 4 gives policy perspective on the use of a general ethico-economic model of the economy with dynamic preferences and aggregation pertaining to the methodology of the Shuratic process. The particular policy-theoretic case of money and real economy linkages is treated using the methodology of unity of knowledge in terms of complementarities among systems of variables.Final section is the conclusion addressing the questions: What have we learned from this paper on the endogenous ethico-economic behavioral aspects of preference aggregation in economic theory in the light of the epistemology of unity of knowledge? What are the policy and applicative perspectives of unity of knowledge in the micro-money and real economy linkages within the 100 percent-RR?\n1.: We do not intend to take an exhaustive critique of macroeconomics or economic theory in this section. Our focus is narrow. It is to criticize the nature of preference aggregation in economic theory and its absence in macroeconomics that renders both of these fields incapable of explaining the endogenous role of ethics and morality in the inherent methodologies. Yet this critique is not to dispel the serious effort that the best of the social and economic epistemologists have launched to address the topic of ethics in economic theory.Problem of preference aggregation in economic theory\n2.: Definition of Islamic political economy\n3.: An ethico-economic general equilibrium system interrelating money, finance and real economy\n4.: Policy analysis in the Islamic money, finance and real economy interrelations\nConclusion: The final section is the conclusion and we have taken a detailed excursion in this paper on the state of macroeconomics in particular and economic theory in general with respect to the relationship among dynamic preference formation, its effect on aggregation of state and policy variables and the ethico-economic general equilibrium results that such a perspective yields. We have argued that the exogenously prescribed nature of the preferences in microeconomics and its complete absence in macroeconomics have rendered the entire economic theory insensitive to ethical issues in the endogenous sense of systemic interaction. We have thus argued that the introduction of such a major missing function opens doors to paradigmatic revolution. In Islamic political economy the given parameters of the system according to the episteme of unity of knowledge disables the use of the mainstream epistemology, methodology and methods underlying macroeconomics, indeed all of the prevalent economic reasoning. We have formulated in detail one particular example, namely of money and real economy complementarities to fit into the praxis as characterized by the methodology of the IIE process or equivalently the Shuratic process.From the analytical excursion we derive the following key policies:* It is mandatory and urgent for a sable world to establish the 100 percent reserve requirement monetary system (100 percent-RR) and thus to transform money into asset-backed currency in circulation that would be linked to the intellectual and institutional functioning of micro-money in concert with the real economy.* The IDB ought to undertake a bold program towards training and convincing its membership to transform into the 100 percent-RR. This can start with the Islamic Banks in concert with the Central Banks by using monetary reserves to be circulated as volumes of spending in segmented markets where Islamic financing instruments can be effectively used nationally and across globally. The initial risk of the 100 percent-RR on the Islamic Banks can be diversified by involving Islamic insurance and reinsurance schemes (Takaful and Re-Takaful) and joint production menus for product diversification (Choudhury and Hussein, 2002).* The Central Banks, Islamic Banks and the private sectors of the membership ought to be induced by the IDB to come together for undertaking the Shuratic discourse. This practice must be continued frequently for discovering ways and means of implementing effective human resource development plans and progressively realizing the organizational infrastructure for transformation into 100 percent-RR. The Gold Dinar should be used as asset-backed micro-money. The entire process must be enacted within the shortest period of time (Choudhury, 1989).* The immense financial wealth of capital rich countries presently locked up in financial markets and banks must be reverted to the developing of poorer countries and to undertake such large-scale development of the real economy using instruments of resource mobilization according to the Islamic Law and in the light of the ethico-economic general equilibrium model propounded in this paper. Here too the IDB, national governments along with the private sectors need to assume their leading roles.* Concerned intellectuals, practitioners and decision makers at all levels must be placed at the helm of the 100 percent-RR Monetary System program. The prevailing public choice model of self-interest and conflict in decision-making by individual members of the OIC must be changed into the participatory Shuratic process.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to offer a new perspective on the strictly microeconomic nature of all of Islamic economics. Writers in this field continue to work in the mainstream tradition without noticing the micro-interface of the theoretical nature of Islamic economics. This paper aims to address this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides a comparative study of received literature in the history of economic thought and contrasts the ethical foundations of Islamic economics from the mainstream dichotomy between microeconomic and macroeconomic parts.\nFindings: - There is a cogent microeconomic foundation of Islamic economics for the economy-wide treatment of ethical economic issues and problems including the policy framework.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is a theoretical exploration. The empirical part is yet to be expanded upon.\nPractical implications: - The paper has practical implications for graduate students on policy formulation and economic theorizing, by making them analytically aware on the extensive relevance of microeconomics in the building block of ethical content of economic theory, policy and institutions.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents original thinking along lines of microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic theory from the social and ethical vantage points of Islamic economics and finance that writers in this field should not ignore. The paper is meant for serious students and academics of economic theory and ethical social policy embedded in the economic treatment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Mentoring the morally courageous: a relational cultural perspective
|
[
"Mentoring",
"Resilience",
"Mental health",
"Moral courage",
"Relational",
"Relational cultural theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: During the last decade, scholars and practitioners have become increasingly interested in the nature, development and expression of moral courage, which is defined as an act that occurs when, \"despite the substantial and often realized risks of reproach and rebuff by others, an individual freely chooses to voice ethical concerns, and does so [...] in an effort to respond to apprehensions that could [...] negatively impact a range of [...] stakeholders\" (Simola, 2016, p. 1). Although acts of moral courage have significant potential to help avert, interrupt or remediate serious ethical lapses, thereby contributing to the ability of organizations to create long-term value for stakeholders, their substantial risks of social ostracism and censure to actors (Rate, 2010), when realized, can result in a range of very difficult challenges (Alford, 2001; Armenakis, 2002; Glazer and Glazer, 1999). Yet, despite the difficult circumstances in which those who have enacted moral courage might find themselves, there has been no consideration of ways to support their growth, resilience and vitality. Given recent calls for scholarly attention to ways of supporting those suffering from perceived work-related unfairness and distress (Barclay and Skarlicki, 2009; Barclay et al., 2009), such consideration is especially salient.\nMoral courage: Several scholarly definitions of moral courage have been articulated. Lopez et al. (2010, p. 23) defined moral courage as \"the behavioral expression of authenticity in the face of the discomfort of dissension, disapproval or rejection.\" Putnam (2010, p. 9) described it as \"overcoming fear of social ostracism or rejection in order to maintain ethical integrity.\" Pinalto (2012, pp. 165-166) identified that moral courage \"involves facing other persons while upholding some morally motivated cause and enduring resistance or [...] retaliation.\" Moral courage can include the use of principled dissent (Matt and Shahinpoor, 2011) as well as whistleblowing (Glazer and Glazer, 1999; Kohn, 2011), and is relevant to a breadth of ethically concerning organizational situations (Serrat, 2010).\nMentoring: Contemporary approaches to mentoring conceptualize it in terms of five fundamental characteristics (Eby et al., 2007), including that mentoring reflects a unique relationship between individuals; comprises a learning partnership; is reciprocal, yet primarily aimed at protege development; is dynamic over time; and, includes instrumental/career related and/or emotional/psychosocial functions. Instrumental or career-related functions are associated with career-advancement, including sponsorship for valuable opportunities; exposure and visibility to important others; coaching; protection from potentially damaging situations; and, the provision of challenging assignments for skill development. Emotional or psychosocial functions include role modeling; encouragement through acceptance and confirmation; friendship; and counseling for personal concerns and anxieties (Eby et al., 2007; Kram, 1985).\nRelational perspectives on mentoring: Historically, mentoring was understood as a hierarchical, unidirectional relationship in which a more experienced individual supported the career development of a less experienced individual (Kram, 1985). However, a recent research direction is that of relational mentoring, which refers to \"an interdependent and generative developmental relationship that promotes mutual growth, learning, and development within the career context\" (Ragins, 2011, p. 519). Relational mentoring has become important, due in part to its ability to address several limitations in more conventional perspectives (Ragins and Verbos, 2007). These include the potential of relational mentoring to provide enhanced focus on the nature and development of high-quality mentoring; to increase understanding of the ways that mentoring can lead to mutual benefit for mentors and proteges; and, to provide consideration to an expanded array of outcomes, such as enhanced relational capacities.\nOverview of RCT: During the last 35 years, research by Miller (1986) and colleagues has coalesced into a theory of human development. RCT originally emerged through critique of then dominant developmental theories in which the experiences of women had been marginalized. However, through continued and expanded research, RCT evolved into a theory of human development, which articulated certain critical concepts and processes found to be relevant across gender (Gilligan, 2010; Hartling et al., 2004; Jordan, 2010).\nImplications of RCT for moral courage-related mentoring: Understanding moral courage-related suffering through RCT\nSummary, implications and directions for future research: The purpose of this paper was to elucidate the implications of RCT for mentoring individuals following enactment of moral courage. Moral courage-related suffering was understood in terms of condemned isolation perpetuated through self-protective behavior, including disavowal of self through the central relational paradox (Miller, 1989; Miller and Stiver, 1997). Insights for promoting growth, resilience and vitality included those associated with affirming efforts to activate supportive relationships; the use of radical respect; engagement through mutuality and fluid expertise; facilitation of voice; and, the reframing of resilience as a fluid relational capacity that is strengthened in the context of growth-fostering relationships.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the implications of relational cultural theory (RCT) for mentoring individuals who have enacted moral courage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Overviews of the construct of moral courage, the nature of work-related mentoring and RCT are provided. Subsequently, the relevance and implications of RCT for understanding moral courage-related suffering, and for supporting the growth, resilience and vitality of those who have enacted moral courage are discussed.\nFindings: Within RCT, moral courage-related suffering is located in disconnection, invalidation and isolation for which sufferers also feel held at fault. Self-protective behaviors, including disavowal of self, can perpetuate this suffering.\nPractical implications: Five insights from RCT for supporting the growth, resilience and vitality of individuals following acts of moral courage are elaborated, including affirming efforts to activate supportive relationships; demonstrating \"radical respect\"; facilitating voice; engaging through mutuality and fluid expertise; and, reframing resilience.\nSocial implications: The dearth of attention to ways of supporting those who suffer following acts of moral courage reflects previously documented findings about the short-shrift given to issues of human health and sustainability in organizations and organizational research. Implications for policy, practice and education are described.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the RCT perspective in mentoring, and addresses an important gap in the moral courage literature, namely, the identification of a theoretically grounded approach through which to support the growth, resilience and vitality of individuals who have enacted moral courage.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Morals, ethics and bad apples: So many scandals but can we learn to do better?
|
[
"Business ethics",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Education",
"Morals",
"Organizations",
"Teaching",
"Whistleblowers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nTainted reputations and alarms which sound too late: Thirsty patients left on a hospital ward without water and forced to drink from vases of flowers is not what you would expect from supposedly caring nurses in a British hospital. Neither is a patient being left in a chair with no oxygen supply because there was no one available to reconnect the canister. Nurses being told by the country's Chief Nursing Officer to \"refocus on compassion\" would seem, to most right-thinking people, an order that should not need to be given.Most right-thinking people might also wonder how a serial child abuser could carry out his misdeeds at the BBC without senior management's knowledge, intervention and subsequent prosecution. When a variety of scandals taint the reputations of prestigious institutions - the National Health Service, the BBC, police forces, financial institutions, global corporations, newspapers, and governments included - people wonder why wrongdoing is allowed to continue for so long before the fat hits the fire, why alarms aren't sounded, why whistles aren't blown until more damage is done.And people wonder why, on so many occasions, people in top positions within organizations are allowed to retire or resign, taking with them hefty pension and severance payments, rather than being dismissed, as an erring employee further down the food chain might be. They wonder why banks, rescued from failure by taxpayers' money, continue to shower huge bonuses on their executives and staff. Once we could have assured ourselves that the discovery of a bad apple in the barrel was rare, but now there seems to be a never-ending supply of scandals in which the common factor appears to be a decline in ethical standards.\nParadox of ethical messages and irresponsible actions: Why are whistleblowers being bullied and belittled? That was the accusation in a survey by the UK's Royal College of Nursing which said their members worked in a \"culture of fear\". Newspapers reported in 2011 that a whistleblower who raised concerns about the safety of 13 level crossings after the deaths of two teenage girls had reportedly been silenced by the firm that runs Britain's rail infrastructure, an accusation which the firm denied.There is a paradox here in that, here we are in the second decade of the twenty-first century, and just when we thought social responsibility, environmental concerns, fair trade, sustainability and a general acceptance that \"doing the right thing\" is what we should embrace, we get incessant examples or allegations of irresponsibility, lack of concern for others, unfair dealings and a willingness to do the wrong thing.As Leanne Morris and Greg Wood of the School of Management and Marketing at Australia's Deakin University say (Morris and Wood, 2011): \"An examination of any management textbook from 20 years ago would reveal that there was little reference made to ethical behavior either by individuals or organizations. As members of society have become more vocal about what was happening around them, we have seen a greater focus placed on the behavior of individuals and organizations. We have become a more critical and demanding society and with this change has come greater expectations of the behavior of organizations and people who work within these organizations.\"They go on: \"It is no longer acceptable to go overseas and exploit local workers at a cost to their health and their wellbeing. Society's expectations of business have clearly changed and it is the responsibility of all organizations not just to monitor these changes, but to respond to them in a proactive (rather than reactive) way, to ensure that they have the support of their stakeholders.\" They say that organizations must have a genuine desire to be ethical: a desire that is borne out of ideals based on altruism and not those predicated on the sole perspective of monetary gain by being exclusively focused on profit-seeking behaviors.\nLegal compliance or just doing the right thing?: But how many organizations espouse ethical behaviors because they know it sounds good in their advertising, that customers and other stakeholders might expect them to, that they have little choice - rather than doing good simply because doing good is the right thing to do? How many organizations have taken the decision to \"go green\" and adopt environmentally-friendly initiatives, not merely because they think it ethical, but because someone has convinced them that it can improve the bottom line?As a result of the proliferation of corporate scandals reported in the media and the increasing importance afforded to ethics in business debates, the Roffey Park learning institute included questions on the subject in its annual Management Agenda survey of managers. Head of research Dan Lucy says: \"There are one or two signs that, although some managers regard their organizations as ethical, they may see organizational ethics as an issue of compliance, either with legal requirements or commercial imperatives, rather than a felt sense of behaving ethically is 'the right thing to do'. While this is not evidence of widespread moral collapse, it does possibly suggest that ethics may not be at the forefront of managers' minds.\"He notes difficulties in attempting to foster ethical behavior. For instance, a tension between an approach based on compliance with rules, policies and procedures and one based on softer, culture-based efforts. He says: \"The two approaches are not mutually exclusive, but there is a real danger with an approach focused on policy and procedure that employees become automatom-like, thoughtlessly complying with rules and procedures and suspending their capacity for ethical reasoning and judgment.\"\nWhen virtuous people are seen as a danger: Robert A. Giacalone and Mark D. Promislo see progress (Giacalone and Promislo, 2013). They say: \"Even the most cynical observer would likely agree that there has been tremendous progress toward establishing mor ethical decision making in business. Indeed, the idea that business ethics is an oxymoron has found a proper burial in the annals of bad ideas. In its place we are seeing vibrant discussions and a growing focus on developing ethical cultures at a variety of different levels.\"On the downside they maintain that it is questionable to assume that all individuals wish to (or can be convinced to) engage in and support ethical decisions and decision makers. On the contrary, they talk of \"the stigmatization of goodness\", explaining it thus: \"The pervasive bottom-line thinking leaves some of our students embracing a new moral reality, one that is suspicious of those speaking and living a language of virtue. Indeed, what we advance here is that they come to us believing that virtuous individuals are dangerous to material goals and should be castigated.\"Dan Lucy (2013) says that HR has a crucial role to play in developing ethical leaders and organizations. \"A key role HR can play is helping to ensure organizational policies and practices are fair, and that they are implemented fairly by managers. Whether or not employees perceive their organizations to be fair is an important part of fosterign ethical behavior.\"But can we successfully teach ethics to people to whom ethics might not come naturally? To children, maybe we can try. But can we teach adults who are aspiring to responsible positions, or who are already in them, that doing the right thing isn't just something you say in advertising or mission statements? That doing the right thing, being honest and decent, is more important than merely making a profit, than covering up failures, than shirking responsibility towards other people? Let's hope so.\nComment: This review is based on \"Broken when entering: the stigmatization of goodness and business ethics education\" by Robert A. Giacalone and Mark D. Promislo; \"Thinking and acting morally\" by Dan Lucy; and \"A model of organizational ethics education\" by Leanne Morris and Greg Wood. Robert A. Giacalone and Mark D. Promislo propose that some students are socialized with destructive thinking toward ethics and virtue that distorts their mindsets long before they enter the classrooms. Students are exposed to a plethora of language and thinking that espouses materialistic values and emphasizes power and winning at any cost, they say. Dan Lucy examines the importance of ethical leadership and how it can be developed, asking how long the trend of big corporate names falling victim to poor ethical standards will continue. Leanne Morris and Greg Wood propose a model of ethics education for corporate organizations framed as a holistic approach to the problem of how to teach ethics.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"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: - Here we are in the second decade of the twenty-first century, and just when we thought social responsibility, environmental concerns, fair trade, sustainability and a general acceptance that \"doing the right thing\" is what we should embrace, we get incessant examples or allegations of irresponsibility, lack of concern for others, unfair dealings and a willingness to do the wrong thing.\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"
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] |
Low back pain: barriers to effective clinical governance
|
[
"Clinical governance",
"Auditing",
"Production methods",
"Control",
"Medical practice",
"National Health Service"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Clinical governance is the cornerstone of recent UK health service reforms. It is a framework whereby National Health Service (NHS) organisations are accountable for the monitoring and continuous improvement of the quality of patient care (DoH, 1997a). Before its introduction, the NHS Trusts' principal statutory duties were financial. Changes in legislation (DoH, 1999) gave them an additional new statutory duty for the quality of care, applicable at all levels and across all services. One of the main components of clinical governance is the routine application of evidence-based practice along with the infrastructure to support it (DoH,1997b). As part of local arrangements for clinical governance, all NHS organisations are required to have a comprehensive programme of quality improvement activity that includes clinicians participating fully in audit.The joint statutory responsibility for financial and clinical quality requires clinicians to view quality improvement as an organisational as well as a professional and clinical issue (Heard et al., 2001). It has been argued that audit is one of the few mechanisms with common elements equally applicable to clinical decision-making and to organisational efficiency (Johnston et al., 2000).Implementation of the UK evidence-based guideline (Waddell et al., 1996) for the management of acute low back pain (LBP) has been poor (Barnett et al., 1999). At the end of the 1990s we received central funds over a two-year period to develop a Multidisciplinary Audit Toolkit to accompany the Royal College of General Practitioners' (RCGP) guideline (Waddell et al., 1996), for use as an implementation strategy and a quality assurance process in primary care. The guideline provides evidence-based recommendations on specific aspects of care for the effective management of LBP in the first six weeks of the onset of low back pain.A copy of the final version (Breen et al., 2000) was sent to the clinical governance leads in Public Health in all English and Welsh Health Authorities. Their counterparts in all English and Welsh Primary Care Groups and Trusts (PCG/PCTs) were also notified of its availability on the websites of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the lead organisation for its development.We then undertook to investigate the dissemination and utilisation of the Toolkit through clinical governance routes. In particular, we sought to obtain administrative, clinical and political/organisational insights into its acceptability and suitability as a catalyst for implementation of the UK acute low back pain Guideline. A further aim was to discover where in the healthcare system concerted efforts might be needed to help dismantle barriers.\nMethod: This study was conducted in two parts.Phase I\nResults: Phase I\nDiscussion: The results of this study suggest that low back pain is still a considerable problem but one of decreasing priority. This has consequences for evidence-based care. However, none of the feedback received in this study, raised objections to the clinical management of low back pain as described in the RCGP Guideline or its Audit Tool. Instead, it would seem that organisational and resource issues may be prohibiting the uptake of the Guideline and its audit process.This reflects the results of previous studies. Specific barriers to clinical audit identified in other studies include a lack of time, funding (at both national and local levels) and organisational impediments such as mergers and reforms (Johnston et al., 2000; Campbell et al., 2001), while standards of leadership have been found to highly influence change behaviour and the implementation of evidence-based practice (Firth-Cozens and Mowbray, 2001). Given growing and sometimes conflicting demands on workloads, if the barriers to effective clinical audit are not properly addressed, there is a danger that clinical audit will not achieve its potential and will not be prioritised by clinicians. Yet without clinical audit it is difficult to see how clinical governance will survive.It became apparent during the course of this study that there is a rapid turnover of personnel in the post of Clinical Governance Lead. This may be due to the huge remit of the job. Again, this would seem to reflect what others have found. In a study (Sweeney et al., 2000) of Clinical Governance Leads in the South-West region, Sweeney and co-workers found that the Leads in-situ at the time of their study were concerned about the speed of implementation of the clinical governance agenda, ambiguity in their role, the lack of adequate and ear-marked funding, a lack of direction and the paucity of volunteers for the role of Clinical Governance Lead. Sweeney et al. (2000) also interviewed three individuals who had resigned from the post of Clinical Governance Lead and found the main reasons for the resignations were related to a lack of resources (time, money, clerical and administrative assistance), negative impacts on work and home relationships and a general lack of support for the concept of clinical governance. Several leads in the same study reported plans to resign if the volume of work and the poor level of funding continued at existing levels.Over the past decade there have been a number of government-sponsored initiatives aimed at reducing the vast socio-economic impact of LBP. The first of these was a report and epidemiology review by the Clinical Standards Advisory Group in 1994 (Clinical Standards Advisory Group, 1994a, b). This group was asked to report to ministers on standards of care, access and availability of back pain services for NHS patients. It made a number of recommendations, foremost of which was a cost-neutral reallocation of resources from secondary care to allow for the management of back pain in primary care, with GPs referring to qualified chiropractors, osteopaths and specialist physiotherapists specifically trained and qualified in manipulation for problems that did not resolve within a few weeks at the acute stage. The rationale for this was the prevention of chronic disability and work loss and the cost implications for both the NHS and Department of Social Security (DSS). Two years later, the Royal College of General Practitioners' Effective Clinical Practice Programme was commissioned by the Department of Health to produce a national, evidence-based clinical guideline for the management of acute low back pain (Waddell et al., 1996). The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has produced guidance (NICE, 2000) on referral from general to specialist services in relation to back pain, advice on the commissioning of complementary therapies has been provided for primary care organisations (Bonnet, 2000) and, of course, there is the accompanying Audit Toolkit for the national Guideline (Breen et al., 2000).In this study, it was commented that there was a need for twice the number of practitioners to treat LBP than currently available. All of the above initiatives supported the use of chiropractic, osteopathic and manipulation physiotherapeutic services. Moreover, a report by the House of Lords Select Committee (2000) stated that complementary therapies that are statutorily regulated, as in the case of chiropractic and osteopathy, should be able to provide services through public funding via referral from primary, secondary or tertiary care. Use of these practitioners could help relieve some of the pressure on existing primary care services for LBP. Indeed, testing of referral recommendations to manipulation practitioners in one Health Authority led to fewer Med 3 certificates, faster access to treatment, fewer GP consultations per patient, lower drug costs, faster recovery times and fewer referrals to secondary care (Scheurmier and Breen, 1998).The treatment approach likely to be the most effective for LBP patients at the acute stage is broadly known (Waddell et al., 1996; European Guidelines, 2004). Therefore, what is needed are responsive care pathways adhering to this evidence in order to significantly reduce the risk of chronicity, as considerably less is known about what is effective for the chronic pain patient.In order to meet the requirements of responsive care pathways for LBP that incorporate best evidence, a willingness to embrace multidisciplinary working practices is needed. However, this is often not the reality (Heard et al., 2001). For back pain, the key players in primary care are GPs, chiropractors, osteopaths and physiotherapists specifically trained and qualified in manipulation. A survey (Langworthy et al., 2000) of all UK registered chiropractors, osteopaths and manipulation physiotherapists regarding precedents, future interest and models for the provision of their services for NHS patients revealed that 60 per cent of the physiotherapists and approximately 20 per cent of the chiropractors and osteopaths were currently providing services for NHS patients. The majority reported being very satisfied with arrangements. Of respondents, 84 to 95 percent indicated a willingness to provide or continue to provide services for NHS patients in the future with 90-95 percent support for the GP to act as gatekeeper to musculoskeletal services. While it is appreciated that the restructuring of care delivery is not a simple process, in the case of low back pain there appears to be the wherewithal to enable the implementation of care pathways which reflect compliance with best evidence as currently known.\nConclusion: Very little external initiative has any influence on primary care.The results of this study suggest that low back pain is still a considerable problem but one of decreasing priority. Presently, the implementation of evidence-based healthcare for non-priority conditions seems not to be feasible through clinical governance routes. Without national service framework status, the likelihood of seeing clinical audit used to assure evidence-based primary care for low back pain seems remote. Moreover, efforts to develop evidence-based guidance are not matched by those needed to implement it.However, the results also suggest that significant barriers to the implementation of the RCGP back pain guideline and audit process are centred on resource and organisational issues within the NHS rather than objection to the clinical recommendations and audit criteria themselves. Encouragement can perhaps therefore be taken that if future reforms are able to provide greater balance between government priorities and local needs in non-priority areas, the implementation of quality assured, evidence-based healthcare for low back pain might be achievable.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to investigate acceptability, dissemination and use of a multidisciplinary audit toolkit to monitor evidence-based care for acute low back pain and to identify barriers to implementation of the RCGP evidence-based LBP guideline and associated audit process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey was carried out of 707 clinical governance leads (CGLs) and 336 clinical audit leads in English/Welsh Health Authorities, NHS Trusts, Primary Care Groups and Primary Care Trusts. Subsequently, structured telephone interviews with 50 CGLs and 22 CALs in 72 Primary Care Trusts were qualitatively analysed.\nFindings: - Substantive barriers specific to implementation of the RCGP LBP guideline and associated audit toolkit could not be identified. Issues were raised pertaining to the wider healthcare system, which itself may restrain implementation of evidence-based health care for LBP sufferers. Qualitative analysis revealed six categories responsible for poor clinical governance. Results suggest that LBP is not a priority area and that without National Service Framework status this is unlikely to change.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Response to the initial survey was only 37 per cent; thus results may not be representative of all relevant UK NHS organisations. It coincided with a particularly busy period of change and ongoing reform, making it difficult to reach relevant personnel. This problem was accentuated by frequent change of persons in the post of clinical governance lead. All of this may have impacted on the response rate. In addition, some organisations/individuals were reluctant to be identified for the purpose of this study.\nOriginality/value: - This study identifies the practical difficulties of delivering the clinical governance agenda, particularly in non-priority areas, as reported by those responsible for doing so.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Estimation of P(X<Y) for generalized half logistic distribution based on Type-II censored data
|
[
"Maximum likelihood estimator",
"Bayes’ estimate",
"Posterior distribution",
"Stress-strength reliability",
"Type-II censoring",
"UMVUE"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Industrial engineers often encounter a common problem of comparing two groups on a particular quality characteristic of interest. For instance, consider the example of comparing the breaking strength of jute fibers of gauge lengths of 10 and 20 mm, which is provided by Xia et al. (2009). A common approach in such scenarios is to check for the equality of two group means through the usual \"two sample test for means.\" However, in some cases, the engineers are more specifically interested in estimating the quantity R=P(X<Y), where X and Y denote the quality characteristic of interest for two different groups. For example, in the case of jute fibers, the engineers may want to estimate the probability that the breaking strength of jute fibers of gauge length 20 mm (say, Y) is more than that of 10 mm (say, X).\n2. The model: As defined in the previous section, let X be a random variable denoting a quality characteristic of interest in Group 1. We assume that X follows a GHL distribution with parameter th1, having the probability density function (pdf) as:\n3. Inference based on Type-II censored data: As briefly mentioned in Section 1, Type-II censored data sets carry complete information on failure times only for a pre-fixed number of test items. Let\n4. Simulation study: In this section, we carry out a detailed simulation study to compare the performance of various point and interval estimators of R based on Type-II censored data. The simulation study is performed with the help of the statistical software R. The details of the simulation set up are as follows.\n5. Data analysis: In this section, we analyze the data set introduced in Section 1. This data set pertains to the breaking strength of jute fibers of two different gauge lengths. Tables IV and V presents the the breaking strength of jute fibers of gauge lengths of 10 and 20 mm, respectively. Let X and Y, respectively, denote the breaking strength of jute fibers of gauge length 10 and 20 mm. We are interested in estimating R=P(X)<Y).\n6. Conclusion: This paper provides different methods of estimation of R=P(X)<Y) based on the assumption that both X and Y are independently distributed GHL random variables. The single-parameter GHL distribution considered in this paper has an increasing hazard rate, which makes it extremely useful for the reliability engineers and practitioners. We obtain the MLE, UMVUE and various Bayesian point estimates of R based on Type-II censored data. We also provide an exact 95 percent MLE-based CI and 95 percent HPDCS for R. We compare the performance of various point and interval estimates of R through a detailed simulation study. It is observed that even under the non-informative prior, posterior mean may outperform other point estimators with respect to the MSE. However, the MLE has a closed-form expression, which makes it extremely appealing in practice. We further note that the exact 95 percent MLE-based CI attains the desired coverage percentage as opposed to the 95 percent HPDCS. However, the average length for the exact 95 percent MLE-based CI is relatively higher as compared to the same for 95 percent HPDCS.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare various methods of estimation of P(X<Y) based on Type-II censored data, where X and Y represent a quality characteristic of interest for two groups.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper assumes that both X and Y are independently distributed generalized half logistic random variables. The maximum likelihood estimator and the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator of R are obtained based on Type-II censored data. An exact 95 percent maximum likelihood estimate-based confidence interval for R is also provided. Next, various Bayesian point and interval estimators are obtained using both the subjective and non-informative priors. A real life data set is analyzed for illustration.\nFindings: The performance of various point and interval estimators is judged through a detailed simulation study. The finite sample properties of the estimators are found to be satisfactory. It is observed that the posterior mean marginally outperform other estimators with respect to the mean squared error even under the non-informative prior.\nOriginality/value: The proposed methodology can be used for comparing two groups with respect to a suitable quality characteristic of interest. It can also be applied for estimation of the stress-strength reliability, which is of particular interest to the reliability engineers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Environmental management training for micro and small enterprises: the missing link?
|
[
"Training",
"Sustainability",
"New Zealand",
"Environmental management",
"Small and medium enterprises (SMEs)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Individually and collectively, businesses are facing growing expectations from a variety of stakeholders to behave responsibly in respect of environmental management. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are not exempt from this and arguably, given their domination of the business population of many nations, have a significant contribution to make. However, despite this pressure, and potential, there continues a pattern of relative disengagement by SMEs with firm-wide environmental management practices (Friedman and Miles, 2002). The barriers to, and drivers for, the uptake of such strategies are relatively well understood. For example, issues of resource scarcity; a lack of absorptive capacity; constraints related to firm size in terms of personnel; the lack of security to be able to prioritise long-term change over short-term financial security; and, the retention of autonomy by owners and managers (Johnson and Schaltegger, 2016; Lepoutre and Heene, 2006). Similarly, the conditions under which environmentally responsible behaviours are found to be well embedded in SMEs are also relatively well described. These include a committed owner-manager (i.e. a top down approach); a business built around an environmental rationale, product or service (e.g. ecopreneurship); an integrated strategic approach to sustainability; the perception of environmental management as a win-win; formalised supply chain participation; and, participation in green accreditation programmes and/or benchmarking protocols (Condon, 2004; Drake et al., 2004; Patton and Worthington, 2003; Stewart and Gapp, 2014; Williams and Schaefer, 2013).\nBackground literature: It is a well-established characteristic of SMEs that, both individually and as a group, there is resistance to engaging with training and development opportunities and that many do not participate regularly (if at all). Concerted effort has been made by researchers, policymakers and practitioners to shed light on that behavioural pattern with a view to intervention. Whilst the body of knowledge from a research perspective is now not insubstantial, it is less clear whether a shift in the trend has resulted. Given that research attention persists it would seem that a meaningful reversal is unlikely. SMEs are said to be possessed of a \"fortress mentality\" (O'Donnell, 2004) when it comes to training and that their reportedly often insular approach to skills development and knowledge procurement stifles attempts to persuade them to engage meaningfully, and frequently, with formal training and development opportunities.\nMethodology: The primary objective of the study underpinning the paper was to gain an understanding of how owner-managers of micro and small manufacturing firms (those employing fewer than 50 full-time staff) in the Wellington/Wairarapa region of New Zealand categorise the impact of their firm's activities on the environment and their experience of, and attitudes to, training related to environmental issues. Respondents were asked to provide owner-manager-specific data (e.g. age and gender) and firm-specific data (including number of full-time employees as a proxy for firm size, when the business began operating and whether the business was family owned or otherwise). The survey also included questions oriented to: the current level of engagement of the firm with regard to environmental practices; the owner-managers' opinions regarding environmental management training; how likely they were to engage in training; what would be most beneficial to them in that respect; and, who they would prefer to source environmental management information from.\nResults and discussion: There were 148 respondents to the survey, of which 130 (88 per cent) employed staff and 12 per cent were sole traders. Using Cameron and Massey's (1999) classification of micro and small enterprises according to the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, 68 firms (46 per cent) were micro enterprises (0-5 FTEs) and 80 firms (54 per cent) small enterprises (6-49 FTEs). Micro and small enterprises surveyed had a median number of 2 and 12 employees, respectively. In addition, 90 (61 per cent) respondents self-identified their firm as a family business and 75 (51 per cent) had a spouse or partner sharing in the ownership and/or management of the firm. The majority (57 per cent) of firms had been operating for less than 20 years (the newest for under one year and the oldest since 1875). Of the owner-managers surveyed, 129 (87 per cent) were male and two-thirds were over 50 years of age.\nConclusions: In relation to this sample of micro and small enterprises, there is an obvious lack of participation in training related to issues of environmental management. There is also a parallel absence of awareness of the existing training opportunities that are available (either in terms of specific courses or generic providers). Any reported awareness tended to be from firms already engaged in training which signals a potential circularity of exposure effect. That is, a cumulative impact in terms of engagement and benefit: each reinforcing the preceding behaviour and increasing the likelihood of further additional engagement. This is evidenced by the findings that those owner-managers who had previously attended training were more than five times more likely (than those who had not) to actively engage in environmental practices within their firm and were also over three times more likely to undertake future environmental training. The possibility of a positive spill-over of influence to non-participatory firms has not been explored in this study but is an engagement pathway that may be worthy of investigatory emphasis in the future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Micro and small enterprises face growing expectations from stakeholders to behave responsibly in respect of environmental management. However, many continue to exhibit patterns of relative disengagement with both environmental management and associated training. The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes and experiences that underpin both.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on survey data from 148 owner-managers of micro and small firms in New Zealand's manufacturing sector. Binary logit regression and non-parametric testing were employed to examine influences on engagement with both environmental management and environmental training.\nFindings: There is a lack of knowledge of, and participation in, training related to environmental management. Awareness tends to be from firms already engaged in training; signalling a potential circularity of exposure effect. A distinct division in attitude exists between those who identify with personal responsibility and autonomy as the pathway to responsibility in respect of their firm's environmental impact and those who cede to the collective actions of other communities to dictate engagement (i.e. industry associations and government).\nResearch limitations/implications: The survey is based on the perceptions of the respondents to the survey statements and as such it is a self-assessment.\nOriginality/value: The paper is one of few that investigate the challenge of securing engagement with training and development in environmental management by micro and small enterprises in the New Zealand context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The use of knowledge management by German innovators
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Innovation",
"Estimation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The use of knowledge management (KM) is not restricted to large companies or firms whose business is knowledge. Nowadays almost every firm in the industrialised countries is part of the so-called \"knowledge economy\". More concretely this means that a firm's competitive advantage is mainly based on knowledge creation and that a firm works with knowledge assets and employs knowledge workers. Being part of the knowledge economy raises the need for strategic and operational devices to organise a firm's main production factor, knowledge, and thus to implement operational tools to manage its knowledge base. These KM tools are not only a way to organise knowledge but also enable a firm to improve its competitiveness. In this respect KM has the potential to embed and integrate knowledge assets in such a way that they become a difficult-to-imitate source of a firm's competitive advantage. Consequently, an important implication is that every firm that is part of the knowledge economy should show a sustained interest in practicing some form of KM. The implementation of KM, however, is costly in the sense that it usually involves a number of changes, such as restructuring firm hierarchies, breaking habits and routines, learning and using new information and communication technologies. Hence, firms that consider such costs too high will not make the effort and apply KM practices. This raises an obvious question: which firms actually practice KM and what characteristics do these firms have?An increasing amount of literature emphasises KM as firms' major challenge for the future (Hall and Andriani, 2002; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Lundvall, 2006; Yang, 2005). Furthermore, recent KM studies, concentrating on fairly small samples, discuss KM predominantly in the context of strategic management decisions (Alavi and Leidner, 2001; Gold et al., 2001; Yang, 2005).Building on this literature, an empirical model to analyse the key characteristics which increase firms' propensity to apply KM is established. Besides size and industry indicators capturing the internal dynamics a firm faces are investigated. The empirical results for a large sample of German firms confirm that large firms in knowledge-intensive industries with a continuous and consumer-oriented innovation strategy are particularly likely to employ a KM strategy.The paper is structured as follows. First, in section 2, a literature review is provided, which concentrates on the factors that lead firms to adopt KM. This review allows selecting potential major determinants of KM, which serve as constituting elements of the empirical model. In section 3 the analytical framework is introduced. Section 4 contains a description of the data and the selected variables. Section 5 discusses the estimation results, followed by a conclusion in section 6.\n2. Literature review: What determines a firm's propensity to implement a KM strategy? In this paper an attempt is made to answer this question on the basis of the knowledge management literature. Definitions of KM are reviewed first, followed by a discussion of promoters of KM providing incentives for a firm to organise a set of knowledge processing operations and routines. On the one hand, the knowledge economy is seen as an external KM promoter, which influences every firm within this economy. On the other hand, certain firm characteristics may function as internal promoters facilitating a deliberate KM strategy. The latter is discussed first.2.1. Knowledge management\n3. Data and empirical model: To test the hypotheses developed above, firm-level data from the German innovation survey, the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP), is used (Janz et al., 2001 and Rammer et al., 2005). This annual survey is conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in co-operation with infas and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (Fh-ISI) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (bmbf). The definitions and concepts used in the survey, which is targeted at enterprises with at least five employees and headquartered in Germany, are in line with the so-called \"Oslo Manual\" (OECD and Eurostat, 1997). Using a survey that is based on an international standard like the \"Oslo Manual\" adds an extra layer of quality management. Questions based on standard concepts have been extensively pre-tested and piloted in various countries, industries and firms with regard to interpretability, reliability and validity (Laursen and Salter, 2006).Though the MIP survey is conducted annually in Germany and is set up as a panel, only cross-sectional data is analysed here, mainly because the questions needed to construct our independent variables were only included in the questionnaire once, in 2003. The 2003 MIP survey collected data on the innovation activities of enterprises during the three-year period 2000-2002 using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The sample was drawn using the stratified random sample technique. A comprehensive non-response analysis showed no systematic distortions between responding and non-responding firms with respect to their innovation activities (Rammer et al., 2005). About 4,500 firms in manufacturing and services responded to the survey. Of those almost 2,000 enterprises indicated that they had introduced at least one product or process innovation in the reference period. The analysis is restricted to firms which introduced innovations between 2000 and 2002 because some of the questions used to construct the variables were only asked of innovating firms, in particular the questions used to construct the measure of knowledge management activities.For the analysis in this paper only data on knowledge management related to innovation activities is available (see below for details). This is not a drawback for this study, however, since the authors do not want to investigate the already confirmed finding that innovative firms are most likely to use KM, but rather determine which of the innovating firm's characteristics best explain its decision to use KM for innovation activities.3.1. Construction of the variables\n4. Results: As expected, a firm's innovation strategy and orientation have a strong impact on the likelihood of it using KM tools (see Table III). Both variables included in the model to capture the nature of firms' innovation activities (continuous research activities and a strong orientation of innovation processes towards customers) are positive and highly significant. Hence, hypotheses one and two cannot be rejected. In an alternative specification a dummy variable which takes the value one if a firm has used input from customers for its innovation processes is included in the model. This more general measure of consumer orientation is also highly significant with a coefficient of 0.316 and a marginal effect of 0.119.Closely related to the innovation behaviour of firms is the product life cycle (H3) within an industry. It can be assumed that the more innovations an industry produces, the shorter the product life cycle will be and the more likely it is that a firm will implement KM tools. In accordance with hypothesis a negative coefficient of the product life cycle variable is found; however the coefficient is not significant. Therefore, hypothesis three can be reject.A surprising result is the insignificant coefficient for the fluctuation of employees. H4 suggests that firms with higher fluctuation are more likely to use KM techniques. There are two possible explanations for the insignificant estimate: first, the measure of knowledge management used in the analysis focuses on knowledge exchange between departments and employees within the firm. It does not measure the effort firms make to retain and codify the knowledge of people leaving the firm. The analysed KM tools can potentially be used for training new employees and for organising the exchange of responsibilities between leaving employees and newly hired personnel. However, this is not their prime purpose. This may be one reason why employee turnover does not explain the intensified use of KM measures under investigation. Second, the inclusion of small firms in the sample might have influenced the results with respect to the fluctuation variable. Small firms are less likely to have KM, but might exhibit more employee fluctuation than large firms, at least in percentage terms, on which the fluctuation dummy variable is based.In terms of the influence firms' other characteristics have on the likelihood of KM being applied, size is discussed first. Similar to others (e.g. Swan et al., 1999; Earl and Gault, 2003) this study finds that larger firms are more likely to use KM than smaller firms. The empirical model includes four dummies for different categories of firm size. All four dummies are significant, indicating that firms with more than 50 employees are more likely to employ KM than firms with less than 50 employees. A look at the marginal effects on the other dummies shows that it is highest for firms with 500+ employees and second highest for firms with 50-99 employees, with the coefficients for size_2 and size_3 in between. This can be seen as an indication of a non-linear relationship between size and KM. An estimation of an alternative model not reported on in this paper with the log of the number of employees and the squared term of the log of the number of employees included instead of size dummies also shows that there is a non-linear relationship between size and the likelihood of KM.There is no empirical evidence that being part of a multinational group has a significant effect. Since size significantly influences the probability of KM being applied, this variable perhaps already captures the impact of being part of a group. Then again, none of the correlation coefficients between the size variables and the multinational dummy are above 0.50 (see Table IV). To check the robustness of the results, an alternative model with a dummy variable for being part of a group is estimated. The level of significance for the size variable does not change. What is more, the estimated coefficients for the size variables are almost identical.With regard to the influence of the industry in which a firm conducts its main activity, former empirical findings are confirmed (Edler, 2003; Kremp and Mairesse, 2003). High-tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive service industries are more likely to use KM techniques than firms from other industries.Finally, East and West German firms do not seem to differ with respect to the usage of KM techniques, even though the environment they operate in is different in some respects. The variable for location of the firm in East Germany is positive but not significant. It is noteworthy in this respect, that the dependent variable only measures the existence of KM, not the intensity or scope of KM. East German firms could be expected to use KM less intensively, but this is left for further research.\n5. Implications and concluding remarks: In this study the factors determining the use of knowledge management are investigated, using a large-scale survey of innovative German firms. The results show that the innovation strategy of a firm is one of the main drivers of the usage of KM, underscoring the link between KM and the amount and quality of knowledge a firm has to deal with. Continuous research and development and with it continuous production of high-quality knowledge increases the probability of KM usage. Another implication of this finding is that even in the innovation process, which is usually governed by uncertainty and trial and error, routinised behaviour is present (Coombs and Hull, 1998; Webster, 2004). The search for internal knowledge assets or creativity meetings, which are included in our list of KM tools, seem to become structured and organised parts of the innovation process.The finding that KM is linked to the amount and quality of knowledge necessary to be successful as a firm is reinforced by the finding that firms in high-tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services are most likely to implement KM tools and to evaluate them as highly important for the firm. This can also be seen as evidence for the knowledge economy, which forces firms to deliberately manage their knowledge, to become active (instead of reactive) knowledge players and to face rapid knowledge redundancy (Grant, 1996a; Lundvall, 2006; Nonaka et al., 2000).Focusing on leading-edge users increasingly becomes essential for innovating firms (Rothwell, 1994). The empirical results show that a consumer-oriented innovation strategy that takes this into account, referring to the market pull approach of innovation (Hayes and Abernathy, 1980; Rothwell, 1994), increases the probability of KM tools being deployed on an above-average scale. KM appears to be one way of dealing with the large amount of (sometimes useless) customer input and filtering out the truly valuable suggestions.Besides these strong findings on innovation activities it can be assumed that the need for KM is also linked to more general firm characteristics. Firms' size and KM are positively related, while employee fluctuation does not seem to be related to KM.External environmental dynamics, captured by product life cycle at the industry level (and being located in East Germany), hint neither at elaborated KM application nor at its importance for the firm. It therefore looks as though firms do not consistently appreciate KM as an appropriate way of handling external pressure. However the firms' industry of main activity as an explanatory determinant of KM application points to industry specificities.Data restriction forces the concept of KM used in this paper to be limited to the collaborative aspects of KM within firms. The focus on collaborative aspects of KM rather than IT-related aspects also helps to lessen the problem that the analysis is based on data from 2000 to 2002. This period comprises the last year of the dot.com bubble and the two years shortly after the bubble burst. Analysing the behaviour of firms with respect to IT might therefore have led to some results which can hardly be generalised. Then again, our broad industry coverage should have mitigated the effects of the dot.com bubble, which mainly hit the IT and closely related industries. It is however necessary to broaden the focus on knowledge transfer, creativity and storage efforts in firms in future studies and to investigate the determinants of and complementarities between all these different groups of KM techniques and aspects. Analysing KM within contexts other than innovation may also be a valuable contribution.The focus on German firms limits the possibilities to generalise our findings. It needs to be seen whether our results hold for firms in other countries, which may be faced with different economic and cultural framework conditions.Taking all these results together, this paper emphasises the relevance of the demand-based approach to KM for understanding the innovating firm. Hence, as innovation is the uncertain and spontaneous creation of new knowledge, KM is an important tool to manage innovation activities. KM represents the routinised element of the innovation process. KM activities appear to make the innovation process less uncertain and more targeted. The more firms continuously attempt to innovate, the more a firm's activities are related to high-tech and knowledge-intensive services, and the more innovative activities require information from outside the firm (customers), the greater seems the need to establish appropriate KM measures.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to uncover factors that influence a firm's decision to implement knowledge management practices. The focus is on knowledge management practices implemented to increase collaboration on innovation activities between actors within a firm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Empirical analysis (probit estimations) of survey data on over 1,500 innovative German firms from the Mannheim Innovation Panel of 2003.\nFindings: - The paper finds that an innovation strategy targeted at consumers and continuous R&D activities are positively related to knowledge management usage by innovative German firms. In addition, more general characteristics like the size and the industry of a firm also influence the decision to use knowledge management.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Given data restrictions the paper only analyses the collaborative aspects of knowledge management in firms. Future research should also take into account knowledge transfer, creativity, storage efforts in firms and IT related aspects of knowledge management and investigate the determinants of and complementarities between all of these different techniques. The paper is limited in both the time period it analyses and regional scope. Further research is necessary to investigate whether the results also hold for other countries and other periods.\nOriginality/value: - The analysis in this paper contributes to the existing literature by investigating the determinants of firms' decisions to engage in knowledge management activities using a large-scale survey of firms from a variety of different industries. The data used grant a unique insight into the innovation activities of firms and knowledge management approaches connected to these activities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Online company blogs as narrations of plural leadership
|
[
"Narrative analysis",
"Leadership practices",
"Digital narration",
"Narrative pattern",
"Plural leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Webpages and social media have become a crucial point of communication between organisations and their internal and external audiences (Powell et al., 2016; Leonardi and Vaast, 2017). The webpages of organisations are not only used to inform audiences, but also to construct reality and organisational practices. They are representations and narratives of what organisations are about and what they hope to achieve (Powell et al., 2016).\nPlurality of leadership as an emerging practice: Due to changes in ways of working and contexts of work, scholars have sought to identify new ways of practising and conceiving leadership, which has enlivened discussions among leadership scholars and practitioners. Relatedly, leadership research has witnessed an ontological shift from leader-centric to post-heroic approaches during the past decade (Avolio et al., 2009; Crevani et al., 2007, 2010). This line of research emphasises \"the relational, collectivist and non-authoritarian nature of leadership practices in contemporary organisations - opposing against unreflective mainstream perspectives that sustain heroic, individualist and authoritarian leadership norms\" (Crevani et al., 2010, p. 78). There are several post-heroic views of leadership, such as distributed (Gronn, 2002), shared (Pearce and Conger, 2003) and relational leadership (Fairhurst and Grant, 2010; Hosking, 2007; Uhl-Bien, 2006), which all underline, granted with different historical roots and nuances, leadership as a collaborative action rather than as a monopoly of a few in the organisational hierarchy.\nLeadership in human-material relations: After decades of linguistics, discourse and cultural studies in organisational research, scholars have engaged with materiality in organisations leading to what many call the \"material turn\" in organisation studies (Barad, 2003; Carlile et al., 2013; Dale, 2005; Orlikowski, 2007). The way organisational members interact with materiality has been studied, for instance, in connection to Xerox machines (Humphries and Smith, 2014; Orr, 1995), smartphones (Orlikowski, 2007), numbers leading to strategic decision making (Denis et al., 2006), digital pictures (Dourish and Mazmanian, 2013) and organisational space (e.g. Ropo et al., 2015; Taylor and Spicer, 2007; Van Marrewijk and Yanow, 2010).\nMethodological approach: digital narrations of leadership: In modern organisations, individuals participate in organisational activities both in online and offline contexts. Because of this, Akemu and Abdelnour (2018) recently argued that to achieve authenticity and multivocality in organisational ethnographies requires researchers to take into account both contexts in data collection. Other organisational researchers have similarly noted that organisations have a digital footprint that consists, for example, of their webpages, blog texts and online communication channels, which need to be considered in organisational research (Murthy, 2013; Powell et al., 2016; Leonardi and Vaast, 2017). Relatedly, researchers have, for instance, examined how firms interact with communities of consumers on Facebook (e.g. Slobin and Cherkasky, 2010; Mart, 2011; Lin and Lu, 2011).\nResponding to an unpredictable environment: playing with the unknown: I won't lie to you; I don't think we can prevent uncertainty. But we have got it all wrong in the first place. Not having a chain of command can actually reduce riskiness. The key to functioning properly is learning from actions. This is where an approach called build-measure-learn comes in handy. The approach pushes you to get rid of long-term planning and use experiments as a tool for validating hunches and expectations. The thought behind this is that the only way to validate whether something works or not is experimenting - because, as we have already noticed, complexity cannot be predicted.\nThe development of new organisational roles: breaking down hierarchies: When traditional organisations collide with a complex environment, the outcome might not be flattering. This, according to Stan McChrystal, happened to the US Special Forces fighting against al-Qaeda in 2003. The community of highly trained troops was constantly outsmarted by an enemy that was inferior in resources. Why? Because the enemy was highly decentralized and relied on a flat hierarchy, autonomy, speed, and a high level of adaptation. The Special Forces simply could not move fast enough. McChrystal came to realize that he had to abandon most of his ideas regarding managing efficient organisations, as well as what it meant to be a leader. Instead of increasing the amount of discipline, he started acting like - and I am quoting - \"a gardener\". This meant distributing decision-making power down to operators and intelligence officers, the people who did the actual work. McChrystal introduced extreme transparency by implementing a daily ninety-minute intelligence sharing session with over 7500 people. He started taking down silos by rotating personnel within different teams.\nCommunity building through space and symbols: During the second world war, English Prime Minister Winston Churchill needed a place where he could \"direct the war\". Churchill and his team built war rooms under London where the core team met daily and the crucial information was available. The war room's walls were covered with important statistics, maps, and reports, and they were updated daily. A project room should be set up using the same principles. The room is simultaneously a workplace, meeting point, and knowledge center. Whiteboards or printed excel sheets are an easy way to hang the metric data. Be sure that your data is visible, clear, updated, and explained to everybody - also to the executive team.\nDiscussion and contribution: In this study, we explored how plural leadership is narratively constructed in the online blogs of Finnish IT companies. The knowledge-intensive business environment and the online data source provide an interesting context for studying what kind of practices are involved in plural leadership (Denis et al., 2012). In contrast to a noted limitation of the earlier studies that focus merely on leaders in formal roles (Bolden, 2011), our informants represented organisational positions at varied levels. Our analysis highlighted a narrative pattern of three categories that revealed practices associated with plural leadership. First, due to the dynamic nature of the business environment and the call for agile action, there was a concrete need to develop an organisational culture that was not leader centric and hierarchical. In the organisations we studied, responding to an unpredictable environment was imperative for surviving and performing in IT business.\nPractical implications and future research: Despite previous scholarly interest in the plural leadership phenomenon, it is still a relatively new leadership approach. Companies are only beginning to explore it and find ways to implement its ethos. The adoption of plural leadership practices can be transformative, because it requires that the organisations recognize a need for a new kind of organisational narrative. Developing such an understanding is time consuming and demands attention and resources across the organisation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how companies that characterise their leadership style as plural, shared or distributed narrate their actions and practices in online blog texts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data consist of online blog texts published by seven Finnish IT companies. The analytical strategy draws on both thematic and structural approach to narrative analysis. The blog texts were analysed thematically to uncover different aspects of plural leadership. The analysis revealed a narrative pattern consisting of three categories that explain why and how companies implemented plural leadership.\nFindings: The first category in the narrative pattern describes the motivation for engaging in plural leadership. The second category explains how the companies broke down existing hierarchies in order to create new flexible work roles. The third category describes how the organisations sought to create a communal culture and a strong sense of trust using symbols, material objects and spaces.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study contributes to leadership research that emphasises post-heroic leadership conceptualisations. The narrative pattern provides future empirical studies a framework for analysing plural leadership practices in different organisational settings. Whereas this study sheds light on the ways in which organisations and their leadership practices can be investigated using online data, traditional organisational ethnographies can make a further contribution to this line of research.\nPractical implications: Implementing plural leadership in organisations can lead to informal power plays. Attention should be paid on to how plural leadership evolves in flat hierarchies and promotes community building.\nOriginality/value: Company webpages have rich information on how companies operate and perceive themselves. They provide yet another window for observing organisational activities. This study makes a novel contribution to how plural leadership is practiced and conceptualised in online blog texts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumers' health and taste attitude in Taiwan: The impacts of modern tainted food worries and gender difference
|
[
"Health and Taste Attitude Scales",
"Modern tainted foods worries",
"Gender",
"Personal health",
"Food products",
"Taiwan",
"Attitudes",
"Contamination"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Human food choice is a complex function of a multitude of influences (Furst et al., 1996). All of the following disciplines have answers to the central question in consumer food choice research - \"Why does who eat what, when, and where?\" - biology and physiology, economics, sociology, marketing, consumer science and memory-, emotion-, social- and decision psychology. Given the context of consumers' growing consciousness of the food they eat, health is one of the frequently mentioned motivations when they make their food choices (Lappalainen et al., 1998; Magnusson et al., 2001; Steptoe et al., 1995; Wandel and Bugge, 1997). In fact, many previous studies point out that a consumer's concern for health is the most commonly stated motive for choosing organic foods (Magnusson et al., 2003; Schifferstein and Oude Ophuis, 1998; Tregear et al., 1994; Wandel and Bugge, 1997; Williams and Hammit, 2001). By contrast, the same concern inclines the consumer to adopt a negative attitude toward genetically modified (GM) foods (Cook et al., 2002) as illustrated by the European consumers' reluctant to have GM foods. This negative attitude has been widely reported (e.g. Bredahl, 2001; Bredahl et al., 1998; Druant et al., 1998; EC, 2000; Frewer and Shepherd, 1995; Grunert et al., 2000).In addition to health, sensory aspects of foods (e.g. appearance, taste, odor, texture characteristics) have been proven as an important criterion in food choice decision-making (e.g. Kaminski et al., 2000; Magnusson et al., 2001; Torjusen et al., 2001; Wandel and Bugge, 1997). According to a survey conducted in Sweden, \"distaste\" is the main reason for family members to reject the foods while good taste is the primary reason for children's favoritism (Koivisto and Sjoden, 1996). Good taste is also the most important attitudinal factor in relation to fruit and vegetable consumption in The Netherlands (Brug et al., 1995) and an important criterion to buy a particular food in Denmark (Holm and Kildevang, 1996). Both taste and health beliefs were more closely related to attitudes towards consumption of meat products, dairy products, and fried foods than were other beliefs such as convenience and price among over 15-year-old UK respondents (Towler and Shepherd, 1992).Modern food choices, however, have become increasingly complex in recent decades as a result of the growth in modern food technologies and the lengthening of the food chain (Houghton et al., 2006). The perceived potential hazards of modern agricultural practices due to the industrialization of food processing and biotechnological innovations such as the use of additives, coloring agents, and pesticides and their residues in foods, as well as the marketing of GM foods are perceived to be associated with long-term and unknown effects on health (Allum, 2007; Hansen et al., 2003; Lobb et al., 2006; Miles and Frewer, 2001; van Kleef et al., 2006; Wandel and Fagerli, 2001; Wilkins and Hillers, 1994; Williams and Hammit, 2001; Williams et al., 2004). Food-supply crises (e.g. mad cow disease, the foot-and-mouth epidemic, the Belgian dioxin scandal and food contamination (e.g. Salmonella, E. coli (Escherichia coli) and Listeria) have prompted consumers to become aware that the production and regulation of food are not infallible and that food risks are eminent. Aroused by the extensive media coverage of food-borne outbreaks and other food safety issues (Bruhn, 1997; Smith and Riethmuller, 2000), consumers no longer trust systems of regulation responsible for managing the risks of consumption (Berg, 2004; Brom, 2000; Chen, 2008; Coveney, 2007; de Krom and Mol, 2010). Consequently, consumers are now more concerned about modern food safety than ever before not only because agricultural production and food processing technologies have advanced rapidly but also because the causal link between consuming a contaminated food item and its outcome cannot easily be ascertained (Caswell and Mojduszka, 1996).In epidemiological studies, a growing number of people begin to concern themselves about the effects of modernization on their health (Furnham, 2007; Kaptein et al., 2005; Petrie and Wessely, 2002; Petrie et al., 2001, 2005). Previous cross-sectional research results indicate that the incalculable and unsolvable new and universal risks are reflected in the increased appearance of unexplained illnesses like multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue syndrome, and environmental diseases (Petrie and Wessely, 2002; Simon et al., 1990). Out of anxiety over the effects of modernization on health emerge modern health worries (MHWs), which can be defined as \"perceived risks to personal health from technological changes and features of modern life\" (Petrie et al., 2005). Based on people's concerns about their health threatened by modernity, Petrie et al. (2001) developed a measurement scale of MHWs, which presumes that people's MHWs can be categorized into four types: toxic interventions, environmental pollution, tainted food, and radiation.Gender has been found to be a significant factor affecting food choice (Lennernas et al., 1997; Stafleu et al., 1994). In addition to technological and environmental risks, many studies have shown that women are more concerned about food risks (McIntosh et al., 1994) than are men (see Davidson and Freudenburg, 1996 for a review). Compared with males, females have been found to maintain healthy dietary practices (Lennernas et al., 1997; Monneuse et al., 1997; Roininen and Tuorila, 1999; Roininen et al., 1999; Steptoe and Wardle, 1992; Wardle and Steptoe, 1991) and to report healthier food choices (Hunt et al., 1997). Previous studies indicate that compared with males, females have expressed more positive attitudes toward low-fat foods (Stafleu et al., 1994) and more negative attitudes toward high-fat foods (Shepherd and Stockley, 1985; Towler and Shepherd, 1992) and high-fat diets (Brug et al., 1994). Females are also significantly more concerned with food additives than men are (Buchler et al., 2010).In recent years, there have occurred in Taiwan a series of food scandals, such as cadmium-contaminated rice, poisoned duck eggs, pesticide residuals, meat from diseased pigs, and imported poisoned spinach. The outbreak of the melamine (C3H6N6) food scandal in mainland China in 2008 struck terror into many hearts both in Taiwan and in other Asian countries. In 2011, the world's first case of foods and beverages being laced with the plasticizer Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, commonly abbreviated as DEHP, occurred in Taiwan. DEHP is a carcinogen and can also disrupt the endocrine system and change hormone levels. Aside from the potential of causing cancer, long-time accumulation of DEHP in the human body could lead to feminization (The Executive Yuan's Department of Health (DOH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 2011).Because of the importance of both health and taste factors in the food choice process (Contento et al., 1988; Steptoe et al., 1995), the Health and Taste Attitude Scale (HTAS) was developed to measure the importance of the perceived health and taste aspects of foods in relation to food choice (Roininen et al., 2001). The HTAS can therefore potentially be helpful for monitoring changes in food-related attitudes or may also be used to characterize and segment populations in food marketing studies. In addition, some individuals are more health-oriented than the general population; thus, populations can be segmented based on their attitudes and beliefs (Contento et al., 1988). Moreover, attitudes and beliefs have been proven to influence food choice along with many other factors such as demographic information and socio-economic background (Shepherd and Stockley, 1985, 1987; Shepherd, 1989). Therefore, it is of interest to investigate whether or not consumers with varying degrees of modern tainted foods worries will show variations in health and taste attitudes in Taiwan. In addition, whether gender differences play a role in consumers' health and taste attitudes is also examined in this study. Based on the findings from this study, attempts are made to provide some suggestions to the food marketers and the policy makers in the public health sector to help them formulate more effective communication strategies.\nMethodology: Data collections and sample\nData analysis and discussion: After re-coding the negatively worded items, all of the measurement items of the Health and Taste Attitude Scale (HTAS) were scored from one to seven, and for each sub-scale, a score based on the unweighted average of all items that contributed to that sub-scale was derived. The results were used for the data input for later one-way ANOVA tests.Prior to the data analysis, the measurement items were evaluated for reliability. This was done to determine the degree to which the observed variables measured the \"true\" value, and whether they were \"error free.\" The Cronbach's (1951) a values were used to test for reliability. Nunnally (1978) suggested that the score for each construct should be greater than 0.6 to be considered reliable. After deleting one item from the \"pleasure\" sub-scale of the Taste scale, \"I finish my meal even when I do not like the taste of food\", the reliability of the measurement scales shown in Table II are all higher than the recommended level of 0.6 (Nunnally, 1978). Hence, the measurement scales were shown to have a sufficient internal consistency for further analysis.Modern tainted foods worries\nConclusions: The findings of this study indicate that respondents who are more worried about modern tainted foods will agree more on general health interest, light product interest, and natural product interest in terms of the health attitude. Respondents who are less worried about modern tainted foods will agree more on craving for sweet foods and using food as a reward in terms of taste orientation. This means that people who have \"high modern tainted foods worries\" will be more concerned about health in foods but those who have \"low modern tainted foods worries\" will care more for the taste of foods. The results imply that an individual with a higher degree of modern tainted foods worries is more willing to sacrifice taste for healthy food consumption. Therefore, regardless of taste, individuals who are worried about pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, additives, and genetically modified organisms (GMO) in foods will be more interested in healthy foods, natural content foods, and light product.In addition, the female consumers agree more on general health interest and natural product interest in terms of the health attitude and craving for sweet foods in terms of the taste attitude. This means that though the female consumers are more concerned about health in foods they are also more interested in sweet foods. The results imply that the female consumers demand healthy and natural content foods on the one hand, but crave for sweet foods on the other hand. Therefore, if foods could meet the above-mentioned criteria at the same time, then the female consumers will strongly favor such foods. Finally, both high and low modern tainted foods worries groups irrespective of sex similarly emphasize pleasure in foods. Both sexes equally agree to emphasize light product and using food as a reward. The results imply that it is important whether foods can bring consumers pleasure irrespective of their gender and their attitude toward modern tainted foods.The findings from this study will be of help to food marketers in Taiwan doing market segmentation and differentiated marketing based on the descriptions and profiles of gender and the degree of modern tainted foods worries. The research results imply that food marketers could provide foods of different attributes to satisfy consumers in many and various target markets. For those people who have \"high modern tainted foods worries\", the food marketers should provide foods with health, low fat, low calorie, and more natural claims. For those people who have \"low modern tainted foods worries\", the food marketers should provide foods with good taste claims. As for the female market in Taiwan, the food marketers should provide something healthy and natural but sweeter. It is worth noting that people of both sexes who take pleasure in foods may enjoy them without regard for modern tainted foods worries. Moreover, they may also treat foods as a reward and prefer light products. Thus, different advertising appeals could be developed to attract consumers' attention and to exert further influence on their food choice.To the best knowledge of this researcher, this study represents one of the first attempts to investigate the health and taste attitudes in Taiwan. Though the collected sample is not strictly statistically representative, there is a saving grace in that this sample is believed to include respondents with a wide variety of socio-demographic backgrounds. One should be cautious about generalizing the following results of this study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Previous studies indicate that both health and taste are important factors in the food choice process. Owing to the industrialization of food processing and biotechnological innovations on the one hand and a series of food scandals on the other, consumers are now more concerned about modern food hazards. The present study aims to investigate whether consumers with varying degrees of modern tainted foods worries and gender difference will show variations in the Health and Taste Attitude Scales (HTAS).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Of a total of 1,500 questionnaires sent out, 533 were found useful for this empirical analysis. The measurement items of the Health and Taste Attitude Scale (HTAS) were scored as the data input to test for the impacts of modern tainted foods worries and gender by ANOVA tests.\nFindings: - The results of this study conducted in Taiwan indicate that those people identified in the ''high modern tainted foods worries'' group have more interests in health in foods but the ''low modern tainted foods worries'' group have more interests in taste in foods. In addition, though more concerned about health in foods, female consumers are also more interested in sweet foods.\nPractical implications: - Some suggestions for food marketers and food policy makers are also provided in this study.\nOriginality/value: - To the best knowledge of this researcher, this study represents one of the first attempts to investigate the health and taste attitudes in Taiwan and tests for the impacts of modern tainted foods worries and gender.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Principal empowering leadership and teacher innovative behavior: a moderated mediation model
|
[
"Role conflict",
"Moderated mediation",
"Principal empowering leadership",
"Teacher exploration",
"Teacher innovative behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Creativity and innovation constitute critical factors for organizational survival, effectiveness and success (Amabile, 1996; Shalley, 1995). Creativity is concerned with the production of ideas that are useful and novel regarding products, services and procedures whereas innovation is the implementation of these ideas (Amabile, 1996). Both factors are of vital importance for school operation and effectiveness. As regards innovation, emphasis should be given not only to its objective aspects but to those involved in these processes as well (Geijsel et al., 2001). In this regard, an important determinant for successful school innovation is teacher innovative work behavior. Teacher innovative behavior is essential for various reasons including the necessity to respond to the fast changing society, the provision of a role model for the society in general and also because new knowledge and technologies require innovative work behavior (Thurlings et al., 2014). On this basis, Thurlings et al. (2014) argued that leadership, among others, is likely to nurture an environment that will facilitate teacher innovative work behavior.\n2. Theory and hypotheses: 2.1. Principal empowering leadership and teacher innovative behavior\n3. Method: 3.1. Sample and procedure\n4. Results: Means, standard deviations, reliabilities and correlations for all variables appeared in Table I. Empowering leadership is positively related to exploration (r=0.30, p\n5. Discussion: Recent empirical studies have examined various antecedents of innovation at organizational (Jiang et al., 2012), team (Post, 2012) and individual level (Bhatnagar, 2012). In this vein, extant research has also addressed the pivotal role of leadership in promoting employee innovative behavior. One of the nascent leadership styles that have been associated with innovative work behavior is empowering leadership (Chen et al., 2011). However, despite the growing research on the relationship between teacher empowerment and various different outcomes such as, organizational and professional commitment, organizational learning, trust in the principal and student performance (Bogler and Somech, 2004; Lee et al., 2012; Marks and Louis, 1999; Moye et al., 2005; Sweetland and Hoy, 2000) insufficient empirical studies have addressed the topic of principal empowering leadership (Sagnak, 2012; Vecchio et al., 2010). Besides, although teacher empowerment has been proposed as a determinant of innovative work behavior (Singh and Sarkar, 2012) extant research that focusses on the antecedents of teachers' innovative work behavior is still scant (Messmann et al., 2010; Thurlings et al., 2014).\n6. Conclusion: In summary, the present study set out to advance our insights into the pivotal role of principal empowering leadership in fostering teacher innovative behavior. As such, in order to clarify the intervening mechanisms and the boundary conditions that may account for this relationship exploration and role conflict were utilized, respectively. Drawing data from public schools the results supported the present moderated mediation model indicating that principal empowering behaviors affect teachers' innovative work behavior through teachers' exploration. Further, this indirect effect was conditional on role conflict. Thus, this study provided a fuller understanding of the relationship between principal empowering leadership and teachers' innovative work behavior by elucidating why (exploration) and how (role conflict) this association occurs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to extant literature by linking principal empowering leadership to teachers' innovative work behavior. By doing so, the author attempts to provide a more nuanced understanding of this relationship by examining a moderated mediation model which encompasses exploration as a mediator and role conflict as a moderator.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 201 public teachers. In order to examine the present hypotheses bootstrapping analysis, Sobel test and SPSS macro were used.\nFindings: The results demonstrated that teacher exploration mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and innovative work behavior and, further, that this indirect effect is contingent on role conflict.\nPractical implications: Based on the present findings, in order to enhance innovation, schools need to promote both empowering leadership style and their teachers' exploration. Moreover, principals should refrain from providing conflicting orders and expectations from their teachers because such conditions will eliminate the positive effect of their empowering behaviors on teachers' exploration and innovative work behavior.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study that develops and tests a moderated mediation model regarding the relationship between principal empowering leadership and teacher innovative behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Personality characteristics of the self-employed: A comparison using the World Values Survey data set
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Personality characteristics",
"Self-employed"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The relationship of entrepreneurial activity with regional, national and international economic development cannot be overstated. Entrepreneurship is vital for employment and wealth generation creating over one-third of all jobs internationally (Engle et al., 2010). Although the exact association between them is less than clear, Acs et al. (2005) consider it to be positive overall. Using data collected via the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Kelley et al. (2012) identify entrepreneurship as arguably the single most important factor in achieving sustainable economic development helping to solve key issues of poverty and development imbalances globally. They estimate that 388 million entrepreneurs were actively engaged in starting and running their own businesses in 2011 which is 22 per cent more than in 2010. This annual \"academic\" project was established in 1999 and has since become increasingly sophisticated now covering around 75 per cent of the world's population. It is recognized as being the largest continuing study of global entrepreneurial dynamics. The inception, design and ongoing nature of the project is tacit acknowledgement of the key role played by entrepreneurial activity globally.\nLiterature review: Since Schumpeter (1934) first coined the term \"creative destruction\" as a means of free market progress through turmoil, many have scrutinized entrepreneurs and their activities with varying foci depending on their field of expertise. These include the \"great person\" school; classical and neoclassical economics; psychology; and sociology. For example, early psychologists looked to individual traits and characteristics in order to distinguish entrepreneurs from the rest of the population. Notably, McClelland (1961) was at the vanguard and believed that a high \"need for achievement\", \"risk-taking or propensity for innovation\" and \"need for novelty\" characterized these individuals.\nMethod and variables: In order to replicate and extend the earlier work of Beugelsdijk and Noorderhaven (2005), the present study uses data taken from the WVS to define and measure the previously identified variables. This is a global research project exploring people's values and beliefs longitudinally. Research began in 1981 as an element of the European Values Study and now covers around 100 societies representing almost 90 per cent of the global population. The present research utilizes the first five waves of surveys from 1981 to 2009 (the most recently available). Topics covered include attitudes to work, religion, culture, diversity, politics and so on. All useable data were analysed thus the total population was utilized rather than a sample thereof.\nResults and discussion: Table VI shows the output of the logistic regression through each personality characteristic and questions pertaining to each for models one and two by the probability of the Wald statistic, level of significance, the b and exponential b coefficients. Both converged after six iterations and have a notable power of explanation with kh2 of 3,952.476 and 4,292.114. Cross-validation verified the statistically significant contribution of independent variables entered after the control variables were included (age, gender, socio-economic status and income). The probability for the block kh2 testing the block of independent variables was p\nConclusion and implications: This research aimed to replicate and extend the earlier work of Beugelsdijk and Noorderhaven (2005) undertaken some ten years ago using European Values Survey data. Based on the continuing debate about the reliability of empirical significance of the psychological profile of entrepreneurs a number of issues have emerged. Using two reference groups for comparison (wage and salary earners and the rest of the population), entrepreneurs are indeed different from them in a number of areas by previously identified psychological characteristics - need for achievement, locus of control, innovation, risk-taking and competitive aggression. Using the WVS data, questions about specific work attitudes and more general ones about economic and social issues were grouped under the above categories. Need for achievement along with locus of control transpired as the characteristics differentiating entrepreneurs from the two reference groups most strongly. Thus, entrepreneurs have a strong sense of independence and, if successful, are high achievers. Government and government agencies need to ensure appropriate policies and procedures nurture these characteristics. This could entail development and implementation of programmes for those with entrepreneurial intent and nascent entrepreneurs but would probably not be as crucial for \"career entrepreneurs\" as the need to be in control amongst them would be strong.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to permit further understanding of entrepreneurial personality characteristics of need for achievement, locus of control, innovation, risk-taking and competitive aggression by comparing the self-employed with waged and salaried workers and the general population.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A logistic regression equation was used on the \"World Values Survey (WVS)\" data set to test the relationship between entrepreneurship and personality characteristics by estimating the probability of an event occurring directly.\nFindings: This research replicated and extended the earlier work of Beugelsdijk and Noorderhaven (2005). Using two reference groups for comparison, entrepreneurs are different in terms of their psychological characteristics. Specifically, these are need for achievement and locus of control; these were the strongest characteristics. Competitive aggression and risk-taking were moderate in this respect with innovation finding least support.\nResearch limitations/implications: In terms of limitations, the present study does not account for environmental enablers or mitigation of starting and sustaining businesses. Also how do the national media, society and culture regard entrepreneurship? Moreover, is there only one model of entrepreneurship or several? For example, amongst indigenous societies, entrepreneurship is more of a collective rather than an individual pursuit where culture and heritage preservation are more important than purely profit generation. Similarly, no account is taken of the differences (nuanced or otherwise) between entrepreneurial personality characteristics in factor vs opportunity/innovation-driven economies.\nPractical implications: The self-employed in this study were different to both comparison groups which is important information for government policy formation at all levels in terms of targeted business/career education, infrastructure, funding, opportunity creation and incubator programmes. Furthermore, rudimentary community and university diagnostics could be formulated around these entrepreneurial characteristics to identify potential entrepreneurs for a \"career\" of self-employment or placement within large firms as \"intrapreneurs\" to improve productivity and economic growth.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to use the WVS for scrutiny of entrepreneurial personality traits. It expands and augments earlier work in the field which used the smaller \"European Values Survey\" by including many more questions pertaining to entrepreneurial personality characteristics adding additional robustness to the outcomes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Thinking about the emotional labour of nursing - supporting nurses to care
|
[
"Emotional labour",
"Care",
"Staff support",
"Hospitals",
"Nurses",
"Nursing",
"Patient care",
"Management stress"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: How can we ensure patients are treated with compassion in hospitals? Nurses work in a healthcare system that, although complex, is highly regulated. Despite this, there have been several recent high-profile reports that record a litany of failure to provide dignified, competent, nursing care, particularly in the English National Health Service (NHS) (Francis, 2010; Abraham, 2011; Care Quality Commission, 2011). Complaints about poor care are not new, and date back to the 1960s and beyond (Walshe and Higgins, 2002); however, there has been an increase in negative stories about hospital care of late, which is also of growing international concern (Ojwang et al., 2010; Darbyshire, 2011). Despite the formulaic response to such episodes, which has been to investigate, and/or hold an inquiry, then produce a number of recommendations for change, the problems persist (Commission on Dignity in Care, 2012). This begs the question: what else can be done? This paper reports some of the work undertaken by a \"nursing think tank\" that focused on examining the key challenges and identifying potential solutions.\nBackground: Whilst nursing has always been a difficult job, it may have been made more so, albeit unknowingly, by the removal of routines that in the past helped nurses manage the anxieties associated with care (Menzies, 1960). In addition, greater patient acuity, increased pressure on beds, the imperative of performance targets, and meeting the requirements of numerous external and regulatory bodies have all had an impact on the environment of care. Indeed, the development of a performance culture may have affected nursing disproportionately, because it is hard to measure compassionate care. In an environment that has often been characterised as \"what matters is what's measured\" (Bevan and Hood, 2006), nursing may be deemed unimportant until cases of poor care emerge, resulting in investigations, disciplinary action and blame. This situation has been exacerbated by media reports vilifying nurses (Phillips, 2011; Marrin, 2009) rather than considering the wider organisational issues. For example, an analysis of the factors contributing to quality failures found that they are systemic and not specific to the nursing profession (Walshe and Higgins, 2002). To explore this further, the authors engaged in discussions with key stakeholders at local, regional and national levels in the NHS, and conducted a critical literature review (see below) and two focus group meetings of nine Executive Nurses from acute hospitals (see Sawbridge and Hewison, 2011). The work considered the environment of care, and education and development; however, the focus in this paper is on the need to support nurses in managing the emotional labour of caring.\nNursing and emotional care - a brief review of the literature: The role of the nurse involves supporting people when they are distressed, suffering and dying. Nurses provide 24-hour continuous care for patients, all year round and feel the full, immediate, and concentrated impact of the stresses arising from patient care (Menzies, 1960). Their \"work involves carrying out tasks which, by ordinary standards, are distasteful, disgusting and frightening\" (Menzies, 1960, p. 97). However despite the evidence linking staff well-being and improved patient care (McKee, 2010; West and Dawson, 2011), there is no system of routine staff support for nurses.Hochschild's (2003) concept of emotional labour is relevant here. Originally developed in a study of flight attendants, later work drew on it to demonstrate how the emotional component of nursing is rendered invisible and so is not managed (Smith, 1992; Gray and Smith, 2009). The dissonance arising from the constant suppression of powerful emotions can result in \"burnout\" (Smith, 1992; Gray and Smith, 2009). In the past a task-centred approach to care provided some level of emotional distance and protection for nurses (Menzies, 1960), and whilst recognising that task allocation was not the best way to organise care, Menzies (1960) identified its value in enabling nurses to cope with the stress of caring. The dismantling of the rituals and routines, as an outcome of efforts to delineate nursing's contribution as a professional discipline (Allen, 2001), has removed other \"defence mechanisms\". For example, the individualised care at the heart of the nursing process was intended to engender a more systematic holistic approach to care, summarised as: \"It's more thinking of the patient as a whole as opposed to one nurse being responsible for bedpans etc\" (Smith, 1992, p. 39). This makes emotional demands on individual practitioners, making them more vulnerable to distress. Other supportive organisational arrangements have also been eroded. Changes to shift patterns resulting in shorter handover periods, some taking place at the bedside rather than in an office, have removed an opportunity for nurses to express concerns about their work in private and alleviate stress by sharing \"vocabularies of complaint\" (Turner, 1987). Similarly, the closure of hospital laundries means that most nursing staff do not remove their uniforms before leaving work, and so do not have the opportunity to symbolically divest their work concerns along with their uniform before leaving the hospital. These were important, if unacknowledged, processes for managing the \"emotional labour\" of nursing work, and nurses now have fewer sources of informal support available to ameliorate the pressures of delivering compassionate care, day in and day out. This is not to advocate a return to task-based approaches to care, or to argue that care was always better in the past; rather, it is to surface the issues and identify the need to recognise the effect these changes have had on nurses. A balanced approach to changing working practices is needed to ensure the impact on staff does not translate into potentially negative effects on patient care.Although the high emotional cost of caring is identified in the literature, it is rarely discussed in the media, and the reality of what is involved is overlooked in trusts. In order to convey what a typical day was like, Benner and Wrubel (1989) described a personal nursing experience (see Appendix 1). Although drawn from work in the USA, it reflects the relentless stresses of a \"routine\" working day that nurses worldwide would recognise. It shows how sustained exposure to such pressures can result in burnout manifested as emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment (Leiter and Maslach, 1988). If not addressed, burnout can result in a shift in attitude from positive and caring to negative and uncaring on the part of the nurse (Vaughan and Pillmoor, 1989). This conclusion is as relevant now as it was in the 1980s.\nExploring the emotional labour of nursing care: from theory to practice: When reflecting on our literature review with the senior nurses in the focus group, they accepted that nursing care is emotionally difficult, yet felt supporting nurses in their role and embedding systems to do this were problematic. Although the literature suggests this is worthwhile, the senior nurses identified significant barriers preventing the provision of systematic support for nurses. For example they reported that clinical supervision, based on a model of reflective practice recommended by the UK Central Council for Nursing and Midwifery in the 1990s (United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing and Midwifery, 1995) had failed. They also felt the costs of introducing a support system for staff were prohibitive and acknowledged that apart from counselling services for staff diagnosed with stress there was no provision. However, they did identify other ways of supporting staff, for example one had implemented a coaching programme to support leaders in bringing about cultural change in the trust and it was argued that support for staff with the emotional component of their work may occur as a fortunate by-product. Another initiative was the change to 12-hour shifts. In the participants' hospitals the nurses had welcomed the opportunity to work fewer days and have more time away from work. This arose out of the desire to manage the staff resource more effectively rather than to address the issue of emotional labour, and although welcomed by the staff, decisions seem to have been taken without recourse to the literature, which reports the problems associated with longer shifts. These include increased fatigue, which is negatively correlated with performance, increased incidence of needlestick injury, and reduced standards in hand washing (Josten et al., 2003; Barker and Nussbaum, 2011). This demonstrates how actions taken to address one problem can cause others in the form of unanticipated consequences, so although the nurse directors and their staff had implemented 12-hour shifts, the longer-term impact on care is less clear, particularly with regard to emotional labour.Whilst these organisational approaches may bring about some changes in the nursing experience, they neglect the fundamental issue of emotional labour, which needs to be discussed openly and addressed by organisations (Benner and Wrubel, 1989; Smith, 1992). In light of this, what can be done? There are some models available that could be further developed and introduced in a wider range of care settings to support nurses and help them manage their emotional labour.As part of its Point of Care programme, the King's Fund commissioned an evaluation of Schwartz Centre Rounds (Goodrich, 2011), which had been piloted in two UK hospitals. The rounds involve multi-disciplinary discussion about the impact of a case on the team, and provide space for group reflection and acknowledgement of the emotional labour of care. They were found to have a positive impact on supporting staff to improve patient care and organisational culture, reducing isolation (Goodrich, 2011), which suggests this model may be beneficial in other settings.In a similar vein, a system of clinical supervision support for health visitors was introduced to combat low morale in a health visiting service. Prior to its introduction, the stress levels of the staff were measured and 33 per cent were found to have levels of stress higher than ambulance workers who had been asked to reflect on a recent traumatic episode and 23 per cent had higher scores than soldiers removing deceased colleagues from the battlefield. However following a programme of \"restorative supervision\", burnout was reduced by 36 per cent in most participants, and stress by 59 per cent. The staff valued the supervision, feeling it restored their ability to think clearly and make decisions (Wallbank and Preece, 2010).This suggests that, if managed well and funded adequately, systems of staff support can be effective. Another approach that could be applied has been developed by the Samaritans organisation (see Appendix 2). Before working for the Samaritans volunteers are given training and guidance so they are able to provide the emotional support callers need. The emotional distress experienced by callers is often severe, with some making contact whilst in the act of suicide. Clearly this is an extremely difficult task and in recognition of this the Samaritans provide a structured support system. It has much to offer nurses in terms of helping them manage the emotional labour inherent in their role.\nConclusion - learning to labour: The emotional labour of nursing is \"real\", and needs to be acknowledged and managed in hospitals (Benner and Wrubel, 1989; Smith, 1992). In addition there are significant financial savings to be made from reducing sickness through appropriate staff support (Department of Health, 2009). This suggests that trust boards should recognise the emotional labour of nursing and establish a systematic approach to supporting nurses, potentially by adopting one of the models reported in this paper. Their application should then be evaluated to assess their impact on nurses as carers and the subsequent outcomes for patients. It is assumed that \"kindness and compassion costs nothing\" (Williams, 2011), in economic terms perhaps, yet the emotional cost can be high. Staff do not need more blame and condemnation; they need active, sustained supervision and support (Cornwell, 2011), and this will only occur if urgent management action is taken in health organisations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this article is to report some of the work undertaken by a nursing \"think tank\", focussed on examining the causes of poor nursing care in hospitals, and potential solutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A \"think tank\" was convened which incorporated widespread discussion with national, regional and local stakeholders, a critical literature review, and a focus group of senior nurses.\nFindings: - It was found that there are no widespread systems of staff support that help nurses working in hospitals to cope with the emotional component of their work. This is one element that contributes to nurses providing poor care. A number of approaches to staff support have been developed that warrant further study.\nPractical implications: - If episodes of poor care are to be prevented it is necessary for hospital boards to recognise the importance of supporting nurses in managing the emotional labour of caring. The introduction of routine systems of staff support should be considered.\nOriginality/value: - In addition to highlighting and condemning poor care, it is important to seek solutions. This article offers a new perspective on an enduring problem and identifies approaches that can be part of the solution.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer psychological motivations to customer brand engagement: a case of brand community
|
[
"Brand attachment",
"Brand loyalty"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a highly turbulent and dynamic business environment, customer brand engagement (CBE) has emerged as a buzzword amongst marketers and academicians (Brodie et al., 2011). This is due to the nature of engagement in augmenting customer-brand relationships beyond purchase and consumption (Van Doorn et al., 2010; Vivek et al., 2014; Dessart et al., 2016). Engaged customers voluntarily contribute resources, for instance, their personal and social networks, brand knowledge, and their persuasion power to enhance brand equity (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014; Harmeling et al., 2017). Looking at the numerous benefits accrued through CBE, it has been given a special attention over the years (Keller, 2001; Hollebeek, 2011a; Marketing Science Institute (MSI), 2014; Hollebeek et al., 2016). CBE is the customer's cognitive, emotional and behavioral investment in specific brand interactions (Hollebeek et al., 2014). The investment of the preferred self of the customer beyond mere compliance and transactional reciprocity is the core of the CBE construct.\nLiterature review: Customer brand engagement\nConceptual model and hypotheses development: The proposed framework is grounded in psychological ownership theory (Pierce et al., 2001, 2003), the theory of possessions and extended self (Belk, 1988) and congruity theory (Johar and Sirgy, 1991). As the concept of customer engagement is not contingent upon the ownership of the brand (Vivek et al., 2012, 2014), a relationship between BPO and CBE is proposed on the premise of psychological ownership theory (Pierce et al., 2001). Deeply rooted in congruity theory, the perceptual value compatibility notion among customers known as \"value-congruity\" is proposed as another predictor of CBE. The conceptual model also portrays brand attachment and behavioral brand loyalty as the psychological and behavioral consequences of CBE (see Figure 1).\nMethod: Survey context\nResults: Measurement model\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\nLimitations and future study: This research has few limitations in terms of the sample, study context and study design. The brand communities targeted in this research mostly contained working professionals who participated in the events organized on the weekends. This is why the education-related sample statistics are lopsided toward the higher education side, which is difficult to generalize and needs more replications in future studies.\nConclusion: The key point where this study differs from previous brand engagement studies is the analysis of CBE from intra-individual perspective. The research contributes two psychological antecedents for engagement with the brands and psychological and behavioral consequence of CBE. The proposed CBE model contributes to different knowledge streams. First, seminal psychology and marketing concepts are brought together. This includes brand psychological ownership, value-congruity, CBE, brand attachment and behavioral brand loyalty. The proposed model addresses a key issue in brand engagement and shifts the focus from relational motivations to psychological motivations. Second, this study depicts brand psychological ownership and value-congruity as drivers of brand engagement which is relatively new. The model predicts the direct influence of these variables on brand engagement. Third, this study pioneers in conceptualizing the role of psychological ownership in branding and particularly in brand engagement. The proposed CBE model also proves that attachment reinforces the effect of brand engagement on loyalty behaviors. This paper invites other brand management researchers to establish new premises in better understanding the underexplored paradigm of brand engagement.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the psychological motivations behind customers' engagement with the brands and further investigate the effect of brand engagement on brand attachment and brand loyalty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The theoretical model is tested with the data collected from 282 brand community members during offline brand community events, and structural equation modeling technique is used for statistical analysis.\nFindings: The results indicate that brand psychological ownership and value-congruity act as important psychological motivations for customers to engage with the brands. A sense of brand attachment mediates the relationship between brand engagement and brand loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: Current study was conducted on a single brand community. Future research testing and validating the proposed model for multiple brands across different product categories is suggested for the generalization of current study results. The identification and validation of psychological drivers of engagement can have major implications on the ongoing research on customer engagement concept.\nPractical implications: An effectively instilled sense of psychological ownership and value similarity notion in customers can help managers in engaging customers and capitalize on their repurchases and recommendations along with their attachment to the brands.\nOriginality/value: The study is unique in terms of the brand engagement model depicting the psychological antecedents to engagement with the brands and identifying the mediating role of brand attachment between brand engagement and behavioral loyalty.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining the relationship between chain governance structures and chain performance: An empirical evidence of the dairy sector
|
[
"Triad",
"Dairy sector",
"Chain governance structures",
"Chain performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The literature on chain governance structure has received significant attention, this topic has been widely studied considering the analysis of inter-organizational relationships as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which is embedded in the supplier-buyer relationships and processes (Dolci et al., 2017). Over the last two decades, the concept of governance has also been applied to the supply chain area (Cai et al., 2011; Claro et al., 2003; Zhang and Aramyan, 2009; Ferguson et al., 2005; Mesic et al., 2018; Huang et al., 2018). In these studies, it has been either referred to as supply chain governance or relationship quality. In this paper, the governance structure is defined as the institutional arrangements within which transactions are negotiated and executed (Williamson, 1991). The term chain governance structures focuses on adopting an uncertain environment to enhance performance. Therefore, the evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency of chain governance structures involves using metrics related to various performance objectives such as cost, responsiveness, flexibility and quality (Zhang and Aramyan, 2009). In contrast to chain performance, we propose that chain governance is concerned with the balance between long-term relational decisions and interdependency that exists among supplier-buyer relationships (Richey Jr et al., 2010).\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: Three theoretical perspectives are suggested through which the concepts chain governance structures and chain performance can be viewed. First, the transaction cost theory (TCT) predicts that the most efficient governance structures are those that minimize production and transaction costs considering the institutional environment wherein (Williamson, 2000; Menard and Valceschini, 2005). The institutional environment is where formal and informal rules are set in order to reduce uncertainties and transaction costs. This suggests that simple governance structures should be used in conjunction with simple contractual relations and complex governance structures are reserved for complex relations (Williamson, 1979; Zhang and Aramyan, 2009). The theory argues that well-established contractual governance could be an effective mechanism to control exchange hazards by specifying each party's roles in both stable and changing environments (Cao and Lumineau, 2015).\n3. Methodology: Measurement scale of the questionnaire\n4. Results: According to the research methodology set, the main research findings are presented in five sections: reliability and validity scores of the questionnaire are presented in Table III; the measurement model for the total sample is presented as Figure 2 and a full SEM for total sample demonstrated in Figure 3; the model fit indices for each subsample is presented in Table IV; and the path coefficients for testing the hypotheses are presented in Table V of each sample. Finally, the structural models related to the hypothesis are appended.\n5. Discussion: The paper provides several important findings for the relationship between chain governance structures and chain performance for the Ugandan dairy sector. Empirical evidence shows that H1 was partially supported. First suppliers and Second suppliers at their downstream observed a significant and positive influence of spot market on chain performance. The result builds on the findings of Gyau and Spiller (2008), who observed a positive correlation between the spot market and performance (i.e. cost reduction, financial success and satisfaction). On the contrary, buyers observed an insignificant and negative link between spot market and chain performance. This finding is in accordance with previous research (Han et al., 2011; Wever et al., 2010). It can be attributed to the fact that spot market dairy suppliers often act opportunistically in order to realize short-term profits. This result is expected because Ugandan dairy processors (buyer) prefer more coordinated chain governance structures with their suppliers (Trienekens et al., 2018; Gyau and Spiller, 2008; Williamson, 1991; Hobbs and Young, 2000).\n6. Managerial implications: The reported findings have relevant implications for policy makers and managers. According to the findings, chain members can use the result of the study to take certain measures which improve the performance of the chains they are affiliated to. It was observed that relational governance performs better; therefore, strengthening and maintaining long-term relationships is very important for chain partners. It is also necessary to establish trust and commitment within the chain relationships. Collaborative actions and the presence of trust within the chain partners are key aspects to create integration and, in the end, lead to gains for all the parties involved. Furthermore, the establishment of a good reputation based on trust can be achieved by greater concern for the economic satisfaction of the chain partners (Mesic et al., 2018).\n7. Limitations of the study and final remarks: Besides the conceptual contribution of this paper, the main strength of this study pertains to its large triad sample, including three chain members at different chain levels. The focus on chain level analysis and data collection from minimum three firms of chains as opposed to dyadic chain level contributes to the limited number of triadic studies (Mesic et al., 2018; Molnar et al., 2010; Odongo et al., 2016). This study investigated 115 triads and benchmarked chain performance within the dairy sector, and compared 460 chain members' perceptions. The data were collected from a single country; more specifically, the study was conducted in Uganda, thereby filling the gap of limited research attention in developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. More so, the empirical contribution of this study also lies in the choice of the food sector. The dairy sector has also received very little attention in scientific literature. Consequently, there was a need to extend the focus of the dairy industry to downstream and upstream chain members to increase awareness of both the individual and chain competitiveness and performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of chain governance on chain performance among the chain members.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The survey was conducted in a triadic context with 345 chain members (115 dairy farmers, 115 dairy cooperative managers, and 115 processors) of the dairy sector in Uganda. Data collection was performed through simple random sampling by survey questionnaires with the chain executives. SEM was used for data analysis.\nFindings: The results revealed several chain governance structures (spot market, relational, contractual and mini integration) confirmed the hypothesized correlations on chain performance at different chain levels. The authors found a positive influence of relational governance on chain performance for all the chain members; however, the effect is stronger at the first supplier chain level.\nOriginality/value: This triadic chain approach makes an original contribution to the chain governance structures and chain performance literature in the supply chain context. Studies analyzing all aspects of chain governance structure and chain performance at three chain levels are limited.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A collective artefact design of decision support systems: design science research perspective
|
[
"Decision support systems",
"Design research",
"Domain knowledge",
"End user"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The knowledge of artefact design in design science research can have an important application in the improvement of decision support systems (DSS) development research. Recent DSS literature has identified significant needs to improve quality and relevance of DSS development, particularly to achieve better engagement of industry and decision makers (Hosack et al., 2012; Arnott and Pervan, 2012; Arnott, 2006). Several distinct subfields have emerged in DSS design. Arnott and Pervan (2008) classified these subfields as personal DSS, group DSS, intelligent DSS, knowledge management-based DSS, data warehousing, negotiation support systems and enterprise reporting and analysis. Our study targets the personal DSS class where a knowledge-based drives end-user processes and decision making. In this paper we wish to relate personal DSS development to mainstream information systems (IS) application design, and as such we are concentrating on a design research area of user-centred IS application. We refer to the design artefact outlined in our study as user-centred design environment (UCDE). In this paper our aim is to describe the design research to develop UCDE as a method in order to improve relevance of DSS development particularly to meet decision makers' contextual needs in business.\n2. Study background: Improvement of the artefact design knowledge is an essential component of design science research (Hevner et al., 2004; Hevner, 2007). Design research \"[...] seeks to create innovations that define the ideas, practices, technical capabilities, and products through which the analysis, design, implementation, management, and use of information systems can be effectively and efficiently accomplished\" (Hevner et al., 2004, p. 76). This understanding can be helpful in guiding straightforward information technology (IT) artefact design, if the main focus is in designing a new IT solution. In addition, Hevner et al. (2004) suggested that design science research must talk about the creation of an innovation and purposeful development for a specific problem domain. Iivari (2007, p. 56) argued that \"The primary interest of Information Systems lies in IT applications and therefore Information Systems as a design science should be based on a sound ontology of IT artefacts and especially of IT applications\". Further to this, Iivari (2007) argued that the IS in design science builds from IT meta-artefacts that can support concrete IT application development. This implies that a collection of innovative IT artefacts that can reinforce quality by creating effective design to meet the needs of the users as well as being able to fulfil the process, users' and situational requirements within organisations. The definitions of Iivari (2007) and Hevner et al. (2004) establish two useful views that can help define a useful DSS artefact design and its properties. The Table I illustrates the previous arguments on both views in design science literature.\n3. Method: Iivari (2007) argued that the IS artefact in design science can be built from IT meta-artefacts that supports concrete IS application development. Of the four UCD design methods outlined by Iivari and Iivari (2011), only one was deemed relevant to our DSS artefact design, namely \"goal-directed interaction design\", this is where the solution design for providing user provision was based on the definition of behaviour, functions and information needs for the system. This was considered applicable because our aim is to focus on the target user's decision making and a solution artefact construction based on empirical data. Furthermore we focus on decision-making behaviour and needs that are in common with organisational decision-making practices. Therefore our artefact design looks at how the system should behave and what the system looks like. These two aspects are highly design oriented, and consequently we have used the design science paradigm in our research.\n4. Development of the design artefact: 4.1 Practical problem context and relevant analysis\n5. Artefact evaluation: Several IS artefact evaluation methods have been outlined by design science researchers, including: observation, analytics, experiments, testing, descriptive analysis and action research (Baskerville and Myers, 2004; Hevner et al., 2004). Our evaluation strategy focused on the descriptive (analysis) evaluation method for design science research (Hevner et al., 2004) as this is more appropriate for evaluating innovative design artefacts than other forms of evaluation. This is because the IS artefacts can be evaluated in terms of the selected evaluation metrics such as \"functionality, completeness, consistency, accuracy, performance, reliability, usability, fit with the organization, and other relevant quality attributes\" (Hevner et al., 2004, p. 85). The developed method as an innovative design artefact was outlined within the business environment of dairy farming through a case study of the milk protein enhancement problem. The method's functionality was originally conceived, then iteratively prototyped, refined and evaluated with industry decision makers. Simultaneously the UCDE artefact was used to build a simple expert system (for fleet car purchase decisions), and continually assessed to exclude any domain-specific features from the developing architecture.\n6. Limitations of the method: The study has a number of limitations. First, it was developed in a case study context, and whilst some other indicative domains were assessed to evaluate the design's generic qualities, these remain to be fully tested in real business contexts. Second, it is assumed that the domain decisions can be parameterised and represented using a constraint programming language. Whilst the class of constraint problems is large, care must be taken to ensure the domain is effectively scoped. Third, the UCDE method has three levels of access control, argued for on principle, but not experimented with, nor directly valued. It may be desirable to allow model building at local levels, using other parameters reflecting local decision-making considerations, and monitor those to see if more general learning can occur. This, along with the analytical evaluation of the proposed artefact once implemented within the industry-operating environment remain issues for further research.\n7. Discussion: The aim of the paper was to describe a DSS design artefact as a new method to DSS development. Through the application of design science knowledge the developed artefact was based on underlying principles of UCD. The practical functionalities of design environment and ontology were applied to operationalise the UCD principles. The ontology was used for effective knowledge-based construction and to improve vocabulary within the problem context (in terms of knowledge sharing between relevant stakeholders). The design environment was provided functionality to support flexible and tailorable options for end users. It is how the UCD method goes beyond the purpose of adding rules to reconfigure the DSS artefact within the problem context. In this end users can apply their subjective judgement to reconfigure decision support rules from their own practice-based knowledge. This will help reduce conceptual mismatches and increase dynamicity in decision making. This artefact's phenomenon of tailoring in a practical industry context was informed through the tailorable design theory, as it was discussed earlier. Through this study a broader practice-based view of artefact design was promoted in the design science research. Such new and innovative artefact design created new reality, rather than explaining existing decision support reality or helping to make sense of it. Beyond the descriptive evaluation of the artefact reported in Section 5, the proposed artefact has been theoretically verified within the design science specification (defined in Table III).\n8. Conclusions and future research: This study described a design science research to address DSS development issues. The design science knowledge to artefact design has contributed to the DSS literature within the agricultural industry context, and this has the potential to overcome many of the problems of the classic DSS method as outlined (Cox, 1996). These problems were significant to agricultural industries and resulted in a marked reduction in the development of DSS, despite the clearly articulated advantages of DSS development for decision makers in this domain (Kerr, 2004; McCown, 2002). The collective DSS artefact outlined here has the potential to improve this situation and may result in a resurgence of DSS development projects in agricultural industries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The knowledge of artefact design in design science research can have an important application in the improvement of decision support systems (DSS) development research. Recent DSS literature has identified a significant need to develop user-centric DSS method for greater relevance with respect to context of use. The purpose of this paper is to develop a collective DSS design artefact as method in a practical industry context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Under the influence of goal-directed interaction design principles the study outlines the innovative DSS artefact based on design science methodology to deliver a cutting-edge decision support solution, which provides user-centric provisions through the use of design environment and ontology techniques.\nFindings: The DSS artefact as collective information technology applications through the application of design science knowledge can effectively be designed to meet decision makers' contextual needs in an agricultural industry context.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study has limitations in that it was developed in a case study context and remains to be fully tested in a real business context. It is also assumed that the domain decisions can be parameterised and represented using a constraint programming language.\nPractical implications: The paper concludes that the DSS artefact design and this development successfully overcomes some of the limitations of traditional DSS such as low-user uptake, system obsolescence, low returns on investment and a requirement for continual re-engineering effort.\nSocial implications: The design artefact has the potential of increasing user uptake in an industry that has had relevancy problems with past DSS implementation and has experienced associated poor uptake.\nOriginality/value: The design science paradigm provides structural guidance throughout the defined process, helping ensure fidelity both to best industry knowledge and to changing user contexts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Understanding the salespeople's "feedback-satisfaction" linkage: what role does job perceptions play?
|
[
"Sales force",
"Job satisfaction",
"Perception",
"Motivation (psychology)"
] |
[
{
"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.The last two decades has seen an increasing focus by sales organizations towards increasing the productivity of their sales force. This has resulted in state of the art management practices aimed at motivating and nurturing effective salespeople. Various theories and practices have been put forward by academicians to help predict the attitudes and behavioral outcomes (job satisfaction and performance, respectively) of salespeople. The effect of role stressors (Brown and Peterson, 1993, 1994; Singh et al., 1994; Singh, 1998), job characteristics (Singh, 1998), and goal orientation (Harris et al., 2005; Sujan et al., 1994) have widely been accepted as key predictors of salespeople behavioral and productivity outcomes in the sales literature. Another important linkage that has been studied in the sales management literature is the one between performance feedback and job satisfaction (Kohli, 1985). Teas and Horrell (1981) suggest the key role-played by feedback provided by supervisors and the effect it had on the level of satisfaction among salespeople. Despite extensive research done on the feedback-satisfaction linkage (Kohli, 1985; Teas and Horrell, 1981; Teas, 1983) the phenomenon is not well understood. Teas and Horrell (1981) suggest the key role-played by feedback provided by supervisors and the effect it had on the level of satisfaction among salespeople. In contrast, Teas (1983) found no relationship between performance feedback and satisfaction among salespeople. Thus the purpose of this article is to shed light on process by which performance feedback provided to salespeople help predict their levels of satisfaction with their jobs. In order to study this process, we identify two the effects of two key mediating variables of job involvement and job challenge on the feedback-satisfaction relationship.\nHypotheses development: Supervisory feedback and job challenge\nSupervisory feedback and job involvement: Job involvement is defined as \"the degree to which a person perceives his (or her) total work situation to be an important part of their life and to be central to him and his identity because of the opportunity it affords him to satisfy his important needs\" (Lawler and Hall, 1970; Ramsey et al., 1995). Kanungo (1982) defined job involvement as a generalized cognitive state of psychological identification with the job. When salespeople cease to identify with and stop caring about their job they look to move on and quit their job (Martin and Hafer, 1995). It is important to get the salespeople to identify with their job and thus feel positive about their self-image. One of the ways sales managers can make their salespeople feel positive about their self-image is to provide timely and positive feedback. Salespeople learn better ways of doing things and obtain reinforcement supporting their past action, which in turn improves their self image (Jaworski and Kohli, 1991). This positive reinforcement also enhances their job involvement. Negative feedback, on the other hand, leads to feelings of helplessness and loss of self-esteem (Seligman and Schulman, 1986; Bimmerle and Nelson, 1979). Thus, negative feedback causes erosion in job involvement.We therefore hypothesize that:H2a. Positive feedback from the supervisor leads to higher job involvement.H2b. Negative feedback from the supervisor leads to lower job involvementJob challenge and job satisfaction\nMethodology: Sample\nData analysis: Analytical approach\nResults: H1\nDiscussion: Effect of positive and negative feedback on job challenge\nIndirect effects: In addition to the direct effects discussed above, we also examined the indirect effects of positive and negative feedback on job satisfaction. We used the competing models analysis suggested by Singh et al. (1994) to study this effect. As mentioned earlier, this involved studying the direct effects of feedback on satisfaction and then introducing the mediating variables and checking for their mediational effects. Our direct effects model was in keeping with expectations. Salespeople who receive positive feedback from their supervisors were more satisfied with their jobs, while negative feedback tended to lessen salespeople's job satisfaction. The information salespeople receive via supervisory feedback serves to clarify their roles and performance (Goodman, 1977), leading to heightened satisfaction. This relationship between feedback and job satisfaction is well-documented (Brown and Peterson, 1993; Kohli, 1985; Jaworski and Kohli, 1991; Teas and Horrell, 1981; Teas, 1981), though poorly understood. The crux of our findings lay in the mediating effects of involvement and challenge, discussed below.For positive feedback, the direct positive effect on satisfaction was enhanced by an indirect effect via the positive feedback-job challenge-job satisfaction linkage (see Table IV) and the positive feedback-job involvement-job satisfaction link. Thus, positive feedback enhances the salesperson's satisfaction both directly and indirectly through its effect on the mediating variable of job challenge and job involvement.The findings for negative feedback are quite interesting. While there was a positive relationship between negative feedback and both mediating variables, the mediating variables only served to increase the negative effects of negative feedback on job satisfaction. We think that while salespeople may view the job as being more challenging and involving owing to negative feedback, the negative feedback might tend to place an enormous stress on the salespeople. We think that salespeople then may view the job as being more challenging and become more involved and use these as coping strategies to counter negative feedback. But over a period of time, when salespeople exhaust their coping resources, they are likely to experience feelings of job burnout, thereby leading to corresponding decrease in their levels of job satisfaction. Our results give credence to such a possibility.An additional interesting finding of our study was the mediating role played by job challenge. Our findings tend to shed more light on the process by which salespeople tend to react to supervisory feedback and become more involved with their jobs. Salespeople who receive positive feedback are likely to view the job as being more challenging and so consequently are likely to be more involved on their job and expend more effort on trying to be successful.\nManagerial implications: Our findings support previous research regarding the relationship between feedback and satisfaction (Brown and Peterson, 1993; Kohli, 1985; Teas and Horrell, 1981). Sales force supervisors wanting to enhance satisfaction and therefore performance should seek to provide more feedback to their salespeople. However, the way in which they provide this feedback, however, is important. For times when negative feedback is necessary, the supervisor must be sure to couch such feedback in terms that will increase the salesperson's feelings of challenge and involvement. This means supervisors must avoid personal references and stay focused on the demands of the job and how the salesperson can take negative comments as aids in identifying, and answering challenges related to the sales position.The same advice is warranted for negative feedback and job involvement. Supervisors must assure their charges that negative comments on performance are designed to stimulate salesperson's involvement in their jobs, steering them toward more professionalism. Though negative feedback has a direct, detrimental effect on job satisfaction, this effect can be attenuated by channeling such feedback through job involvement and job challenge.Supervisors can use positive feedback in a similar fashion. Our findings suggest that supervisors could enhance the already strong link between positive feedback and job satisfaction by associating such feedback with job challenge and job involvement. Such a linkage could serve to enrich the supervisor's feedback, shifting it from the domain of simple \"pats on the back\" toward supervisor-initiated development.\nLimitations: The nature of our sample makes it difficult to generalize results to sales forces in other industries. The predominance of men in these sales positions, though quite representative of the automobile industry, might obscure any gender-related issues in feedback research Schul et al. (1990). Also, the causal directions of our model, though well-grounded theoretically, cannot be supported by cross-sectional data alone. Experimental designs or longitudinal studies would be necessary to check the directions of influence.\nFuture research: This research has begun the investigation of mediating factors involved in the feedback-job satisfaction linkage. Our research has sought to broaden the extant conceptual frameworks of supervisory feedback and satisfaction, as called for by (Jaworski and Kohli, 1991). Further investigation of how job challenge and job involvement mediate the feedback-satisfaction linkage is in order. Different forms of feedback may provide different results. For example, behavioral feedback and outcome feedback may affect satisfaction differently, both directly and through the mediator variables of job challenge and job involvement. Also, supervisory feedback, which was studied here, may affect our study variables differently than would feedback obtained directly from the job or via salesperson cohorts. Another possible avenue to follow would be comparisons of sales forces that are subject to differing strategies (Viswanathan and Olson, 1992; Walker and Ruekert, 1987). Of course, additional mediating variables are possible in the feedback-satisfaction relationship. Discovering and investigating such variables would also present a useful direction for further research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to highlight the important role played by supervisory feedback on the job satisfaction experienced by salespeople. In order to address this issue, it seeks to argue that job perceptions (job challenge and job involvement) will mediate the feedback-satisfaction linkage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 250 retail automobile and truck salespersons working at 50 dealerships in a major Southwestern metroplex (five salespeople from each dealership were randomly selected for contact). A cluster sampling procedure was used to identify metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with at least two or more dealerships; dealerships were then randomly chosen from the MSAs. Items used to develop the variables were measured using seven-point Likert-type scales. Respondents' level of agreement or disagreement with each statement was assessed.\nFindings: - The findings suggest that supervisors could enhance the already strong link between positive feedback and job satisfaction by associating such feedback with job challenge and job involvement. Such a linkage could serve to enrich the supervisor's feedback, shifting it from the domain of simple \"pats on the back\" toward supervisor-initiated development.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Some of the limitations of the paper could be that the nature of the sample makes it difficult to generalize results to salesforces in other industries. The predominance of men in these sales positions, though quite representative of the automobile industry, might obscure any gender-related issues in feedback research.\nOriginality/value: - The value of the paper is that it looks at the mediating role of job perception that has not been researched enough in the past.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Interview with Sylvia Anne Hewlett
|
[
"Recession",
"Employees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Economist Sylvia Anne Hewlett is founder and president of the Center for Work Life Policy. She directs the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and is a member of the World Economic Forum Council on the Gender Gap. She is the author of nine books including When the Bough Breaks (winner of a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Prize), and, most recently, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps. Sylvia lives in New York.\nWhat inspired you to write Top Talent?: In 2006, we did a study on people who worked \"Extreme Jobs\". We did not know it then but we were taking the pulse at the top of the boom cycle. In June 2008, a few of the companies we work with on the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force asked us to come in and find out how their employees were feeling about the downturn. We extended that invitation to, at first, to financial companies and then to other \"main street\" companies. We found that people were incredibly stressed and unimpressed with how their companies were handling the impending crisis. The insights they provided were invaluable and led to a report and from that a book.\nHow do you think the recent economic downturn has affected an organization's ability to hold on to talented staff?: The recent downturn has made organization's ability to hold onto talent difficult. While people may be staying put for the moment, the minute bonuses come out or the job market loosens, which it looks like will be happening sooner rather than later, top talent will be out the door. Many firms did not do their best to manage the talent they wanted to keep or stay engaged with the regrettable losses they had to let go. The companies that were successful at doing those two things have little to worry about in the way of losing top talent.\nWhat are some of the strategies that employers should adopt to retain and engage staff?: Some of the most impactful strategies are not large programs with large budgets, but simple acts like recognizing good work. The recognition does not need to be public, though that is appreciated as well, but can be just a simple thank you note or a \"good job.\" It is also important to create what we call a \"no-spin\" zone. A place where it is safe to talk about what is happening in the company and where transparency trumps all. Many of the people we spoke with said it would have made them feel much better if news of layoffs in the company had come from their manager or head of a division instead of on TV. It is also important as a manager to not forget yourself when you are trying to be a good leader in the face of a downturn. Make sure that you are getting to the gym or talking to someone about how you are feeling. Otherwise you will not be the leader that your company or your team need you to be.\nDo you think that men and women have different reward expectations in the workplace?: The downturn has been an equalizer in terms of expectations - most people's have gotten quite low. The difference between women and men in this type of economy is that women are more likely to leave if things are looking really bad. They recalibrate at the edges and figure out what else is out there. Eighty-four percent of women in our research vs. 40 percent of men had one foot out the door. Having more women in your company, namely in management positions increases a company's bottom line.\nWould you say that staff can be overcompensated for good work, which in turn can lead you unrealistic reward expectations?: The compensation and bonus debate is a hot button issue at the moment. While that is an important issue, it is important to remember that when the dust has settled there, people will still want to be acknowledged for good work in more ways that money can provide. I cannot stress enough how important the thank you notes or off-site team lunches can be in the face of the money debate.\nIn what ways is a strong employer brand linked to staff retention?: People want to be at companies that appreciate them and that are great places for growth. People will stay at a brand which enhances their personal brand and resume. I will caution that it is more what a company does and how a company handles a situation than their brand reputation that convinces people to stay. Retention has more to do with the atmosphere and talent management, then it does brand.\nDo you think that \"Generation Y\" have different expectations of the workplace, and their intrinsic value to their employer than their predecessors?: Our research on the \"Bookend Generations\" revealed that Gen Y's value proposition in the workplace is very similar to their Boomer parents. Gen Y are for more flex in how work gets done, they see their career as more of an \"odyssey\" than a straight line to the top, and they are focused on having jobs that allow them to give back to the community either directly or indirectly. Boomers want these same things. The Boomers are also not going anywhere. The recession and a love of being in the game are keeping Boomers in the workplace. These two generations have the power to be game changers during this time of reshaping how work works.\nTo what degree do you think that a company needs to have an open dialogue with staff with regards to both company strategy and employee engagement?: The more a company is communicating the better. Dialogues are key. It is also important after a company town hall or a big announcement to have mini-town halls or debriefs to take the pulse and download what everyone heard. Announcements and the implications of those announcements are heard differently by everyone. Making sure that the core message is getting across is an important part of the debriefs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an interview with Sylvia Anne Hewlett, founder and president of the Center for Work Life Policy and Director of the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent interviewer.\nFindings: - Sylvia is a member of the World Economic Forum Council on the Gender Gap. She is the author of nine books including When the Bough Breaks (winner of a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Prize), and, most recently, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps. This interview discusses her recent publication: Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business is Down and how to engage and retain talent in the workplace.\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: - This interview provides insights into the strategies that employers should adopt to retain and engage talent and how organizations can better communicate with their employees following the economic downturn.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Briefing practice and client satisfaction: A case study of the public health infrastructure sector in South Africa
|
[
"Briefing",
"Clients",
"Facilities",
"Health care",
"Quality",
"User satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The term briefing refers to the process of capturing and processing client requirements for a building and translating these into the construction (Yu et al., 2007; Shen and Chung, 2006; Ryd, 2004; Bowen et al., 1999). According to Ryd (2004), a construction briefing can be regarded both as a product (the brief) and as a process (the briefing). Kelly and Duerk (2002) define the process more broadly as the process of gathering, analyzing and synthesizing information needed for the building process to inform decision-making and implementation. The same process is referred to as \"architectural programming\" in the USA (Yu et al., 2007) and \"concept briefing\", adopted by MacPherson et al. (1992), in the UK. Irrespective of the terminology used, process briefing is generally understood to be the process of eliciting client requirements in the construction industry. For the purposes of this study, the term briefing will be used exclusively.\n2. An overview of briefing frameworks, current practice and the quality and failings of briefing documents: The construction industry entails using the services of an external body to deliver infrastructure on behalf of a client. For this purpose, client requirements have to be elicited (briefing) and translated into design solutions that fulfill these requirements. A number of international studies assessing current briefing practices have been undertaken. In South Africa, papers by Bowen et al. (1999); Nkado and Mbachu (2002) and Mbachu and Nkado (2006) examined briefing practices within the general construction context, whilst De Jager et al. (2009) specifically assessed briefing practices for the construction of public hospitals.\n3. Conceptual framework: The conceptual framework underpinning this research is illustrated in Figure 1. This framework is based on literature by Bowen et al. (1999), which suggested that the failure of building projects to translate into client satisfaction could be linked to inadequacies in the briefing process. It also draws from De Jager et al. (2009), who stated that there was a common underlying premise (usually undefended) that drew a substantive link between the quality of the briefing process and the quality of the resulting building. De Jager et al. (2009) also stated that when experienced health facility planning professionals were used, there was far greater consistency in briefing processes and the resulting infrastructure. The framework is also based on a broad consensus in the industry that current briefing practices are inadequate and fails to deliver the intended output (Barrett et al., 1999; Kamara et al., 2001; Shen and Chung, 2006).\n4. Research methods: This study adopted a qualitative research approach. Data for the study were those of a case study of a new medical ward suite and an intensive care unit (ICU) on the site of an existing functional hospital. The project was completed and commissioned in two phases in the last quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013. The case study used in the research, which aims to provide in-depth analyses of the assumptions shown in Figure 1, was selected because there was reasonable access to a number of project participants willing to take part in the study and who had particular information at their disposal. The research participants were drawn from two main groups: those involved in planning, designing and commissioning the facility (architects, project managers, engineers and health planners: also referred to as briefing consultants) and client representatives and end-users (facilities and general management of the hospital as well as nurses).\n5. Data presentation and analysis: The responses of the project design team and client team are presented here separately and for each question posed.\n6. Discussion of findings: Previous studies have identified a persistent problem with briefing in the construction industry, showing it to be largely inadequate in delivering desired outcomes (Barrett and Stanley, 1999; Kelly and Duerk, 2002; Shen et al., 2004; Yu et al., 2005b, 2007). The available literature further suggested that the art of capturing and translating client requirements into functional spaces had by no means been perfected by the construction industry (Barrett and Stanley, 1999; Bowen et al., 1999; Kelly and Duerk, 2002; Shen et al., 2004; Yu et al., 2005b).\n7. Conclusion: Drawing on a review of existing literature and a case study of a recently constructed health-care facility in South Africa, the paper proposes a briefing framework for implementing a briefing practice and process to identify client requirements for health-care facilities. The paper further confirms the anecdotal evidence that there is a significant relationship between briefing practices and quality of briefing documents and client/end-user satisfaction in health-care facility construction. The developed framework will help the department of health in choosing a briefing process and practice which will comprehensively capture their requirements, give clear directives/information to the design consultants and result in higher levels of end-user/patient satisfaction in health-care facilities. It should, however, be noted that this study was limited to one case and that recommendations and conclusions stemming from this study may not necessarily be applicable to the broader construction sector or to all projects within this sector. Further research in a different context is therefore recommended to validate the results and conclusions made in this study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine briefing practices and whether these are related to the quality of brief documents and client satisfaction in constructed health-care facilities in South Africa. The rational for the examination stems from the view held by scholars that the briefing process is critical to the success of projects, as well as client/user satisfaction in the constructed facility, and also because of undocumented reports of client/end-user dissatisfaction in constructed health-care facilities in South Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research process consisted of a literature review to identify existing briefing framework and practices in use applicable to facilities. This was supported by an exploratory case study of a recently completed public hospital in East London, South Africa. Data collection for the study was undertaken by means of conducting semi-structured interviews with two groups consisting of client representatives and the technical design team on the project.\nFindings: The research established that in the context of this case study, inadequate client consultation took place, not all design consultants were adequately involved in the development of the project brief, limited use was made of a specific briefing framework in developing the project brief and that despite these shortcomings in the briefing process followed, a comprehensive good quality briefing document was produced and the client was satisfied with the health-care facility constructed.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this study are generalizable with health-care facilities only. As such, research inferences and projections can only be made within this set and may not necessarily be applicable to the wider construction sector or to all projects within this sector.\nPractical implications: The implications of this research are applicable to constructed health-care facilities. Practical inferences include the need to acknowledge that there is a need for a briefing framework, which should outline the involvement of all design consultants and client representatives when developing the project briefs for health-care facilities. The briefing framework is proposed for use in addressing the shortcomings in the briefing processes and practices and will also help the client in the choice of a brief process and practice which will comprehensively capture their requirements, give clear directives/information to the design consultants and will result in higher levels of end-user/patient satisfaction in the constructed health-care facility.\nSocial implications: Clients and allied professionals in charge of health-care facilities' construction are encouraged to consider the implementation of a standard framework for use in the briefing process. This reflection should encourage engagement through formative legislative provision and transparent awareness campaigns.\nOriginality/value: This work is original insofar, as it directly addresses the alignment of briefing practices to quality of brief documents and client satisfaction in constructed health-care facilities within the context of the South African construction industry. However, similar exercises have been undertaken on briefing practices in the wider construction sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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The impact of ethical leadership on organizational citizenship behavior: The moderating role of workplace ostracism
|
[
"Organizational commitment",
"Organizational citizenship behaviour",
"Ethical leadership",
"Mixed model",
"Workplace Ostracism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The relationship between ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is an important topic for understanding the effect of ethical leadership within an organization. For the past decade, researchers have explained the relationship between ethical leadership and OCB through two perspectives: social learning theory (Bandura, 1986) and social exchange theory (Blau, 1964). Ethical leaders are regarded as role models in caring for and respecting others' well-being; subordinates imitate their leaders' behaviors by becoming caring toward their coworkers and organizations (Frisch and Huppenbauer, 2014; Mayer et al., 2009). Ethical leaders treat all subordinates with respect and care that can develop high-quality affective exchange relationship between them and their subordinates, which in turn elicits OCB (Mayer et al., 2009; Newman et al., 2011). However, there are two gaps that need to be addressed.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses: 2.1 Ethical leadership and OCB: the mediating role of organizational commitment\n3. Methods: 3.1 Sample and procedure\n4. Results: 4.1 Discriminant validity\n5. Discussion: As predicted, workplace ostracism moderates the effects of ethical leadership on OCB, on organizational commitment, and the effects of organizational commitment on OCB. The results also revealed that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and OCB.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between ethical leadership and employee organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), specifically the mechanisms through which ethical leadership impacts employee OCB, and the moderating role of workplace ostracism.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study used the survey-based dyad data collected from middle management team members and their immediate subordinates in Chinese companies. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the research hypothesis.\nFindings: The empirical findings indicate that ethical leadership positively influences employee OCB. Organizational commitment mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and employee OCB. Furthermore, the effect of ethical leadership on employee OCB directly and indirectly (via organizational commitment) is moderated by workplace ostracism.\nOriginality/value: This paper adds to knowledge about the relationship between ethical leadership and employee OCB and contributes to better understand workplace ostracism.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The relationship between enduring leadership and organizational performance
|
[
"Leadership",
"Organizational performance",
"Intentions to cooperate"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The examination of leader behaviors has a long history in leadership research. Though different terminology has been used, research consistently identifies two constructs with intuitive resonance - \"concern for task\" and \"concern for people.\" Previous research examining two-factor models of leadership traditionally struggled to explain the combined effect of the two variables on individual and organizational outcomes (Yukl, 2001). Recently, Mastrangelo et al. (2004) suggested an alternative model referred to as enduring leadership as an attempt to examine organizational leadership. Using the construct of \"professional leadership\" to measure task-oriented behaviors and \"personal leadership\" to measure people-oriented behaviors, Mastrangelo and colleagues found support for a model where personal leadership mediated the relationship between professional leadership and employee intentions to cooperate.\nThe current research: The current research attempts to extend the enduring leadership model (Mastrangelo et al., 2004; Eddy et al., 2008) by examining the relationship among leader behaviors, personal attributes, and organizational performance. The enduring leadership model, depicted in Figure 1, suggests that effective leadership includes both professional leadership behaviors (i.e. setting a mission, creating a process for achieving goals, strategically aligning processes and procedures) and personal leadership attributes (i.e. demonstrating expertise, building trust, sharing with people, caring for people, and acting ethically). Further, personal leadership mediates the relationship between professional leadership and employee intentions to cooperate.\nElements of a model of enduring leadership: Figure 1 presents a model of enduring leadership. The following sections explore this model in greater detail. Throughout, study hypotheses are presented.\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for all measures are reported in Table I. Coefficient a estimates are reported along the diagonals. Tables II and III present the results of our hypotheses. H1 suggested that personal leadership would be related to the presence of employee intentions to cooperate. Table II shows that the data support H1 for both samples and reports detailed information regarding the regression analyses performed. For employee intentions to cooperate the relevant regression weight for Sample 1 was b=0.72 (t=13.02, p<0.01) and the overall R2 was 0.54 (F\nDiscussion: The current research finds that professional leader behaviors and personal leader attributes are critical precursors to employee intentions to cooperate. Further, the current research finds that employees in a high-performing organization rated professional leadership, personal leadership, and intentions to cooperate more highly than employees in a low-performing organization. Finally, the current research provides additional support for the effectiveness of a method to measure enduring leadership. The following sections explore the implications of these results on future practice, theory and research, and society.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to replicate previous findings exploring the mediating effect of personal leadership on professional leadership and intentions to cooperate, and to extend the model by examining organizational performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Employees from two school districts (one high performing, the other low performing) in New York State completed a survey designed to gather their perceptions of study variables.\nFindings: Professional and personal leadership are positively related to employee intentions to cooperate, personal leadership mediates the effect of professional leadership on employee intentions to cooperate, and employees in the high-performing organization rated all study variables higher than employees in the low-performing organization.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations include predictor and outcome data both collected from the same respondents and all measures collected via survey. Both of these issues raise concerns with regards to common method bias, though actual performance data was gained from a separate source.\nPractical implications: Managers should focus on developing both professional (i.e. providing direction, process, and coordination to members) and personal (i.e. demonstrating expertise, trust, caring, sharing, and ethics) behaviors to enhance.\nSocial implications: The current study's findings are compelling and supportive of prior research (Mastrangelo et al., 2004; Eddy et al., 2008). Both professional and personal leadership have an important impact on employee intentions to cooperate, and personal leadership mediates the relationship between professional leadership and employee intentions to cooperate. Leaders should focus on enhancing these behaviors in order to positively impact organizational success. Most compelling is the power of personal leadership. A greater emphasis on expertise, trust, caring, sharing, and ethical behavior in teaching and practicing leadership will undoubtedly lead to more enduring leadership.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides confirmatory evidence for the value of the leadership model put forth by Mastrangelo et al. (2004) and extends the model to include other important outcomes. An examination of leader behaviors at high-performing organization and low-performing organization uncovers ways managers can enhance their leadership behaviors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Funding challenges of Latin American women start-up founders in the technology industry
|
[
"Latin America",
"Entrepreneurial ecosystem",
"Entrepreneurship",
"New high-technology ventures",
"Start-Up Chile accelerator",
"Women start-up founders",
"L26",
"J16",
"J24"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the last 50 years of expansion and consolidation of market systems as an economic development strategy, particularly in developing countries in Latin America and Asia, the private sector and entrepreneurial activity have experienced fast expansion as important drives of economic activity and robust growth. Market economies in developing countries have significantly improved living standards and the well-being of people. But in spite of solid progress, some obstacles persist and require attention in research and academic literature. Of particular concern is the participation of women in entrepreneurial activity and specifically how to facilitate women entrepreneurs to have access to capital to start business ventures and secure business sustainability in the long run. This paper analyzes the evolving role of women entrepreneurs in start-up[1] programs and how women promote innovation in emerging ecosystems in developing countries. \"This new business model,\" as it is called, has potential to transform obsolete and inefficient market performance into more competitive approached helping women increase participation in entrepreneurship with higher impact in economic growth and broadening opportunities in inclusive societies.\n2. Literature review: This section reviews literature on external sources of financing and business growth, capital needs, and the role of networks in fundraising opportunities. It also provides an overview of entrepreneurial development and contribution to economic growth of ecosystem in Latin American countries, focusing on \"Start-Up Chile\" acceleration program.\n3. Methodology: The analysis covers the challenges women founders face to create and fund technology start-ups in Latin America. The information was extracted from a database of participants in a six months acceleration program conducted by \"Start-Up Chile,\" a public agency of the Department of Economics of the Chilean Government responsible for promotion of entrepreneurship. The study examines the role of gender among Latin American women founders raising funds to start business ventures and equity capital. The methodology is qualitative and inductive following a constructive approach. This study derived from a broader project conducted by the authors of this paper between 2014 and 2015 to explore the experiences of women entrepreneurs in technology in diverse geographical areas with special emphasis in Latin American founders.\n4. Results: The three themes identified above are explained and supported by direct quotations. These three categories emerged naturally from the interviews with women start-up founders. The network topic was considered in the original script and the interviewer emphasized it.\n5. Discussion: The study has shown a comprehensive picture of the experience of women start-up founders raising capital in the tech industry after participating in the Start-Up Chile acceleration program. The main themes are grouped in three categories: capital needs, networks, and individual characteristics.\n6. Conclusion: The purpose of this study is to explore funding opportunities for women start-up founders who participated in the accelerator Start-Up Chile. The main interest was to examine the role of the gender and conditions of Latin American women founders while raising capital to grow their companies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Women in entrepreneurship can have a significant impact on economic and social development globally and particularly in developing countries. But the challenges entrepreneurial women face are unique and multiple, pressing the need for research and policies to maximize impact. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges women start-up founders face to secure funding in the technology industry. The tech industry was selected because it is a non-traditional industry for women with high potential for role models to bridge an existing gap in information on women start-up founders to secure capital financing to attain business sustainability. It covers venture capital investors' role, Latin American cultural reasons, and gender.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on an inductive, qualitative approach and in-depth interviews with 20 women entrepreneurs and start-up founders from Latin American countries who received support from the Chilean Government sponsored accelerator \"Start-Up Chile.\"\nFindings: The analysis uncovered ten aspects that impact entrepreneurial women founders' access to capital in three categories: capital needs, networks, and individual characteristics.\nOriginality/value: This study identifies factors that affect women entrepreneurs in raising capital and in facing the following challenges: first, working in a non-traditional field for women as it is the technology industry, and second assuming a leadership role as start-up founders. The results offer recommendation with potential to drive public policies in Latin America, which may be scalable to other developing and also to developed countries where market systems prevail. The findings show that women entrepreneurs, but also men, seeking start-up financing and alternatives are a viable source of employment and economic sustainability to mitigate the effects of increasing levels of unemployment worldwide.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Hospital accreditation: staff experiences and perceptions
|
[
"Quality improvement",
"Quality assurance",
"Accreditation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Accreditation is an external review process designed to assess how staff perform in relation to established standards (Shaw, 2004). An external, specially trained group performs an announced survey to assess compliance with predefined standards. Accreditation's primary objective is to ensure and stimulate high quality and safe care (Braithwaite et al., 2010). Hospital accreditation systems operate in many countries (Greenfield and Braithwaite, 2008). Accreditation is a quality management mainstay, yet accreditation effects on service quality are debated, i.e., providers argue that accreditation is compelling, improves quality and helps staff to organise and strengthen patient safety (The Joint Commission, 2016; Nicklin, 2015; Institut for Kvalitet og Akkreditering i Sundhedsvaesenet, 2009). Opponents argue that accreditation is resource intensive, bureaucratic and takes time from clinical work (Triantafillou, 2014). In Denmark, this debate culminated in the national accreditation programme's dramatic termination in 2015 (Sundheds-AEldreministeriet, 2015).\nMethod: Context\nFindings: Implementation and compliance through the accreditation cycle\nDiscussion: We investigated hospital staff experiences and perceptions of how accreditation affects service quality. We found that DDKM served, in part, as a framework for continuous QI in hospitals and that previously neglected processes were addressed. Yet, staff did not perceive that clinical processes directly addressed by DDKM were improved, which corroborates previous studies demonstrating that DDKM generally did not improve care processes in the long term (Bogh et al., 2016). An existing management focus on clinical areas covered by clinical registries explains why DDKM did not improve processes in these areas. This finding explains why an earlier study found no association between accreditation and care process improvements when voluntarily accredited and non-accredited Danish hospitals were compared (Bogh et al., 2015). Moreover, our findings do not indicate that DDKM improved care processes beneath target values, as shown in the earlier research (Bogh et al., 2016).\nLimitations: Our findings enrich understanding from previous accreditation studies by explaining why Danish healthcare accreditation did not contribute to improved care. Although we believe that our results are relevant to other settings, our study's limitation is the relatively small sample. However, the interviews provided rich material with diverse responses from different professionals and after six interviews, no new information emerged indicating data saturation. Another limitation is that we conducted the interviews after the accreditation programme was terminated, which likely introduced recall bias. However, informants seemed easily to recall and share their experiences, and their statements were congruent. Additionally, honest answers were more likely because the accreditation model was already terminated when we conducted the interviews. Findings from improvement initiatives are context dependent and thus not always transferrable (Ovretveit, 2011; Fulop and Robert, 2015). Conversely, DDKM comprises well-described and standardized interventions that are based on accreditation principles established by the International Society for Quality in Healthcare.\nConclusion and recommendations: Hospital staff should acknowledge that accreditation is a daunting task that involves the entire organisation. It critically reviews the whole hospital, including areas that are often neglected. While accreditation dominates hospital staff agendas, sometimes at patients' and other improvement initiative's expense, improvements cannot be expected in departments with mature QI. Yet, accreditation creates organisational foundations for future QI initiatives. Healthcare leaders and quality improvers should put effort into integrating accreditation programmes with other improvement initiatives in their organisations. Even more importantly, they should monitor their organisations for accreditation side effects.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how staff at various levels perceive and understand hospital accreditation generally and in relation to quality improvement (QI) specifically.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In a newly accredited Danish hospital, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews to capture broad ranging experiences. Medical doctors, nurses, a quality coordinator and a quality department employee participated. Interviews were audio recorded and subjected to framework analysis.\nFindings: Staff reported that The Danish Healthcare Quality Programme affected management priorities: office time and working on documentation, which reduced time with patients and on improvement activities. Organisational structures were improved during preparation for accreditation. Staff perceived that the hospital was better prepared for new QI initiatives after accreditation; staff found disease specific requirements unnecessary. Other areas benefited from accreditation. Interviewees expected that organisational changes, owing to accreditation, would be sustained and that the QI focus would continue.\nPractical implications: Accreditation is a critical and complete hospital review, including areas that often are neglected. Accreditation dominates hospital agendas during preparation and surveyor visits, potentially reducing patient care and other QI initiatives. Improvements are less likely to occur in areas that other QI initiatives addressed. Yet, accreditation creates organisational foundations for future QI initiatives.\nOriginality/value: The authors study contributes new insights into how hospital staff at different organisational levels perceive and understand accreditation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Obstacles to socioeconomic integration of highly-skilled immigrant women: Lessons from Quebec interculturalism and implications for diversity management
|
[
"Quebec",
"Diversity management",
"Highly-skilled immigrant women",
"Interculturalism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For the past two decades, Quebec has adapted its immigration policy to counter the consequences of an ageing population, and a transition toward the \"knowledge economy.\" It is in this context that increasing the inflow of young, highly-skilled and Francophone immigrants became a short-term as well as a long-term strategy (Quebec, 1990). However, despite high education levels, recent immigrants experience many obstacles to socioeconomic integration. Unemployment rates, income gaps and levels of deskilling exceed those of the native-born as well as that of older immigrant cohorts (Reitz, 2007a, b; Arcand et al., 2009). Factors explaining these difficulties are well documented in the international literature concerning highly-skilled immigration and include: the non-recognition of foreign diplomas and skills, the lack of experience on the local job market, the lack of certain social networks or difficulty accessing them and finally, prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination (Reitz, 2007a,b; Syed, 2008; Arcand et al., 2009). Although there is an increasing amount of research on the specific obstacles faced by immigrant women in certain national contexts, what is less explored is the specific issues they face in the workplace, as well as the different HR and diversity management approaches that can facilitate their socioeconomic integration. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we explore how the socio-political context contributes to obstacles faced by highly-skilled immigrant women (HSIW) in Quebec with regards to their socioeconomic integration, in an effort to better inform decision makers with regards to integration policy. Then, based on this, we offer insights into how decision makers in organizations can review their human resource and team management practices in order to better integrate this group, by applying the principles of interculturalism. We do so by offering a selective review of the academic literature on immigrant integration, interculturalism and diversity management, then applying it to the case of HSIW in Quebec.\nQuebec immigration policy and highly-skilled immigrants' socioeconomic integration: Canada is a nation built on successive waves of immigration, based on economic and nation-building needs (Walker, 2008), and to this, the province of Quebec is no exception. In 1967, a points-based selection process based on individual characteristics was implemented to encourage skilled immigration. This policy encouraged recruitment in non-European countries and further diversified the origins of new Quebecers. In 1968, Quebec created its own Ministry of Immigration and began to control the selection of economic immigrants. In 1986, clear goals were established to increase the influx of economic immigrants, goals reiterated and reinforced in 1991 to promote the demographic, economic and linguistic development of Quebec with the help of young, educated and Francophone immigrants (Quebec, 1990).\nObstacles to highly-skilled immigrants' employment success in Quebec: The barriers to socioeconomic integration of immigrants to Canada are well documented (Reitz, 2007a) and resemble those faced by highly-skilled immigrants internationally (Syed, 2008). First, non-recognition of foreign diplomas and skills is an important obstacle for this population (Reitz, 2005). In Canada, professional orders and colleges often require years of retraining, or the taking of expensive tests in order to allow immigrants to practice in their field (Action travail des femmes (ATF), 2009). This may be worse in Quebec than in other provinces such as Ontario (ATF, 2009). For other professions, government bodies may not always grant equivalencies that reflect the levels expected by the immigrants (ATF, 2009). The lack of precise criteria to evaluate diplomas can be particularly problematic (ATF, 2009). Even with these equivalencies, employers might be reticent to hire immigrants with foreign diplomas because they do not know the actual value of their diplomas and may want to avoid the \"risk\" of making a bad decision (Reitz, 2001).\nThe Quebec context: interculturalism and immigrant integration: Quebec's policy of interculturalism can be characterized as a \"hybrid\" between Canadian multiculturalism and French republicanism. Canadian multiculturalism recognizes that Canadian society is a pluralist one and considers all cultures to be equal. Unlike the US \"melting pot\" or France's republican approach, Canadian multiculturalism encourages the preservation of ethnic identities (Houle, 1999). Interculturalism can be seen as a bridge between multiculturalism and more assimilationist approaches, attempting to avoid ghettoization, exclusion and/or assimilation (Arcand, 2006). This approach encourages open dialogue, reciprocity and respect between cultural communities, without implying that all values are equal, and always with the recognition that there is a majority group. In this approach, integration is conceptualized as a two-way process, requiring both efforts from newcomers to adapt to certain facets of Quebec culture and values, and from established Quebecers to show openness and a willingness to embrace diversity (Bouchard, 2012). In the Quebec context, the majority group is of French descent and shares a certain number of values, which it wishes to preserve (Bouchard and Taylor, 2008). These values include French as the common language of public life, democracy, pluralism, secularism and gender equality (Bouchard, 2012).\nImplications for diversity management in organizations: Quebec's desire to promote equality and to integrate its diverse population into the workforce is illustrated by the fact that most of the public sector, as well as organizations that receive contracts from the Quebec government, are subject to equal opportunity legislation. However, this legislation has failed to ensure adequate representation of ethnic minorities in the public sector. A detailed critique of such programs has been done elsewhere (Chicha and Charest, 2013). We note one important limit: as with such legislation elsewhere in the western world, it does not explicitly target immigrants, nor is it well equipped to deal with the intersections of various identities such as race and gender (Syed, 2008).\nConclusion: In conclusion, we have provided an overview of the main obstacles to highly-skilled immigrants' socioeconomic integration in Canada and in Quebec, both in general and pertaining to women in particular. Then, we turned to elements of the socio-political context in Quebec and how it can contribute to creating or maintaining such obstacles. Policy makers can help eliminate such obstacles by continuing to implement employment equity legislation in general, and by taking steps to better understand the needs of HSIW, but the process also requires organizations, especially human resource and team managers, to review their practices in order to be more inclusive. Guidelines to do so exist, notably in the managing diversity literature, but we have shown that applying the principles of interculturalism provides a larger framework to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of obstacles to socioeconomic integration faced by highly-skilled immigrant women (HSIW) to Quebec, followed by a discussion of Quebec's socio-political context and interculturalism, in an effort to better situate these obstacles. With these in mind, implications for diversity management are discussed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is largely based on a review of the immigrant integration, interculturalism and diversity management literatures pertaining to the socioeconomic integration of highly-skilled immigrants. It focusses on the socioeconomic integration of HSIW in the Quebec context.\nFindings: The authors find that researchers should continue to examine aspects of the social and political contexts in which immigrant integration and diversity management take place when conducting studies in these areas. The authors also encourage continued research pertaining to specific groups, as these may bring to light-specific dynamics that can lead to exclusion.\nPractical implications: This paper includes implications for diversity management in organizations seeking to foster inclusive practices with regards to ethnic minorities and immigrants in general, and HSIW in particular.\nOriginality/value: The paper sheds new light on immigrant integration and diversity management in Quebec by bridging the gap between three areas of study that are interconnected but seldom discussed together: socioeconomic integration of immigrants, interculturalism and diversity management in organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Service-dominant orientation, dynamic capabilities and firm performance
|
[
"Dynamic capability",
"Co-creation",
"Partial least squares",
"Strategy",
"Service-dominant logic",
"Firm performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The transition from a goods-centric approach of value creation to a service-dominant logic of value co-creation has gained traction in the last decade (Vargo and Lusch, 2016). Indeed, companies such as IBM consider service-dominant logic as a lens through which to view approaches to compete (Lusch et al., 2008; Maglio and Spohrer, 2008; Maglio et al., 2009). These companies experiment with practices such \"continuous service delivery\" within which they seek to integrate more effectively customers in new service development and delivery processes. How they shape strategically their marketing and technological capabilities to do so successfully remains challenging, however. In response, research that concerns operational matters that relate to a service-dominant logic and to co-creation, in particular, has flourished. For instance, previous studies have investigated co-creation in innovation (e.g. Vargo et al., 2015), micro-financing (Sun and Im, 2015), healthcare (Mccoll-Kennedy et al., 2012), experience sharing (Chen et al., 2012), culture (Akaka et al., 2013) and brand community (Skalen et al., 2015) contexts.\nPrior literature, hypothesis development, and the conceptual model: We combine research on service-dominant logic with resource-based and dynamic capability thinking to improve our understanding of the performance implications of a firm's service-dominant orientation, and the role of ordinary marketing and technological capabilities as well as dynamic capabilities in this relationship. Figure 1 provides an overview of our conceptualization.\nMethodology: Data collection, response pattern, and respondents\nResults: To test the model's explanatory power regarding the impact of service-dominant orientation on marketing and technological capabilities and ultimately performance, we examined the coefficient of determination (R2) (see Table III). For the complete model (Model 3), the R2 values were acceptable (Chin, 1998): marketing capabilities 0.35, technological capabilities 0.33, and firm performance 0.33. Furthermore, since the Stone-Geisser Q2 values for the two ordinary capability constructs and performance are greater than 0, the model shows adequate prediction validity (Henseler et al., 2009). Finally, according to the SRMR value of 0.097 (drawing on composite modeling approach) the model has good fit (Hair et al., 2014). Furthermore, Power analysis using D*Power 3.1 (Faul et al., 2009) exhibited high statistical power above the cut-off of 0.8 (Cohen, 1988), which increased our confidence in the findings.\nDiscussion: This paper presented three hypotheses suggesting that the effect of a firm's service-dominant orientation on performance is mediated by its ordinary capabilities and that dynamic capabilities affect this relationship. More specifically, building on dynamic capabilities theory as well as service-dominant logic, learning and resource-based literature, we proposed that service-dominant orientation has a non-linear, increasingly positive relationship with marketing and technological capabilities, which in turn positively affect firm performance, and the impact of service-dominant orientation is conditioned by the firm's deployment of dynamic capabilities. We further argued that service-dominant orientation does not have a direct effect on firm performance, but is rather mediated through marketing and technological capabilities. We tested our hypotheses empirically and found support for H1a and H1b, H2a, and H3a.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of a firm's service-dominant orientation on marketing and technological capabilities, and its performance. It outlines how a service-dominant orientation offers guidance for the development and deployment of ordinary capabilities, and indirectly affects performance. Additionally, it delineates how dynamic capabilities affect the impact of a service-dominant orientation on ordinary capabilities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Partial least squares structural equation modeling drawing on data from 228 firms serves to assess hypotheses relating service-dominant orientation and dynamic capabilities with firm performance.\nFindings: The results indicate that marketing and technological capabilities fully mediate the relationship between a firm's service-dominant orientation and firm performance. Furthermore, the positive marginal effect of a firm's service-dominant orientation on its marketing capabilities increases with the firm displaying a stronger service-dominant orientation. In addition, the positive effect of service-dominant orientation on marketing capabilities reduces the more the firm deploys dynamic capabilities.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because of the cross-sectional sample, future studies could adopt longitudinal research designs to explore the impact of a service-dominant orientation on ordinary capabilities and performance, or investigate the applicability of the findings in other contexts.\nPractical implications: The findings imply that implementing a service-dominant orientation can be beneficial for firms. However, because the impact of such an orientation weakens the greater a firm's dynamic capabilities, managers need to be mindful of this trade-off.\nOriginality/value: The study is the first to establish a link between the dynamic capability view, originating from strategy research, and service-dominant logic, stemming from marketing thinking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Towards zero management learning organisations: A honey-bee perspective
|
[
"Learning",
"Total quality management",
"Japan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The antecedents of learning organisations are rooted in history; however, the advent of quality initiatives early in the last century and their more widespread use post-World War II, particularly among Japanese companies that attracted widespread attention. However, many Western industrialists only began to take advantage of an integrated quality approach seriously towards the end of the 1960s as quality Japanese products began to displace familiar brands on Western shelves. Quality circles were all the rage by this time, which developed into total quality management (TQM) by the early 1980s with its many supporters believing it to be universally applicable to organisations and activities alike. As a result, TQM is in danger of being inappropriately implemented and ineffective. In their zeal, proponents have failed to recognise the importance of identifying its limitations and deficiencies. In fact the marketing of TQM as a commodity had taken on a life of its own that has led increasingly towards highly rational techniques and pre-packaged approaches and away from selectively incorporating it to fit the specific situational requirements encountered. The recent enthusiasm for transferring the lessons learned from manufacturing-based TQM to service organisations illustrates this point, as a number of authors have asserted that traditional TQM approaches can be directly transferred without modification (Deming, 1986; Schonberger, 1992), while others such as O'Keeffe (1984) and Cameron (1986) believe that organisational effectiveness hinges on the capacity to balance the conflicting goals of stability and reliability with those of exploration and innovation. Managers can gain competitive advantage from this apparent paradox if they are able to recognise the fact that the everyday situations they confront inevitably involve both the exercise of control with a capacity to learn. Further, the effectiveness of an organisational learning approach requires individuals who can overcome this apparent paradox by achieving an acceptable balance between action and the paradoxical nature of effectiveness.\nSummary: Organisational learning is increasingly becoming a live issue in academic circles and conferences. The driving force behind this development is the concept that organisations need an effective learning capability if they are to succeed in a complex, competitive and changing environment. The learning organisation has become indicative of some desirable end state that is associated with survival in a changing world. It supersedes such terms as quality circles (QC), just in time (JIT), world class manufacturing (WCM), total quality management (TQM), integrated technologies (IT), focus factory (FF) and business process re-engineering (BPR) type organisations. The learning organisation, like all management labels, is as much in peril from prescriptive solutions and assurances as any other concept. Except here we are not concerned with putting forward ideal characteristics of successful organisations, but in exploring the potential value of our understanding and knowledge of the process of organisational learning. Learning is a term taken from psychology meaning a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of practice or experience.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This research paper is a distinctive element of an empirical study on learning organisations carried out between 1999 and 2002. It seeks to examine a whole range of issues that seem to permeate higher-performing organisations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study design utilised both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.\nFindings: - The core tenet of learning organisations is an ability to learn continuously while the subject of learning is learning itself. Within effective organisations the learning process is directed not towards procedures, principles or objectives in themselves, but towards understanding per se. This study found that within learning organisations the entire business ecosystem is one huge classroom and the leader who is capable of effectively harnessing the collective ingenuity of his employees will simply blow the competition away.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research was undertaken in large to very large multinational organisations and may not apply equally to those small to medium enterprises struggling for survival.\nPractical implications: - One of the outcomes from this research is the development of a new web site that allows individuals, groups or organisations to cost-effectively identify training and development deficiencies from the comfort of their own office or work stations.\nOriginality/value: - This paper addresses the everyday concerns of companies striving for superior performance and effective utilisation of resources. By comparing a very complex concept like learning organisations with the cross-functional activity within a beehive, the author hopes to stimulate further debate on the true nature of leadership within high-performing organisations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Tracing the evolution of the literature on knowledge management in inter-organizational contexts: a bibliometric analysis
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Inter-organizational relationships",
"Networks",
"Alliances",
"Literature review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past two decades, plenty of studies have highlighted that firm-specific knowledge constitutes the most strategically important source of competitive advantage (Spender and Grant, 1996) and that firms are platforms where processes of creation and applications of knowledge occur (Spender, 1996). Moreover, as firms began to open their boundaries to seek and establish inter-organizational relationships with partners, scholars have also directed their interest to the increasingly important role played by such relations as sources of knowledge to fill internal knowledge gaps and respond to competitive and innovation challenges (Bojica et al., 2018). However, to successfully benefit from external knowledge deriving from this kind of open innovation approach, a firm requires management capabilities to align inbound knowledge flows with the firm's in-house innovation activities (Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke, 2015). Therefore, knowledge management (KM) in inter-organizational contexts has become increasingly relevant.\n2. The interplay between knowledge management and inter-organizational relationships: The role of KM to foster value creation and organizational competitiveness has been stressed for decades in the organizational literature (Spender and Grant, 1996). Accessing and absorbing knowledge is an essential capability for any organization in a dynamic environment characterized by agile new entrants with state-of-the-art technological and knowledge bases (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990). From a theoretical standpoint, the relevance of knowledge to organizations and the ability to manage it led to the development of the knowledge-based theory of the firm (Grant, 1996). This approach extended previous resource-based perspectives and argued that the success of firms strongly depends on their knowledge-based resources and how they use and develop them (Grant, 1996; Spender and Grant, 1996).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample selection\n4. Results: 4.1 Overview of sampled articles on knowledge management in inter-organizational contexts\n5. Discussion and avenues for future research: Our purpose in this article was to examine the evolution of the literature on KM in inter-organizational contexts. Applying bibliographic techniques, we focused on analyzing and tracing the evolution of the conceptual structure of the field over time by examining three temporal periods.\n6. Conclusions, implications and limitations: This article aimed to trace the evolution of the literature on KM in inter-organizational contexts with the purpose of identifying the bases and core topics upon which this body of literature developed, as well as the emerging issues that have entered this field of research over time and those that still deserve further investigation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Based on the growing interest devoted to knowledge management (KM) in inter-organizational contexts, the purpose of this paper is to systematize existing literature and understand how it developed over time, thus tracing its roots and evolution to unveil gaps and suggest new promising areas for future research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used bibliographic techniques to analyze a sample of 85 studies along three main periods (1998-2010, 2011-2014 and 2015-2019). In particular, this study focused on co-occurrences of keywords to identify the most dominant themes, as well as connections among these themes.\nFindings: Overall, the review shows the main outlets that have published papers on the topic of KM in inter-organizational contexts, as well as the theoretical background this research builds on. The temporal analysis exhibits the core topics that have persisted and grown consistently over time as the links between KM, innovation and networks. In addition, the review highlights new emerging themes, such as the human and social side of KM, and new interesting contexts of study (e.g. coopetition and open/user innovation), which opens exciting avenues for new research opportunities.\nOriginality/value: This study illustrates the conceptual structure of the field in three distinct periods and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the key topics and their interrelatedness within the area of KM in inter-organizational contexts. Both researchers and practitioners can profit from the study because it reveals consolidated topics while identifying areas that still need to be investigated to foster KM in inter-organizational settings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Determinants of on-the-job training in enterprises: the Russian case
|
[
"On-the-job training",
"Product market competition",
"Russian business",
"Innovative activity",
"Investment in human capital",
"Training intensity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction[1]: On-the-job training is an integral part of the ongoing education and replenishment of human capital. According to economic theory and empirical studies, participation in training increases the competitive ability of both the employees and the enterprises. Therefore, it is logical to study the mass investments of enterprises in the education of their employees. In the majority of developed countries, for example, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Austria, the percentage of employees engaged in retraining is high (Bassanini et al., 2007). In Russia, the situation is different. A large percentage of enterprises states that they have professional development programs (46.2 per cent in 2012); yet at the same time, the share of employees engaged in retraining is significantly small (13.8 per cent in 2012[2]).\n2. On-the-job training in Russia: Data assessments for Russia differ considerably, not only between different years but also between different surveys. The displacement effect is a result of the differences between surveys, when samples are focused on different industries. It is not easy to measure training; a study in the USA has shown that employer estimates of training volumes are about a quarter higher than those of the employees of their enterprises (Barron et al., 1997). Russian enterprises often use on-the-job training as a means of solving short-term or current problems but not for the long-term development of employees and the enterprise as a whole (Ardichvili and Dirani, 2005).\n3. Data: This paper uses the IIELM database[9]. The sample covers the year 2003 for enterprises located in major Russian cities and is representative by industry, which enables a comparison between industries. This information comes from interviews with company executives (or HR managers). The database includes small (up to 100 employees), medium-sized (100-500) and large (more than 500 employees) enterprises, but it does not include companies with fewer than 30 employees. This makes the sample biased toward medium-sized and large enterprises. This exaggerates the figures for companies that provide training in comparison with the situation in the economy as a whole because we do not expect to see significant training in microenterprises. The sample does not include organizations in the health, education and public administration sectors. This can lead to an underestimation of the amount of training that is conducted, as most public workers are required to undergo training every three years. The IIELM database is otherwise well suited to the goals of current research. It allows an assessment of the provision of training, taking into account the influence of various characteristics of enterprises and HRM strategies. In addition, a comparison of data obtained using this database and the data of the Russian Federal State Statistics Service does not reveal substantial divergences that would indicate to us that our database gives a significantly biased picture.\n4. Factors affecting the scope of training in Russia: 4.1 Methodology\n4. Conclusion: It is difficult to overestimate the importance of on-the-job training. Companies that train their employees usually get a competitive advantage. Numerous peculiarities of the Russian labor market have a direct influence on the volumes of on-the-job training. Our suppositions regarding the factors influencing companies' decisions to invest in the development of the professional knowledge and the skills of their employees have been proven. For instance, a higher share of employees with higher education reduces the need to provide additional training in basic skills, although the misalignment between the curricula of educational institutions and the employers' requirements for young employees means new employees require training before they start doing any work.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to determine the influence of various enterprise characteristics on on-the-job training. The paper focuses mainly on identifying the influence of a firm's innovative activity, technological capacity for manufacturing and product market competition on its likelihood of having a training program and on training intensity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors administered a firm-level survey to a sample of 2,000 Russian enterprises. This survey includes questions about on-the-job training and key information about the companies' activities. Probit and ordered probit estimates are used in the statistical analyses.\nFindings: The results indicate that an enterprise's provision of training is determined largely by firm-specific factors, such as its innovative activity, technical and technological state of manufacturing and product market competition. The authors adopt two widely used measures of training: incidence and intensity. Innovative activity and the technical and technological state of manufacturing are decisive factors in explaining a firm's provision of training, as they have a strictly positive effect on both the incidence and the intensity of training. Product market competition has a positive effect on the incidence of training and a negative effect on the intensity of training.\nOriginality/value: This paper is original because it assumes that the process of deciding whether to implement a training program at an enterprise and the corresponding proportion of employees involved in training is built on the presupposition that the training intensity decision is made in two stages. This paper is the first to present estimates of on-the-job training intensity based on data from Russian enterprises.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Organisational learning and leadership styles in healthcare organisations: An exploratory case study
|
[
"Leadership",
"Organisational learning",
"Performance",
"Health context",
"Portugal"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The competitive pressures of the present environment (Rijal, 2010), the growing dynamism and uncertainty of markets, the increasing rate of technological development (namely in the field of information and communication) (Rebelo and Gomes, 2008), and other political and social factors have called for the development of new and effective organisational forms (Cacioppe, 1998; Gunasekaran, 2004). According to Dodgson (1993) and Amitay et al. (2005), these mutations of endogenous and exogenous origins arise constantly in organisations and these are dynamic, almost omnipresent processes which are frequently continuous.These global transformations are particularly important in current health policy. As noted by Ojha et al. (2002), over recent years, health organisations have undergone a change of paradigm. In Portugal, health organisations face a continuous challenge to successfully translate quality improvements into sustainable competitive edge. Like people, these organisations should learn in order to adapt successfully to the ever-changing situation. From this perspective, health organisations should be prepared to respond to changes, and therefore, the basic requirement of any organisation is its capacity to learn throughout its life. It is in this context that researchers as well as practitioners have started to believe that organisations should move away from adaptive learning to generative learning (Singh, 2010). Shukla (1997) emphasises the importance of learning in organisations surrounded by a qualitatively changed environment due to economic globalisation.In fact, a tool that can facilitate an organisation's process of adapting to changes in the current competitive climate is \"organisational learning\", which can be considered as the precursor of change (Rousseau, 1997; Sher and Lee, 2004; Ipe, 2003; Amitay et al., 2005; Rijal, 2010). In this study, a \"learning organisation\" is defined as an organisation skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge and at modifying its behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights (Garvin, 1993). Organisational learning has also been viewed as a process through which an organisation continuously acquires new knowledge and adjusts itself to successfully adapt to internal and external environmental changes and to maintain sustainability and development (Chen, 2005). Thus, in this study organisational learning is considered as long-term activities that build competitive advantages over time and require sustained management attention, commitment and effort.As noted by Stata (1989), learning is especially important for organisations in knowledge-intensive industries such as the health sector where the rate at which an organisation learns should be greater than the rate at which its general and task/operating environment changes (Singh, 2010). This sector was chosen for our study because improving organisational performance through learning has been a critical factor for organisational survival due to the sector's rapid technological advances and highly competitive markets (Rijal, 2010). Thus, healthcare organisations are an ideal context for this study, because they not only represent a knowledge-intensive sector, but also provide particularly complex services.Senge (1990) identified a different role for leaders of learning organisations. Similarly, several authors (Johnson, 1998; Prewitt, 2003; Sandler, 2003; Rijal, 2010) have emphasised the important role leadership plays in the development of the learning organisation. Leaders can therefore have an influential role in providing the organisation with a climate favourable to continuous learning, change, flexibility, innovation and responses that are adjusted to mutations in the environment (Cacioppe, 1998; Amagoh, 2009). In this view, leadership refers to people's ability, using minimum coercion, to influence and motivate others to perform at a high level of commitment (Bass, 1985, 1999). A learning organisation hence requires a leader who brings out the best in others, leadership that is more adaptive and flexible (Rijal, 2010).While there are several definitions of leadership, in essence leadership is an act of motivating people to act by non-coercive means (Popper and Lipshitz, 1993). Here, we defined leadership as a multi-dimensional process involving multiple members across organisational levels in exerting influence on health promotion imperatives (Barrett et al., 2005).Despite the amount of interest in the topics of organisational learning and leadership, at the moment there is a limited amounted of empirical research (Easterby-Smith, 1997; Garvin, 2000; Popper and Lipshitz, 2000a). This situation is found even more in the context of health organisations (Witt, 1993). Little has been done to examine the relationship between leadership and organisational learning in the health context. Day (2000) and Vassalou (2001) state that few authors have studied practices in health organisations that facilitate construction and spread of knowledge. Dowd (2000) also adds that the first studies about organisational learning in the sphere of health were provided by the area of nursing.To our knowledge, only Popper and Lipshitz (2000b) and Amitay et al. (2005) carried out studies aiming to identify the mechanisms for organisational learning and leadership styles in health organisations. Study of Portuguese health organisations is similarly lacking. Our research question, therefore, is: How does leadership style affect organisational learning? In order to address this subject, the main aim of this study is to understand the phenomenon of organisational learning and leadership styles in a Portuguese healthcare organisation called Naturidade, and which comprises two units of continuous care. More specifically, this study aims to identify this organisation's leadership style and the foundations for the level of organisational learning performance. For Amitay et al. (2005), additional aspects of leadership that are conducive to organisational learning have yet to be analysed and empirically investigated. Thus, this paper is innovative as it deals with the conjunction of leadership and organisational learning in the health care sector.The article is organised as follows. The next section gives a theoretical overview of the main aspects of organisational learning and leadership and demonstrates that this interface provides a useful framework to explain organisational performance in the health context. Section 3, based on a qualitative approach, presents methodology and data from a single Portuguese case in the health sector. Section 4 presents and discusses findings, paying special attention to organisational learning and leadership styles. Finally, section 5 concludes, puts forward suggestions for health leaders and practitioners, and presents some limitations of the study.\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Organisational learning and the learning organisation\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Type of study\n4. Findings and discussion: 4.1 Characterisation of respondents/participants\n5. Conclusions and implications: In the current climate, it is important that health organisations are prepared to face change, and the need therefore exists for them to strengthen their capacity to respond accordingly. In this connection, developing organisations' learning capacity is the basic requirement for them to consolidate professional competences, teamwork and form democratic relationships with leadership. To be transformed into a \"learning organisation\" an organisation needs its leader's support. Thus, the objective of our study was to understand the role and association of leadership and organisational learning in a Portuguese healthcare organisation.Based on the results obtained, in terms of management, a \"selling/persuading\" leadership style was identified in the organisation studied where, according to Hersey and Blanchard (1969, 1979, 2001), there is concern with task behaviour (defining tasks, deadlines and patterns of action) and with relationship behaviour (facilitating group interaction, supplying information, being open to change, decisions supporting the group, concern about people, etc.).Still in terms of management, the study showed that least marked dimension/component of organisational learning in management policy was culture. In addition, this study also confirmed that in this health organisation there is a relationship of influence between leadership style and performance level of organisational learning. From another angle, it was found that the dimensions where top management gave less emphasis (culture) were those which revealed a lower level of performance. This fact corroborates the statement that there is a relationship between the dimensions on which the organisation's learning is based and those which increase the learning capacity.In this study, the implications for practitioners are particularly evident. There is a common premise among managers, researchers and consultants that due to globalisation, intensified competition and rapid changes in technologies, customers' priorities and so forth, organisations' ability to learn fast and effectively becomes crucial for their adaptability and survival. In practice, systematic efforts by organisational leaders to create and maintain learning in organisations have been practically marginal. The study shows not only the kind of dimensions necessary for organisational learning to occur and be effective, but also exemplifies the role of certain leader behaviours in organisational learning in the health context.This paper also provides several insights and managerial implications, in terms of organisational learning and leadership. Thus, we present some recommendations:* It is important that health managers/leaders recognise the value of learning as a continuous collective process. Productive organisational learning is important for both the organisations and for the quality of working life.* Health organisations that engage in organisational learning enable staff at all levels to learn collaboratively and continuously and put this learning to use in response to social needs and the demands of their environment.* Leadership practices are important in developing specific training programs (technical as well as behavioural) in order to help collaborators articulate a shared organisational vision that is task-oriented, inspiration-oriented and communication-oriented.* The role of leader is crucial to help all collaborators to establish certain mechanisms of organisational learning, as well as encouraging the staff to act in ways that seem helpful in making the vision operational within health organisations.This study has some limitations. One of the main limitations concerns the fact that this study is restricted to just one case/organisation (study of a single case). Although this type of investigation approach provides wide and specific knowledge, it implies results and implications only for one particular case which cannot be generalised. Thus, future studies should extend the research to different kinds of organisations, addressing different purposes, environments, workforces, and so forth.Another suggestion for future research would be application of this study, after some time, in order to confirm if the organisation studied here or others evolve towards a high level of organisational learning performance. Also the adoption of direct observation as a methodological procedure to allow more detailed and thorough study in this area of investigation should be considered. Despite these limitations, we nevertheless believe the results obtained and the conclusions drawn from this study can form a valuable contribution towards understanding the subject of organisational learning and leadership in health organisations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to understand the association between organisational learning and leadership styles in the healthcare context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative approach was applied in two continuous care units in the same Portuguese healthcare organisation (single case study). Data were obtained from a survey of 28 collaborators and an interview with its manager-leader/general director. Documental analysis was also used.\nFindings: - The findings attested to the central role of organisational learning and leadership in organisational performance/effectiveness within healthcare organisations. Different levels of performance were identified in the organisation selected. The practical implications of findings are also discussed.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study of a single case has been analysed, with the consequent disadvantage of not considering generalisation. For this reason, further research should be carried out to detect structural and cultural differences in healthcare organisations. On the other hand, most of the writing on organisational learning and leadership is conceptual, so this empirical study was important.\nOriginality/value: - Despite the vast quantity of studies in the domain of leadership and organisational learning, very little work associates these two topics. Taking into account the relevance of these research topics for healthcare organisations, the findings give additional support to the argument that leadership plays an important role in instilling organisational learning in the healthcare sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Accounting and the business of sport: past, present and future
|
[
"Accounting",
"Valuation",
"Commercialisation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The value of sport has rapidly escalated in recent decades, to the point that sport now plays a central economic and cultural role in many societies around the world. Major sporting competitions and events are now multi-billion-dollar international concerns (e.g. The Olympic Games, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, the Professional Golfers' Association and Association of Tennis Professionals tours, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the Indian Premier League and the English Premier League). These and other major national and international sporting contests are rapaciously \"consumed\" (e.g. memberships, game-day tickets and spending, broadcast subscriptions, merchandising and sports tours) by large and enthusiastic audiences. The broad appeal and high visibility of a range of sports also make them highly coveted by advertisers, sponsors, broadcasters and compelling opportunities for governments to spend billions annually on elite athlete development, high-performance programs, stadia and other sporting infrastructure. More than ever, sport is valued not purely for the contest itself but also its various commercially valuable by-products.\n2. The rise of professional sports: The sports world has experienced astronomical increases in the salaries paid to their players. In 1947, the average American baseball player earned $11,000 per year, a little over four times the average worker's pay. By 2018, that figure had grown to $4,410,000, while the average US worker earned $64,678 - a ratio of almost 70 to one (Duffin, 2019; Gough, 2019). Many factors have driven the skyrocketing salaries across a wide range of sports. Since the 1960s, money has entered sport in huge waves in the form of broadcasting rights, corporate advertisers/sponsors, gate receipts from arenas/stadiums and merchandising sales. With its immense global audiences, sport has become a privileged vector of communication for businesses wishing to improve their brand and international awareness and conquer new markets (Ratten, 2016). More than ever, it is prized not purely for the contest itself but also its various commercially valuable by-products such as broadcasting rights and coverage in the press and electronic media. In recent decades, sporting organisations (e.g. clubs, leagues and federations) have become transformed from non-profits to enormous commercial entities. Each year, direct and intermediate finance has become a more prominent feature of sport (Andreff, 2000). These factors have fuelled a dramatic spike in athlete salaries since the 1990s that has, in turn, focused attention on salary cap mechanisms.\n3. Accounting research in sport: the score thus far: The rapid rise in the commercial value of sport has seeded a diverse stream of research in accounting. In this section, we review the growing body of literature on the nexus between accounting and professional sport, with a view to highlighting important insights highlighted in the literature to date. Our reading of this research has led us to identify three broad themes that assist in synthesising this work: financial regulation and assurance; commercialisation and professionalism; and accountability and control in the business of sport. The character of these research themes, and extant research aligned with them, will each be discussed in turn.\n4. Articles in this issue: This AAAJ Special Issue showcases four other papers investigating disparate areas of the sporting ecosystem. These papers both broadly align to, and make important contributions to knowledge about, the previously discussed research themes on accounting and the business of sport. This section overiews the contributions of these other papers in this AAAJ Special Issue, and highlights their connection to extant research themes in accounting and the business of sport.\n5. Conclusions and future opportunities: The surge of commercialisation of sport, the rapid internationalisation of the sports labour market, the growing sums of money paid for broadcasting rights of big sporting events, the attraction by large sponsors as well as the direct private investment by the world's financial elite have all contributed to the swelling economic and social importance of sports. The role of accounting in sport has grown hand-in-hand with increasing professionalisation in a mutually reinforcing manner. Abbott (1988, p. 325) provocatively argues that accounting is now \"far more socially important\" than traditional professions like medicine and law, and accounting, as a regulator and financial arbiter, has been a key lever in the financialisation of sport. In short, more than ever, accounting, performance measurement and financialisation exerts profound influence on professional sport.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine prominent issues and knowledge contributions from research exploring the nexus between accounting and the business of sport, overview the other papers presented in this AAAJ Special Issue and draw from this work to scope out future impactful research opportunities in this area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review and examination of the prior literature and the other papers published in this AAAJ Special Issue.\nFindings: The paper identifies and summarises three key research themes in the extant literature: financial regulation and assurance; commercialisation and professionalism; and accountability and control. Then it draws from work within these research themes to set out four broad areas for future impactful research.\nResearch limitations/implications: The value of this paper rests with collating and synthesising several important research issues on the nexus between accounting (broadly defined) and the business of sport, and in prompting future extensions of this work through setting out areas for further innovative accounting research on sport.\nPractical implications: The research examined in this paper and the future research avenues proposed are highly relevant to administrators and regulators in sport. They also offer important insights into matters of accounting, accountability, valuation and control more generally.\nOriginality/value: This paper adds to vibrant existing streams of research in the area by bringing together authors from different areas of accounting research for this AAAJ Special Issue. In scoping out an agenda for impactful research at the intersection of accounting and sport, this paper also draws attention to underexplored issues pertaining to the rise of integrity and accountability concerns in sport, strategic choices in financial regulation, valuation issues and practices and the rise of technology in sport.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managing bioethanol supply chain resiliency: a risk-sharing model to mitigate yield uncertainty risk
|
[
"Cassava",
"Bioethanol supply chain",
"Risk-sharing",
"Yield uncertainty"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As a promising alternative to fossil fuels and a solution to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, bioethanol is playing an increasingly important role in global society in the past decades (Li and Hu, 2014; Ba et al., 2016; Meyer et al., 2016). This issue is especially important in China, the largest primary energy consumer and emitter of GHG in the world (Ye et al., 2018). In recent years, China has launched programs to promote the production of bioethanol to meet the ever-increasing energy consumption and to achieve the GHG emissions reduction target. Figure 1 shows that China's production of bioethanol is increasing rapidly in previous years. However, bioethanol is still a source of renewable energy that is generally underutilized in China. The production of bioethanol in 2015 is only 2.3m tonnes, which is still significantly lower than the 10m tonnes target in 2020 (Ye et al., 2017).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Supply chain resilience\n3. Problem formulation: We consider a cassava-based bioethanol supply chain consisted of a bioethanol company that produces cassava-based bioethanol and n small-scale farmers that supply cassava following the contract farming scheme. Using a pre-harvest agreement, the bioethanol company and farmers decide the conditions governing the sale of the cassava, such as time and location of sales, quality and price.\n4. Empirical analysis: From the above analysis, it can be seen that, though it can be proved that there exists the optimal-order quantity and input quantity of cassava, the closed-form solutions for them, however, cannot be obtained due to the random demand and yield environment. Thus, it is very difficult to get the relationships among the parameters and the optimal decisions and profits intuitively. Therefore, in this section, we perform numerical examples to reveal how the demand and yield uncertainty impact the company and the farmers' optimal decisions and profits in three models, so as to manifest the feasibility and advantage of the proposed risk-sharing model and provide managerial insights for practitioners.\n5. Discussions and conclusion: To increase the production of cassava-based bioethanol to achieve the sustainable development of China, increasing the supply of cassava is the first step. In this paper, we investigate the decision-making behavior of a bioethanol production company and cassava planting farmers on the cooperation of contract farming scheme for the supply of cassava and production of bioethanol. Two decision models, namely, centralized model and decentralized model, are first analyzed as the baselines for the supply chain. Then, taking the real practices and characteristics of contract farming scheme into consideration, a risk-sharing model is proposed to coordinate the decision-making behavior of the players in the cassava-based bioethanol supply chain. Moreover, the effects of yield uncertainty risk, different risk-sharing coefficients and randomly fluctuating cassava market price on the optimal decisions and profits are analyzed. To show the advantage and feasibility of the proposed risk-sharing model, the decisions and profits derived using the proposed risk-sharing model are compared with those derived using the centralized and decentralized models.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a risk-sharing model to coordinate the decision-making behavior of players in a cassava-based bioethanol supply chain under random yield and demand environment, so as to mitigate the yield and demand uncertainty risk and improve the bioethanol supply chain resiliency and performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The decision-making behavior under three models, namely, centralized model, decentralized model and risk-sharing model, are analyzed. An empirical test of the advantages and feasibility of the proposed risk-sharing model, as well as the test of yield uncertainty risk, risk-sharing coefficients and randomly fluctuating cassava market price on the decision-making behavior and performances are provided.\nFindings: Though the proposed risk-sharing model cannot achieve the supply chain performance in the centralized model, it does help to encourage the farmers and the company to increase the supply of cassava and achieve the Pareto improvement of both players compared to the decentralized model. In particular, these improvements will be enlarged as the yield uncertainty risk is higher.\nPractical implications: The findings will help decision makers in the bioethanol supply chain to understand how to mitigate the yield uncertainty risk and improve the supply chain resiliency under yield and demand uncertainty environment. It will also be conducive to ensure the supply of feedstock and the development of the bioethanol industry.\nOriginality/value: The proposed risk-sharing model incorporates the yield uncertainty risk, the random market demand and the hierarchical decision-making behavior structure of the bioethanol supply chain in the model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Antecedents to effective sales and operations planning
|
[
"Sales and operations planning",
"Market orientation",
"Organizational integration",
"Supply chain orientation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Regardless of targeted strategic goals, desired performance outcomes such as market share, customer satisfaction, and profitability are ultimately driven by successful integrated planning and execution of supply and demand (Dougherty and Gray, 1987). Sales and Operations Planning (S\n2. S&OP: Organizations must consistently meet customer expectations. The marketing concept elevates customers as the focal point to unite marketing activities with all organizational functions (Felton, 1959). Kohli and Jaworski (1990) propose the term market orientation to reflect how every employee must become customer-centric in their specific job duties (Fugate et al., 2008), representing reduction of traditional departmental boundaries and emergence of cross-functional integration (Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Kirca et al., 2005). Still, cross-functional integration, including links with operations and supply chain, is difficult to achieve given independent and sometime adversarial departments in the organization. Limited coordination between sales and operations leads to isolated decisions where one functional area benefits at the expense of another (Grimson and Pyke, 2007). This silo effect leads to demand and supply mismatches (Esper et al., 2010), impelling inter-departmental connectedness as a key antecedent for market orientation (Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Kirca et al., 2005).\n3. Constructs and hypotheses: The proposed research model (Figure 1) seeks to validate how S\n4. Methods: We tested the hypotheses via a survey of management-level practitioners who currently and regularly participate in S\n5. Discussion and implications: The results confirm the antecedents of effective S\n6. Limitations and future research: Overall, the research results provide a strong start to empirically identify the antecedents of effective S\n7. Conclusion: Ultimately, S\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Sales and Operations Planning (S\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on agency theory and stewardship theory, the authors develop and test a conceptual model that includes organizational integration, organizational priorities, standardized processes, and organizational engagement. The authors apply partial least squares structural equation modeling of survey data from S\nFindings: The results confirm the relationships among S\nPractical implications: The findings create a strong practical foundation for executing S\nOriginality/value: Existing research supports the potential performance impacts of S\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A business model for uncertainty management
|
[
"Uncertainty management",
"Performance measurement (quality)",
"Benchmarking",
"Modelling",
"Business environment",
"Manufacturing industries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The fast changing and uncertain manufacturing environments in the twenty-first century require enterprises to be agile and responsive in the conditions of change and uncertainty. Agile manufacturing can be defined as the capability to survive in an environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively to changing markets, driven by customer-designed products and services (Gunasekaran, 1998). Manufacturing responsiveness relates to the ability of manufacturing systems to make a rapid and balanced response to the predictable and unpredictable changes that characterise today's manufacturing environments (Gindy, 1998). Uncertainty can be defined as unpredictable events in manufacturing environment that disturb operations and performance of an enterprise (Koh and Saad, 2002). Some studies had referred to this uncertainty as disturbance (Lindau and Lumsden, 1995; Frizelle et al., 1998; Saad and Gindy, 1998). Regardless of the terms used, this research complemented each other in a way that aims to minimise the effects, as uncertainty and disturbance will result in unpredictable change in a manufacturing environment.In the new economy that thrives business excellence, it is no longer enough for enterprises to just being able to survive and sustain their positions in the competitive market. In today's twenty-first century manufacturing enterprise, customers demand shorter lead time, near perfect or even perfect delivery service, reduction of product life cycles and increasing customisation. Hence, they must rapidly improve their enterprises' performance, and adapt to change and uncertainty, showing to their shareholders and customers that they are at the forefront of the economy. Taking corrective action in minimising the effects of uncertainty may not be agile and responsive to uncertainty, because the effects may have already propagated to other parts or schedules in manufacturing, which will subsequently result in product tardy delivery.The problem, which was examined in this paper, is how can a twenty-first century manufacturing enterprise manages uncertainty using a more holistic approach, considering the diverse range of uncertainties that could disturb the production.\nLiterature review: This problem has driven much research to examine suitable techniques to manage uncertainty. Comprehensive review of research in this area can be found in Guide and Srivastava (2000) and Koh et al. (2002). These review suggested that past researches use a range of buffering or dampening techniques to tackle uncertainty. Through a questionnaire survey, Koh et al. (2000b) reinforced this finding and also showed that practitioners use similar techniques. Safety stock and safety lead-time were found to be robust to various uncertainties. However, a clear solution for a certain type of manufacturing environment has not been identified.Through simulation experiments, Pandey and Hasin (1998) proposed the use of process lead-time adjustment to tackle scrap and rework in manufacturing due to the difference between planned scrap level and actual scrap level. The process lead-time adjustment technique was limitedly applied to reduce scrap level, but further exploitation of the technique can be made to tackle other uncertainties.Grubbstrom and Molinder (1996) suggested the use of safety production plans to deal with demand uncertainty. The safety production plans incorporate the consideration of safety stock and safety lead-time, were derived from Laplace transform methodology (LTM). It was identified that as uncertainty in demand on the highest level of a multi-level system increases over time, it amplifies the uncertainty in the current production schedules at the lower levels. Despite the fact that there might well be time to reschedule the top-level plan before it is realised, they proposed that it is important to capture the effects of cumulative uncertainties in external demand at the highest level. Hence, they suggested that the future cumulative demand uncertainties have to be dampened by using safety production plan.Sridharan and LaForge (1989) examined the impact of safety stock on schedule instability, cost and service. It was concluded that efforts to reduce set-up costs and improve forecast accuracy are useful techniques to buffer or dampen schedule instability. Their simulation results suggested that safety stock should be used with caution if it is introduced for the purpose of stabilising schedules. They reported that more nervousness might be produced when using safety stock. It was identified that safety stock is ineffective when demand is highly uncertain.These review showed that researchers are proposing and practitioners are prepared to provide suitable buffering or dampening techniques to deal with the changes caused by uncertainty in manufacturing enterprises. The current approach in managing uncertainty prevents further examination on why such uncertainty exists and it does not enable a holistic approach to manage the underlying causes. A holistic approach means being able to dynamically consider the possible uncertainties and the causes, and to diagnose the significant underlying causes with reference to the effects on product tardy delivery, before suggesting the suitable buffering or dampening techniques.Performance measurement and benchmarking are the main techniques that have been used by many leading researchers and practitioners on improving enterprises' performance (Camp, 1989; Zairi, 1998; Davies and Kochhar, 1999; Gunasekaran et al., 2001; McAdam and Kelly, 2002). Neely (1998) suggested that measuring performance of enterprises would enable areas of improvement to be prioritised and actions to be taken. It was found from several simulation studies (Koh and Saad, 2002, 2003) that some of the effects of uncertainty on product tardy delivery are difficult to measure and this was called the compound effect. The main findings were that product tardy delivery cannot be measured by sequentially summing the total tardiness resulted during the production, because the same product may have been delayed by several different uncertainties, and the effects during the production will affect other products that share the same resources to be delayed. Therefore, the effects of uncertainty on product tardy delivery could be compounded. Hence, the buffering or dampening techniques will only protect the effects of uncertainty on product tardy delivery to a partial level.We do not need to measure everything that can be measured; we only need to measure things that matter. Following with these concepts in bridging the research gaps identified from the review, we applied a business model for holistic uncertainty management for the twenty-first century manufacturing enterprises in the new economy.\nBusiness model: A business model that structures and relates uncertainty in cause-and-effect was developed, verified and validated using a combinatorial methodology of questionnaire surveys, analytical experiments and simulation experiments (Koh and Saad, 2002). Figure 1 shows the business model for holistic uncertainty management. The business model consists of 46 underlying causes of uncertainty and 20 effects, which are contributed towards product tardy delivery.The aim of the business model was to accentuate the underlying causes of uncertainty that significantly affecting product tardy delivery in certain manufacturing environment, so that a manufacturing enterprise could prioritise the attention in finding the suitable buffering or dampening techniques to manage the causes that matter. It was hypothesised that certain types of manufacturing environment will experience similar significant underlying causes of uncertainty, based on previous study (Koh et al., 2000a) that also found mixed-mode (MM) manufacturing environment suffers from a greater effect of uncertainty than make-to-stock (MTS) and make-to-order (MTO) environments. Therefore, we envisaged that the underlying causes of uncertainty in a specific manufacturing environment might have similar effects on product tardy delivery.The hypothesis of this research can be written as: Equation 1 Equation 2 where m1 is the significant uncertainty in MM environment, m2 the significant uncertainty in MTS environment, m3 is the significant uncertainty in MTO environment.The business model was applied in this research in two ways:1. to collect data from manufacturing enterprises in MM, MTS, MTO environments, and2. to analyse the effects of the underlying causes of uncertainty (structured in the business model) on product tardy delivery in MM, MTS and MTO manufacturing environments.The data that were collected are in the forms of percentage contributions of the underlying causes of uncertainty (structured in the business model) on product tardy delivery. The lower the percentages, the lower the contributions on product tardy delivery, and vice-versa. A questionnaire survey was used to collect the data and a sample of 126 UK manufacturing enterprises were contacted and sent the questionnaire. Questionnaire survey was used for this purpose because it generally enables vast amount of quantitative data to be collected. A total of 108 UK manufacturing enterprises responded, and 65 of these were interviewed in order to validate the responses in the survey.Not only the survey attempted to find whether these enterprises experience similar significant underlying causes of uncertainty and have similar effects on product tardy delivery, a range of other business environmental factors including size of the enterprise, the type of industry sectors that the manufacturing enterprise is competing in, the variety of the product range, the complexity of the product and hence its production process, the number of parts that need to be dealt with in planning and production, the ratio of bought-out vs made-in parts, use of rough cut capacity planning to determine capacity requirement, and the extent of use and satisfaction of buffering or dampening techniques and philosophies were also examined. The aim of this examination was to give further insights on other influential factors that may affect the findings. To holistically manage uncertainty in a manufacturing enterprise, not only the knowledge of which underlying cause of uncertainty are likely to result in product tardy delivery do needs to be known in advance so that appropriate buffering or dampening techniques can be applied, the business environmental factors of the enterprise also need to be considered because these may affect the decisions on the buffering or dampening techniques. Cluster analysis was carried out using SPSS statistical package to infer the survey results in this aspect.Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out using SPSS to analyse the effects of the underlying causes of uncertainty (structured in the business model) on product tardy delivery in MM, MTS and MTO manufacturing environments. To prove the alternative hypothesis (H1) that certain types of manufacturing environment will experience similar effects of underlying causes of uncertainty, or, different manufacturing environment will experience different effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery, the ANOVA results will have to show a significant difference (p<0.05) that the underlying causes of uncertainty have an effect on product tardy delivery. Correlation analysis was also carried out in SPSS to infer the linear associations of the relationships of underlying causes of uncertainty to product tardy delivery. The correlation analysis will also identify any linear association between the underlying causes of uncertainty. A 95 per cent confidence level was used in the correlation analysis. The aim of the correlation analysis was to show that effects of uncertainty on product tardy delivery might be difficult to quantify due to the compound effect.To enable continuous improvement in delivery performance, the level of product tardy delivery (minimum amongst the enterprises in the specific manufacturing environment) of the best-performed manufacturing enterprise will be benchmarked. The business environmental factors of the benchmarked enterprise will become the best practices, which can then be learnt and adapted by enterprises in similar manufacturing environment.\nResults, analysis and discussions: Significant uncertainty\nConclusions and implications: This paper presented the application of a business model for uncertainty management in the new economy for twenty-first century manufacturing enterprise. A questionnaire survey was carried out to the UK manufacturing enterprises to collect data in order to prove the hypothesis that product tardy delivery is significantly affected by different underlying causes of uncertainty in different manufacturing environments (MM, MTS and MTO). The study also examined whether the underlying causes of uncertainty are linearly correlated to product tardy delivery. Further examination was also made to show whether different business environmental factors have any influential effect on product tardy delivery performance in a manufacturing enterprise.ANOVA results confidently proved the hypothesis, and it can be concluded that different manufacturing environments suffer different effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery. The product tardy delivery performance in MTO manufacturing environment was found significantly affected by a wide range of underlying causes of uncertainty. It was interesting to find that MM manufacturing environment has an opposite outcome. This could be due to the effective use of buffering or dampening techniques in the sample used. Further analysis will be made in investigating the types of techniques and how they were applied in such environment.Correlation results provided significant evidence that underlying causes of uncertainty do not have linear association with product tardy delivery. This finding reinforced the proposition that the effects of uncertainty were difficult to quantify due to the compound effect. The significant correlations between some underlying causes of uncertainty further suggested that the effects were compounded and cumulating the total percentages of product tardy delivery as a form of performance measure was inadequate in managing uncertainty.It can be concluded from the cluster analyses of the business environmental factors of the manufacturing enterprises in MM, MTS and MTO environments that size of enterprise, product variety, product complexity, number of parts, ratio of buy vs make parts, the use of rough-cut capacity planning, and the use of buffering or dampening techniques in production, influence the effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery.A holistic approach for managing uncertainty was required and hence we proposed the use of the business model for uncertainty management. It can be concluded that the application of the business model has provided useful knowledge to MM, MTS and MTO manufacturing enterprises on which underlying causes of uncertainty were significantly affecting their product tardy delivery performance. Using this knowledge, the enterprises could then prioritise the effort and devise suitable buffering or dampening techniques. The importance of prioritising the effort in managing uncertainty was stemmed from the finding that there is no linear correlation between underlying causes of uncertainty and product tardy delivery. Hence, reducing the level of a certain underlying cause may not reduce the level of product tardy delivery. The benchmarking of the best practices was to provide a means for continuous improvement, particularly when the knowledge of the significant uncertainty will be shared and the knowledge on influential business environmental factors can be learnt and adapted.To thrive for business excellence in the new economy, this research showed that a holistic approach such as the business model gives a solid foundation for enterprises to evaluate their performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - To present the application of a business model for holistic uncertainty management for twenty-first century manufacturing enterprises.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire survey is carried out to UK manufacturing enterprises to collect relevant data, and analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis and cluster analysis are performed to infer the results.\nFindings: - It can be concluded that different manufacturing environments suffer different effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery. The product tardy delivery performance in make-to-order (MTO) manufacturing environment is found significantly affected by a wide range of underlying causes of uncertainty. It is interesting to find that mixed-mode (MM) manufacturing environment has an opposite outcome. Correlation results provide significant evidence that underlying causes of uncertainty do not have linear association with product tardy delivery. This finding reinforces the proposition that the effects of uncertainty are difficult to quantify due to the compound effect. The cluster analyses of the business environmental factors of the manufacturing enterprises in MM, make-to-stock (MTS) and MTO environments found that size of enterprise, product variety, product complexity, number of parts, ratio of buy vs make parts, the use of rough-cut capacity planning, and the use of buffering or dampening techniques in production, influence the effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Only UK manufacturing enterprises are investigated. The results will be relevant to MTO, MM and MTS manufacturing environments.\nPractical implications: - The application of the business model has provided useful knowledge to MM, MTS and MTO manufacturing enterprises on which underlying causes of uncertainty are significantly affecting their product tardy delivery performance.\nOriginality/value: - A holistic approach such as the business model has given a solid foundation for the enterprises to evaluate their performance. Using the knowledge of significant underlying causes of uncertainty, the enterprises could then prioritise the effort and devise suitable buffering or dampening techniques.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Corporate social responsibility: perspectives of hotel frontline employees
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Organizational identification",
"Hotel frontline employees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While interest in, and practices of, corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the hospitality industry are growing, our current understanding of CSR in the hospitality literature is limited (Sheldon and Park, 2011). In the hotel industry, environmental efforts or \"greening\" have dominated CSR activities, given the cost-saving nature of green practices such as linen and towel re-use programs or installation of energy and water-efficient guestroom fixtures (Levy and Park, 2011).\nLiterature review: Corporate social responsibility and hospitality industry\nMethod: The survey was pre-tested with 15 business school faculty and graduate students to achieve more brevity and clarity, and then distributed via email to an online panel of hotel employees in the US. Recipients were confirmed panel subscribers of Qualtrics, the company that distributed the survey on our behalf. Participants were limited to a predetermined, customized respondent group -hotel employees throughout the US. The online survey was open from September 20 to November 18, 2011, and the potential respondents were reminded of participation three times during that time. We included screening questions to select hotel frontline employees -those who reported having a high or medium level of guest interactions, and having non-managerial and non-supervisory responsibilities. As a result, 575 responses in total were used for this study. Respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions of CSR activities of the hotel where they currently work, level of OI, and demographic information.\nResults: As shown in Table I, the respondents were currently employed at hotels full-time (70.1 percent) or part-time (29.9 percent) in various positions (e.g. food and room service, front desk/customer service, casino, maintenance). The average age of respondents was 38 (SD=12.6), and nearly three-quarters were female. Respondents had five years (SD=7.43) of work experience at their current hotel on average and over eight years (SD=5.16) in the hotel industry. Over 60 percent of the respondents had not obtained college degrees. No significant correlation was found between demographic variables (i.e. industry tenure, organizational tenure, age, gender) and OI, unlike the results of studies in non-hospitality industry contexts (e.g. Riketta, 2005).\nImplications and conclusion: In this study, we examined how frontline employees perceive CSR activities of the hotels where they currently work, and how their perceptions influence the way they identify with the hotel. As frontline employees are ambassadors and practitioners of organizational values, beliefs, and norms, their attitudes and behavior toward the hotel not only influence job performance and the firm's performance, but also their own wellbeing as a community member where the hotel operates.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine hotel frontline employees' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities at the hotel they currently work, and how their perceptions influence their level of organizational identification, an indicator of their relationship quality with the hotel.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses 575 responses of hotel frontline employees in the US, collected through a national online survey.\nFindings: Results show that hotel employees' perceptions of CSR activities encompass the host community, colleagues, and customers, beyond green practices. Moreover, their perceptions of CSR activities positively and significantly influence the level of organizational identification.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this exploratory study should not be generalized to all frontline employees in the US hotel industry. Future studies should extend this study to examine potential relationships among other variables relevant to organizational identification, and in other hospitality industry contexts. Also, this study does not seek to question the merits of CSR per se, as it takes a managerial perspective to assist hoteliers' understanding of and decision-making on CSR.\nPractical implications: As CSR activities often represent company values and norms, frontline employees' perceptions of them can influence how they identify with the company, which is an impetus for their attitudinal and behavioral support to help achieve the company's goals. Accordingly, CSR activities can be a critical tool in engaging frontline employees to achieve better performance and derive more meaning in their careers, and in attracting good quality employees.\nOriginality/value: This study is a first attempt to empirically examine how CSR activities can benefit hotel employees, based on various literatures on service-profit-chain, CSR, and social identity theory.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Managing knowledge for quality assurance: an empirical study
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Product quality",
"Variance",
"Quality assurance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Knowledge management has attracted an increasing attention to management scholars and practitioners in past decades. The management of knowledge and the effective utilization of knowledge are becoming essential for businesses to remain profitable in new product development. There are five phases in the knowledge management process and each is very important in its own way: acquiring knowledge, codifying knowledge, disseminating knowledge, developing knowledge, and applying knowledge (Van Zolingen et. al., 2001). When a firm develops new products, the process includes knowledge acquisition, knowledge innovation, knowledge protection, knowledge integration and knowledge dissemination (Lee and Yang, 2000). Various definitions exist for knowledge management, but the most acceptable one is a transformation process of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in order to facilitate flows of organizational knowledge (Schulz and Jobe, 2001; Lubit, 2001). In this sense, organization, strategy, and people have become central issues in knowledge management. It has been recognized that IT implementation alone does not result in the success of knowledge management (Brown and Druid, 1998). In our thinking, knowledge management is a framework within which the organization views all its processes as knowledge processes. In line with the growing interests in knowledge management, researchers are paying attention to product quality assurance (e.g., Kuratko et al., 2001; Lin and Wu, 2005). Quality is crucial in measuring new product performance. Quality is defined as providing what the customer expects in products or services. For the firms carrying out new product development projects, products quality assurance has become a priority in their management agenda. However, these firms face significant problems in achieving their goals. First, evolving market needs make products obsolete quickly. Firms face more intensive competition than ever before. Second, competition via new product launches intends to enhance firms' performance in their own product endeavors, but it has the unintended effect of exposing consumers to newness on a widespread scale (Redmond, 2002). As a result of this exposure, consumers are habituated to a continuous flow of new products and services and accept them more readily than in the past. Product development has become a dynamic capability of the firms, because of its ability to alter the resource configuration of the firms (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). Several studies have suggested that knowledge management is a potential strategy for these firms because it enables them to maintain dynamic capability and come up with the evolving market expectations aimed at achieving competitive advantage and continuous improvement in quality.To explore the impact of knowledge management on new product quality, it seems necessary to first discuss knowledge acquisition and dissemination which are the starting and ending point respectively in knowledge management process (Lee and Yang, 2000).Knowledge acquisition\nTheoretical background of the link between knowledge management and new product quality: Resource based view is employed as the theoretical basis in this study. It stresses that a firm's resource endowment can be a source of profits as long as these resources are heterogeneous in the same industry (Amit and Schoemaker, 1993; Wernerfelt, 1984; Barney, 1991). The resource based view offers interesting insights on the link between knowledge management and new product quality assurance. Penrose (1959) suggested that resources are valuable only to the extent that they can deliver valuable services. The most critical resources are no longer the traditional tangible assets, but intangible dynamic capability to achieve enhanced performance (Teece, 2000). One reason for the keen attention placed on product quality is because of its critical relevance for delivering superior customer value, which is the cornerstone of competitive advantage (Day and Wensley, 1994). Barney (1991) emphasized the stock of knowledge as a potential source of sustained competitive advantage. In new product development, knowledge has become the most important intellectual capital. The effective management of knowledge is an intangible resource for new product quality assurance. Resource based view offers answers to the questions of why knowledge management can contribute to the new product quality assurance.Knowledge is the raw material of product development. For complex projects, knowledge from multiple technical and functional domains is a necessity (Curtis et al., 1988). Ideally, a product design team is staffed so that both the levels and the distribution of knowledge within the team match those required for the successful completion of the projects; as a result, the quality product can be developed. Successful product development is a function of the degree of information transferring and sharing between marketing and R&D (Moenaert and Souder, 1990). The logic is that effective participation of both marketing and R&D reduces decision-making uncertainty and enhances product quality outcomes (Parry and Song, 1993; Gupta et al., 1985).This study aims to examine the form of the relationship between new product quality and knowledge acquisition and dissemination variables. In particular, it seeks to identify a potentially more accurate relationship between new product quality and knowledge acquisition and dissemination variables (i.e. the cost of knowledge acquisition, level of knowledge acquisition from customers, availability of knowledge dissemination facilities, and participation of employees in knowledge dissemination) by relaxing the model linearity assumption. I operationalize knowledge acquisition in two dimensions - the cost of knowledge acquisition and the level of knowledge acquisition from customers, and knowledge dissemination in another two dimensions - the availability of knowledge dissemination facilities and the participation of employees in knowledge dissemination. Three control variables are also included, including innovation-marketing fit, process management, and competitive intensity, to account for internal and external factors respectively that may influence the relationship between knowledge acquisition and dissemination and new product quality. First, the fit between product innovation and market expectations enables the firms to develop highly innovative products and introduce products that meet customer needs more effectively. Second, effective process management is postulated to have an impact on quality performance through reduction of process variance where the quality knowledge is acquired and disseminated. Third, there exists a direct link between the level of competition in the marketplace and the level of new product failure (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1986).\nMethods: Sample and data collection\nData analysis: To model the relationship between new product quality (Quality), and the cost of knowledge acquisition (KACT), the level of knowledge acquisition from customer (KALV), the availability of knowledge dissemination facilities (KDAV), the participation of employee in knowledge dissemination (KDPT), innovation-marketing fit (MINM), process management (MPRC), and competitive intensity (MCMP), Quality was regressed on KACT, KALV, KDAV, KDPT, MINM, MPRC, and MCMP using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression. The R2 of the regression model is 0.628 and all independent variables except for MPRC are insignificant at the 5 percent significance level (see Table II). One of the possible explanations might be that there exists a non-linear relationship between knowledge management factors and product quality.One way to solve non-linear problems is to use additive models that replace the linear function by a non-linear function as follows: Equation 1 A popularly used tool to find non-linear function fj is the Alternating Conditional Expectation (ACE) algorithm developed by Breiman and Friedman (1985). ACE is a nonparametric tool using scatterplot smothers in an iterative fashion to find the maximally correlated transformation of variables. Additionally, this algorithm allows one to transform the response variable y at the same time. Thus the relationship between the dependent and independent variables are as follows: Equation 2 Breiman and Friedman (1985), De Veaux and Steele (1989), and Sum et al. (1995) have demonstrated how ACE can be used to identify proper transformations needed for both dependent and independent variables. Although ACE is a useful exploratory tool for determining which of the response and the predictor variables are in need of non-linear transformation and what type of transformation is needed, Tibshirani (1988) argued that \"it seems more suited for correlation analysis than regression\". This is because there is no guarantee that the errors in the ACE transformed model will be normally distributed with constant variance. Tibshirani (1988) provided good examples of this phenomenon. Therefore, I will not apply ACE in this study to avoid the unreliability.Additivity and Variance Stabilizing Transformation (AVAS) algorithm proposed by Tibshirani (1988) is similar to ACE in the sense that it tries to find transformations, th(y) and fj(xj) to satisfy equation (2). However, AVAS differs from ACE in that it chooses th(y) to achieve a special variance stabilizing feature - a balance between constant variance and maximal linear dependence. So AVAS is more suitable to find transformation for regression rather than correlation. It can alleviate many anomalies that ACE suffers with regression (see examples in Tibshirani, 1988). Venables and Ripley (1999) also reported AVAS to be more reliable than ACE.AVAS modeling\nConclusions: This empirical study explores how two dimensions of knowledge management - knowledge acquisition and knowledge dissemination - affect new product quality. Knowledge management measure includes the cost of knowledge acquisition and the level of knowledge acquisition from customers, the availability of knowledge dissemination facilities and the participation of employees in knowledge dissemination. There are three control variables including innovation-marketing fit, process management, and competitive intensity.The relationship between new product quality and knowledge acquisition and dissemination was modeled through the application of AVAS. Based on the results of the analyses, several factors appear to have a significant impact on quality. These factors and their impacts on quality are summarized below:* There exists a reverse-U relationship between the availability of knowledge dissemination facilities and new product quality. The quality of new products increases with the increasing availability of knowledge dissemination facilities. However, when the availability reaches a certain level, the quality of new products begins decreasing.* The degree of employee participation in knowledge dissemination significantly influences the quality of new products. However, low level of participation cannot improve new product quality. New product development needs comprehensive and integrative participation. High level participation can achieve much higher quality improvement.* There is a U-shaped link between innovation-marketing fit and new product quality. The relationship is negative when innovation-marketing fit is at low level. However, when it reaches a certain point, new product quality becomes increasing with the growing innovation-marketing fit.* Process management increases the quality of new products greatly. But the fitting line is getting flatter when process management reaches a certain level.* Competitive intensity can significantly force firms to implement knowledge management for new product development, which in turn achieves significant quality improvement. With a higher competitive intensity, the quality of new products starts increasing at a much greater level.Firms are involved not only in the dissemination of knowledge but also its acquisition. In order to foster an environment of continuous learning and improvement, firms must possess and grow superior knowledge management capabilities by understanding the subtle way in which new product quality is related to knowledge acquisition and dissemination. These capabilities are essential in order to facilitate the rapid acquisition and spread of new knowledge (Lubit, 2001). A firm must continually endeavor to acquire new knowledge and integrate it into its existing knowledge base.\nImplications and further research: The broad findings described above, along with more specific features of the relationships between knowledge management and quality, point to important priorities for practitioners seeking to improve new product quality by enhancing the competency of knowledge management, and suggest fruitful areas for further research.The impact of knowledge acquisition on new product quality\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between knowledge management and the quality of new product and identify different hidden patterns in which knowledge acquisition and dissemination affect the quality of new product.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Employs Additivity and Variance Stabilization (AVAS) analysis.\nFindings: - The quality of new product is related to knowledge management significantly.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Implies that if organizations fail to understand the subtle ways by which different dimensions of knowledge acquisition and dissemination influence product quality, they may fail to harvest the full value of knowledge management in quality assurance.\nOriginality/value: - It is one of the first to assess the link between knowledge management and quality assurance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Relationship between barriers and key factors of dairy production in Santa Catarina, Brazil
|
[
"Milk",
"Business ecosystem",
"Dairy production",
"Dairy production barriers",
"Dairy production drivers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Milk and its products are essential foods for humans, since it has characteristics such as high nutritional value, a riboflavin important source (vitamin B2), the primary source of calcium in food and high-protein amounts (Muehlhoff et al., 2013; Djekic et al., 2014; Pereira et al., 2009). Also, The World Health Organization (OMS) recommends a per capita consumption approximately 200 milk liters and other milk-based complementary products per year and presents a considerable increase from 20m tons per year in 1997-1999 to 39m of tons per year in 2030 (Vasileska and Rechkoska, 2012).\n2. Methodology: To achieve the proposed goal of this study, which comprises a management model for dairy production based on the business ecosystem concept, the methodology used for the study comprises three stages: exploratory search in the literature to identify barriers and drivers of dairy production, data collection, and statistical model.\n3. Results and discussion: In this section, we will present the results obtained through the strategy methodology used in the present study.\n4. Final considerations: The present study aimed to verify if the dairy production barriers presented by Bonamigo et al. (2016b) can be mitigated through the key factors presented.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to verify if, in the dairy business ecosystem (dairy farmers, dairy cooperatives, government, research agencies, consultants and financial institutions) perspective, the dairy production barriers presented by Bonamigo et al. (2016b) can be mitigated through the dairy production key factors indicated in the literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To achieve the proposed goal of this study, the methodology used for the study comprises three stages: exploratory search in the literature to identify barriers and drivers of dairy production, data collection and statistical model. For the first stage, the authors conducted exploratory research in the literature, to better understand the dairy production ecosystem and to find arguments that characterize the barriers and drivers of this activity. In the second stage, a structured questionnaire with 13 closed-ended questions in a single block, with ordinal responses, following the suggestion of Likert (1932), was developed and applied to the dairy production ecosystem players of Santa Catarina, Brazil. A total of 305 responses suitable for analysis based, that were analyzed through an exploratory factorial analysis and modeling of structural equations via partial least squares, resulting in the Statistical model.\nFindings: Based on the analyses results, the authors verified that there is an inverse association between the characteristics of the barriers and the dairy production key factors. In this sense, the authors can confirm that the increase of the loads in the dairy production key factors, reduce loads of the milk production barriers. Based on the results of this test, new theoretical and practical insights can be identified to develop new studies with the aim of boosting the dairy sector development as well as providing support in the decision making of the dairy system players.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study may not have enabled a complete coverage of all existing peer-reviewed articles in the field of dairy production. It seems reasonable to assume that the review process covered a significant proportion of studies available.\nOriginality/value: It is the first study that compares identifies barriers and key factors of dairy production in Santa Catarina using as an analytical lens the business ecosystem.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Perceptions of RFID technology: a cross-national study
|
[
"Perception",
"United States of America",
"South Korea",
"Radiofrequencies",
"Identification",
"Supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Recently, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has gained considerable attention from business executives because of its potential to change the way commerce is conducted. It has the potential to transform all areas of business: manufacturing, transportation, distribution, warehousing inventory, sales, marketing, and customer service. In particular, what sets RFID apart from other technologies used in business is its ability to integrate and coordinate supply chain activities, transcending boundaries of organizations, industries, and even countries. RFID is generally seen to hold the possibility of providing an infrastructure under which disparate business activities can be effectively integrated and coordinated. Among current technologies, RFID has been an important application in supply chain management (SCM) (Ju et al., 2008; Tu and Piramuthu, 2008), and shows promise in many other functions.RFID is a type of auto-identification technology that uses radio waves to identify physical objects (Davis and Luehlfing, 2004). The major purposes of deploying RFID are identification, authentication, location, and automatic data acquisition (ADA). Authentication applications usually assume the tag-holder to be a person who has smart cards for simple and automatic payments of small amounts for such purchases as highway tolls and cafeteria bills rather than to be an object; whereas most supply chain applications assume that the tag-holder is an object (Asif and Mandviwalla, 2005).RFID technology is widely viewed to enhance and support SCM efforts (Gunasekaran and Ngai, 2005; Karkkainen, 2003; Singh, 2003; Kwok and Wu, 2009; Tarasewich et al., 2002). RFID allows real-time data communication and narrows information gaps in the SCM, especially in retailing and logistics (Kim et al., 2008; Moon and Ngai, 2008). Effective information sharing and real-time data communication allow better control of the SCM (Angeles, 2005; Prater et al., 2005).One of the major thrusts of supply chain applications is ADA. In most ADA applications, objects such as products, cases, and pallets are tracked automatically; the captured data is then used to drive enterprise applications such as SCM, customer relationship management, and enterprise resource planning systems. Companies in industries involving fast-moving consumer goods, consumer electronics, and apparel are only at the early stage of implementing new technologies that use RFID (Kim et al., 2008; Lekakos, 2007).Recently, adopting a technological innovation for the right business need at the right time is one of the more important strategic decisions that a firm has to make to gain and retain a competitive advantage. The strategic importance of adopting and implementing RFID transcends corporate boundaries as the technology has the potential to seamlessly integrate the supply chain. Many American organizations such as FedEx, Dell, Procter and Gamble, and the US Department of Defense have successfully adopted RFID for their supply chain systems (RFID, 2004). Wal-Mart, a company with one of the most extensive and sophisticated global supply networks, has been the most influential driving force behind the adoption of RFID.Although the USA is still considered the most dominant player in the adoption of the RFID technology, there is an increasing need for studies conducted with an international perspective. RFID has become a truly global phenomenon and some countries have even surpassed the USA in certain categories of RFID application (Lin, 2008). The Asia-Pacific market for RFID technology is expected to grow to over $850 million by 2014, with an increasingly strong demand for asset management and documentation tracking. The RFID inlay market in that region has already surpassed $150 million in 2007, up about 150 percent from 2004 (The Korea Times, 2008).South Korea has become of the leading countries using RFID technology for business applications. For example, McDonald's in South Korea has adopted an RFID-based ordering system, which allows customers to place orders using their cell phones from their tables (Schuman, 2007). The restaurant sends a message to the customer's phone when the order is ready to pick up. The rapid adoption of new technologies like RFID by newly developed economies such as South Korea has drawn attention of technology vendors and investors. These developments suggest the need for systematic studies to compare differences among nations in the way they perceive and adopt the technology (Kim et al., 2008).\nLiterature review: Applications of RFID technology in supply chain management\nResearch questions and hypotheses: Building on the preceding discussion, we conducted an empirical study to address the following questions:RQ1. Do companies in different countries perceive the attributes of RFID related to technology and business differently?RQ2. Do companies in different countries perceive the benefits and risks of RFID differently?RQ3. Do companies in different countries perceive the impact of RFID on an organization's performance differently?Innovation is the use of new technical and administrative knowledge to offer a better product or service to customers. Integral in this definition are any practices that are new to organizations, including equipment, products, services, processes, policies, and projects (Damanpour, 1991). The application of RFID is still in its infancy (Davis and Luehlfing, 2004) and the adoption of RFID can be taken as an innovative process for SCM. Although RFID has garnered a great deal of research interest, most research has primarily focused on the specifics of the technology, or its impact on general SCM, such as cost and time savings (Angeles, 2005; Davis and Luehlfing, 2004; Donovan, 2003; Karkkainen, 2003; Kunii, 2003; Niemeyer and Pak, 2003; Smith, 2005; Srivastava, 2004).Recently, no one questions the strategic significance of RFID; the impact of the RFID in SCM is widely recognized and documented in many facets of business - improved inventory management, economical efficiency of the business cycle, integrated business models, and efficiency of business operations. The RFID technology, when successfully implemented, serves as a foundation to create and sustain a competitive edge over the competition in SCM. We believe that the management's view of RFID has a significant impact on how an organization actually uses it. As evidenced in many studies, the utilization of a new technology by management is a crucial indicator of how successfully the new technology will be diffused in an organization (McFarlan and McKenney, 1982; Zmud, 1984). In turn, successful utilization of the technology will help business improve its performance.Despite the wealth of studies concerning the impact of information technology on organizational performance, few studies have empirically tested the hypothesis that the RFID has a positive impact on the global organizational performance. Most studies report findings based on anecdotal evidence or unscientific estimates. Among the international research base, Lin (2008) investigated the influences of technological, organizational, and environmental factors on the adoption of RFID by logistics service providers (LSPs) in Taiwan. He found that only a few Taiwanese LSPs had adopted RFID technology, though many LSPs were very interested in RFID technology. The research suggested that explicitness of technology can help the transfer of knowledge within the organization and, consequently, can raise the willingness to adopt RFID. Another study (Shih et al., 2008) examined the factors affecting RFID adoption applications in Taiwan and identified seven factors affecting RFID adoption. They are:1. operation efficiency;2. manufacturing efficiency;3. supply chain efficiency;4. organization contexts;5. investment costs;6. market environments; and7. technology characteristics.They recommended that if a firm wants to deploy RFID as a strategic tool, it must first assess its business environment and strategic position relative to its domestic and international competitors. Some managers may find it beneficial for the firm to focus on product development, while others may strengthen their competitive edge by emphasizing marketing and customers. In a global market, companies may also have to take the differences in a wide range of technical and social factors among nations into consideration. Business environments can vary from country to country depending on diverse factors. Therefore, it is likely that organizations in an advanced economy, such as the USA, would perceive, adopt, and implement RFID differently from those in a newly industrialized market, such as South Korea. As a first step to answer the aforementioned research questions, we conducted a study that compared the two countries - the USA and South Korea - to test the following three hypotheses:H1. There is a significant difference between the firms in the USA and those in South Korea in the way they perceive the attributes of RFID.H2a. There is a significant difference between the firms in the USA and those in South Korea in the way they perceive the benefits of RFID.H2b. There is a significant difference between the firms in the USA and those in South Korea in the way they perceive the risks of RFID.H3. There is a significant difference between the firms in the USA and those in South Korea in the way they perceive the impact of RFID on business performance.\nResearch method and data collection: Data collection processes\nResults: In this section, we report the results of the factor analysis to determine major dimensions of intrinsic attributes and perceived benefits and risks of RFID from the two countries. Then, we report the results of t-statistics used to test the difference in the perceptions of intrinsic attributes and perceived benefits and risks of RFID between the two countries.Factor analysis and reliability\nDiscussion: We found that the manner in which the two countries perceive the potential of RFID on the technological infrastructure is more similar than different. Although firms in Korea placed a higher value on the benefits of RFID than did firms in the USA, across the board, none of the differences was statistically significant. The only exception was in the area of efficiency of business operation in which Korean firms showed a significantly higher level of benefit expected from adopting RFID. While further investigation is needed to determine why Korean firms appear to be more favorable to the technology, it can be speculated that this finding may reflect the optimism and willingness to adopt a new technology often found in Korean firms.Generally, firms in Korea reported higher levels of risks associated with RFID. In particular, Koreans were very concerned about lacking the expertise required to adopt RFID, identifying this as a significant risk, much more than did the USA counterparts. Despite the more optimistic view of RFID held by the firms in Korea, they felt much less comfortable about not having appropriate know-how to carry out RFID initiatives, and took the issue more seriously than their USA cohorts did.In line with the findings regarding the perceived benefits of RFID, Koreans showed higher levels of optimism in all areas of the potential impact of RFID on business performance. Although Koreans anticipated positive impacts of RFID in various supply chain functions such marketing, merchandising, and customer service, they were not as convinced that these impacts would translate into favorable financial outcomes.\nSummary and conclusions: This paper compared two countries - the USA and South Korea - regarding the industry perceptions of the importance of RFID technological infrastructure, RFID benefits, RFID risks, and the impact of the RFID on business performance. The analysis of the data collected from 69 firms in the USA and 45 in South Korea suggests that there are more similarities than differences between the two countries in their perception of RFID implementation. The findings of the study may be regarded as an indication that countries share similar views about the RFID technology. We may view this as a positive sign that the RFID is becoming a common global business tool.This multi-national study should provide researchers as well as practitioners a sounding board to further investigate and learn the nature of the technology and the way it is adopted in different countries so that it can be effectively used to support emerging global commerce.Although we exercised every caution in designing the study and collecting and analyzing the data, we advise readers to interpret and generalize the findings with care. While the study sample was created and validated following a rigorous procedure in each country, it was neither completely random nor formed by means of matching between the two countries. We acknowledge that the data for the USA was collected from firms located in one metropolitan area and it may not accurately portray the RFID implementation of the entire country. It is also possible that different data collection methods used in the two countries - mailing in the USA and personal contact in Korea - may have introduced an unintended sampling bias. Furthermore, as we deal with a very complex topic having not only technical but also organizational, cultural, and political undertones and implications, it was impossible for this study to address all possible factors. As we gain more knowledge and experience with the topic, we are hopeful that future studies would address these limitations.We have several suggestions for future studies that compare RFID implementation in different countries:1. We recommend that a scheme be devised to classify countries based on their RFID implementation and expand the study to compare different groups of countries.2. We suggest that in-depth studies focusing on select constructs and variables be conducted. For example, one study may investigate how different countries use the RFID to support certain business process, while other may focus on strategic performance.3. Further, it is recommended to conduct comprehensive case studies with a small number of firms in different countries to investigate a wide range of issues of technical, organizational, cultural and political nature that may affect RFID implementation.4. The investigation of RFID adoption is relatively new to information system researchers. The discussed findings and their implications were obtained from one single study that examined a particular technology and targeted a specific user group in the USA and South Korea. Thus, continuing research is needed to generalize the findings and discussion to include other groups.5. The model is cross-sectional; that is, it measures perceptions at a single point in time. However, perceptions changes over time as individuals gain experience. The changes have implications for researchers and practitioners interested in predicted RFID adoption over time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an important technology for many aspects of business including supply chain management (SCM). The global implications of RFID necessitate cross-national studies of the technology. The purpose of this paper is to conjecture that the way RFID is perceived and implemented and the extent to which RFID impacts business performance will vary from country to country. Using data collected from firms located in the USA and South Korea, the two countries' views regarding the intrinsic attributes, the perceived benefits and risks, and the strategic impact on business performance of implementing RFID are compared.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors developed a research instrument to assess the perception of the importance of RFID, the benefits and risks of RFID, and the perceived impact of RFID on business performance. The authors used the instrument to survey executives and managers in the USA and South Korea.\nFindings: - The paper did not find any discernable difference between the two countries in terms of the perception of the importance of RFID, the benefits and risks of RFID, and the perceived impact of RFID on business performance. This shared perception of RFID may be viewed a sign of readiness of the technology to become a global business tool.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The varying sampling and data collection processes between the two countries may have introduced unintended bias to the study. The paper's scope may not have addressed all of the technical, organizational, cultural, and political issues that may have influenced the outcome.\nPractical implications: - The findings of the study provide empirical evidence that RFID has become a comprehensive business tool to assist more seamless global SCM.\nOriginality/value: - This unique comparative study is a useful contribution for both academicians and practitioners to gain a better understanding of how RFID technology is perceived by firms in different countries. The paper also helps companies improve their RFID strategies in the global market by recognizing different perceptions and approaches to implementing RFID.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Leader gender and firm investment in innovation
|
[
"India",
"Innovation",
"Distributive justice",
"Leader gender"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research suggests that business leader gender may shape the pursuit of opportunity. Evidence of this can be found in finance and entrepreneurship research which suggests that male leaders are more likely than female leaders to pursue some business opportunities. For example, studies find that men outnumber women more than two to one in the founding of new businesses (Bosma and Levie, 2010) that male-led firms are more likely to pursue international expansion opportunities than female-led firms (Orser et al., 2010), and that female-led firms exhibit more risk averse capital allocation behaviors than male-led firms (Faccio et al., 2016; Martin et al., 2009).\nLiterature review: Innovation is often viewed by organizational researchers as playing a central role in ensuring firm survival and growth (Bamiatzi and Kirchmaier, 2014; Schumpeter, 1934). Defined as \"implementing new ideas that create value\" (Linder et al., 2003), innovation has been found to shape and sustain a firm's competitive advantage (Datta et al., 2005; Geroski et al., 1993). Consequently, the pursuit of innovation opportunities is often viewed as a simple fact of organizational life. Yet, innovation represents the culmination of a risky, multi-stage process for which there is no guarantee that actual innovation will be realized (McAdam et al., 2010; Pettigrew et al., 2001).\nLeader gender and investment in innovation: Drawing upon the literature on female risk aversion, we posit that leader gender may also shape a firm's propensity to invest in innovation. Kirton (1976) was one of the first to theorize that males may pursue innovation at a higher rate than females. This idea has found empirical support in the work of Hisrich and Brush (1984) which found that firms founded by women entrepreneurs tend to rely more upon modifications of existing products rather than product innovations. More recently, research by Marvel et al. (2015) finds that men tend to generate more patents and exhibit greater focus on research and development than their female counterparts. These findings suggest that when evaluating innovation opportunities, males may view them more favorably than females.\nMethods: This study uses survey responses from 469 top business leaders of small and medium sized firms located in India. In doing so, this study heeds calls for greater scholarly attention to the pursuit of opportunity in emerging markets in general (Bruton and Lau, 2008; Naude, 2010), and India specifically (Nadkarni and Herrmann, 2010; Bruton et al., 2008). India represents one of the largest and the most rapidly growing emerging economies (Hoskisson et al., 2000). Moreover, India provides a unique institutional and cultural context (Zacharakis et al., 2007) that present barriers to the entrepreneurial pursuits of women (Field et al., 2010). Indeed, various cultural institutions in India play a key role in perpetuating gender norms and stereotypes. For example, customs regarding patrilineality (inheritance passing through male lineage) and patrilocality (married couples living with or near the husband's parents), and wealth distribution after divorce play a prominent role in perpetuating gender inequality and in shaping ideas regarding gender behavioral norms (Dube, 1988; Jejeebhoy and Sathar, 2001). Moreover, India presents challenges to the pursuit of innovation. For example, corruption, which is well documented in India (Das, 2000), has been found to stymie firm willingness to pursue innovation opportunities (Anokhin and Schulze, 2009). As a result of these potential barriers to the innovation efforts of female-led firms, India represents an ideal context in which to robustly test our theoretical arguments.\nResults: Table II provides sample means, standard deviations and correlations. The results of ordinary least squares regression analysis presented in Table III show that several of our control variables were found to be related to investment in innovation. Specifically, performance, publicly held, firm age, entrepreneurial orientation and the manufacturing industry dummy were found to have statistically significant relationships with investment in innovation. Table III provides the results of hypothesis test.\nDiscussion: Scholarly interest in the role of business leader gender in shaping firm outcomes represents a relatively recent and growing area of research (Carpenter et al., 2004). As the first study to examine the influence of business leader gender on firm investment in innovation, we contribute to extant research in multiple ways. First, our finding that female-led firms invest less in innovation than male-led firms adds to a growing body of research which suggests that females leaders tend to exhibit more risk averse behaviors than male leaders (Faccio et al., 2016). Specifically, this study extends the focus of research on the role of business leader gender in shaping firm investment decisions and innovation by focusing on the influence of business leader gender on a heretofore unexplored firm level outcome, investment in innovation. Our finding that female-led organizations exhibit a lower propensity to invest in innovation than male-led firms also provide insight into the lower innovation rates of female-led firms.\nStudy limitations and future research: Like all research studies, the findings of this study suffer from limitations which may provide viable avenues for future research. First, this study relied upon data using a single survey. This type of research design cannot rule out the possibility of common method variance. Due to the idiosyncratic nature of our data, we were forced to collect data using a single methodology rather than rely upon independent secondary data sources. Given that survey research suffers from the potential of mono-method bias, we took action to minimize the effect of this concern. We used dual respondents for a subset of firms, which allowed testing for inter-rater reliability and cross-validation of the findings, thus alleviating these concerns. This potential limitation provides an opportunity for future research to explore differences between leader psychometric characteristics and objective measures of their task environments. Such insights could prove valuable in understanding the cognitive processes underlying managerial decision-making.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of business leader gender on the pursuit of innovation opportunities. Extant research suggests that leader gender represents an important characteristic that shapes firm behavior in various ways. The authors build upon this research by relating business leader gender, perceptions of environmental munificence and distributive justice to firm investment in innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study examines the survey responses of 469 business leaders in India. These individuals were primarily responsible for their firms. Their responses to survey questions were analyzed using ordinary least squares regression.\nFindings: The results of this study suggest that female-led firms exhibit less investment in innovation than male-led firms. Results also suggest that female business leaders perceive less environmental munificence as well as distributive justice. Finally, study results suggest that the effect of gender on firm investment in innovation is mediated by perceptions of distributive justice.\nOriginality/value: This study provides an empirical link between business leader gender and firm investment in innovation. In doing so, it acknowledges and provides insight into the gendered nature of the initiation of innovation processes and leadership. Finally, the finding that business leader perceptions of distributive justice mediate the relationship between business leader gender and investment in innovation extends current understanding of the mechanisms underlying the lower investment in innovation rates exhibited by female-led firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Organizational effectiveness through technology innovation and HRM strategies
|
[
"Organizational effectiveness",
"Innovation",
"Human resource strategies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nNeed for strategies of tech-innovation-HRM integration: A significant approach to long-term manpower development is to achieve organizational effectiveness through technology innovation, managerial competency modeling and performance-based strategic human resource management (HRM) interventions (Osman-Gani, 1999; Wang, 2000, 2003). The rapid organizational re-structuring and globally distributed engineering have called for the needs for integrated strategies and the new ways of HRM in promoting technology innovation, organizational change and entrepreneurship (Davis et al., 1986; McLoughlin and Harris, 1998; James, 2002). Many researchers therefore focused their work on the key issues of integrated innovative tech-HRM strategies and high-performance technology work (Amabile, T. A. 1996). HRM could support technological innovation to achieve high performance while technology innovation could serve as an approach to enable HR function to focus more on value-added activities in order to realize the full potential of technology and organizational strategy (Shrivastava and Shaw, 2003). In this special issue, technology innovation and HRM are reported through various areas of research which provide systematic evidence for the three integrated HR strategies for organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage (Wang and Mobley, 1999).In a model of formulating strategic HRM from the findings of some recent Chinese empirical studies as well as international comparative studies, three HR strategies for global technology innovation and rapid organizational development were proved to be effective for integrating person-system-organizations elements: personnel strategy, system strategy, and organizational strategy (Wang and Mobley, 1999).Personnel strategy\nPersonnel strategy: effects and dimensions for HRM and entrepreneurship: Effects of personnel strategies\nSystems strategy: technology innovation and knowledge management: Technology innovation needs to be supported by the work systems and organizational structure. Madsen et al. (2004) studied the problems in the process of integrating technology innovation with human resources using an in-depth analysis of a real life case of new business development in Ericsson Denmark. The study went through all phases and aspects of the innovation process, from inception to field trials, representing a radical innovation based on a disruptive internet technology. They called this as dysfunctional integration. It was shown that when innovative human resources were not well integrated into the host organizational system, the new business would definitely go wrong. The organizational system needs to be re-structured in order to cope with the new requirements for entrepreneurship and technological innovations. Chen and Zhu (2004) examined the characteristics and system requirements using indicators of the corporate entrepreneurship and innovation performance. In their study, entrepreneurship was seen as the most important impetus for the development of an enterprise and even country's economy. From a microcosmic point of view, the study focused on cultivating corporate entrepreneurship by implementing some effective measures to improve corporate performance. Based on the Chinese enterprise context, they proposed a hypothetical system model for cultivating corporate entrepreneurship, with three key factors: the system of board of directors and management, the quality of the entrepreneurs and the corporate strategic management circumstances. The empirical research provided evidence for this system model indicating the effects of these three factors on corporate entrepreneurship and corporate performance. A related issue is how the system strategy could be further enhanced by knowledge management and may in turn affect the formulation of corporate strategy. Shih and Chiang (2004) studied this issue with a sample of 147 Taiwanese large companies in banking, services, and manufacturing industries. The results indicated that firms adopting different corporate strategies adopted various kinds of knowledge management strategies. The fit between KM strategy on the one hand and both corporate strategy and HRM strategy on the other hand significantly contributed to the effectiveness in terms of process performance, learning capability, and organizational outcomes. More specifically, the contingency factors (project phase, structure, technology, and position of R&D professionals) affected R&D performance measurement. With a field survey at the Korean telecommunications laboratory, Lee and Cho (2004) suggested that the project phase be an important system element in determining R&D effectiveness. They found that the goal achievement dimension and technology factors were more crucial at the earlier phases of R&D project management while the production, market and external evaluation factors became more significant at the later phases of the projects.\nOrganizational strategy: organizational culture and HRM effectiveness in technological innovation: In the recent years, teams and interpersonal relationship are becoming more and more important HR factors for organizational effectiveness of technological innovations (Wang and Mobley, 1999). Kratzer et al. (2004) conducted an in-depth case analysis on informal contacts and performance in innovation teams. They addressed the effects of friendly relationships among members of innovation teams on performance. In their study, the effects of non-work relationships on team performance were examined with the full network data on non-work relationships among a sample of innovation teams to provide empirical evidence for how \"friendly and friendship networks\" affected the performance of innovation teams. The results showed that the frequency of friendly ties had both positive and negative consequences on team performance, whereas the frequency of friendship ties positively related with team performance. This interpersonal relationship factor could be strengthened through an organizational strategy emphasizing interaction, participating and culture development. Chew and Sharma (2004) also examined the impact of organizational culture and HRM effectiveness on financial performance of merging and acquiring organizations in Singapore. Their empirical results indicated that organizations with a value profile of either elite or leadership complemented by strategic and effective human resources management experienced a better financial performance after mergers and acquisitions. Apparently, organizational culture and team development become more and more crucial with the development of globalization and virtual organizations.\nNew trends in technology innovation and human resource management: While the three-strategy model of person-system-organization fit provides a general framework for technology innovation and HRM, three new trends have strengthened the integration and holistic nature of strategies. In particular, there are three areas of new developments which need more empirical research and applications: the globally distributed engineering and international technology entrepreneurship, the information technology innovation and e-HR developmental approaches, the professional service, and customer relations management modeling.Globally distributed engineering and international technology entrepreneurship\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This editorial aims at providing a general framework for papers in this special issue. The main theme is to understand the organizational effectiveness from recent developments in technology innovation and human resources strategies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The editorial first describes the need for technology innovation and HRM integration. A three-strategy model for global technology innovation and organizational development was adopted: personnel strategy, system strategy, and organizational strategy.\nFindings: - The personnel strategy could play a crucial role in enhancing the effects of human resources management (HRM) and entrepreneurship by supporting the main dimensions of HRM. The system strategy was used to facilitate technology innovation through knowledge management while the organizational strategy was adopted to create positive organizational culture and high performance systems.\nOriginality/value: - The paper suggests that globally distributed engineering and international technology entrepreneurship be new area for theory building. The strategies from this special issue have implications for the study of new information technology innovation and e-HR developmental approaches as well as professional service, customer relations modeling and strategic HRM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Identifying the attributes of blue ocean strategies in hospitality
|
[
"Blue ocean strategy",
"Capacity management",
"Customer relationship management",
"Demand management",
"Hospitality management",
"Taiwan",
"Customer orientation",
"Competitive strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Mehmetoglu and Altinay (2006) claimed that the hospitality environment has gradually become more turbulent because of a shift in the complex of variations in customer demand and purchasing behavior. Moreover, recently, both the global natural environment and economic conditions have changed considerably. This has also led to increased complication in the areas of room capacity management. In particular, Kuo's (2009) study postulated that the provision of quality service and products to tourists is a challenging task for hoteliers. Consequently, the formulation of a strategy to expedite a hotel's establishment of a sustainable successful advantage in an uncontested marketplace has become crucial.The hotel industry offers intangible products and services to its customers. For this reason, the most crucial strategies in the industry involve how to offer better people-oriented services and how to encourage repeat business. The blue ocean strategy (BOS), which has been studied in the field of strategic marketing, may offer important advantages with regard to company survival in the context of the turbulent business environment of the hotel industry, particularly in Taiwan. The BOS shifts the focus from competition among companies within the same marketplace to reconstructing market boundaries and creating new customer demand; that is, it attempts to develop an uncontested marketplace. Kim and Mauborgne (2005) have conducted research on BOSs during the last 20 years and have reported on a number of studies showing that creating and implementing such strategies can move organizations to the next level of an uncontested marketplace, which, in turn, can advance organizational effectiveness.In this study, we aimed to reframe our perspectives on BOSs by applying hospitality management and marketing theories to this domain. The main purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of a BOS that are relevant to the hotel industry in Taiwan. This study extends the literature on strategic hospitality management in three distinctive ways. First, this study demonstrates that concepts from customer relationship management (CRM) and network theory can be integrated into the implementation of a BOS. Second, this study indicates that revenue management is appropriately incorporated into a BOS; the differentiation between lodging offerings and the low opportunity-cost advantages of hotels will thus be sustained. Third, in the twenty-first century, the turbulent hospitality environment requires greater understanding of the value-related perceptions of guests to facilitate the successful development of effective market segments, unique brand expansion, and strategic alliances with returning guests. Thus, network theory and CRM can contribute to successful development in the hotel industry.\nFundamental concepts: This section provides a review of the concept of a BOS and of factors critical to successful implementation of this strategy based on CRM and network theory.BOSs\nMethodology: Participants\nResults: This section presents quotations to support the qualitative results, and the findings section presents the outcomes emerging from a coding hierarchy developed according to the analytical and inductive approach adopted in the data analysis. The diagram of the coding hierarchy presented in Figure 1 is illustrated with parent and children nodes. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed on the basis of the application of Kim and Mauborgne's (2005) blue ocean concept.Eliminate\nDiscussion and implications: This section applies Mehmetoglu and Altinay's (2006) qualitative analysis technique, in particular to the stage of \"enfolding the literature\". Based on the results and an integrative approach, some key concepts are examined, such as BOS, market segmentation and branding, effective revenue management, and network theory. A concept may be derived from various sub-components of the research parent' nodes - eliminate, reduce, create, and raise - but these components are intertwined.Applying BOS\nConclusions: In this study, we sought to identify the characteristics of a BOS in selected hotels in Taiwan. The results of this study showed that the more brand expansion is enacted, the more able hotels are to create new customer value. Furthermore, creating (or adding) value to hotel offerings would beneficially reinforce revenue management and strengthen market positions in the hotel marketplace. In addition to the creation of value, this study also highlights that although the strong local economy in Taiwan improved gradually in 2010, hoteliers studied continue to provide new offerings in an uncontested marketplace. This leads to the evolution of a great number of modifications to room-associated amenities and to the development of hotel products and tourist packages for inbound and domestic tourist and guests. Such consideration of customer perceived value in developing new product offerings should, in turn, result in greater satisfaction and loyalty on the part of the customers. This study also concluded that the prices, products, and relevant marketing strategies that were implemented by the hotels studied emphasized key concepts of a blue ocean, value and innovation. These strategies are adapted continuously as the national and hospitality environments in Taiwan are changing. If a hotel does not revise its policies accordingly, it may find itself in a red ocean market.With regard to theory building, this qualitative study bridges the gap between theory and practice by focusing on the implementation BOSs via application of CRM and network theories. The practical implications for hospitality settings should be further developed, and the translation of the data in the matrix into actual practices should be discussed. The study also indicated that the value characteristics of the BOSs of the selected hotels are creating added-valued offerings for existing customers and aligning all hotel products, services, and activities with the strategic choice of differentiation. The innovation component in this hospitality setting would include restructuring market segmentations, rebranding, and reformulating pricing strategies to capture new demand.\nLimitations and further research: This report has several limitations that may suggest topics for future investigation. This study used a qualitative approach involving the application of a grounded theory. A major concern is the issue of generalization. Thus, a further study may extend the present results by exploring the extent to which CRM and network strategies contribute to the implementation of BOSs. Furthermore, a longitudinal study may be useful for examining this connection. Future studies should also consider the effects of social interaction and networking on the implementation of BOSs. Additionally, a study to determine whether knowledge-sharing, CRM, and network theories enable employees to understand their customers more efficiently will contribute to the knowledge base. The results of this study are limited by the number of selected interviewed participants, which was determined in the context of considerations of data saturation. Future research should explore the feasibility of implementing a BOS based on the elimination-reduction-creation-raise matrix across an entire hotel chain or accommodation sector in Taiwan or any other country.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of a blue ocean strategy (BOS) in selected hotels in Taiwan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Semi-structured interviews and the grounded theory approach were applied in this study. A total of 32 senior and top managers working in the corporate executive office and the divisions of rooms and marketing were selected from international tourist chain hotels and resorts for semi-structured interviews.\nFindings: - The results show that the features of BOS are identifying guest value perceptions, innovating distinctive added-value offerings, developing new market segments, branding and re-branding, creating a unique hotel ambience, adjusting distribution channels, and establishing strategic alliances.\nPractical implications: - The study suggests that in the sampled hotels, hoteliers should integrate a demand-based pricing strategy with a supply-based product-development strategy. Organizational effectiveness could be further advanced in those hotels by the introduction of revenue management based on the determination of variations in guest demand, making it possible to offer different pricing strategies to diverse market segments.\nOriginality/value: - The results show that the sampled hotels should be able to create unique products and services for customers that strengthen their competitive positions in the marketplace of international tourist hotels in Taiwan. This study advances academic knowledge in the field of organizational effectiveness, particularly with respect to managing customer demand and capacity in the hotel industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Interactions between human behaviour and the built environment in terms of facility management
|
[
"Interdisciplinarity",
"Facility management",
"Sustainable solutions",
"Built environment",
"Human behaviour",
"Psychological processes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: from environmental psychology to the psychology of sustainable development: The beginnings of environmental psychology date back to the first half of the previous century, when German psychologist Hellpach (1911) published his work entitled Geopsyche, in which the expression \"environmental psychology\" appeared for the first time. Although in this work he discussed topics that were usually dealt with later on in scientifically based environmental psychology, it was still too early in that period to speak of environmental psychology as a specific branch of psychology. Ranked among the \"fathers of environmental psychology\" today are Egon Brunswick and Kurt Lewin (Gifford, 2007), who already more systematically emphasized the significance of the environment for human behaviour. Environmental psychology as a science began to develop in the late 1960s. Its main focus was on studying the impact of the environment on human perceptions and behaviour. It is interesting to note that initially, environmental psychology dealt with issues that were later somewhat overlooked and have only come to be the subject of concern and research in recent decades - problems related to the impact of the built environment on humans. It was interested in how the built environment, i.e. apartments, offices, hospitals, schools, etc., influence the welfare of humans, their moods and satisfaction. Environmental psychology has analysed all contemporary phenomena, in particular the impact of environmental stressors on humans/the role of environmental stressors in human life, although, as we shall see below, it was not yet familiar with a relevant factor embodied in the contemporary study of environmental psychology. It identified environmental stressors among phenomena such as: extreme temperatures, humidity, overpopulation, etc. In specialised literature, this branch is classified under the term \"architectural psychology\".\n2. Impact of built environment on humans and environmental stress: In psychology, stress is defined as a set/series of the human organism's responses to the functioning of stressors, and indicates a mental and physical tension of the organism (Kobal Grum and Musek, 2009). Stress is caused by so-called stressors, which, in a broader sense, refers to any kinds of influences affecting humans. People can experience stressors in three ways:\n3. Built environment and psychological well-being of inhabitants: One of the principal tasks of contemporary environmental psychology is to participate in the design of a built environment that will protect its users against the environmental stress factors already discussed, and provide for the best possible quality of life. Poortinga et al. (2004) designed a multi-dimensional scale for measuring the quality of life of users of a built environment, which from then onward represented an excellent basis for further scientific research in the direction of sustainable development. The scale measures 22 areas, e.g. health, family, social justice, freedom, safety, education, identity, self-respect, privacy, free time and neighbourhood quality. The importance of the quality of life in a built environment is emphasized in all contemporary design approaches. There are three main design approaches in environmental psychology:\n4. Human impacts on the built environment and sustainable human behaviour: It is not only the environment that impacts human beings, their welfare, health and psychological well-being but also vice-versa: human beings impact the natural and the built environments. It has been emphasized above that this process is being scrutinized by a new discipline in environmental psychology, i.e. the psychology of sustainability (Garling, 2014; Jones, 2015; Johansson et al., 2016). The attitude of humans towards the environment manifests itself in two directions. As is evident in Figure 1, the first direction is negative and points to the devastating consequences of human actions (construction of nuclear power plants, etc.) for the environment (pollution, global warming, overpopulation, endangered ecosystems, etc.). In this regard, environmental psychology is endeavouring to develop various strategies aimed at promoting changes in the behaviour, practices and habits of persons to prevent the continuation of devastating consequences. Humans can, however, also positively impact the environment by caring for, protecting and maintaining both the natural and built environments. We have explained that such forms of behaviour are called sustainable human behaviour. Psychologically speaking, one could say that sustainable human behaviour encompasses a so-called empathic attitude towards the environment in the same way as we develop empathy in mutual relations between people. Those who have more empathy establish more positive relations with people and consequently experience deeper feelings of happiness and satisfaction. Although empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, while the environment per se is not an organism that can feel, in systemic terms, this is nevertheless not the case. From the perspective of systems psychology, if the environment is understood as a dynamic, constantly changing and complex system of a wide range of players, we can discern in this environment a dynamic that is otherwise characteristic of emotional dynamics. The same can therefore be concluded for humankind's attitude towards the environment: the more it develops empathy in its attitude towards it, the more it will care for and maintain it, and consequently it will feel more satisfied and happy. In this context, empathy towards the environment is understood as the emotional ability of humans to understand environmental issues, recognize the potential devastating impacts of their own actions on the environment and to strive towards improving their environment, i.e. to act pro-environmentally. Through their sustainable human behaviour, humans naturally build on their own quality of life, which is, as shown in Figure 1, also the subject of the psychology of sustainability.\n5. Conclusions: Facility management is a form of asset management concerned with the successful and profitable maintenance, operation and monitoring of buildings or properties. It encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, systems, place, process and technology.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: In comparison with the relations between the human and natural environments that have been the central focus of environmental psychology for many years, the interactions between the psychological processes underlying human behaviour and the built environment have only recently regained the interest of researchers. In this paper, the author first discusses the reasons for the slower development of human - built environment relations. Afterwards, the author systematically examines the impact that the research of environmental stress, namely, poor housing and poor neighbourhood quality, had on the contemporary understanding of human - built environment relations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author focuses on social, biophilic and evidence-based design. The author proposes deeper psychological engagement in correlation with human behaviour, psychological well-being and society. The author highlights the inclusion of psychologists in interdisciplinary research teams addressing the development of sustainable solutions to the issues of residential environments.\nFindings: It has been shown that substandard house quality, high noise, lack of natural light in houses, poorer physical quality of urban neighbourhoods, living in a low-income neighbourhood, etc. are linked to elevated physiological and psychological stress. Despite this evidence, there is still a gap between building designers and building users in modern industrialised societies, which could deepen tenants' dissatisfaction due to specific behavioural needs and consequently lower their psychological well-being and health risk behaviour.\nResearch limitations/implications: These are potential risks of error arising from the use of assumptions, limited samples size and data from the secondary resources.\nOriginality/value: The major contributions of this paper are as follows. If the environment is understood as a dynamic, constantly changing and complex system of a wide range of players, the author can discern in this environment a dynamic that is otherwise characteristic of emotional dynamics. Expressed participants' high satisfaction with residential status does not necessarily generate high expectations regarding real estate factors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
What drives Malaysian m-commerce adoption? An empirical analysis
|
[
"Mobile communication systems",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Malaysia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The current business environment is getting more competitive. In order for many companies to stay competitive, businesses have always strived to improve themselves by creating better products and services for their customers. With the recent emergence of the wireless and mobile networks, a new platform for business to trade their product and service known as m-commerce is beginning to gather attentions from businesses.Unlike e-commerce where the connectivity is through internet, m-commerce is connected wirelessly in a mobile environment using mobile devices. M-commerce has much potential in developing countries as small- and medium-sized companies in remote areas can use them to reach many potential customers (United Nations, 2002). Prior to the development of m-commerce, e-commerce was depended on costly infrastructure and equipments such as computers and fixed line network. m-Commerce offers more ubiquity and accessibility to the users when compared to e-commerce. The accessibility of m-commerce is an advantage over e-commerce as e-commerce applications usually need a wired end-user device (Schwiderski-Grosche and Knospe, 2002). As mobile devices are small in size and light in weight, it is also very convenient for users to carry around the device (Schwiderski-Grosche and Knospe, 2002). Given that mobile devices are usually owned by individual and not shared between different users, m-commerce allows the services to be catered towards the users' needs (e.g. ring tones) (Schwiderski-Grosche and Knospe, 2002).Although there are lots of potentials for businesses in m-commerce, when compared to developed countries such as Japan and South Korea, m-commerce in Malaysia is still at its infancy stage (Wong and Hiew, 2005). The adoption of technologies such as 3G and WiMax are still relatively low in Malaysia when compared to these developed countries. Past studies have attempted to investigate the factors that can influence the adoption of m-commerce. However, many of these studies are carried out mainly in countries such as the USA, China and Taiwan. Most of the earlier studies have attempted to study the factors influencing m-commerce adoption through traditional adoption models such as technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and diffusion of innovation (DOI). However, except for a few recent studies (Liao et al., 2007; Khalifa and Shen, 2008), there has been a general lack of strong empirical work to enable the establishment of models to find out the factors that can explain the adoption of m-commerce.The purpose of this study is to fill existing research gap by empirically establishing a model to explain the factors impacting the adoption of m-commerce in Malaysia. An empirical analysis is conducted to test the hypotheses of the adoption. This paper is organized as follows:* providing a literature review on adoption factors of m-commerce;* developing a research model based on literature review;* addressing the research methods;* discussing the research findings; and* discussing the practical and managerial implications of this study.\nLiterature review: m-Commerce\nHypotheses development: Perceived usefulness\nMethodology: Sampling and data collection\nVariable measurement: Independent variables\nData analysis: Profile of respondents\nDiscussion: PU was found to be the most significant determinant to predict consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia. This result is expected and supports prior researches that extended TAM in the context of m-commerce (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Lin and Wang, 2005; Lu et al., 2003; Khalifa and Shen, 2008) and e-commerce (Guriting and Ndubisi, 2006; Jahangir and Begum, 2008). These studies have indicated that PU played a vital role in influence the behavioral intention of adopting a technology. Consumer IU m-commerce will only increase when they find it useful. This is because m-commerce has unique characteristics such as ubiquity and immediacy, which users can retrieve information immediately and conduct the transaction anytime and anywhere. In conclusion, the better m-commerce could support them, the more useful they perceive m-commerce to be and increase their IU it. Hence, service providers' and vendors' attention should focus on designing the reliable system that will meet the users' needs, as well as providing the useful and quality information to users.PEOU was found to have an insignificant effect on consumer IU m-commerce. This result contradicted the prior studies (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Lin and Wang, 2005; Mallat et al., 2006; Guriting and Ndubisi, 2006; Jahangir and Begum, 2008). However, it is consistent with Cho et al.'s (2007) finding, which suggested that there is no significant impact of PEOU on the IU m-commerce. It is surprising that PEOU was found to be not significant in influencing the adoption of m-commerce in the study, even though PEOU has been validated as major behavioral belief to influence users' intention to adopt in various technologies in both origin and the extended TAM models. It can be inferred that since majority of the mobile device users in the study are younger (between ages of 20 and 30), it is possible that m-commerce can be learned easily by them and thus the ease-of-use has not impact on whether they will use m-commerce or not.Since youth are more aware of new innovation, they may have experienced various technologies and therefore have a good foundation of knowledge on how to use the technology. Thus, the ease-of-use or difficulty level of using m-commerce would not influence their decision to use them.SI exhibited a significant correlation on IU m-commerce. The finding provides evidence to support prior studies (Shin, 2007; Khalifa and Cheng, 2002; Kurnia et al., 2006), which suggested the importance of SI in predicting the adoption of m-commerce. As mobile device users in this study are mostly between the age of 21 and 30, they are considered to be in the lead segment (Wong and Hiew, 2005) and are easily vulnerable to SI (Lu et al., 2003). As stated earlier, they are more sensitive to the new trends and normally involved in rapid shift of trends and styles (Shin, 2007). Influence that comes from mass media or peers may easily influence their decision to use m-commerce. Hence, it is important for the services providers and vendors to consider the SI factor to encourage the adoption of m-commerce in Malaysia.Perceived cost is one of the barriers that prevent Malaysian from using m-commerce. The results in the study are consistent with prior researches (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Lin and Wang, 2005; Wong and Hiew, 2005), which have identified the negative relationship between the financial cost of using m-commerce and the consumer IU m-commerce. The results show that increasing in the cost such as cost of handset, subscription fee and communication fee will result in the decrease in adoption rate of m-commerce. Therefore, most of the respondents intend to use m-commerce if the cost of m-commerce is reasonable for them. The perceived cost can be reduced through the creative promotional and pricing strategies.Trust factor was found to be important predictor to explain the adoption of m-commerce in many existing technology adoption studies (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Cho et al., 2007; Lin and Wang, 2005). The finding in this study supports these existing findings and showed that there is a strong positive relationship between trust and the consumer IU m-commerce.m-Commerce is still a relatively immature technology and is still at the early stage in Malaysia; therefore, trust is very important to motivate Malaysian users to use the services provided by m-commerce in such uncertain environment. In order to increase the usage rate of m-commerce in Malaysia, the service providers and vendors should concentrate on building trust by developing m-commerce system with valuable function to assure the security and privacy of the users.\nImplication: According to Muthaiyah (2004), it costs tens of billions to build and develop the required m-commerce infrastructures in Malaysia. Since lots of efforts and money have been invested in m-commerce system, it is essential to ensure that people are using them. In order to attract more users and encourage the use of m-commerce in Malaysia, it is believed that merely introducing m-commerce to Malaysian may not be sufficient. By using the derived results in the analysis, the service providers and vendors may focus on the improvement of constructs or attributes that have positive impact on IU (Wong and Hiew, 2005).Since the PU is the most critical factor among all independent variables, the service providers should develop the content and applications which users will find valuable and usable to keep up with their fast-paced life style. Design of the services and contents should be focused on the important and unique characteristics of m-commerce, such as ubiquity, personalization and so on.Besides, the usefulness of m-commerce, the findings also reflect the overwhelming importance of trust in m-commerce. This implies that trust building between the customers and vendors should be another major concern for the service providers while improving the usefulness of the system. Without proper security and privacy protection, users will not use the services provided by m-commerce. According to Wang and Barnes (2007), the trust building strategies include advertising campaign, privacy guarantees, company policies and statement and so on.Furthermore, the strong relationship between perceived cost and m-commerce adoption in the study suggests that the creative promotional and pricing strategies, including cost reduction should be implemented to attract price-conscious customers. The SI should be taken into account to encourage the adoption of m-commerce in Malaysia too. For instance, the service providers should attract customers via various social networks and channels, such as word of mouth and informal seminars (Lu et al., 2003). On the other hand, the PEOU is found to be insufficient to influence the consumer IU m-commerce in the study. Hence, the main attention of management should be focused on development of usefulness of the system, trust building and cost reduction, instead of focusing on making system easy-to-use or interact with.Besides, the above implications for practices, this study provides several implications for scholars too. This study successfully extend the TAM in the context of m-commerce by incorporating one trust-based construct (trust), one behavioral control construct (perceived cost) and one subjective norm construct (SI). This extended TAM model is developed to achieve the greater understanding of user acceptance of m-commerce in Malaysia while remaining the parsimony of the model in the same time. In conclusion, the model in this study presents a considerable improvement in explanatory power.\nLimitation and future studies: This research was conducted in Malaysia and whether the results from this research would be consistent with other countries' mobile users would need to be verified through further research. Future studies can focus on conducting a multi-country comparison to test the influence of moderating factors such as the national culture from the countries.The future research should follow the longitudinal approach to predict beliefs and behaviour over time since the model is this study is cross-sectional, which measures the intention only at a single point in time (snapshot approach) (Luarn and Lin, 2005).This study has demographic profiles of relatively young age (Table II). Thus, it is possible that results taken from a different age group might have different result. For example, respondents from the older age group might find it more difficult to use m-commerce thus ease-of-use might be a factor influencing the adoption m-commerce. It would therefore be useful to make a comparison study between users from different age group in future study.The result from this study could be due to the services provided by the mobile service providers. For example, one service provider might offer more service than the other. Therefore, future study can also do a comparative study to investigate if there are any differences in the adoption of m-commerce between these different mobile service providers. As perceived cost is found to be a factor influencing the adoption of m-commerce, it would be interesting to do a comparison of the prices offered by these different mobile service providers and see if the providers with lower m-commerce service fees will actually have a higher adoption rate.Research challenges in security for new generation mobile net works are limitless with the speedier growth and development of m-commerce. As with many adoption model, there is a risk that additional significant factors have not been included in this model. New construct such as self efficacy (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Lin and Wang, 2005; Khalifa and Shen, 2008; Guriting and Ndubisi, 2006), perceived enjoyment (Liao et al., 2007; Shin, 2007) and compatibility (Mallat et al., 2006) which have been validated in numerous prior studies could be considered in the future research.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to empirically examine the factors that affect the consumer intention to use (IU) mobile commerce (m-commerce) in Malaysia. The five factors examined in this study are perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease-of-use (PEOU), social influence (SI), perceived cost and trust.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study sample consists of 222 respondents with a response rate of 84.09 per cent. Data were analyzed by employing correlation and multiple regression analysis.\nFindings: - The findings revealed that PU, SI, perceived financial cost and trust are positively associated with consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia. In addition, PEOU and trust were found to have an insignificant effect on consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The generalizability of the findings is limited as the study focuses only on Malaysia.\nPractical implications: - Based on the findings, companies involved in m-commerce should focus on improving the usefulness of the system, trust (i.e. security and privacy protection) and reducing the cost of m-commerce services to improve the adoption of m-commerce.\nOriginality/value: - The findings made a contribution in terms of allowing us to understand the factors that can contribute to the adoption of mobile commerce. This study successfully extend the TAM model in the context of mobile commerce by incorporating one trust-based construct (trust), one behavioural control construct (perceived financial cost) and one subjective norm construct (SI). This extended TAM model provides a greater understanding of user acceptance of mobile commerce in Malaysia.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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St Paul as sales strategist: an essay commemorating the years of St Paul, 2008/2009
|
[
"Ethics",
"Sales",
"Distribution",
"Christianity",
"Globalisation",
"Trust"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Business strategists know that there is no royal road to asking the right questions about their own business. But there is a detour to the ideas that otherwise may never occur to them: strategy metaphors combine disciplines that at first glance have no relevance for an individual company, but inspire questions that could be valuable for it. And so the detour becomes a shortcut.\nGlobal presence: We who are many are one body (First letter of Paul to the Corinthians, 10:17).It is the year 43 AD. A figure of average size, slightly bowed, trudges through the desert wind. The saddlebags of his mule contain parchment and writing materials, as well as leather, grommets, and clasps - the tools of a saddler and tent maker. In the distance, the silhouette of the Phoenician harbour in Sidon is discernible. This is where the man will embark, travelling first to Myra, then to Rhodes, Crete, and Malta, and finally to Rome, where the ship will get lost in a storm. In the endlessness of the desert, the wanderer seems small and insignificant. However, in his eyes burns a fire as strong as a thousand desert suns, and in his heart blazes the vision that spurs him on: to transform a small, fragmented community of believers into one of the world's largest religions, and to fulfil the words of the Prophet Isaiah:He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth (Isaiah 11:12).With this vision, St Paul Christianised the Roman world, and along with Jesus of Nazareth, became one of Christianity's pivotal figures. St Peter, the Rock on which Jesus would build his church, is often seen as the founder of Christianity. But actually, it is St Paul who deserves most of the credit for the Christianisation of the Roman Empire. When the Messiah failed to appear immediately after Jesus' death and resurrection, early Christianity experienced its first real crisis. St Paul was the one who turned a scattered, shaken community into a globally functioning organisation. He defined the Church's overall strategy and at the same time ensured that it remained flexible enough to survive in a constantly changing environment. He did this with an iron will, effective communication, and unconstrained mobility.St Paul was not among the first Christians. He came from a Jewish family, enjoyed the rights of Roman citizenship, and began his career as Saul, a fanatic persecutor of Christians for the Jewish authorities. In Damascus, he fell from a horse and had a vision of the Lord. After three days of blindness, he was converted (Acts 9:3 ff.).Like so many other Christians of his day, St Paul ultimately fell victim to the persecution of Christians under Emperor Nero in Rome. However, his strategy still bears fruit today. He took the first huge steps towards transforming Christianity into what is now one of the world's oldest, biggest, and most successful enterprises.\nNetworking: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously (Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, 9:6).Anyone who wants to achieve or sell something in a certain area has to go to where the real decision makers are. St Paul knew this. He knew where the relevant hubs of the day were, and who the multipliers were whose help he needed. Athens, Rome, and Damascus were the economic and intellectual centres of his time. Jerusalem was the place where the Temple of Solomon stood, and where Jesus was sentenced to death. Just as today's renowned scientists have to have been to Harvard and Oxford, and bankers have to have been to London and New York, St Paul had to go to where the action was. At a time with no television or newspapers, he used every available channel of communication to spread the word, whether in synagogues, marketplaces, and the temples of Athens, or along popular trade routes. His message combined richness and reach two thousand years before Web 2.0.Wherever there is action and crowds, there is potential for conflict. The Jews in Damascus found St Paul's statements about the Messiah to be blasphemous and plotted to kill him - a fate he escaped only by fleeing secretly with the help of his disciples. Speaking one's mind loudly and clearly always carries the risk of irritating someone. But acting strategically means not allowing yourself to be discouraged by setbacks. It means sticking to your long-term goals rather than responding to every change in the weather with a tactical sidestep.Of course, the larger the network of multipliers, the more numerous the possibilities for reaching the goal. St Paul was no stranger to portfolio management. He knew that a global organisation would be much more influential and stabile than a community of believers limited to a certain region. \"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation,\" Jesus exhorts his followers in the Gospel of Mark (16:15). St Paul not only managed to visit all the major centres of antiquity and make himself heard there, but he also succeeded in convincing the locals of the truth of his vision, and was able to persuade them to open their own \"branches\" - the first Christian communities in Corinth, Philippi, Rome, and Galatia. St Paul's use of this multi-level marketing made him not only the founder of global Christianity, but also the inventor of an - ethical - snowball system.\nCustomer segmentation: Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn (First letter of Paul to the Romans, 12:15).One question that confronts every sales organisation is whether it should focus on gaining new customers or try to make more of the ones it already has. St Paul chose the new customer approach - but again, not without opposition. At a council of the apostles in Jerusalem, he was able to persuade the others of the advantages of preaching to Gentiles (Acts 15:7). While most of the apostles insisted that only Jews could become Christians, Paul ultimately prevailed: Anyone willing to be baptised could become a Christian.Now, it is usually not enough just to show customers your product. If you want them to understand you and take you seriously, you also need to speak their language and understand their customs. St Paul's approach to his \"new customers\" was flawless. Code shifting is the linguistic term that describes what people do when they adapt their own speech to the linguistic customs of their interlocutors. \"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven,\" as it is written in Ecclesiastes (3:1): Every audience needs a customised message individually tailored to its needs. St Paul was a master of segmentation. He knew how to approach the diverse tribes of Palestine and the residents of densely populated cities like Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem. As Paul knew, \"Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom\" (1 Corinthians 1:22)... He knew that his message was universal, but that it needed to be tailored to each individual target group. He spoke the language of the Gentiles, and he listened and convincingly responded to their worries, fears, hopes, and expectations. With empathy and active listening, he discovered what really moved people, enabling him to tap demand that could be addressed with the Good News of the Gospel.\nKeep it simple: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Paul's letter to the Galatians, 3:28).The best customers - the ones you most want to reach - are also the ones your competitors want to reach. Often, you have to convey the advantages of your product in a very short amount of time - a so-called elevator speech. It has to be brief and concise, and still able to excite. Paul knew that an overly complex product or a convoluted message could not be successfully sold to the masses. In the banking business, when an overeager advisor's explanation of a product is so complicated that the customer does not understand anything, they say he killed the customer. Paul reduced the complexity and repetitions characteristic of the Old Testament and Judaism. He removed many laws in the Torah from Christian doctrine, such as those regarding circumcision, diet, and complicated instructions for rituals and building temples. He put belief squarely in the foreground, making it the most important criterion for membership. By focusing on easy implementation and the inclusion of all ethnic groups, he created not only a sense of community among Christians, but also formulated a discount strategy applicable to the masses. St Paul went everywhere, always left multipliers behind, and brought his ideas across no matter where he was. With global reach, expanded target groups, and the radical simplification of his offer, he built up a global network of believers open to everyone, everywhere.Here, too, of course, Paul had to deal with stumbling blocks along the way. When he preached in the temple in Jerusalem that all baptised Christians, whether they be Jews, Greeks, or other, are equal before the Lord, he was accused of blasphemy and the defilement of holy places (Acts 21:28-31). Here, again, he showed his integrity: rather than fleeing the wrath of the Jews, he confronted his accusers and spoke openly to the people (Acts 22:1-21). The fact that he was not very successful this time, that the scribes continued to demand his death, and that he was finally brought before the Roman consul, might be seen as a minor setback among the many he was dealt. But as numerous as the setbacks were, he kept his sights set on his ultimate goal and held fast to his strategy. He was not looking for \"quick wins,\" but for long-term, sustainable success. He knew that there is something greater - later ...\nTime-based competition: You want to sell your customers a product now, not in ten years. People who want quick solutions cannot be slow and cumbersome themselves. What can be done in a simple way can usually also be done fast. St Paul was in a rush, too - and he stepped on the gas. Only ten to 15 years after the crucifixion, he had succeeded in bringing the good news to almost every part of the Roman Empire. Since he fervently believed in the coming of the Antichrist soon after Jesus' death and resurrection, haste was the order of the day. Anyone who did not want to end up in hell had to be baptised - quickly, and with little ado. The roots of sayings like time is money, or the limited-time offers of banks (\"Get a better deal on your mortgage - only until 31 December!\") can be found in the early Christian organisation.\nAnd above all: integrity: Whatever ideas sales strategists might have for approaching their current or future customers, there are two things, especially before the background of the current crisis, which they should never forget: patience and integrity. Many ideas become effective only in the long term, and especially in sales, long-term customer retention means sustained, long-term earnings over and above quick wins.Integrity is just as important. No one believes that a turncoat sales manager who seeks only to please really takes clients seriously. Credibility comes from 100 per cent, authentic identification with the product being sold. It may be opportunistic to sell customers a poor product of which oneself is not convinced, but moral it is not.St Paul was what is today called a \"power seller\" - a man whose mission was to bring his message to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. But he was anything but opportunistic. His entire life, he made a living as a tent maker and saddler, rather than depending on the favour of benefactors or quacks. If he had accepted gifts, he may have had to compromise his vision of Christianity and his goals for a global church for potential financiers. Today, we would call this \"corruption.\" And the practice of corruption would have called into question his integrity and the sincerity of his beliefs, which would have threatened his entire undertaking. Because one of St Paul's biggest advantages in his sales offensive was his unshakeable faith, which he practised without compromise. In this way, by practising what he preached, he combined his vision, his beliefs, and himself in one person. The complications of personal obligation, paybacks, and compromise often come into play when (apparent) gifts are made. These are tactical missteps that St Paul could not afford as he stringently implemented his idea. He knew that among his most important resources for the realisation of his goals were his independence and freedom, and that entanglements and obligations would result in conflict that could dilute his Good News brand.\nSummary: St Paul knew what he wanted and what he had to do to get it. He succeeded in getting people excited about Christianity for the long term, even long after he had left a city or region. His influence reached over thousands of years, from his death until the present day. And unlike many companies, which develop their products as if in a bubble - inventing products for which there is no demand - St Paul regularly sought feedback from his \"customers,\" rather than nursing his vision in an ivory tower. He knew what moved people, and with his patronage of the poor and downtrodden, he was entirely in tune with the spirit of the times and the social crises at the turn of the millennium. With his adaptation of Christianity from Judaism, St Paul created a product that was both highly personalised and appealing to the masses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - In the course of the St Paul year 2008 and 2009 Christians in the whole world are commemorating St Paul. This essay aims to trace the footsteps of St Paul and consider the success factors that every strategist needs to make people enthusiastic about a product or an idea and nevertheless behave in a sustainable and ethical manner.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The six key performance indicators/methods of St Paul of spreading the gospel are analysed (global presence, networking, customer segmentation, keep it simple, time based competition and integrity) and compared to current distribution strategies of sales people and analysts of customer behaviour.\nFindings: - St Paul was a very successful power seller, but, differing from many other nowadays power sellers (take Madoff), he was selling his product in an ethical way, because he himself was also deeply convinced of the product, i.e. Christianity. Sales people can learn from St Paul, that big ticket sale will only work in the long run if combined with ethical sales behaviour. If sales organisations do not believe in the products they sell, they are doomed to fail in the long term. The current credit crisis, which originated in the sales of bad products with good sounding names is a prominent example..\nPractical implications: - By comparing abstract processes like sales and distribution to historical figures and their actions, it is easier for management to grasp ideas. Furthermore, stories stick better in the head than numbers. Corporate storytelling like the story of St Paul can help executives to get a clear idea of a topic and - different from \"empty flipchart brainstorming\" - give a good basis for management offsites and workshops.\nOriginality/value: - By using strategy metaphors, business strategists can stretch their thinking. Linking a non-business topic (St Paul) to a business topic can help to view one's own business from a fresh perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Creating patient value in glaucoma care: applying quality costing and care delivery value chain approaches: A five-year case study in the Rotterdam Eye Hospital
|
[
"Quality costs",
"Value chain",
"Health services",
"Eyes",
"The Netherlands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Hospital management requires managing both medical and financial performance (Crosby, 1979, 1983; Rivers and Tsai, 2001; Walburg, 2003; Brinkman, 2006). Usually in Dutch hospitals, physicians are focussed on medical results, while the hospital administration is primarily interested in the financial outcomes (RVZ, 1999). According to the law, the hospital board is responsible for the overall quality delivered by the hospital (Ministerie van Volsgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport, 1996).Methods and data used to manage and improve quality are different to the methods and data used for cost control (Custers et al., 2001, 2004; Revere and Black, 2003; Van den Heuvel et al., 2006). These different approaches and the resulting inconsistencies in performance management cause serious problems in health care (IOM, 2000, 2001). Based on the statement that investments on quality are necessary before realising returns, Custers et al. (2001) developed a quality cost model (QCM) to match quality and cost information for both policy and decision making in hospitals. To facilitate the choice between potential quality projects, the cost of the projects (prevention, assessment) were compared with the potential gains (reduced costs of non compliance). Evaluation of the use of QCM in five health care institutions demonstrated its general applicability but broad use was limited by facts related to hospital culture and the prevailing reimbursement structure in 2001 based on hospital budget (van Ineveld et al., 2002; Custers et al., 2004). In 2005 a new reimbursement structure for hospital care was introduced. Based on the system of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), the Dutch government developed its own specific system called Diagnose Behandel Combinaties(DBCs (diagnosis treatment combination)). These DBCs differ from DRGs as they include all the costs of both outpatient and inpatients costs and the fees for the specialist services. The DBCs reflect all the hospital (absorption) costs involved with all the necessary activities executed for the patient from first contact to discharge. This also means that costs of housing, depreciation, finance, etcetera, are part of a DBC. Although the financing via DBCs is subject to overall budget agreements, since 2005 the Dutch Government allows that on average 10 per cent of the production of a hospital is subject to free negotiations between health care insurers and hospitals on price and quantity per DBC. The Government expects quality to become an integral part of these negotiations. These in 2005 chosen DBCs are mostly related to non-complex hospital care. The remaining production is still part of a fixed budget scheme. From 2008 onwards an increasing number of DBCs will be chosen to become part of free negotiations and thus of more competitive forces (Schut and Van de Ven, 2005; Schreyogg et al., 2006).Porter and Teisberg (2006) postulated to reduce the tension between quality and costs by introducing the notion of \"patient value\" (see also Porter, 1985; Nolan and Berwick, 2006). In their much quoted book they proposed a care delivery value chain (CDVC) in which the focus should be on the added value for the patient and each (part) product or service in the whole process. They identified eight principles for a health care system to be able to compete on value:1. focus on value for patients, not just on lowering costs;2. competition based on results;3. competition focussed on medical conditions over the full cycle of care;4. high quality care should be less costly;5. value must be driven by provider experience, scale and learning at the level of the medical care process;6. competition should be regional and national, not just local;7. data on results should support value-based competition and must be widely available; and8. innovations that increase value must be strongly rewarded.To study the use of the QCM and the CDVC in practice, we have applied the two approaches on a concrete care delivery process: glaucoma care in the Rotterdam Eye Hospital, over a period of five years. We used the methodology described by Yin (2003) to evaluate our experiences. This methodology is advisable when the boundaries between the evaluated phenomenon and the context are not clearly evident and one has to cope with a situation in which there are many more variables of interest then data points. We have focused in our single, longitudinal case study on the following research questions:RQ1. How did the organisation of the glaucoma care process develop between 2001 and 2006?RQ2. What are the results of using a QCM and what is the relation to the CDVC?RQ3. In which way does the new reimbursement system influence the quality costing behaviour of the hospital management?Given the changing conditions in the reimbursement structure in 2005, we analyzed the use of the QCM and the applicability of the CDVC over the period 2001 to 2006. The unit of analysis is one specific care process in one specific hospital, the Rotterdam Eye Hospital. We have focused on glaucoma care delivery, because patient groups may be easily identified, treatment paths are obvious and the main routing of the patients is known. The case hospital (30 ophthalmologists, 350 employees) had its first experiences with the use of QCM for another care process, cataract surgery in the late 1990s (Bandel et al., 1997, 1999).Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases and one of the most common causes of blindness worldwide (Quigley and Broman, 2006). It affects the optic nerve that connects the eye to the brain and requires life-long treatment. It can be treated, but not cured, and approximately 1-2 per cent of the (Western) general population has it (NEI, 1998; Kymes et al., 2006). Some more detailed characteristics of glaucoma are given below.What is glaucoma?\nMethods: To obtain data to answer the research questions the following methods were applied:* A multidisciplinary group of physicians, nurses and research employees twice created a flow chart of the glaucoma care process (in 2001 and in 2006). From these findings, and from formal changes in organisation of glaucoma care, a description of the developments in the organisation of the glaucoma care process over a period of five years is provided.* Based on these flow charts, quality indicators were constructed for the different parts of the process. These indicators were based on literature, on clinical experience in the group, on measurability, on consequences for the patient and on critical position in total care delivery. For each quality indicator, a standard score was specified and costs were calculated. Potential costs of non-compliance were calculated. By means of patient records, patient satisfaction surveys and cost calculations, a zero level measure (2001) and two effect measures (2002 and 2006) were determined. The number of respondents by measurement instrument were as shown in Table I. We have used the statistical package \"SPSS Inc. 15.0 for Windows\" to analyze the data of the patient satisfaction surveys and patient records. Descriptive statistics were used to obtain frequencies and means for the different indicators.* A literature and document search was done to gain up-to-date knowledge on relations between reimbursement and quality cost management. We used the databases PubMed/Medline, Cochrane Library, Emerald, Web of Knowledge and Web of Science and searched on: quality, costs, value chain, failure costs, cost of non-compliance, indicators, business case, reimbursement. For further understanding of the Dutch situation management letters, policy statements and (annual) reports from the case hospital and national stakeholders were used. The acquired insights were compared with the situation in our case study. To increase the construct validity, an expert group and key informants have reviewed the different drafts of the case study reports. They have confirmed the identified items that will be described in the results section. Data triangulation was used when comparing data gathered by the financial department with data generated by the involved medical department. For the same reason, those who have been the subjects of the case study (physicians, nurses, management) have reviewed and commented on the research outcomes.\nResults: RQ1: glaucoma care delivery process: design and developments\nDiscussion: Glaucoma care process redesign and development\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore in a specific hospital care process the applicability in practice of the theories of quality costing and value chains.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In a retrospective case study an in-depth evaluation of the use of a quality cost model (QCM) and the applicability of Porter's care delivery value chain (CDVC) was performed in a specific care process: glaucoma care over the period 2001 to 2006 in the Rotterdam Eye Hospital in The Netherlands.\nFindings: - The case study shows a reduction of costs per product by increasing the number of outpatient visits and surgery combined with a higher patient satisfaction. Reduction of costs of non-compliance by using the QCM is small, due to the absence of (external) financial incentives for both the hospital and individual physicians. For CDVC to be supportive to an integrated quality and cost management the notion \"patient value\" needs far more specification as mutually agreed on by the stakeholders involved and related reimbursement needs to depend on realised outcomes.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The case study just focused on one specific care process in one hospital. To determine effects in other areas of health care, it is important to study the use and applicability of the QCM and the CDVC in other care processes and settings.\nOriginality/value: - QCM and a CDVC can be useful tools for hospital management to manage the outcomes on both quality and costs, but impact is dependent on the incentives in the context of the existing organisational and reimbursement system and asks for an agreed on operationalisation among the various stakeholders of the notion of patient value.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Utilizing a privacy impact assessment method using metrics in the healthcare sector
|
[
"Privacy impact assessment",
"Privacy principles",
"Privacy metrics",
"Risk analysis",
"Privacy enhancing technologies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The continuously increasing use of electronic services has resulted in the collection, storage, processing and transmission of a huge amount of personal data (Hong and Thong, 2013) (Belanger and Crossler, 2011). Potential security or privacy breaches may cause significant consequences to the organizations and thus highlight the importance of protecting both customers' and employees' personal data (De Capitani di Vimercati et al., 2012).\n2. Literature review: In the advent of computer science era, individuals use computers on a daily basis to satisfy their \"digital needs\", for instance to perform electronic transactions via the net. To do so, they do not hesitate to provide the personal data required for accessing the applications. Yet, can people be really protected when they \"offer\" their personal data so willingly? To answer this question, it is first necessary to estimate the consequences from a potential privacy breach, employing a PIA method. Having estimated the impact, the stakeholders may adopt remedial actions for eliminating or minimizing the consequences (Wright and Hert, 2012). Furthermore, failure to apply a PIA method may result in a breach of privacy laws - regulations.\n3. Proposed security and privacy impact assessment method: 3.1 Scope of the proposed method\n4. Applying the proposed privacy impact assessment method: The proposed PIA method is applicable to any organization that collects, stores and processes users' data. To demonstrate how the method can be applied, two Hospital Information Systems, with different characteristics, have been used as an example. The results derived are presented in the following sections.\n5. Conclusions: This paper has presented a PIA method that employs metrics and takes into account the peculiarities and other characteristics of the organization. The applicability of the method has been demonstrated on two Hospital Information Systems with different characteristics. The aim is to assist the organizations to estimate the criticality of potential privacy breaches and, thus, to select the appropriate security measures for the protection of the data that they collect, process and store. As far as the identification and assessment of the risks, it is performed through the risk management or/and PIA methodology that the organization decides to use while for the mitigation of the risks it is in our plans for future work to develop a feedback channel that will enhance the proposed method in a way that it will be able to recalculate the criticality by taking into account the suitability/effectiveness of the implemented mitigation techniques. We will thus support the Plan-Do-Check-Act model of the ISO 27000 standard.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to assist organizations to protect the privacy of their users and the security of the data that they store and process. Users may be the customers of the organization (people using the offered services) or the employees (users who operate the systems of the organization). To be more specific, this paper proposes a privacy impact assessment (PIA) method that explicitly takes into account the organizational characteristics and employs a list of well-defined metrics as input, demonstrating its applicability to two hospital information systems with different characteristics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper presents a PIA method that employs metrics and takes into account the peculiarities and other characteristics of the organization. The applicability of the method has been demonstrated on two Hospital Information Systems with different characteristics. The aim is to assist the organizations to estimate the criticality of potential privacy breaches and, thus, to select the appropriate security measures for the protection of the data that they collect, process and store.\nFindings: The results of the proposed PIA method highlight the criticality of each privacy principle for every data set maintained by the organization. The method employed for the calculation of the criticality level, takes into account the consequences that the organization may experience in case of a security or privacy violation incident on a specific data set, the weighting of each privacy principle and the unique characteristics of each organization. So, the results of the proposed PIA method offer a strong indication of the security measures and privacy enforcement mechanisms that the organization should adopt to effectively protect its data.\nOriginality/value: The novelty of the method is that it handles security and privacy requirements simultaneously, as it uses the results of risk analysis together with those of a PIA. A further novelty of the method is that it introduces metrics for the quantification of the requirements and also that it takes into account the specific characteristics of the organization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Work-based learning - it's primary feedback that matters
|
[
"Motivation",
"Learning",
"Feedback",
"Job satisfaction",
"Teaching",
"Work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In this article I want to make a link between appropriate learning at work and two factors that are pertinent to its effectiveness. These two factors are - learning from feedback and the role of satisfaction with what we do.\nPractical learning: Last week I replaced the door on my tumble dryer. The dryer is 22 years old and this is the second door I have had to replace. There is a design fault in the door catch, which causes it to fail, and, previously having tried to fix just the catch, I learned that I had to replace the whole door - you cannot just replace the catch.Friends were rather surprised that I had done what is quite a simple task. They just assumed that if something goes wrong on a 22-year-old dryer, you replace the dryer - and anyway they did not feel that they were able to replace a door. But where is the satisfaction in buying a new dryer? Having fixed the door it gives me satisfaction in having done the repair. The activity is not just a menial physical activity. Working with your hands is not just about technical skills. You have to think about what you are doing and learn from it.Crawford (2011) wrote a book about moving from heading up a think tank to running a motor bike repair shop. As he commented \"I quickly realized there was more thinking going on in the bike shop than in my previous job at the think tank.\" (Crawford, 2011, p. 27). He makes a great case for the satisfaction of learning to do a good job and seeing it through in practice. As he suggested:The satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence have been known to make a man (sic) quiet and easy. They seem to relieve him of the felt need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth. He can simply point: the building stands, the car now runs, the lights are on [...] the tradesman must reckon with the infallible judgment of reality, where one's failures or shortcomings cannot be interpreted away (Crawford, 2011, p. 15).\nFeedback: Crawford's book supports what I have long argued for, namely the value of primary feedback over secondary feedback for learning. The reality of what happens, and the learning from it, is evidenced by what is produced. This primary feedback is a crucial factor for work-based learning.In organizational life the use of the term \"feedback\" is mostly associated with secondary feedback. It is a comment on action but not the action itself. It is, to quote Bateson (1973), the error of eating the menu card in the restaurant rather than the meal. The menu card describes the meal but it is not the meal - and the description is a comment on the meal but may not be how the meal is actually appreciated. Eating is the real experience - it provides primary feedback. You may be polite to the waiter and say that the meal was fine (secondary feedback) but you know what it actually tasted like (primary feedback).Gallwey (1974) showed that in tennis (and other sports) paying attention to what is actually happening (primary feedback) produces better learning than comments on what has happened (secondary feedback). One example is his approach to getting people to improve their serve. His exercise is to get the learner to put their tennis racket cover in the service area where they want their ball to land. The learner then serves lots of balls and after each one says where the ball landed in relation to the racket cover. The learner has to be specific. They cannot just say \"it was a bit long\" - they have to say precisely \"the ball was 2 feet long\" or \"the ball was a foot wide\". What the exercise does is to get the learner to use their eyes and brain to get good primary feedback - evidence of real activity. The coach does not say \"good serve\" or \"poor serve\" (secondary feedback), as this is a comment on behavior not the behavior itself. The evidence is that primary feedback works better than secondary. People get better at serving doing his exercise - more balls land on the racket cover. They learn to improve without the coach providing secondary feedback.The evidence of what happened (primary feedback) is more important for learning purposes - and for the intrinsic motivation that goes with personal satisfaction. Secondary feedback might help extrinsic motivation; a positive comment might provide an incentive to continue to learn something and negative comments might make a person give up learning. So secondary feedback has a role - a secondary role - in learning.Crawford (2011, pp. 194-5) commented on educational practice and discussed a classic psychology experiment as follows:Children who enjoy drawing were given marker pens and allowed to go at it. Some were rewarded for drawing (they were given a certificate with a gold seal and a ribbon, and told ahead of time about this arrangement), whereas for others the issue of rewards was never raised. Weeks later, those who had been rewarded took less interest in drawing, whereas those who had not been rewarded continued to enjoy the activity and produced high-quality drawings. The hypothesis is that the child begins to attribute his interest, which previously needed no justification, to the external reward, and this has the effect of reducing his intrinsic interest in it.My interpretation is that, in this case, the secondary feedback (reward) was less effective and indeed diversionary. It took attention away from primary feedback - the actual evidence of the drawing. Relating all this to organizational life means that learning in the workplace needs to be rooted in the work itself.If you are making a presentation and people are clearly falling asleep or reading the newspaper, this primary feedback may be more important to attend to than secondary feedback from colleagues who may feel obliged to congratulate you on your presentation. A test of a factual presentation, one that requires people to act on information provided, is to see if people do what is required. Attendees at the presentation may say \"yes we know what we have to do - great presentation\" (secondary feedback) but if they do not do it (primary feedback) then you have to learn from this and figure out why the presentation did not work so well.\nSatisfaction: I have emphasized the practical value of primary feedback for learning. But we also need to return to the matter of personal satisfaction. What Crawford (2011) shows is that getting satisfaction from work is important. The pleasure in seeing a job well done is valuable in itself. It seems as though learning is then enhanced in a virtuous cycle. By learning to do something well you get satisfaction that then prompts further learning. This is different from the vicious cycle where a person attempts something new and is heavily criticized for not getting it right (secondary feedback) - hence inhibiting future learning.An example of this is back to education. In the learning center, where I work with young people aged 11-16 who are out of school, we see the effects of negative secondary feedback all the time. Many young people come to us saying that they are no good at art, for instance. An art teacher criticized their work (secondary feedback) so they have given up on learning. Alison, who works in the art room, encourages the young person just to play with different materials (if they want to) so that they can start to learn for themselves. Having seen that they can create something, they gain satisfaction from this and start to learn from primary feedback - the evidence of their own eyes.\nConclusion: There is clearly an important link between satisfaction in doing something and learning. We need better linkages of these two factors in the workplace. Crawford (2011) used his experience in motorbike repair to argue a case for using your hands. However we know in organizational life that much work has become detached from practical hands-on action. This should not stop us from utilizing the insights he provides on what I call primary feedback. I have cited the example of presentations as one situation we can use in work based learning. And there are plenty more.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to expose errors in thinking about work based learning; specifically the misconception about primary and secondary feedback.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper draws on significant literature as well as the author's experience.\nFindings: - The paper shows that much work-based learning is based on faulty thinking about the nature of learning. It shows that much so-called feedback is unhelpful to learning. It also shows that satisfaction in learning is importantly best based on intrinsic motivation.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper draws on the research of others.\nPractical implications: - There are important implications for all who work in organizations as the paper shows that learning can be greatly improved when there is a greater focus on primary feedback and on direct practice.\nSocial implications: - The paper raises wider implications for educational practice and exposes how young people are inhibited in their learning by bad practice amongst teachers.\nOriginality/value: - This is a totally original paper that raises matters never before discussed in this way. It integrates the work of other authors with live practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Ensuring quality immediate discharge letters from mental health
|
[
"Mental health",
"Communication",
"Quality improvement",
"Audit",
"Primary care"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The sharing of information between inpatient psychiatric services and primary care is essential in ensuring safe, effective and continuous care for discharged patients. Studies have shown that discharges from inpatient psychiatric services result in a number of stressors such as perceived loss of support, home environmental issues and changing drug therapies, and therefore it can be seen that safe discharge planning, including communication, is vital (Goldacre et al., 1993). This is not only isolated to mental health units, as a study by Arora et al. (2010) found that older patients discharged were more likely to report problems post-discharge when their primary care physician was not aware of hospital admission. Furthermore, continuity of care, which good communication allows, has been identified as a factor contributing to positive post-discharge recovery (Morrow-Howell et al., 1991).\nAims: The aim of this project was to standardise information contained in IDLs to ensure safe patient transfer between secondary and primary care. In addition, it was aimed to assess whether this information was being shared in practice, by means of auditing IDLs from two acute mental health wards.\nMethodology: Three audit cycles were undertaken where IDLs were checked retrospectively for all patients discharged over the previous three weeks. The first cycle was a baseline measurement of information included in IDLs, the second was following generalised awareness of the problem and following junior doctor changeover and the third was after a more comprehensive intervention as detailed below.\nResults: Cycle 1, the baseline measurement prior to intervention, showed that 49 per cent (19/39) of discharges had a brief reason for admission, 15 per cent (6/39) included a description of the patient's progress during inpatient admission, 36 per cent (14/39) had medication alterations included and 23 per cent (9/39) included follow-up arrangements. Of note, 5/39 IDLs did not include any of this information.\nDiscussion: Three cycles were planned to assess the impact of work by key members of the audit team. The first cycle in November 2016 was undertaken at a time when junior medical staff were involved in working with the audit team on various aspects of communication at transitions of care. This cycle was performed to understand a baseline of the current quality and information contained in the IDLs prior to any interventions. It was conducted midway through a junior medical staff rotation to ensure that there were no issues with staff unfamiliarity with the HePMA software and mental health discharge planning. In addition, informal staff interactions were used to assess the suitability of the standardised list.\nLessons/limitations: The aims of this project were to develop a list of necessary information that is required in IDLs and to assess the quality of the IDLs produced. This was achieved by interdisciplinary input and auditing following a number of interventions. A key lesson learnt was that there were patients being discharged with no IDL at all, and the need for this to be addressed. Additionally, there was a significant number of poor quality IDLs (i.e. not including sufficient information to primary care to ensure safe patient transfer) which, following this project, was improved.\nConclusion: The pressure on hospital services to ensure effective communication with community healthcare and general practice is imperative for patient safety, as noted in published research (Arora et al., 2010; Goldacre et al., 1993; Morrow-Howell et al., 1991). It is possible and realistic to ensure that necessary information is recorded and shared for patients at the point of discharge from mental health services. This can be achieved through no-cost changes and by valuing the contribution that junior doctors can make to communication at points of transition. Further research assessing patient readmission rates and health economics of timely and quality IDLs would be a realistic continuation of this project.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Immediate discharge letters (IDLs) from the mental health unit at Forth Valley Royal Hospital are vital in ensuring safe patient transfer to primary care. The purpose of this paper is to develop a standardised list of information that should be included in all IDLs, and to assess its use in practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three audit cycles analysed IDLs over two-week periods for their inclusion of the standardised list. The data were assessed qualitatively.\nFindings: Baseline measurement showed 48.7 per cent of discharges had a brief reason for admission, 15.4 per cent included a description of the patient's progress during inpatient admission, 35.9 per cent had medication alterations included and 23.1 per cent included follow-up arrangements. Following a series of interventions, analysis of subsequent IDLs demonstrated that 76.2 per cent of discharges had a brief reason for admission, 76.2 per cent included a description of the patient's progress during inpatient admission, 76.2 per cent had medication alterations included and 71.4 per cent included follow-up arrangements.\nOriginality/value: The standardised list developed will ensure quality communication and safe patient transfer to primary care; the application of this list was effective and cost neutral.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Towards green experiential loyalty: Driving from experiential quality, green relationship quality, environmental friendliness, green support and green desire
|
[
"Experiential quality",
"Green desire",
"Green experiential loyalty",
"Green relationship quality",
"Green support"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: To avoid subjective performance, the standards of green bed & breakfasts (B&Bs) tend to be formulated by Taiwan's government. The label \"Environmental Certification\" was implemented in December 2008 by the Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, Taiwan. Through environmental regulations and policies, more specific andfeasible regulations were produced which organizations can adopt to reduce their influence on the environment as well as move toward a sustainable future. Although there are numerous examples of sustainability efforts by large accommodations, little has focused on green B&Bs (van Haastert and de Grosbois, 2010). Following the definition provided by the Green Hotel Association (2008), a green B&B is an eco-friendly accommodation that performs a variety of environment-friendly practices, such as saving water/energy, using eco-friendly purchasing policies, waste reduction and waste management to protect the natural environment and reduce operational costs. To keep existing customers returning to green B&Bs in the near future, green B&B management should put more effort into maintaining green experiential loyalty.\nLiterature review: Experiential quality\nResearch model and hypothesis development: The conceptual model is based on a multidimensional model as the framework for this study. Using the multidimensional model indicates that customers form perceptions of each of the experiential quality dimensions: peer-to-peer quality, physical environment quality, outcome quality, venue quality, information quality and administration quality. In the research model, green experiential satisfaction is significantly, positively influenced by the experiential quality dimensions. In addition, green support is significantly, positively influenced by green trust and green desire is positively affected by green experiential satisfaction. Moreover, both green trust and green experiential satisfaction are significantly, positively influenced by environmental friendliness. Finally, green experiential loyalty is significantly, positively influenced by green trust, green experiential satisfaction, environmental friendliness, green support and green desire.\nResearch methodology: Questionnaire and pre-test\nData analysis and results: Convergent and discriminant validity of the measures\nDiscussion and conclusions: The objective of this study is partially supported. First, the findings show that customers' perceptions of peer-to-peer quality, physical environment quality, outcome quality, venue quality, administration quality and environmental friendliness have a significant positive influence on green experiential satisfaction, whereas the effect of information quality on green experiential satisfaction is insignificant. The results of this study agree with the contentions of several studies (Choi and Kim, 2013; Minh et al., 2015; Shonk and Chelladurai, 2008; Wu et al., 2016a) that once good peer-to-peer quality, physical environment quality, outcome quality, venue quality, administration quality are perceived by customers, positive perceptions toward green experiential satisfaction are likely. In addition, the findings are consistent with several authors (Chen, 2013; Chen et al., 2006, 2015) who indicate that green marketing activities can satisfy consumer demand and positively influence green satisfaction if they reveal positive environmental behaviors and attitudes. However, the result of this study is also consistent with the proposition by Milfelner et al. (2011) that once perceptions of information quality are received, these may not have a positive influence on green satisfaction in the hospitality industry.\nImplications: Theoretical implications\nLimitations and future research: Despite its contribution to the literature, this paper has several limitations. First, data were collected only from the customers at one green B&B in Yilan County of Taiwan. To enable the study's findings to be generalized to other areas or countries, future studies might use a phone call and the telephone directory of Taiwan to ensure whether respondents have been to a green B&B. Subsequently, the researchers can ask them to complete a questionnaire using mail or e-mail (Chen, 2013).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to test the relationships among the experiential quality dimensions, the green relationship quality dimensions, environmental friendliness, green support, green desire and green experiential loyalty in a green bed & breakfast (B&B) context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data used in this study are based on a sample of 517 customers staying at one green B&B in Yilan County of Taiwan. The predicted relationship is tested using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The empirical findings reveal the following: five dimensions (peer-to-peer quality, physical environment quality, outcome quality, venue quality and administration quality) constitute a multidimensional model to conceptualize and measure perceived experiential quality that can achieve green experiential satisfaction in addition to environmental friendliness; environmental friendliness has a direct influence on green trust and green experiential satisfaction, which has a positive significant influence on green support and green desire; and green trust, green experiential satisfaction and green support contribute to green experiential loyalty.\nPractical implications: To increase the perceptions of experiential quality dimensions, green relationship quality dimensions, environmental friendliness, green support, green desire and green experiential loyalty, the findings of this study will help green B&B management develop and implement market-orientated service strategies.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides data that result in a better understanding of the relationships among experiential quality dimensions, green relationship quality dimensions, environmental friendliness, green support, green desire and green experiential loyalty in a green B&B setting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Determinants, transactional alignment, and performance outcomes of franchise contract length
|
[
"Resource-based theory",
"Performance",
"Safeguarding",
"Transaction costs theory",
"Contract length",
"Knowledge leverage"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organizational governance choices matter and wrong governance decisions can lead to deterioration of performance. Transaction costs economics (TCE) is a leading theoretical framework informing governance decisions. Motivated by considerations of efficiency, transaction costs theory (TCT) explains that governance choices depend on transactional attributes. The alignment of transactional attributes with governance ensures superior performance (Williamson, 2005). Several empirical studies grounded in TCE tested the effects of misalignment of governance choices on performance outcomes (Silverman et al., 1997; Leiblein et al., 2002; Mayer and Nickerson, 2005; Menard and Saussier, 2002; Nickerson and Silverman, 2003; Sampson, 2004; Argyres and Bigelow, 2007; Bidwell, 2010; Handley, 2017). While these studies provide an important step in the empirical verification of TCE and are referred to as the \"second generation\" of empirical research in TCE (Yvrande-Billon and Saussier, 2005), they mostly focus on explaining organizational choices between make or buy decisions. Few studies investigate how the contractual choices as governance decisions affect performance outcomes (Yvrande-Billon, 2003) and this study addresses this gap.\n2. Determinants of contract length in franchising: 2.1 Transaction costs theory\n3. Performance outcomes of franchise contracts: 3.1 Transaction costs misalignment hypothesis\n4. Empirical analysis: 4.1 Data\n5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Discussion of the findings and conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants, transactional alignment and performance outcomes of franchise contract length using transaction costs theory (TCT) and resource-based theory (RBT).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author hypothesizes that franchisors choose contract length according to TCT and RBT arguments. TCT explains the safeguarding function of contracts: the franchisors will offer longer contracts when franchisees' specific investments are high and environmental uncertainty is low. RBT highlights the knowledge leverage function of contracts: the franchisors will offer longer contracts when the brand name and intangible knowledge assets are high. Franchise companies that design contract length aligned with transactional attributes will perform better. The author tests the misalignment hypothesis and comparative performance of franchise contracts by estimating two-stage least squares regression and Heckman two-stage procedure that control for endogeneity and self-selection.\nFindings: Empirical data from the German franchise sector support the hypotheses. In addition to the safeguarding function, franchise contracts have an important knowledge leverage function. Longer contracts perform better due to the development of relational strategic assets and stronger commitment.\nResearch limitations/implications: Franchisors must offer longer contracts when specific investments of franchisees, brand name, intangible knowledge assets are high, and environmental uncertainty is low. Franchisors should invest in the development of relational strategic assets and offer longer contracts for the benefit of superior performance.\nOriginality/value: The study addresses the significant question of transactional alignment and comparative performance of franchise contracts. It empirically confirms the importance of RBT in explaining contractual choices and performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The adoption and success of profit-sharing plans in strategic business units: Opportunism or contingency?
|
[
"Earnings",
"Financial services",
"Capital growth",
"Company profit sharing schemes",
"Strategic business units"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: According to Milkovich and Newman (2005), profit-sharing enjoys continuing popularity as a group incentive scheme because it focuses on the measure that matters most to most executives: a predetermined index of profitability. In the United States, it is estimated that approximately 20 per cent of all firms have profit-sharing plans (PSPs) (Kruse, 1996), a proportion that rises to 69 per cent among large organizations (Lawler et al., 1998). The popularity of PSPs is comparable between Canada and the United States, with surveys indicating that between 17 per cent and 25 per cent of all Canadian firms have PSPs (Long, 1997; Tyson, 1997). In fact, most group compensation plans require a designed profit target to be met before any payouts occur.Within an agency context, the aim for adopting broad-based incentive plans such as PSPs is to induce employees to work toward increasing a firm's earnings, thus substituting for other employee behaviour monitoring mechanisms (Weitzman and Kruse, 1990). In organizations with extensive or intense employee interactions, a PSP may also enhance a firm's productivity as it encourages information sharing and makes the firm more flexible in responding to environmental changes (Bradley and Estrin, 1992; FitzRoy and Kraft, 1987; Kruse, 1993). For instance, by adopting a PSP, financial services strategic business units (SBUs) that promote a strong sense of collective identity may lead co-workers to detect and discourage behaviours that are deemed dysfunctional (Wageman, 1995). More specifically, PSPs may even motivate employees to monitor their colleagues' work to ensure that it leads to higher earnings (Fitzroy and Kraft, 1987). The need to induce such self-monitoring behaviour and the resulting usefulness of a PSP, may increase as the relative size of the SBU increases. This would be consistent with other evidence that large organizations are more likely to adopt profit-based variable incentive plans (Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, 1992). However, in practice, there is scarce evidence regarding potential determinants of PSP adoption (Cheadle, 1990; Kruse, 1993).Early studies rely on static performance comparisons between PSP adopters and PSP non-adopters, almost all using a cross-sectional design. Most subsequent studies find that firms with a PSP exhibit higher levels of productivity (sales/employee) than other firms (see Kruse, 1993 for an extensive review). However, productivity is only one underlying determinant of a firm's earnings or value creation performance. PSPs' positive impact on productivity is consistent with Shields' (1997, p. 14) conclusion that accounting performance-based incentives increase operational performance such as the operating ratio in the transportation industry (Enis, 1993) or sales per employee in the retail industry (Banker et al., 1996b). From an investors' perspective, Kumar and Sopariwala (1992) find positive excess returns around the date of announcement of performance plan adoption and that the adoption of a plan implies higher growth in earnings per share. Wagner et al. (1988) show also that a firm's long-term performance is improved by the use of accounting performance-based incentive plans. In contrast, other studies show that PSP adoption does not positively influence a firm's stock market performance (Wadhawani and Wall, 1990) or its earnings productivity, since gains from PSP adoption are cancelled out by increased labour costs[1] (Kim, 1998).Recently, Magnan and St-Onge's study (2005) shed some light on the process by which PSP adoption translates into organizational performance improvements. Relying on a dual theoretical framework that combines agency theory and goal theory, they show that firms adopting a PSP experience a long-lasting improvement in their level of earnings. They show that the adoption of a PSP allows a SBU to experience a one-time improvement in its profitability relative to its own prior performance and to its peers. Most of that improvement is concentrated in profit drivers that are more directly controllable by employees and that have an external span of improvement such as asset growth, loan losses and other revenues.Despite all prior studies, many authors (Bushman and Smith, 2001; Shields, 1997; Weitzman and Kruse, 1990) point out the need for more research on the issue of effectiveness of accounting-based incentives such as PSPs. First, with some notable exceptions, most studies use a cross-sectional design to assess if firms adopting a PSP exhibit higher performance levels than non-adopters. Since, such a design does not necessarily control for prior performance, it is possible to draw misleading cause-effect inferences about PSP effectiveness that only reflect the fact that adopters are high-performers to start with and they remain high-performers afterward. Hence, is the profile of PSP adopters different from non-adopters in terms of profitability and growth? Second, while the impact of PSP adoption on a firm's performance level is critical, its impact on a firm's performance growth potential is even more critical as both a firm's performance level and growth determine its value and value creation (Amir and Lev, 1996). Most prior findings relate to the impact of PSPs on a firm's performance level, not on its future growth. Therefore, is a PSP an effective tool in raising earnings growth or is it only a neutral managerial change that does not affect profitability? Is the growth in earnings following PSP adoption conditioned by a firm's profitability context, i.e. poor performance vs high performance? Furthermore, if some studies show that PSPs are conductive to improvements in an organization's productivity, empirical work on the determinants of their adoption and their effectiveness is scarce (Kruse, 1993; Jones and Pliskin, 1997). The available econometric evidence does not clearly identify under what conditions profit-sharing would be expected to offer large productivity gains or the channels through which these gains might arise (Jones et al., 1997, p. 161).Relying on longitudinal performance data from a sample of SBUs within a large financial services organization, this study aims at answering this gap in trying to address the two following questions. First, what determines the adoption of a PSP by a SBU? Second, compared to other firms, do SBUs that adopt a PSP exhibit continuing growth in their return on assets and if yes, is this growth conditioned by the timing of PSP adoption and a SBU's prior performance?\n2 Conceptual framework and hypotheses: While managerial intent is not directly observable, it is likely to have an effect on the effectiveness of a PSP. Managerial opportunism implies that managers do not adopt a PSP as part of an overall growth strategy, do not view a PSP as a motivational tool that need continuing reinforcements if it is going to have long-lasting effects, and are less likely to be innovators but more likely to be imitators in adopting a PSP. Under these conditions, firms with a PSP are not expected to be distinctive from non-adopters prior to PSP adoption and are less likely to derive the full benefits from PSP adoption.In contrast, the adoption of a PSP may be a reflection of a clear performance-driven managerial strategy that values innovation and long-term value creation. In that context, a PSP is a control lever which adoption is contingent upon some organizational attributes. For instance, under conditions where direct monitoring of employees' actions and decisions is inefficient and costly, outcome-oriented compensation contracts will typically be developed to ensure that employees' interests are aligned with those of owners (Bartol and Locke, 2000, p. 119). Such conditions are more likely to prevail in large organizations than in small organizations, since they face a much more serious challenge in implementing strategic changes and in conveying new strategic directions to all employees (Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, 1992). Hence, Miceli and Heneman (2000) argue that the adoption and design of compensation plans is contingent upon contextual factors such as organizational size. Jackson et al. (1989) also argue that large organizations are more likely to adopt sophisticated human resources practices, such as profit-sharing, than small ones.With respect to PSPs, larger firms have more resources to allocate to the development and management of a PSP than smaller firms (Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, 1992). Moreover, it is argued that PSPs are more likely to be effective in larger organizations where effective direct supervision of personnel is difficult (Conlon and Parks, 1990). Hence, since there is a strong rationale that successful strategy implementation may be contingent upon the size of the adopting organization, it is expected that larger SBUs are more likely to adopt than smaller SBUs. This gives rise of the first research proposition:P1. SBUs adopting a PSP are more likely to be larger than SBUs that do not adopt a PSP.\n3 Research method: 3.1 Field setting: financial services SBUs\n4 Results: 4.1 Profile of SBUs adopting a PSP\n5 Discussion and conclusion: Through the prism of contingency and managerial opportunism, four key findings emerge from the study. First, this study shows that SBUs within a large financial services organization have a propensity to adopt a PSP if they exhibit large asset size and superior asset growth in the period preceding the adoption. However, a SBU's prior earnings performance does not seem to influence managers' decision to adopt or not a PSP. These findings suggest that PSPs are an alternative to direct monitoring and serve as a tool to translate asset growth into earnings growth. These findings do contradict earlier findings reported by Kruse (1993) that PSP adopters exhibit superior prior performance. The different time periods, country of reference and nature of the industry may explain this difference. Second, our findings show also those SBUs adopting a PSP exhibit higher ROA growth following PSP adoption, as compared to their own prior performance and to non-adopting SBUs. However, the earnings growth rate shown by PSP adopters declines over time: by the second year following PSP adoption, SBU having adopted a PSP do not exhibit superior earnings growth relative to their peers. This findings may have two interpretations. On the one-hand, PSP adoption has a motivational effect on staff that leads to enhanced growth but that effect wears out over time. Essentially, a PSP has a short life cycle (Gerhart et al., 1995). On the other hand, PSP adoption is an opportunistic move by managers to derive some financial benefits (through PSP payouts) from an expected improvement in performance. That PSPs' impact on growth appears to be short term should be of concern to policymakers as it is productivity growth which is the focus of policy discussions. Third, since PSP adoption is voluntary, some SBUs were innovators (early adopters) while other SBUs chose to wait for a while before deciding upon its adoption. Findings in this regard are ambiguous and would support a view that managerial opportunism did play a role in PSP adoption. Finally, our findings show that a PSP is a powerful tool for managers of poorly-performing SBUs to achieve a rapid turnaround in ROA performance. Poorly-performing SBUs tend to exhibit a greater improvement in performance than well-performing SBUs.The study's findings are subject to some limitations. First, the study focuses solely on financial services SBUs within a given region (Eastern Canada). However, investigating a single industry allows the identification of relevant and comparable performance measures while facilitating the selection of a valid control group. Furthermore, all sample firms are small-to-medium sized organizations where a PSP is the only incentive compensation plan, thus allowing for a more direct investigation of the impact of PSP adoption. Second, while this study focuses on the value added process surrounding PSP adoption from a financial perspective, there may be other important outcomes. For example, PSPs may be used to change organizational culture toward a performance-driven orientation, to improve commitment and loyalty, to promote involvement, to avoid bankruptcy, to save jobs, to attract and to retain competent employees, etc. (Long, 1997; Pfeffer, 1981).Future research should investigate the impact of PSPs on a longer time horizon. Pay programs have a limited life cycle that is determined by a firm's strategic goals (Gerhart et al., 1995). A particular pay program may be useful for a limited time in sending employees a message that a strategic change is taking place and that their behaviours should change accordingly. However, once that strategic goal is attained, a new human resources program is needed to carry the firm forward. The management of a PSP once it is implemented may allow for the identification of effectiveness conditions. Many authors who look at HRM plans though a contingency or a configurational perspective (Banker et al., 1996a; Delery and Doy, 1996; Gerhart and Milkovich, 1992) are interested in knowing more about the conditions under which a PSP is more likely to be successful. Finally, while we assume that the motivation for profit-sharing is mainly performance-related and that their effectiveness should be measured in these terms, work by Kruse (1996) shows that PSPs may be adopted for other reasons (i.e. financial or takeover concerns, flexibility concerns, etc.).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To provide insights as to the determinants of profit-sharing plan (PSP) adoption, as well as conditions that underlie their successful implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The sample comprises strategic business units (SBUs) within a large financial services organization, some of which voluntarily adopted a PSP while others did not. All sample SBUs face similar economic and market conditions. Through a logit analysis, we identify determinants of PSP adoption. Through longitudinal cross-sectional design, we assess the impact of PSP adoption on earnings growth, as well as conditions that underlie successful implementations.\nFindings: - Larger SBUs as well as SBUs exhibiting superior asset growth are more likely to adopt a PSP than other SBUs. Prior earnings performance is not found to be a determinant of PSP adoption. PSP adoption translates into superior earnings growth, but such impact quickly declines over time. Among PSP adopters, earnings growth following PSP adoption is greater for SBUs that adopt late (late adopters) and for those which had poor prior earnings performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Limited external validity as the analysis is performed within a single North American organization.\nPractical implications: - PSPs are found to be an effective performance turnaround tool. In addition, their limited life cycle suggests that continuous reinforcements and communications are needed to maintain effectiveness.\nOriginality/value: - In contrast to most prior research that uses multi-industry samples, the paper relies on a unique organizational database that controls for confounding factors and different earnings generation processes. Moreover, the paper provides additional insights as to the conditions for success.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Understanding preferences of German flower consumers: the desire for sustained beauty
|
[
"Latent class analysis",
"Best-worst scaling",
"Cut flowers",
"Flower marketing",
"M31",
"Q10",
"Q13"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Fresh cut flowers are meant to beautify living and business environments and have long held sentimental value for consumers around the world. Besides personal use, cut flowers serve as gifts expressing affection, thankfulness, sympathy or status (Palma et al., 2011; Rihn et al., 2011; Huang and Lin, 2015). Flowers are present at nearly all culturally significant or personally meaningful events, including births, weddings and funerals (Shoemaker and Relf, 1994).\nPrevious analyses of consumer demand for flower attributes: Prior studies of consumer behaviour explore the importance of particular product attributes when choosing flowers and explore how demographic factors may be related to these preferences. Attributes found to be influencing consumer's choice are flower appearance (Hudson and Griffin, 2004; Yue and Behe, 2008), scent (Behe and Wolnick, 1991; Behe et al., 1992), packaging (Hall et al., 2010), country of origin (Hoffmann, 2000; Van Loo et al., 2011), longevity (Rihn et al., 2014), flower certification (Michaud et al., 2013) and price (Yue, Hurley and Anderson, 2011; Michaud et al., 2013). However, while each of these attributes is important to some segment of consumers, the relative levels of importance amongst these attributes are expected to vary across individuals.\nMaterial and methods: Survey instrument and data collection\nResults, discussion and implications: Demographics and flower purchasing habits\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insights for flower retailers, horticultural practitioners and marketing managers into the prioritisation of cut flower attributes by German residents.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Applying a best-worst scaling approach, this analysis identified the relative ranking of importance amongst product attributes relevant to German consumers when buying fresh cut flowers. A latent class analysis determined four flower consumer segments for further study. The study builds on a sample of 978 consumers and is consistent with the most recent German census in terms of age, gender, income and federal state.\nFindings: The best-worst analysis showed that intrinsic flower attributes, in particular appearance, freshness and scent were found to be more important to German consumers than the extrinsic attributes studied, namely, price, country of origin and a certification indicating fair trade. The latent class analysis determined four consumer segments that desire either budget, luxury or ethical flowers or more information about flowers. For all identified consumer segments, appearance was the attribute of greatest importance. The segments that desired luxury or ethical flowers, as well as the segment that desires more information were interested in appearance, but also had relatively large shares of preferences dedicated to flower freshness guarantees. The preference for freshness guarantees in addition to appearance may be interpreted jointly as a desire for not only beautiful and aesthetically pleasing flowers, but for sustained beauty.\nOriginality/value: Internationally, the study fills a research gap by exploring consumer's relative preference for cut flower attributes. In contrast to existing studies on consumer preferences for flowers in Germany, the present study builds on a sample that was targeted in terms of age, gender, net household income and federal state to the most recent German census.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Exogenous technological change and wage inequality in rural India: a theoretical note
|
[
"Change management",
"India",
"Skills",
"Labour efficiency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Studies on supply of skilled labour can broadly be divided into two groups: those that assume that skill-biased technological change is exogenous versus those that are based on the assumption that the adoption of skill or unskilled-biased technologies is endogenous. The overwhelming majority of papers belong to the first group and have argued that skill-biased technological change have played a central role on the increased inequality in the incomes of skilled workers as well as countering the slowdown in productivity. Central to this argument is the assumption that skill-biased technological change is exogenous (Bound and Johnson, 1992, 1995; Katz and Murphy, 1992; Mincer, 1988, 1995; Egger and Grossmann, 2001). Endogenous analysis of supply of skilled labour and skill-biased technologies has been carried out in a number of papers (Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 1999; Acemoglu, 1996) but only recently has this phenomenon been given special treatment by Kiley (1997). Kiley concentrates on the endogenous growth model and argues that an increase in the supply of skilled labour leads to temporary stagnation in the wages of skilled and unskilled workers. Further, an increase in the supply of skilled labour accelerates skill-biased technological change and under plausible conditions, lowers output growth, at least temporarily.The improved toolkits were provided to poor, rural artisans by the Government of India (GoI, 2000) at a 90 per cent subsidy under its supply of improved toolkits to rural artisans (SITRA) programme. In accounting for the role of improved toolkits in both production activities of the artisans and rural economic activities, the aims at the following: first the decision to supply improved toolkits affects the rural areas in two principal ways - by way of direct and indirect benefits. Second, an increase in the supply of skilled labour with improved toolkits fosters organizational change and raises the employment share of artisans within the rural economy, without lowering relative incomes. Third, the improved toolkits raise income inequality by affecting the organization of production (Egger and Grossmann, 2001).\nThe model: Decision to supply improved toolkits\nConclusions: Throughout this paper we have looked at how exogenous technological change may cause wage inequality in rural areas. There are two categories of skill population in the rural areas; one with toolkits and the others are with out toolkits. The underlying forces of demand and supply of skill labours may explain by the toolkits technology supplied to them. In such a situation the relative demand for artisans with toolkits become more attractive. As a consequence, equilibrium wage inequality increases. This may be considered as an equilibrium outcome in the skill category in a rural market setting. The inequality may disperse as more and more poor take advantage of the intervention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model to explore the economic consequences of an exogenous skill-biased technological change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper develops a theoretical model based on assumptions and conditions that replicate those of a government-sponsored poverty reduction programme in India.\nFindings: - The paper finds that, under certain stated conditions, wage inequality between artisans with improved toolkits and those without is likely to increase, while, under a different set of conditions, this is likely to decrease.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Actual wage inequality implications of specific exogenous skill-biased technological changes need to be studied to take the theoretical model further.\nPractical implications: - One major implication is that, when government help is provided by way of an exogenous skill-biased technological change to a fraction of workers, it may have the unintended consequence of increasing wage inequality between the beneficiary and the non-beneficiary workers. In extreme cases, it may even lower the equilibrium wages of the non-beneficiary workers.\nOriginality/value: - The paper brings out the critical role of efficiency units of workers with skill-biased technology (artisans with improved toolkits) and those without these in determining the wage inequality between these categories of workers (artisans) based on a theoretical model of the trajectory along which the rural economy moves.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does CEO compensation impact patient satisfaction?
|
[
"CEO compensation",
"Canada",
"Patient outcomes",
"Patient satisfaction",
"Nonprofit hospitals",
"Hospital performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Public scrutiny of, and interest in, executive compensation has recently gained some momentum in nonprofit healthcare organizations (Carreyrou and Martinez, 2008; Firstenberg and Lane, 2011; Tieman, 2002). The scrutiny often becomes pronounced particularly when the organization is struggling and there are questions about performance (Hundley, 2010; Waldman, 2008). In Ontario, Canada, the issue of executive compensation in healthcare organizations has become a headline-grabbing topic (see, e.g. Perkins and Howlett, 2011). The annual ritual of the publication of the \"sunshine list\" - the list of public-sector employees who earn $100,000.00 or more - often fuels public discourse of the appropriate level of compensation for executives.\nNew contribution: This research makes two important contributions. First, it applies the constructs of strategic compensation to the context of healthcare organizations in Ontario by examining the link between executive compensation and patient satisfaction performance of hospitals. Due to the labour-intensive nature of healthcare services, it is not uncommon for labour cost to account for more than 50 per cent of the budgets of healthcare organizations (Altman et al., 1990; Fottler, 2008). In an era of sky rocketing healthcare costs (Di Matteo, 2010), demand for innovation (Jack and Phillips, 1993) and the challenge of increased demand for healthcare (Devlin and Sarma, 2008; Young, 2005), executive compensation is part of the debate on sustainability of healthcare funding. Hence, the relationship between executive compensation and performance is particularly relevant in the discussion of how healthcare organizations deliver value. Second, this study lays a foundation for pre and post comparative analysis of the effects of the executive compensation legislation passed in 2010.\nTheory/conceptual framework: There has been broad research interest in executive compensation, particularly the relationship between the compensation of CEO and the performance of the organization across industries (Chalmers et al., 2006; Gibbons and Murphy, 1990; Hermalin and Wallace, 2001; Jensen and Murphy, 1990; Matolcsy and Wright, 2011; Mehran, 1995; Nourayi and Daroca, 2008). While this interest has been generated in part by questions about the principal-agent problems, a situation in which the self-interests of the executives are incongruent with the interests of shareholders (Eisenhardt, 1989), the increasing public concern with whether the compensation of CEOs is consistent with organizational performance has also contributed to the intense scrutiny and research interest.\nMethodology: Research design\nResults: Does CEO compensation impact hospital patient satisfaction?\nDiscussion: Patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes are central to the mission of nonprofit hospitals. However, the impact of hospital CEO compensation on patient satisfaction and clinical outcome performance are unknown. Does CEO compensation affect patient satisfaction? Does CEO compensation play a mediating role between patient satisfaction and hospital size? Other than CEO compensation, what factors impact patient satisfaction? These are some of the relevant questions that are yet to be examined in the literature, but which are explored in this research. Research on nonprofit organizations has emphasized that although the financial performance is important, it is not the key indicator of the effectiveness of the organization (Akingbola, 2012; Brown and Yoshioka, 2003; Weisbrod, 1998). Instead, it is argued that the essential indicator of performance is the extent to which nonprofits achieve their mission (Herman and Renz, 2004; Moore, 2000). Thus, it is surprising that previous studies on nonprofit hospital CEO compensation have focused mainly on financial performance when for these hospitals, patient satisfaction is central to the mission and should drive value creation and reward (Porter, 2010).\nConclusion: This research examines the relationship between hospital CEO compensation, clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction performance of hospitals in Ontario, Canada. The results of this study generally indicate that patient satisfaction, as a measure of performance, is unrelated to hospital CEO compensation in Ontario, independent of hospital size. Increasing hospital size positively affects CEO compensation while negatively impacting patient satisfaction. It may simply be that CEOs are too far removed from the patients they serve for CEO actions to impact patient satisfaction (see, e.g. Rozenblum et al., 2013).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study examines the relationship between CEO compensation and patient satisfaction in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this paper is to determine what impact hospital CEO compensation has on hospital patient satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analyses in this study were based on data of 261 CEO-hospital-year observations in a sample of 103 nonprofit hospitals. A number of linear regressions were conducted, with patient satisfaction as the dependent variable and CEO compensation as the independent variable of interest. Controlling variables included hospital size, type of hospital, and frequency of adverse clinical outcomes.\nFindings: CEO compensation does not significantly influence hospital patient satisfaction. Both patient satisfaction and CEO compensation appear to be driven primarily by hospital size. Patient satisfaction decreases, while CEO compensation increases, with the number of acute care beds in a hospital. In addition, CEO compensation does not even appear to moderate the influence of hospital size on patient satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: There are several limitations to this study. First, observations of CEO-hospital-years in which annual nominal CEO compensation was below $100,000 were excluded, as they were not publicly available. Second, this research was limited to a three-year range. Third, this study related the compensation of individual CEOs to a measure of performance based on a multitude of patient satisfaction surveys. Finally, this research is restricted to not-for-profit hospitals in Ontario, Canada.\nPractical implications: The findings seem to suggest that hospital directors seeking to improve patient satisfaction may find their efforts frustrated if they focus exclusively on the hospital CEO. The findings highlight the need for further research on how CEOs may, through leading and supporting those hospital clinicians and staff that interact more closely with patients, indirectly enhance patient satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, no research has examined the relationship between hospital CEO compensation and patient satisfaction. This research fills the gap and provides a basis for future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Machine criticality based maintenance prioritization: Identifying productivity improvement potential
|
[
"Decision support systems",
"Productivity",
"Maintenance",
"Machine criticality",
"Maintenance prioritization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Fluctuating market demands and the need for high volume and mixed products have made production systems highly dynamic and complex. Digitalization is viewed as being the linchpin for future production within manufacturing industries. Maintenance of machines, in particular, needs to adapt fast to comply with the rapid advances of digital manufacturing (Bokrantz et al., 2017). Historically, maintenance concepts such as total productive maintenance and reliability centered maintenance (RCM) have been developed to maximize equipment effectiveness and equipment reliability, respectively (Pintelon and Parodi-herz, 2008). Bridging the gap between traditional maintenance and shareholders' value was provided by value driven maintenance, which brings these concepts together to establish best maintenance practices (Haarman and Delahay, 2004). Additionally, the integration of Lean and Six Sigma concepts, known as Lean Six Sigma, aims at improving operational efficiency and cost savings for companies in competitive global markets (Raja Sreedharan et al., 2018; Albliwi et al., 2015). Irrespective of these concepts in practice, safety and environment are traditionally the prime critical factors when it comes to maintenance of machines in production systems (Pintelon and Parodi-herz, 2008). However, machine downtime in production systems leads to production inefficiency not only in that particular machine, but also other machines in terms of starvation and blockage (Skoogh et al., 2011). Currently, attention has been given to single machine maintenance problems (Li, Ambani and Ni, 2009; Helu and Weiss, 2016). For example, maintenance organization focuses primarily on increasing the technical availability of individual machines. An overwhelming majority of maintenance research has also focused on machine-level problems, and there seems to be a research gap in plant/system level studies (Jin et al., 2016). More importantly, the question \"How do we maintain more than one product (machine) in a system?\" has been identified as one of the two research questions essential to the future within Industry 4.0 (Roy et al., 2016). Therefore, maintenance problems in complex production systems cannot be considered only for individual machines rather focus needs to be on all machines in the system as a whole. Previously, the authors have argued for the need of a systems view for maintenance planning based on low overall equipment effectiveness figures (52.5 percent) (Ylipaa et al., 2017).\n2. Related work: The related work on machine criticality assessment and maintenance prioritization is presented in this section. With a particular focus on methods and factors used for both machine classification and maintenance prioritization.\n3. Methodology: The aim of the paper is to obtain a deeper understanding of machine criticality assessment and maintenance prioritization demands, using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach. Therefore, an explanatory sequential mixed-method design (Figure 1) was chosen to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data (Creswell, 2013). As a result, first, a quantitative data collection and data analysis were performed. The quantitative data include literature analysis and a web-based questionnaire survey. The results of this quantitative data informed the type explanation needed in the qualitative phase. In order to deeper understand the machine criticality and maintenance prioritization practices; the qualitative data were collected in the form of face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Hence, in the second phase, the qualitative data was collected to complement and explain the observed phenomenon in quantitative data. Additionally, an empirical use case from a manufacturing company in one of the participating companies was chosen to perform a simulation experiment to evaluate the productivity potentials of machine criticality based maintenance prioritization.\n4. Results: The results section presents the results gathered from the different data sources to fulfill the aim of evaluating and testing the decision support tool of maintenance work order prioritization. First, the literature analysis is presented, where the connection between machine criticality articles and maintenance prioritization is evaluated. Second, the mapping of current industrial practices is identified from survey data. This is followed by interview data to explain the phenomenon observed in the quantitative data. Thereafter, the evaluation of the productivity potential is carried out in a simulation environment to check its usefulness and validity.\n5. Data interpretation: In this section, the individual findings from each data set are triangulated to achieve the aim of understanding the connection between machine criticality and maintenance prioritization and identifying the improvement potentials. First, the quantitative analysis of results is reported, followed by reporting qualitative results analysis. Lastly, qualitative results were used to interpret (explain) the quantitative results.\n6. Overall discussion: This paper shows the connection between machine criticality and maintenance prioritization and the productivity potentials within. This empirical study followed an explanatory mixed-method research approach followed by a simulation experiment to evaluate and validate the productivity potential.\n7. Challenges for the future: Maintenance organization in digitalized manufacturing will face complex challenges in the future. The results of this study have highlighted some of the important challenges; assessing machine criticality in particular, is a concern. Maintenance prioritization has been identified as an important decision support tool for effective maintenance operations (Ni and Jin, 2012), but prioritizing the right machine needs to be constantly identified. The general problem with maintenance organization is working with a single machine problem, i.e. lack of a systems view (Ylipaa et al., 2017; Roy et al., 2016). The two main problems in respect to machine criticality that need addressing are the lack of fact-based decision making and static assessment methods. As Guo et al. (2013) explain decisions are often made based on the experience and knowledge of maintenance technicians. However, quick decision making and continuous control of production system has gained in importance in the execution phase (Li, Chang Ni and Biller, 2009b). Therefore, a robust machine criticality assessment with a systems view is required for manufacturing companies to effectively plan maintenance operations. Only such a decision support can deliver the expectations set for the digitalized manufacturing of the future (Bokrantz et al., 2017). Decision support can be developed through existing manufacturing execution system (MES) data. Therefore, maintenance prioritization decision support research needs to address the following:\n8. Conclusions: This paper presents an empirical study, contributing to the connection between machine criticality and maintenance prioritization in industrial practice and providing productivity improvement potentials. The problems in maintenance planning, particularly the ripple effects of machine downtimes on production efficiency are addressed. The paper showed that companies do not prioritize maintenance based on machine criticality. The main reason was that there is a lack of strong machine criticality assessments in companies. The current criticality classifications in companies are static, qualitative, and lacks a systems view. An interesting finding was that maintenance are prioritized non-factually, i.e. operator influenced. However, maintenance prioritization based on machine criticality leads to increased production efficiency. This productivity improvement potential was evaluated in a simulation experiment, which showed an increase in throughput when maintenance is prioritized for throughput-critical machines, without added efforts. The bottom line is that the current maintenance planning practices are already ineffective for today's production and certainly, for digitalized manufacturing (Industry 4.0), where the production system will be even more autonomous. In order to solve, the authors argue that a data-driven and dynamic approach with a system view is needed for assessing machine criticality. Such a decision support can enable the practice of maintenance prioritization leading towards increased system productivity. Such a decision support could be developed based on existing MES data.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the productivity improvement potentials from maintenance planning practices in manufacturing companies. In particular, the paper aims at understanding the connection between machine criticality assessment and maintenance prioritization in industrial practice, as well as providing the improvement potentials.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An explanatory mixed method research design was used in this study. Data from literature analysis, a web-based questionnaire survey, and semi-structured interviews were gathered and triangulated. Additionally, simulation experimentation was used to evaluate the productivity potential.\nFindings: The connection between machine criticality and maintenance prioritization is assessed in an industrial set-up. The empirical findings show that maintenance prioritization is not based on machine criticality, as criticality assessment is non-factual, static, and lacks system view. It is with respect to these finding that the ways to increase system productivity and future directions are charted.\nOriginality/value: In addition to the empirical results showing productivity improvement potentials, the paper emphasizes on the need for a systems view for solving maintenance problems, i.e. solving maintenance problems for the whole factory. This contribution is equally important for both industry and academics, as the maintenance organization needs to solve this problem with the help of the right decision support.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Requirement for knowledge management: business driving information technology
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge transfer"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Baby boomers are retiring, companies experience increase competition, and business knowledge is difficult to find. Employees need to be able to access important information to have an edge over the competition. Therefore, businesses need to prevent this loss of corporate advantage in the marketplace. To do this requires finding a way to quickly capture, store, and utilize critical processes and best business practices to maintain a competitive advantage. Businesses need to develop requirements and drive a complete solution. Thus, an operative paradigm of business requirements drives Information Technology (IT) illustrates how to solve this problem. This paper will look at the steps business needs to follow to develop a knowledge management methodology and guiding principles for its implementation.According to Jamrog (2004, p. 27), by 2008, \"the leading edge of 76 million baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) will turn 62 and in the next decade 43 percent of the civilian workforce will be eligible to retire.\" Jamrog (2004) also points out that these baby boomers will not retire but leave their current employer. They hold key positions in companies and have critical business knowledge. Their knowledge and use of best business practices are paramount to a company keeping its place in the market place.Today organizations need to keep up with competitors and use knowledge to beat them. This requires organizations to develop a culture of gathering and sharing knowledge across the company. Company managers have been using their employees' knowledge and experiences on an ad-hoc base (Gupta et al., 2000). Companies also have a \"vast reservoir of knowledge in a wide variety of organizational processes, best-practices, know-how, culture, and norms\" (Gupta et al., 2000). Unfortunately, this knowledge is scattered across the organization and unrecognized by others. Employees need to be able to quickly access this information and use it to outsmart the competition. However, companies are not keeping up with this trend. This requires senior management to make this a top priority and devote resources to define the scope of the problem, develop specific business requirements, and collaborate with Information technology (IT) staff to implement a solution. This calls for using the best business practice of using knowledge management systems.\nDefinition: Robbins (2003, p. 575) defines knowledge management (KM) as a \"process of organizing and distributing an organization's collective wisdom so the right information gets to the right people at the right time.\" Van Beveren (2002, p. 19) further defines knowledge management as \"a practice that finds valuable information and transforms it into necessary knowledge critical to decision making and action.\" Laudon and Laudon (2003, p. 87) goes a step further by introducing \"knowledge-level decision making based on the evaluation of new ideas for products, services, ways to communicate new knowledge, and ways to distribute information throughout the organization.\" This suggests that firms can only sustain a competitive advantage when valuing its customers input and employee interaction. This interaction sometimes requires an employee to use innovation in order to \"devise problems, define them, and develop new knowledge from them\" (Van Beveren, 2002, p. 19). The continuous process of using innovation will help a company maintain its position in the marketplace. KM also involves the resources of knowledge, which are people and information. People are creators of knowledge and information as the processes related to knowledge creation and production. Therefore, we will address KM as being concerned with the identification, acquisition, creation, storage, distribution, and use of both information and knowledge.There are at least three reasons for using knowledge management methodology. First, company knowledge assets are important as their physical or financial assets. Laudon and Laudon (2003, p. 315) define knowledge assets as \"organizational knowledge regarding how to efficiently and effectively perform business processes and create new products and services that enables the business to create value.\" Being able to tap into the collective experience of employees will help firms improve their competition advantage. Second, companies are just becoming aware of the possible loss of valuable knowledge when baby boomers start leaving the workforce. Lastly, KM systems have proven themselves to reduce redundancy and improve efficiency in organizations. The German telecommunications company, Siemens, provides a good success story of what knowledge management can do. They recently won a contract to build a telecommunications network in Swiss hospitals despite being 30 percent over the lowest bidder. Their secret was a knowledge management system that allowed their sales representatives to illustrate that the Siemens system was more reliable than their competitors were (Robbins, 2003).Knowledge management is composed of various processes to include: \"generating new knowledge; accessing knowledge from external sources; representing knowledge in documents and databases; embedding knowledge in processes, products, or services; transferring existing knowledge around an organization; using accessible knowledge in decision making; facilitating knowledge growth through culture and incentives; and measuring the value of knowledge assets and the impact of knowledge management\" (Rowley, 1999, p. 417). These processes will help in defining the business requirements for a KM system.\nBusiness requirements: Objectives\nImplementation: The implementation of any enterprise-wide KM system should include six elements. First, establish a chief knowledge officer with responsibility for the political, strategic, and technical implementation of KM. This role can be done by someone already in the organization such as the Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Director, or manager with small- and medium-sized enterprises. Earl and Scott (1999) claim that these individuals need to take risks and be self-starters. They should understand what knowledge is important to the organization and how to get people to contribute. As entrepreneurs, they need to be able to transform the organization. This involves setting up a culture for using the system that supports knowledge collaborations. Honeycutt (2000) identified that knowledge workers must use KM systems and document their knowledge in order for KM to work. There should be a reward system for those sharing valuable knowledge. Next, all individual pockets of knowledge management residing on intranets and containing organizational solutions should be interconnected through hyperlinks and create a KM infrastructure. This infrastructure must provide easy ways to create, store and retrieve information. Everyone should implement a well-established set of collaborative processes in order to convert knowledge into information for use. These mechanisms will \"allow employees who have developed valuable expertise and insights to share them with others\" (Robbins, 2003, p. 575). Lastly, firmly placed processes keep the enterprise KM information healthy and current (Honeycutt, 2000).Establish a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)\nConclusion: It is imperative that organizations recognize the wealth of knowledge in employees and seek ways to share this knowledge with others in order to obtain a competitive advantage. Smith (2001) supports these ideas by recommending that companies develop interactive and sharing environments for nurturing ideas. He also recommends the idea of a reward system to help encourage employees' participation. This will help build \"trust, openness and collective ownership\" in order to encourage the acquisition and sharing of personal knowledge (Smith, 2001, p. 320).Honeycutt (2000, p. 3) clearly stated one of the main outcomes of KM is \"knowledge management turns experience and information into results.\" Not only does KM support companies need to have a competitive advantage but also has other advantages. These include: \"better organization and use of institutional knowledge; reduction of staff time used searching for information; less duplication of work; more efficient customer service; more time spent improving services\" (Stoll, 2004, p.56). These factors help contribute to a company's competitiveness in the marketplace.This has been one example where business requirements have driven IT activities. Businesses must develop firm requirements based on sound business sense and utilize IT as support. However, there are other considerations such as money, time, and volume of information. These factors need to weigh in on any KM system and determine the scope of the project. In the end, a KM system can be simple to build if one follows the simple rules. These include involving stakeholders, carefully scrutinizing knowledge value, encouraging employee participation, and providing an effective and efficient KM infrastructure that can be accessed anywhere, anytime.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to provide a roadmap for organizations to implement a knowledge management system that reduces loss of critical information and improves data retrieval.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The focus is on how to devise and implement a knowledge management system where information is sorted by definition, business requirements, and implementation.\nFindings: - The paper provides information for defining information sources and simplifying data retrieval. It recognizes the need to collect and retain corporate information through cooperation of knowledge workers. Centralized storage and retrieval of information is critical to knowledge management.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides insight and help in eliminating loss of corporate knowledge when skilled workers leave or retire.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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The impact of changing gender diversity on the leadership styles of SMEs: A transformational leadership perspective from Colombia
|
[
"Transformational leadership",
"Colombia",
"Transactional leadership",
"Gender diversity",
"Small and medium enterprises (SMEs)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Gender imbalance within leadership positions remains an unresolved issue across the world's companies, and the wider in-country cultures surrounding gender roles stream through into the leadership practices employees experience at work. A research paper by Garcia-Solarte et al. (2018) explores the relationship between organizational leadership styles and gender diversity of leaders at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the city of Cali, Colombia. Data were gathered using questionnaires sent to 142 manufacturing and high-tech SMEs operating in the city.\nLeadership barriers facing women globally: A 2015 report by the International Labor Organization revealed that only 14 per cent of executive-level people at Fortune 500 companies are women. In Latin America, however, this figure is much lower, with under 2 per cent of top leadership positions held by women. Gender diversity can be defined as the proportion of men and women working in an enterprise either as employees or on the directors' board. The obstacles encountered by women include struggling to have their leadership abilities recognized in the same way as men in an ecosystem that values a male-centric behavioral style, plus the distracting perception of women in domestic and child-rearing roles remains pervasive. The paper therefore posed these two framing questions:\nTwo leadership styles: First, transformational leadership is a people-oriented presence led by creativity as an energy source for exciting employee followers, with a view to them powering ahead to make a clear vision of an enterprise come to successful fruition. This is done to motivate and facilitate a high level of individual growth and achievement as a way of concurrently benefiting their employing company. Mixed within is a generously cooperative, team collaboration-centric promotion of a people-friendly culture, a healthy work environment, and an open and efficient communication ethos. All these transformational leadership elements are deemed to be attributes that naturally align with a democratic female communication style in business. Four relationship-based factors of transformational leadership, which can give women an edge as leaders in competing with men for such positions, can be identified as:\nGender diversity survey results: Responses on a scale of 1 to 5 to survey questions, such as \"I make people around me feel good\" and \"Other people have faith in me\", generated the following results:\nUpside of more women leaders: The contemporary leadership trend of cutting-edge businesses toward flat hierarchies, informal workplace cultures, and constant self-development opportunities to elevate talent levels, inherently welcomes the transformational leadership that the study confirms women offer, when hired into upper management positions. The results show that women in Latin American SMEs bring in a transformational leadership style while men adopt a transactional leadership style, which gives women an edge in the context of recent shifts to an employee experience-led ethos being most valued by innovative companies and their employees. To this end, women leaders can be described as versatile and adaptably capable of combining a transformational style with elements of transactional leadership, to give a company the best of both worlds. A leader who listens well to people at all levels and cares about not damaging their well-being adopts this self-aware, contemporary approach that is rocketing in popularity among employees seeking meaning and non-financial significance in their working lives.\nCommentary: The review is based on \"Gender diversity and its impact on high-tech SMEs' organizational leadership\" by Garcia-Solarte et al. (2018), published in Gender in Management: An International Journal. This research paper concentrates on gender diversity within Latin American SMEs and the impact of top women executives on the leadership styles that manifest in these companies. Women were found to adopt a warm, inspirational, relationship-based style of transformational leadership, in contrast to the more competitive and emotionless transactional leadership style traditionally adopted by male executives in such companies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: This research paper concentrates on gender diversity within Latin-American small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the impact of top women executives on the leadership styles that manifest in these companies. Women were found to adopt a warm, inspirational, relationship-based style of transformational leadership, in contrast to the more competitive and emotionless transactional leadership style traditionally adopted by male executives in such companies.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Apprenticeships, mobility and wages an investigation on French data
|
[
"Apprenticeship",
"Vocational training",
"Job mobility",
"Labour market entry",
"Wage trajectory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The very favorable image of the German apprenticeship system has encouraged a number of countries to adopt a similar approach. Austria and Switzerland have a long tradition of apprenticeships in the \"German style,\" but many countries now offer corresponding forms of renewed apprenticeship program: the Netherlands, UK, Canada, USA, Australia, etc. (Gunderson and Krashinsky, 2015; Mangan and Trendle, 2008; Mueller and Schweri, 2015). In France, the number of apprenticeship contracts has significantly increased during the last years, from 170,000 in 1994 to 433,000 in 2016. In France, several studies have examined the impact of apprenticeship on employability of young workers. The positive effect of apprenticeship mainly results from their better performance at the very beginning of the period: they are often hired by the firm in which they performed their apprenticeship. But the group of \"mobile\" apprentices does not find a job immediately (Bonnal et al., 2002). They experience the same difficulties as young people leaving vocational high schools in gaining a foothold in the labor market.\n2. The French apprenticeship system: The term \"apprenticeship\" covers a wide range of practice and the institutional attributes of \"apprenticeship\" vary considerably among countries (Ryan, 2011). The French apprenticeship system is a training scheme which offers participants part-time work in the firm, complemented by part-time education in a public training center. Every participant prepares himself/herself for a national diploma recognized by the French Ministry of Education. To obtain this diploma, a test has to be taken at the end of the apprenticeship contract. The applicant must find a firm which is authorized to hire apprentices, and he/she has to be registered in a training center for apprentices. In the training firm, the apprentice is necessarily trained by an apprenticeship supervisor who must hold a sufficient qualification. The apprenticeship contract, signed both by the employer and the employee, is registered by a local office of the Ministry of Employment. The usual length of an apprenticeship contract is two years, but it can vary between one and three years. The apprentice is a wage-earner, and his/her wage is a fraction of the minimum wage level, according to the apprentice's age and seniority in the contract. At the end of the apprenticeship contract, the employee may be hired by the firm or not. Apprenticeships are strongly regulated by the state: the Commissions Professionnelles Consultatives (CPC) of the Ministry of Education are authorities grouping representatives of the employers, the employees, and the Ministry of Education. These CPC define every occupation's title, the length of training, educational objectives, curricula, and procedures for the final exams.\n3. Presentation of the database and the sample: Cereq's Generation 2004 survey is based on a representative sample of some 33,000 young people who were questioned in 2007, three years after leaving the educational system. This survey is concerned with young people's entry into the labor market and their subsequent employment trajectories during the early years of their working lives. This data set includes apprenticeship completers in 2004. In France, the different diplomas may be obtained either by following an apprenticeship or by attending a vocational school. These apprentices are considered as school leavers. We chose to restrict our sample to apprentices who left the educational system in 2004 with a level at or below the CAP- BEP qualifications. We include individuals with non-missing values in the wage and mobility variables. We only consider individuals in full-time employment in the first job after apprenticeship for the wage estimations. Starting with 2,874 apprentices, this procedure reduces our final sample to 2,159 individuals (compare Table AI for a detailed data selection procedure and Table AII for summary statistics). Due to the limited sample size, we do not split the sample between men and women. The questionnaire tackles a number of different themes:\n4. Mobility on completion of apprenticeship contract: immediate mobility: 4.1 The complexity of apprentices mobility\n5. Immediate mobility and wage in first job: We turn now to the analysis of the effect of immediate mobility on apprentices' wage.\n6. Evolution of wage over the first three years: Immediate mobility has no significant effect on apprentices' first job wage levels. However, the question of the wage effects of mobility has to be considered in the medium term. Apprentices who change employer may enjoy wage progression. Their wage may rise as they take advantage of the opportunities for promotion and training that mobility in the labor market brings with it.\n7. Conclusion: Mobility is a widespread phenomenon among apprentices. At the end of their training period, more than two third of our sample were not employed by their training firm. After three years, only 19 percent of them were still with their training firm. We have shown that immediate and deferred mobility are very different phenomena: their determinants are not the same and the selection bias is distinct. Even though, there is no way of ascertaining whether mobility is voluntary or not, mechanisms based on the matching and search principle seem to come into play for deferred movers. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that, for these apprentices, mobility is a form of career progression as it leads to persistent wage gains. Such mechanisms do not seem so clearly to be at work for immediate movers. Firms seem to play a more structuring role in the apprentices' immediate mobility by deciding whether or not to recruit the apprentices they train.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effect of mobility on the apprentices' wages.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a French longitudinal survey concerned with young people's entry into the labor market and their subsequent employment trajectories, this paper estimates the impact of mobility on post-apprenticeship wages correcting for different selection bias.\nFindings: Mobility is both voluntary and enforced. It combines imposed selection mechanisms and more active match searching behaviors on the part of apprentices. Apprentices who change employer do not have significant lower starting wages than those who remain in their training firms. Nevertheless, in the medium term, those who defer their moves tend to benefit more from their mobility. Those who move immediately see their wage rising less sharply.\nPractical implications: The findings indicate that policy makers should be concerned with job mobility at the end of the apprenticeship contract. Manpower policies should focus on measures that enhance the transferability of accumulated skills and the acquisition of new skills by apprentices.\nOriginality/value: To the author' best knowledge, this is the first paper studying the effect of mobility on apprentices' wages in a dynamic perspective and correcting for the selection of different categories of mobility (immediate vs deferred mobility).\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How long is a parental leave and for whom? An analysis of methodological and policy dimensions of leave length and division in Sweden
|
[
"Sweden",
"Gender equality",
"Household income",
"Parental leave",
"Division of leave"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sweden has a generous parental leave policy in terms of length, benefit level and also in terms of flexibility in how leave can be used. Regulations make it possible for parents to use 16 months of paid leave in various ways; they can share parts between them, save parts of leave to use later during the preschool years and they can extend leave with unpaid days. They can mix paid and unpaid leave to extend the period at home; a strategy that is commonly used. The flexible and generous leave system gives rise to different patterns of leave use and this study analyses who uses the flexibility the system offers and what factors enable and limit flexible use. The particular focus is on flexibility in parents' leave length during the child's first two years. Our overarching question is which parents may benefit from the flexibility in the parental leave system and we pay special attention to parents of different gender and income.\nDescriptive results: As mentioned, mothers use on average 9.5 months of paid leave and fathers almost 3 months of paid leave during the child's first two years. If fathers who use no paid leave are included, their average number of paid days is reduced to just over two months. These days may be used in different episodes. When parental leave is defined as possibly including two days of unpaid leave between the episodes of paid leave, women use 13.5 months (404 days) and men use 4.5 months (135 days). Both women and men thus use substantial amounts of unpaid days and the use of unpaid days does not largely change the proportion that men use at approximately 20 percent out of all leave during the first two years. As men often use days during the child's preschool years, this share increases to the final number of days in the official statistics.\nResults from regression analyses: The results will focus on the associations of mothers' and fathers' characteristics and the two measures; paid benefit days and parental leave days where both paid and unpaid days are included. The analyses are performed with OLS regressions. In Table I, we turn to women's leave, the first two columns showing estimates for benefit days used, and the third and fourth columns showing the estimates for the leave length, that is including also unpaid days. Looking first at income, the association between individual income and parental benefit days is an inverted u-shape, where low to middle income women use most benefit days. Mothers without income and those with the highest income use less benefit days, especially mothers with income over the ceiling of the benefit. Partners' (fathers') income is clearly negatively associated with mothers' parental benefit days. If the father has no or low income the number of benefit days used by the mother is substantially higher, perhaps because these families cannot afford to save mothers' benefit days.\nConclusions: This study concerns one important aspect of flexibility in the Swedish parental leave system - combining benefit days and unpaid days of leave, and examines and how this flexibility may lead to different use patterns among subgroups of parents. The focus is the use of paid benefits, the use of nonpaid leave and the total leave length parents take during the child's first two years. While parents' use of only a few paid benefit days may indicate that they took a short leave, it may also indicate a long less well-paid leave. These parents may save benefit days to use during the child's preschool years. Findings indicate that gendered patterns and economic constraints are determining here; preferences for different leave lengths may also be related to interests in returning to work and in sharing leave more equally with partners. Such preferences obviously are shaped by the opportunity cost for leave, the gains from going back to work earlier and potential gains of a gender equal division of childcare.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Parental leave in Sweden can be taken both as paid and unpaid leave and often parents mix these forms in a very flexible way. Therefore, multiple methodological issues arise regarding how to most accurately measure leave length. The purpose of this paper is to review the somewhat complex legislation and the possible ways of using parental leave before presenting a successful attempt of a more precise way of measuring leave lengths, including paid and unpaid days, for mothers and fathers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study makes use of administrative data for a complete cohort of parents of first born children in 2009 in Sweden. The authors examine what characteristics are associated with the use of paid and unpaid leave for mothers and fathers during the first two years of the child's life, focusing particularly on how individual and household income is associated with leave patterns.\nFindings: Among mothers, low income is associated with many paid leave days whereas middle income is associated with most unpaid days. High income mothers use a shorter leave. Among fathers it is the both ends with high and low household income that uses most paid and unpaid leave.\nPractical implications: A measure that includes unpaid parental leave will be important to not underestimate the parental leave and to prevent faulty comparisons between groups by gender and by socioeconomic status.\nOriginality/value: A measure of parental leave including both paid and unpaid leave will also facilitate international comparisons of leave length.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Paternalistic leadership and innovation: the moderating effect of environmental dynamism
|
[
"Environmental dynamism",
"Exploratory innovation",
"Paternalistic leadership",
"Exploitative innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the face of rapid technological advancement and fierce competition in the market environment, enterprises need to use both exploratory and exploitative innovation strategies to improve competitiveness and viability (Hong et al., 2018; Jansen et al., 2009; Tsai, 2016). Exploratory innovation refers to radical innovation that is \"designed to meet the needs of emerging customers or markets,\" whereas exploitative innovation is incremental innovation that is \"designed to meet the needs of existing customers or markets\" (Jansen et al., 2006, p. 5). It has been found that organizational innovation activities are profoundly influenced by organizational leadership styles (Berson et al., 2006). However, most of the studies on the relationships between leadership styles and innovations are conducted in the contexts of Western cultures (e.g. Jansen et al., 2009; Rosing et al., 2011); it is still left unclear whether the findings apply in other cultures, which might be dramatically different from the Western cultures, such as in the Chinese culture. This study aims to answer this question:\nTheory and hypotheses: Research has suggested the important roles that leadership can play in promoting organizational innovation. Earlier research has explored how leadership can affect organizational learning, which is one of the key antecedents of organizational innovation (e.g. Lin et al., 2013; Santos-Vijande et al., 2012; Senge, 1990). For example, Smith and Tushman (2005) point out that sustained organizational performance to a large extent stems from attending to and properly dealing with strategic contradictions, such as balancing exploration and exploitation, which can be very challenging. They argue that in such contradictory contexts, the key to achieve sustained performance is senior leaders' paradoxical cognition, which can help organizational members to embrace, rather than avoid, such contradictions. Berson et al. (2006) systematically review the studies that have examined the relationship between leadership and organizational innovation. They argue that leaders play a vital role in organizational learning process across by providing support and guidance. Leaders can obtain necessary resources for organizational members to carry out innovation activities; they can create a supportive environment for people from different teams and levels to share and integrate knowledge; they can also help to integrate new knowledge into the existing knowledge base by creating or revising policies and practices.\nMethods: Sample\nResults: Table II shows the descriptive statistics and correlation matrix. The regression results are shown in Table III. M1-M4 are results for exploratory innovation, and M5-M8 are results for exploitative innovation. We first include only control variables in M1 and M5. We then add the main effects of the three components of paternalistic leadership in M2 and M6. In M3 and M7, we include the main effect of environmental dynamism. Finally, we introduce the interaction effects between paternalistic leadership and environmental dynamism in M4 and M8.\nDiscussion: Leadership style acts a pivotal role in incorporate innovation activities through impacting the climate for innovation (Jansen et al., 2009); however, there is insufficient research on how paternalistic leadership arising from Chinese traditional culture influences innovation. Through theoretical development and empirical research, this paper finds that paternalistic leadership influences exploratory and exploitative innovation in various ways. In particular, benevolent leadership and authoritarian leadership both positively influence exploratory innovation, while moral leadership fails to significantly affect exploratory innovation. Benevolent leadership, moral leadership and authoritarian leadership all positively influence exploitative innovation. The moderator is taken into consideration, and environmental dynamism is found to negatively moderate the relationship of authoritarian leadership with both innovation activities, whereas positively moderate the relationship of moral leadership with both innovation activities. Established Western leadership theories do not take into account the paternalistic leadership that started from the Chinese traditional culture, especially in Confucianism culture, such as hierarchy, pan-familism, relationalism and collectivism (Li and Sun, 2015; Zhang et al., 2015). Such leadership is common in modern Chinese enterprises, and for employees deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture, rights inequality can be accepted. In addition, paternalistic leadership holds the power and resources to determine subordinates' income and career advancement. Therefore, subordinates will consciously respect and obey their superiors, whether in work tasks or innovation activities. In fact, such kind of superior-subordinate relationship is similar to that of parents and children. And this leadership is not monolithic, but is composed of different dimensions. In this study, we find that different paternalistic leadership dimensions vary greatly in their relationships with innovation. Leaders with different paternalistic styles exhibit different relationships with subordinates, creating various atmospheres that can induce different types of innovation. Although paternalistic leadership is rooted in the soil of the Chinese traditional culture, many scholars have pointed out this leadership is also pervasive in the Middle East and Latin America (Pellegrini and Scandura, 2008). Pellegrini et al. (2010) found that paternalistic leadership exerts a positive role in LMX and organizational commitment even in the USA. Zhang et al. (2011) believe that authoritarian leadership exists in both the Eastern and Western settings. Therefore, we expect that paternalistic leadership research may be applicable in the European and American contexts, and our work can be used to explore organizational innovation and leadership in the Western context as well.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on how the three elements of paternalistic leadership - authoritarianism, benevolence and moral leadership - affect organizational innovation - both explorative and exploitative innovation - in Chinese enterprises. It also examines the moderating effect of environmental dynamism on the relationship between paternalistic leadership and organizational innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data on 190 superior-subordinate dyads are collected using questionnaire surveys. The supervisors are recruited from the MBA program in a famous university in the city of Hefei, China, who are also asked to distribute subordinate questionnaires to their subordinates. The hierarchical regression analysis is conducted to test the hypotheses by using SPSS 22.0.\nFindings: The analysis of 190 superior-subordinate dyads shows that benevolent and authoritarian leadership is positively related to exploratory innovation, while moral leadership has no significant impact on exploratory innovation. The results also reveal that all three elements of paternalistic leadership is, in general, positively correlated with exploitative innovation. Furthermore, environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between paternalistic leadership and innovation. In a dynamic environment, moral leadership has a stronger positive effect on innovation, but only on exploratory innovation; whereas authoritarian leadership exerts more detrimental effects on both exploratory and exploitative innovation.\nOriginality/value: The current work contributes to understanding the relationship between paternalistic leadership and innovation in the Chinese cultural context by examining the effects of the three elements of paternalistic leadership separately and by showing how these effects can be moderated by environmental dynamism.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evolution of government portals in India: mapping over stage models
|
[
"Integration",
"E-government",
"Transaction",
"Stage models"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Electronic government has been defined as the use of ICTs in government settings (Gil-Garcia and Martinez-Moyano, 2007). Governments are increasingly using information and communication technologies in their daily operations and businesses. As a consequence, the study of e-government has increased in recent years and researchers are developing theoretical and conceptual models to understand different aspects of e-government (Cresswell and Pardo, 2001; Dawes et al., 2004; Gupta and Jana, 2003; Moon, 2002). Mid 1990s indicated the growth of e-government phenomenon which began with developing countries like USA, UK, Canada and Australia implementing online government applications and leading developments in the field (Hunter and Jupp, 2001; Lee et al., 2005). Since then, many developing nations have also embarked on their own e-government projects.\n2. A perspective of e-government stage models: Over the years a number of e-government stage models have been suggested (Baum and Di Maio, 2000; Deloitte, 2001; Hiller and Belanger, 2001; Layne and Lee, 2001; Moon, 2002; Ronaghan, 2001; United Nations & American Society for Public Administration, 2002). Few of the popular (citation wise) e-government stage models are discussed in this section and are presented in Table I.\n3. Methodological framework: There may be a variety of ways to assess e-government stage models. These include statistical methods, best practices, historical analyses and also questionnaires. In this study, the questionnaire method is used because it provides an opportunity to capture the prevailing perceptions of users-stakeholders.\n4. Results: This section has been divided into three parts. First part comprises the profiles of the respondents where the experience of the respondents has been listed. Furthermore, the data has been categorized according to the profiles. Further, the results from government departments and PSU's have been shown in separate sections.\n5. Discussion: This section confers some useful insights from the above results.\n6. Research implications: This study provides organizations with a better understanding of the e-government stage models that have been urbanized over these years. These models have been compared and analyzed. This study shows that in reality, such different stage models emerge to assist convergence of various activities. Moreover, the analysis implies that for achieving a one-stop government portal it is necessary to identify major activities required for development of national e-government, and then incorporates them into a stage model. It would be better if countries perform a general analysis and assessment of their condition pertaining to weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities before implementation of e-government. Therefore, it can be said that for every country, developed or developing, e-government stage model will be different.\n7. Conclusion and future work: This study set out to conduct a comprehensive analysis of current state of e-government development of government departments and PSUs in India. The results of the research reveal that the predictions made in normative models for e-government have largely not been seen in its implementations. Researchers recognize that the barriers to attaining the sophisticated later phases of e-governance with higher level functions will be difficult to overcome.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the e-government stage models that have been developed in last one decade give a true indication of e-government growth in a developing country like India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This exploratory study was conducted through a survey questionnaire from 300 portals of government departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India.\nFindings: Results show that on e-government stage model; only 28 per cent of the surveyed government department have achieved the transactional stage whereas 58 per cent have reached at least a minimum level of vertical integration. On the other hand, 74 per cent PSUs are at transactional level and 69 per cent have achieved at least a minimum level of vertical integration.\nPractical implications: For achieving a one-stop government portal, integration stage can be achieved before the transaction level. Reason behind this being nature and requirement of the portal. There are fundamental differences in social and political factors of various countries that demand more customized local models.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to examine the evolution of government portals in India. The results lead to a number of insights such as there are few government portals that do not follow the proposed stage models and achieve the integration level before attaining the transaction level.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Classroom interdisciplinary diversity and entrepreneurial intentions
|
[
"Self-efficacy",
"Entrepreneurship education",
"Entrepreneurial intentions",
"Interdisciplinary groups",
"Classroom interdisciplinary diversity",
"First year in higher education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A major challenge for any economy is the promotion of entrepreneurship and the creation of new jobs. Students are potential entrepreneurs, and it is important to understand the way in which students form entrepreneurial intentions (EI) because EI are the single best predictor of actual entrepreneurship (Krueger et al., 2000).\nTheoretical framework and hypotheses: EI and the TPB\nMethod: Research design\nResults and discussion: Figure 2 presents the results of the PLS procedure. The model explains 78 per cent of the variance in EI. This result is highly satisfactory because most previous studies using linear models typically explain less than 70 per cent. Moreover, the model also explains nearly 30 per cent of the variance in PA and PBC. The analysis supports the core EI model. Only the relationship between SN and EI is not significant, in accordance with results from previous research (Autio et al., 2001; Krueger et al., 2000; Linan and Chen, 2009). Therefore, H1 is confirmed (except for H1c).\nConclusions: Entrepreneurial activity is a central factor in economic development: it drives economic growth and creates new economic wealth and employment. Therefore, it is important to understand the conditions that more effectively promote the emergence of entrepreneurs in different contexts and among different groups of people. Young people represent a segment that deserves special attention because unemployment rates are much higher in this segment than in others (International Labour Organization, 2016). Consequently, fostering entrepreneurship among young people is a way of addressing the problem of youth unemployment. Although educational institutions occupy a privileged position in the promotion of entrepreneurship among young people, there is a need to improve the identification of those academic activities that most effectively encourage entrepreneurship, considering the small proportion of students who ultimately create their own businesses after graduation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of classroom interdisciplinary diversity, a type of classroom diversity that has been under-examined by previous literature, on the formation of university students' entrepreneurial intentions (EI).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour and the interactionist model of creative behaviour by Woodman et al. (1993), this paper provides empirical evidence demonstrating that classroom interdisciplinary diversity is important in the formation of university students' EI at early educational stages using a cross-sectional study design and survey data on first-year business school students and partial least squares analysis.\nFindings: Classroom interdisciplinary diversity is important in the formation of university students' EI through its positive impact on entrepreneurial perceived behavioural control (PBC) (self-efficacy), a key antecedent of EI.\nPractical implications: The results have important implications for educational practice as well as for both public and private organisations willing to promote entrepreneurial activity, in particular, the positive effects of combining people with different profiles and career fields of interest on entrepreneurial PBC (self-efficacy).\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the scant literature on early university experiences in entrepreneurship education and their influence on EI. It studies the impact of an under-examined dimension of diversity (classroom interdisciplinary diversity) on the formation of students' EI.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Information Seeking Motivation Scale development: a self-determination perspective
|
[
"Intrinsic motivation",
"Self-determination theory",
"Academic libraries",
"Extrinsic motivation",
"Information Seeking Behaviour Scale",
"Measurement testing and instruments"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Human motivation is a widely debated construct in psychology. Social sciences as well as education and health sciences have adopted numerous psychological theories in an effort to understand motivational forces behind many human activities from dieting (e.g. Schelling et al., 2011), psychotherapy (e.g. Martens et al., 2010), academic achievement (e.g. Artino et al., 2012) to political participation (e.g. Hersh, 2012). Given the analogous ongoing struggle to define information, undeniably the most central concept in the information sciences, it is hardly surprising information seeking motivation has received relatively little attention in terms of measurement. Case (2012) devotes a chapter in his seminal text on information behavior to an overview of what he terms a \"motivational puzzle\" tying it to information need as the predominantly discussed dimension of motivation in the information science literature.\nLiterature review: Information need in LIS literature\nTheoretical framework: Cognitive evaluation theory (CET)\nMethodology: Data collection\nResults: Participants\nDiscussion and conclusions: SDT is currently one of the most accepted need-based motivational theories in psychology, which has also been extensively applied in educational setting (e.g. Vallerand et al., 1992; Deci et al., 1991; Fortier et al., 1995) and received extensive cross-cultural support (e.g. Deci et al., 2001). Undergraduate students' information seeking motivation was, therefore, investigated through the validation of SDT hypothesized motivational continuum by adapting and validating the ISMS - C. The CFA analysis results suggest ISMS - C successfully captured undergraduate students' motivational spectrum, and has proven successful in capturing all hypothesized forms of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation undergraduate students exhibit while engaged in information seeking.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Using self-determination motivation theory as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this paper is to examine information seeking motivation at the domain level in higher education setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the Information Seeking Motivation Scale - College Version (ISMS - C).\nFindings: ISMS - C was validated in the information seeking context. Consistent with self-determination theory (SDT), the results imply that students approach research tasks for both controlled and autonomous reasons.\nResearch limitations/implications: All constructs representing extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on a continuum were confirmed. However, amotivation proved difficult to define with the current sample. Additional studies need to be conducted in higher education setting in order to confirm its existence.\nPractical implications: Given that the situational motivation is contingent on domain-level motivation, the ISMS - C scale can be helpful in promoting lasting intrinsic information seeking motivation at that level.\nOriginality/value: Consistent with the subjectivist orientation in information sciences which aims to account for cognitive and affective forces behind information need, ISMS constructed in the current study is one of the first measurement instruments to account for a spectrum of information seeking motivations at the domain level.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How do smokers respond to pictorial and threatening tobacco warnings? The role of threat level, repeated exposure, type of packs and warning size
|
[
"Plain packaging",
"Negative emotion",
"Psychophysiological measurements",
"Tobacco warnings",
"Repetition",
"Warning size"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) (2016) estimates that tobacco kills around six million people every year. Accordingly, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has been designed to tackle this pandemic and provides various tools to develop effective tobacco control policies. Among these tools, pictorial and threatening warnings (PTW) placed on cigarette packs have been adopted by more than 100 countries (Canadian Cancer Society, 2016). However, some countries (e.g. USA) are still reluctant to adopt PTW following conflicting results on their effectiveness on smoking prevalence: some research found positive effects on behavioral intentions (Noar et al., 2015), whereas others found little or no effect (Monarrez-Espino et al., 2014). Further research is thus needed to analyze the effect of PTW on smokers. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the role of two structural factors - threat level depicted on fear messages and warning size - as well as two contextual factors - repeated exposure and type of packs - on PTW effectiveness.\nLiterature review: Influence of various levels of depicted fear on the effectiveness of pictorial and threatening warnings\nMethods: The study used a 2 (warning threat level: moderate vs high) x2 (coverage: 40 per cent vs 75 per cent) x 2 (packaging type: plain vs branded) within-subjects design. Subjects were exposed three times to PTW. The research design was approved by the Ethics Committee of the graduate school of management where the study was carried out.\nResults: Final sample and statistical analysis\nDiscussion: In this research, we aimed to assess the effect of two structural factors - threat level and warning size - and two contextual factors - repeated exposure and type of packs - on PTW effectiveness by combining self-report and psychophysiological measurements. We showed that the threat level is the most effective structural factor: high PTW increased arousal and negative emotional reactions, decreased attitude toward tobacco brand, and increased desire to quit and to reduce cigarette consumption along the three exposures. Warning size, however, has very low impact on smokers, while there is an interaction effect between warning size and level of threat on attitude toward tobacco brand - the best combination being a highly threatening PTW with a large PTW size (75 per cent). Afterward, we showed that contextual factors influence PTW effectiveness. From the second exposure to PTW (moderate or high), arousal (physiological component), fear and disgust (subjective component), as well as attitude toward tobacco brand, decrease but are stable between the second and the third exposure. We did not find any effect of repetition on the other negative reactions (expressive component, arousal-subjective component) nor on intention of quitting or of reducing cigarettes consumption. Finally, we showed that there is a negative impact of plain packs (compared to branded ones) on attitude toward tobacco brand over repeated exposures, but we did not observe any effect of the type of packs on smokers' emotions and intentions. Globally, our results show that the level of fear from PTW is the most effective factor to influence reactions through the whole persuasion process, whereas repetition and the type of pack are particularly influential on emotional and attitudinal reactions. In light of these results, the contributions of our study are both theoretical and practical.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the role of two structural factors - threat level depicted on fear messages and warning size - as well as two contextual factors - repeated exposure and type of packs - on pictorial and threatening tobacco warnings' effectiveness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A two (warning threat level: moderate vs high) x two (coverage: 40 vs 75 per cent) x two (packaging type: plain vs branded) within-subjects experiment was carried out. Subjects were exposed three times to pictorial and threatening tobacco warnings. Both self-report and psychophysiological measurements of emotion were used.\nFindings: Results indicate that threat level is the most effective structural factor to influence smokers' reactions, while warning size has very low impact. Furthermore, emotional arousal, fear and disgust, as well as attitude toward tobacco brand, decrease after the second exposure to pictorial and threatening tobacco warnings, but stay stable at the third exposure. However, there is no effect of repetition on the emotional valence component, arousal-subjective component, on intention of quitting or of reducing cigarette consumption. Finally, there is a negative effect of plain packs on attitude toward tobacco brand over repeated exposures, but there is no effect of the type of packs on smokers' emotions and intentions.\nSocial implications: Useful marketing social guidance, which might help government decision-makers increase the effectiveness of smoking reduction measures, is offered.\nOriginality/value: For the first time in this context, psychophysiological and self-report measurements were combined to measure smokers' reactions toward pictorial and threatening tobacco warnings in a repeated exposure study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Family or state responsibility? Elderly- and childcare policy preferences in Spain
|
[
"Gender",
"Spain",
"Welfare state",
"Care work",
"Familialism",
"Welfare attitudes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Spain is typically considered a familialistic country where it is the family's role to be the main responsible for individuals' well-being. Family ties in Spain have been described as comparatively strong, characterised by frequent intergenerational contact and help due to weak state services, and by a strong sense of filial responsibility (Attias-Donfut et al., 2005; Daatland and Lowenstein, 2005). Family values and traditional gender norms in Spanish society were strongly rooted in Franco's dictatorship. Its fall led to rapid cultural and institutional changes (Meil, 2006). In the last decades, the familialistic orientation of the welfare state has eroded, and several important reforms in the field of family, gender and elderly policies have taken place, attributing more responsibility to the state (see also Naldini and Jurado, 2013; Valiente, 2010).\nTheoretical framework: welfare regimes and welfare attitudes: The study is embedded in two interconnected theoretical frameworks and research fields: welfare regimes and welfare attitudes. It is in the field of comparative welfare regime literature that we can trace back the concept of \"familialism\"; namely, the fact that the family - typically spouses, mothers and daughters - is regarded as mainly responsible for the well-being of dependent family members. Following Esping-Andersen's (1990, 1999) work and its feminist critique (e.g. Lewis, 1992; Orloff, 1993) welfare regimes were conceptualised as distributing in distinct ways welfare responsibilities between the state, the market and the family and thereby shaping gender relations and (in-)equalities in specific manners.\nResearch on attitudes towards care policies: The review of the research confirms that the institutional setting, individual socioeconomic variables and attitudinal factors shape care policy attitudes.\nThe Spanish context: changing practices, policies and attitudes: After over 30 years of dictatorship marked by high religiosity and traditional family values, Spain went through a series of profound demographic and societal transformations (see Torres Albero, 2015). Among others, the female labour market participation rose spectacularly; from 42 per cent in 1990 to 70 per cent in 2014 (OECD, 2018b). Another fundamental change is population ageing. Spain witnessed far below replacement fertility rates since the 1980s - with a total fertility rate of 1.30 in 2013 (EU-28 average was 1.50) - while life expectancy steadily increased, reaching 83 years on average in 2013 (OECD, 2018a, b).\nData and methodology: The data consist of representative survey data from 2012 among respondents aged 18+, collected in the frame of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP Research Group, 2014). The module \"Family and Changing Gender Roles IV\" includes several items about attitudes towards family life, gender roles and work-life conciliation policies. The final sample size for multivariate analyses counts 1,419 individuals, after excluding those with missing values (1,176 cases excluded). All analyses were conducted using the design weight variable provided.\nResults: Care policy preferences: Spain compared with selected countries\nDiscussion: The study shows that Spanish respondents have heterogeneous views about who is responsible for the care of dependent family members and that the family is not seen as the unique care provider. On the contrary, support from the state is claimed, especially when it comes to the elderly (a result which is in line with Calzada, 2007). Familialism for children and defamilialism for the elderly stands out as the most frequent pattern. This can be understood in the light of nowadays' prevalence of the nuclear family, which only includes parents and their children, as well as the persistence of parenting social norms which prone parental care (and in particular maternal care) for children under school age (Abril et al., 2015). It is also likely that due to different social constructions of life stages, higher rewards are perceived for performing childcare rather than elderly care.\nConcluding remarks: The study provides new insights regarding policy preferences for childcare and eldercare in Spain that are valuable to welfare attitudinal scholars as well as to scholars interested in care policies. The data used enable to identify distinct patterns of preferences regarding care responsibility, taking into account care provision and care financing. The first objective of the study was to describe care policy preferences in Spain. Results show that the family is not considered as the primary responsible actor for the care of dependent family members but that a difference however exists between childcare and eldercare, for which state support is more readily accepted. Importantly, in comparison with other selected countries, Spain is far from being the most familialistic country. These results indicate that the central role that the Spanish family (and women in particular) still plays nowadays for care provision to dependent members does not correspond to dominant preferences. It may be due to still lacking efficient work-family life balance measures, as suggested by other scholars (Cais and Folguera, 2013; Calzada and Brooks, 2013; Leon and Migliavacca, 2013; Mischke, 2014; Sarasa, 2011). This study suggests that in order to meet people's preferences, Spanish childcare and elderly care policies should be further developed. This includes expanding access to public childcare services in all regions, especially for children under three years (Leon, 2007). It is also crucial that the financial risks associated with leave uptake are reduced (parental and caregiver leaves being unpaid) and that public investment in elderly care meets families' needs (see Cais and Folguera, 2013; Rogero-Garcia and Garcia-Sainz, 2016; Sarasa, 2011).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Spain is typically considered a familialistic country where the family is the main responsible for individuals' well-being. Recent demographic, socioeconomic and policy changes raise the question to what extent familialism is regarded as the preferred care arrangement in society or whether more state support is considered legitimate. The purpose of this paper is to analyse individual preferences among Spanish residents regarding care responsibility for pre-school children and the frail elderly, and the factors that influence such preferences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Representative data from the 2012 International Social Survey Programme are used (n=1419). Six patterns of care responsibility that capture preferences regarding who, between the family or the state, should provide and pay for the care of pre-school children and the frail elderly are identified. Logistic regressions are performed on each care responsibility pattern to analyse the factors influencing individuals' preferences.\nFindings: Multiple preferences coexist and state responsibility is often preferred over family responsibility, especially for elderly-care. It suggests that the tendency to rely on the family in Spain is due to insufficient support rather than to familialistic values. Individuals who usually bear most care work responsibilities, such as women and individuals in caring ages, or those with a poor health, high care load or low income consider there should be extra-family support. Individuals' values also matter: the least religious, the most supportive of maternal employment and left-wing voters are most likely to reject traditional care arrangements.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to analyse both elderly- and childcare policy preferences in one single study. It shows that childcare is more often seen as a family responsibility than elderly care.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Driving forces influencing the uptake of sustainable housing in New Zealand
|
[
"Driving forces",
"Sustainable housing",
"Sustainability",
"New Zealand"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is a large portion of the New Zealand housing stock which is energy-inefficient, unhealthy, resource-hungry and high-emitting (Gillespie-Bennett et al., 2013). Homes built before 1978 with weak insulation always made the indoor environment cold and damp. Nearly 15 per cent of the population has allergies to the mould and spores in their houses (Bernhardt, 2008). New Zealand also has the highest rate of respiratory illnesses in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (International Energy Agency, 2017). Warm, dry, energy efficient home is rare, so the housing stock performs poorly regarding sustainability (Clark, 2007). Moreover, as the climate gets warmer, the need for sustainable buildings increases to adapt to the future environment (Byrd and Leardini, 2011). Thus, the New Zealand Building Code (NZBC) has set minimum performance requirements for residential and commercial buildings. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) has also introduced some voluntary programmes to improve the quality of the housing stock. By the end of 2016, about 20 per cent of the housing stock of 1.7m houses has been renovated (EECA, 2016). However, those are mainly for low-income households, rather than for general-income households. A total of 80 per cent of the building stock still lacks incentives for retrofitting (International Energy Agency, 2017).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Sustainable housing in New Zealand\n3. Methodology: This research aims to evaluate sustainability actions and identify the critical drivers for sustainable housing in New Zealand. The research framework (shown in Figure 2) is based on the process created by Eisenhardt (1989). Multiple data collection methods, including semi-structured interviews and online questionnaires, were used for collecting qualitative and quantitative data. Interviews offer an effective means of performing an in-depth investigation (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). And the questionnaire survey helps to get attitudes from a larger group of practitioners in the housing industry. This approach is beneficial to strengthen grounding of theory and get a synergistic view of evidence (Liamputtong and Ezzy, 2005). The findings will be stronger and better grounded if the pattern from interviews is corroborated by the evidence from the online survey (Kalof et al., 2013; Hancock, 2002).\n4. Description of the cases: 4.1 Case 1 Hobsonville point\n5. Results: 5.1 Results from the questionnaires\n6. Discussions: This paper identified and evaluated the governmental, social and corporate forces in driving the New Zealand sustainable housing. Interviews with participants presented that corporate forces, including corporate brand, leadership and CSR were the principal driving forces for public-owned agencies. However, the private-owned companies were mainly driven by the local governments, which were also proved through the online survey. The results are in line with Laurian and Crawford (2016) and Bellringer et al.'s (2011) findings that local governments influence the sustainable housing notably. The central government's regulations are not effective enough but have the highest potential influence. It is similar to the situation in Malaysia, in which the government's lack of incentive programmes and the slow progress in revising related regulations are major challenges for sustainable housing (Zainul Abidin et al., 2013). Compared to Huang et al. (2016) and Yang et al.'s (2016) studies that focussed on situations in China, New Zealand Government is laying back and not affecting the sustainable housing market.\n7. Conclusions: This study identifies eight driving forces influencing the uptake of sustainable housing in New Zealand through the case studies and the online survey. The housing stock performs poorly regarding sustainability because none of the driving forces are powerful enough at the moment. However, the cases present a vision that some corporates are taking responsibilities to improve the quality of houses beyond the Building Code. The public-owned companies treasure their leadership in sustainability more than the investment returns to show their corporate social responsibilities. The private sectors also take actions to incorporate sustainability features in homes under the governments' mandatory regulations and voluntary programmes. Besides, sustainable homes and communities create a virtuous circle. Once the residents start realizing the benefits of sustainability, they will increase their demand and pay more for better houses. In turn, this will encourage the governments and the companies to go further towards sustainable. Thus, governments, corporates and the society all have the potential power to break the \"blame cycle\" and drive the sustainable housing in New Zealand.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Sustainable houses remain at a low rate among the housing stock in New Zealand. Government, industry and the public are wanting to deliver homes that are energy and water efficient, healthy and adaptive to the climate. The purpose of this paper is to find out the driving forces influencing the uptake of sustainable housing in New Zealand.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Comparative case studies of Hobsonville Point, Wynyard Quarter and Long Bay were adopted as the primary research method. Semi-structured interviews and an online survey were both conducted for data collection to increase the validity of the research.\nFindings: Central and local governments were the most effective driving forces for encouraging sustainable housing. Corporate brand and leadership were critical drivers for public-owned companies, whereas private-owned companies were mainly driven by local governments' policies and strategies. Social awareness and client demand were increasing to influence the sustainable housing, but there was still room for improvement.\nResearch limitations/implications: The developers can learn from the sustainable development frameworks to set the sustainability goals. Policymakers can draw lessons from the public sectors' experiences to carry out new policies and inspire the private sectors to follow. Besides, the basic framework could help the further study to use a larger sample size and more rigorous statistical analysis to explore the synergies among the identified drivers.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides the useful information on how to promote the uptake of sustainable housing in New Zealand.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Propositions on the interaction of organizational culture with other factors in the context of BPM adoption
|
[
"Organizational culture",
"BPO",
"OCAI",
"BPM adoption",
"BPM initiative",
"CVF",
"Non-parametric test"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The business process management (BPM) plays an important role in maintaining efficiency and effectiveness of the operations of companies and organizations. The adoption of BPM is a very complex and time-consuming process that requires much effort, time, resources and discipline. Since BPM is a multidisciplinary concept, its success depends not only on different factors but also on their interaction. Organizational culture has been identified as one of the key factors for a successful BPM adoption (Rosemann and vom Brocke, 2010; vom Brocke and Sinnl, 2011; Alibabaei et al., 2010), but it is still widely under-researched in connection to BPM adoption (vom Brocke and Rosemann, 2014).\n2. Background: In this section, we revisit prior research on BPM adoption and organizational culture with a focus on the work by Cameron and Quinn (2006). Furthermore, we summarize findings on the connection between BPM and organizational culture and between closely connected management approaches and organizational culture.\n3. Methodology: This section presents the research method of our study. First, we present the general research design, the measurement instrument and the data collection.\n4. Findings: In order to investigate the characteristics of BPM in different organizational cultures we first checked which dominant organizational culture is most favorable for BPM adoption. Table III shows that BPO was the highest for organizations with Clan dominant culture and the lowest for organizations with Hierarchy dominant culture. Since there were four groups, we used the Kruskal-Wallis test for the analysis. The Kruskal-Wallis test is a non-parametric test for the one-way analysis of variance used to determine if three or more samples originate from the same distribution (Hair et al., 1998). As we can see, differences are statistically significant (p<0.01); Clan culture has again been found the most favorable and Hierarchy culture the least favorable for adopting BPM.\n5. Discussion: In this section, we discuss the implications of our study. First, we summarize the findings. Then, we present implications for research and practice. Finally, we discuss potential limitations.\n6. Conclusions: In this paper, we investigated the differences in the success of BPM initiatives and their connection with organizational culture. We used an explorative survey design and collected data on the BPM adoption from organizations in Austria, Croatia and Slovenia with more than 50 employees. Our study provides empirical insights about characteristics of successful BPM initiatives in different organizational cultures. Specifically, the chance of success appears to be higher:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper investigates differences in the success of business process management (BPM) initiatives and their connection with organizational culture. The purpose of this paper is to identify propositions on characteristics of BPM initiative that are favorable for its success according to dominant organizational culture. Therefore, the authors' aim was to identify connections of organizational commitment to BPM and dimensions of business process orientation (BPO) with dominant organizational culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As a research design, the authors used a questionnaire to collect data on the BPM adoption practices of organizations in Austria, Croatia and Slovenia with more than 50 employees. BPM adoption was measured with BPO and organizational culture with Competing Values Framework (CVF). Non-parametric tests have been applied for the analysis. On this survey data, the authors conducted statistical tests to identify those factors that discriminate successful from unsuccessful BPM initiatives.\nFindings: The study revealed empirical insights about characteristics of successful BPM initiatives in different organizational cultures. There are several statistically significant differences with respect to the success of BPM adoption. The chance of success appears to be higher: when the BPM initiative is rolled out in the entire organization if the organization has Clan, Market or Hierarchy culture; when the BPM is run on a continuous basis in Hierarchy culture and repeatedly in Adhocracy culture; when a top-down approach is used in organizations with Market or Hierarchy dominant culture; when the BPM initiative has a strategic role and formal responsibilities are defined in Clan and Hierarchy cultures.\nOriginality/value: The authors' empirical findings provide the basis for the formulation of detailed propositions on the interaction of various factors and their impact on BPM adoption in connection to organizational culture. In this way, the authors' contribution is situated in the inductive research cycle and informs theory building for BPM adoption.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Responsibility in dental praxis: an activity theoretical perspective
|
[
"Professional ethics",
"Dentists",
"Professional education",
"Workplace learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: University taught me little of what I needed to know in the classroom; most of what I learned was by teaching (Middle school teacher).This is possible in theory, but not in the practice of the classroom (Middle school teacher in response to a university lecture).\nBackground: Ethics in the dental curriculum\nStudy design: This study is part of a large research program on the changes in knowledgeability that become apparent when people move from formal learning environments to workplaces. We have already researched similar processes in the formation of scientists, engineers, electricians, hatchery workers, and science teachers. The present study focuses on such changes as these occur when individuals move from dental school into after-school practice. However, this study focuses particularly on an aspect not covered by our previous work - that is, ethics.The seven dentists participating in our study have graduated from Canadian dental schools or are currently enrolled in graduate programs at these institutions, with the exception of one participant, who studied and worked outside Canada.The interviews were videotaped and conducted individually and on a first-come-first-served basis after the invitation to participate had been e-mailed to potential participants. During the interviews we attempted to elicit participants' ways of describing their transition from dental school to the workplace; these interviews were structured such as to produce life narratives (Polkinghorne, 1988), where the dentists had the opportunity to narrate particular experiences related to dentist-patient relationships. Thus, participants were given opportunities to express themselves to the extent that they thought the topic required. For example, we began our interviews asking the interviewers to tell us any interesting story they remembered, about non-technical aspects, related to the dentist patient relationship. After the interviews were completed all interviews were transcribed and the transcripts constitute part of our database.We used discourse analysis as method for analyzing and interpreting the videotaped interviews. This method focuses on the analysis at the discourse level and not only on the content level of the narratives (Bavelas et al., 2002). Studies in discourse analysis focus on the way people narrate their experiences; examining the ways beliefs are organized, produced and made intelligible to others (Roth, 2005). Discourse analysis was especially important during the analysis of our interviews, because it allowed us to focus on the interviewees' narratives at a level that we would not be able to achieve if we did not use it.To interpret the events described on the interviewees' discourse we used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT). Cultural-historical activity theory (Engestrom, 1993; Leont'ev, 1978) enabled us to analyze action and interaction inside an entire activity system supporting the idea that the smallest unit of analysis in which the subject participates is the activity. Applying cultural-historical activity theory to the analysis of work in dentistry, or the events narrated by the interviewees, we interpret what happens in a dental office as an entire activity system where actions are directed towards the object and mediated and influenced by external sources that will shape and modify our actions.We analyzed data both individually and collectively, in which case we drew on the precepts of interaction analysis (Jordan and Henderson, 1995). In interaction analysis, the authors met with other researchers (in our case, the members of our research group) interested in the analysis of social interaction. The principal researcher played the videotape until a participant indicated that something interesting occurred. The videotape was then stopped and the event discussed, frequently leading to the replaying of the episode. All individuals present are invited to contribute their views about what they have seen in the episode and what they understand to have happened. The discussions are generally so rich and revealing that never more than a few minutes of recorded conversation are analyzed in the course of a two-hour analysis session.In each session, we generated initial assertions (claims, hypotheses), which the principal researcher subsequently sought to confirm or disconfirm in the remainder of the database, a procedure known as constant comparison (Corbin and Strauss, 1990). Our different life histories provide us with different analytic horizons, which may lead to different understandings of what is being said during the interviews. These different perspectives are used to critically investigate and mitigate the hidden assumptions each individual brings to the interpretation.This collective analysis is a powerful tool to neutralize one's preconceived notions as an individual researcher, insofar as it minimizes the researchers' tendency to just see what they are conditioned to see or even what they want to see. In this way, assertions are grounded in events and the transcripts objectively available to a group of people. Interaction analysis therefore is consistent with the assumption that knowledge and action are fundamentally social in origin, and thus knowledge is not seen as located in the heads of individuals but as situated in the social interaction that is happening.\nBecoming as a dentist: learning ethics in the dental office: Becoming a dentist is a process that begins in formal school settings (university, internship), continues after dentists have been licensed and begin their own practice, and goes on throughout their professional lives. In this section, we provide sample analyses of dentists' discourse, demonstrating the shift in their actions that accompanies the shift in activity systems when dentists leave school and start their own practice, and the ethical implications related to these shifts. From our empirical data we noticed that when dentists change activity systems they experience conflicts, the resolution of which involves changing their actions. This changing of actions is based on a different form of knowledge that dentists acquire in the workplace, known to the ancient Greeks as phronesis.Activity systems and actions: a mutually presupposing relationship\nDiscussion: Shifting from school to workplace, dentists confront a different activity system, where previous actions defined only in terms of technical knowledge and skills become inadequate. Right action involves more than knowledge and skills - it involves knowledge of the effects an action will have on the recipient as well as the responsibility the agent must have for these effects. We consider these additional aspects of right action to be a form of knowledge that Aristotle called phronesis. Phronesis is present and enacted during the dental school clinics, but it is embodied in and brought to bear by means of the hierarchical relationship to the supervisor. This form of knowledge therefore is difficult to transfer from one activity system to another. When dentists move to their independent dental practice, they are confronted with, and constitute part of, an activity system where most often phronesis is not yet embodied. Dentists have to develop it - and as our research shows - do in fact develop it in and through concrete everyday praxis.We exemplified our findings with materials from the cases of Ronald and Matt. Both had experienced the absence of phronesis that would enable them to perform the right actions. It is exactly the absence of this knowledge that they experienced as a gap (boundary) between school and everyday work. Once they realized that their actions were inadequate, they changed their actions, thus changing the entire activity system. However, what caused Matt and Ronald to acknowledge the inadequacy of their actions in the fist place, and what allowed them to decide on which course of action would be the right one to take was the development of practical wisdom, that is, phronesis. Once dentists develop phronesis they not only become able to make the right decisions (McGee, 1996), but they also change the activity system to de-objectify their patients and include them as acting (decision-making) subjects. In fact, because dentists and patients now have (an interest in) a common object - treatment - their activity system is characterized by solidarity, which, by definition, is the quality on the parts of collectives of being perfectly united in some respect.We now have the conceptual tools in place to theorize the process of becoming a dentist, beginning with the moment when a prospective dentist enters dental school. In their first lecture classes, students encounter technical knowledge about various aspects of dentistry - Aristotle denoted this form of knowledge that by episteme. When they shift from lectures and laboratory exercises to dental school clinics, they start working on patients for the first time. Therefore, they are now developing technical skills, which Aristotle referred to as techne. Episteme and techne are the mainstays of dental schools, and dental students generally do well in developing these forms of knowledge. Our activity-theoretical approach concludes that in dental school clinics phronesis is present in the system; thus the patients still benefit from it. But the new practitioner does not embody this form of knowledge; they come face to face with the absence of this knowledge as soon as they move out of dental school and into their own practice, making the learning of ethics a problematic process in their formation.Dental students therefore face two transitions during their academic and professional lives, characterized by shifts from episteme to techne, and from techne to phronesis, respectively. The first transition occurs between lecture halls and laboratory to the dental school clinic. The second transition is experienced between the dental school clinic and the workplace, where dentists are fully responsible for their actions and the ethical component must appear in the dentists' actions.\nConclusions and implications: Learning occurs in many places. But what we learn in one place, for example, in formal school settings, may not bear on what we do in another place, for example, at work in particular or everyday life more generally (Lave, 1988). In this study, using discourse analysis together with an activity theoretical perspective, we investigated, drawing on dentists' narratives, the gap dentists experience when they move from school into the workplace and the development they undergo after they start working. We provide evidence for and discuss these experiences and developments and theorize these experiences in terms of cultural-historical activity theory, which, for present purposes, we combined with a philosophical approach to the ethics of action. Our special interest is in understanding an important part of dentistry practice that pertains in particular to the dentist-patient relationship - ethics, which we have come to understand as integral to dental phronesis. Through the analysis of interviews and using a recent reframing of activity theory that includes emotions and right actions (Roth, 2006), we investigated learning ethics in the workplace.Cultural-historical activity theory constitutes a new (theoretical) tool for dental educators; it allows us to successfully theorize important gaps in the experiences of prospective dentists as they move through varied educational settings. Because cultural-historical activity theory enables us to look at each activity system as an irreducible unit, we come to understand the changing nature of the dentist-object relation when the dentist changes setting. Thus, when an individual is doing a dental prosthesis in the dental school, there exists a mediated relationship between the student, patient, and supervisor and a different motive - exhibiting dentistry knowledge. When the same individual does a dental prosthesis immediately after graduating, the activity system has changed, as the supervisor is no longer present. Although exhibiting (academic) knowledge is no longer necessary, newcomers continue to display it and, in doing so, create a contradiction in the sense that there is an impediment to the patient's understanding, and consequently, in arriving at a treatment that truly is the right one, both from the dentist's and from the patient's perspective. This conflict only dissolves as the dentist develops the phronesis required in such situations, which, in part, means involving the patients themselves in decision-making.Ethics as a discipline has been incorporated to the formal curriculum in many dental schools. Nevertheless, as learning ethics can be a problematic process, we suggest that theoretical discussions about ethics are not enough to provide practitioners with the skills necessary to work ethically when interacting with patients. Our study shows that dentists learn to enact ethical principles while in and through everyday practice at work in their dental clinics while interacting with patients. It is in praxis that ethical practice develops, \"for its acknowledged validity is conditioned not by its content, taken in abstraction, but by its being correlated with the unique place of a participant\" (Bakhtin, 1993, p. 48, emphasis in original). Thus, teaching ethics as an abstract theoretical body of concepts cannot achieve the desired impact on the individual students, as their unique places as participants are not taken into consideration. Even case studies do not introduce this dimension, which can be experienced only in the face-to-face interaction with real patients.This has implications for the practice of dental education. We suggest a complementary approach to teaching ethics, which might involve, for example, pairs of students working together with patients. In this collaborative working experience, one student might be doing the dental treatment while his/her colleague would be observing and taking field notes about ethical dimensions of the relationship between dental student and patient. These field notes could include, for example, the way in which the student is talking to the patient. To be able to analyze these field notes, ethics courses should provide students with basic notions about ethnography and discourse analyses (widely used in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and sociology, for example), thus enabling students to take advantage of theoretical and analytical frameworks to better understand their own practice. Analysis and discussion could take place in small group meetings, similar to current teaching methodologies already used in dental schools.The approach proposed here is a complementary approach to teaching ethics that could help students learning to be ethical through a critical analysis of their own everyday practices, even though it still is in the confines of the dental practicum. As this analysis would involve the students' own work, this would be more meaningful than when students judge the practices of others, like in case-based learning or any teaching approach that use cases from other practitioners to be ethically analyzed. To learn to be ethical in dentistry practice, and any other practice for that matter, students of dentistry need to experience first-hand the situations and principles that are to be ethically considered. Dental school clinics experience combined with ongoing seminars that engage dental students in discussions of the ethical dimensions of their present and future work may allow them to appropriate phronesis before graduation, because they will become aware of the ethical implications of their own actions, which could foster a change of behavior. Dental schools might offer opportunities for the students to analyze their own experiences of the dental clinic from an ethical perspective promoting the development of phronesis.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transitions practitioners undergo as they move from dental school to their first job in a dental clinic and their learning in the workplace. The paper aims to investigate their use of ethical principles as they engage in practice, providing a theoretical explanation for the gap practitioners experience when moving from the school to the workplace, and also suggesting some viable alternatives for dental education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The database for this study consists of videotaped interviews with dentists. To analyze our data we followed the principles of interaction analysis, analyzing the data both individually and collectively, until some hypotheses were generated. Then, discourse analysis was used to analyze the interviews.\nFindings: - From an activity theoretical perspective, the results show that dentists can and do learn ethical principles when working in their dental clinics, interacting with patients, and the findings and suggestions are of especial interest for curriculum planning and development in educational institutions.\nPractical implications: - This study suggests that theoretical discussions about ethics are not enough to provide practitioners with the skills necessary to work ethically when interacting with patients. From the findings a complementary approach to teach ethics in dental schools is suggested.\nOriginality/value: - Workplace learning has become a preferred topic within many disciplines, such as, for example, sociology, education, and anthropology. However, although there is an established field of medical sociology, little if any attention on workplace learning has been paid to the health sciences in general and dentistry in particular.\n",
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] |
School externalities and scholastic performance: an efficiency analysis
|
[
"Data envelopment analysis",
"Azerbaijan",
"Correspondence analysis",
"Decomposition of efficiency",
"Educational production function",
"Peer effects",
"PISA data",
"A20",
"O15"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Several studies have found that educational quality, when measured by international comparative tests of skills, is quite strongly associated with growth (Hanushek and Kimko, 2000; Barro, 2001). It then becomes important to understand, how scholastic performance in such tests is produced. Endogenous growth models of human capital (Lucas, 1988; Azariadis and Drazen, 1990; Glomm and Ravikumar, 1992; Benabou, 1996) based on a microeconomic theory of human capital (Becker, 1964) focus on the determinants of human capital accumulation at the individual level, taking into consideration externalities that may appear at a more aggregate level. Two main types of educational externalities are emphasized. The first one is an externality related to the resources of schools. Glomm and Ravikumar (1992) thus argue that the public financing of education quality creates a positive externality for society. In addition, it reduces human capital inequalities. The second one is an externality due to the peer effect, taking place at school. Benabou (1996) underlines the fact that individuals exchange knowledge and, depending on the degree of complementarity between the human capital of individuals, such an externality may have either a positive effect (\"the best individual sets the standard\"; Benabou, 1996), or a negative one (\"one bad apple spoils the bunch\"; Benabou, 1996). These externalities have evidently an impact on the mean and dispersion of human capital in a given population. Furthermore, as these externalities may have heterogeneous effects, depending on individuals and schools, these externalities may become themselves the source of educational inequalities. It thus often appears that there is a trade-off for education policies between increasing the educational level of the population and reducing human capital inequalities. Promoting or discouraging these externalities for some population or school is then alternative strategy for educational policies.\n2. The methodology: 2.1 Data sources and data reduction procedure for the inputs\n3. The data: For our empirical investigation, we used the 2009 Pisa data of Azerbaijan. Here are some descriptive statistics.\n4. Results of the efficiency analysis: efficiency scores, externality indexes and determinants: 4.1 Results of the efficiency analysis\n5. Conclusion: The present study suggested a methodology to decompose the diverse sources of scholastic performance and to analyze their determinants. Our results have shown that scholastic efficiency depends positively on two externalities: an externality due to the resources of the school and an externality due to a peer effect between pupils within the school. Education policies should therefore promote them and especially the resource externality, because its effect is more homogeneous among pupils.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the determinants of scholastic performance using an efficiency analysis perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) at the pupil level using the 2009 PISA survey in Azerbaijan. Before applying DEA with multiple outputs, this paper integrates the maximum amount of available information on inputs via the use of correspondence analysis.\nFindings: The results show that scholastic efficiency depends positively on the externalities due to the resources of the school and to a peer effect. The analysis of the determinants of these externalities shows how they influence scholastic performance and has some policy implications.\nPractical implications: Education policies should promote the resource externality, because its effect is more homogeneous among pupils. The mechanisms generating school externalities should be taken into consideration by educational authorities, when allocating resources to school and should give some guidelines about how to use these resources and how to manage a school in order to promote peer effects externalities.\nOriginality/value: The authors distinguish various sources of efficiency: that of the pupil and that due to school externalities operating via resources and peer effects. The authors relate the efficiency due to school externalities to individual, family and school characteristics.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A fragility approach to sustainability - researching effects of education
|
[
"Sustainability management",
"Fragility",
"Paradigms",
"System approach",
"Functional stupidity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Universities have an important role in the transition toward a more sustainable society. As organizations, universities can reduce the negative environmental impact of their own operational activities by supporting energy efficiency, waste management, sustainable procurement, etc. (Thomas and Depasquale, 2016; Sintov et al., 2016; Platje, 2015a, Lambrechts et al., 2015; Lambrechts and Van Liedekerke, 2014). As research institutes, universities can significantly contribute to innovations supporting sustainable development in academic research (Wright, 2007; Novo-Corti et al., 2018). Last but not least, universities provide education to prepare people for a job and a meaningful live (Nussbaum, 2010), to provide people with the capability to direct their own life (Sen, 1999) and to contribute to the achievement of social aims (Dewey, 1916). It is through education that universities can make a unique contribution to sustainable development. Following Lambrechts et al. (2018), an important aim of education for sustainable development is preparing students for wicked problems (Rittel and Webber, 1973; Levin et al., 2012) featured by complexity and uncertainty (Lambrechts and Van Petegem, 2016), and preparing students to deal with limits to knowledge as well as with the existence of unseen evidence, threatening sustainability in a complex and uncertain world (Kahneman, 2011; Taleb, 2012). However, business schools are claimed to deliver foot-soldiers to corporate capitalism (Ehrensal, 2001) and to socialize students into exemplary managers of an imaginary ideal neoliberal corporation (Smith, 1994). Despite the growing need for managers in sustainable, conscientious and/or ethical companies (Kurucz et al., 2014), as reflected in the latest AACSB/ACBSP guidelines (Nicholls et al., 2013), many students and staff primarily demand a program based on neoliberalism and Finanzkapital (Carson, 2002; Friedman, 1962; Hilferding, 1910). Teaching sustainability issues in business programs, however necessary it may be, therefore requires delicate diplomacy to circumvent entrenched beliefs and vested interest in students and universities. It appears that support for sustainability and sustainable development among university students is not backed up by understanding of the issue, nor by any willingness to adapt their own behavior or their own life-goals (Kagawa, 2007; Uusitalo, 1990). A critical reflection on the myopic profit focus of existing MBA-marketing programs may easily result in a fast-track to a nonacademic career (Ehrensal, 1999).\n2. Background: Currently, challenges to global sustainability seem to become more threatening - climate change, depletion of resources, uncertain future energy supply, overdependence on integrated systems and information technology (Casti, 2013). Each innovation may contribute to increasing complexity, increasing the need to reflect on what not to do to prevent global or large-scale disasters. In this context, the existence of fragilities in a system is elementary (Taleb, 2012). Fragility focuses on a weakest link, a bottle neck or something else that, when breaking down, can lead to a collapse of the whole system: a threat of unpredictable, non-linear and irreversible damage, that may appear due to strong interconnectiveness within a system (Perrow, 1999; Harford, 2011; Taleb, 2012).\n3. Research framework: In research and teaching, three elements of the capacity to be prepared for and deal with unexpected events are distinguished (Tables I and II): paradigms, functional stupidity and indicators of fragility. Paradigms are worldviews of which we are often not even conscious, but that are elementary for the opportunities for change (i.e. leverage points) toward a more sustainable society (Meadows, 1999). Hard wired paradigms, like (economic) growth is good, technology solves all problems (Gladwin et al., 1995), prevent people from thinking \"outside the box\", and therefore many options are not considered (Meadows, 1998; Sterman, 2000). Deep-rooted paradigms, including religious and ideological paradigms, may lead to answers that cannot be questioned, supporting the existence of functional stupidity. The strength with which a paradigm is embraced is negatively related to the willingness to look at problems from a different perspective and to change one's mind (Sterman, 2000) and the willingness to look at small probability high impact events that can pose serious irreversible threats to society and organizations (represented by fragility indicators). The resulting lack of capacity in an organization to actively use, and in turn to create and develop knowledge and to take advantage of learning-by-doing and learning from mistakes can be labeled functional stupidity (Alvesson and Spicer, 2012).\n4. Methodology and procedure: The study followed a model of participatory action research, challenging the positivistic claims of objective and value free research to obtain objective knowledge (Brydon-Miller et al., 2003; Maguire, 1987). Education and research should go hand in hand, as otherwise challenges in sustainable development are more likely to be based on normative assumption and lack of reflection on the information and knowledge generated. An important question is whether universities produce students, who have a fragilizing mind-set, posing challenges to policy for sustainable development. This study focuses on students. However, the research should be extended to lecturers and university management, heavily influencing the curriculum for students. Important issues in education for sustainable development from the perspective \"the aim to get into heaven may get us into hell\" (paraphrased from Hammarskjold, 1954) are:\n5. Data analysis: The answers to the items across the three groups are presented in the Appendix. All items were tested for difference between the total control group (n = 611), the pretest (n = 230), and the post-test sample (n = 231) with a Kruskall-Wallis omnibus-test, revealing a significant change in scores on four items, i.e. items 3, 4, 8 and 14. Next, the scores were pair wise compared between the control group and the post-test, and pretest and the post-test sample with a Mann-Whitney U-test (Table III). After Bonferroni correction for the interdependence of the 15 items a corrected critical p-value of 0.005 was used in both tests. Changes in correlations between selected items were tested with a Fisher's z-test, at a Bonferroni corrected critical p-value of 0.005 rendering no correlational change significant. The answers to item 1 about the increasing complexity on the world, and whether our knowledge can keep up with this, show no significant correlation with the other items.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: In this paper, three research questions were addressed. Regarding RQ1, the research presented in this paper shows that most of the students seem to be technological optimists in the field of energy, and adhere to a kind of weak sustainability (where assuming technology can replace environmental resources (Rao, 2000)). Regarding RQ2, however, paradigms of students tend to be a \"mixed bag\" and not very coherent with regard to different theoretically conflicting opinions. This is in line with other studies that find dissonances in student perceptions and their level of understanding of sustainability and their focus on \"light green\" individual actions (Kagawa, 2007; Eagle et al., 2015).\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Management education trainers are increasingly called upon to train students to devise interventions for sustainable development in business settings. Due to the dominant reductionist paradigm, these interventions may lead to unwanted side effects. Teaching students about unacknowledged feedback loops in complex systems should prevent them from choosing \"the most obvious\" intervention without considering unwanted side effects.The current study aims to report the effects of teaching a systems perspective, applied to transport systems, on students' opinions and expressed paradigms. The following questions are addressed: Do students adhere to the techno-centric paradigm, believing technology, innovation and growth can solve all types of threats for sustainable development, while neglecting low probability, high impact events? Are paradigms held by students coherent? Can teaching lead to a change in opinions and paradigms held by students?\nDesign/methodology/approach: Measures for several systems concepts (i.e. functional stupidity, paradigms and fragility) are taken across a wide sample of university students. Posttests of some key items are taken for a subsample that followed a sustainability and systems perspective in a course on transport economics.\nFindings: A large share of students think that technology can solve different types of problems in sustainable development (a kind of weak sustainability), but their paradigms tend to be a mix of conflicting opinions. Though student opinions on topics that were explicitly treated in the course have changed, neither a wider paradigm shift nor significantly more coherent paradigms can be confirmed.\nOriginality/value: The results show that even though students can be taught about the unwanted side effects and limitations on specific techno-fix interventions, this does not automatically translate into a critical mind-set toward techno-fixing in general.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investigating a strategically oriented MLD program: organizational identification and organizational commitment
|
[
"Strategic orientation",
"Management and leadership development program",
"Organizational identification",
"Organizational commitment",
"Cascading effects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Middle managers play a key role within an organization linking the strategic goals of top management to the implementation of these strategies by the lower level employees. Management and leadership development programs (MLDP's) are regularly used to improve middle managers ability to support and carry out strategic initiatives and research has highlighted the positive effects of these programs at the individual level including increased personal and political skills and gains in self-efficacy. However, the assumption that individual gains will automatically result in improved strategic outcomes is unsubstantiated and lacks theoretical understanding.\nTheoretical background: Social identity theory proposes that as well as our individual identity where we define ourselves in terms of our personal qualities we also have a social identity where a person's sense of who they are is based on their group membership. People can hold several social identities at any one time and within an organization the extent to which they socially identify with the unit they are based in, the company or the profession can vary in strength. Research has shown that individuals identify more strongly with their immediate work group than with the organization distinguishing between in-group and out-group members. MLDP's can be utilized to activate and strengthen a manager's organizational identification through emphasizing their role in supporting strategic initiatives through the internalization of curriculum and messaging. This is intended to complement rather than replace their work unit identification.\nThe effects of a MLDP on managers and subordinates: This study evaluates the direct effects of a MLDP on managers' identification with and commitment to a regional healthcare administration in Denmark and the indirect cascading effects on subordinates.\nPractical Implications: The study's findings suggest ways in which the design and delivery of MLDP's are more likely to result in successful outcomes. When sending messages to middle managers in order to promote strategic objectives it should be established that they have the time and resources to achieve the goals set. Providing information on how to link the strategic objectives with operational demands alongside action plans will ease the demands on the middle managers and make them more likely to accept and implement their new role. These steps will facilitate successful role redefinition.\nCommentary: The review is based on \"Good intentions gone awry: investigating a strategically oriented MLD program\" by Larsson et al. (2020), published in Journal of Management Development. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a MLDP aimed at improving the ability of middle managers to connect to the goals and strategies of the organization including the direct effect on managers' identification with and commitment to the organization and the indirect cascading effects on subordinates. The study finds that managers' identification with and commitment to the organization both show a significant decrease following the implementation of the program. In addition, subordinate identification to the leader and commitment to the organization both show a significant decrease following the implementation of the program. It is recommended that when designing and delivering MLDP's managers should be given the time, information, resources and action plans to facilitate successful role redefinition. This paper has an original approach as it is one of the first to evaluate theoretical mechanisms through which MLDP's affect managers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate a MLDP aimed at improving the ability of middle managers to connect to the goals and strategies of the organization including the direct effect on managers' identification with and commitment to the organization and the indirect cascading effects on subordinates.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data is gathered from the responses of 107 managers and 913 of their subordinates employed in a regional healthcare administration in Denmark to surveys presented at two time points during and after completion of the MLDP program.\nFindings: The study finds that managers' identification with and commitment to the organization both show a significant decrease following the implementation of the program. In addition, subordinate identification to the leader and commitment to the organization both show a significant decrease following the implementation of the program.\nPractical implications: It is recommended that when designing and delivering MLDP's managers should be given the time, information, resources and action plans to facilitate successful role redefinition.\nOriginality/value: This paper has an original approach, as it is one of the first to evaluate theoretical mechanisms through which MLDP's affect managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The roles of the psychology, systems and economic theories in human resource development
|
[
"Systems theory",
"HRD definition",
"Economics theory",
"HRD challenges",
"HRD theory",
"Psychology theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Since human resource development (HRD) is an expanding for both practitioners and scholars, with national-level implications, scholars are discussing the academic discipline and role of HRD (McLean, 2006; Swanson and Holton, 2009) . Hence, it is important to investigate the foundations to inform the discourse and apply the theories effectively as the field moves forward. In addition, theory explains how a phenomenon works (Torraco, 1997), and HRD theory is developed by describing or demonstrating HRD functions. Understanding core theories and theory building are critical for progress in academic areas, and this is especially true in HRD (Swanson, 2001).\nDefinition and HRD: HRD definition\nTheories of HRD: Core theories and research and practice in HRD: As HRD is an \"interdisciplinary\" area, it incorporates parts of other fields (Weinberger, 1998). Watkins (1998) argued that HRD had been considered as a \"subset\" of industry, psychology, education and human resource management; thus, the foundations of HRD are from those academic fields, plus economics (p. 62). Therefore, the core theories of HRD are a drawn from psychology, systems and economics, while based on an \"ethical perspective\" (Swanson and Holton, 2009). The ethics can play a fundamental role, although it is not considered as \"core theory\" It is these foundations from psychology, systems and economics that HRD conforms to in theory and practice.\nSystems theory and organizational development research and practice in HRD: There are various definitions regarding organization development. Thus, it is not easy to have a unified definition. McLean (2006) stated an extensive organization development definition as:\nHRD challenges and ethics: globalization, technology, virtual HRD, expatriation and repatriation: Globalization and HRD\nDiscussion: The current study can contribute to expanding an understanding of HRD field and to encouraging HRD researchers to study its core theories and definitions. In this section, implications are provided for research and practice.\nConclusion: The current study provides a timely contribution, drawing on links to psychology, systems and economic theories at the areas of adult and professional education, organizational development and strategic HRD identified by the literature, that expands an understanding of HRD as an interdisciplinary field (Weinberger, 1998). Because of rapid changes in the organizational environment, there is a need to understand how emerging issues in HRD (e.g. strategic HRD, globalization and virtual HRD) could be connected to the core theories in HRD. This understanding could lead to an increase in the variety of approaches needed for the development of HRD research and theories (Veliquette, 2013), and the proposed conceptual framework that could generate different insights for HRD researchers and professionals.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the foundational theories in human resource development (HRD) by reviewing the literature from an HRD perspective. The following research questions guide the study: What are the core theories related to adult and professional education, organizational development and strategic HRD? What are the conceptual frameworks associated with adult and professional education, organizational development and strategic HRD? How have these theories and conceptual frameworks applied the research and practice of HRD?\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study reviewed the HRD definitions and core theories. The core theories and conceptual frameworks related to adult and professional education, organizational development and strategic human resource development were described. The application of these theories and conceptual frameworks to the research and practice of HRD was addressed.\nFindings: The psychology theories that were explored were the adult learning theories, and that gestalt-psychology, behavioral psychology and cognitive psychology were illustrated. Systems theory was explored and explained in relation to organization development. Economic theory was explored and explained focusing on human capital theory; and it was demonstrated how economic theory is associated with strategic HRD.\nOriginality/value: The core-theory description and linking to adult and professional education, organizational development and strategic HRD may give understanding of the HRD foundations and ethical perspective that is essential for both scholars and professionals. The conceptual frameworks presented can be used to help facilitate discussions on developing or implementing HRD programs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Beyond administration in dormitory
|
[
"Colleges",
"Students",
"Social behaviour",
"Bullying",
"Japan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The system of colleges of technology was established in Japan in 1961 to instruct students in arts and science, to prepare them for a role as professionals in the field of technology. These colleges admit graduates from junior high school into a comprehensive five-year program. Boys and girls between 15 and 20 years of age are enrolled. There are two important features of this system: each student starts his professional training early and each has the opportunity to live inexpensively in the school dormitory. The latter point is especially important for the younger students, because many of these colleges are located in rural areas without convenient transportation facilities. Moreover, in the college dormitory, students work together to develop many of the social skills they will need to become well-adjusted and responsible members of society. In this sense, these dormitories are different from those of other national universities in Japan, which are simply places for students to live.Tsuyama National College of Technology is located in Tsuyama, the largest city in northern Okayama Prefecture, with a population of approximately 90,000, and most famous for the ruins of its once grand castle. Tsuyama College has four departments, each of which consists of students from first to fifth year. In addition, there are two advanced programs for graduates who wish to continue studying for two additional years in order to earn a bachelor of technology degree. Between the first and third year, students of Japanese colleges of technology belong to the same age group as pupils in senior high school, and behavioral problems, such as violence, bullying and larceny have occurred at technical colleges in similar proportion to those at senior high schools. This paper will explain the philosophy behind relatively recent policies at Tsuyama College that have reduced incidents of delinquent behavior and improved the morale and performance of its resident students.\nHistory of the dormitory at our college of technology: Background\nPresent condition of the dormitory: Resident activities and support facilities\nSummary: It is now often observed that the residents, especially the freshmen, have become more animated. Many of the residents themselves say that they are enjoying dormitory life and have given word to teachers at their previous schools that their experience has been positive. This has given us confidence that we are achieving our goal of improving the dormitory system.The change in the dormitory atmosphere over the past several years has arisen with and contributed to a feeling of self-determination and competence among the residents, in a virtuous cycle of freedom and responsibility. At a college where almost 40 percent of the students experience life as a resident, such positive feedback is especially important, for any improvements in the dormitory atmosphere have a significant effect on the entire student population.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Aims to offer some ways of improving and developing the residents in the dormitory of Tsuyama National College of Technology, Tsuyama, Japan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Describes how in order to calm the dormitory atmosphere, strict regulations had been adopted since the foundation times for the college, which sometimes led to deplorable happenings. After facing dormitory issues from a new perspective in 1990, school authorities abandoned the allegiance to supervision. The dormitory affairs committee has stimulated the residents' intrinsic motivation since then, leading to the improvements in the dormitory. Describes the course of improvement and the present condition of the dormitory.\nFindings: - Advocates the necessity of broadening residents' horizons to continually improve their quality of life in the dormitory.\nResearch limitations/implications: - It would take some years to ascertain our policy to be desirable for the dormitory. During that time, almost the entire membership of the dormitory affairs committee would be replaced, which might lead to a drastic turnabout on dormitory policy.\nPractical implications: - A very useful source of information and impartial advice for the staves who involve in dormitory issues of other colleges.\nOriginality/value: - Demonstrates unique policies on improvement for the dormitory, which are different from those adopted in other colleges of technology.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Strategic public relations
|
[
"Strategic management",
"Public relations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is no single definition for public relations (PR) and strategic public relations (SPR), but what is exclusively stressed by majority of scholars and practitioners is the necessity of planning in SPR. PR is defined differently by various practitioners and scholars in which the word \"management\" is the most commonly used word. Lages and Simkin (2003) referred this as \"on-going conceptualisation\" of PR. Planning is vital to SPR, since communications need to be strategic and analytical in the turbulence of twenty-first century. However, PR is defined by Grunig and Hunt (1984, p. 6) as \"management of communication between an organisation and its publics\"; while Ledingham and Bruning (1998) defined PR precisely as \"relationship management\".Cutlip et al. (2006, p. 1) argues that PR is \"the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and the publics on whom its success and failure depends\". Nevertheless, Dozier and Lauzen (2000) argued that defining PR \"as a management function\" is a \"myopic focus\" on PR theory particularly in organisational level. The world is evolving, so does public opinion; the clock in the world of PR ticks faster. PR functions need to continuously develop public opinion and, if it is necessary, influence and modify them (Wells and Spinks, 1999); thus, ongoing evaluation and research is a key to SPR. Therefore, substantial education and training become added value to management credibility to overcome issues in PR and structure SPR processes accordingly.\nPR models and frameworks: According to du Gay (1997), SPR is the model of negotiation and dialogue. PR models should be analysed and understood in depth with respect to \"political context, culture and social\"; rather than defining it narrowly (Holtzhausen, 2000, p. 95). Moreover, Grunig et al. (1998) mention \"internationalism, competition, specialisation, strategic expertise, evaluating of PR activities, adoption of new technology, personnel development and recruitment\" as critical elements for consideration by organisations in developing effective SPR. Understanding of PR definition and evaluation of its dimensions are critical. It is a process of making sense and implying meaning to strategic publics. Furthermore, cultural dimensions are integral to SPR considerations, since PR messages will ultimately reach publics, or simply the receivers (Cutlip et al., 2006).According to Kitchen and Papasolomou (1997), many argue PR is a marketing tool, whilst many academics are endeavouring to create theoretical framework for it (Lages and Simkin, 2003). Many scholars and professionals emphasise, that PR and marketing are absolutely two different \"managerial functions\" (Cutlip et al., 1999). This does not mean that PR act independently and do not have any structure and accountability. All senior managers and boards of directors in organisations and conglomerates need to be aware of PR activities and allow PR managers to have a say in organisational strategic decision-making process. This enormously mitigates negative consequences of organisations' actions; since all internal and external factors are taken into account at the time of decision making.\nKey success to SPR: Integrated communications, as the strategic input, is the key success to SPR, since it enables an organisation to meet desirable output. Needless to say that such exercise requires management commitment and set of managerial skills. Jefkin and Yadin (1998) suggest, in some situations such as crises, PR is the most crucial constituent of \"communication mix\". According to them the word \"communication\" is not just a word in the world of PR. Communications, strategic thinking, proactive plans and actions are crucial matters of concern in any SPR campaign and management. It is therefore important to adopt an appropriate approach which does not offend anyone, if not satisfying everyone.Lages and Simkin (2003) mention that plans give focus and direction to every strategy. Cutlip et al. (2006, p. 315) discuss about management by objectives (MBO) as an important technique to practice in many PR campaigns planning. MBO allows stipulating of consequences, anticipating results and expected impact of a particular plan. Cutlip et al. (2006) discuss \"four step problem solving process\" in PR management procedure. In sequence they are:1. problem definition;2. planning;3. communicating and implementing of the set up plans; and4. evaluation of the entire process.A comparative analysis of situations and employed PR strategy in a particular case may assist the process of identifying gaps and shortcomings of each PR strategy; this gives an insight to set plans for effective SPR. In order to plan a PR campaign more strategically, organisations need to practice fair employee relations, preemptive media campaigns which consequently, strengthen their relations with both internal and external publics (Simkin and Dibb, 1998). Accordingly, Lages and Simkin (2003) categorise PR in three different levels of \"industry level, consultancy level and practitioner level\". According to Pasadeos et al. (1999), practitioner functions are the most \"empirically researched\". However, the importance of internal and external communication have been significantly neglected to be analysed well in detail and be discussed accordingly by many practitioners and scholars. MacManus (1997) argues about the importance of critical analysis of business environment to recognise potential opportunities and threats. Carrying out a SWOT analysis thus is recommended by scholars upon practising any PR campaign planning.\nSPR objectives: Mutual understanding of PR for enhancing reputation is the key objectives of SPR. Therefore employing high calibre personnel is fundamentally important (Lages and Simkin, 2003). High calibre employees are more likely to have the ability to keep publics informed; while consulting management. SPR require strategic thinkers to propel organisational success; strategic thinkers give birth to plans. However, not always can plans guarantee success, but they increasingly increase chances of achieving organizational objectives. Cutlip et al. (2006, p. 316) illustrate the excuses practitioners give for not preparing plans. PR industry is getting more competitive than ever with many experts in the field.Simkin and Dibb (1998) argue that corporate strategy development and strategic business planning are key to every SPR. Practicality and clear code of ethics are still matter of concerns by many in PR industry (Lages and Simkin, 2003). There are various models that practitioners utilise in certain situations, which their adoption depends on particular situation and environment (Cutlip et al., 2006; Lages and Simkin, 2003). In case of international PR, an approach applicable and practical to a situation in one country may be impractical in another, when all legalities and constraints of each country are taken into considerations.\nTwo-way symmetrical communications: According to Huang (1997), \"two-way symmetrical communications\", is a good communication. Nonetheless, Holtzhausen (2000) mentions \"two-way symmetrical public relations\" has less contribution to \"power discrepancies in practice\". Thus, creating balance should be the core competence of SPR management. Power and gender are both important when communications take place, especially when there are cultural differences. Cortes (2000) suggests \"New technology, feminisation, and globalisation\" are three major areas to research in the modern days of the current century. It is important to realise that not all countries have the same proportion of females working in PR industry or barely at any managerial positions. Cortes (2000) mentions that those three research areas, on one hand present opportunities and on the other raise ethical concerns.According to Grunig (2000), more precise definition of relationship between organisations and their strategic publics is necessary to achieve SPR objectives. Furthermore, considering trust in strategic communications is always beneficial. According to Becerra (1998), trust diminishes conflict between managers and indeed improves working relationships; which also enhances the support they offer to each other and essentially improve their performance. Findings from Wells and Spinks (1999) indicate that, integration of PR viewpoints in strategic decisions and policy-making processes within an organisation is a necessary step towards successful SPR management and campaign planning. As it is obvious from the procedure, mutual communication is vital, in which clarity of approach and accuracy of information lead organisations towards achieving their strategic objectives; this in turn allows organisation to work on their plans and become industry leaders by increasing their market share.Communicating PR messages to the public is similar to communicating advertising messages to the end user. Therefore clarity of the message is key to ensure the decoding stage is as simple as possible for the target market in order to meet the expected desired action by the public. According to Wells and Spinks (1999) PR communication messages include:* development of idea in the mind of sender;* encoding the idea through an appropriate method;* media selection;* decoding stage; and* development of idea in the mind of receivers.Here, a desirable action is expected of the receivers. Wells and Spinks (1998, pp. 439-41) argue that, solid and factual records are the necessity components of SPR decision makings. SPR is all about interaction between an organisation and its public; therefore setting a message and selecting appropriate media channels become significantly important to organisations in order to fulfil their SPR objectives and achieve success, while increasing their stakeholders' confidence regarding the organisation's strategy and activities. Tortorici (1991) suggests that PR assist an organisation for \"cost-effective\" and \"strategically focused\" integrated marketing communications.\nConclusion: PR has been discussed and analysed by many scholars and practitioners in various ways. There is not a magic formula for SPR since the marketplace is so dynamic and constant analysis requires for organisations' strategy update. Practicing PR is prudently important to both non-for-profit and for-profit organisations. SPR is a demanding exercise which requires vigilant personnel with competences of analytical approach and appropriate actions. Thus planning and ad hoc management is essential for SPR triumph. PR activities and studies have opposing opinions and this makes process of learning and exploring challenging and interesting. Two-way symmetrical PR is more utilised by practitioners in their activities and widely studied by scholars. This does not mean that other methods and PR frameworks are not valid and/or practical in practice.In order to adopt an appropriate model, impact analysis is suggested by many practitioners and scholars. SPR would consider the future competition, publics' demands and possible governments' de/regulations. Therefore, SPR has a long-term effect. The world is getting almost borderless, thus utilising the internet would assist organisations to develop effective and long-term relationships with strategic publics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to draw the line between public relations and strategic public relations in a simple and understandable language.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Various definitions of both public relations and strategic public relations were cited in the paper and the common terms used in all definitions were outlined. The main discussion was then based on such similarities in order to establish the differences between the two terms. This was done by studying others' research and discussing their findings in a simple language in order to present a reliable literature review to readers and facilitate future research by providing credible references.\nFindings: - There is a grey line between public relations and strategic public relations; however there are differences between the two. This paper clarifies the differences by referring to genuine definitions of the two terms by experts and their analysis of the terms when it comes to practice, which calls for integration.\nResearch limitations/implications: - There is limited research conducted in the field of strategic public relations and still many have doubts about its effectiveness. This paper gathered relevant theory and examples from the real business world to suggest integration of public relations with marketing tools with strategic management coupled with generating trust.\nPractical implications: - Symmetrical communications and realising appropriate timing are important to achieve objectives of strategic pubic relations. There is no magic or formula for this but to think outside the box, allow effective stakeholders' engagement and proactive monitoring of the marketplace to increasingly enhance the chances of success.\nOriginality/value: - Succinct study of strategic public relations and introducing the term SPR, as well as emphasising the integration of appropriate techniques and tools to achieve optimal result.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Effect of supply chain strategic collaboration announcements on shareholder value: an empirical investigation from China
|
[
"Supply chain strategic collaboration",
"Stock market reaction",
"Chinese listed companies",
"Empirical research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the rapid development of supply chain management practices, an increasing number of companies have realized the importance of strategic collaboration in the supply chain (Ramanathan and Gunasekaran, 2014). Supply chain strategic collaboration (SCSC) is a high-level form of long-term interaction between companies. It refers to the activities of partners in the supply chain carrying out work across organizational boundaries based on a common goal, and creating unique value-added processes to jointly enhance mutual long-term interests (Fawcett et al., 2008; Kim and Lee, 2010; Nyaga et al., 2010). There are two important characteristics of SCSC. First, it is based on the supply-demand relationship between both parties in a supply chain (Corsten and Felde, 2005). This involves typical purchase and sales behavior in SCSCs. Second, SCSC brings about strategic changes for both parties (Fawcett et al., 2010).There is a rising trend in SCSC activities in supply chain management. Before implementing SCSC, companies conventionally release an SCSC announcement. The announcement is an open commitment to both parties, which can be viewed as a signal that companies value collaboration highly and will make corresponding efforts toward it (Nyaga et al., 2010). Therefore, it may have a significant effect on future performance and bring abnormal stock market returns once investors receive the signal. For example, on July 17, 2018, Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), one of the largest new energy battery manufacturers in China, announced a strategic collaboration agreement with BMW Brilliance Auto (BBA). This SCSC announcement involves a long-term supply of certain types of battery products, whereby CATL is expected to build a battery capacity construction project for BBA. Within 2 h after the announcement, CATL's share price rapidly rose by 3.49%. This study mainly analyzes the impact of the SCSC announcement on stock market reaction, that is, it calculates the abnormal returns due to the announcement.This study bases its conceptual framework on signaling theory, which is firstly proposed by Spence (1973) for analyzing how a party with information advantage in the market releases information to another party through a \"signal\" to moderate the information asymmetry. Three elements are involved: signaler, signal, and receiver (Taj, 2016). In the conceptual framework of this study, the firm that announces the SCSC is the signaler; the SCSC announcement with collaborative information is the signal; and investors and the market are the receivers, who react to the signal. Before the SCSC announcement, the collaboration has not started yet; therefore, there is information asymmetry between the signaler and receivers regarding the signaler's actual ability and intent to conduct an SCSC. The signaler reduces this information asymmetry by sending the signal, that is, the SCSC announcement. However, it remains unclear how the investors will interpret and react to the signal, because the characteristics of the signaler, supply chain type, and the characteristics of the signal affect the interpretation process of the receiver (Connelly et al., 2011; Truong and Pinkse, 2019). This study addresses these three factors in the following analysis and analyzes how they affect the abnormal returns due to the announcement.There is some related literature on SCSC and performance, as well as announcements and shareholder value. On the one side, in the research stream of SCSC and performance, many scholars show that SCSC improves corporate performance. They argue that both partners will benefit from the highly resource-sharing supply chain strategic partnership through collaboration (Stadtler, 2008; Cao et al., 2010; Cao and Zhang, 2011). However, some studies claim that the implementation of supply chain collaboration might not yield expected benefits for a company (Munson et al., 1999; Blome et al., 2014). Therefore, the empirical evidence to prove the effect of supply chain collaboration on corporate performance remains to be further explored. The results of the abovementioned studies are based on first-hand data through questionnaire surveys or simulations. On the other side, the research stream on announcements and shareholder value has abundant studies about how supply chain operations announcements affect shareholder value based on event study method. These supply chain operations announcements involve supply chain disruption (Hendricks and Singhal, 2008), supply chain integration (Mitra and Singhal, 2008), supply chain contract (Yang et al., 2014), appointment announcement (Hendricks et al., 2014), and new product development (Lee et al., 2016). The event study is a statistical method that can quantitatively estimate the stock market's reaction to an event by calculating the abnormal return associated with this event based on secondary stock price data (Brown and Warner, 1985). Although the literature in these two research streams mentioned above is rich, no previous study has examined market reaction to SCSC announcements. Considering the importance of implementing SCSC in supply chain management and the advantage of an event study in measuring the effect of major events on shareholder value, empirical research on SCSC based on stock market evidence is necessary.This study develops the conceptual framework based on signaling theory and uses an event study (Hendricks et al., 2014; Jacobs and Singhal, 2014) to estimate the stock market reactions to 208 SCSC announcements of Chinese listed companies between 2008 and 2017. Furthermore, this study analyzes the effect of the characteristics of the signaler (i.e., firm's supply chain role and supply chain control power), supply chain type, and the characteristics of the signal (i.e., SCSC types and SCSC time limit) on the market reaction.The main results are as follows. First, this study finds a positive and statistically significant relationship between SCSC announcement and shareholder value. Over a three-day period (day before the announcement, day of the announcement, and day after the announcement), the mean (median) market reaction is 1.69% (1.15%), and the percentage of firms that experience a positive market reaction is 58.1%. These results show that SCSC, on average, can improve shareholder value. Second, if the announcement is released by the supplier or the firm has greater supply chain control power than the partner, the stock market will react more positively. Third, strategic collaboration in the service supply chain can yield a more positive market reaction than that in the manufacturing supply chain can. Moreover, the market reacts more positively to announcements that involve single-type collaboration than those that involve multiple-type SCSCs. Finally, this study compares several types of SCSC and finds that product development SCSCs can yield higher stock market reactions than other types of SCSCs can (technology sharing, market collaboration and others).This study makes following contributions. On the one hand, to our best knowledge, this is the first study to measure the effect of SCSC announcements on shareholder value using the objective secondary data from stock market. The quantitative results provide solid evidence on value promotion that can be expected from SCSC announcements. On the other hand, this study inventively identifies that the market reaction to the SCSC announcements is contingent upon the characteristics of the signaler, supply chain type and the characteristics of the signal. Compared with previous research, this study reveals some new potential factors that stimulate signaling strength, which not only broadens signaling theory research in the field of supply chain operations but also deepens the understanding of researchers and managers about the impact of SCSC announcements on shareholder value.The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the existing literature and develops the research hypotheses. Section 3 presents the sample selection process and briefly describes the sample. Section 4 describes the methodology. Section 5 presents the analysis results. Section 6 discusses the results, theoretical/management implications and limitations.\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: This section introduces the relevant literature and proposes the hypotheses. In Subsection 2.1, we first review the literature about signaling theory and event study method. Since these studies are not directly related to the topic in this study of SCSC, they are not used to develop the hypotheses. We mention them to build the theoretical base. In Subsections 2.2-2.5, we will review articles related to SCSC and its characteristics to develop hypotheses. 2.1 Signaling theory and stock market reaction in supply chain operations\n3. Sample selection and description: The announcement sample of this study is from the Wind Economic Database in China. One of the most widely used databases for research, it contains all official announcements issued by listed companies (Xu, 2012). In this research, all samples are collected from the official announcements of listed companies (the most authoritative source of information) instead of newspaper reports. All listed company announcements from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2017 are sought to obtain the sample used in this study. Similar sample selection criteria to those of Hendricks and Singhal (2005) and Jacobs and Singhal (2014) are used to obtain the samples in this study.As mentioned above, the sample comes from official announcements issued by listed companies rather than news reports. The China Securities Regulatory Commission has detailed regulations on the announcement of listed companies, so not all events will be announced. The same is true of collaboration events. This study finds that companies issued announcements only for strategic collaboration events that have significant impact on operations, not for ordinary transactions. This facilitates the collection of the sample to a certain extent. All announcements with \"strategic collaboration\" in the title are collected. In addition, to ensure that all announcements are included, such keywords as \"cooperation,\" \"alliance,\" \"league,\" \"union,\" \"coordination,\" and \"joint implementation\" are used for searching. In total, 2,053 announcements are collected by this step.The content of the announcement should be related to the following SCSC criteria. First, there should be a clear supply-demand relationship between both parties in the collaboration (Corsten and Felde, 2005). Second, the collaboration should bring certain strategic changes for one or both parties (Fawcett et al., 2010). At the time of sample screening, we will ensure that the content of the announcement is strictly relevant to the SCSC. After the sample screening, 318 related announcements are reserved.Non-initial announcements, such as those on progress of previously announced collaboration events, are excluded from the sample. In addition, if other major strategic decisions of the company are involved in the announcement, this study excludes such announcements to avoid the superposition effects of multiple events.If a company publishes more than two strategic collaboration announcements, and the intervals between them are less than one year, then this study retains only the time of the earlier announcement and excludes the latter in order to avoid affecting stock returns during the estimation period. This is a common practice in event research methodology to avoid cross-cutting effects between announcements. By this step, 224 announcements are considered valid.Companies that issued announcements must have sufficient stock returns data in the RESSET database (website: http://www3.resset.cn:8080/product/index.jsp). This database is widely used by scholars to study Chinese listed companies, as it provides comprehensive information (Li et al., 2015).Based on these five steps, the final sample contains 208 announcements from 194 SCSC events. In other words, there are 14 collaboration events that announcements from both parties are included in the sample. And the rest, 180 announcements, are from 180 collaboration events. Among these 180 collaborations, there are 148 collaborations involve a non-listed partner and the other 32 collaborations involve a listed partner whose announcements are excluded during the selection. Part A of Table 1 lists basic statistical information based on the most recent full fiscal year before the announcements of the sample companies. The average value of the companies' total assets is 9,600.36 million CNY. The average return on assets (ROA) is 5.79%. The average operating income is 6,256.98 million CNY, and the average net profit is 333.51 million CNY.Panel B of Table 1 shows the distribution of announcements by year. The number of SCSC announcements has been increasing yearly, with a rapid rise after 2014. The total number of announcements from the last three years, that is, 2015-2017, is 153, which accounts for 73.56% of the total sample. Panel C shows the industry distribution in the sample. Of the 208 announcements in the sample, 172 (82.69%) are from manufacturing companies. Manufacturing companies dominate China's A-share stock market, reflecting the huge scale of the manufacturing sector. In addition, nine are from the software and IT services industry, seven from the wholesale and retailing industry, six each from the construction and real estate industry and the agriculture sector, and 12 from other industries, like mining and energy, leasing and business services and transportation.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Event study\n5. Results: This section presents the results of hypothesis testing. First, this study calculates the market reaction to the SCSC announcement during the event period of [-1, 1]. Then, it tests the results against the hypotheses to further explore the factors that may affect market reaction. 5.1 Market reaction to SCSC\n6. Discussion and conclusion: 6.1 Discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study empirically examines the impact of announcements on supply chain strategic collaboration (SCSC) on companies' shareholder value.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study analyzes changes in shareholder value of companies listed in China based on data of 208 SCSC announcements. The signaling theory is applied to determine correlation among SCSC announcements and the market. An event study is used to estimate the stock market reaction to SCSC announcements. The common market model estimates stock abnormal returns after the event. The least squares method and regression model calculate the model parameter value.\nFindings: There is a positive and statistically significant relationship between SCSC announcement and shareholder value. Market reaction to product development collaboration is significantly higher than to technology-sharing collaboration, market collaboration, and other SCSC types. The market reacts more positively to suppliers and companies with greater supply chain control power than to buyers and companies with lower control power. Announcements from the service supply chain can lead to stronger market reactions than those from manufacturing supply chains.\nPractical implications: The findings provide a systematic assessment of how SCSC announcements contribute to firms' shareholder value. The result provides a benchmark of value promotion that can be expected from SCSC announcements.\nOriginality/value: This study fills the research gap that using secondary data to assess changes in companies' shareholder value caused by SCSC announcements and firstly examines these changes by constructing the signaler-signal-receiver progress based on signaling theory. The research results provide a new reference and inspiration for deeper understanding of the impact mechanism of SCSC. Furthermore, this study contributes to the development of the signaling theory using an empirical study in an emerging market, China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Crowdsourcing: A contemporary form of project management with linkages to open innovation and novel operations
|
[
"Project management",
"Operations management",
"Open innovation",
"Case study",
"Projectification",
"Crowdsourcing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Traditionally, a project is defined as a temporary pursuit to create or develop a unique product, service or result, or beyond this, may be an activity with start and end points along with defined goals and resources (Abdomerovic and Blakemore, 2002; Project Management Institute, 2017; Slack et al., 2010). Project management (PM) involves operational processes that enable the organising and managing of resources necessary to complete a project within defined constraints of scope, quality, time, and cost (Samset and Volden, 2016). These factors of cost, time and quality are also well-established, traditional measures of project success, known as the \"iron triangle\" (Atkinson, 1999).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 The link between crowdsourcing, PM and OM\n3. Methodology: As outlined in the literature review, given that the knowledge base around crowdsourcing and its potential links to PM is still in an early stage of development, the use of an exploratory case study methodology was considered appropriate. Our aim, therefore, was to enable the collection of specific and detailed information and to provide detailed and rich insights (Barratt et al., 2011; Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Yin, 1994).\n4. Findings: 4.1 Within-case analysis\n5. Discussion: This study lies at the intersection of PM, OM and open innovation. It suggests crowdsourcing as a novel form of open innovation. To the best of our knowledge, this study is among the first to show how crowdsourcing operations align closely with contemporary PM (Davies and Hobday, 2005; Jensen et al., 2016; Lundin, 2016; Maylor et al., 2006). The study also aligns crowdsourcing with emerging conceptions around \"non-standard\" work (Cappelli and Keller, 2013) and open innovation frameworks (Chesbrough, 2011). We structure the following discussion with direct reference to the research questions posed earlier.\n6. Conclusion: The use of crowdsourcing in this exploratory study highlights how firms can combine large productive crowds at critical points in the production process to achieve high efficiencies and lower costs. Crowdsourcing can be used to mitigate trade-offs among cost, high levels of collaborative focus, service/product-tailoring and speed-to-market. Crowdsourcing is responsive to the market. It represents a complex project environment encompassing open innovation, co-creation and fluid, flexible process elements. These elements tie in with increasing projectification and macro movements like project society. Crowdsourcing incorporates low (or no) costs for crowd work. It promotes flexibility through fostering fluid, multi-role and productive output. Such output is produced through an unusual and unprecedented value chain stakeholder represented by the crowd. The crowd comprises many thousands of members working in a single, efficient and highly client-responsive project process.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to link crowdsourcing, operations management (OM) and project management (PM). The study demonstrates how crowdsourcing as an open innovation mechanism is operationalised within a complex PM context. Specifically, the study seeks to understand how crowdsourcing as a novel form of OM improves key outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted exploratory research involving five pure-play crowdsourcing firms based in the USA and Australia.\nFindings: The findings indicate that the firms practise a form of crowdsourcing that allows flexible, efficient and low risk operations and links to contemporary notions of PM such as projectification and project society. The crowd can be used in a new manner to boost success factors tied to PM through open innovation and operational novelty. In terms of OM, crowdsourcing offers flexibility, speed, dynamism and scalability to project processes.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is based on five case studies. Further fine-grained, longitudinal research is required to fully understand this phenomenon in a wider range of contexts.\nPractical implications: The paper contributes to practices tied to open innovation and provides guidance on how organisations might use large crowds to enhance PM success.\nOriginality/value: The study represents early scholarship on crowdsourcing and project operations. It makes three contributions. First, the authors introduce a new theoretical framework linking PM and novel aspects of crowdsourcing to extend understandings of projectification, as well as open innovation frameworks. Second, the authors showcase the flexibility and fluidity of the crowdsourcing project process. Third, the authors examine crowdsourcing operations in terms of size, efficiency and scalability which results in timely and efficient output due to innovative technology, along with the element of trust among stakeholders.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Cigarette smoking among medical students in China and modifiable risk factors for smoking prevention
|
[
"Cigarettes",
"Smoking",
"Risk factors",
"Doctors",
"Medical students",
"China",
"Medical personnel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: China is the largest consumer of tobacco products in the world. Data from the most recent National Smoking Prevalence Survey in 2002 indicate that there are approximately 360 million smokers in China, greater than the total population in the US (US), with 57 percent of men and 3 percent of women smoking (Yang et al., 2005). One strategy to curb the high rates of tobacco use in China would be to focus on health professionals, particularly physicians. As professionals concerned with health promotion, physicians are uniquely positioned to assist smokers in their tobacco cessation efforts. Nonsmoking physicians can also serve as role models for other nonsmokers not to initiate smoking (Adriaanse and van Reek, 1989; Davis, 1993). As a special professional social group, physicians play a critical role in tobacco control decision-making at various levels from community to nation (Davis, 1988; Fowler, 1993; World Health Organization, 2009). However, survey data from different sources indicate that approximately 40-60 percent of male physicians and 1-10 percent of female physicians in China smoke (Buck et al. 2008; Jiang et al., 2007; Li et al., 1999, 2007; Smith et al., 2006; Yu et al., 2009). These rates are substantially higher than the rates generally observed among health professionals in industrialized countries (Hay, 1998; Hensrud and Sprafka, 1993; Hussain et al., 1993; Nelson et al., 1994; Ponniah and Bloomfield, 2008). These rates are also higher than those observed in other developing and transitional countries (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005).Given the high smoking rates among Chinese physicians and the nature of nicotine dependence, a potentially more effective tobacco control strategy would be to focus on preventing medical students from starting smoking. Medical students are physicians in training and they are the future physicians. Students in China enter medical school directly from high school. As with their college-age peers elsewhere in the world, Chinese medical students are developmentally in the transitional stage from adolescents to adults, a period of high risk for smoking initiation and progression (Chen et al., 2002, 2004, 2008).Smoking rates among medical students in many western countries are relatively low compared to the high rates among the general population (Ashton and Kamali, 1995; Mangus et al., 1998; Patkar et al., 2003; Richmond and Kehoe, 1997; Roche, 1997; Roche and Beauchamp, 1994; Sockrider et al., 1998). For example, the smoking rates were 2 to 3 percent among medical students in the US since the early 1990s and have remained at very low levels since then (Mangus et al., 1998; Patkar et al., 2003; Sockrider et al., 1998) while approximately 20-25 percent of the general US population smoked during the period (CDC, 2003; Mendez et al., 1998). By contrast, survey data in China indicate limited differences in tobacco use between medical students and the general population (Smith et al., 2005; Xiang et al., 1999; Zhu et al., 2004). For example, one study specifically focusing on medical students conducted more than a decade ago indicated that 38 percent of males and 5 percent of females were current smokers (Xiang et al., 1999). It remains unclear if smoking prevalence among medical students has been reduced since then.To prevent tobacco use among medical students, data are also needed regarding factors related to tobacco use. Findings from previous studies indicate that social influences, such as reported parental smoking and perceived peer smoking norms significantly predicted tobacco use among college students in China (Chen et al., 2004; Mao et al., 2009) and medical students in other countries (Brenner and Scharrer, 1996; Vlajinac et al., 1989). It is unclear whether and to what extent these factors may also have affected tobacco use among medical students in China.In addition to environmental influences, psychological factors, particularly depression, may play a role in tobacco smoking among medical students. Depression has frequently been identified as a risk factor for smoking among college students, including medical students, in several countries (Chaiton et al., 2009; Mancevska et al., 2008; McChargue et al., 2004). Compared to students studying other subjects, medical students are more likely to be depressed, possibly due to the rigors of the medical curriculum and the associated high study burdens (Alvi et al., 2010; Dyrbye et al., 2006; Mao et al., 2009; Rosal et al., 1997; Xiang et al., 1999). Meanwhile, negative associations between academic achievement and depression have been observed among Chinese medical students in Taiwan (Yeh et al., 2007). These findings suggest a potential relationship between academic performance and depression, extending to tobacco use among medical students in China. However, no reported study has examined this relationship among Chinese medical students.Taking part in physical exercise has long been recognized as a protective factor against depression (Hong et al., 2009; Taliaferro et al., 2009). Therefore, physical exercise may play a role in affecting the likelihood of tobacco smoking by its impact in alleviating depression. In addition to physical activities in general (such as running, swimming, playing basketball, volleyball, table tennis, etc.), participation in between-class exercise is popular among college students in China, including medical students. It is likely that compared to medical students who are physically less active, those who are more active would be less likely to suffer from depression, reducing the risk to smoke tobacco. However, no reported study has tested this path model among medical students in China.The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of cigarette smoking among medical students in China, and to assess several modifiable psychosocial and behavioral factors associated with smoking.\nMethods and materials: Participants and data collection\nResults: Sample characteristics\nDiscussion and conclusions: Reducing tobacco use among medical students or \"physicians in training\" may be of strategic significance for tobacco control in China where approximately 60 percent of men in the general population and a comparable number of health professionals smoke (Buck et al., 2008; Jiang et al., 2007; Li et al., 1999; Yang et al., 2005). In this study, we reported data on cigarette smoking and factors associated with smoking among a sample of 758 medical students.Findings of this study indicate that smoking rates among medical students remain at high levels, with 30-day smoking rates from first-year students to third-year students varying from 21-37 percent for males and 2-3 percent for females. These rates were comparable to the rates observed among Chinese medical students in the 1990s (38 percent for male and 5 percent for females) (Xiang et al., 1999). In addition to the overall high rates of smoking, increases in lifetime smoking across class years suggest the potential for students starting smoking after entering medical school. The smoking rates among Chinese medical students observed in this study are close to the rates reported among similar student samples in a number of other Asian countries in the early 1990s (Tessier et al., 1992). The smoking rates among male Chinese medical students are much higher than the rates among medical students in the industrialized countries during the late 1980s and early 1990s where only 12-25 percent smoked (Conard et al., 1988; Dekker et al., 1993; Maynard et al., 1986; Tessier et al., 1989). As we previously described in the introduction section, smoking rates are rather low among health professionals in countries with successful tobacco control. Given the sustained high smoking rates among the Chinese population in general, reducing tobacco use among medical students might offer a promising strategy for China to fight against the high rates of smoking among health professionals as well as the total population.The importance of reducing tobacco use among medical students has been widely recognized (Ma et al., 2007; Roche et al., 1996; World Health Organization, 2009). Findings of this study suggest the potential to reduce tobacco use among medical students by targeting key risk factors including influences from smoking peers, poor academic performance, and mental health in general and depression in particular. Having more smoking peers and performing relatively poorly in academic work were both associated with an increased risk of lifetime and current smoking after controlling for covariates. In addition, part of the association between academic performance and smoking was mediated through depression for males, suggesting the importance of assisting students experiencing difficulties in academic work. In addition to peer smoking norms, academic performance, mental health and depression, gender difference should also be considered in tobacco prevention.It is worth noting that in this study, we observed a direct and positive association between physical exercise and smoking in addition to an indirect negative association mediated through depression. This finding suggests that although taking part in exercise may only help students who suffer from depression to avoid cigarette use by alleviating their depressive symptom, for students who do not suffer from depression, physical exercise may increase the risk of smoking. Although negative associations between physical exercise and cigarette smoking are often observed in western countries (Jonsdottir and Jonsdottir, 2001; Steptoe et al., 1997); the positive association observed in this study was consistent with findings from studies conducted in other Asian countries (Chung et al., 2009). Further research is needed to dissect this relationship to better assess the utility of physical exercise in tobacco use prevention.There are several limitations to this study. Data reported in this study were collected from one medical school in China. Despite the fact that students came from 28 of China's 31 provinces, caution should be used when the results of this study are to be generalized to all medical students in China. Smoking behaviors were assessed using self-reported data. Misreport and underreport could not be ruled out without verification using biomarkers such as cotinine in the body fluid (e.g. blood, saliva or urine) or carbon monoxide in the exhaled air. Data used for this analysis are cross-sectional in nature, and no causal relationship can be drawn without longitudinal data.Despite the limitations described above, findings reported in this study updated the prevalence data of tobacco use among medical students in China. The high prevalence of tobacco use underscores the urgency of tobacco control measures targeting Chinese medical students. Such measures could also possibly serve as a strategy to curb the tobacco epidemic in China by reducing smoking among health professionals and further among the general population in the wider communities. Furthermore, study findings regarding risk factors and their relation in predicting smoking provide empirical evidence supporting tobacco prevention targeting Chinese medical students, including consultation to assist students to cope with study related stress and depression. In addition, expanding the curriculum for medical education to incorporate more tobacco-related subjects/materials should be a priority.\nAcknowledgement: This work was partially supported by funds from Hainan Medical College Department of Scientific Research and Wayne State University Pediatric Prevention Research Center. The authors thank those graduate students who assisted in data collection and data processing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - The reduction of tobacco use among medical students is a potentially powerful strategy to reduce tobacco use among future health professionals, who in turn, can have significant impact on tobacco use among patients as well as the general population in China. The goal of this study is to update information on the prevalence of cigarette smoking among Chinese medical students and to assess modifiable factors for smoking reduction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Presented in the paper are descriptive, associative and path model analyses of survey data collected among 758 medical students in year one through year three from Hainan Medical College, Hainan, China.\nFindings: - Among the total 758 participants, 66.9 percent of males and 26 percent of females smoked and 26.5 percent of males and 1.6 percent of females had smoked in the past 30 days. The median monthly expenditure on cigarettes was 30 Chinese Yuan (approximately US$4.25). The likelihood of smoking increased with male gender, more advanced year group, poor academic performance, perceived peer smoking, and depressive symptoms, after controlling for covariates.\nOriginality/value: - Findings reported in this study provide further insight into the smoking prevalence among medical students in China as well as adding to knowledge about several potentially modifiable factors that are related to smoking. Data collected in this study are likely to prove valuable in prioritizing tobacco control among Chinese medical students, as they are future medical doctors, and their smoking behaviors will have strong influence on their patients as well as the general public.\n",
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] |
Social and psychological determinants of value co-creation behavior for South Korean firms: A consumer-centric perspective
|
[
"Value co-creation",
"Social capital",
"Social identity",
"Self-monitoring",
"Corporate trust",
"Perceived corporate authenticity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The principle of social capital theory is that resources can be gained via social relationship networks between people (Coleman, 1988). Social capital is defined as a characteristic of social organization, which includes networks, norms and social trust, which enable cooperation and coordination for reciprocal benefit (Putnam, 1995). People cannot live in isolation from the social network relationships to which they are connected, and social capital may create common value between companies and customers or damage the relationship between them.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses: 2.1 Relationship between social capital and social identity\n3. Research methods: 3.1 Research model\n4. Results: 4.1 General characteristics of the sample respondents\n5. Discussions and conclusion: 5.1 Summary of the results\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In view of the increasing importance of creating values that require shared societal responsibilities to be borne by not just firms but customers as well, the purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate whether customers' social capital plays a role in creating shared values for South Korean firms directly or indirectly through social identity and corporate authenticity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To understand the effects of social capital on value co-creation, the authors conducted a face-to-face questionnaire survey with a selected group of 400 adult respondents aged more than 20 years. To verify precision in wording and sentence structure and the validity of questions in reflecting the study objective, the authors conducted a pretest on 40 respondents before administering the main survey. Ultimately, 50 questionnaires considered inappropriate and with inconsistent response patterns were discarded, leaving 350 questionnaires for the statistical analysis.\nFindings: This research adopts the consumer-centric as well as societal perspectives to conceptualize value co-creation behavior, and tests the moderating roles of psychometric measures of self-monitoring and corporate trust. Next, the research confirms whether social identity and perceived corporate authenticity mediate the relationship between social capital and value co-creation.\nOriginality/value: The study results shed new insights into the societal, psychological and normative aspects of value co-creation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Provider-perceived dimensions of total quality management in healthcare
|
[
"Health services",
"Total quality management",
"Hospitals",
"India"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the advent of liberalization and globalization, companies across the globe have been forced to improve the quality of the products and services they offer. A widely used technique of quality improvement is TQM. The present study is an attempt to identify and highlight the critical dimensions of health-care quality. Based on a thorough review of literature on the empirical, theoretical and practitioner studies on health care, the various dimensions of TQM in hospitals from the viewpoint of the provider of care, have been identified. The providers of care considered in this study include doctors, nurses, paramedical and support staff (administrative and clinical) across different levels in the hospital organization.Several studies have described quality in health care, while emphasizing the importance of implementing TQM in health care. Ovretveit (1997) explained quality in health services as fully meeting the needs of those who need the service most, at the lowest cost to the organization, within limits and directives set by higher authorities and purchasers. In a related study, Ovretveit (2000) emphasized the main lessons of introducing TQM in health care such as quality leadership, resistance and opposition, variety of experiences, involvement of doctors, special training for doctors, training facilitators, selecting strategically significant quality projects and managing them for results, measuring quality, covering all services, and invoking the soul and spirit of quality with emphasis on professional values.\nIdentification of critical dimensions of provider-perceived TQM in hospitals: Considering the relevance of TQM in health care, an instrument that identifies the operating elements of TQM in hospitals from the viewpoint of the health-care service providers is developed and validated in the present study. The following are the critical factors of provider-perceived TQM in hospitals that have been identified in this paper:1. Top management commitment and leadership (TM).2. Human resource management in the hospital (HR).* Selection (HRS).* Training (HRT).* Employee involvement (HRE).3. Process management (PM).* Ease of access to the hospital, and ease of admission processes and procedures (PME).* Administrative services (PMR).* Processes: administrative and clinical (PMA).* Exit (PMX).* Clinical outcomes of medical care (PMC).4. Hospital facilities and infrastructure (HF).5. Patient focus (PF).6. Employee focus (EF).7. Measurement of hospital performance (MH).8. Hospital information system (HIS).9. Errors, safety and risk management (EM).10. Service culture (SC).11. Continuous improvement (CI).12. Benchmarking (BM).13. Union influence (UI).14. Governance and social responsibility (GS).A detailed discussion on the dimensions of the provider's perception of TQM in hospitals is presented in the following section.Top management commitment and leadership\nEmpirical validation of the dimensions of provider-perceived TQM in hospitals: Methodology\nRelationships among the dimensions: In order to explore possible relationships among the proposed dimensions of provider-perceived quality in healthcare, bivariate correlations among the dimensions have been examined. Table III shows the bivariate correlations among the 14 dimensions of TQM in hospitals. All the correlations are positive and significant at the 0.01 level indicating a strong relationship among all the dimensions. This highlights the fact that TQM is a holistic philosophy and that all the dimensions of TQM are relevant in successfully implementing a TQM program in a hospital. This finding has been supported by many researchers through their findings (Sureshchander et al., 2001; Issac et al., 2003). TQM has been found to be an integrated approach with a lot of interdependence among its dimensions. This interdependence is reflected clearly in the bivariate correlation analysis done, and presented in Table III.It can be seen from Table III that TM is significantly highly correlated with HR, Process Management PM and CI. This finding highlights the importance of the role of the top management in managing human resources effectively in an organization. This is especially critical in a sector like health care, where the number of cases handled per day is very high, and also of a varied nature. This characteristic of the health-care sector makes it important for teamwork among the medical and support staff of a hospital. In order to create an atmosphere of teamwork and cooperation among the hospital employees, it is the responsibility of the top management to reward teamwork among clinical and non-clinical staff. This relationship between the top management and staff in a hospital is reflected in the high bivariate correlations between TM and HR (0.886). It also indicates that the top management has been successful in selection, recruitment of the right personnel for the right job; offers appropriate training for different medical and non-medical staff, and has been able to create an atmosphere of involvement among employees. TM is also significantly highly correlated with PM. PM, which is a crucial dimension in the evaluation of a service, has been the focus of several studies (Leer et al., 1995). Effective process management is critical to the functioning of any organization. A complex and multi-faceted environment like health care has numerous interdependent processes, which are both clinical and administrative in nature. These processes need to be managed effectively in order to deliver quality medical care to the patients. In this study, the correlation between TM and PM has found to be fairly high at 0.859, indicating that the top management has been effective in hospitals in being able to manage the hospital processes efficiently, and in a patient-friendly manner.However, in some hospitals surveyed in the present study, it has been noted that although most hospitals largely followed some system of process management, there were a few hospitals that are yet to organize and manage their processes for the benefit of the patient. For example, long queues were noted at the reception of a hospital, and most of the people standing in the queue were confused or unclear about what procedures to follow. Some of the patients stated that they did not know whom to approach for clearing their doubts or queries regarding a clinical procedure. There was an absence, in these hospitals, of a proper mechanism to deal with these problems. Often, the officer in charge of public relations was absent or unavailable to deal with the enquiries in the hospital. However, by and large, efficient process management procedures appear to be in place, thus explaining the high significant correlation between top management commitment and leadership and process management. Of special importance is the high correlation between TM and CI (0.823). This reflects the commitment of the top management towards continuously improving different processes in the hospital and various aspects of clinical care in the hospital.High correlations are also noted between HR and PM (0.878), HR and HIS (0.833) and HR and CI (0.812). Other high correlations are found between PM and HIS (0.854), PM and CI (0.817), PM and MH (0.823) and PM and PF (0.846). HF is highly correlated with PF (0.809); PF is highly correlated with MH (0.815) and with CI (0.832). MH and CI are highly correlated at 0.863, showing that the philosophy behind a hospital collecting measures of its performance is continuous improvement. The continuous improvement philosophy emphasizes the need to constantly change or improve existing organizational practices to enhance overall performance. The high correlation between MH and CI further reiterates this relationship. The other dimensions of provider perceived TQM are also significantly correlated. This shows that TQM is an integrated approach that incorporates various aspects of hospital functioning. This finding has been in line with the other studies mentioned earlier that highlight the interdependence of TQM practices in different organizations (Ahire et al., 1996). The present study underlines the high correlations between PF and PM (0.846), PF and CI (0.832), PF and MH (0.815), PF and CI (0.832) and PF and HF (0.809). This shows that the patient is the main focus in functioning of core areas such as process management, continuous improvement, measurement of hospital performance and hospital facilities and infrastructure. This is to be expected, and is an encouraging finding, since it reflects the patient-friendly attitude of hospitals covered as part of this study. All the bivariate correlations among the 14 dimensions are significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) (except for the one between UI and GS). It is rather unexpected that the correlation between UI and GS is not significant. This is possibly due to the reason that in government hospitals, unions are seen to be following the philosophy of societal responsibility in their functioning, and that in private hospitals, the unions do not seem to play a dominant role in hospital functioning, compared to their counterparts in the government sector.Influence of provider-perceived TQM on the performance of the hospital\nSummary: In the present study, a comprehensive literature review on the different concepts of Total Quality Management in hospitals has been carried out and the dimensions of TQM in hospitals have been identified. The questionnaire has been subjected to a pilot survey, and changes were made as appropriate. This refined questionnaire has been then administered to doctors, nurses, paramedical, administrative and support staff in government and private hospitals in India. Based on the responses to the questionnaire, the unidimensionality, reliability and validity of the questionnaire have been established. Bivariate correlation among the 14 dimensions showed that all 14 dimensions are significantly and positively correlated with each other, thus establishing TQM to be a holistic philosophy which incorporates all the 14 dimensions which have been included in the present study. The influence of provider perceived dimensions of quality in hospitals on hospital performance has been examined by using multiple regression analyses. This instrument can be used by hospital administrators and hospital management to assess the level of quality of different aspects of patient care in the hospital. This instrument could be used in any country, with appropriate modifications, in view of an expanding and increasingly competitive health-care sector in order to assess the various levels of quality of care delivered to the patients.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to highlight key dimensions of provider-perceived total quality management (TQM) in the healthcare sector in India. Further, the impact of the dimensions of provider perceived TQM on hospital performance is examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire has been developed based on an extensive literature review of research in service quality and based on responses of the pilot survey among medical professionals. The instrument thus developed has been examined for its psychometric properties using tests of reliability and validity. Multiple regression analysis has been used to examine the impact of the dimensions of provider-perceived TQM on hospital performance.\nFindings: - Findings highlight 14 distinct dimensions of provider-perceived TQM and the relationships among them. Positive and significant relationships among the dimensions and hospital performance have been found.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Contribution to research on healthcare quality by the development of a comprehensive instrument of provider-perceived healthcare quality.\nPractical implications: - This instrument would enable hospitals to examine the quality of care being delivered by them to the patients. Hospital administrators and medical professionals could use this feedback to assess hospital performance, and benchmark their performance against that of other competitive hospitals.\nOriginality/value: - Comprehensive instrument of provider-perceived healthcare quality\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A qualitative investigation of Foundation Year 2 doctors' views on the European Working Time Directive
|
[
"Working hours",
"Doctors",
"Interviews",
"Change management",
"Workforce planning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The European Working Time Directive (EWTD) came into force for consultants and other grade careers doctors in October 1998 as part of the Working Time Regulations (Office of Public Sector Information, 2008). However, it was not until August 2004 that the Directive was applied to doctors-in-training. The EWTD is part of health and safety legislation, largely designed to prevent excessive working hours and improve the conditions of hospital-based medical doctors (Bamford and Bamford, 2008). Specifically, the EWTD has imposed a staged reduction in junior doctors' average working hours from 58 hours in August 2004; an interim 56 hours in August 2006; to 48 hours in August 2009. The Directive also stipulates a number of minimum rest requirements based on the SiMAP (2000) and Jaeger (2002) judgements in the European Court of Justice. These requirements include a minimum of 11 hours continuous rest in every 24-hour period. Given that health care provision is a 24 hour service, the Directive has had a major impact on the practice of UK-based medicine.\nUK implementation of the EWTD: Individual employers are responsible for ensuring doctors-in-training are compliant with Directive requirements and monitoring exercises are conducted at National Health Service (NHS) trust level at least biannually. Monitoring exercises are conducted for a minimum of two weeks during which time data is collected from all grades of doctors and other non-training grade medical staff. A minimum return rate for monitoring exercises is 75 per cent of doctors participating in the monitoring return rate, and 75 per cent of all monitored duty periods to be documented. Locum doctors-in-training are included as are trainees in flexible training posts. Monitoring systems record a range of information including contracted duty hours; actual hours of work, total and continuous rest periods, gaps between shifts, natural breaks and leave and cover arrangements (British Medical Association, 2004). Where compliance problems are identified, or where a minimum return rate has not been achieved, further monitoring exercises are conducted. In addition, hours monitoring must be conducted when new rotas have been introduced. In these circumstances, the monitoring exercise must occur within six weeks of the introduction of the new rota (Department of Health, 2002).\nEWTD and the junior doctor: Concerns with reductions of junior doctors' hours have been reported in the literature (Moonesinghe et al., 2011), including the impact on continuity of care (Lowenstein, 2003) and reduction of training opportunities (Cass et al., 2003; Fernandez and Williams, 2009). Furthermore, research has identified specific concerns regarding the impact of the EWTD on junior doctors' opportunities for clinical experience, training, continuity of care and job satisfaction (Mather and Pounder, 2005; Shah et al., 2004). A survey by the Royal College of Surgeons has indicated that the observed changes to working hours have had major negative effects on the working life, free time and education of junior doctors (Lowry and Cripps, 2005). Additionally, evidence also indicates that under the EWTD junior doctors have to spend an increasing proportion of their working time \"handing over\" work to incoming staff which has reduced time available to provide direct patient care (Cairns et al., 2008), increased administrative duties and had an adverse impact on training. Given the demands EWTD 2009 has presented, the literature has indicated the importance of maximising time spent at work, particularly in terms of training.\nMethods: Participant recruitment\nResults: The following section broadly examines participants' views regarding the EWTD, before exploring the ways in which the Directive has impacted working schedules. Finally, the section assesses the perceived utility of different working schedules, examines quality of working life and psychosocial working conditions.\nDiscussion: Principal findings\nConclusion: The EWTD presents many challenges for the medical profession as NHS Trusts and UK Postgraduate Deaneries endeavour to comply with its requirements. We would encourage the use of the research findings to inform future rota design and workforce reconfiguration. Specific recommendations from this study are threefold. First, we would encourage day-shift work through better management of administrative duties to provide a greater emphasis on hands-on skills experience in a supportive, supervised environment so as to consolidate doctors' theoretical knowledge. This could be done through the increased use of clinical assistants, for example. Second, where possible, junior doctors might benefit from the opportunity to engage in out-of-hours working. Such opportunities might arise with multi-professional \"Hospital at Night\" teams. Although we would endorse the opportunity for junior doctors' to engage in out-of-hours working, we recognise that this might not be possible. Accordingly, given the limits of junior doctors training under a 48-hour working week, it is imperative that doctors are given the opportunity to engage in clinical decision making in an autonomous, yet supported manner. This, as the findings have suggested, is what doctors value and perceive as important. Finally, we would encourage junior doctor involvement in rota design and planning which may increase their perceived autonomy and therefore buy-in of working practices.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the personal views and experiences of Foundation Year 2 doctors operating under the European Working Time Directive (EWTD).\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 36 Foundation Year 2 doctors from a single UK-based Deanery participated in this semistructured interview study.\nFindings: Findings indicated that Foundation doctors typically welcomed a regulation of working hours, but reported frustration at the manner in which the Directive had been implemented. Participants reported concerns at reducing hours by removing out-of-hours working in order to meet EWTD requirements. Out-of-hours shifts were highly valued owing to their increased opportunities for autonomous clinical decision making. By contrast, day-shifts were regarded as heavily administrative in nature and were perceived as service provision. Foundation doctors discussed the unique nature of the out-of-hours working period which appeared to provide specific learning opportunities as doctors draw on time management and prioritisation skills.\nOriginality/value: Given the challenges the EWTD presents, careful rota planning is essential. First, the authors would encourage the restructuring of day-shift work to provide a greater emphasis on hands-on skills experience in a supportive, supervised environment. Second, where possible, Foundation doctors might benefit from the opportunity to engage in some out-of-hours working, such as with multi-professional \"Hospital at Night\" teams. Third, the authors would encourage junior doctor involvement in rota design and planning which may increase their perceived autonomy and therefore buy-in of working practices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Bibliometric analysis of "Internet-plus"
|
[
"Data visualization",
"Bibliometric analysis",
"Bibliometric methods",
"Internet technologies",
"Internet-plus",
"Research hotspots"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The term \"Internet-plus\" (or \"Internet +\") was coined by Yang Yu, the Chairman and CEO of the company Industry Consultancy Analysis International, in November 2012. The literal meaning of \"Internet-plus\" is Internet + any traditional industry, but it is not a simple combination of the internet and a traditional industry. It refers to the integration of the Internet and traditional industries through online platforms and information technology. Yu (2015) believed that the internet is the next-generation social infrastructure, which will profoundly change all the traditional industrials. With the technologies like cloud computing, big data, mobile internet and Internet of Things, internet-plus intelligently connects people, process, data and things, and creates more opportunities for business, of whatever size (Wang et al., 2016). As a result, Internet-plus will enhance the competitiveness, productivity and creativity of traditional industries and push the economy forward through innovation and economic structure transformation (Meng and Lai, 2016). Beyond the impact on the economy, Internet-plus has changed the existing hierarchical social structure to peer networks in China as everybody and everything is connected to the internet, which increases the visibility and accessibility of individuals and products.\n2. Status quo of internet-plus: Early 2011, German Government, together with industrial and scientific organizations, launched the strategic initiative, Industry 4.0. Later the same year, the concept Industry 4.0 was adopted by German Government as part of the High-Tech Strategy 2020 Action Plan to accelerate the digital transformation of industry, which in turn will ensure the competitiveness of Germany as a manufacturing base (Bartodziej, 2016).\n3. Methodology: Primarily, this study was conducted in five steps:\n4. Data analysis: 4.1 Time distribution analysis\n5. Conclusions: Based on bibliographic records retrieved from the databases, Web of ScienceTM Core Collection, Inspec and Compendex (Ei Village 2), this study investigated the most recent research on Internet-plus using bibliometric techniques.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the current research on Internet-plus.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors collected scholarly publications from the scientific databases Web of Science, Core Collection, Inspec and Compendex (Ei Village 2) and performed statistical analysis of the retrieved data from five perspectives.\nFindings: The research on Internet-plus has obtained increasing attention in China. The top three research fields were social science, education and management.\nOriginality/value: The study will help researchers understand the current trends on Internet-plus.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Succession in the family business: drivers and pathways
|
[
"Social capital",
"Entrepreneurship",
"Succession",
"Family firms",
"Familial stewardship",
"Succession pathways model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One of the most critical processes in the family business is the succession process (Brockhaus, 2004). Succession is defined as those actions and events that lead to the transition of leadership from one family member to another (Sharma et al., 2001). The initial statistics (Beckhard and Dyer, 1983; Ward, 1987) suggest \"only about 30% of family businesses survive into the second generation, 10-15% are still viable into the third generation, and only about 3% operate into the fourth generation or beyond.\" Unfortunately, those statistics have not changed Family-firm-institute (nd). This alarming rate of failure compels researchers in the field to delve deeper into the process of succession, searching for insight.\n2. The context of the study: This study was conducted in Lebanon, a small Middle Eastern country almost half the size of Maryland. It is characterized by its remarkable diversity; it is a cultural mosaic of people with various religious, educational, and socio-economic backgrounds (Stel, 2013). As in any Middle Eastern nation, tradition plays a very important role in the lives of the Lebanese. Values of piety, family, accountability, and community are central drivers of behavior. Yet, in the same country, values of competitiveness, personal interest, and egoism are equally prevalent. The Lebanese economy is highly characterized by entrepreneurial activity led by the private sector where 98 percent of firms are SMEs (Mezher et al., 2008). Family firms make up 85 percent of the private sector (Fahed-Sreih et al., 2010), rendering the Lebanese business environment a suitable context for this study.\n3. Methodology: 3.1. The method\n4. Results: The study yielded 12 cases spanning 11 different industries, and ranging in size from 8 to 1,200 employees. The successors' generations ranged between the second (n=8) and the third (n=4), and they were mostly men (n=10) with only three women. One large company had two managing successor cousins, man, and woman of the third generation. The mean age of the successors in this study was 41.5 years, and 11 out of 12 had a college education, five of whom were MBAs. In five of the 12 cases, the author interviewed the founder and successor, while in the rest, the author met with the successor and one of the siblings (founder was either deceased or otherwise unavailable). Refer to Table I for the general characteristics of the firms in the sample.\n5. Discussion: Distelberg and Sorenson (2009) underscored the value of social capital resources in the family business, stating that access to these resources was the primary component keeping the family business system (FBS) together (p. 75). The current study confirms the influence of social capital on succession, one of the most sensitive family business processes. More importantly, it makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of this process by introducing the concept of \"familial stewardship,\" a cognitive construct of social capital which has been shown in this study to play a deciding role in the choice of successor. This study also depicts the occupational behavior of the siblings after the succession decision by introducing the SPM as a tool that can be used by the incumbent, or other decision makers in the family business, to foresee potential tracks of entrepreneurship in the future of the family firm, and thereby plan accordingly. These two contributions are discussed in more detail below.\n6. Conclusion and implications: This study investigated the issue of family business succession, an issue that remains problematic for many family firms. The study first examined the factors that may influence the successor-selection decision under the social capital lens; and second, explored the influence of that decision on the siblings' occupational behavior. The qualitative approach was used and multiple cases studies were conducted using the interview technique. Findings of the study confirmed the influence of all three dimensions of social capital on the succession decision, underscoring the influence of the cognitive construct \"familial stewardship\" as a deciding factor underpinned by size and formalization as contextual variables. \"My son knows his responsibilities toward the family, a priority in any decision making done at the firm,\" (wood factory). The study also produced the SPM which depicts the entrepreneurial behavior undertaken by siblings after succession. The SPM shows a set of occupational paths that siblings may embark on in response to the succession decision, thereby identifying distinct entrepreneurship engagements triggered by that decision. \"My brother has chosen to start a small business in a neighboring country on his own [...] it's his baby project, apart from the family business,\" (food processor).\n7. Limitations: This study has shed some light on the drivers and pathways of the succession process. Nevertheless, this study has its limitations. First, though the sample was selected from different geographic regions, sectors, sizes, and religious orientations, they were all Lebanese and operating mostly in Lebanon. Therefore, the results of this study should be approached with caution. In order to obtain generalizable results, it is recommended that a more diverse sample be selected, which includes family businesses from other Middle Eastern nations to help ensure the transferability of the results, a criterion that improves their validity (Morse et al., 2002).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The succession process represents one of the most critical events in the family business lifecycle. The purpose of this paper is to explore this process while focussing first on the drivers behind the choice of successor and, second, on the impact of this choice on the entrepreneurial behavior of the siblings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The qualitative approach was used in which multiple case analyses were performed. A total of 12 cases were purposively selected from the Lebanese private sector, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the successors and the founders when available. The interview data were transcribed and a coding scheme was created to generate relevant categories. Those categories were named and later re-assessed by an external researcher to ensure inter-rater reliability.\nFindings: The three dimensions of social capital were found to have a profound influence on the succession decision with much focus on familial stewardship as an emerging cognitive driving force. When \"familial stewardship\" is shared by incumbent and sibling, it strengthens the latter's chances of being chosen as successor. Further, a succession pathways model was introduced that depicts the siblings' behavior following the succession decision which seems to often trigger further entrepreneurship.\nOriginality/value: This study is distinct as it introduces a new cognitive construct that helps rationalize the successor-selection decision in a Middle Eastern context. It also goes beyond the succession event to depict potential entrepreneurial behavior triggered by succession.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Patents and corporate value creation: theoretical approach
|
[
"Patents",
"Intellectual property",
"Value added"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent studies on intellectual capital have encouraged companies to regard intellectual capital as an asset. A number of studies have analysed intellectual capital through the prism of different dimensions (Kaplan and Norton, 1992, 2004; Hudson, 1993; Edvinsson and Malone, 1997; Sveiby, 1997; Stewart, 1997; Roos et al., 1998; Sullivan, 1998; Teece, 2000). Such studies highlighted the ability of intellectual capital to create value for a company, and also considered the value drivers (Namasivayam and Denizci, 2006; Marr et al., 2004). These studies have created a solid background that can be used to take research on intellectual capital further, namely to examine the value created by different elements of intellectual capital.One of the elements of intellectual capital - intellectual property rights (IPRs) - has become extremely important over the last years. Davis (2004) argues that there are four main reasons why the role of IPRs has changed. First of all, this is due to the fact that intangible assets are now more often recognised as sources of competitive advantage. Other reasons for IPRs becoming more important include:* the globalisation of business activities;* advances in digital technologies in terms of easier replicability, and transferability; and* changes in the IPR regulatory framework.IPRs are a vast and complex field; the focus of this paper is on one specific type - patents. Andersen et al. (2000) argue that although the protection of symbolic material and creative expression has increased the scope for copyrights and trademarks in the new economy, the patent system protecting products and process inventions is still of primary importance, and is even increasing in application for most service and manufacturing sectors in the new economy.The primary aim of this article is to show the importance of intellectual capital, in particular patents, for corporate value creation and to investigate where this value resides. In doing so, a contribution of approaches is used within evolutionary and institutional economics, entrepreneurship, strategic management and theories of the firm, and these are applied to value creation from patents. The other goal is to demonstrate that the value created by patents is present in four value dimensions (i.e. market and non-market; individual and systems and structures).The paper starts by investigating what affects the patent value and where this value resides. This is followed by application of the intellectual capital typology (Andersen and Striukova, 2004) to develop a taxonomy of the value created from patents. Finally the limitations of patent use for value creation are discussed.\n2. Value generation: taxonomy: 2.1 Value creation from patents\n3. Limitations of patent use for value creation: To be competitive, companies must extract maximum value from their patents, as they would from any tangible asset. From the above taxonomy (Figure 1) one can see that there are many ways in which patents can create value for companies.Patent governance is of paramount importance to entities that want to lead in their industries, and it is an effort that ranges from creating an inventory of assets to developing defined metrics for measuring returns on R&D. Governing patents effectively involves a range of skills that help to execute a strategy to meet a company's goals. However, in order to create value from patents, the intellectual property strategy should be linked to the core capabilities of the company (Smith and Hansen, 2002) and be entangled in a web of resources in action (Mouritsen and Koleva, 2005).Moreover, as patents make a firm's capabilities explicit and tangible, patenting can, in many circumstances, actually reduce the ability of firms to sustain a competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). There is strong evidence that competitors \"invent around\" patents or copy these innovations in other ways. Levin et al. (1987) found in a survey of R&D managers from a variety of businesses, that, for the majority of these managers, patents were the least important means of securing competitive advantages for new processes. Mansfield (1986) studied firms in 12 industries and concluded that only 14 per cent of their innovations would not have been developed without patent protection. Mansfield (1981) also found that 60 per cent of all patents issued in the USA each year are imitated within four years of being issued, without violating the legal patent rights of innovators. They also estimated that the cost of imitating another firm's patents was only 65 per cent of the cost of the original innovation.The increasing importance and number of patents is leading inevitably to more and more intellectual property disputes between rights holders and alleged infringers. The number of patent suits filed keeps rising. Leading patent infringement insurers estimate that 2-5 per cent of patents are being infringed, yet only a very small fraction of them are ever enforced, due to competing priorities and lack of licensing expertise. Furthermore, a surprisingly large number of issued patents are terminated for failure to pay the required maintenance fees.The patent value decreases if the patent holder is not capable of enforcing it, in other words when the patent holder is not able to observe or identify the infringement and/or does not have enough resources to take the infringer to court. The value of the patent depends on the quality of a company's legal department, both when applying for a patent and when enforcing it (Crampes and Langinier, 2002). Crampes and Langinier also argue that even if the infringer is identified, the patent holder will suffer losses regardless of the outcome. If the patent holder chooses to go to court it will result in the trial expenses, and settlement can be costly and can involve market sharing. Finally if the patent holder does nothing, it will reduce the market power of the patent.\n4. Conclusion and avenues for future research: The recent interest of companies in value creation from intellectual capital has resulted in a number of studies discussing the value embedded in its elements, including patents. The previous research on patent value has been isolated and narrow - examining only one or a few patent values. Moreover, these studies have mainly been focused on market values. Here, on the other hand, a broader framework has been developed (based upon market and non-market relationships, and upon patent value embedded in individual entities or in systems and structures), to classify the value embedded in patents and to investigate how this value is realised.The framework outlined in this article is based on previous studies of patent value. It illustrates what value companies already create and what value they might create through their patents, it also shows the location of such value, allowing companies to manage their patents strategically.The theoretical framework calls for empirical research that will draw a comparison between the views of academics and practitioners. Future research should also consider at how patent value changes when patents are used in combination with other resources or used in different cooperative agreements (licensing, patent pools).Overall, this paper is of essential importance for patent managers, industrialists, and policy makers, as it provides deep insight into the possibilities and problems that underpin how value from patents can be created and extracted.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of the paper is to provide a taxonomy of values created by corporate patents.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Following an extensive literature review, value created by corporate patents is analysed according to four categories: embedded in individuals; embedded in systems and structures; market; and non-market. This paper demonstrates that the value created by a company can reside in any of these four dimensions.\nFindings: - One of the main findings is that value created by corporate patents can be both market and non-market and can be embedded both in individuals and in systems and structures. Organisations can apply this framework to assess their needs and abilities with regard to value creation from patents.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research sets the background for an empirical study which can be conducted to confirm the theory.\nPractical implications: - The paper is a useful resource for patent managers and policy-makers, as it provides them with a tool to analyse value embedded in patents and guidelines how to develop this value further.\nOriginality/value: - The analysis presented here differs from the traditional evaluation of patents through patent statistics and it offers a theoretical framework which can be used by companies for the analysis of their patent portfolio. This paper provides insight into the possibilities and problems that underpin value creation from patents and shows what type of value can be created and how this value can be extracted.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The silent practice: sustainable self-managing teams in a Norwegian context
|
[
"Teamwork",
"Institutional theory",
"Industrial democracy",
"Sedimentation",
"Self-managing teamwork"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The self-managing team aims to transcend the detailed technical division of labour. Self-managing teams are usually discussed in debates on high performance work systems (Appelbaum and Batt, 1993), team organisation (Mueller et al., 2000) or socio-technical systems (Emery and Thorsrud, 1976; Van Eijnatten, 1993). According to a standard definition, self-managing teams are \"responsible for a complete product or service, or a major part of a production process. They control members' task behaviour and make decisions about task assignment and work methods\" (Cummings and Worley, 2005, p. 341).\nSelf-managing teams, sustainability and institutional theory: In order to explain why teamwork has been sustained over time, we need to define self-managing teams within our historical background - developed in the context of socio-technical theory (Cherns, 1976; Cummings, 1978; Trist and Bamforth, 1951), carrying out field experiments during the 1960s (Emery and Thorsrud, 1976). Socio-technical design was seen as a means for increasing industrial productivity and quality of work life, but also a means by which to enable industrial democracy (Qvale, 1976). The Scandinavian tradition was strongly ideological, and grounded in an attempt to advance participatory democracy through \"broad participation\" (Toulmin and Gustavsen, 1996).\nMethodology: This empirical study follows a case study design. This particular case was chosen because it is unique: the company under study has utilized self-managing teams for a period of 30 years. In line with Starbuck (1993) indicated, we suggest that the extraordinary nature of this case will contribute to important perspectives on, and a unique understanding of, the nature of teamwork.\nCase study: 20 years with self-management: The company produces parts for the global automotive industry, has about 800 employees, and has a strong participative tradition going back to 1947, when employee representatives were introduced on the board. Around 1980, a change from piecework wages to fixed salaries was an ongoing discussion in the collective bargaining process. The management was reluctant to implement fixed salaries, fearing that productivity might decrease. As a compromise, the union co-operated with the managers to introduce a \"productivity office,\" using time and motion studies and other tools to rationalize production, and received a national price for co-operation between employers and employees in productivity improvement.\nDiscussion: Our research question aims to address explanations for why self-managed teams become sustainable. According to earlier research (Van Hootegem et al., 2004), teams with a high level of responsibility and who have progressed to complete team developmental phases (Tuckman and Jensen, 1977) will create sustainability. In our case, the level of responsibility is certainly high. When it comes to the team development phases, time was invested in the initial phases to clarify mutual expectations, and define roles and procedures for co-operation, which are important aspects of the team development model (Tuckman and Jensen, 1977). Through applying the team maturity model, presumptions for sustainable teams were present. However, this model cannot explain why teamwork continued. In order to understand the less rational aspects, institutional theory is applied.\nConclusion: Our research question aimed to address social mechanisms that contribute to maintaining and legitimating self-managing teams. One part of the answer to the question relates to a long period of intensive teamwork (phase four), which gives teams the possibility of creating a maturity level in their process relations. To understand why teams survive after that period, we need to consider concepts within institutional theory. The initial legitimating process in our case was connected to Volvo as a main customer, and isomorphic pressure. Later, the level of sedimentation was strong, and many symbols were \"infused with meaning\" through the \"good-old team days,\" especially the TPM-stairs, the SHE-QLE as a sorting agenda in meetings, and the level of responsibility. The legitimating process is not widely available, and the practice serves as a type of hypocrisy (Brunsson, 1989) in relation to the official business system, and thus is not discussed, and rather is referred to as a \"silent practice\".\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose is to provide explanations for why some self-managing teams survive and develop over a long period of time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design is longitudinal, having worked with several research projects over a period of 20 years. Interviews, observation, field notes have been widely used, and also participative methods while one of the authors has worked on the shop floor for six weeks.\nFindings: The authors offer several explanations: the maturity of teams; the process of institutionalization and creation of strong normative values; practices being \"infused with meaning\" and decoupling of practice from official policy.\nResearch limitations/implications: The weakness is that the research presented is from one company, and within a Norwegian context which has certain characteristics. The contribution is the emphasis on institutional elements and the methodological implications regarding informal practice where explicit information is incomplete.\nPractical implications: By offering an explanation for why self-managing teams can survive, one can also prescribe some important learning. Mutual cooperation and high level of autonomy prove to be important.\nOriginality/value: The main contribution is the authors' access to unique empirical data, and that they show and explain the social mechanisms for institutionalization of teamwork through participative observation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Intellectual capital of South Africa: a comparison with Poland and Romania
|
[
"South Africa",
"Poland",
"Emerging markets",
"Economic development",
"Intellectual capital",
"Romania"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 2016, reports on South Africa were dismal. Real GDP growth declined from 1.5 percent in 2014 to 1.3 percent in 2015 and was estimated to decline further to 0.7 percent in 2016 (Kumo et al., 2016). Unemployment remained high at 25.3 percent, with unemployment among youth at 52.5 percent in 2015. The legacies of apartheid, poor service delivery and widespread poverty characterized sociopolitical discourse throughout 2015 (Kumo et al., 2016).\nIntellectual capital: As mentioned earlier, Table I shows that South Africa, despite its larger population, larger territory and higher tangible investments in health care and education than Poland and Romania, lagged behind the other two countries in performance. Thus, this study attempts to examine South Africa from the perspective of intangible intellectual capital to look into the values as well as the weak points of South Africa.\nNIC of the three countries: This section covers data and methods, the NIC profile of the three countries, correlations of HC, MC, PC, RC with GDP per capita (ppp), and qualitative findings.\nSuggestions and implications: Suggestions\nConclusion: South Africa is the entry point to the African continent. Despite policy uncertainty, it is a destination conducive to foreign investment and offers ample opportunities from which to gain access to the rest of the continent (US Department of State, 2015). It can also significantly assist in bringing about development in the region (Kayuni and Tambulasi, 2012).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to uncover the national intellectual capital (NIC) of South Africa by making comparisons with Poland and Romania.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on a database of an NIC measurement model spanning 2001-2015, this study plotted the development trend of the NIC and its component capitals - human, market, process and renewal capitals. Their correlations with GDP per capita (ppp) (GDP hereinafter) were also presented.\nFindings: The NIC of South Africa is lower than that of both Poland and Romania. Except for the increase of its human capital together with its GDP, the other capitals have lower relevance. Poland experienced highly correlated growth for its NIC and GDP, shedding light for South Africa. The qualitative findings are also reported.\nResearch limitations/implications: The IMD database carries South African data only for the African continent. Therefore, this paper cannot cover other countries from the continent.\nPractical implications: There are three implications from both the quantitative and qualitative analyses: initiate national transformation from the two core issues of education and health; invite and provide attractive incentives for South African returnees from abroad and members of local private sectors to take part in the national transformation efforts; and learn from the NIC development pattern of Poland and Romania by investing in market capital and process capital as soon as possible for faster results.\nSocial implications: The research findings of this paper unveil the root of the social problems in South Africa, including education, health, high unemployment and so on. Suggestions are provided for mid-term and long-term potential solutions.\nOriginality/value: This paper demonstrates the value of an NIC in the economically successful Poland whose growth and GDP growth occurred at a similar pace.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Antecedents and consequences of private brand purchase: A systematic review and a conceptual framework
|
[
"Brand management",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Marketing",
"Private label brands",
"Purchasing",
"Retailing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Last five decades have witnessed the emergence of private label brands (PLBs) as competitors for established national brands and are associated to \"best images\" in the minds of consumers. Initial reports, in 1960s, covered path-breaking studies on consumer attitude and perception by eminent authors such as Myers (1967), Rao (1969), Rothe and Lamont (1973), Bellizzi et al. (1981) and Cunningham et al. (1982). These early works began a trail that was followed by many esteemed researchers in 1990s (Richardson et al., 1994; Raju et al., 1995; Dick et al., 1995; Dhar and Hoch, 1996; Baltas, 1997; Narasimhan and Wilcox, 1998), who contributed to PLBs and their works are still considered as benchmark studies and invaluable to retailers.\n2. Methodology: This study adopted a systematic review approach to ensure reliable, efficient, and accurate assessment of the relevant literature (Cook, 1997) and to consolidate voluminous data extracted from a wide range of studies to a manageable compilation.\n3. Description of literature: For this study, 92 peer-reviewed journal articles dealing with PLB purchase were selected. The retrieved data were organised under two sub-headings: Publication Activity and Literature Overview.\n4. Findings: The findings from the systematic analysis of relevant literature are presented under two sub-headings: Section I which gives details about the research designs followed in the empirical studies (research method(s), respondent type, data collection method, statistical techniques and type of product categories and Section II which elaborates antecedents and consequences of private brand purchase with a conceptual framework.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: A contingency approach is used to uncover the underlying reasons for store brand proneness. Primary purpose of this paper was to assess PLB purchase with a holistic approach, a construct reflecting relationship between purchase decision and real-time purchase, emphasising the system as primary unit of analysis. We have merged and extended research to create a theoretical background to explain why and how the purchase decision occurs and to identify broad constructs representing antecedents, consequences, and moderators of PLB purchase. We provide specific construct domains from which scholars and retail managers can gain a comprehensive understanding of current trends and knowledge in the area of PLBs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review existing literature related to private label brands (PLBs) and to identify the antecedents and consequences involved in the private brand purchase.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study used a systematic review approach and identified 92 significant published articles between 1960 and 2016 for evaluation using SCOPUS database exclusively in the field of marketing. The journals that have published articles on purchase intention of PLBs are taken into consideration.\nFindings: The authors provide a holistic framework on the purchasing behaviour of PLBs. The antecedents that emerged out of the most frequently studied factors are grouped as determinants of store brand proneness. The factors of consequences were categorised into loyalty factors along with the moderating variables as product category and retailer related attributes. These findings will serve as a twofold guide to retailers, i.e., help them gain an understanding of the target consumer group characteristics and design strategies to enhance the purchase of private label products.\nResearch limitations/implications: This investigation considers only published research papers bearing the title of PLBs purchase.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first attempt of its kind of systematically reviewing the antecedents and consequences of PLB consumers. Both relevant published research and emerging research issues in the field of consumer research have been identified with a view to foster future research needs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Unilever's sound outsourcing strategy: HRD key issues for companies large or small
|
[
"Outsourcing",
"Value analysis",
"Quality",
"Human resource development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Different organizations have different criteria for considering whether to outsource parts of their HRD function, with cost, competence and capacity usually being the three major elements that provide the impetus. One of the most regularly cited reasons is cost reduction. There is a perception that financial savings are likely to be made because vendors - who supply a similar training program to many different customers - could offer benefits through economies of scale.\nFour-stage \"good practice\" approach to a key decision: A further business case for outsourcing HRD is in response to a risk assessment of demand uncertainty. If a company relies on an internal HRD function, it will bear the consequences associated with increasing or reducing the workforce as demand fluctuates. Outsourcing enables organizations to respond more rapidly to changing market forces.The key issues that need to be considered when trying to make an outsourced training strategy successful in any business relate to making the right decision about what to outsource, engaging the right providers and then putting measures in place to build and maintain a strong, trusting and effective relationship. The approach comprises:* Prioritize. Decide what should be outsourced, ensuring that areas of strength and core competencies are kept in-house.* Select. Determine clear criteria for selection when choosing providers, and pay special attention to the match between values and philosophies.* Trust. Build trust through communication, clarity and commitment on both sides of the relationship.* Monitor. Ensure evaluation measures are in place to monitor the success of the outsourced function.These principles were tested on the UK business of Unilever, an international manufacturer of foods, home-care and personal-care products.\nPriority given to marketing and selling its brands: Prioritize\nCloser integration would lead to greater commitment and trust: Although much of Unilever's outsourcing strategy seems to be sound, there are still some points that need to be considered to ensure its success. One relates to how the company assesses the benefits of training. Thought should be given to maximizing the efficacy of the training activities delivered by Accenture staff.Core-competency training has been retained within the internal function, reducing the requirement for the vendor to create an in-depth understanding of the business, and of its core values and infrastructure. However, closer integration into the business would increase the relevance of all learning and development activities. Moreover, with an increased investment of resources to enable knowledge transfer by both parties, the partnership would gain from greater commitment and increasing levels of trust.According to a further, as yet untested, framework:* When the training needs are highly specific or complex, but there is low sensitivity to the organizational assets, the solution will be found in tailor-made outsourcing.* If the training needs are simple or generic, and the value of the organizational assets is low, it is wise to purchase off-the-shelf training programs.* When there is greater sensitivity to the organization's value-base and assets, but there are relatively simple training needs, it seems that a blended approach to insourcing and outsourcing should be adopted.* However, if the training needs are complex and specific, and if there is a great risk to both the organization's assets and value base, the training should be retained in-house.\nComment: This review is based on \"A model for outsourcing HRD\", by David Simmonds and Rebecca Gibson. Advice for organizations wishing to outsource HRD is offered both in the form of an innovative model and case studies of Unilever's UK operation and Colliers CRE, a UK commercial-property consultancy.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to focus on the potential advantages and pitfalls of HRD outsourcing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Examines the strategy adopted in the UK business of Unilever, an international manufacturer of foods, home-care and personal-care products, in outsourcing elements of HRD to Accenture.\nFindings: - Argues that, although much of Unilever's outsourcing strategy seems to be sound, there are still some points for consideration to ensure its success. One relates to how the company assesses the benefits of training. Thought should be given to maximizing the efficacy of the training activities delivered by Accenture staff.\nPractical implications: - Emphasizes that approaches to outsourcing vary between organizations, largely because their motivations for outsourcing differ.\nOriginality/value: - Reveals in general that better quality, rather than cost savings, is the most frequent benefit cited from outsourcing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Substitute or complementary: Relationship between U.S. farmers' adoption of organic farming and direct marketing
|
[
"Adoption",
"Organic farming",
"Food policy",
"Direct marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The markets for organic food and local food[1] have been experiencing substantial growth over recent years in the US The total organic sale has reached a record level of $49.4bn as of 2017, a 6.4 percent increase from the previous year (Organic Trade Association, 2016). A similar trend can be identified for the total sale of food marketed through direct marketing channels, which is $8.7bn in 2015 (USDA/NASS, 2016). The rise of organic and local food is also reflected in US farmers' increasing adoption of organic farming and direct marketing. Between 2015 and 2016, the number of total certified organic farms increased by 10 percent to 14,217, and the number of certified acres increased by 15 percent to 5m (USDA/NASS, 2017). As for direct marketing, over 167,000 farms are reported to adopt some forms of direct marketing[2] (USDA/NASS, 2016).\nLiterature review: Organic farming and direct marketing have drawn substantial research interests in recent years due to the increasing demand for organic or local food, and a large number of studies try to explore the rise of organic and local food from a wide range of perspectives. Consumer studies are generally interested in examing consumers' attitudes toward and preference for organic food or local food. While from the farmers' perspective, the literature tries to understand farmers' motivation to adopt organic farming or direct marketing, and what factors affect the adoption decisions. Since this paper is aimed at examining farmer's joint adoption decisions of the two practices, we review studies on farmers' adoption of organic farming or direct marketing, respectively, based on which, we further introduce our research question and outline our hypotheses.\nData: The main data source is from the 2012 ARMS, conducted jointly by USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Agricultural Statistics Services (NASS). With a multiphase, multi-frame, and stratified survey design, the ARMS provides detailed information regarding the financial conditions, production practices, marketing practices, farm characteristics and operator characteristics of farm businesses in the 48 US contiguous states on a yearly basis. We supplement the ARMS with data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture. The census data contain information about the agricultural and rural economy on the county level, and the variables we use are the county-level numbers of farms adopting organic farming and direct marketing, and the number of farmers' market in a county.\nModel: We model US farmers' adoption of either practice as binary choices, and we ignore the adoption intensity because most farmers only adopt organic farming or direct marketing for a small part of their farming business. Since we also expect that the two adoption decisions to affect each other and we are interested in jointly modeling the two decisions, a simultaneous bivariate binary choice model serves our purpose. The general form of the model can be specified as:(1)\nResults and discussion: The estimation results of organic farming and direct marketing adoption equations are shown in Table III, and the estimation result of the gross farm income equation is shown in Table IV. The models generally perform well. We first discuss the relationship between farmers' adoption of organic farming and direct marketing, and then we continue to discuss the effects of other explanatory variables on each adoption decision. Lastly, we examine the effects of either practice on farm income.\nConclusion: Organic farming and direct marketing are becoming increasingly popular in the US due to consumer's growing demand for organic food and local food and also due to government policies and programs promoting the two practices since they are considered to be important rural development strategies. This study examines the relationship between farmers' adoption of organic farming and direct marketing practices and evaluates their effects on gross farm income. The main finding is that other things being equal, farm's adoption of organic farming reduces the likelihood of adopting direct marketing while the direct marketing adoption does not have a significant effect on organic adoption. Also, organic farming adoption is found to increase gross farm income while no significant effect can be found for direct marketing adoption.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between US farmers' adoption of organic farming and direct marketing, both of which are increasingly important practices in the US agricultural and food sector. In addition, the effects of the two practices on farm income are evaluated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research uses the Agricultural and Resource Management Survey from the US Department of Agriculture. Farmers' adoption of the two practices is modeled with a simultaneous linear probability model, which accounts for the possible linkage between the adoption of the two practices in farmers' decision-making process. Farm income is modeled with a linear regression model, accounting for the possible endogeneity of the adoption of the two practices.\nFindings: The main finding is that farmers' adoption of organic farming decreases their probability of adopting direct marketing, whereas the reverse effect is insignificant. In addition, organic farming helps to improve gross farm income, whereas the effect of direct marketing is insignificant.\nPractical implications: These results facilitate better coordination among numerous government programs aimed at promoting organic farming or direct marketing in the US.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends previous literature by specifically accounting for the possible linkage between farmers' adoption of organic farming and direct marketing, and demonstrates that farmers do not make the decision to adopt one particular practice in isolation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Regular medical checkup behaviour: preventing is better than curing
|
[
"Ethnography",
"Barriers",
"Triggers",
"Consumer segmentation",
"Consumer intention",
"Medical checkup"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A well-known proverb claims that \"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure\". However, in the context of consumer health care behaviours, this proverb goes basically unheeded. Changes in consumer behaviour for the practice of a healthy lifestyle are still limited to changes in diet and increased exercise.\n2. Literature review: This study refers to the Health Belief Model (HBM) to gain an understanding of why some people do not use health services such as MCU. The HBM is still very helpful and is commonly used in studies related to public health (Sutton, 2002).\n3. Methods: This study applied multi-methodology research and a mix of qualitative and quantitative data methods in a research study or set of related studies (Creswell, 2013). It is a combination of ethnography and a questionnaire survey. The use of quantitative and qualitative methods together and in complementary ways has long been established (Creswell, 2013). As described by Denzin and Jick, the objective of this multi-method approach is triangulation, where several types of data are used in a single study and used to cross-check and compare results, enabling any weaknesses in one method to be offset by the strengths of another.\n4. Findings and analysis: The qualitative study via ethnography in this research provided interesting findings. While previous MCU behaviour studies still use geo- and socio-demographic variables as predictors, this study functioned differently. The underlying reasons why people do or do not obtain regular MCU could not be explained by those geo- and socio-demographic factors (e.g. education, income level, gender, and age) because these variables still portray heterogeneous needs. The variables should be viewed based on homogeneous needs, such as occasion or situationally based behaviour segmentation.\n5. Conclusions, implications, and further research: A public health issue that needs to be highlighted is the difficulty of getting people to take medical check-ups regularly. This study was conducted to reveal the underlying reasons as to why a regular MCU is actually not considered as a basic necessity and as something urgent. In general, research related to the triggers and barriers of MCU consumer behaviour tends to be associated with consumer demographics such as age, gender, socio-economic status, and occupation (Table I). This study finds that the differentiating variables of MCU needs are not derived from those demographics variables. Important aspects that cause consumers to behave differently towards regular MCUs are the health status and the perception of the consumers to view the importance of MCUs itself.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that drive or impede the intention of Indonesian consumers to perform regular medical checkup (MCU).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study begins with an ethnographic study to ascertain the determinant factors that motivate or hinder an individual from performing regular MCU. The study involved stakeholders in various health services providers, including patients and medical professionals. The quantitative part of this study focuses on \"preventive\" segment of consumers. A survey was conducted covering 303 respondents, consisting of two sub-segments of people labelled \"healthy lifestyle\" and \"unhealthy lifestyle\".\nFindings: Consumer behaviour with regards to needs for MCU must be categorised not based on demographics, but their health status - preventive or curative. The \"preventive\" group was found to have differences in triggers and barriers between the healthy vs unhealthy lifestyle subgroups. For the \"healthy lifestyle\" subgroup, the determining factors for a regular MCU are the perceived benefit of action, social deviance, and cost perception. For the \"unhealthy lifestyle\" subgroup, the determining factors for a regular MCU are the social deviance, disease heritage, belief in traditional medicine, no urgency and cost perception.\nResearch limitations/implications: The qualitative study part indicated the differences between two segments: preventive vs curative. The quantitative study part is only conducted in the preventive segment and not covering the curative segment. It would be interesting to see the differences between these two segments.\nPractical implications: Implication of study: to create contextual marketing communication in each stakeholders/segments - to reach the marketing objectives. Different segment has different issues to handle and need a different marketing communication programme.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies have focused on analysing the differences in groups based on their demographics, which does not illustrate a homogenous need for an MCU. This study contributes by addressing that researchers must differentiate between \"preventive\" and \"curative\" groups. Additionally, the study of triggers and barriers has interestingly found that the determinant factors for healthy and unhealthy lifestyle are not the same.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
CRM and retail service quality: front-line employee perspectives
|
[
"Grounded theory",
"Customer relationship management",
"Retail service",
"Relationship marketing",
"Organizational silos",
"Organizational change",
"Customer service management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over 30 years ago, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman described the characteristics of outstanding US companies in their landmark book, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies (Peters and Waterman, 1982). The author's ideas of \"being close to the customer,\" and achieving \"productivity through people,\" struck a chord in US boardrooms with many companies recognizing service as a key area for creating competitive advantage. Today it is still commonplace to hear executives lament the urgent need for customer-centric strategies, customer-driven marketing, and a better way to manage the relationships formed between companies and the customers they serve (Gulati, 2010).Over the past decade or so, the idea of managing customer relationships through service has become a top priority for marketers worldwide. While companies aspire to deliver positive service that will lead to good relationships with their customers, many firms struggle to effectively design, develop, and implement effective customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and programs (Bolton et al., 2007; Boulding et al., 2005). As such, management's good intentions may be over-shadowed by the complexity and multidimensional nature of CRM - particularly as it relates to the customer and front-line employee dyad.One cause of CRM failure, as uncovered in this research, is the unintended consequences of management's reaction to growth. Even when driven by good intentions, the impacts of growth may cause management to put up \"walls\" to control the service interface for the purpose of standardizing operating policies, procedures, and protocols. Such walls (or silos) force implementation through people and systems as a means to control, normalize, or standardize the service/product offering and resultant customer experience. This reactive and inwardly focused construction of silos often serves company rather than customer needs and can result in deteriorating service levels based on the type of customer-company interaction occurring.This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence that contrary to how most customer service processes are designed by management, not all customer-company interactions are alike. Interactions vary in the degree of knowledge needed by front-line employees to fully serve customers, and the routine or non-routine nature of the interaction. A two-by-two matrix is presented to highlight interaction differences and the implications of silos occurring for various interaction types.\nBrief synopsis of key literature: While it appears that the definition of CRM is evolving and may be considered from multiple perspectives (Payne and Frow, 2005), for the purposes of this study, we view CRM as the guiding corporate strategy for enhancing customer-company relationships. To add clarity, we adopt the definition provided by Parvatiyar and Sheth (2001):Customer relationship management is a comprehensive strategy and process of acquiring, retaining, and partnering with selective customers to create superior value for the company and the customer. It involves the integration of marketing, sales, customer service, and the supply-chain functions of the organization to achieve greater efficiencies and effectiveness in delivering customer value (p. 5).At the core of CRM is the relationship between the firm and customer. This relationship, by definition, exists for a reason and requires reciprocal exchange and benefits to all participants. As a process phenomenon, the relationship will evolve and change over time because of the interactions occurring between participants (Czepiel, 1990; Hinde, 1979). It is these interactions between company and customer where value is created and delivered over time as the relationship with the customer develops (Gronroos, 1997).Considering the importance of front-line employees who are interacting with customers, it is interesting to note that front-line employees are under-researched as a group in the customer-company interaction phenomenon. Of particular interest are the perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes of front-line employees regarding customer-company interactions. Literature often refers to these perceptions as the \"employee orientation,\" or more specifically, a management perspective that considers employees as partners in the effort to achieve company success (Plakoyiannaki et al., 2008).Although there is a vast cache of literature exploring the service interface from the customer perspective, studies exploring the front-line employee as the main character are less prolific. Moreover, since front-line employees are often more closely connected to customers than management or external parties such as vendors or consultants, interactions with customers (and resultant experiences and relationships) are highly dependent on the actions of front-line employees (Beatty et al., 1996; Bitner et al., 1994; Bowers et al., 1990; Goff et al., 1997; Gremler and Gwinner, 2008; Guenzi and Pelloni, 2004; Mittal and Lassar, 1996). The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes and beliefs of front-line employees regarding how customer-company interactions might be improved.\nMethod: Because exiting literature and theory did not adequately explain the phenomenon at hand, the overarching goal of the study was to develop new theory, with hope that the project would open new areas of research inquiry. Because grounded theory is a research method designed to allow focus on context, process, intentions, and interpretations of key players (Locke, 2001; O'Reilly et al., 2012), it seemed the most useful and appropriate methodology for the study. Using a qualitative grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss, 1967); our data collection included a variety of sources including open-ended reciprocal interviews, member-checking interviews, observation, and collection of participant and researcher artifacts.Considering that the research purpose was to explore the perceptions of front-line employees regarding how customer-company interactions might be improved, the initial concentration site was selected because employees utilize various sales channels for customer-company interactions such as in-store, in-home, via the phone, or via the internet. One-half of the in-depth interviewees in this study originated from the concentration site, with a total of 18 participants recruited for formal in-depth interviews. As means of an overview, Table I presents the in-depth interview participant pseudonyms, years of experience, company description, location, and interview mode used.Concurrent with the formal interview process, dozens of retail locations were observed over the course of six months with latter collection focused on the grocery sector and specialty retailers such as gift stores, cellular service providers, and spas. As the iterative nature of theoretical sampling and constant comparison naturally led to data saturation (Glaser, 2001), data collection was focused on retail venues that were centered on the sales of services rather than hard goods as a means of comparability to test the outer bounds of the emergent theory. Combined, the data collected via in-depth interviews and observation covered 12 US states (primarily in the West) as shown in Table II.Issues of trustworthiness\nFindings: Strategically constructed silos\nImplications for theory: Dissecting strategically constructed silos across interaction types\nConcluding remarks: Even if motivated by good intentions, the impacts of growth cause management to construct silos to control the service interface, which is often reactive and inwardly focused on company rather than customer needs. These intended service structures within organizations negatively affect customer-company interactions when implemented in suboptimal conditions such as interactions requiring general knowledge. A key take-away from this research is that contrary to how most customer service processes are designed by management, not all customer-company interactions are alike. As shown, interaction types vary both in regard to the degree of knowledge needed by front-line employees to fully serve customers, and the routine or non-routine nature of the interaction. This is an important finding since it directly relates to whether the existence of a silo is appropriate (or optimal) for a specific interaction or task. Additionally, the findings suggest the role that a task's \"routine-ness\" plays is secondary to the degree of specialized knowledge needed by front-line employees to meet customer expectations.For instance, with development confined within specific silos, knowledge is disseminated deeply but lacks the scope and power to improve the experience for customers across units, departments, or interactions and results in a few specialized knowledge experts confined to the silo. If we consider the customer-company interaction that occurs through service silos, the customer will typically interact with the silo specialist to resolve issues or due to the need for specialized knowledge. By forcing the customer to a service or knowledge silo, the organization may ultimately be facilitating a relationship between the service specialist and customer rather than between the company and customer.The theory of strategically constructed silos and its power is reflected in the ubiquitous use of the term silo in business settings, and the easy transferability of the concept across time, industries, and specific locations. \"Without a unified view of the customer, marketing, sales, and service/support departments will all be working in the dark, chasing goals that don't fulfil the organization's broader ones\" (Lager, 2005, p. 52). The challenge for management is to thoughtfully, and with strategic intent, create value for all parties in the value chain by understanding the various interaction types and how each may be affected by silos. This identification is crucial for designing customer experiences that will sustain over time. The importance of diagnosing customer-company interaction types correctly and subsequently developing strategies to support these interactions is critical for achieving a customer-focused organization.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes and beliefs of front-line employees regarding how customer-company interactions might be improved. Since front-line employees are closely connected to customers, the resultant experiences and relationships with customers are highly dependent on their actions. However, little is written from the perspective of front-line employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a qualitative approach and employing an adaptation of the grounded theory method, this study uses front-line employee participants with data collection occurring over a six-month period. A variety of data sources were used including open-ended reciprocal interviews, member-checking interviews, observation, and collection of participant and researcher artifacts.\nFindings: - Findings suggest that organizational changes initiated by management create strategically constructed silos that force implementation through people and systems to control and standardize the service interface and resultant customer experience(s). This reactive and inwardly focused construction of silos often serves company rather than customer needs and can result in deteriorating service levels based on the type of customer-company interaction occurring.\nOriginality/value: - Contrary to how most customer service processes are designed by management, not all customer-company interactions are alike and vary both in regard to the degree of knowledge needed by front-line employees to fully serve customers, and the routine or non-routine nature of the interaction. A two-by-two matrix is presented to highlight the impacts of silos occurring for various interaction types.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Older workers' representation and age-based stereotype threats in the workplace
|
[
"Older workers’ representation",
"Negative age-based metastereotypes",
"Age-based stereotype threats",
"Age diversity beliefs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, the relative weight of older people in the labor force has been rising in most European countries, and more older people are now available to work (European Commission, 2014; Schroder et al., 2014). Besides, some governments are providing incentives (e.g. tax exemptions) to increase the older workers' labor force participation rate given that the early retirement scheme is no longer sustainable (Eurofound, 2013). The aging of the workforce is putting age under the spotlight as it becomes a more salient social category for self-categorizing and for sub-grouping. Guillaume et al. (2014) draw attention to the likelihood of increasing ethnocentric and discriminatory behaviors as social groups compete for scarce resources. Hence, growing social tensions between older and younger workers cannot be discarded.\nTheoretical background and research hypotheses: Diversity is best described as the existence and distribution of differences between members of a social unit with respect to a common attribute (Harrison and Klein, 2007). Accordingly, age diversity can be defined as the heterogeneity of a group or organization with respect to its members' age (Williams and O'Reilly, 1998).\nMethod: Participants and procedure\nResults: Analytical procedures\nDiscussion: This study aims to extend the scholarship on the minority representation effects on stereotype threat, in particular regarding older workers' age threats in the manufacturing industry. The findings indicate that representation is indeed a potential source of age-based stereotype threat, but only when the threat targets the ingroup reputation (group-reputation threat). Representation does not increase older workers' concerns about self-worth and own-reputation. Possible explanations for this finding may be that older workers do not believe that their performance on the job is publicly linked to their personal skills; or, that older workers may believe that co-workers are not able to identify them as older workers. In other words, whenever job behaviors cannot be linked to older workers personally, older workers' self-esteem and own-reputation are not under threat. Another possible explanation for this finding is that stigmatized workers may not believe that their co-workers think the negative stereotypes of themselves are true. This belief reduces vulnerability to the own-reputation threat by protecting one's ego and self-esteem from the knowledge of threatening forces from his external world, and by reducing the anxieties created by such threats (Katz, 1960). However, while ego-defensive mechanisms help workers to protect their self-image, they do not eliminate stereotype threat. To cope with own-reputation threats, it would perhaps be best for older workers to engage in ego-expressive attitudes (Katz, 1960) like self-affirmation (Shapiro et al., 2013), to the extent that these attitudes assert one's identity. It can thus be suggested that representation is a situational cue that exacerbates only specific forms of stereotype threat in the workplace. Hence, this study seems to confirm early calls by Shapiro and Neuberg (2007) for a multi-threat framework, as representation seems not to have the same triggering effect on the different types of threat. It appears that the underrepresentation only increases older workers' vulnerability to the group-reputation threat. Given that previous research demonstrates differential risk for stereotype threat types between and within different negatively stereotyped groups (Shapiro, 2011), and that age emerges as a stigmatizing characteristic, age is not a dimension of stigma up to a certain point in one's life cycle (Shapiro, 2011), it is likely that the age-based stereotype threat experience has distinctive characteristics. To the extent that negative age stereotypes about older workers are particularly strong in industries such as technology/computing or the financial sector (Posthuma and Campion, 2009), it is likely that underrepresentation might cue more sharply age stereotypes and publicly link them to the stigmatized group in those industries. Thus, older workers are likely to become more vulnerable to group-reputation threats. Moreover, ingroup identification levels may play a role in this regard, with highly identified older workers being more vulnerable to group-reputation threats.\nConclusion: This paper contributes to the literature by showing the importance of negative age-based metastereotypes in workplace age dynamics. It also provides further support for a multi-threat approach to the experience of age-based stereotype threats in the workplace, to the extent that the representation of older workers is negatively related to group-reputation threat, but not to own-reputation threat. There is, therefore, a definite need for managers to take a closer look at the process of social identity management in the workplace in order to improve diversity interventions' effectiveness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which negative age-based metastereotypes mediate the relationship between the representation of older workers and two forms of stereotype threat in the workplace: own-reputation and group-reputation. Adopting a social identity perspective, this paper also explores whether age diversity beliefs moderate the relationship between negative age-based metastereotypes and stereotype threats.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional design was adopted with bootstrapped mediation and moderation analyses. The data were collected from 567 older workers working in 15 manufacturing companies.\nFindings: The analyses provide support for partial mediation and for a moderation effect of age diversity beliefs in the relationship between negative age-based metastereotypes and own-reputation threat. The results hold while controlling for age, objective organizational age diversity, and organizational tenure.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitations of this study include its cross-sectional nature and the need for further work regarding older workers' metastereotypes about middle-aged workers.\nPractical implications: For stereotype threat interventions to be effective they must identify beforehand the target and the source of the threat. Moreover, interventions should aim for the development of a sense of identity on the organization as it may pave the way for members of different age groups to build bonds and for intergenerational boundaries to be blurred.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the literature by showing the importance of negative age-based metastereotypes in workplace age dynamics. It also provides further support for a multi-threat approach to the experience of age-based stereotype threats in the workplace.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Leadership and governance in higher education 2025: can Malaysian universities meet the challenge?
|
[
"Scenarios",
"Higher education",
"Governance",
"University",
"Causal layered analysis",
"Futures triangle"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Can Malaysian university structure transform by 2025 such that a new model of governance emerges where universities unite in a consortium, thus leading to considerable cost savings and ease of mobility for students and professors?\n1. Introduction: These and other questions posed above were debated at Akademi Kepimpinan Pengajian Tinggi (AKEPT) (Higher Education Leadership Academy, the Ministry of Higher Education) from March 24-28, 2014, by over 50 lecturers, professors, deputy deans and deans. Senior lecturers and professors deliberated for the first three days and the deans for the last two. Their futures-oriented discussions were framed by the \"six pillars\" futures approach (Inayatullah, 2008; Inayatullah, 2013). After their debates, the professors presented their findings to over 30 deans from ten different public and private universities. The core of their recommendation consisted of a move from the current fragmented university governance structure to a streamlined consortium model by 2025. Instead of the factory, a collection of linked longhouses or \"rumah panjang\" was offered as a way forward. This new model would have two immediate benefits: considerable cost savings and enhanced mobility for students and professors. Third, over the long run, by consolidating expertise, Malaysia could present a unified and highly competitive educational face to the rest of the world.\n2. Overall recommendations of the professors to the deans and the Ministry of Education: First, the Ministry needs to create a new governance structure: a consortium of universities, a University of Malaysia, if you will - a transformed \"rumah panjang\". This model would reduce administrative and documentation tasks and optimize current talent and resources. Academics would be free to focus on research, teaching and community engagement. The first step in doing this would be to develop smart partnerships amongst consortium members. Of course, there were weights that would make this future difficult, including political interference, a divisive key performance-indicator system and lack of sharing among universities. But with a consortium as a goal, savings and talent optimization would certainly win over the weights, argued the professors.\n3. Overall recommendations of the deans to the Ministry of Education: First, establish a peer-to-peer cooperative economy, with a focus on creating a new not-for-profit publishing community in digital and physical spaces. As traditional publishers disappear and digital publishing becomes dominant, there is space to create social entrepreneurship. This needs to be a priority for the Ministry, that is, to support and experiment in creating new peer-to-peer platforms and publications. This means, instead of receiving knowledge, the goal is to create and produce knowledge. And peer-to-peer economies develop best through co-production and through deep engagement - the goal is the path.\n3. Conclusion: The meta-lesson for the futures of higher education was clear-cut. The current trajectory is financially, socially and intellectually unsustainable. Professors and deans all imagined an alternative future for education. To create a more flexible system - from the factory to the education mall, for example a new model of governance is required - the consortium - and equally significantly leadership must be incentivized and nurtured. And, universities need to become more and more autonomous with less and less political interference. Knowledge knows no boundaries. The ideal purpose of the state is to encourage innovative knowledge creation, moving academics from knowledge-siloed receivers to peer to peer iconic knowledge co-creators. Professors and deans at this meeting argued that for higher education to be sustainable and transformative, Malaysia must move toward this new model of education.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this report is to present the findings of a five-day course for AKEPT - the Malaysian Leadership Academy in the Ministry of Higher Education. The course was held from March 24-28th, 2014, for over 50 lecturers, professors, deputy deans and deans from Malaysian universities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Senior lecturers and professors deliberated for the first three days on the futures of higher education in Malaysia. They presented their scenarios and recommendations to the deans. The deans used these findings to articulate their own preferred futures in the last two days. The future-oriented discussions were framed by the \"six pillars\" futures approach (Inayatullah, 2008; Inayatullah, 2015; Inayatullah and Milojevic, 2015).\nFindings: The core of their recommendation consisted of a move by 2025 from the current fragmented university governance structure to a streamlined consortium model. Instead of the factory, a collection of linked longhouses or \"rumah panjang\" was offered as a way forward. This new model would have two immediate benefits: considerable cost savings and enhanced mobility for students and professors.\nResearch limitations/implications: This case study presents scenarios and strategies. Limitations include the willingness of the Ministry to act on these recommendations. However, as this course was part of a number of foresight processes in Malaysia, even if these particular recommendations do not realize, they are steps in creating an ecology of foresight and of possible university transformation.\nPractical implications: This study links causal layered analysis, scenarios and visions to recommendations in the context of a multi-year foresight process.\nSocial implications: The study includes valuable discussions by leading Malaysian thinkers and administrators on the futures of the university.\nOriginality/value: This was one of the few workshop-oriented interventions used the anticipatory action learning \"six pillars framework\". It is especially valuable as it is the third year of futures intervention in higher education. The study contrasts with traditional expert-based forecasting in Asia.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Analyzing the causes of delay in development projects by fuzzy analysis
|
[
"FMEA",
"Delay",
"FRPN",
"Fuzzy analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Every year a large part of the credit and financial resources of the country is spent on large-scale infrastructure projects. The most important indicator of success of the project, in addition to achieving the desired objectives and its cost effectiveness, is to complete it in the anticipated time. Conspicuous differences between prediction and reality may arise in many areas in the course of the realization of engineering structures: from site investigations and analysis to scheduling and cost planning (Fetz et al., 1999). Delay in development projects is an undeniable factor which is due to its complexity; studies show that most development projects in the world are faced with 50 per cent delay. Although the construction industry in Middle East has suffered ever since the Gulf War, recent events in the region coupled with restricting economies, joining regional and global free trade organizations, and attracting foreign investments are expected to yield an unprecedented growth in the construction activities (Odeh and Battineh, 2002).\nMaterials and methods: One of the most significant challenges in construction modeling is incorporating subjectively expressed information, which is common in many construction industry applications that involve subjective assessments (Elbarkouky et al., 2014).\nResults: The second step is to determine the likelihood of the factor of delays and the effect on the project delay for each one of delays. In this step the detected delays FM (1, ..., n) are set based on a questionnaire according to the research model and the FMEA approach based on two risk factors, causes of delay and impact on project's delay which presented to experts in development projects.\nDiscussion: Data analysis revealed that the problems could be grouped under five major factors: incompetent designers/contractors, poor estimation and change management, social and technological issues, site-related issues, and improper techniques and tools (Long et al., 2004). According to the study of the causes of delay in development projects (medical buildings) at this stage, it has been attempted to present strategies to eliminate the most important factors of development projects. The summary of the proposed solutions is as follows:\nConclusion: This study investigated the causes of delays and overruns in a construction project and proposed solutions; the 15 most important causes of delays were found to be changes in the work scope, poor monitoring and control and high inflation and interest rates. These results were confirmed by the results of an analysis of FEMA and FRPN methods.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the causes of delay in development projects and present strategies to reduce the delay.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The discussion includes the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) method for converting survey data, fuzzy risk priority number (FRPN) for prioritizing the delay factors, and the proposed solutions to reduce the delay of projects.\nFindings: The research provided prioritized delay factors to show the importance of each delay factor in the projects by analyzing the survey data. Results show that lack of proper contract price to win the tender has the most impact on the delay of development project between delay factors.\nOriginality/value: This study offered some guidelines for people who are involved with contracts and development projects, so that they can use these suggestions to prevent possible factors that may cause delay in projects. This paper also demonstrated a process of analyzing the data which was provided by FMEA and FRPN methods.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Positioning fast moving luxury goods in a discount environment: How cue effects explain South African whisky prices
|
[
"Marketing",
"Marketing strategy",
"Packaging",
"Regression",
"Analytical economic model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Though whisky is largely regarded as a luxury good (see the McKinsey and Company, 1991, report confirming Scotch as one of the world-wide fourteen luxury product sectors), within South Africa at least, the product is typically sold in big volume discount stores. This awkward luxury-product-to-discount-store juxtaposition presents certain problems not least of which is how best to competitively promote this premium product without degrading its value in the process. This notwithstanding, to date, promotional activity around whisky appears ill considered, typically presenting to the customer an amalgam of extrinsic cues without any apparent thought to prioritising those that correlate most closely with price. The logic of what does and does not constitute value and value-for-money is consequently lost: a concern that rests as equally with the predominantly Scottish-based producers of whisky, as with the retailers and promoters of their product.\n2. Context and literature review: 2.1 Context\n3. Research objectives: The preceding review prompts the following set of hypotheses:\n4. Description of variables: 4.1 Price\n5. Methodology: The OLS regression methodology is used to model the spread of whisky prices (price) for the whiskies i = 1 [...] n as a function of K (EC\n6. Results: 6.1 Preliminary analysis\n7. Managerial implications, limitations and future research direction: This work extends our understanding of how whisky attribute-cues explain their underpinning prices, a form of analysis that could also be extended to other aged high alcoholic content drinks such as rum and bourbon (Page, 2013). At an aggregate level, this whisky model explains which factors most significantly operate in an EDLP retail environment. This environment has challenges, not least of which is maintaining the architecture of an aspirational good within a heavily discounted context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to understand how a fast moving luxury good like whisky is typically positioned within South Africa's discounted retail environment and how this positioning could be improved. So doing this paper introduces an econometric valuation model to establish the relative efficacy of contending extrinsic cues in the explanation of whisky prices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An ordinary least squares regression model is developed from a data set of 122 whiskies drawn from the 2014 festive-season catalogues of two large South African discount retailers. In estimating the whisky pricing function, the hedonic contribution of the following input variables is estimated: age in respect of blended whiskies and single premium malts, in-store supply, claims of retail exclusivity, branding, country-of-origin and packaging formats.\nFindings: Age effects as they relate to single malts, and mass produced grain whiskies offer the greatest explanation of price, while scarcity effects are observed, along with claims of retail exclusivity which are found to reduce product value significantly. Country-of-origin and packaging however have low to negligible effects.\nOriginality/value: To producers and marketers of whisky, these findings offer insight as to which extrinsic factors could be better amplified, modified or excised if the product is to be optimally positioned. Implications are explored.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Sites of translation in digital reporting
|
[
"Translation",
"Corporate reporting",
"Digital reporting",
"L compatibility",
"Machine language",
"Taxonomies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper highlights the importance of the translation process required to convert paper-based corporate reports into digital corporate reports. We use seminal work in the philosophy of linguistic communication (Austin, 1961; Bach and Harnish, 1979; Cooren, 2000; Searle, 1989) to reveal the impact of digital translation on accounting standards and reporting. We show that the \"translation\" of corporate reporting information into digital data for online accessibility and automated processing is a \"manipulative activity\" (Bassnett and Trivedi, 1999, p. 2) that spans technological boundaries and epistemic cultures (Knorr Cetina, 1999). In doing so, we provide evidence that counters the assertion that digital reporting is simply a different media and that the translation process is a \"mechanical\" one in which the message remains the same (Hoogervorst, 2012).\n2. Digital reporting - translation and structured data: Companies have been providing annual reports electronically using different approaches for almost as long as the internet, or more particularly, the World Wide Web has been available. The most common format adopted is Portable Document Format (PDF) (Beattie and Pratt, 2003; Xiao et al., 2002). The popularity of PDF derives from the confidence it provides that the recipient receives the corporate report just as it was intended by the preparer. The same content is on the same pages of the document and formatting, layout and colours are preserved. The widespread use of PDF is a testament to the value placed on its reliable replication of the characteristics of a paper document. Although the information is transmitted by machine translation to zeroes and ones (the \"digits\" in digital), it does so in a way that preserves the analogue characteristics of a paper document (ICAEW, 2004).\n3. A model of L compatibility: The purpose of translation is to enable concepts developed in a source language to be communicated to speakers in a target language. To theorise our analysis of the translation of traditional, analogue reports into a digital language, we use the theory of locution, widely applied in the philosophy of language (Bach and Harnish, 1979; Cooren, 2000; Searle and Vanderveken, 1985).\n4. Methodology: The study is based on an interpretive analysis of the experience of participants and the researchers as observers, in the project to enable the translation of corporate reports into digital data. The interviews are focussed on the IFRS Foundation's digital technology project. In the period from 2012 to 2015, we interviewed 31[1] participants including those involved with the creation of the taxonomy, standard setters, professional body experts and preparers of digital reports[2] (see Table I). The table identifies the interviewees in broad categories to protect their identities in line with the confidentiality agreement. Because the number of people actively involved in the project is small, they may be identifiable. To support the reader's understanding of the perspective of the interviewee in direct quotes, a general description of their role is provided.\n5. Tools for digital report generation: 5.1 Introduction\n6. Digital reporting as a site of translation: 6.1 Introduction\n7. Discussion: The overarching proposition in the framework presented in Figure 5 is that the \"locution\", the account intended by the speaker, is translated out of a simple electronic form of text (say PDF) into \"digital\" data by the speaker/preparer for communication to the receiver/user. A computer processor (software or application) is required to access and re-materialise the \"pixelated\" data into a format for analysis or reading by the human user. The locution is designed to convey the illocutionary intent of the speaker. That is, the illocutionary act, such as declaring or asserting in the case of financial reporting, may or may not be understood by the hearer. The extent to which the hearer understands the speaker's intent is termed L compatibility (Bach and Harnish, 1979). The translation of accounts into digital form distances the preparer from the digital \"text\" as it is expressed in the IT grammar (such as XBRL which \"tags\" the data). The distance is created by the need to have expertise in IT to understand the underlying digital grammar and to access the data that have been translated for the convenience of computer processing and can no longer be easily read by humans. The accountant and others involved in the design and production of what remains conceptually an \"analogue\" report no longer control the presentation of the data that the user receives.\n8. Conclusion and future research: Just as \"translation is crucial to a process of globalisation\" (Evans et al., 2015, p. 2), translation is implicated in often opaque ways in the digitisation of corporate reporting. This paper reports an analysis of the process and infrastructure for translating digital corporate reports using Searle and Austin's illocutionary theory. The outcome is a framework which may be used to identify research approaches and important issues for future research in the sites of translation and the overarching achievement of L compatibility.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the process by which \"analogue\" corporate reports produced under a \"paper paradigm\" are translated into a machine language as required by digital reporting. The paper uses Austin and Searle's linguistic speech act theory to examine how digitally translating reporting information into atomised data affects the infrastructure and practice of accounting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Extensive interview and observation evidence focussed on the IFRS Foundation's digital reporting project is analysed. An interpretive approach is informed by the concepts of L compatibility, illocution and perlocutionary acts which are drawn from speech act theory.\nFindings: Two key sites of translation are identified. The first site concerns the translation of accounting standards, principles and practices into taxonomies for digital tagging. Controversies arise over the definition of accounting concepts in a site populated by accounting and IT-orientated experts. The second site of translation is in the routine production and dissemination of digital reports which impacts the L compatibility between preparers and users.\nOriginality/value: The paper highlights a previously unexplored field of translation in accounting and contributes a unique perspective that demonstrates that machine translation is no longer marginalised but is the \"primary\" text with effects on the infrastructure and practice of accounting. It extends speech act theory by applying it to the digital domain and in the context of translation between languages.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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