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Daily job crafting and the self-efficacy - performance relationship
|
[
"Employee behaviour",
"Job performance",
"Organizational behaviour",
"Individual behaviour",
"Motivation (psychology)",
"Self-efficacy",
"Diary",
"Job crafting",
"Multilevel SEM",
"Work enjoyment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The positive relationship between self-efficacy and performance has been supported in many studies. Two meta-analyses that specifically addressed the relationship between self-efficacy and job performance (Judge and Bono, 2001; Stajkovic and Luthans, 1998) reported statistically significant corrected correlations of 0.23 and 0.38, respectively, between self-efficacy and job performance. Bandura and Locke (2003) summarized evidence of this relationship from nine large-scale meta-analyses that were conducted in different performance areas (e.g. health functioning, psychosocial functioning). These authors convincingly demonstrated that self-efficacy has predictive value for motivation and performance. Self-efficacy may enhance performance because individuals who perceive themselves as highly efficacious will activate sufficient task-related effort and persist longer on the task despite setbacks. This self-regulatory behavior may increase the chances of successful outcomes. In contrast, individuals who perceive low self-efficacy may be more likely to discontinue their efforts and fail on the task. However, some authors have found that high levels of self-efficacy may actually undermine job performance because participants become overconfident and consequently allocate fewer resources to reach their goals (cf. Vancouver et al., 2002). Given that job performance is arguably one of the most important outcomes in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, it is crucial to also focus on the underlying mechanisms that may explain the self-efficacy - performance relationship (e.g. Stajkovic and Luthans, 1998).\nSelf-efficacy and job performance at the day level: Self-efficacy is defined as the expectations that people have about their abilities to execute desired behaviors and to impact their environment successfully (Bandura, 1997). It is suggested that self-efficacy relates to performance because it influences both the activities that people pursue and how much effort they allocate to these activities (Bandura, 1997; Yeo and Neal, 2006). In addition, people who have a strong sense of self-efficacy will persist longer on the task to master the challenge of the task. This capacity for self-regulation is important for task performance (Gist and Mitchell, 1992).\nSelf-efficacy as an antecedent of job crafting: Employees who take the initiative to change or modify certain aspects of their jobs to fit their work with their own characteristics are called job crafters (Berg et al., 2008; Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001). Job crafting is an activity that people spontaneously do to satisfy their needs and to realize their preferences at work (Kira et al., 2010). Because job crafting is oriented toward proactively changing the work (environment) rather than other people, the organization, or the external environment, it has been situated under the general heading of \"proactive person-environment fit behavior\" (Grant and Parker, 2009). Thus, the focus on changing one's job characteristics distinguishes job crafting from other proactive behaviors directed toward, for example, improved functioning of the organization (see Tims and Bakker, 2010).\nJob crafting and work enjoyment: Work enjoyment refers to the positive judgment about the quality of one's working life (Bakker, 2005, 2008); in other words, employees enjoy the activities they do at work. Research has shown that people who experience joy are also more likely to report other positive emotions, such as feeling happy and excited (Posner et al., 2005). Therefore, work enjoyment may be viewed as an indicator of positive work-related well-being (Bakker and Oerlemans, 2011). Work enjoyment differs from intrinsic motivation, which has been defined as the motivation to engage in an activity because the activity itself is valuable (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Whereas work enjoyment is the result of a cognitive and affective judgment of the flow experience (Bakker, 2008), intrinsic motivation is the result of engaging in a specific work activity.\nJob performance: Finally, we aim to examine a model in which employees who craft their job resources and thus enjoy their work more use these positive feelings to enhance their subsequent work performance. A recent study by Leana et al. (2009) demonstrated that early childhood education teachers who crafted their jobs provided higher quality care according to observers, indicating that job crafting seems to benefit both the individual and organization. In addition, Tims et al. (2012) found that crafting job resources was positively correlated with peer-rated performance.\nMethod: Procedure and participants\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion and conclusion: The present study aimed to empirically address whether job crafting and work enjoyment mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and job performance. We focussed on daily fluctuations in these variables (i.e. within-person design). In line with our expectations, we found evidence that both day-level job crafting and work enjoyment could partly explain the relationship between day-level self-efficacy and day-level performance. We discuss the findings in more detail below.\nConclusion: In conclusion, we feel that this study is an important first step in empirical research that examines the job crafting behaviors of employees. The relationship between day-level self-efficacy to day-level job performance could be explained (at least partially) by employee job crafting and work enjoyment. With this study, we hope to encourage further research on the promising concept of job crafting, which may benefit both the individual employee and organization.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether job crafting and work enjoyment could explain the well-established relationship between self-efficacy and job performance. The authors hypothesized that employees would be most likely to engage in proactive job crafting behaviors on the days when they feel most self-efficacious. Daily job crafting, in turn, was expected to relate to daily performance through daily work enjoyment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A daily diary study was conducted among a heterogeneous sample of employees (N=47, days=215). Participants completed the survey on five consecutive days.\nFindings: The results of multilevel structural equation modeling analyses were generally in line with the hypotheses. Specifically, results indicated that employees who felt more self-efficacious on a given day were more likely to mobilize their job resources on that day. Daily job crafting, in turn, was positively correlated to work enjoyment and indirectly associated with performance. Participants reported elevated levels of performance on the days on which they enjoyed their work most.\nResearch limitations/implications: Self-reports were used to assess all constructs, which may result in common method bias. However, within-person correlations were moderate, and a two-level CFA indicated that a one-factor model could not account for all the variance in the data.\nOriginality/value: The findings of this study underscore the importance of daily proactive behavior for employee and organizational outcomes.\n",
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] |
Filling the assessment gap: Using a learning portfolio in international development courses
|
[
"Higher education",
"Students",
"Learning styles",
"Assessment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As we go through life we constantly acquire new information and skills. At first we react to new experiences/situations and then start thinking about them, then we reflect. Reflection is a process of digesting the information or experience, and internalising them. We use reflection to adapt our knowledge and revise ideas and views: this is what is called learning (Lammers and Murphy, 2002), and this process happens mostly sub-consciously.This two-stage process of experience and reflection is used formally in professional development and adult learning. It is regarded as a more holistic approach to learning than memorising and recalling information (assessed by examinations), or mastering skills (assessed by task-based assignments).The Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development (NCIHD) at the University of Leeds runs three Postgraduate Training Programmes, namely: Health Management; Planning and Policy; Hospital Management; and Public Health. Most of the core parts of the programme (20-credit modules) run from September to December each year. These were assessed by three-hour written examinations and three to four written assignments. However, academic staff became more concerned that written examinations were not suitable for assessing the learning outcomes. A number of options were considered and it was agreed to introduce a learning portfolio.An action research project was undertaken to find out whether the introduction of a portfolio was successful and what could be improved in the process of its implementation. This study reports the reaction of staff and students before and after the first implementation of the portfolio. Also, it includes ideas from external examiners and student performance data that resulted in changes and improvements.\nComponents of a portfolio: The purpose of a portfolio is to provide a formal means of planning, documenting, reflecting on and developing a student's learning (Jacobson, et. al., 1999). Portfolios have long been used for professional development (Seldin and Annis, 1990), for accreditation, for prior learning (Edgerton et al., 1991; Seldin et al., 1993) and for assessment of placements and experiential learning (O'Neil and Wright, 1997). Portfolios encourage students to think reflectively about their own learning, and enable a cumulative learning process rather than the piecemeal approach inherent in a modular system. They encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning, and inculcate a habit of reflection which will, hopefully, last a (professional) lifetime.For the portfolio at NCIHD:1. module objectives were simplified into a set of tasks or sub-outcomes, which were discussed with the students;2. students collected evidence to demonstrate that they have met each outcome or satisfactorily performed each task; and3. students wrote a short reflective note on what and how they learned in undertaking the tasks, and how they applied that learning in their work situation.It was felt that the concept of providing evidence to demonstrate own learning needed careful explanation to the students, and sessions to monitor achievement were arranged. Tutors had a vital role in guiding students in the reflective process, so training sessions were arranged for the teaching team (Kuit et al., 2001; Davis, 2003).\nResearch process: Table I provides a summary of the methodology used to undertake the action research.The study addressed two major questions:1. Was the introduction successful?2. What could be improved in the process?Typically, as for any qualitative enquiry (Huberman and Miles, 1998), a number of sub-questions were formulated, which were used as the basis of identifying and developing research instruments and tools: group interviews (Yin, 1994; Fontana and Frey, 1998); individual interviews (Patton, 1990; Britten, 1999); and document reviews (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Yin, 1994). The later included: students' reflective notes and marks; staff feedback; notes from personal tutors; course directors and external examiners; and minutes from examination boards and staff meetings. The taped interviews and group discussions were transcribed verbatim events and the scripts sent to participants for validation.\nLife before portfolios: Staff and student views on portfolios\nLife after portfolios: Experience\nConclusions: The introduction of a portfolio to replace written examinations in the NCIHD was welcomed by all concerned. It was a radical decision as international development course participants are from a range of backgrounds and have differing capabilities and competencies. The move was designed to address a number of concerns including the fact that examinations did not encourage deep learning and, because of time pressure, did not encourage students to reflect on their learning or challenge their assumptions (Davis, 2003). Despite portfolios being new to staff and students, the overall experience was positive albeit with room for improvement.A number of changes are planned:1. marking will be graded, based on criteria;2. subdivision into sections has been removed to give more space for reflection, and students are required to reflect more on their learning than on social issues;3. the portfolio will contribute to two modules; and4. the questions that guide the students' reflections have been revised and simplified.Like any action research project the above changes will need to be followed up and lessons drawn in order to make the learning portfolio a more effective assessment tool. The cycle continues!\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to describe an action research project that proposed, monitored and evaluated the introduction of a learning portfolio used to replace examinations that were formerly used to assess the core courses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An action research project was undertaken to find out whether the introduction of a portfolio was successful and what could be improved in the process of its implementation.\nFindings: - The findings indicate that portfolios are effective to support and assess the academic development of international students.\nOriginality/value: - The introduction of a portfolio to replace written examinations in the NCIHD was welcomed by all concerned.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Four major disaster occurrences and the Spanish language media: a lack of risk communication
|
[
"Emergency alert",
"Hispanics",
"Non-English speakers",
"Spanish language media",
"Warnings",
"Disasters",
"Information media"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nRetraction notice: The publishers of the journal Disaster Prevention and Management wish to retract the article \"Four major disaster occurrences and the Spanish language media: a lack of risk communication\" by Abraham Benavides which was published in Vol. 22 No. 1, 2013. It has come to our attention that a large proportion of this article is copied and previous case studies are drawn upon without attribution, from an earlier article authored by Abraham Benavides and Sudha Arlikatti entitled \"The Role of the Spanish-Language Media in DisasterWarning\", which was published in the Journal of Spanish Language Media, Vol. 3,\nSaragosa, TX - F4 Tornado 1987: In 1987, a small unincorporated agricultural town in South Texas was devastated by an F4 Tornado that claimed the lives of 30 people and injured 131, most of Mexican descent. The funnel cloud that touched down sometime between 8:20 and 8:24 p.m. on Friday May 22, created a tornado leaving a path of destruction as it moved north through the city. The half-mile wide two-mile trail destroyed half the town of Saragosa. The official tornado warnings from the National Weather Service were issued in English and later broadcast by the local TV station in English only. Many lives could have been saved if the local Spanish TV station had provided weather warnings as well (Aguirre, 1988). The night of the tornado \"many of the televisions in Saragosa which were turned on were tuned to the Spanish-language channel. Univision did not carry the emergency weather station announcements which were being broadcasted by English language television stations serving Reeves County\" (Aguirre, 1988, p. 71). The local radio station in Pecos, Texas that served Saragosa, broadcast emergency weather warnings beginning about 8:00 p.m. in English and Spanish. However, the message conveyed was inaccurate because of the imprecise translation of the words \"watch\" and \"warning\" due to hasty translation. Aguirre notes that \"In retrospect, the operator\nGulf Coast, Louisiana and Mississippi - Hurricane Katrina 2005: A more recent example of the failure to provide emergency warnings in languages other than English before an impending disaster came during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds in excess of 175 mph, ripped through the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.\nSan Diego, CA 2003 fire: On October 25, 2003, the Cedar Fire began to burn near the mountain town of Ramona in San Diego County, CA. From there it spread to other areas fanned by strong Santa Ana winds. It consumed more than 280,278 acres, destroying 2,232 homes, and killing 15 people. It was the largest fire in California history. According to the 2000 Census, in San Diego County about 27 percent of the county\nEthnicity and disasters: A number of recent and past disasters have shown that distinct groups respond differently to disasters (Blaikie et al., 1994; Anderson, 1996;\nRisk communication: It has been suggested that risk communication is the process of sharing information about dangers, vulnerabilities, risks, and providing a type of framework from which to communicate these hazards to individuals, groups of people or communities (Pine, 2009; Rodriguez et al., 2006). Lindell and Perry (2004) argue that a function of risk communication is \"to promote appropriate protective behavior by those to whom the information is directed\" (p. 3). Rodriguez et al. (2006) conclude that communications including warnings must be \"understood, must meet [individual] needs, and must provide accurate and reliable information as well as sufficient lead time to allow [individuals] to take appropriate action\" (p. 477). In all four cases illustrated above, the risk communications models and diagrams abundant in the emergency management literature were absent and or not followed with respect to the Spanish-speaking community in the USA. For instance, emergency messages were not shared with the Spanish-language media; the English language media\nSpanish-language media - successes: The Spanish-language media has learned from previous mistakes such as Saragosa Tornado, Hurricane Katrina, and the Cedar Fire. It has made considerable improvement in its efforts to deliver emergency alerts in Spanish. The following event clearly shows how the Spanish-language media has grown or matured in terms of its awareness as being a partner with local governments during times of emergencies.\nSan Diego, CA 2007 fire: Emily Alpert (2007) notes that during the coverage of the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego the response by the Spanish-language media was lackadaisical. On the other hand, these recent fires had \"Telemundo and Univision join forces in streaming life-or-death information on evacuations, road closures and shelter sites in the tongue their viewers could understand. NBC offered Spanish news updates between its English broadcast, winning praise from Latino leaders\" (p. 1). She goes on to say that \"Telemundo and Univision lagged behind the mainstream media somewhat, providing few details about the fires Sunday night, when the Harris Fire claimed its first death. [Nevertheless] by 5 a.m. Monday, the twin channels had teamed up, reporting 24 hours a day on the San Diego inferno.\" Alpert interviewed editors from both Univision and Telemundo, and they both agreed they learned from the 2003 fire. \"We learned from our viewers that they needed to be informed. Back then, there was bad communication between the agencies. We weren't included in press conferences. It was really sad, because our Hispanic community were calling us and trying to get informed, and we didn't get much information. Now, we don't depend on anybody. We have our contacts and we're calling, until we get somebody\" (p. 1).\nConclusion: Not all individuals and groups of people respond to disasters in the same way, it is therefore necessary to understand how best to alert the non-English speaking community. Involving the Spanish-language media in its continued efforts to provide emergency alerts is a first step in the right direction. With its current resources and ability to reach millions of non-English speakers it should be called upon to be a primary distributor of emergency alert information. The primary deficiencies are based on a lack of familiarity with the Spanish-language media on the part of the emergency management industry and a hesitant participant in an unfamiliar role. Many Spanish-language speakers are more comfortable receiving emergency alerts in their native tongue. Therefore, the Spanish-language media needs to fill this void and serve the public. Providing multilingual alerts has worked in the past and can continue to work with the advanced technology that is now available. If the recent coverage by the Spanish-language media of the fires in San Diego is any indication of a change in direction for covering local emergencies, then an enormous step in the right direction has taken place. To further this transformation, emergency managers can communicate with the Spanish-language media proactively by opening channels of communication before a disaster occurs. This interaction could include: holding meetings with local news directors, participating in the creating of public service announcements, translating generic emergency messages, and creating partnerships to disseminate preparedness and other emergency information. These simple yet important suggestions can provide the emergency manager with a working partner to broadcast essential information in times of emergencies. Furthermore, this partnership will provide the Spanish-language media with insights into the world of emergency management and a better understanding of the technical information from this discipline.\n",
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{
"content": "Purpose: The Hispanic community is the fastest growing ethnic group in the USA and is currently the largest minority group with tremendous buying power. This trend has seen a significant growth with respect to the Spanish-language media in recent years. Along with the media\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using descriptive and explanatory methods the author looks at the failures of the Spanish language media to communicate emergency warnings in both the Saragosa, Texas tornado and in the case of hurricane Katrina.\nFindings: Research indicated that pressure from constituents, however, forced a change on the Spanish language industry.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research was limited by not having first hand contact with the Spanish language media.\nPractical implications: The practical implication of this research which has social overtones is that providing disaster warnings to the non-English speaking population in the USA is achievable. Emergency managers and first responders need to be aware of issues regarding non-English speakers.\nSocial implications: The implications for this research is that all individuals will be notified of emergencies even non-English speakers.\nOriginality/value: The issues on non-English speakers in emergency situations have come up before. Nevertheless, this work identifies a practical solution by involving the Spanish language media in emergency alerts. It is essential that this tremendous resource be involved in emergency alerts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Helping the e-mail checking addicts: Duty of care to safeguard employees' work-life balance
|
[
"Performance",
"Stress",
"Organizational communication",
"E-mail",
"Productivity",
"Information and communication technology (ICT)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: You are sitting at home watching TV with your family when you feel impelled to check your work e-mails. Easy to do, of course, in these days of smartphones and tablets. Or maybe you scurry off to the room where you keep your laptop or PC \"just to see\" if anything has been happening that you should know about since you left work - what, maybe an hour or two ago?\nWhy insist on \"copying in\" people who have no need to know?: But there is a problem. There is a \"dark side\" to the miracle that is information and communication technology (ICT). Despite the many benefits of being able to connect with business whenever you want to or feel the need to, there can be negative consequences, not least for health but also for employee performance. And, according to a study of the demands of ICT, its consequences and possible interventions, the senior management should be responsible for guidelines, employer expectations, encouraging better work-life balance and minimizing the potential negative effects of poor use of ICT.\nSome employers decide to shut down servers at the weekends: Regarding response expectations, employees could be trained to let recipients know whether their e-mail is a priority so that recipients can determine when they need to respond and can then prioritize their workload. Furthermore, longer message-checking intervals can enable people to get on with their primary work, rather than constantly tuning in. Also, employees should be discouraged from \"reply to all\" and not copy in people who really have no \"need to know\". In terms of \"constant availability\", both employee and employer have a responsibility to set personal and organizational guidelines about accessing e-mail and other forms of ICT outside of working hours.\nComment: This review is based on \"Information and communication technology demands: outcomes and interventions\" by Stich et al. (2015). From an overload of e-mails which constantly interrupt you at work, to a nagging need to keep checking your smartphone or laptop at home in case you feel you are missing out on something happening at work, the authors review demands employees face when communicating through ICTs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the demands employees face when communicating through information and communication technologies (ICTs), and relevant interventions are suggested to provide a set of evidence-based recommendations to help protect work-life balance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reviews the following demands associated with ICTs: response expectations, constant availability, increased workload and poor communication. The authors draw upon empirical research to highlight outcomes and intervention strategies, before discussing implications for research and practice.\nFindings: The paper, which reviews four demands employees face when communicating through ICT (response expectations, constant availability, increased workload and poor communication), finds that there are diverse outcomes associated with each. The outcomes were not inherently negative, as evidence suggests that positive performance outcomes can arise from response expectations and constant availability, although there may be health and wellbeing costs.\nOriginality/value: Four interrelated demands that employees can face when communicating through technology are integrated and possible interventions are analyzed.\n",
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Managed earnings, prior cost of capital, and firm location
|
[
"Location",
"Discretionary",
"Risk",
"Debt",
"Cost of capital",
"Managed earnings"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The debate on managed earnings practice(s) amongst firms gained momentum in the early twenty-first century. A seemingly certain commonality in the extant literature is that firms that engage in the practice of managing earnings do so to massage their performance. That is, firms dedicate a conscious effort toward ensuring that their financial data are presented in a positive light that enhances the profile of the firm. Which ultimately makes the firm attractively appealing to current and future investors.\n2. Literature review: From a national and international perspective, scholars and practitioners acknowledge the existence and practice of earnings management by firms and its impact on corporate value. On the international scene, Leuz et al. (2003) find that firms in economies with strong enforcement on investor's protection manage earnings less. On the national scene, the empirical evidence of earnings management can be broadly categorized into six groups: initial public offerings, seasoned equity offerings, corporate governance, auditor's responsibilities, cost of equity and cost of debt[1].\n3. Sample and methodology: 3.1 Data and sample description\n4. Empirical results: This section documents the multivariate tests performed and their results. The explained variables are discretionary proxies depicting avenues a firm managed its earnings. The independent variables are measures of the previous cost of debt, previous cost of equity and location. Considering the time and cross-sectional variance in the sample, we set the sample as a panel data. Initial results are reported using a multivariate regression technique. Furthermore, we perform other tests like quartile and industry fixed-effect models to make the findings more robust.\n5. Additional tests: While our results have shown the effects of prior costs of capitals, location, on managed earnings, we further test the robustness our results by utilizing other regression methods. Given that the accrual methods coefficients are entirely identical, we, from now, only report DA2, the Kothari et al. (2005) model. Similarly, for brevity, we report results on only one measure for the prior cost of debt, prior cost of equity and location. Table VIII reports quartile regression results for effects of prior costs of capital and location on managed earnings at the twenty-fifth and seventy-fifth quartile. Quantile regression is intended to highlight if the effect of the prior costs of capital and location on the discretionary behavior of managers.\n6. Conclusion: We explore the association of past costs of capital on earnings management by answering the following questions. First, what effect do prior cost of debt and prior cost of equity have on managed earnings? Second, does location impact the prior cost of capital's effect on managed earnings? Third, which costs of capital significantly affect managed earnings behavior of firms?\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: A seemingly certain commonality in the extant literature is that firms that engage in the practice of managing earnings do so to massage their performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the pecuniary effect of the prior cost of capital and a firm's location on the propensity for firms to manage earnings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses longitudinal data for US firms from COMPUSTAT and Center for Research in Security Prices from 1980 to 2010 for an average of 1,627 firms. The authors apply several regression methods - namely: least squares regressions, quantile, interaction-terms, seemingly unrelated and endogeneity test - and come to similar conclusions.\nFindings: The authors find that managed earnings behavior varies depending on the prior cost of capital. Managers positively exacerbate earnings when the firms' prior cost of debt is high. Managers inverse its exacerbation of earnings when the firms' prior cost of equity is high. This effect remains the same in all regression techniques applied in this paper.\nOriginality/value: The authors contribute to the literature primarily in three areas. First, by considering the effect of a firm's location jointly on a firm's prior cost of capital, the authors show that a firm's environment amplifies the managers' discretionary actions. Second, by showing that the prior cost of capital which a firm pursues can inundate the managers to pursue and exacerbate earnings. Finally, the evidence suggests that adjustment in previous years for debt obligated firms and that location affects managed earnings behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The legal, governance and ethical implications of involving service users and carers in research
|
[
"Regulation",
"Co-production",
"Public involvement",
"Ethics",
"Research",
"Roles and responsibilities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Service user and carer involvement in the English health and care research process has grown steadily over the last decade assisted by the development of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), which has provided the infrastructure for the patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) agenda, through its clinical research networks and its central commissioning facility. The NIHR actively supports the participation of patients in research, and the involvement and engagement of service users and carers in all aspects of the research process.\nDefinitions: The terms co-applicant, project team member and co-researcher used in the review were defined as follows.\nManagement, governance and ethical issues relating to service user and carer roles in health and care research: In undertaking this investigation, the project team were mindful of the different perspectives of health and research held by medical and research professionals and lay representatives. The medical model of health predominates in health research and may conflict with many patient's perspective of their health and care which is more often grounded in a social perspective. This can present a challenge for both researchers and PPIE participants in understanding their different perspectives in order to negotiate the research process. It was important to recognise this potential for dissonance in understanding the implications of involving service users and carers in research.\nResults: Roles and responsibilities\nDiscussion and reflection: Effective involvement\nConclusions and recommendations: If the vision of \"Going the Extra Mile\" (National Institute for Health Research, 2015), of true partnerships with service users and carers, is to be realised then the roles and responsibilities of service users and carers as co-applicants, project team members or as co-researchers should be recognised for being as significant as any other person engaged in the research process. In these roles, they are responsible (to a greater or lesser extent depending on their role) for the design, management, quality, conduct and integrity of that study and the safety of patient participants.\nDeveloping good practice: As a result of this review, the R&D Forum SUCWG recommends that stakeholders from across the research community work in partnership with service users and carers to develop good practice to:\n",
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"content": "Purpose: Service user and carer involvement in all aspects of the health and care research process, from co-applicant on funding applications to active engagement in a research study, is now a requirement for most research funders. However, as co-production increases and service users and carers take on more responsibilities, this involvement has legal, governance and ethical implications. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the issues and consider potential solutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Experiences of engagement as co-applicants in research funding applications, of involvement as research study team members, and as co-researchers were gathered from a range of service user and carer experts. Consultation and a workshop gathered further evidence from a range of stakeholders across the research management community.\nFindings: Service users and carers, who contribute to the research protocol and process, feel a strong sense of responsibility to ensure the high quality of a research study. However, they may be new to their roles, status and key responsibilities when acting as project team members, co-researchers or co-applicants engaging in funding applications. The responsibility of sponsors, grant holding organisations, funders and other members of the research community is to communicate with and support service users and carers in those roles. More needs to be done to understand the contractual, a legal and governance issues and responsibilities that are specific to service user and carer co-applicants, project team members and co-researchers, from both an organisational and individual service user and carer perspective.\nPractical implications: The implications of the findings are to raise awareness of the practical, legal and ethical issues arising from this type of involvement and the potential risks arising from lack of cohesion or understanding. The review also highlights the concerns and barriers service users and carers may find in becoming involved.\nOriginality/value: The findings highlight a range of issues for research regulators, sponsors and investigators to consider to ensure service users and carers can fulfil their responsibilities and be supported in doing so.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Customer data security and theft: a Malaysian organization's experience
|
[
"Malaysia",
"Internal control",
"Customer information"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past few years, companies in every industry sector around the globe have seen their sensitive internal data lost, stolen or leaked to the outside world. For example, British Airways frequent flyers accounts were hacked, while names, addresses, home numbers and emails were taken by cyber attackers of JPMorgan Chase. Other data breaches have included Anthem, Target, Home Depot, eBay and LinkedIn.\nLiterature review: Data protection in Malaysia\nResearch methodology: Data collection method\nFindings and discussion: Respondent profiles\nConclusions: The main objective of this study is to examine weaknesses in the current internal control system of ABC Bank Services in protecting its customer data. Findings show that the employees of ABC Bank Services are aware that there is a policy of protecting customer data in the organization. However, the main concern is the attitude of the employees to adhere to the policy in place. The result of the survey and observational study shows that employees tend to ignore such policies and standard operating procedures, which establishes opportunities for data theft and fraud to occur. This confirms the fraud triangle theory, which predicts that opportunities are among the important factors before fraud can occur in an organization. This situation requires the internal control systems in ABC Bank Services to be improved and upgraded, particularly in the controls related to personal behaviors. There are a few recommendations suggested to the organization generally and ABC Bank Services particularly.\nResearch limitations and suggestion for future research: This study has several limitations. First, only one company gave permission for the research to be conducted on its premises via observation and questionnaires distributed to its employees. The sensitivity of the issues makes it difficult to find other companies to participate in the research. Because of this, the findings may not be generalized to other organizations because of different structures, cultures, business climates and operations unique to a company.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to identify weaknesses in current internal control systems in protecting customer data and the drivers that motivate employees to steal customer data and the impact of customer data theft on the organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study approach was taken to investigate and analyze internal control system weaknesses. One organization that involved investor and treasury services was selected as a case study in this research. A mixed method of data collection, specifically survey questionnaires and observations, was used.\nFindings: This study revealed that employees are aware of the policy to protect customer data in their organization. Ironically, customer data theft still occurred despite the company having an internal control system. The main concern was the attitude of the employees to adhere to the policies in place, which becomes the major cause of internal control violation. Employees tend to ignore policies and standard operating procedures, providing opportunities for data theft and fraud to occur, although they realize this will result in a severe impact on the reputation of a company.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results provide further confirmation of the fraud triangle theory, i.e. opportunity on the possible causes of the data theft and fraud, supporting prior empirical research and surveys conducted by researchers and global professional firms on fraud. This study, however, was conducted on only one organization with limited participation from employees because of the sensitivity of the nature of the topic.\nPractical implications: This study provided recommendations that can be a reference for companies and regulatory bodies in preventing customer data theft cases, such as regular training and awareness campaigns to the staff, stringent recruitment policies, close monitoring on the accessibility of customer data and continuous use of advanced technology to prevent a data breach.\nOriginality/value: This study is original, as it focuses on an organization that operates in the financial services industry, which is one of the most attacked sectors for data theft and cybercrime activity globally. Furthermore, this kind of research is rare in fraud literature, particularly in developing markets such as Malaysia. The findings of this study are inferred from the direct observation of the organizational and employee work environments, activities and behaviors, which are private and confidential and difficult to access by researchers for publication in academic journals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Distribution channel in hospitality and tourism: Revisiting disintermediation from the perspectives of hotels and travel agencies
|
[
"Hong Kong",
"Internet",
"Disintermediation",
"Distribution channel",
"Hotel",
"Travel agency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The growing popularity of business applications of the Internet has increased the number of people who use the technology to search for information and make purchases online. Lawton and Weaver (2009) stated that only 7 per cent of Internet users made online purchases in 2000, but this figure increased to 30 per cent in 2004. With the increasing number of Internet users and the great incursion of the Internet into the daily life of people (Internet World Stats, 2013), numerous academic and industry studies have noted the prevalence of online shopping in tourism and hospitality. Nielsen (2010) showed that in March 2010, 82 per cent of the 27,000 global Internet users surveyed intended to make an online purchase. In addition, 24 per cent of the surveyed respondents stated that they had purchased airline tickets and 17 per cent had made hotel/tour reservations online in 2009. PhoCusWright also estimated that online travel sales in the Asia Pacific region in 2013 and 2015 would grow to USD 93.4 billion and USD 126.6 billion, respectively (Tnooz, 2013).\nLiterature review: The application of the Internet over the past few decades has been transforming the way that products and services are distributed to customers (Berne et al., 2012). Tourism and hospitality are of no exception because the distribution evolution in the Internet era has consistently been highlighted as one of the most important issues across industries (Gronflaten, 2009; Kracht and Wang, 2010; Pearce and Schott, 2005). Under the traditional distribution model, travelers rely heavily on traditional intermediaries, such as travel agencies, to access the products provided by suppliers (e.g. hotels and airlines) via global distribution systems (GDS). Using the Internet, travelers can now directly access travel information and make their bookings via the Web sites of suppliers without going through the intermediaries (i.e. disintermediation) (Kaewkitipong, 2010). Various online intermediary models, such as OTAs, last-minute inventory distribution and flash saleWeb sites, have recently emerged as another avenue for travelers to purchase tourism products/services.\nMethodology: As mentioned earlier, this study extends the previous research effort and reexamines several issues about disintermediation in tourism and hospitality from the perspectives of practitioners. Survey is the most common data collection method among prior studies on disintermediation (Del Chiappa, 2013; Law and Lau, 2004). However, Yin (1984) noted that case study information can be solicited through in-depth interviews with key informants. Considering the resource constraints and the goal of gaining insightful information from the studied organizations, we deem a qualitative methodology as appropriate and, thus, use it in this case study.\nFindings: Major source of business and booking channels\nDiscussion and implications: The findings of this study suggest that the role of distribution has been gradually changing from human- to technology-based intermediaries. Although the changes are not yet drastic, all stakeholders will have to deal with them. Many suppliers have introduced their own online reservation services and functions, which they continuously develop. These changes will speed up disintermediation in the hospitality and tourism industries.\nConclusions and future research: The main contribution of this study is the provision of the latest managerial perspectives on disintermediation in the hospitality and tourism industries. A positive signal is that industry practitioners are already aware of the trend toward disintermediation and are actively coping with the changes. The increasing use of Internet applications inevitably means that more consumers will make online bookings. At present, most, if not all, of the services provided by travel agencies can be found on the Internet. Thus, travel agencies have no choice but to integrate Internet technology into their daily operations and strategies to remain competitive. A pragmatic approach would be to take advantage of the Internet and treat it as an opportunity instead of a threat. In other words, intermediaries and suppliers should be ready for technologically induced changes in different hospitality and tourism sectors. Only those businesses that use such technologies correctly and establish the right e-business strategy will remain competitive.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reexamine several issues about disintermediation from the perspectives of tourism product/service suppliers (hotels) and traditional intermediaries (travel agencies), considering the move of the current distribution landscape toward disintermediation. Internet and mobile technologies offer various tools for consumers to search and purchase products/services from suppliers directly. Consequently, the necessity and role of traditional intermediaries in the industry become questionable.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In all, six focus group interviews were conducted to collect primary data from ten managers of three traditional travel agencies and 11 managers from three business hotels in Hong Kong, which is a major travel destination in Asia with many world-class hotels and tourism facilities.\nFindings: Despite their different business backgrounds, the interviewees agreed on the increasing importance of Internet technology in the distribution of tourism products. The interviewees also posited that traditional travel agencies are still needed to serve certain customer groups, albeit their role may have little importance.\nPractical implications: Practitioners should adapt to technologically induced changes to remain competitive in the e-business era.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides several original contributions. First, this paper supplements the extant literature by revealing how modern practitioners perceive disintermediation in the tourism and hospitality industry. Second, this paper is the first to investigate the disintermediation issue from the perspectives of tourism product/service suppliers and intermediaries. Finally, this paper provides a reference for industry practitioners to establish adequate strategies that take advantage of Internet technology.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Journal citation identity and journal citation image: a portrait of the Journal of Documentation
|
[
"Serials",
"Publications"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the year 2004 the Journal of Documentation (JDOC) celebrated its 60th anniversary. This was an occasion for making a bibliometric portrait of the journal: a single journal analysis. JDOC has been subject to several analyses before, e.g. by Cronin and McKenzie (1992) and Cronin and Shaw (1999). This time the inspiration for analysing the journal has come from methods and theories known from single author analyses. White (2001) and Cronin and Shaw (2001) did some innovative and inspirational studies in this field and launched the concepts of citation identity and citation image, which may serve as frame of reference when transformed into a journal analysis. Bonnevie (in press) used the concepts of citation identity and citation image as indicators in portraying Manfred Bonitz, inspired by these earlier studies. The first mentioned is created by looking into the references in articles written by the author in question. The second one is created by analysing the authors that are co-cited with the author in question.The two concepts will be transferred into a journal setting as the journal citation identity and the journal citation image and tested with JDOC as example. Accordingly the objects of study are references in all articles of the journal and journal co-citations among other measures.The term \"citation\" is a part of both expressions. It would have been more logical to name the first mentioned the \"journal reference identity\" and thus avoid the double meaning of the term \"citation\" (Egghe and Rousseau, 1990), but the choice was made for reasons of analogy with White's \"citation identity\" and \"citation image\".The methods behind the two indicators are outlined below and can be seen in details in the result section of this paper.\nMethods: A set of different analyses are employed in the study. To sum up, they are as follows:1. Journal citation identity. Analyses of references in articles from the journal:* calculations of the citations/citee-ratio, which is to be translated into \"references per referenced work\";* this is supplemented with a publication analysis of the journal to further scrutinize the composition of document types of the journals in question;* the pattern of uni- and re-citations; and* self-citations.1. Journal citation image. Analyses of citations to the journal:* a journal diffusion factor analysis; and* a journal co-citation analysis;The ISI Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is used for evaluating the co-cited journals.The journal citation identity\nResults: Journal citation identity\nDiscussion and further analyses: If a journal is to be portrayed at a jubilee, there are of course other questions to ask than the ones presented here. For instance: Who are the most cited authors of the journal (perhaps by decades)? Which are the most cited single articles, or can a certain set of highly cited articles be identified? Is there a correspondence between years, characterized by especially highly cited articles and a high JIF for the same years? Is it possible to identify older articles that are still cited? Collaboration at different levels is another object of study. Those questions may also be taken up in the portraying process. They would give a further insight in the scientific scope and impact of the JDOC but are not a part of the present study.The two evaluation tools, the \"author citation image\" and the \"journal citation image\" might display similar characteristics, even if they are used at two different levels. The relationship between them should be explored and further analysed, regarding application and theory and method formation, as well as potential problems that may have been identified during the process.\nConclusion: Journal citation identity and journal citation image have been proposed as contributions in portraying a library and information science journal, the Journal of Documentation. The journal citation identity is based on a counting of references of the journal's publications, i.e. the publishing authors give the picture. The journal citation image is a function of citations to the journal, i.e. given by authors citing the journal. The analyses include calculations of the citations/citee ratio (references by referenced works), and of self-citations and uni- and recitations. The citations/citee ratios are indicating the scientific range of the authors of a specific journal, measured by the number of referenced journals relative to the number of references. JDOC is compared to JASIS(T) and JIS, and we see that JDOC and JIS with lower ratios rely on a slightly greater diversity of journals than JASIS(T). This is a matter of style of the journals and may reveal another side of the journal than does the JIF. The pattern of document types may influence the results when comparing journals. An analysis of document types shows that JDOC has a higher degree of book reviews and thus a lower share of documents with a scientific content than JASIS(T) and JIS.The distribution of uni-citations and recitations has been analysed, and it turns out that JDOC has a profile rather similar to JIS's, while JASIS(T) has a higher rate of recitations and a lower rate of uni-citations than two other journals. This pattern is characteristic of a scientific style, by analogy with author analyses. But caution is necessary here, since the explanation may lie in the fact that JASIS(T) has more publications indexed and twice the number of cited work items than JDOC and JIS, seen in the light of a limited spectrum of works to cite in the field.The self-citing rates are part of the journal citation identity, and self-cited rates are part of the journal citation image. The two measures are treated together for reasons of simplicity. A comparison of the three journals over the years shows that JASIS(T) takes the lead with an average self-citing rate of 4.3 per cent. JDOC and JIS come very close with respectively rates of 3.9 per cent and 3.4 per cent. All three journals display a similar development over time, indicating that the field of library and information science is becoming less isolated over time. JDOC has a lower self-cited rate than the two other journals, which is seen when the development is analysed over time. A low self-cited rate signifies higher visibility and a higher impact in the field, in this respect JDOC takes the lead. There is reason to believe that this is caused by a positive correlation between the self-citing rate and JIF. Journals with high JIFs tend to have high self-cited rates as well. The tendency of high self-cited rates by new journals can be seen in the case of JIS with the occurrence of a very high rate during the first ten years.Journal citation image is measured by new journal diffusion factor (N JDF) and by co-citations. The N JDF is the average number of different journals that an average article is cited by within a given time window. The N JDF indicates research influence by breadth, i.e. how far into the scientific community the journal diffuses. A comparison between JDOC, JASIS(T), and JIS shows that the N JDF of JDOC is higher than the N JDF of the two other journals, with an increasing tendency from 1976 until today. The N JDF is strongly correlated with JIF, but new information is added by comparing the two measures for the three journals. JDOC shows an increasing JIF over time, but also shows an increasing N JDF. This means that the average paper of JDOC receives more citations over time and is also cited in more journals. JASIS(T) shows an increasing JIF curve over time and a stable N JDF, indicating that the average paper is cited more over time but by the same number of different journals. JIS shows a decreasing JIF over time, but the N JDF is slightly increasing, meaning that the average paper of JIS is cited less over time, but by a slightly increased number of different journals. The measure of N JDF enables us to differentiate JDOC and JASIS(T) although they show similar JIF curves.The N JDF and the citations/citee ratio are part of respectively the journal citation image and the journal citation identity. Comparing the two measures means a comparison between journal evaluations given by others (N JDF) and \"self-evaluation\" of the journal (citations/citee ratio). The image tells that JDOC with a higher N JDF reaches wider out into in the scientific community than JASIS(T) and JIS and shows an upward tendency. The \"self-image\" (the identity) tells that JDOC with a higher citations/citee ratio has a slightly lower journal diversity in the references than JIS.Another dimension of the journal citation image is given by co-citations. According to this, JASIS(T) and JIS are the two journals closest to JDOC. Analysing the development of similarity from 1990 to the present shows that the image of JDOC by co-citations is influenced especially by JASIS(T) and information processing and management with an upward tendency, and to a lesser degree by JIS.The internationalisation of JDOC from 1990-2003 by publishing and citing authors has been analysed by the use of a concentration index and compared to JASIS(T) and JIS. The concentration of publishing authors in JDOC is increasing, and the dispersion are therefore decreasing over the years. JDOC is dominated by Western European authors whereas JIS and especially JASIS(T) is characterised by greater geographic dispersion over the years. The concentration of authors citing JDOC is relatively stable. JIS is also relatively stable in that concern whereas JASIS(T) shows a tendency to a decreasing concentration over the years.All three journals show a tendency to be more bounded to Western Europe, most explicit in the case of JDOC.The differences between the journals are minor in several cases, and therefore the conclusions must be taken with some care. They show some tendencies, and further analyses may sustain or invalidate the results of the present analyses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose a multiple set of journal evaluation indicators using methods and theories from author analysis. Among those are the journal citation identity and the journal citation image.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The Journal of Documentation is celebrating its 60th anniversary, and for that reason it is portrayed in a bibliometric study using the two indicators, based, e.g. on analyses of references in journal articles and journal co-citation analyses.\nFindings: - The Journal of Documentation, which is portrayed in this study is characterized by high impact and high visibility. It publishes a relatively low number of documents with scientific content compared to other journals in the same field. It reaches far into the scientific community and belongs to a field that is more and more visible. The journal is relatively closely bounded to Western Europe, which is an increasing tendency.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research is based on analyses of just three LIS journals.\nPractical implications: - Journal citation identity and the journal citation image indicators contribute in giving a more detailed multifaceted picture of a single journal.\nOriginality/value: - The multiple set of indicators give rise to a journal evaluation of a more qualitative nature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Analysing customer behaviour in mobile app usage
|
[
"Big data",
"Mobile app",
"Customer behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Big data refers to \"datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store, manage, and analyse\" (Manyika et al., 2011, p. 1). Such data are transforming the way that companies, governments, and health organisations operate (Briody, 2011; Chen et al., 2012). Big data is characterised by volume, velocity, variety, and veracity and can be generated through multiple information technologies and systems, including sensor networks, enterprise resource planning systems, social media, internet clicks, and mobile apps (Goes, 2014; George et al., 2014; Bhat and Quadri, 2015; Chan et al., 2016). Big data often contains rich information about customer opinions and behaviour, making it an important factor of production for companies (Chen et al., 2012). Data-driven decision making increases a company's competitive advantage by enabling it to better understand markets and customers, improve problem solving, create customised and innovative products and services, and develop new organisational capabilities (Briody, 2011; Davenport et al., 2012). Researchers have found that the companies applying data-driven decision making are 5 per cent more productive and 6 per cent more profitable than their competitors (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2012). Big data is, thus, not simply a technological tool but can also play a transformative role in companies' fundamental operations (Li et al., 2015; Zhong et al., 2016). However, big data is difficult to manage and analyse, making value extraction an elusive goal for many companies (Ross et al., 2013; Goes, 2014). Managers also find that it is difficult to use big data to enhance design, production, and service process efficiency (Li et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2015). Further, a lack of studies exists on how to capture and harvest the potential value embedded in big data (George et al., 2014; Tan et al., 2015).\n2. Research method: The big data analytical approach is developed using three data mining techniques: recency, frequency, monetary (RFM) analysis, link analysis, and association rule learning. These methods are well-known for use in conducting in-depth analysis and extracting knowledge from large volumes of data (Berry and Linoff, 2004; Hughes, 1996). Figure 1 presents the proposed procedure, and the subsequent sections discuss its details.\n3. Analysis and results: A case study is conducted to apply the proposed approach to analyse the transaction data extracted from a mobile app (APP) to elicit knowledge about customer behaviour. The developer of APP is a leading Chinese provider of intelligent speech and language technologies and related software and hardware; APP is one of their key products. Launched in December 2012, APP is available on both Android and IOS operating systems and currently has more than one million customers. APP is a voice assistant similar to Apple's Siri. It has more than 30 functions, enabling the customers to use voice commands for tasks such as making phone calls, messaging, buying lottery tickets, subscribing to ring tones, playing music, downloading applications, reading novels and news, and searching for various types of information including weather conditions, mobile phone usage, restaurant recommendations, and airline schedules.\n4. Discussion: 4.1 Theoretical contributions\n5. Conclusions: This study proposes a big data analytical approach and conducts a case study by using the approach to analyse the data extracted from a mobile app. The results show that big data analysis enables the mobile app developer to learn customer preferences and patterns of function usage. The proposed approach enables the identification of fans, followers, and core functions, and the discovery of associations among functions. We also find that fans and followers use APP functions in different ways and fans can provide more valuable market intelligence. By identifying core functions and fans, the approach used in this study ensures that the generated association rules are not trivial. The information generated from this approach enables developers to design function bundles that improve the satisfaction of existing customers and attract new customers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Big data produced by mobile apps contains valuable knowledge about customers and markets and have been viewed as productive resources. The purpose of this paper is to propose a multiple methods approach to elicit intelligence and value from big data by analysing the customer behaviour in mobile app usage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The big data analytical approach is developed using three data mining techniques: RFM(recency, frequency, monetary) analysis, link analysis, and association rule learning. The authors then conduct a case study to apply this approach to analyse the transaction data extracted from a mobile app.\nFindings: This approach can identify high value and mass customers, and understand their patterns and preferences in using the functions of the mobile app. Such knowledge enables the developer to capture the behaviour of large pools of customers and to improve products and services by mixing and matching the functions and offering personalised promotions and marketing information.\nOriginality/value: The approach used in this study balances complexity with usability, thus facilitating corporate use of big data in making product improvement and customisation decisions. The approach allows developers to gain insights into customer behaviour and function usage preferences by analysing big data. The identified associations between functions can also help developers improve existing, and design new, products and services to satisfy customers' unfulfilled requirements.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Philosophy of language and accounting
|
[
"Language",
"Accounting harmonization",
"Substance over form"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Accounting Directive (2013/34/EU), which replaces the Fourth and Seventh Directives, aims at harmonizing European accounting rules, based on common principles. It has been translated into 24 languages that each has equal authority. Its implementation requires Member States to adapt national regulation, not necessarily to copy the original wording of the Directive. In total, 28 parliaments may therefore choose to implement a single concept, using different languages and different wording. Yet, this situation may not be a problem in terms of harmonization if the resulting understanding of accounting rules, in spite of different wording, is alike in all countries.\n2. Theory: 2.1 Philosophy of language\n3. The SoF principle in European accounting rules: As a starting point, we use the recent 2013 Accounting Directive, in which the SoF principle features prominently, but is also flexible and even avoidable. We then turn to the principle in seven European countries: the UK, France and Italy, Germany and Austria, and Poland and Romania. The synthesis will show that even though there are commonalities in some countries, overall the historical/cultural background, linguistics and notions differ.\n4. Discussion: 4.1 Only a question of translation?\n5. Contribution and conclusions: At the end of Section 2.1), we \"postulate a series of collective representations of SoF, each understood, despite fuzzy boundaries, by different related, but non-identical, examples of use in varying 'collective representations' (Searle) or varying 'language games' (Wittgenstein), both these terms being used in a precise technical sense.\" We believe that our analysis validates this proposition.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Accounting practices vary not only across firms, but also across countries, reflecting the respective legal and cultural background. Attempts at harmonization therefore continue to be rebuffed. The purpose of this paper is to argue that different wordings in national laws, and different interpretations of similar wordings in national laws, can be explained by taking recourse to the philosophy of language, referring particularly to Searle and Wittgenstein.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The example of the substance over form principle, investigated in seven countries, is particularly suitable for this analysis. It is known in all accounting jurisdictions, but still has very different roots in different European countries, with European and international influences conflicting, which is reflected in the different wording of the principle from one country to the next, and the different socially constructed realities associated with those wordings.\nFindings: This paper shows that, beyond accounting practices, the legal and cultural background of a country affects the wording of national law itself. The broad conclusion is that different socially constructed realities might tend to resist any attempt at harmonized socially constructed words.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to the debate surrounding the possible homogenization of accounting regulations, illustrating the theory of the social construction of both \"reality\" and \"language\" on the specific application of one common principle to various Member State environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs impact dairy anti-consumption
|
[
"Nutrition knowledge",
"Dairy products",
"Agriculture and food technology",
"Anti-consumption",
"Health beliefs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Dietary patterns in North America are changing. There are many social, environmental, and individual factors that play a role in food and beverage intake and avoidance. As the links between dietary practices and their positive and negative health, environmental and animal welfare implications have emerged, individual attitudes and beliefs have become important factors in food purchasing and consumption decisions. The consumption of dairy products (foods and beverages derived from cow's milk) is no exception to this trend of evolving eating patterns. Since 1990 in Canada, per capita fluid milk consumption has declined; the only dairy product in Canada to have a significant increase in per capita consumption is yogurt (CDIC, 2017). There are several reasons one might avoid dairy products such as a lactose intolerance or casein allergy, concerns about animal welfare or the environment, religious or cultural norms or a negative perception about the healthfulness of dairy products in general or about the fat they contain.\nMethods: An online survey was developed by the authors and conducted by TNS Global across Canada in January 2011. We aimed to survey 1,700 Canadian major household shoppers (the survey was opened to approximately 12,000 potential respondents, there were 1,705 completes, approximately 350 respondents started but did not complete the survey and slightly over 300 respondents tried to participate but the quota had been achieved). The 1,705 respondents were a generally representative sample of Canadians (based on gender, age, income level, etc.) excluding those under 19 years of age and those living in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The survey included demographic characteristics, self-reported milk and yogurt consumption behaviours, questions modelled after the HBM, measures of general and dairy-specific NK and the FTNS scale.\nResults: In our sample of 1,705 respondents, 2.4 per cent stated that they do not consume dairy products at all, 10.5 per cent were anti-consumers of milk and 14.7 per cent were anti-consumers of yogurt; 3 per cent were anti-consumers of both milk and yogurt. Utilising alternative products to substitute for milk was more common than for yogurt in this sample. Among the milk anti-consumers, 27.9 per cent drink soy milk and 15.6 per cent drink almond milk. Among the current yogurt anti-consumers, 4.8 per cent eat soy yogurt. For those who stated that they do not consume any dairy products, 48.8 per cent consume soy milk, 22.0 per cent consume soy yogurt and 34.1 per cent consume almond milk. One distinct possibility is the fact that the question about milk (dairy) consumption may have somewhat confused some people. It is common in many countries for dairy substitute products such as soy or almond to be described as soy 'milk' for example. In Canada although the products are termed soy beverages for example they are often sold in very similar containers right next to conventional dairy products and unfortunately we did not ask whether the survey respondents regard these as \"dairy\" products or milks or not. We described the products as milk or yogurt in the survey.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This study finds that the anti-consumption of milk, yogurt and dairy products in general is largely associated with knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. Although some demographic characteristics were significant in some models, attitudes towards technology in food, knowledge about the nutritional value of dairy products and beliefs about the health impacts of dairy consumption were more consistent predictors across products. Given that a lower perception of the benefits of dairy (or calcium and vitamin D) consumption is associated with the anti-consumption of dairy products, it could be argued that consumer education about dairy products could affect consumption patterns. According to the HBM, education can affect an individual's cues to action which consequently affects their behaviour. If people are making dietary choices without the relevant knowledge about the positive and negative consequences of them, they are unable to make decisions that maximise their long-term health and happiness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how individual's health beliefs, nutrition knowledge (NK) and attitudes towards food technologies play a role in the anti-consumption of dairy products or the consumption of dairy alternatives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Self-reported data concerning the consumption of milk, yogurt and dairy products in general were collected online among 1,705 adults in Canada. Also included in the survey instrument were measures of NK and health beliefs as well as questions from the food technology neophobia scale. Anti-consumption of milk, yogurt and dairy as well as alternative dairy consumption as a function of these characteristics, in addition to demographic characteristics, is analysed using probit models.\nFindings: Individuals who demonstrate resistance to innovations in food technology, those with lower levels of dairy-specific NK, and people who have less belief that dairy avoidance will have negative impacts on their health are more likely to be anti-consumers of milk and/or yogurt. The same is true for dairy products in general with the exception that people with higher levels of dairy-specific NK are more likely to be anti-consumers of dairy products in general.\nOriginality/value: Inadequate intake of calcium and vitamin D has negative consequences for long-term health. Given that dairy products are the primary source of these nutrients in the Canadian diet, it is important to understand the reasons behind dairy anti-consumption so that appropriate policy measures can be taken to address potential public health issues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Incremental performance of an eChannel addition: Long-term and volatility consideration perspectives
|
[
"Internet channel",
"Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing model",
"EChannel",
"EChannel performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Intensifying market competition and the emergence of the World Wide Web (WWW) are changing the channel system context (Ozuem et al., 2008; Huang et al., 2009; Chen et al., 2012; Hsieh et al., 2012). Using physical channels alone to access the market is less popular, whereas merchants dealing in nearly all product categories are adding internet-based electronic channels of distribution (eChannels hereafter) to their existing channel systems as brick-and-click businesses (Hsiao et al., 2012). For numerous firms, internet channels added to the modern channel system are critical, and the use of an eChannel addition continues to increase dramatically (Frost et al., 2010; Liao et al., 2011). The electronic commerce (e-commerce hereafter) literature has examined e-commerce to create new platforms for a competitive strategy (Celuch et al., 2007; Chang and Wang, 2011) with different advantages associated with adding the internet to the existing channel structure. These advantages include creating a better communication environment, providing more information to meet customer expectations, and support for the continuous development of a firm (Earl, 2000; Harrison et al., 2006; Canavan and Henchion, 2007; Simmons, 2008; Arroyo-Barriguete et al., 2010). Venkatesan et al. (2007) and Hsiao et al. (2012) also found multichannel users to be significantly more profitable than single-channel users because multichannel users are active shoppers, purchase larger quantities, and spend more money. Therefore, eChannels are complementary to, rather than independent from, the existing channel structure (Hsiao et al., 2012).\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: 2.1 The eChannel addition performance literature\n3. Method: 3.1 Using the BS-M model to compute company asset value\n4. Data analysis and results: Our research results (Figure 1) associated the mean asset values after eChannel announcements with positive growth rates, compared with those values before eChannel announcements. All of the effects based on sign tests were also significant, with the number of positive firms greater than the number of negative firms (Table II). Thus, the research results provided evidence that eChannel additions increase asset values, and eChannel addition announcements increase long-run firm financial performance.\n5. Conclusion: 5.1 Discussion of result\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to use the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing model to evaluate the incremental performance of an eChannel addition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 53 Taiwan financial services firms. In total, 33 of them introduced their online services, whereas the other 20 firms did not introduce their online services during the period under examination.\nFindings: The research findings show that firm asset values increase following eChannel additions. Thus, eChannel additions enhance firm financial performance. A further analysis comparing the performance between firms with and without eChannel additions also shows that firms with eChannel additions have higher asset value growth rates, which further validates the capacity of eChannel additions to enhance financial performance.\nPractical implications: Managers and shareholders in firms making eChannel additions are not required to be concerned regarding stock price volatility, and managers in firms without any eChannel investment could use eChannels to enhance their stock price and seize future opportunities. Using eChannel is a valid approach for firms to provide enhanced services to current customers, access new markets, and extend market coverage, thus enhancing overall financial performance. Investors could confide those firms implementing eChannel additions.\nOriginality/value: Studies investigating whether eChannel additions enhance firm financial performance are scant. No study has evaluated performance from a long-term perspective or from a volatility aspect (both are important considerations in eChannel performance evaluation). The research represents a pioneering work that empirically investigates these issues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Sell the Sizzle": Communicating environmental, social, and governance issues to institutional investors
|
[
"Knowledge transfer",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Corporate communications",
"Investor relations",
"Mental models",
"Responsible investing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One of the central points of debate and discussion surrounding the concept of corporate responsibility (CR) is whether or not a business can benefit from acting responsibly (e.g. Porter and Kramer, 2006; Friedman, 1970). In particular, there is a lot of interest in the relevance of CR for investors, which would have the potential to enhance corporate profitability (see, e.g. Porter and Kramer, 2006; Du et al., 2010).\nRole of dialogue in investor relations: The role of dialogue in the practice of investor relations has been widely documented. While previous literature had considered the use of dialogue in investor communications an utopian ideal, Kelly et al. (2010) found that the majority of Investor Relations Officers (IROs) felt that they engaged in two-way symmetrical communications. The purpose of the two-way symmetrical model of communication is to \"generate a mutual understanding with strategic publics\" (Kelly et al., 2010, p. 204). This means that through communications IROs and investors can attempt to bridge existing differences in understanding the value of information and knowledge being discussed.\nKnowledge transfer: The transfer of knowledge by means of communication requires conveying insights, skills or experiences which cannot be communicated as easily as facts or figures (Universita della Svizzerra Italiana and University of St Gallen, n.d.; Mengis and Eppler, 2008). Ringberg and Reihlen (2008) argue that critical to knowledge transfer are the interpretations made by people; for example two people with the same education, training and profession may conceptualize similar events completely differently.\nMethod: To explore how the concept of knowledge transfer can be applied to understanding the communication of ESG between companies and institutional investors, semi-structured interviews with six European institutional investors as well as investment managers owned by insurance companies and pension funds were conducted.\nFindings: The findings of the study will be presented and discussed in the following sub-sections, according to the three research questions introduced in the Introduction.\nDiscussion and conclusions: To the investors interviewed, integration meant that ESG factors were considered holistically among other factors when making investment decisions and that these factors were mainly assessed from a business perspective. Nevertheless, a variety of different strategies were used to integrate ESG into the investment process. Furthermore, the investment process was characterized by a high level of analysis (i.e. reflective thinking) and investment decisions were often subjective.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of knowledge transfer in the communication of environment, social, governance (ESG) factors between companies and institutional investors, when they attempt to reach a full appreciation and mutual understanding.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical data were gathered through in-depth semi-structured interviews with six European institutional investors. Archival material was used to triangulate the findings.\nFindings: Based on the interviews it was evident that ESG is only one consideration in the investment process and that there are several approaches toward integrating ESG. Furthermore, the investors viewed ESG within a financial framework suggesting that this financial framework is part of their vocational cultural professional mental models. Finally, the results indicate that investors attempt to reach a mutual understanding of ESG by carrying out an active dialogue with target companies.\nPractical implications: The study indicates that companies should discuss/approach? ESG issues from a financial perspective. The findings also suggest that companies should emphasize the role of dialogue when communicating with investors in order to develop a mutual understanding of the company's ESG performance. Finally, by proactively discussing ESG with investors, companies will not only play a role in developing the knowledge base of capital markets regarding ESG, but this will also offer an opportunity for companies to explicate their own communication agenda.\nOriginality/value: The paper develops a framework for communicating ESG between companies and institutional investors. The framework depicts the diverging mental models of the two parties.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessment of user's satisfaction with neighbourhood facilities in public housing estates in Akure, Nigeria
|
[
"Availability",
"Accessibility",
"Satisfaction",
"Facilities",
"Housing estates",
"Neighbourhood"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Neighbourhood environments remain the most fundamental basis of life to urban residents because the place where they spend most of their lives affects their health, economic, mental and social well-being (Rashid et al., 2013). Neighbourhood facilities have long been thought of as vital components of any adequately planned housing environment. Neighbourhood facilities are planned to promote cohesion of residents and thus, promote the well-being of residents (Hafazah, 2008). Properly planned facilities in housing environments promote desirable educational outcomes and help to achieve broader objectives such as responsible citizenship and social cohesion (Hassanain, 2008). Thus, the nature of the neighbourhood facilities in the housing environment has a bearing on how the residents perceive their neighbourhood. This provides a nexus between neighbourhood satisfaction and satisfaction with neighbourhood facilities.\n2. Related literature: Andersen (2008) posited that residential satisfaction is a combination of two interdependent aspects: housing and neighbourhood satisfaction. These two are related because a house cannot exist on its own but is situated in an environment. Residential environmental quality and satisfaction are basic requirements for good quality of life, in addition to being the main support for culture, society and economic activities (Rashid et al., 2013). Literature for this study was drawn from user's satisfaction with neighbourhood facilities and how access to, adequacy of, and quality of these facilities determine or predict this phenomenon.\n3. Methodology: This study relied on primary data collected through structured questionnaire and observations. The instrument was structured according to the study themes to make the questions easy to follow and read by the respondents. The themes of the study are satisfaction with estate facilities, accessibility, adequacy and physical conditions of the estate facilities. The estate facilities were, namely, recreational open spaces, schools, police stations/posts, religious centres, shopping centres, health centres/clinics, fire service stations and event centres. The levels of satisfaction with estate facilities were defined as very dissatisfied, dissatisfied, neutral, satisfied and very satisfied. Accessibility was measured as very inaccessible, inaccessible, fairly accessible, accessible and very accessible. Adequacy was measured as very inadequate, inadequate, fairly adequate, adequate, very adequate, whereas physical condition was measured as very poor, poor, fair, good and very good. The respondents were asked to select their preferred options from the available ones. The questionnaire was administered in three public housing estates, namely, Ijapo (IHE), Alagbaka (AHE) and Oba-Ile Housing Estates (OIHE). The number of housing units in IHE is 600, whereas for AHE and OIHE are 508 and 721, respectively. This brings the total housing units for the study area to 1,829 buildings. The sample size for the study is 318, which was generated using Sample Size Table by Bartlett et al. (2001). The amount of copies of the questionnaire administered in each of the estates was determined according to the proportion of their contribution to the total population size. Simple random sampling technique was used in each of the housing estates to select the samples. However, an additional 10 per cent of the questionnaire was administered for the study to ensure that the percentage return was as close as possible to the sample size. Three-hundred and one (301) copies were retrieved, representing 94.6 percentage returns. Mean scoring and categorical regression were used in the analysis for this research. A Confidence level of 95 per cent was used for analysis in this study.\n4. Results and discussion: Table I shows the satisfaction ratings of respondents with the estate facilities in the study area. The ratings of each of the values were in Likert scale. The scales are \"very dissatisfied\" (1), \"dissatisfied\" (2), \"neutral\" (3), \"satisfied\" (4) and \"very satisfied\" (5). The numerical information identified were converted to a two-point scale of one (1) and two (2), where one (1) through three (3) on the five point scale were coded as one (1) for \"dissatisfied\" (D), and four (4) to five (5) were coded as two (2) for \"satisfied\" (S). Table II shows the accessibility ratings of respondents with the estate facilities in the study area. The ratings of each of the values were in Likert scale. The scales are \"not available\" (0), \"very inaccessible\" (1), \"inaccessible\" (2), \"fairly accessible\" (3), \"accessible\" (4) and \"very accessible\" (5). The numerical information identified was converted to a three-point scale of one (1), two (2) and three (3). One (1) and two (2) on the five point scale were coded as one (1) for \"inaccessible\" (I); three became two (2) for \"fairly accessible\" (F); four (4) and five (5) were coded as three (3) for \"accessible\" (A) and \"not available\" (NA).\n5. Conclusion and implications of the study: This study examined factors that influenced user's satisfaction with neighbourhood facilities in Akure, Nigeria. It shows how user's satisfaction is influenced by adequacy, accessibility and physical state of the studied facilities. The findings indicate that the residents were satisfied with most of the facilities in the three study estates except for fire service stations, which were found to be dissatisfactory, inadequate, inaccessible and in poor physical condition. The result confirms the findings of previous studies that adequacy, accessibility and physical state of neighbourhood facilities positively influence satisfaction with the facilities and the neighbourhood environment. All the independent variables were significant predictors of satisfaction with neighbourhood facilities except for accessibility to schools. This study has highlighted the importance of having adequate and accessible neighbourhood facilities that are in good physical condition to enhance the utmost satisfaction of users. Moreover, because high level of user's satisfaction indicates high-perceived quality of life, these factors have become very imperative. The information provided by this study will assist policymakers and housing professionals to understand the effects that neighbourhood facilities have on users, with a view to knowing how to improve on the identified shortcomings for future housing. Based on the findings, it is recommended that planning for public housing as well as its concomitant neighbourhood facilities should be effectively implemented within the framework of public housing delivery system in Nigeria to enhance adequacy, accessibility and the physical conditions of the facilities. Whereas this research has shown that, the residents are satisfied with most of the facilities in the study area, there is room for improvement. However, urgency is required in providing adequate and accessible fire service stations in the study area.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims at evaluating the state of neighbourhood facilities and how this influences the well-being of the residents taking into consideration their perception and satisfaction with the facilities. This is because availability and accessibility of neighbourhood facilities in housing estates play important roles in the quality of life of the residents.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper adopts a cross-sectional survey of 301 housing units using structured questionnaire and direct observations in three public housing estates in Akure, namely, Ijapo, Alagbaka and Oba-Ile Housing Estates. Data obtained were analysed using descriptive analysis, mean scoring and categorical regression analysis to examine the effects of adequacy, accessibility and physical condition of the neighbourhood facilities on user's satisfaction.\nFindings: The findings showed that religious centres had the highest rating in all aspects of the study in the study estates, whereas fire service station was rated the least. Most of the independent variables significantly explained satisfaction except for accessibility to schools. The model explained 98.2 per cent of the variance in the level of satisfaction with Multiple R2 of 0.982 and p = 0.000.\nPractical implications: The findings imply that there should be proper planning and regular maintenance of neighbourhood facilities within the housing estates in Akure to enhance user's satisfaction with such facilities.\nOriginality/value: The study highlights the benefits of having neighbourhood facilities that are adequate, accessible and in good condition to enhance user's satisfaction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Phase-based analysis of key cost and schedule performance causes and preventive strategies: Research trends and implications
|
[
"Design",
"Schedule performance",
"Cost overruns",
"Delay",
"Estimating",
"Construction planning",
"Engineering phase",
"Construction phase",
"Procurement phase",
"Optimization strategies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The construction industry is a major contributor to a nation's economy. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it contributes 14 percent of the gross domestic product (Faridi and El-Sayegh, 2006). It is a complex industry that is constantly changing (Lee et al., 2005). From the very first stage of a project to its completion, it involves several parties, a vast range of processes with many inputs and multiple phases (Prakash and Nandhini, 2015). The success of a project can be attributed to efficient implementation of three important phases: the engineering/design phase, the procurement phase and the construction phase (Ballard, 1993; Mahmoud-Jouini et al., 2004; Yeo and Ning, 2002). The construction performance in each phase is affected by three main attributes: time, cost and quality (The Iron Triangle) (Atkinson, 1999; Chua et al., 1999; Munns and Bjeirmi, 1996). Since quality is abstract and difficult to define, it receives the least attention, even outside the construction industry (Mintzberg, 1982).\nMethodology: To fulfill the objectives of this study, over 200 journal articles, conference papers, dissertations and research reports were studied. More than half of all of the papers were journal articles, followed by conference papers; a few of them were dissertations and reports.\nResearch results: Engineering phase\nDiscussion of results: All of the cost and time performance factors in the construction industry were identified from over 200 papers and were classified into the following 13 groups: change, consultant, labor, client, contractor, material, equipment, external, project, management, subcontractor, planning-scheduling-estimating (P-S-E) and contract. According to the original papers, each factor was distributed to the related EPC phases; then they were separated into categories of cost performance and schedule performance in each EPC phase. Ultimately, 121 performance factors were identified, and the frequency of occurrence of each factor was calculated from literature to find most frequent performance factors.\nConclusion and future work: The construction industry strongly impacts the economy of a country, making it a popular subject of debate among construction practitioners and scholars. It suffers from inconsistent lists of schedule/cost performance factors and lack of preventive strategies to address the issues. Most previous studies focused on the construction phase since it consists of majority of construction activities. More than 200 papers were studied to identify the KPFs and their preventative strategies in the various EPC phases. These studies were based on the industry, year of study, location, data analysis techniques and data collection practices. Ultimately, the identified factors were ranked according to the frequency of their occurrence in literature to deal with inconsistency issue and then were categorized into 13 groups. The most frequent factors affecting the cost and schedule performance of each EPC phase were recognized separately, and the recommended prevention strategies have been presented in this paper. Design change was found to be the KPF having the most significant effect on the schedule/cost performance of the engineering and construction phases. It was also found that the schedule performance of procurement phase is highly affected by a shortage of resources. This factor, along with price fluctuations and poor economic conditions can increase the cost of the procurement phase. Other schedule/cost performance factors are the owner's untimely decision making, poor communication between stakeholders, poor site management and supervision, client's financial issues and severe weather conditions which mainly influence engineering and construction phases.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: It is estimated that more than half of the construction industry's projects encounter significant cost overruns and major delays, resulting in the industry having a tarnished reputation. Therefore, it is crucial to identify key project cost and schedule performance factors. However, despite the attempts of numerous researchers, their results have been inconsistent. Most of the literature has focused solely on the construction phase budget and time overruns; the engineering/design and procurement phase costs and schedule performances have been rarely studied. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The objective of this study was primarily to identify and prioritize engineering, procurement and construction key performance factors (KPFs) and to strategize ways to prevent performance delays and cost overruns. To achieve these objectives, more than 200 peer-reviewed journal papers, conference proceedings and other scholarly publications were studied and categorized based on industry type, physical location, data collection and analysis methods.\nFindings: It was concluded that both the time required to complete engineering/construction phases and the cost of completing them can be significantly affected by design changes. The two main causes of delays and cost overruns in the procurement phase are construction material shortages and price fluctuations. Other factors affecting all phases of the project are poor economic condition, equipment and labor shortages, delays in owners' timely decision making, poor communication between stakeholders, poor site management and supervision, clients' financial issues and severe weather conditions. A list of phase-based strategies which address the issue of time/cost overruns is presented herein.\nOriginality/value: The findings of this study address the potential confusion of the industry's practitioners related to the inconsistent list of potential KPFs and their preventive measurements, and pave the way for the construction research community to conduct future performance-related studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Making institutional accounting research critical: dead end or new beginning?
|
[
"Institutional theory",
"Accounting",
"Critical realism",
"Critical theory",
"Research paradigms"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Theoretical pluralism constitutes the hallmark of the inter-disciplinary accounting research project (Baxter and Chua, 2003; Llewellyn, 2003) and has recently been subject to closer scrutiny and debate (e.g. Hoque et al., 2013; Jacobs, 2012, 2013; Malsch and Guenin-Paracini, 2013; Modell, 2013). One important motivation for such pluralism is that it may give voice to a multiplicity of interests and mitigate the propensity of particular theoretical perspectives to privilege dominant constituencies and potentially oppressive social orders. As such, it may further democratic debate in organisations and society by challenging the hegemony of particular ways of seeing the world. Nevertheless, the views of how to accomplish this aim diverge. Whilst some scholars seem content with promoting ostensibly value-neutral approaches to inter-disciplinary accounting research (e.g. Covaleski et al., 2003; Hoque et al., 2013), others insist that such research needs to embody some critical, or emancipatory intent explicitly aimed at engendering democratic debate and dialogue (e.g. Bebbington et al., 2007; Brown, 2009; Brown and Dillard, 2013; Roslender and Dillard, 2003).\nAnalytical framework: In so far as the problem of ontological drift is concerned, the combination of institutional and critical theories poses an intricate set of challenges. These challenges will only be outlined in principle here whilst the ensuing sections of the paper pay more focused attention to how they manifest themselves in more specific strands of research. Given the dispersion of critical theories across the objectivist/subjectivist continuum often used to classify social theories of organisations (cf. Burrell and Morgan, 1979), it is pertinent to take this as a starting point for unpacking the problem of ontological drift. Whilst critical accounting research has drawn on a gamut of theories with ontological affiliations ranging from a conception of reality as an objective (or objectified) and relatively stable entity to a more subjectivist view of the world as socially constructed and inherently indeterminate, it is united by an epistemological commitment to engendering human emancipation through radical social critique (Cooper and Hopper, 2007; Hopper and Powell, 1985). By contrast, institutional theories have allegedly proved wanting of such emancipatory or critical intent as a result of subscribing to a conservative, normal science tradition geared towards continuous conceptual refinement and cumulative theory development, whilst vacillating between objectivist and more subjectivist ontological positions (Cooper et al., 2008). This has led a number of critics to argue that much institutional research has followed an essentially positivist epistemology privileging a distanced and objectivist mode of knowledge formation over engagements with the more subjective, lived experiences of marginalised actors to engender politically engaged scholarship (e.g. Clegg, 2010; Cooper et al., 2008; Zald and Lounsbury, 2010). In contradistinction, at least some critical theories have nurtured a more subjectivist epistemological position as a means of realising the emancipatory potential of research subjects (see Burrell and Morgan, 1979; Cooper and Hopper, 2007; Hopper and Powell, 1985).\nOn the possibilities of critical institutional theory: Since its emergence in the late 1970s, institutional theory has undergone a number of significant ontological and epistemological shifts but has also evolved into an increasingly fragmented body of research underpinned by slightly different paradigmatic orientations. One such shift arguably emerged at a relatively early stage of its development. Meyer and Rowan's (1977) seminal article firmly located the institutional research project in a social constructivist ontology based on a view of institutions as a product of human agency and social deliberations. However, the epistemology effectively evolving to examine processes of institutionalisation in the 1980s tended to reify a view of the world as constituted by highly rationalised, or objectified, structures with a strongly constraining effect on human agency (see Bowring, 2000; Meyer et al., 1994; Tolbert and Zucker, 1996). This shift in ontology was arguably reinforced by the adoption of a pronounced macro-level perspective and the employment of quantitative techniques as the standard method of exploring tendencies towards institutional isomorphism in organisational fields and cross-sectional differences between fields (Greenwood et al., 2008; Schneiberg and Clemens, 2006). Given the epistemologically induced nature of this shift, it would be erroneous to refer to it as an instance of ontological drift. We rather see a concomitant movement towards objectivist ontological and epistemological positions that were broadly consistent with the positivist tradition dominating especially North-American sociology at the time (cf. Bowring, 2000; Clegg, 2010). However, the bracketing of notions of human agency reinforced tendencies towards downwards conflation at an early stage of the development of new institutional sociology.\nMaking institutional accounting research critical: the state of play: Whilst the spectrum of what counts as critical accounting research is very broad only some of these approaches have had a notable impact on institutional accounting research. The following review is confined to studies that combine institutional and critical theories with the explicit ambition of rendering research more politically engaged and enhancing its emancipatory potential. The review follows a largely \"naturalistic\" approach (see Kakkuri-Knuuttila et al., 2008) where the principal aim is to analyse whether tendencies towards ontological drift and conflation are observable in extant research practices although I also comment more generally on whether such problems may be overcome. Following such an approach, the review focuses on research combining institutional approaches with insights gleaned from the works of Jurgen Habermas, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu[6]. The overall conclusion is that none of these extant combinations seem to be capable of fully addressing the dual problems of ontological drift and conflation. The question of how to make institutional accounting research critical without succumbing to such perils is then discussed further in the penultimate section of the paper.\nTowards a paradigmatically consistent research approach: In advancing a combination of institutional research with insights from critical realism some initial qualifications and clarifications are warranted. Despite its name critical realism has been criticised for privileging its status as a philosophy of science, geared towards developing explanatory models of social development, over its evolution into a programme of radical social critique and political activism. Whilst the founder of the critical realist movement, Roy Bhaskar, has repeatedly argued that the social sciences contain an inherent emancipatory impulse (e.g. Bhaskar, 1986, 2002), the degree to which such aspirations are realised in critical realist inquiries has been questioned by scholars with Marxist (e.g. Brown et al., 2002; Gunn, 1989; Roberts, 1999) as well as post-structuralist sympathies (e.g. Willmott, 2005). A similar neglect of the implications of critical realism for political engagement is discernible in institutional research (e.g. Delbridge and Edwards, 2013; Leca and Naccache, 2006; Mutch, 2007) and emerging accounting studies (e.g. Ashraf and Uddin, 2013; Modell, 2009; Mutiganda, 2013; Stergiou et al., 2013) using it as a basis for explanation and conceptual refinement. As noted by Mutch (2005), however, much of the criticism of critical realism for lacking a clearly articulated political agenda has been directed at Bhaskar's foundational works and is not necessarily inherent in the larger critical realist programme. Whilst the distinctiveness of critical realism primarily resides in its ontological conception of explanatory powers, it is by no means impotent as a source of political critique and activism. But as Collier (1998, p. 465) observes, critical realism does not constitute an \"all-or-nothing\" form of critique ascribing a universal capacity for emancipation to social actors. The ensuing discussion follows such a lead and advances a contingent conception of the ontological conditions under which emancipation is possible and likely and then goes on to outline some epistemological implications of incorporating such an understanding into institutional accounting research.\nConcluding remarks: This paper has pondered the question of whether accounting research combining institutional and critical theories may engender human emancipation and thus contribute to democratic debate and dialogue in organisations and society. In doing so, I have paid specific attention to whether such research represents a scholarly impasse condemned to implode under the weight of paradigmatic tensions or a promising trajectory that may provide deeper insights into the wider social implications of institutional processes and a platform for effective, critical research interventions. I have demonstrated how extant research practices give cause for some concern in this regard. In particular, the failure to deal effectively with the issues of ontological drift and conflation may reinforce the view that institutional and critical research are better off as separate projects (cf. Cooper et al., 2008; Lounsbury, 2003). However, I have sought to outline how a paradigmatically consistent approach to rendering institutional research more politically engaged can be nurtured and how this fits in with recent advances in critical realism as well as more general developments in institutional accounting research. Following the tenor of critical realism, I have argued that this requires the adoption of a \"stratified\" ontology that makes a clear temporal distinction between objective, structural conditions and subjective processes of identity formation. It is through the interplay between such structural conditions and subjective experiences and deliberations that varying degrees of reflexive agency become manifest and enable agents to engage in projects of emancipation. This results in a contingent view of the possibilities and sustainability of reflexive agency and emancipation in organisational fields. Similarly, I have outlined some epistemological implications pivoting on a contingent view of when and how institutional research may entail interventions that facilitate emancipation and how this may be turned into a more widely accepted or institutionalised practice. Hence rather than constituting a paradigmatic \"dead end\", the efforts to make institutional accounting research critical may be seen as emerging from an embryonic state but certainly having the potential to form a \"new beginning\" for scholars interested in expanding the vistas of institutional analyses whilst becoming politically engaged.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review extant accounting research combining institutional and critical theories to examine whether the paradigmatic tensions associated with such research can be alleviated whilst engendering politically engaged scholarship aimed at facilitating processes of emancipation in organisational fields.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper provides a review of relevant accounting research and offers recommendations for how to combine institutional and critical research approaches in a paradigmatically consistent way.\nFindings: Extant accounting research combining institutional and critical theories has not dealt effectively with the partly inter-related problems of ontological drift (i.e. misalignment of ontological assumptions and epistemological commitments) and the conflation of notions of agency and structure. If such problems remain unaddressed institutional research aimed at generating politically engaged scholarship and human emancipation is unlikely to progress in a paradigmatically consistent direction. Recommendations for how to address these issues, grounded in recent advances in critical realism, are elaborated upon. This results in a contingent view of the ontological possibilities of emancipation in organisational fields as well as the epistemological premises that need to be filled to engender processes of emancipation.\nOriginality/value: The paper reviews an emerging body of research seeking to radicalise institutional accounting research and enhance its contributions to democratic debate in organisations and society. It also outlines how some pertinent paradigmatic tensions associated with such research may be addressed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Drivers and barriers of omni-channel retailing in China: A case study of the fashion and apparel industry
|
[
"China",
"E-commerce",
"Case study",
"Online retailing",
"Omni-channel",
"Fast fashion"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As the digital world evolves, omni-channel has become a game changer for retail industry transforming the traditional independent paths to purchase with a seamless universal purchase model (Bell et al., 2014; Wasserman, 2015). Evolving from the concept of multi-channel retailing, omni-channel retailing is defined as an integration of cross channels business model that retailers use to improve customer experiences (Avery et al., 2013; Verhoef et al., 2015). The boundary between online and offline shopping tends to vanish with the adoption of omni-channel model, turning the retail world into a showroom without walls (Brynjolfsson et al., 2013). Meanwhile, the rise of advanced technology on smart phones and other devices enabling constant real-time information shift the retail industry toward a concierge model geared for helping consumers rather than focusing only on transactions and deliveries (Yrjola, 2014; Rapp et al., 2015; Pauwels and Neslin, 2015). Compared with the multi-channel retailing, omni-channel retailing facilitates coherent and absolute channel integration, giving customers a completely unified shopping experience. Under the rapidly changing retail landscape, traditional businesses that rely on geographical barriers and customer ignorance to gain market advantage often require to formulate their competitive strategies again (Dorman, 2013; Bell et al., 2015) and encounter a series of challenges during channel transformation (Picot-Coupey et al., 2016; Melero et al., 2016). These challenges include, but not limited to, lack of fully integrated fulfillment processes, isolation of information databases and misaligned corporate motivations (Lewis et al., 2014; Hubner, Holzapfel and Kuhn, 2016; Hubner, Wollenburg and Holzapfel, 2016).\n2. Literature review: Omni channel is a cross-channel business model that companies use to improve customer experience. Frost and Sullivan (2015, p. 4) defined omni-channel business as \"seamless and effortless, high quality customer experiences which occur within and between contact channels.\" Omni-channel retailing is an expansion of multi-channel retailing (Verhoef et al., 2015). The major difference between the two is the level of integration. Multi-channel is usually identified as non-integrated way to approach customers while omni-channel requires coherent and absolute integration (Kersmark and Staflund, 2015). Table I compares the differences of omni-channel and multi-channel operation.\n3. Methodology: Considering that the research context of the present study is a newly emerging market with high contextual dynamism and complexity, a qualitative research approach is adopted. According to Yin (2013), qualitative studies are particularly suited to exploring complex phenomena in natural and new research settings. As the research questions are largely exploratory, involving detailed observations (e.g. classifications of types of phenomena into enablers and inhibitors) and discovering reasons behind the varied market features (influenced by factors of country specifics, retailer specifics and customer behavior), a qualitative case study is considered to be the most appropriate research strategy (Eisenhardt, 1989). According to Golicic et al. (2005), qualitative case study provides researchers with access to deeper levels of understanding of new or complex phenomena by yielding a high level of detail, which serves the exploratory purpose of this research. Tewksbury (2009) also states that, compared to quantitative research which is more confirmatory than exploratory, knowledge gained through qualitative investigation is more informative and rich offering an enhanced understanding.\n4. Findings and discussions: This section discusses the background and the process of migration to omni-channel for each case. Then, key drivers and barriers in realizing channel integration are summarized from three perspectives: marketing; supply chain and logistics; and organizational management.\n5. Conclusion: Retailers may have different motivations for implementing omni-channel retailing and encounter various difficulties in the process of implementation. As a theoretical contribution, this study identifies a set of drivers and barriers for omni-channel retailing in developed markets, and classifies them from three perspectives. Guided by the classification, this research explores the roles and impacts these drivers and barriers play in omni-channel adoption in the growing Chinese retail market. Through in-depth interviews with two large fashion retailers in China, with onsite observations and review of company documents, this study reveals the operational variations (enablers and inhibitors) due to contextual differences in omni-channel retailing in the Chinese market. The findings reveal that the drivers and the barriers to omni-channel retailing reported in previous studies conducted in developed economies also apply in the developing economies of China. Despite the institutional setting, the roles and impacts of the drivers and the barriers are observed to be the same as that in the Western mature markets. For example, both companies investigated in this study use omni-channel to expand their market share and enhance product promotion. This aligns with the practices observed in the developed economies. Certain barriers, such as inability to leverage an integrated supply chain process across multiple channels to improve efficiency and loss of vision and leadership, are also found in both cases which is again similar to those reported in the literature. However, the company with successful transformation, LuxuryCo, seems to be able to leverage all the drivers and remove most of the barriers whereas the less successful one CasualCo shows an opposite situation. For example, LuxuryCo focuses not only on market share but also customer service and product innovation in the transformation. CasualCo cares mainly for market share and product promotion. As a result, it fails to capture fully the value of omni-channel retailing. This observation corroborates the significance of a total understanding of the objective and the true value of omni-channel prior to adoption. While LuxuryCo is able to eliminate many of the barriers along the path to omni-channel through proper planning, CasualCo faces many challenges in the omni-channel transformation, including the lack of consistency in managing product lines and prices across channels as well as inability to develop a unified IS. This observation shows the importance of proper strategy formulation and operational planning in the success of omni-channel adoption.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the drivers and barriers to omni-channel retailing in China, and attempts to understand how companies formulate their business strategies during their transformations to omni-channel retailing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study adopts an exploratory case study approach to investigate the omni-channel retailing transformations of two well-established Chinese fashion apparel retailers. The study draws on multiple sources of evidence, comprising: interviews with eight business executives from three major operational departments; on-site observations in firm's retail stores, factories and distribution centres; and secondary data review of firm business reports, news, whitepapers and archival records. The findings are established through a consistent within-case data analysis and cross-case comparison.\nFindings: The study reveals that the two retailers formulated different strategies in developing their omni-channels, and exhibited different degrees of success. The similarities and differences in the drivers, as well as the barriers, were analyzed and compared in this study. Operational variations (i.e. enablers and inhibitors) due to the unique context of the Chinese market were also explored. The findings reveal that coherent leveraging firm resources and capabilities from the three perspectives - marketing, logistics and supply chain, and organizational management - is critical to the full implementation of omni-channel retailing. They provide relevant managerial insights that can assist firms in formulating appropriate strategic action plans during the transformations.\nOriginality/value: As a theoretical contribution, this paper identifies a set of drivers and barriers for omni-channel retailing in the developed market, and classifies them into three categories: marketing; logistics and supply chain; and organizational management. The empirical-based qualitative analysis reveals the key factors impacting on omni-channel retailing within the Chinese market, and suggests a series of practical implications for local retailers planning to embark on omni-channel retailing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Measuring value-leverage in aerospace supply chains
|
[
"Aerospace industry",
"Supply chain management",
"Value‐leverage",
"Large‐scale system integrator",
"Value time‐curves"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Value has been a natural phenomenon to express the perceived usefulness of a product or service at a specific moment in time for a customer. Added value was an economic term to express profit that is generated by the focal firm. Creating profitable value used to be a measurement of wealth for a company. The profit came from either the customers paying a price or the suppliers causing costs for the focal firm. The authors describe value-leverage as the capability of a large-scale system integrator (LSSI, the focal firm) (Petrick, 2007) to generate value by \"producing\" a part of the total demand value of the chain and lever the remaining value on the supply chain. In this way, the supply chain \"produces\" the remaining part of the total value. Levering value to the supply chain includes risk-sharing suppliers that are involved in the co-development and co-production (Chesbrough, 2003). The LSSI company contributes with its own unique value such as technology development and integration, and interacts as a \"value flow processor\" between demand and supply to process the \"inflow\" of value towards suppliers and the \"outflow\" of value towards the customers. Creating profitable value nowadays requires a balance between what the customer wants (demand chain), the focal company unique value contribution (own chain), and the suppliers (supply chain). The focal LSSI company leverages value on suppliers to satisfy the demand by customers.The research complies with the supply chain operations portfolio of the Delft Centre for Aviation, a Department of the Technical University of Delft. Therefore, this papers deals with aerospace industry.During the preliminary research it was discovered that there were no indicators for measuring the value leverage effect of aerospace original equipment manufactures (OEM's) and aircraft LSSI's. That is why this paper reports on the research into the value leverage measurement, describing next to the found indicators also the principles behind it. The following main research question was the starting point of the research:RQ. How to measure value-leverage by LSSIs in the aerospace industry?Based on this main research question three sub questions steered the research:RQ1. What indicators do express value-leverage?RQ2. Are these indicators related?RQ3. Can these indicators measure the value-leverage capability of LSSI's in aerospace industry?The research questions are answered through applying the following methodologies.As the preliminary research (literature and open interviews) indicated that there were no measurements available for value leverage in supply chains, a literature research was conducted to find indicators that express value leverage in general. This resulted in an answer to RQ1. For measuring the relation between the indicators (RQ2) the publicly available data from the years 1996 to 2009 of aerospace OEM were analysed. The year 1996 was chosen because earlier yearly reports did not indicate the number of employees (for all of the companies analysed). The year 2009 was chosen for availability reasons (not all, 2010 reports were out while writing this paper).The actual relation between the indicators resulted from the linear least square analysis and time effects in the whole sample (at industry level). The methodology is illustrated in detail in Section 4.To answer RQ3 \"time\" is used as a variable. The idea was that plotting the time curves of the indicators of all the companies in the sample, over the same period (1996-2009) could show (measure) the effects on value leverage by the LSSI's.The structure of this paper is as follows. First some introductory remarks are made, positioning this research and giving definitions of LSSI's and other words used. In Section 3 the indicators are shown, giving the answer to sub RQ1. Section 4 describes the relationship between the variables on an industry level (answer to sub RQ2). Subsequently the time effects are described in Section 5 with testing time curves for the sub group aircraft LSSI's. The paper ends with conclusions, limitations and recommendations for further research.\n2 Introductory remarks: In this section some definitions are given and is the research positioned.2.1 Positioning the LSSI company\n3 Indicators for value leverage: In this section the indicators that express value leverage are described, using the three academic fields described above.3.1 Indicator that results from \"Lean manufacturing and supply chain\"\n4 The relationship between the indicators: The sub RQ2 is: \"Are these indicators related?\". In this section, the answer to this question is given. To find the relationship between the indicators, the framework of Figure 3 was tested using the data of 41 aerospace companies. In this section first the data set and second the methodology are described, next the results are shown.4.1 Data set\n5 Case study on the sub group aircraft LSSI companies: Aircraft LSSI companies are further researched by preliminary testing the variables comparing aircraft LSSI companies on value-leverage performance. The investigated aircraft LSSI companies are (Table I):* Boeing.* EADS.* Embraer.* Bombardier.* Lockheed Martin.* Northrop Grumman.* General Dynamics.* Dassault.The data were gathered from the annual reports and financial web sites, providing enough data for the calculations of the T/E, P/E and RD/E. With the least squares method, the R2 was calculated from correlations between the time series of the variables. From this, the correlation coefficient (R) was calculated and compared to a critical value for different intervals (1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 per cent) and degrees of freedom (eight companies in the sample group leads to a n of six). The significance of the correlation is presented in Table X.Table X shows for the sub group of aircraft LSSI's [df=8-2=6], that the relation T/E-RD/E is statistically significant with a significance level between 2 and 5 per cent.The other relations are not statistically significant within a significance level between 2 and 5 per cent.The correlations for the specific aircraft LSSI's are calculated regarding the value-leverage relations in Table XI. Based upon the significance levels presented in Table X, results of the significance test are presented in Table XII. The average value leverage (AVL) expresses the capability of the aircraft LSSI to leverage value.LSSI's were ranked on their value-leverage performance measured by the correlation of the indicators: continuation, conception and configuration. A high score indicates the aircraft LSSI is beneficially leveraging value on the supply chain. The value is generated by the aircraft LSSI in a more stable manner; the value system is more in balance compared with lower scoring aircraft LSSI's.5.1 Analysis of variables T/E-P/E for aircraft LSSI's\n6 Conclusions on theoretical and practical contribution: In this section the contributions to theory and to practice are described, as well as the limitations and recommendations of this study. The paper ends with a small reflection on developments with the new aircrafts A380 (Airbus) and B787 (Boeing).The employee is found by literature research to be the basis and denominator for the indicators continuation, conception and configuration to measure value-leverage by aerospace OEM companies. Value-leverage was measured with a group of 41 aerospace companies on the indicators; continuation, conception and configuration. Value-leverage was measured by the variables P/E, RD/E and P/E over a period of 14 years. For the group of aerospace OEM's a leverage effect in the industry has ben found. Besides the relations between the indicators show an improvement of value leverage over time (always statistically significant).The sub group of aircraft LSSI's is analysed by taking the average R-value of the combined measurements per aircraft LSSI for value-leverage (AVL). On this case level some LSSI's have a high correlation between value-leverage relations, showing a high capability of leverage value. This was found with LSSI's such as Dassault and Lockheed Martin. A second group, composed by General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Boeing could be considered in a medium level of leverage value (AVL=0.66; 0.63 and 0.60, respectively. Finally, a last group of LSSI's (EADS (AVL=0.38), Bombardier (AVL=0.35) and Embraer AVL=0.27)), indicators seem not to be correlated, indicating value-leverage is not in balance.It is confirmed aircraft LSSI companies were shifting value to \"tier\" suppliers as indicated by an increasing T/E. The shift of value was found by theories on Lean manufacturing and supply chain. Aircraft LSSI companies, which have rationalised the supply chain benefit from the shift of value, which is indicated by the relation with the P/E, for the aerospace OEM industry and for some of the aircraft LSSI's specifically.Regarding research and development aircraft LSSI companies are increasing their focus on R&D in combination with involvement of the supply chain and value network for co-development. This is supported by theory on open innovation. For some aircraft LSSI's it seems R&D is weak correlated with the benefits of it.By analysing and measuring value-leverage structured on the analytical framework based on the indicators; continuation, conception and configuration, the research question: \"How to quantify value-leverage by LSSIs for the aerospace OEM industry?\" is answered. Now companies can be measured on their value-leverage capability.Aerospace OEMs and aircraft LSSI's can now be compared on their value-leverage capability measured over a specific period of time. Supply chain rationalisation is important to fain from the leverage effect of involving suppliers, otherwise the LSSI will not benefit from it. From the analysis it seems the aircraft industry has difficulties to judge R&D efforts, and to turn the available R&D efforts into beneficial development of aircraft, matching sufficient demand. It seems there is an unbalance in some cases between R&D efforts and benefits for aircraft manufacturers as sub group of the aerospace industry. As an example, one of the reasons there is an in-balance can be found in the excessive budget and time overruns (2006-2009) regarding the development and introduction of the Airbus A380. This demonstrates the usefulness of the indicators found. Interestingly Airbus announced to introduce principles of Lean manufacturing in 2008 by the Power 8 program.With these indicators value performance of aerospace OEM's can be assessed at a different method compared to the traditional financial reporting, as it is possible now to measure value-leverage and the balance in the value system of the aerospace OEM. The indicators also help management of aerospace LSSI's to improve their value leverage on the supply chain and thus improve the profitability.\n7 Limitations of this study: The study is in its basics exploratory. Researchers had to come up with solutions for available data and the limitations of an industry with only a limited number of companies. The following limitations are to be mentioned:* available data;* aerospace industry; and* indicators.Available data\n8 Recommendations for further research: Aerospace OEM industry needs to be further researched regarding the Engine LSSI's and the system OEM's. It is of interest to measure the difference in value-leverage performance of the separate aerospace industry branches.It is of interest to extend the research regarding the developments around Boeing with the B787. From this analysis it can be expected that Boeing will face an in-balance on value-leverage in the coming years due to development problems and time to market. By extending research over time developments regarding Boeing can be measured.Other industry sectors like automotive, medical and construction as earlier researched by Petrick (2007). They can be researched from this value-leverage perspective as well. It would be of interest to compare in future how these industries perform on value-leverage. They also can serve as a benchmark for the aerospace industry.The search for new variables on value-leverage is interesting for developing a value leverage assessment tool. For instance, it is interesting to know if the found variables can be applied to the automotive industry, indicating, e.g. what was happening with General Motors during the crises in 2008-2009.Besides other industry sectors can be exposed to further research, it is of interest to research Tiers 1 and 2 suppliers as well, until now it is not know if an integrator generates more value or the \"tier suppliers\".It seems that R&D is related to profit per employee (P/E). However, for some aircraft LSSI companies this relation is weak, which is in conflict with continuation of the specific companies. One of the researched companies, which show a large variation of the measured variables, is EADS.By this research support is found for further research on the development of the value-leverage indicators to develop a benchmarking tool for LSSI's in general.\n9 Reflection on Airbus A380 and Boeing B787 developments: This research was stared in 2008, a time were the changes in the A380 production and the start up of B787 looked very promising. Now (in 2011) we know better. Although both Airbus and Boeing are heavily leveraging on the supply chains in order to get the new aircrafts out and flying, they are experiencing problems with their supply chains. For some reasons a few suppliers participated in the new way of working with an old mindset. So participating in co-development (conception in this research) is no guarantee that configuration will be successful. Research into the current supply chains of Airbus and Boeing has to shed light on the mishaps and the measurements that have been taken. Lessons learned from these cases could be fit in the results of the current study to adjust the indicators and improve them in practice.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The traditional value chain has changed under the influence of globalisation, lean thinking and the value leverage towards suppliers in the supply chain. The leverage of value by the focal original equipment manufacturer (OEM)-company to the supply chain has caused the focal OEM-company to transform into a large-scale system integrator (LSSI). The LSSI was defined according to the Petrick's definition. Indicators that measure the value-leverage by these LSSI companies have not been found in literature. The purpose of this paper is to describe indicators that measure value-leverage and illustrates that LSSI companies in the aerospace industry have a value-leverage capability, using these indicators.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors' main research question is: \"How to measure value-leverage by LSSIs in the aerospace industry?\". As value-leverage indicators have not been studied before, a literature study was carried out to develop a set of indicators which were tested in a quantitative analysis, using secondary data from 41 aerospace companies. Second, the value-leverage indicators were applied to the aircraft LSSIs. The industry samples consisted of the global companies in the aircraft OEM industry and the relevant financial and company data were collected from the companies' public financial data, spanning a time frame of 14 years (1996 to 2009). A case study was performed on large-scale aircraft system integrators, as a sample of the aerospace OEM industry, to demonstrate the effects of value-leverage by aircraft LSSI companies.\nFindings: - With the new indicators, this research shows value leverage of aerospace OEMs and aircraft LSSIs as a sub group of the sample. The related indicators showed a change in leverage over time, indicating the leverage capability of aerospace OEMs. More in-depth analysis on aircraft LSSI companies showed that aircraft LSSI with high correlation on the value-leverage variables are more in value balance compared with aircraft LSSI companies scoring lower on the variables.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research has been limited to the aerospace OEMs. Data from secondary (public) sources were used, such as financial reports over a period of 14 years. Further research is necessary to develop indicators for other sectors of industries, such as automotive, medical instruments and construction, as well as to further improve the understanding of the outcomes of this study.\nPractical implications: - The new indicators measure value-leverage of aerospace OEMs in general and aircraft LSSI companies. These companies could be compared on their capability of value-leverage. Management of these firms can use the indicators to further improve their capability of value-leverage on the supply chain regarding co-development and co-production of aircraft and related systems.\nSocial implications: - It is useful for the executive management of aircraft LSSIs to balance the value leverage of their companies regarding R&D, customer demand and supply chain based production.\nOriginality/value: - The paper identifies indicators that measure the capability of the aerospace OEMs to leverage value on supply chains. The found indicators form a preliminary model, which contributes to the usage of theories on lean manufacturing, supply chain management, value networks and open innovation.\n",
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] |
Testing an attribute-benefit-value-intention (ABVI) model of local food consumption as perceived by foreign tourists
|
[
"Consumption",
"Value",
"Local food",
"Attribute",
"Benefit"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is increasing interest in local food tourism. However, a thorough literature review revealed a significant research gap. First, most food tourism studies have independently investigated local food attributes, benefits, values and future intentions without understanding of causal relationships of these constructs (Choe and Kim, 2018). Little effort to assess the role of local food attributes in explaining benefits, value and future intentions has been made. Second, no empirical study has used quantitative methods to examine the structural relationships between multi-dimensional local food attributes and behavioral intentions through benefits and consumption value. By conducting such a study, it is possible to understand any relationships among the meanings of local food in a tourism destination, their effect on consumption and their association with actual local food tourism.\nLiterature review and hypotheses: This section describes the dyadic relationships between the four constructs. The proposed structural model comprising multiple hypotheses is depicted in Figure 1. The overall model elucidates the sequential process of perception of a foreign tourist who experiences local food in a tourism location: that is, he/she perceives food benefits which are linked to final value through consuming food attributes.\nMethodology: Measurement\nResults: Demographic profile and travel-related characteristics\nDiscussion and implications: Based on the above results, the key findings of the study are discussed as follows. First, the characteristics and features of local food were influential in explaining both emotional benefit and epistemic benefit. For example, tourists who perceived a local restaurant as clean, exhibiting value for money and having an exotic ambience were more likely to seek a higher level of emotional and epistemic benefits. This result is consistent with studies that have found a strong relationship between local food attributes such as food quality, food novelty and restaurant quality and customers' perceived benefits (Barrena and Sanchez, 2013; Meretse et al., 2016; Mkono et al., 2013). This finding provides evidence of the \"self-relevant consequences\" that consumers believe they will gain from the consumption of a product (Grunert, 1995). It demonstrates how local food characteristics (e.g. food quality, food novelty, restaurant quality) are closely linked to tourists' self-relevant consequences such as generating excitement, discovering new tastes and learning about another culture.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the attribute-benefit-value-intention (ABVI) model of local food consumption as perceived by foreign tourists. The model was designed to test the structural relationships between local food attributes, perceived benefits, consumption value and behavioral intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The structural relationships of foreign tourists' perceptions of local food consumption were conceptualized, and hypotheses were proposed. The main survey was conducted using a large sample of 1,323 tourists in Hong Kong.\nFindings: \"Food quality\", \"food novelty\" and \"restaurant quality\" significantly affected \"emotional\" and \"epistemic benefit\". \"Emotional benefit\" had a significant effect on \"consumption value\" and \"behavioral intention\", while \"epistemic benefit\" only influenced \"consumption value\".\nPractical implications: Local food marketers and DMOs need to promote the product features that are relevant to tourists' benefits. Restaurant marketers need to develop distinctive strategies for tourists from different national backgrounds.\nOriginality/value: This study proposed and empirically tested a new model of tourists' local food consumption, including two benefits, consumption value and behavioral intention.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Young women and the co-construction of leadership
|
[
"Education",
"Leadership",
"Women",
"Age groups",
"Individual development",
"New Zealand"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Leadership research is frequently aimed at educational administrators, principals and senior teachers (Sergiovanni, 1992; Wallin, 2003) and within the field of educational leadership research studies on young people are noticeably absent (MacNeil, 2006; Libby et al., 2006; Ricketts and Rudd, 2002; Schneider et al., 2002). Interestingly, the last five years have illustrated an increase in the area of youth leadership research. Studies about student perceptions of leadership and approaches to students learning about leadership have come to the fore as society grapples with balancing deficit views of young people and the delivery of positive youth development approaches (see Arendt and Gregoire, 2006; Cress et al., 2001; MacGregor, 2007). However, the majority of this research has focused on university students who have been identified as leaders within their institutions and seeks to ascertain the leadership characteristics and skills required to fulfil prescribed roles within that institution. There is limited research on youth leadership development in high school contexts and more specifically, research focusing on young women. This research answers a call from Mullen and Tuten (2004) who plead that more research about young women and leadership development is essential if \"new ideas and improved practices are [to be] produced within the imperfect systems of secondary education\" (p. 292).Schools are often seen as prime places for young women to learn about leadership and it seems nearly every high school expresses a commitment to the development of students as leaders. Mission statements exude promises of practicing citizenship and developing well-rounded individuals and some schools even offer specialized programmes with the aim of helping students to develop their leadership skills (Boatman, 1999; Cress et al., 2001; Rogers, 1991; Shertzer et al., 2005). Such purposes are founded on the belief that formal leadership development opportunities are essential to provide youth with the skills and concepts necessary to make positive changes across peer groups, schools and the community (Funk, 2002). Researchers argue that despite this, many current approaches to youth leadership development fail to meet the needs of young people and are often tokenistic in their application. These opportunities lack the authenticity required for meaningful engagement, leadership capacity building and the sustainability of leadership learning resulting in a number of researchers demanding closer attention to be paid to the way that young people learn about leadership (Pittmam et al., 2002; Thomsen, 2004). Furthermore, Kezar and Moriarty (2000) called for those who work in this area of youth development to recognize that perceptions of leadership differ between genders and that leadership development processes differ amongst groups of students and practitioners should plan learning opportunities accordingly.Although researchers acknowledge a difference between adult and youth leadership development, when leadership development opportunities are presented to young people, they are often designed with reference to research and models that are focused on adults who are managers in businesses and organizations or administrators involved in the management of a school (MacNeil, 2006; Posner, 2004). Klau (2006) posits \"... at worst leadership programs are described as an almost negative space into which practitioners project their own beliefs about what youth need\" (p. 60). Siedentop (1995) proposes that within these programmes the teaching approaches usually fall back on adult pedagogies situated within traditional traits-based approaches to learning leadership. Current researchers in the field of youth leadership even admit to creating youth leadership development approaches based upon adult leadership constructs, due to the lack of youth research (for example Schneider et al., 2002).There is a call from students in schools and researchers alike (Fertman and van Linden, 1999; Libby et al., 2006; Saunders, 2005) for leadership learning to be more sustainable and relevant to the lives of young people, not just their roles and responsibilities within the school community. It is therefore timely that MacNeil and McClean (2006) call for authenticity in youth leadership development and demand:... we [adults] must create opportunities for young people to do more than hear stories of great leadership or participate in skills-building activities. We must work to create those contexts and relationships where young people can engage in the action of leadership, where they can practice and demonstrate leadership in an authentic and meaningful way (p. 100).It was therefore no coincidence that this research was designed around a collaborative framework. Collaboration is believed to be an essential ingredient for authentic leadership development to occur and Kress (2006) purports that providing an environment where young people feel and are able to be part of a supportive group and where opportunities for active participation are valued and encouraged are important aspects which lend themselves to the success of this occurring. Similarly, Libby et al. (2006) state that \"as partners in leadership, ideally young people and adults come together to plan, problem solve, learn and strengthen their relationships with each others and in the community\" (p. 22). They encourage those involved in youth leadership education to expand their understanding about what youth leadership can be, stating:Our thinking about youth leadership development may be better informed by a broader, more contextual approach that incorporates the unique experiences of the individual, the larger context of the leadership practice, and the specific opportunities for voice, influence and decision making (Libby et al., 2006, p. 39).This collaboration took place in what is described in positive youth development literature as youth-adult partnerships. Mitra (2008) defines these youth-adult partnerships as \"relationships in which both youth and adults have the potential to contribute to visioning and decision making processes, to learn from one another, and promote change\" (p. 222). She acknowledges many benefits of such arrangements ranging from teachers and students working together to gain an outcome that neither group could have reached alone, through to addressing equity issues and injustices. Youth-adult partnerships are based on mutuality between youth and adults in the teaching and learning arrangement (Thomson and Gunter, 2006) and providing space for student voice (Cook-Sather, 2002; Fielding, 2004; Rudduck and Flutter, 2000). Within this relationship, each person sees themselves as a valuable resource with each age group offering something unique (Zeldin et al., 2007).\nThe research design: This qualitative study was located in a Catholic single sex urban girls' school in Hamilton, New Zealand with a mid to high socio-economic rating. Action research (Cardno, 2003) was an integral part of the co-construction process that was used to create and evaluate a leadership development programme with 12 young women. The young women were randomly selected from a collection of self-nominations. All were involved in focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews to allow their voices to be heard as they shared their perceptions of leadership and worked as a group to co-construct, participate and evaluate their \"ideal\" leadership programme with myself - the researcher.\nThe research process: Over 12 months there were eight separate phases to the research process. Phases one and two involved the organization of the research, such as making initial contact with the school, fulfilling school access requirements, informing parents and students of the research and negotiating processes for selecting students for the leadership programme and associated research. Phase three involved creating a community of learners (Stoll, 2003) amongst the group members and holding focus group interviews and individual interviews. These were used to ascertain the young women's initial views of leadership and their perceptions and beliefs about leadership and they reflected on their own leadership attributes and contexts they wanted to address. Phase four involved developing the content and creating the structure for the leadership programme. This was achieved through a second series of student focus groups over a three-week period. During these conversations the young women shared what they wanted to learn, how they would like to learn and what order the content should follow. Working together, we negotiated a framework that illustrated what activities they would use to allow the learning to happen. I also drew on my leadership knowledge and teaching experience to contribute to this and expand the students' ideas about what leadership could be and offered a variety of alternative teaching and learning approaches.Phase five involved facilitating and participating in the Revolution leadership programme. The group met for up to two hours every week for eight weeks. During this time I was the facilitator and the students participated in the sessions that we had planned together. An evaluation took place at the end of each session and future improvements were suggested. The students recorded field notes as the evaluation took place. It was between phases five and six that the young women named the leadership programme \"Revolution\". Each letter in the word revolution represented a key characteristic of their leadership beliefs - respect, enthusiasm, vision, ongoing, lived (walking the talk), unique, transform, integrity, open, never-ending.Phase six involved a final evaluation of the content and structure of Revolution and changes to the leadership programme were made. Using evaluation field notes that were completed from each of the previous leadership sessions, the young women participated in focus group conversations and evaluated the whole programme. They drew on their extending knowledge to improve future experiences for other young women. A second round of individual interviews occurred and focused on the young women's experiences of being in the programme and how their understanding and perceptions of leadership and what it meant to be a leader had been challenged or changed over the course of the leadership programme. During this phase, the students made a presentation to the school's Board of Trustees outlining what the programme looked like, why and how they created it, the benefits and challenges, and the changes they would make for the following year. This was accompanied by a movie that they made to advertise the programme for students for the following year.Interview transcripts were completed and these were shared back with the participants. Phase seven involved the analysis of the information gathered from interviews, observations, field notes, group work sheets, focus group interviews and programme evaluations. The eighth and final phase involved the sharing of the new and improved leadership programme with a new group of students. During 2008, the graduates from the 2007 Revolution Leadership Programme worked alongside a new group of year 12 students, taking them through the programme. The programme was launched in September 2008 for the new cohort of students - the 2008 Revolution group. This programme ran over eight weeks and involved 16 students.\nReflecting on the findings from the research: The research revealed several findings, four of which are included in this article: co-construction was an extremely complex process; co-construction challenged existing views of teaching and learning and created new knowledge on many different levels; youth-adult partnerships were an effective and enjoyable means by which to develop a leadership programme. Each of these is now discussed below.Co-construction is an extremely complex process\nConcluding thoughts and implications: In this article I reflected upon an alternative approach to leadership development with young women in high schools. The findings strongly indicated the importance and value of including young women within the processes of designing and evaluating the leadership programme as such involvement ensured that the leadership programme content and structures met their needs, increased student ownership of the learning process and was relevant to the contexts that they showed leadership in. The process also created an increased level of motivation by the students to show leadership in action and teach a revised programme to another group of students.The findings highlighted the challenges and success of utilizing an alternative approach to leadership development. Such an approach could be used in a number of contexts as these findings related to women's youth leadership development have implications on leadership development for women at all levels. However, to embark on such an approach required considerable planning and the allocation of adequate time to ensure that all voices were fairly heard and that the co-construction process was not rushed or unfairly dominated by group members. Furthermore, just as this research was contextualised within one school, the leadership programme created suited this particular group of young women. Consequently, if the research was to be repeated another context or school, even, as illustrated with another group of students, the results could be different. This is what I believe to be the strength of such an approach - the ability to create contextually relevant and meaningful leadership learning. What I believe is an essential learning point for educational practitioners is the recognition of how important it is to engage young women in the development of their leadership learning experiences. Through seeking and valuing student voice, conversations between adults and young women within learning communities can enrich the planning and content involved in the learning opportunity and ensure that the experience is relevant to the lives of those involved, yet still grounded in essential leadership frameworks and knowledge that ensure leadership learning expands beyond the school walls. The implications for those practitioners involved in youth leadership development are immense and involve, on the part of many schools, a serious investigation into how they prepare young people to take on leadership roles within the schools and beyond the school gates. There is also a responsibility for both adults and students to critique the ways that leadership is presented within the school. Adults and students should be encouraged to explore the messages young women receive from traditional leadership approaches which tend to marginalize young women within leadership contexts instead of developing and creating new leadership knowledge and leadership learning opportunities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Young women's leadership is an area frequently overlooked in educational leadership development. This paper aims to bring young women's voices into educational leadership conversations and illustrate an alternative approach to young women's leadership development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This qualitative action research study was located in an urban girls' high school in New Zealand. The researcher worked in partnership with 12 young women and used a process of co-construction to design a leadership development programme. The young women then participated in, evaluated and modified the programme before teaching it to another group of students.\nFindings: - Co-construction was an effective way to develop a relevant and authentic leadership programme that met the needs of the young women, however, the process was extremely complex. The findings indicated that this approach challenged existing views of teaching and learning and was an active process that required significant efforts to balance input and share ownership between the researcher and the young women.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings highlighted the importance of including young women in decision-making processes related to their leadership learning. Future consideration in this area could relate to creating a sustainable leadership culture in schools by engaging this process across year levels.\nOriginality/value: - This paper outlines an alternative approach to leadership development in high schools that could be used in a number of contexts as these findings related to women's youth leadership development have implications on leadership development for women at all levels.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Application of lean practices in small and medium-sized food enterprises
|
[
"Small and medium sized enterprises",
"Benefits",
"Barriers",
"Lean manufacturing",
"Food processing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 2010, the editorial of a renowned journal \"Trends in Food Science & Technology\" pointed out that the food processing industry needs efficiency-improving production methods such as lean manufacturing for operational effectiveness (Mahalik, 2010). Recent articles on this topic have also justified the claim that it is time for the food sector to initiate lean practices to increase efficiency and reduce costs of production (Goncharuk, 2009; Mahalik and Nambiar, 2010). Womack defined lean manufacturing as \"a system that utilizes fewer inputs and creates the same outputs while contributing more value to customers\" (Womack et al., 1990). The definition emphasizes the identification and elimination of waste (i.e. anything that does not add value from the customers' perspective in organizations using lean tools and techniques) (Nahmias, 2001; Shah and Ward, 2003). The empirical studies illustrate that lean manufacturing has several favorable impacts on operational variables, such as productivity, quality, delivery, and customer and employee satisfaction (Mann and Kehoe, 1994).\nLiterature on lean manufacturing in food SMEs context: The available literature debates the applicability and outcomes of lean manufacturing practices in food processing SMEs. Zokaei and Simons (2006), for example, conducted case studies in nine red meat chains in the UK and identified a number of waste areas in the value chain concerning mortality, farm giveaway, cleaning, cutting room, machine effectiveness and storage waste. The findings shows that by applying two lean concepts - takt time and standard operations - each actor in the chain could save 2 to 3 percent of their costs. However, the limitation of their study is that only two lean manufacturing techniques were considered, which narrowed the scope and outcomes of lean manufacturing. Similarly, Lehtinen and Torkko (2005) discussed how the lean technique value stream mapping could be applied to a Finnish food manufacturing company. The value stream mapping technique helped the food company to analyze and eliminate unnecessary inventories and other forms of waste along the supply chain. This case study showed that the food company reduced costs and increased customer satisfaction. In another research project, He and Hayya (2002) examined the impact of just-in-time production on food quality through an empirical study by surveying 48 US food companies. The result demonstrated that JIT has a positive impact on food quality. Additionally, employee involvement in problem solving, and just-in-time delivery were found to be the most used practices in the food companies. Regression analysis suggested that material management has a definite effect on food quality. Likewise, Upadhye et al. (2010) conducted a case study in a medium-sized biscuit manufacturing company in the framework of lean manufacturing. The result of the study demonstrated that lean techniques such as 5S, kaizen, quick changeover, and TPM can be effectively used to improve equipment availability, reduce wastage of material and improve quality. The biggest obstacle that was found in the lean journey was the resistance to change from both employees as well as suppliers. The study also emphasized that the success of lean implementation rested on commitment from top management, and training, awareness and involvement on employees' parts. A recent study by Engelund et al. (2009) discussed the application of lean manufacturing to large-scale food production in a Danish hospital. It was shown that the lean technique - value stream mapping, kaizen and 5S - helped in improving production efficiency, product quality, and working environment. The study also pointed out that the just-in-time and pull production failed to produce the desired results. In addition, the study reported that the successful application of lean in food production depends on the food safety and quality requirement, and work organization in the surrounding systems. Similarly, Scott et al. (2009) conducted a quantitative survey of 46 food SMEs to analyze the continuous improvement programs and the motivational factors among the Canadian food companies. They found that ten out of 46 companies implemented lean manufacturing. The survey result revealed some interesting findings, e.g. that companies implementing lean or similar programs have fewer product recalls in comparison to the ones who do not have such programs. However, half of the respondents were not sure if these improvement programs had resulted in cost savings. Another result was that quality and safety benefits were the biggest motivational factors for the implementation of lean manufacturing and similar programs within Canadian food SMEs. On the contrary, a case study that was carried out by Cox and Chicksand (2005) in the red-meat supply chain in UK revealed that the adoption of lean practices is not easy for all internal and external participants in the food chain. Cox and Chicksand pointed out that lean adoption resulted in a high dependency on buyers and a declining profitability for the majority of the stakeholders in the chain. They recommended not extending lean beyond the boundaries of the firm and provided a note of caution for researchers and practitioners to understand the context and the industry before replicating the lean principle. Yet another study by Taylor (1996) provided an analysis of responses by 682 executives across sectors regarding sectoral differences in total quality management (TQM) implementation. The study showed a significant difference in the level of TQM activity among sectors, especially with respect to organizational performance. Further, the result revealed that in comparison to other sectors the food and drink sector undertook fewer initiatives to improve organizational performance. In the same note, Kumar and Antony (2008) conducted a survey of 64 SMEs in the UK (seven among them are food SMEs) to compare different quality management practices. Their study found that 17 out of 64 SMEs (26.5 percent) adopted lean manufacturing in their organization and that top management involvement, communication, cultural change and training were the critical success factors for such quality improvement initiatives. However, the number of food SMEs included in the sample was not mentioned. The study also identified several barriers of quality management practices like lean manufacturing, including availability of resources, lack of knowledge, lack of training, internal resistance and poor employee participation. The previous literature on lean manufacturing in the food processing industry can be summarized as follows: Research on the applicability of lean manufacturing in the food processing industry in general and SMEs in particular is still evolving. There is a limited body of literature due to recent developments in the implementation or testing of lean manufacturing practices in food companies:\nResearch design and methodology: This study was carried out within the scope of the European Union funded project \"Innovative Management System for the Food SMEs\" (IMSFood) which started in 2010 and involved Belgium, Germany and Hungary. The selected sectors in this study are meat, chocolate, confectionary, bakery, and packaged vegetables. A survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire to assess lean manufacturing practices in use and their perceived benefits and potential barriers. The selection of a survey-based research strategy seemed logical for conducting a confirmatory or explanatory study that uses well-defined concepts and models (Handfield and Melnyk, 1998). To ensure validity of the survey instrument, we have adopted the questions from previous recognized research such as Achanga et al. (2006)\nResults: Out of the 35 food-processing SMEs that participated in the study, 17 are from Belgium, 10 from Hungary and 8 from Germany. There are 18 SMEs involved in meat, ten in confectionary, three in chocolate and four in other food productions. The SMEs in the sample have diverse product families (between 45 to 370) produced and distributed in small quantities in the European market. Most firms utilized a continuous flow manufacturing process.\nPerceived benefits: To answer RQ3 the companies were asked to provide a score on a Likert scale of 1 to 7 (1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree) about the perceived benefits of lean manufacturing practices implementation. The benefits from lean manufacturing include factors such as scrap rate reduction, cycle time reduction, delivery time reduction, productivity increase, cost reduction, profitability increase, improved sales, customer complaints reduction and employee complaints reduction, improved product quality (Achanga et al., 2006; He and Hayya, 2002). Table III provides the descriptive statistics on benefits of the lean manufacturing implementation among European food SMEs. The results show that the most important benefits of lean manufacturing practices are: reduced costs of production, increased profitability, increased productivity and reduced customer complaints.\nPotential barriers: One of the important objectives of the study is to identify the key barriers to lean manufacturing implementation in food SMEs. The barriers to lean manufacturing were enumerated from the general operations management literature and specific characteristics related to the food processing industry (Achanga et al., 2006; Radnor and Walley, 2008; Van Wezel et al., 2006). Table IV provides descriptive statistics of the barriers to the lean manufacturing implementation. The results illustrate that the major barriers to the implementation of lean manufacturing practices are: sequential cleaning time, long set-up time between product types, and high perishability of the products. Most of the potent barriers indicated by the respondents are specific to the nature of food processing industry. Other factors such as a lack of knowledge, availability of resources and poor employee participation are also found to be important barriers to lean manufacturing implementation.\nDiscussion: It is important to note that the findings of the study are analyzed and discussed in the context of European food processing SMEs. The first results illustrate that the use of some lean manufacturing practices are more prevalent in European food SMEs than others. The characteristics of the food product and production process are found to be the major barriers of lean manufacturing practice implementation. Some lean manufacturing practices related to pull and flow are found difficult to implement by the food companies. The implementation of kanban and production at station is pulled by the current demand of the next station and are less used by the food SMEs. This might be attributed to the highly unpredictable demand in the food sector (Willaiams et al., 1992). For instance, the demand for sausages can vary depending on the weather conditions. On a sunny afternoon there is a greater demand for sausages in comparison to a rainy afternoon. Similarly, it is difficult to implement cellular manufacturing and optimal layout for food processing SMEs as most of them have a traditional production process. Any major changes in the layout or plant structure require big investments from the food companies. It is important to note that these companies are small and medium-sized enterprises and constantly struggling for resources for such big investments (Achanga et al., 2006). Likewise, set up reduction is also a considerably little used lean manufacturing practice in food processing SMEs due to complicated production processes and multiple raw materials, recipes and composition. It is understandable that due to the inherent characteristics of the sector some lean manufacturing practices are difficult for the food processing SMEs to implement. Unexpectedly, one key basic lean practice, supplier involvement, was found to be less prevalent among the food processing SMEs.\nLimitation: Small sample size or low response rate is a limitation of this study. The reason of the low response rate might be attributed to the specific characteristics of the food sector and size of the companies. As the lean manufacturing practice deployment in food processing SMEs is generally low the potential respondents (managers in food SMEs) may not be aware of different lean manufacturing concepts. This also may be the reason why (Mahalik, 2010) emphasized the introduction of lean manufacturing in the food sector in his editorial remark in the \"Trends in Food Science & Technology\" journal. In addition, one of the barriers to apply an advanced statistical test is the fact that we have a small sample size. Similar studies concerning quality management in food SMEs such as Scott et al. (2009), Fotopoulos et al. (2011) and Kumar and Antony (2008) also used descriptive statistics because of the small sample size. Above all, this study is a first attempt to diagnose the status of lean manufacturing practices among European food processing SMEs and will pave the way for more research on this topic in the future.\nConclusion: The results of this study support the idea that lean manufacturing practices help food processing SMEs to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. However, sector-specific barriers make it difficult for food processing companies to fully implement lean manufacturing practices and realize desired results. The success of lean manufacturing practices critically depends on employee participation, proper training and the commitment from top management. It is also important to note the influence of control variables (such as size of the company and the country of origin) in the use of and benefits from lean manufacturing practices. This paper has practical implications for managers as it provides an overview of potential barriers to lean manufacturing in food processing SMEs. One of the limitations of this study is that it only covers a small sample of food companies in Europe. However, this study offers a starting point for more empirical research in this area, which is necessary considering the importance of the food sector in the coming years. Future research would focus on a broader range of food companies across Europe to validate the findings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Recent literature emphasizes the application of lean manufacturing practices to food processing industries in order to improve operational efficiency and productivity. Only a very limited number of studies have focused on the implementation of lean manufacturing practices within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the food sector. The majority of these studies used the case study method and concentrated on individual lean manufacturing techniques geared towards resolving efficiency issues. This paper aims to analyze the status of the lean manufacturing practices and their benefits and barriers among European food processing SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data. A total of 35 SMEs' representatives, mostly CEOs and operations managers, participated in the survey. The study investigated the role of two control variables in lean implementation: size of the company and country of origin.\nFindings: The findings show that lean manufacturing practice deployment in food processing SMEs is generally low and still evolving. However, some lean manufacturing practices are more prevalent than others; e.g. flow, pull and statistical process control are not widely used by the food processing SMEs, whereas total productive maintenance, employee involvement, and customer association are more widespread. The key barriers encountered by food SMEs in the implementation of lean manufacturing practices result from the special characteristics of the food sector, such as highly perishable products, complicated processing, extremely variable raw materials, recipes and unpredictable demand. In addition, lack of knowledge and resources makes it difficult for food processing SMEs to embark on the lean journey.\nOriginality/value: The gap in the literature regarding the application of lean manufacturing in the food sector is identified and addressed in this study. The originality of this paper lies in analyzing the current status of the use of lean manufacturing practices among food SMEs in Europe and identifying potential barriers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Pre-employment good impression and subsequent job performance
|
[
"Employment",
"Selection",
"Recruitment",
"Personality",
"Psychology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There is a considerable literature on the utility of assessing good impression (GI) response set in relation to personality testing in pre-employment evaluation settings. This area has been variously labeled and addressed as applicant faking, good impression, self-presentation, etc. The differences in these terms suggest that sometimes this effect may occur through the deliberate effort of the respondent, and at other times without the respondent's awareness. Some authors (e.g. Pauls and Crost, 2004) have approached the aspects of this area separately, while others (e.g. Rogers, 2008) have viewed them as similar enough to be considered together. The present authors have taken the latter approach. Thus, the literature covering all of these concepts, whether aware or unaware, is considered relevant in the present study.\nHypotheses: As indicated by Donovan et al. (2014), because of limitations in prior research and in their own research, the relationship between pre-employment GI measures and subsequent job performance has not yet been established. As stated above, the two theoretical frameworks (motivational and self-presentation) would predict opposite results. Based on the results of studies of applicant behavior variables cited by Barrick et al. (2009) involving the service industry, it was hypothesized that similar results would be found for nurses and store managers in the present research. Thus, based on the self-presentation conception of GI, it was hypothesized that there would be a negative relationship between GI and subsequent performance for those participants scoring at the low end of the GI dimension, and a positive relationship for high GI scorers.\nOverview of the studies: Reported here are three empirical studies in which measures of GI were obtained prior to employment. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were nurses who had been assessed during the application process, and measures of GI were administered as part of that assessment. For those who were selected and began work, job performance ratings were obtained at a later date. Study 3 involved managers in a chain of retail building supply stores who had been assessed for suitability as part of the job application process, and were later evaluated on the basis of the store's sales performance. Because the same measures of GI were utilized in all studies, their nature and development is discussed next.\nStudy 1: Nurse group 1: Method\nProcedure: The overall relationship of GI to job performance for each of the four GI measures was first examined. Next, because the focus of the study was on the job performance of those participants who scored high or low on the measures of GI, the relationships of GI to job performance for these subgroups were examined.\nResults: Reliability data based on the data for Study 1 for all GI measures employed are given in Table I, together with sample items or sample content. Analogous data for the job performance measures are also given in Table I.\nStudy 2: Nurse group 2: Method\nResults: The overall correlations between job performance and GI scores were negligible, ranging from -0.03 to 0.06 (see Table II). The mean scores on each of the GI measures for the subgroups with high and low GI scores (\nStudy 3: Retail store managers: Method\nResults: The correlation between job performance and the GI Personality score, shown in Table II, was 0.02, indicating no overall relationship. The lowest GI subgroup represented 16 percent of the participants, and the highest GI subgroup 11 percent. The mean GI scores for these subgroups (in decile-score form) are shown in Table IV. For the lowest GI subgroup there was a small negative effect size (-0.24; see Table VI) when compared to the remainder of the participants. For the highest GI subgroup, the effect size was negligible. These results are broadly consistent with those of Studies 1 and 2, in showing lower than average job performance for low GI scorers.\nGeneral discussion: The most consistent finding over the three studies was the presence of a negative effect size for the lowest extreme GI groups for job performance when compared with the remainder of the group. All 9 of the effect sizes were in the negative range, ranging from -0.78 to -0.11. Results for the highest extreme GI groups were less consistent, although most effect sizes were positive (including two at the moderate level), with a range of -0.11-0.71. Also, for all 9 comparisons shown in Table VI, the highest extreme GI group showed numerically better job performance than the lowest extreme GI group.\nLimitations: A practical limitation of this research involved the use of extreme groups, which were unavoidably small in numerical size. This was in part a function of the difficulty of obtaining data that satisfied three basic criteria: a real-life rather than an artificial setting; the availability of subsequent criterion performance measures; and several varied settings so that the findings could be considered to have some generality. Due to power considerations, the metric chosen for comparison was effect size rather than comparing means. Nevertheless, the results were relatively consistent regardless of the different methods of defining the subgroups.\nConclusions: The following conclusions can be drawn from the overall findings. First, they offer some support for the general thrust of the research; namely, that pre-employment GI is related to subsequent job performance. The most uniform relationship was at the lowest extreme of GI scores, where the effect sizes for all 9 comparisons were in negative territory, 7 showed at least a small effect size (-0.20 or more), and the median effect size was -0.24. For the highest extreme GI scores, the results were more varied, but 4 of the 9 comparisons showed at least a small positive effect size, and the median was 0.16.\nImplications for practice: There are two informative messages for the practice of applicant selection. First, greater (or at least equal) attention should be paid to low GI scorers than to the high scorers (the traditional focus). Second, at least for nurse applicants, our results suggest that on average, individuals who make a poor self-presentation effort on testing also do so on the job, and this should therefore be considered as a negative selection factor. This position is consistent with the Barrick et al. (2009) finding that applicants whose self-presentation in terms of appearance and/or behavior were rated lower in subsequent job performance. The practical implications of the findings for very high GI scorers are less definite, but are not inconsistent with the position that such scores do not automatically suggest poorer performance, at least with the present populations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Previous research has not demonstrated a consistent relationship between pre-employment measures of good impression (GI) response bias and subsequent job performance. The purpose of this paper is to study the likelihood that such effects would be present for the extremes of the GI dimension, noting that opposite predictions about these effects would be made from the two competing conceptions of GI: motivational and positive self-presentation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three groups were studied in which the job performance was investigated for high and low pre-employment GI scorers (\nFindings: The low GI groups showed consistently poorer-than-average job performance, and the highest GI scorers showed a trend toward better performance. The extreme highest and lowest groups showed greater differences than the high and low groups.\nOriginality/value: This study demonstrates that extreme pre-employment GI scores are relevant to performance, and support the self-presentation rather than the motivational conception of GI, at least for these employment groups. Attention is drawn to the practical relevance of low GI scores in predicting poorer work performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Competitiveness of short sea shipping: the case of olive oil industry
|
[
"Italy",
"Spain",
"Olive oil",
"Cost model",
"Short sea shipping"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Transport and transport infrastructure were identified almost at the very early beginning of the European common market as a key field for a competitive economy. It is, however, until 1992, with the publication of the white paper in transportation that the foundations of a common European transport policy are laid out (COM 494 of 2 December 1992). The document identifies the need to reduce the road haulage and/or shift it to other means of transport, being the short sea shipping (SSS) one of the possible alternatives, to improve the economic competitiveness of the Union and reduce the social costs associated to road transportation. Alternatively, both effects could not be achieved unless huge investments were made on the infrastructure (Blonk, 1993). The alternative to road haulage is not only an environmental and economic necessity but also a key factor for the economic cohesion and proximity between European regions, namely between West and East Europe (Douet and Cappuccilli, 2011).\nSSS: an overview: A clear conceptual definition of SSS does not exist, determining methodological problems and obstacles for policy making, market analysis, strategic planning and scientific research (Baindur and Viegas, 2011; Douet and Cappuccilli, 2011). Indeed, there are multiple definitions of SSS depending on the context and the kind of vessel (Paixao Casaca and Marlow, 2002). In fact, SSS can be translated into \"coasting trade\", \"regional shipping\" or \"marine highway\" depending on the context (Brooks, 2009). However, the definition taken by the European Commission in 1999 is the most commonly used, stating that SSS is the \"movement of cargo and passengers by sea between ports situated in geographical Europe or between those ports and ports situated in non-European countries having a coastline on the enclosed seas bordering Europe\" (COM 317 of 29 June 1999). Therefore SSS includes domestic and international maritime transport, including feeder services, and river-sea shipping.\nSSS: environmental and economic benefits: Over the last few years, some case studies were assessed and conducted, either by listing the benefits from SSS (Torbianelli, 2000, for instance), undertaking comparative social - environmental - cost-benefit analysis between land transport and SSS supply chains (Kamp, 2003; Lombardo, 2004) or assessing the general European shipping policy (Paixao Casaca and Marlow, 2002). Depending on the study, the maritime option is shown to: provide either geographical, financial, energy and/or environmental advantages; have potential to increase, given the competitiveness and the capacity of ports/lines for adding new shipping lines to the system and; have positive effects on ancillary activities which create employment and economic growth (Paixao Casaca and Marlow, 2007).\nThe reference scenario of the agri-food trade between Spain and Italy: the case of olive oil: Spain has one of the leading agricultural industries in the European Union. In particular, in the EU-28 scenario, is the largest producer of olive oil, accounting for 57.5 per cent of the total production, fruits (29.2 per cent), pigs (16.7 per cent) and vegetables and horticultural products (15.1 per cent) (European Commission, 2015). In 2010, Spain had close 989,790 registered agrarian holdings (8.1 per cent of UE-28) that employed nearly 1.6 millions of people (11.2 per cent of EU-28). The country is also one of the largest food and drink producers in EU comprising in 2010 over 30,000 companies with close to 450,000 employees (BMI, 2016). Agri-food industry is particularly significant in Spain in particular in terms of the weight of the agri-food flows on the total trade (14.8 per cent of the total exports and 9.9 per cent of imports) (Crescimanno et al., 2014). Indeed, Spain has a comparative advantage in the international scenario, that has consolidated over the last decade as can be seen through the normalised balance value that shifted from a positive 2.12 per cent in the biennium 2004-2005 to a 11.12 per cent in the biennium 2012-2013 (DataComex, 2015). Italy is a privileged partner for Spain, for the geographic proximity, and especially on the export front, catching as many as 10.7 per cent of the Spanish agri-food products exported to foreign markets. In contrast, the weight of Italy is modest as a supply market, with a share of a 3.8 per cent. In the last decade (2004-2013 period), the orientation of Spain shifted, both for the end markets and for those of supply, with a drop in the percentage of Italy as a trading partner.\nMethodological approach: Scenarios considered\nResults: After implementing the cost model and input data to each of the 130 route combinations (ten for road and 120 for maritime transportation), the following transportation costs per truck shipped for each pairing and route combination were obtained (Table VI).\nConclusions: This paper carries out an analysis of the competitiveness of SSS in the shape of MoS for the transportation logistics of the food sector. In particular, Spain and Italy have proved to be suitable regions to assess the effectiveness of such transportation option, considering their geographical proximity and existing trade between the two countries. As to trade, maritime transport has always been the primary way of connection between the two countries. In this context, although the olive oil sector plays a significant role in trade relative terms between the two countries, and despite the growth in sea trade between the two countries, maritime transport of olive oil is to be developed. The reasons could be found through a further investigation traced to point out the inadequate port infrastructure, the lack of logistics services in ports, which created a low frequency of maritime links.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the economic benefits of short sea shipping (SSS) in the shape of Motorways of the Sea (MoS) compared to road transport. The study cover a gap in agro-food economics and analyses the economic benefits of sea transport mode compared to road transport in the food trade between Spain and Italy for a specific product: olive oils.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three different transportation scenarios are considered (road only, road combined with accompanied SSS and road combined with unaccompanied SSS) linking the main olive oil production and consumption areas in Spain and Italy. In each scenario the cost per unit shipped have been calculated.\nFindings: The results show the road option is about 30 and 34 per cent more costly than the best SSS option available for the exportations from Jaen and Southern Catalonia, respectively.\nResearch limitations/implications: The need of further research is identified, mainly focused in two directions: first, the need for inclusion of new variables to the model (e.g. value of time, seasonality, complexity of the transport chain, potential demand, etc.) to better assess the competitiveness of the sea connection and, second, a study of the environmental impact and socio-economic benefits of SSS implementation for the agri-food sector.\nOriginality/value: The research enriches the current literature on this field and provides a basis for future studies. In particular, it corroborates the strategic decisions taken in the framework of European transport policy demonstrating a greater economic sustainability of SSS, and more specifically MoS, compared to the road transport.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does intention influence the financial literacy of depositors of Islamic banking? A case of Malaysia
|
[
"Financial literacy",
"Islamic banks",
"Theory of plan behaviour (TPB)",
"Service sector"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Islamic banking system has been in existence in Malaysia for almost 35 years, with the establishment of the first Islamic bank known as Bank Islam Berhad in 1983. Since then, there is widespread development in this industry, and at the moment, Malaysia is regarded as one of the best hubs in the Asian region that offers Islamic banking services. Currently, Malaysia has a total of 16 Islamic banks, which comprises ten local banks and the remaining six banks are owned by foreigners. The participation of Muslim investors has significantly influenced the performance of Islamic banks and enabled them to compete with the established conventional banks that have been in existence a long time ago (Cheng and Hassani, 2014). The competition between the Islamic and conventional banks in terms of banking performance and risk exposure are rapidly examined by academic researchers. However, few studies have been conducted from the depositors' perspective, especially on their understanding about the basic information of Islamic banking. The issue of financial literacy has caught the interest of various groups such as the governments, bankers, employers, community interest groups, financial markets and other organisations, especially in developed countries. The importance of improving financial literacy has increased because of factors including the development of new financial products; the complexity of the financial markets; and the changes in political, demographic and economic factors. To date, most of the previous studies focused on the determinants that influence the depositors to choose Islamic banking services, awareness and perception.The lack of financial knowledge will lead to an immense problem for a country. Based on the national newspaper article published on 6 October 2017, it was indicated that 85,338 Malaysians have been declared bankrupt within five years since 2013 until February 2017. The Director General of Malaysia Department of Insolvency explained that 25.6 per cent of them were below 34 years old, 34.7 per cent aged between 35 years old to 44 years old, 26.8 per cent aged between 45 years old to 54 years old and 12.9 per cent were 55 years old above. These individuals who are declared as bankrupt consist of people working in the private sector, public sector, professionals, running their own business as well as pensioners and jobless individuals. However, according to the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, the government has allocated RM1.2 m to release 10,000 people from bankruptcy. The minister further explained that the ministers are requesting funds up to RM4 m to release another 40,000 individuals from bankruptcy. To control these statistics from growing, serious actions should be taken, and the financial literacy of Malaysians is one of the factors that needs to be examined.In the present study, the perspective of the knowledge related to the Islamic banking will be addressed. The results indicated that catchy Arabic language terms used to name the banks' products created difficulty in gaining fast information about and comprehension of the products. Therefore, looking into another scope of the study, we intend to explore the financial literacy specifically focusing on the intention of Islamic banking customers to learn about Islamic banking information.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Financial literacy\n3. Method: In this study, Islamic banks' customers participated to answer the questionnaire and focused on the Islamic bank customers in Malaysia, which comprised of customers in every state in Malaysia. The sampling technique employed in this study is based on the purposive sampling technique. The sample size is determined based on G-POWER Software, which determines the sample size for unknown population. Thus, the software indicates at least 100 respondents need to participate in this study. In this study, a total of 380 questionnaires have been distributed; however, the useable questionnaire is 300.The data utilised in this study is analysed using two statistical tools. First, the Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS) computer base statistical data analysing software was used to analyse and interpret the demographic data as well as to examine the understanding of Islamic banks' depositors pertaining to basic Islamic banking information employed by the Islamic banks. Various interpretations of the data can be obtained through the use of SPSS such as frequency distribution, mean, median, mode and standard deviation to test the hypothesis. The second tool was the Smart PLS 3.0 software, which was used to execute the partial least squares (PLS) analysis that examined the relationship results (the analysis investigated the factors that influenced the intention of the customers of Islamic banks to learn about Islamic banking information). To predict the intention of an individual towards a particular behaviour at a certain time and place, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was employed. This theory was initially introduced in 1980, and it was an extension of a previous theory, the theory of reasoned action (TRA), which was developed in 1967 by Ajzen and Fishbein. The theory originated from the field of psychology, and the emergence of theories on how attitude is related to behaviour started to develop in 1862 by psychologists. This theory was then further developed between the year 1918 and 1925, which saw many new theories emerged. All of these theories proposed that human action can be explained by attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1980, p. 13). 3.1 Behavioural intention\n4. Results: 4.1 Demography analysis\n5. Discussion: In this study, the factors that would drive the Islamic bank's customers' intention to learn about Islamic bank's information are tested. The research framework was designed based on TPB and was tested in the context of Malaysian bank customers. The results showed that all the three elements or dimensions of TPB (i.e. attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control) significantly and positively affected the intention of the Islamic bank's customers to learn about the Islamic bank's information. Perceived behavioural control had the highest effect followed by the attitude of Islamic bank's customers. Finally, the subjective norm had the least effect compared to others on the intention of Islamic bank's customers to learn about Islamic bank's information.The findings of this research suggested that Islamic banking customers felt that their intentions to learn about Islamic banking information are motivated by the perceptions of their own capabilities. The assurance about their understanding of Islamic banking information plays the most important role. The customers' attitudes towards understanding details about Islamic banking also affected their intentions, followed by the perception of other people close to them. 5.1 Theoretical implications\n6. Conclusion: The findings of this study show that the understanding of customers who chose Islamic banking about the differences between Islamic and conventional banking is good. The findings are similar to the findings by Mahdzan (2017) who examined the understanding of Shari'a concepts and the influential factors in the adoption of Islamic banking in Malaysia. Although some of the respondents are not Muslims, they do have knowledge about Islamic banking. Loo (2010) mentioned that the understandings of non-Muslims respondents about Islamic concepts are at a moderate level. Because Islamic banking in Malaysia has been established for more than 30 years and the majority of the population are Muslims, it is no surprise that their level of understanding is at an acceptable level. Furthermore, all of the respondents have a minimum of certificate/diploma education. This is another contributing factor, and it proves that financial literacy is vital in ensuring that people have a good understanding of Islamic banking information.The intention of Islamic banking customers to learn about Islamic banking is significantly affected by perceived behavioural control, attitude and lastly, subjective norm. Therefore, Islamic banks should focus on tackling the perceived behavioural control of customers to increase their financial literacy about Islamic banking products. As they now have the knowledge that Islamic banking customers perceived that it is easy to learn about Islamic banking is easy, they should now focus on providing information and knowledge about Islamic banking products using attractive and easy way to understand methods. This is greatly supported by the findings that Islamic bank customers also have a positive intention of learning about Islamic banking information. Although the subjective norm does not have a strong effect compared to the perceived behavioural control and attitude, it is still important for people in the customers' social circle to approve of their choices, particularly when it involves non-Muslims customers.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Since the establishment of Islamic banks in Malaysia since the 1980s, the banking system has undergone rampant development within the financial industry. It has resulted in a positive competitive challenge for the conventional banks and able to attract not just the Muslim customers, but also those non-Muslim customers. At the same time, understanding the customers' knowledge of Islamic banking products is an interesting issue to explore. This issue is raised because the Islamic bank products are often packaged using Arabic terms, even though it is marketed in non-Arabic countries like Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to examine the factors that influence the intention of the Islamic banking customers as the result of relying on some information produced by Malaysian Islamic banks.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is conducted using the existing underpinning theory of planned behaviour (TPB). A total of 300 questionnaires were analysed using the structural equation modelling (SEM).\nFindings: The results indicated that perceived behavioural control, attitude and subjective norms of the Islamic banking depositors are positively influenced by the intention of the depositors to learn about Islamic banking.\nResearch limitations/implications: One of the main issues faced in this study is the result cannot be generalised. It is not possible to know based on the collected data if the sample is representative, other than the fact that all of the respondents are Islamic bank depositors. Nevertheless, it can still be a catalyst for further research as a link to existing findings in the area. There might be a bias on the understanding of the respondents about Islamic banking. This is due to the fact that Malaysia is a multi-racial population. Malay people might have a better understanding and basic knowledge about Islamic banking than the Chinese, Indians and other races. This cultural bias could be overcome in future studies by identifying respondents who have experiences in dealing with Islamic banking.\nOriginality/value: This study provides interesting insights of the Malaysian banking industry in terms of the multi-racial customers' intention to learn about Islamic banking, which is scarcely discussed in the extant literature.\nPeer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2019-0011.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of mindfulness on leadership effectiveness in a health care setting: a pilot study
|
[
"Leadership",
"Stress",
"Leadership effectiveness",
"Mindfulness",
"Health care managers",
"Mindfulness awareness practice"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Administrators and researchers alike recognize the importance of leadership for fulfilling an organization's mission. One notable sector where leadership is particularly important is health services where technology, innovation, privatization, and demographic shifts have all intensified the pace and nature of change. A recent study for the UK National Institute for Health suggests that many middle managers in health services are working in \"extreme jobs\" characterized by long hours, fast pace, and high intensity; over half of those surveyed believed their jobs to be unmanageable (Buchanan et al., 2013). The work intensity, perpetual contact, and high-stakes climate that characterize many health care settings perpetuate norms that may encourage managers to place other roles ahead of facilitating healthy workplace practices (Bryant and Stensaker, 2011). Yet such environments are the very ones that should adopt and encourage health and wellness amongst mid-level managers as a means of enabling and facilitating organizational missions.\nThe Canadian context: Like its provincial and territorial counterparts, the Canadian Province of New Brunswick has had to respond to socio-economic pressures with strategic and transformational change (Grandy and Holton, 2013). In 2008, New Brunswick's eight existing Regional Health Authorities were consolidated to reduce duplication of services (and expenses) and to achieve parity in the access and delivery of health care across the province. Four of these regions were amalgamated into one authority and rebranded as Horizon Health Network (Horizon); a network serving a population of 700,000 in a largely rural environment with a population density of 10.5 per km2.\nTheoretical backdrop: Leadership\nOverview of the present study: This pilot study was undertaken to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of an intensive weekend mindfulness training session for sustained personal practice among mid-level managers in a health care setting. Whereas many mindfulness-based interventions involve an instructor-led group session once a week for eight weeks, middle managers may be reluctant to commit to a longitudinally staggered programme because of the demands of work and family. Thus, we explored whether a time-intensive intervention would yield effective training outcomes and sustained practice among participants. If participants gained skills in the practice of mindfulness, we expected to uncover decreases in stress and corresponding changes in leadership effectiveness. Specifically, we posit that sustained MAP will result in middle managers viewing themselves as more effective leaders and this will be supported by subordinates, peers, and supervisors.\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Retreat participants' perceptions\nDiscussion: Effective leadership is a critical factor in the management of organizations during times of radical change (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). Middle managers in health care organizations are especially challenged to balance functional management roles with strategic change leadership (McKinley and Scherer, 2000) while sustaining personal health and well-being and positively contributing to the creation of healthy workplace environments (Lowe, 2010). Research has suggested that mindfulness can positively impact leadership effectiveness through reduced anxiety (Hoffman et al., 2010), higher order learning (Espedal, 2009), judgement accuracy (Kikken and Shook, 2011), problem solving (Ostafin and Kassman, 2012), managing uncertainty (Langer, 1989; Dane, 2011), and better performance of followers (Reb et al., 2012).\nImplications for practice: Sauer and Kohls (2011) contend that theoretical and empirical grounds merit consideration of the beneficial effects of mindfulness on leadership effectiveness in three specific areas: information processing, interpersonal interaction, and decision making. Our pilot study shows that, despite the potential benefits of mindfulness, there are challenges to its integration into managerial practice in a health care setting. If managers experience much needed beneficial effects from MAP the question remains why do they struggle to sustain even a modest daily practice? The time to do so is cited as the obvious hindrance but, paradoxically, a Zen proverb that captures the underlying philosophy of mindfulness says, \"You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day - unless you're too busy. Then you should sit for an hour\". In other words, the more time pressured one is, the more important it is to take the time for practice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of mindfulness awareness practice (MAP) on mid-level health-care managers' leadership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 11 mid-level health-care managers in eastern Canada took part in an intensive weekend retreat and a follow-up webinar on mindfulness awareness. Perceived stress and leadership effectiveness were assessed pre- and post-intervention (i.e. four and eight weeks). A control group (n=10) also completed the same measures twice. Additionally, informants (n=28) provided assessments of participants' leadership pre- and post-intervention. Follow-up interviews were carried out with eight participants 12-16 weeks post-intervention.\nFindings: In comparison to controls, retreat participants showed significant increases in mindfulness and corresponding decreases in stress that were sustained across eight weeks post-retreat; retreat participants reported significant positive changes in their leadership effectiveness that were corroborated by informants. Qualitative data, however, suggest that sustaining a mindfulness practice presents significant challenges to middle managers in a health care setting.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings are useful to management working in health services that are plagued by increasing demands and changes. Despite the small sample and lack of random assignment, the pilot data support the efficacy of MAP in improving leadership.\nOriginality/value: Little empirical research supports the claim that MAP enhances leadership. The present study employed a mixed methods approach to address this gap and demonstrates the potential benefits of MAP among mid-level managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The roles of collective efficacy of teachers and fiscal efficiency in student achievement
|
[
"Students",
"Teachers",
"Resource allocation",
"Organizational theory",
"Economic theory",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Public schools in America face extreme pressures from forces associated with current legal, economical, and political fronts. State school funding programs are under legal scrutiny. At this time, 24 state education finance programs have been declared unconstitutional and have been modified or await complete revision (King et al., 2003). As the public speculates on how state legislatures' interpretations of state high courts' orders may affect their personal pocketbooks, school officials are left to wonder how future state education funding programs will impact the availability of resources for their schools. Will some school systems stand to gain from the outcomes of these rulings while others stand to lose?\nPurpose of the study: A historical challenge for educational researchers has been the quest to identify organizational level determinants of student achievement. Since the Coleman Report (Coleman et al., 1966), scholars have found it difficult to identify constructs other than socioeconomic status that have a significant, independent effect on student attainment (Hoy and Sabo, 1998). Moreover, many studies that involve student achievement investigate only bivariate relationships (one independent variable and its potential affect on student achievement), which fail to capture the complexity of the educational process (Hoy et al., 2002b). So, what other organizational level constructs exist that have a positive influence on student achievement, and can a path model be developed to explain such relationships?For economists, the study of education has involved numerous conceptual frameworks, such as human capital theory, productivity, and efficiency (King et al., 2003). Based on the current economic climate, the concept of efficiency appears to be highly relevant to the present study. But what is a useful and precise measure of efficiency that can be applied to schools?The purpose of this study is to wed two previously separated theoretical strands of educational research - economic theory and organizational theory - by using variables from each theory base to develop, compare, and test a series of explanatory models of student achievement. The models offer an explanation about the relationships that exist between student achievement and four independent variables: student instructional ratio (SIR), student services ratio (SSR), socioeconomic status, and collective efficacy of teachers.\nConceptual framework: Collective efficacy, SIR, and SSR, three unlikely organizational level variables to be combined within a study, have been shown to open new insights into the educational system. In particular, collective efficacy holds promise as a powerful predictor of student achievement, whereas SIR and SSR both assist educators in understanding how well money is used to finance the educational program.Collective efficacy\nMethods: We turn next to the methods used to test these hypotheses. In particular, we describe the sample, data collection, and measures.Sample of elementary schools\nData analysis: First, we examine the descriptive statistics for the variables under study, then correlations among the variables of the study are analyzed, and finally we turn to tests of the path models using structural equation modeling.Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations\nDiscussion: This study supported some of the hypothesized relationships while leaving others in doubt. Strong evidence was found to support the theorized relationship between collective efficacy of teachers and student achievement. This investigation, however, did not support the a priori position that SIR and SSR would have an indirect effect on student achievement through collective efficacy of teachers. For that matter, partial correlation evidence negated the relationship between SIR, SSR and student achievement.Collective efficacy of teachers and student achievement\nImplications: This study has, to some extent, supported Cooper and Associates' (1994) conceptualization of school efficiency and school productivity. In particular, the findings suggest that it is likely the productivity of schools but not necessarily the efficiency of schools make a difference in student outcomes. Our position, however, is that both efficiency and productivity matter. Because resources are limited within any economic framework, the efficient and productive use of resources should consume those entrusted to care and use them. Their basic objective should be to attain greater efficiency along with greater productivityThe findings from this study give rise to a number of practical implications. Because SES is not directly in the control of educators, collective efficacy of teachers - a variable more open to direct influence within the educational system - holds promise as a mechanism by which educators may enact change and influence the achievement of the students in their care. If educators become more aware of the concept of collective efficacy and more conscious of its sources (Bandura, 1993; Goddard, 1998; Goddard et al., 2000; Hoy et al., 2002a, b), then the improvement of student achievement is possible. For example, using data-based decision making (verbal persuasion), offering thoughtfully planned professional development experiences (vicarious experiences), and, of course, ensuring that teachers are placed in positions so that they may succeed in their teaching (mastery experiences) will all aid, according to the sources of efficacy espoused by Bandura (1986, 1997), in strengthening the collective efficacy of a faculty. In addition, past research (Goddard, 2002a) shows that involving faculty in decisions relevant to teaching may also aid in bolstering this important organizational level component of the school culture. Goddard (2002a, p. 181) concluded, \"When groups have a say over their collective future, they tend to have higher levels of collective efficacy\".In terms of future research, this study has opened a path for future inquiry on any number of topics. For example, the exploratory models might be tested using the variable instruction from Cooper and Associates (1994) original model. In other words, rather than considering efficiency (SIR and SSR) as the economic variable that has an indirect affect on student achievement through the collective efficacy of teachers, perhaps dollars allocated directly to instruction is a more appropriate variable within the model.Bandura (1997) has argued that the degree to which an organization is tightly or loosely coupled influences the collective efficacy within that organization. Would similar results be found if this study were replicated within the middle or high school settings?Many highly sophisticated approaches to measuring school efficiency are available, for example, quadriform analysis, ratio analysis, and data envelopment analysis (King et al., 2003; Swanson and Engert, 1999). If other methods for measuring efficiency were utilized, how would this affect the results? \"To date, no system of estimating resources utilized for each student [emphasis added] has been devised ... The development of true 'student-level' financial measures of resources is crucial to understand questions of adequacy, equity, and productivity, and will be essential to our emerging view of financial reporting in the millennium\" (Fowler, 2001, p. 43). How might this type of accounting system, that is, one that can trace expenditures to the actual student help the educational system? Moreover, if one merged this view with those espoused by Sanders and Horn (1998), who have used a value-added concept to examine student achievement, then it might be possible for schools to determine how much it costs to educate each child and determine what results are linked to those costs. These are just a few examples of new directions for research.\nConclusion: The objective of this investigation was to test an explanatory model with a set of variables theorized to be related in an input-process-output model of the educational system. Three variables were carefully selected from the extant literature base: school efficiency (SIR and SSR), collective efficacy of teachers, and student achievement. Along with these organizational level variables, two important control variables, SES and prior student achievement, were introduced into the model and four theoretical models were presented and tested. The results were mixed.The study confirmed past research; collective efficacy of teachers in these elementary schools had a positive direct effect on student reading and mathematics achievement even when controlling for SES and prior achievement; however, school efficiency was unrelated to both collective efficacy of teachers and student achievement. To explain the lack of a relationship between efficiency and achievement, we speculated that school productivity provided a more complete picture for teachers as they developed their perceptions about how they might exert their combined effort to influence student performance (Cooper and Associates, 1994).In sum, as the educational community searches for ways to improve student achievement in schools, the quest should include not only the relationship between money and outputs, but how the money can transform the critical internal processes of schooling to improve teaching and learning.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Public schools in the USA face increased pressures for more accountability and improved performance. The objective of this study was to wed two previously separated theoretical strands of educational research - economic theory and organizational theory - by using variables from each theory base to develop, compare, and test a series of explanatory models of student achievement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A diverse set of schools was provided by 146 elementary schools in Ohio. Teachers in sample schools provided data on the collective efficacy of their schools and the Ohio Department of Education supplied demographic and achievement data. An ex post facto design was used to test a theoretical set of hypotheses and several structural models. Data were collected from the teachers in each school during regularly scheduled faculty meetings and analyzed using correlation analysis and structural equation modeling.\nFindings: - Collective efficacy of teachers in these elementary schools had a positive direct effect on student reading and mathematics achievement, even when controlling for SES and prior achievement; however, school efficiency was unrelated to both collective efficacy of teachers and student achievement.\nOriginality/value: - This study weds two previously separated theoretical strands of educational research - economic theory and organizational theory - by using variables from each theory base to develop, compare, and test a series of explanatory models of student achievement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Outsourcing destination choices: the role of economic and cultural attributes
|
[
"Religion",
"Outsourcing",
"Signalling theory",
"Country-of-origin"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A buyer's outsourcing decision can be greatly influenced by country stereotyping; that is, perceptions related to cost and technological capability of the supplier's host country. While much of the international marketing literature on outsourcing[1] services focusses on cost savings, the decision of in which country to offshore-outsource services may also be impacted by country-of-origin (COO) perceptions (Stafford, 2011) and is an understudied area (Chadee and Raman, 2009, p. 428). Service multinationals from certain countries may be at a distinct advantage or disadvantage based on factors that influence buyer perceptions. In this paper, we explore how supplier quality is assessed through COO attributes, such as religious beliefs, that are often beyond a firm's control. We focus on both an economic as well as a cultural attribute and how these shape perceptions of buyers toward the offshoring or offshore-outsourcing destination decision. In addition, we examine these issues from the perspective of managers in a developing country considering offshoring or offshore-outsourcing. As much of the literature considers this decision from the perspective of managers in developed countries, it ignores the growth of the phenomenon in developing countries. For instance, 44 percent of Middle-East CEOs outsourced some business processes or functions (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2013).\n2. Theory: Signaling theory suggests that the risk and uncertainty in the buyer-supplier relationship can be reduced if suppliers can provide to potential buyers credible information about their abilities or intentions, and therefore reduce informational asymmetry (Spence, 2002). As such, this framework is useful in theorizing about how buyers make decisions in regards to their choice of supplier. In his seminal work, Spence (1973) differentiated between two types of information: indices and signals. Indices are fixed attributes of individuals, (mostly) unalterable observable attributes such as race and sex. Signals are observable characteristics that the individual can alter under some costly action such as college education attainment. Firms can also have specific indices and signals. For instance, not easily altered and observable attributes such as a firm's age and COO can be considered as indices. On the other hand, firms can use many forms of quality[3] signals such as brand name, price, warranty, certificates, and reputation (Kirmani and Rao, 2000). Collectively, indices and signals can influence buyers' perception of the quality of the suppliers. Further, in order for a buyer to be able to distinguish high-quality from low-quality suppliers, theory suggests that two conditions must be met (Riley, 2001). First, signals or attributes of suppliers must be easily observable from the buyers, e.g., certification or COO, respectively. Second, signals must be cheap to send for high-quality suppliers but expensive for low quality. Otherwise, a low-quality supplier could send the same signal as the high-quality supplier.\n3. Methods and data: A survey instrument consisting of vignettes (scenarios) along with behavioral and demographic questions was developed and distributed to a sample of working professionals in Saudi Arabia. Vignettes have been successfully employed in prior studies given that, for any potential situation, more in-depth information can be incorporated leading to a level of analysis that is richer for the respondent (Spicer et al., 2004). An English version of the survey was first developed and then a bilingual expert translated it into Arabic.\n4. Results: Descriptive statistics and correlations of the respondents' choices for all vignettes and for the questions where respondents asked to evaluate their own likelihood of outsourcing and their perception of the executives' likelihood to outsource are provided in Table III. To test our hypotheses we performed ANCOVA analysis using the respondents' own evaluations across different vignettes as the dependent variable (Table IV). While a repeated-measures ANCOVA is robust to deviations from normality, especially in large samples, it is possible for extremely skewed distributions or heavily tailed distributions to affect the reported statistics. Estimation of the skewness and kurtosis of the dependent variable in each vignette and of the residuals in the repeated-measures ANCOVA showed that the data follow an approximately normal distribution. Visual inspection of the residual plots showed no evidence of heteroscedasticity and there was no interaction effect between the treatments and all the covariates (F\n5. Discussion: A number of important contributions stem from our research as we assess quality of service multinationals through information indices such as level of economic development and religion of the supplier's host nation and not just supplier signals. Previous studies have focussed on analyzing outsourcing buyer-supplier relationships ex post, e.g., after the supplier has been selected. But as Stafford (2011) argues, a manager's outsourcing destination decision can be strongly influenced by country stereotyping due to perceptions about cost and technological capability of the supplier's host country, which tend to substitute for rational choice. Therefore, in this study we focussed on what influences the outsourcing choices of managers ex ante and in particular we examine the effect of economic and cultural attributes as indicators of supplier quality. Second, even though there is an extensive behavioral research on COO effects, it has mostly been applied to goods and not services, which have predominantly experience characteristics, and it is usually from the perspective of customers in developed countries. Furthermore, literature has generally considered COO effects as one-directional, not accounting for the similarity or dissimilarity of the recipients. Third, very little information is available about how managers from Middle-Eastern nations perceive outsourcing, which is a growing phenomenon in this region, and this is particularly true in Saudi Arabia.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how country-of-origin (COO) perceptions of managers affect their provider selection for offshoring and offshore-outsourcing of services. In particular, it examines how economic and cultural attributes of the supplier's host nation shape these choices and identifies whether these attributes have a substitutive, complementary, or competing relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative study was performed using data collected from 235 managers in Saudi Arabia, which has relatively homogeneous managerial population with a clear significant cultural attribute and so presents an ideal setting to study the theory developed in this paper. Data were analyzed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance and a repeated-measures and doubly multivariate analysis of variance.\nFindings: Building on signaling theory, it is shown that buyers from developing countries prefer suppliers from developed rather than culturally distant developing economies as stronger institutions in developed nations increase the credibility of firms. It is also shown that they prefer suppliers from developing countries that share a common cultural attribute such as religion over other developing countries, supporting social identification behavior and a substitutive relationship between cultural and economic attributes. Finally, they are indifferent between suppliers located in a developed and in a culturally similar developing country, even when the cost of obtaining the service is the same in both countries. In such cases, economic and cultural COO attributes have a competing relationship in provider selection.\nResearch limitations/implications: It would be interesting to examine if the results of the current study extend to cultural attributes/cues other than religion that may shrink the social distance between buyers and suppliers.\nPractical implications: Service multinationals from developing countries may struggle to establish credibility in the eyes of potential customers, who consistently evaluate them lower than firms in developed markets or firms from developing countries that share a common social trait with the potential customers. They can compensate for this by adopting policies that enhance pre-contract trust, invest in homogeneity capital that decreases the social distance between the two firms, or by focussing their sales efforts on countries with which they share a social/cultural attribute.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the marketing and international business literatures by providing insights on how firms from developing countries can effectively compete in the global marketplace given COO effects. Overall, the results provide novel evidence of the importance of co-membership in transnational communities (for instance, religious groups across countries) in supplier selection and its relationship to economic attributes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The co-creation of multi-agent social innovations: A bridge between service and social innovation research
|
[
"Innovation",
"Organizational innovation",
"Co-creation",
"Services",
"Social innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the growth of private and public sector services in developed and developing economies - around 67 per cent of global value-added is in services (The World Bank Group, 2015) - service innovations and social innovations are increasingly overlapping[1]. Notable service sectors in which social innovations occur are education (e.g. charter schools), heath (e.g. patient-centred models of health care), tourism (e.g. rural development initiatives), finance (e.g. crowdfunding, microfinance) and social services (e.g. social entrepreneurship).\n2. Social and service innovation: Social innovation is \"social\" both in its outcome and in its process. The stakeholders involved in a social innovation seek to address a societal challenge, based on new ways of empowering citizens and establishing new social relationships. This requires changes in the design, organization and delivery of these services/products and the relationships of organizations involved in the supply and regulation of these services/products (Pol and Ville, 2009; Ruiz-Vinals, 2013; Hochgerner, 2013; Howaldt and Jacobsen, 2010).\n3. Multi-agent framework of social innovation in services: In this section we present a multi-agent framework for analysing the co-creation of a social innovation. The approach is rooted in the work of Kelvin Lancaster (1966, 1971) on product characteristics and consumer demand. Gallouj (Gallouj and Weinstein, 1997; Gallouj, 2002) and Windrum (Windrum and Garcia-Goni, 2008; Windrum, 2013) have developed this approach and applied it to public and private sector services innovation, expanding the analysis to include the roles of government, third sector and other agents in the innovation process.\n4. The co-creation of public access defibrillation in Austria[4]: In this section we consider the various ways in which the ARC worked with the different interests of key stakeholders to foster a multi-agent innovation network that successfully co-created the AED social innovation.\n5. Summary and conclusions: The paper has sought build a bridge between social innovation and service innovation research through the development of a multi-agent framework that contains key social innovation concepts and which brings to bear insights from the service innovation literature. Social innovation involves the co-creation of new services/products, and is shaped by the interactions between key stakeholders.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The research fields of service innovation and social innovation have, until now, been largely disconnected. At the most basic level, a great many social innovations are services, often public sector services with social entrepreneurs organizing and delivering service innovations. As well as this overlap in the focus of research, scholars in both research fields address socio-economic concerns using multidisciplinary perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework that can bridge the two research fields.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Inter-linkages between service and social innovation are shown by identifying research areas in which both find a joint heuristic field. This approach has been illustrated in a set of case studies in the health sector in Europe.\nFindings: The bridge between social innovation and service innovation research can be built when social innovation is examined through a multi-agent framework. The authors focus on social innovations where the co-creation of novel services is guided by the prominent position taken by citizens, social entrepreneurs or third sector organizations (NGOs or charities) in the innovation process. Of particular interest are the ways in which the interests of individual users and citizens are \"represented\" by third sector organizations.\nPractical implications: The case study of the Austrian nationwide public access defibrillation programme provides an exemplar of the process of co-creation by which this social innovation was developed, implemented and sustained. Here the Austrian Red Cross acted on behalf of citizens, organizing an innovation network capable of creating both the demand and the supply side of a sustainable market for the production and safe application of portable automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in Austria. This process involved, first, raising public awareness of the need for portable defibrillators and acting as a user representative when inducing changes in the design of portable AEDs. Later, there was the institutionalization of AED training in every first aid training in Austria, work with local manufacturers to produce this device, and with large user organizations to install AEDs on their premises.\nOriginality/value: The paper develops multi-agent model of innovation that enables one to synthesize key concepts in social and service innovation literatures and, thereby, examine the dynamics of invention and diffusion of social innovations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Fatty acid profile of coconut oil in relation to nut maturity and season in selected cultivars/hybrids
|
[
"Fuits",
"Food products",
"Edible oils"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The coconut (Cocos nucifera) is a perennial palm, is chiefly cultivated in the humid tropics for the nuts from which are obtained the edible fresh kernel, its desiccated form - copra, and coconut oil. It is one of the most important sources of vegetable oil in the world. Copra, the main product of the palm, which has an oil yield of about 65 percent, is perhaps the richest material for vegetable oil extraction. Kernel formation starts around the 7th month after emergence of spadix, previous to which time there is no kernel and only coconut water is present. The coconut palm at any time bears seven to eight bunches of coconuts of different maturity and therefore varying proportions of kernel. The solid endosperm, kernel, undergoes biochemical changes as it matures during its 12-month growth period after fertilization. An understanding of these changes would be useful for not only the scientists and nutritionists but also the farmers, to determine the specific end use to which the nut can be put to.The traditional use of coconut oil as a dietary oil in the tropical areas where it is grown, has been discouraged since the second half of the last century, allegedly due to its role in its contribution to hyper-cholesteremia and therefore to coronary heart diseases, due to its highly saturated nature. A fact that has been largely disregarded is that coconut oil consists predominantly of the small to medium chain fatty acids and glycerides, and that most studies used hydrogenated coconut oil for the ease with which it blended into animal feed. The epidemiological evidence does not support this in relation to high serum cholesterol or incidence of coronary heart disease.The objective of this study was to look at the qualitative changes (as opposed to just the quantitative data available) in the fatty acid profile of the coconut oil in relation to the maturity of the nut and season of fertilization in five promising cultivars (cv)/hybrids of coconut.\nMethodology: Plant material\nResults: Oil content\nDiscussion: Oil and fatty acid composition\nConclusion: In conclusion, the predominant fatty acids in coconut oil are lauric acid (31-47 percent) followed by myristic acid (18-25 percent), the concentrations of which were on par in the nuts of 10th and 12th month maturity. The fatty acids, caprylic and capric acids increased significantly with the maturity of the nut. Nuts that fertilize in the post monsoon season were found to have higher oil content; it was least in LCTxCOD and maximum in LCTxGBGD, followed by WCT. CODxWCT had lesser amounts of C8:0, C10:0 and C12:0 fatty acids and greater amounts of longer chain fatty acids. Knowledge of the nutrient profile of the coconut endosperm in relation to maturity, variety and season of fertilization is thus useful in determining its end use. The results presented, that is the predominance of small to medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil, reinforces the fact that it is as yet premature to assume that coconut oil consumption could predispose one to coronary artery diseases.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The objective of this work is to study the fatty acid profile of coconut oil in the kernel in relation to maturity of the nut and season of fertilization in five selected varieties of coconut.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The coconut oil from the popular cultivars/hybrids were studied in post-monsoon, pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons at 7, 8, 10 and 12 months after fertilization.\nFindings: - Nuts that fertilized in the post monsoon season were found to have higher oil contents. Of the five varieties, CODxWCT had lesser amounts of caprylic, capric and lauric acids and greater amounts of the long chain fatty acids. Though significant differences were observed in fatty acid concentrations in nuts differing in their variety and season of tagging, the trend remained the same.\nOriginality/value: - The study helps to ensure the safety of the usage of coconut oil as dietary oil, from the nature of fatty acids present.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Customer value perception of organic food: cultural differences and cross-national segments
|
[
"Food marketing",
"Customer perceived value",
"Cross-national market segmentation",
"Organic food consumption"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The organic food market has become a rapidly growing sector in developed agricultural economies (Lockie et al., 2002; Chen, 2007). Particularly in Europe, America, Latin America and Australia, more and more \"green consumers\" integrate environmental considerations into daily purchases, asking for healthier, safer and higher quality foods (Lockie et al., 2002; Chen, 2007; Siderera et al., 2005). This phenomenon is largely due to consumer concerns about food-related diseases and an increase in the use of genetically modified food (Chen, 2009; Hamzaoui Essoussi and Zahaf, 2008; Vindigni et al., 2002). Being suspicious of conventionally produced products, the new consumer orientation leads to a high demand for organic products so that even discounters offer organic products in large quantities at exceptionally low prices (Stolz et al., 2010). Consumers often associate organic food with an environment friendly agricultural production as well as certain intrinsic quality and safety characteristics (Brennan and Kuri, 2002; Vindigni et al., 2002). Reasoning that the term \"organic\" refers to the production process and not only to the product itself (Zakowska-Biemans, 2011), \"organic food is a produce of organic farming, which is a type of farming that sets very strict limits on the amount of artificial synthetic inputs allowed [...]. These inputs include the ones used in production (fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, etc.) and processing (food additives, including artificial flavourings, preservatives and colourings)\" (First and Brozina, 2009, p. 186). However, from a rational point of view, organic food may not necessarily be healthier or tastier than its conventionally produced counterpart (Torjusen et al. 1999 quoted by Chen, 2009).\nConceptualization and hypotheses development: In an attempt to examine a customer's perceived preference for and evaluation of a certain organic food product, the construct of customer perceived value is of particular importance. Understood as \"a consumer's overall assessment of the utility of a product based on perceptions of what is received and what is given\" (Zeithaml, 1988, p. 14) and based on \"an interactive relativistic consumption preference experience\" (Holbrook, 1994, p. 27), customer perceived value creates a trade-off between product-related benefits and sacrifices in the perspective of current as well as potential customers in different phases of the purchase process (Woodruff, 1997; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001). Referring to our conceptual model, following the value dimensions conducted by Sweeney and Soutar (2001), we assume that the consumer's individual perceived value addresses the experiences, feelings and emotions a certain brand or product provides to the consumer (Sheth et al., 1991; Smith and Colgate, 2007; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001). We relate to this concept, as customer value is well established in the marketing literature and represents a key determinant for consumer behavior (Papista and Krystallis, 2013). As shown in Figure 1 and discussed in the following paragraphs, customer perceived value of organic food is purported to have a positive impact on behavioral outcomes such as purchase intention, willingness to recommend and to pay a premium price.\nResearch methodology: To measure the underlying value dimensions of consumers' intentions to buy organic food (Davies et al., 1995) in the USA and Germany, this study employed existing multi-item measures to draw on new conclusions from an online survey. Related to organic food, respondents were pleased to evaluate their financial, functional, social and individual values adapted from Sweeney and Soutar (2001), their willingness to pay a premium price (Lockie et al., 2002, 2004), their recommendation intention (Wangenheim and Bayon, 2004; Yu and Dean, 2001) and the purchase intention (Michaelidou and Hassan, 2008; Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2005). Besides, some general statements related to the organic food market have been included with reference to health orientation (Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2009; Lockie et al., 2002) and general attitudes to organic products (Chen, 2007).\nResults and discussion: To examine possible differences and/or similarities across countries within the data analysis using SPSS 20.0, we first identified the various antecedents and behavioral outcomes of customer value perception through a factor analysis using the principal component method with varimax rotation. Based on the factor scores for each country, we used ANOVA to determine whether there are significant differences across countries in the psychological and context-related antecedents as well as behavioral outcomes. In order to assess common method variance (Podsakoff et al., 2003), we used Harman's (1976) one-factor test. Principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation revealed that common method bias presents no problem in our study; the first factor accounted for 17 percent of the variance. The results of the measurement of the constructs, the ANOVA and cluster results are described below.\nConclusion: Main contribution\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Due to consumer concerns about food-related diseases and an increase in the use of genetically modified food, more and more \"green consumers\" integrate environmental considerations into daily purchases, asking for healthier, safer and higher quality food. Marketing managers still face the challenge of broadening the understanding of how and why consumers purchase organic food. Specifically, a deeper understanding of the value dimensions consumers perceive in the context of organic food products is required to develop and implement successful management strategies which might transfer positive consumer perceptions to actual buying behavior and satisfaction. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on theoretical and empirical insights on organic food consumption in different markets, this research investigates antecedents of organic food products and differences regarding the relative importance of the value-based drivers across two Western nations.\nFindings: The results from survey data indicate significant differences in the value perceptions, especially the functional and individual value perceptions, and recommendation behavior related to organic food for consumers from the USA and Germany. In addition, the segmentation approach provides evidence for consumer segments that cross-national borders: the \"convinced opponents,\" the \"silent/private consumers,\" the \"prestige-seekers\" and the \"passionate evangelists.\"\nOriginality/value: Consequently, instead of a country-based segmentation approach, marketers should emphasize the different types of consumers across national borders in order to address the differences in customer value perception in the organic food market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Creating new market for industrial services in nascent fields
|
[
"New market",
"Industrial services",
"Customer cocreation",
"Markets",
"Customers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\n1. Introduction: The notion of \"market\" has often been assumed as given in economic literatures and in marketing management analysis (Loasby, 2000). As a result, little if any attention was paid to how \"the market\" was formed or changed over time (Buzzell, 1999, p. 61). Recently however, the phenomenon of new market is of growing interest to scholars (i.e. Humphreys, 2010). In the past years, researchers have explained new market from a variety of different disciplines, including sociology (Fligstein, 2002; White, 1981), psychology (Carpenter and Nakamoto, 1989; Earl, 1998), institutional economics (North, 1990), strategy (Christensen, 1997), and entrepreneurship (Venkataraman, 1997). A review of these literatures suggests that three major perspectives exist explaining the underlying factors leading to new market, namely: demand pulling, supply pushing, and institutions lubricating (Sarasvathy and Dew, 2004).The first perspective, the demand pulling view, considers the demand for a good as the driving force for creating a new market. Within this view, rational economics literature explains that new market is created by different consumers who adopt an innovation (Gilriches, 1957); sociology scholars describe market creation by considering the epidemic processes among potential adopters about the adoption information of an innovation (Rogers, 1995); psychology researchers believe that the changes in buyer preferences create new markets (Carpenter and Nakamoto, 1989).The second view, supply pushing, holds that market is driven by industry initiatives when suppliers from an industry introduce a new product or service (Porter, 1980; White, 1981), and when a technology is commercialized (Schumpeter, 1934).For the third view, institutionalists focus on various frictions in the process of making exchanges. For institutionalists, new markets are created by inventing ways to reduce friction and facilitate market transactions by a market-maker (Casson, 1982).In summary, to explain what leads to new markets, each of these three perspectives, on its own, can provide a lot of insight. However, each has its limitations. The problem for the demand pulling view, for example, is highlighted by Geroski (2002), who argues that it is hard to know what kind of demand this demand-pulling argument relies on, and therefore \"the demand for products which do not exist cannot be anything other than an inchoate demand\" (Geroski, 2002, p. 29). For the supplying pushing view, scholars disagree even on key issues, such as the sources of technological change (Ruttan, 1997). Overall, extant research on new market primarily examines new market from a singular perspective by using a single theoretical lens. Therefore, an integration of these views may provide a more accurate picture of the new market creation process and reveal new insights.A few studies (i.e. Rosa et al., 1999) take a holistic view on the formation of new market, yet they typically focus on the product market and do not address new services market. However, marketing service is different from marketing goods, because of the long-recognized differences between the nature of service and goods (Parasuraman et al., 1985). Thus, there is a superb opportunity to develop a more complete and theoretically rich understanding of new services market creation. We seek to extend current theory and create new insights by studying the new services market creation process in nascent industrial fields. We ask: How do firms create new market for novel industrial services over time? By examining this question, we also intend to make a contribution to services management literature by examining how new technology play a key role in new service development (NSD) (Dabholkar, 2000; Haynes and Thies, 1991).Our research design is a multiple-case, inductive study that uses in-depth archival and field data to track closely how five industrial firms created new market for new types of services. This design uses a research setting in the life science industry where new services are crucial, underexplored, and underserved by current theories.The rest of this article is organized as follows. First, the research setting and case research methodology is discussed. Next, the key findings, including major implications for the literature and managers, are presented. The article concludes with a discussion of limitations and future research directions.\n2. Method: 2.1 Research setting\n3. Results: Our data suggest that firms take on a strategic approach to create new market for new services. We find that, firms adopt a holistic initiative to address the challenges in new service market creation. More specifically, they enact this market-creation imperative using patterns of three interrelated processes: co-creating, innovating and exploiting. That is, as summarized in Figure 1, they attempt to create new services market by:1. Coworking with customers.2. Adopting different forms of innovations throughout the design and implementation of new services.3. Exploiting institutional forces to legitimize, claim and control the emerging new services market.Underlying these processes is the use of different mechanisms that form the strategic arsenal of firms in creating new markets. Together, these processes enable a firm to successfully construct a new service market within a nascent industrial field. We discuss each process in detail next.3.1 From demand pulling to co-creating new services market with customers\n4. Conclusions and implications: Although some academic thinking on the topic of new mark creation is evident, significant theory generation and empirical investigation in developing new market for novel services in nascent industrial fields has hardly taken place. Day and Wensley (2002, p. 259) also call for research \"to develop new ways of understanding the ways in which the market space evolves\". Moreover, NSD remains among the least studied topics in the service management literature (Menor et al., 2002). Against this background, this research investigates the process of development and marketing of new research services for life science innovations. We find that firms rely on multiple mechanisms centered on three interrelated processes (co-creating, innovating and exploiting) to construct new markets.Moreover, \"understanding how markets are created and sustained can help managers navigate environments in which multiple stakeholders determine the success or failure of a new product or industry\" (Humphreys, 2010, p. 1). Therefore, as summarized by Figure 1, our central theoretical contribution is a holistic framework of the longitudinal processes by which successful firms develop new services offers and construct new markets. This holistic framework suggests that these processes are interactive and synergistic. For example, by actively involving \"star\" scientists, Firm A not only was able to come up with superior new services, stay abreast with the latest innovative trend, but also strengthen its citation position over its competitors. Therefore, to develop a new market for an industrial service innovation, a firm must innovate within and outside the firm, win over customers for adopting, adapting the service innovation and identifying its new uses, and utilize institutional mechanisms to legitimatize, claim and control the emerging market.Although subject to further testing and refinement through additional research, the findings of this study will provide an understanding of the process and challenges research service companies face and will also help managers to catalogue and identify a set of activities that should be undertaken in developing smart research services. More specifically, the findings of this research should assist managers, those working in the dynamic environment in particular, in four ways. First, to provide smart services in nascent industrial field, successful firms should engage the customers throughout all phases of the commercialization process. Rather than simply trying to close a deal, firms should seek active involvement from customers, ranging from co-developing service products to seeking feedback on product-related problems or desired modifications, to accelerating new services diffusion and identifying new uses for an existing service. Second, this research provides specific insights into the drivers and constraints of developing and marketing industrial services. This can help managers in making better NSD decisions in nascent fields in general. Third, effective mechanisms of becoming smart service providers have been explored in this research, which managers should consider for designing their new product/service projects. Fourth, our key insight is that firms adopt a holistic initiative to address the challenges in new service market creation. In particular, we highlight how firms use three interrelated strategies (co-creating, innovating and exploiting) rather than traditional tactics based on an individualistic view on market-creation. Marketing managers for industrial service innovation can therefore benefit from an understanding of the holistic framework of the longitudinal processes by which successful firms develop new services markets and its strategic implications for tailoring marketing strategies.\n5. Limitations and recommendation for future research: Several limitations due to the nature of the research and industry involved deserve attention. These limitations also imply opportunities for further research in this area. First, the study described here focused only on life science research services. Therefore, more studies are needed to investigate the new service markets in other settings. Second, due to the theory-building nature of this research, in-depth field interviews were used in a small number of firms. Therefore, the findings presented here should be considered tentative. Future studies may attempt to test the theory and variables developed in this research through a large-scale quantitative survey or through further in-depth qualitative studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - In recent years, industrial firms have been moving from selling pure products to selling smart services. Yet limited empirical evidence exists about how the new markets for these novel services are created. This paper seeks to extend current theory and create new insights by studying the new services market creation process in nascent industrial fields.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors' research design is a multiple-case, inductive study that uses in-depth archival and field data to track closely how five industrial firms created new market for new types of services.\nFindings: - The authors find that firms adopt a holistic initiative to address the challenges in new services market creation. In particular, they use three interrelated strategies to create a new market: co-creating with customers, innovating in different ways and exploiting institutional forces.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study focused only on life science research services. Moreover, in-depth field interviews were used only in a small number of firms.\nPractical implications: - To successfully develop a new market for an industrial service innovation, a firm should innovate within and outside the firm, win over customers for adopting, adapting the service innovation and identifying its new uses, and utilize institutional mechanisms to legitimatize, claim and control the emerging market.\nOriginality/value: - This paper's central contribution is a holistic framework of the longitudinal processes by which successful firms develop new services and construct new markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Strategy and practices: A qualitative study of a Brazilian public healthcare system of telemedicine
|
[
"Telemedicine",
"Qualitative research",
"Strategy as practice",
"Healthcare public cooperation",
"Structuration theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Ever since Whittington's (1996) seminal article \"Strategy as practice,\" several studies have shared the understanding that strategy is a situated and socially acquired activity based on the interaction between different agents and micro-activities carried out by people within an organization (Jarzabkowski, 2005, 2010; Whittington, 2006; Johnson et al., 2007; Lavarda et al., 2011; Andersen, 2013). This practice perspective has also begun to influence other fields of study, such as information systems (Brown and Duguid, 2000; Orlikowski, 2000; Hayes and Walsham, 2001; Pozzebon and Pinsonneault, 2005; Von Krogh et al., 2012; Whittington, 2014).\n2. SAP: SAP studies have gained importance in the scientific community by shedding light on the interaction between actors and the micro-activities carried out within organizations. By looking at organizations using this new approach, studies began to comprehend how strategy is created, and considered it to be a social practice in which all stakeholders are involved and contribute to its performance (Whittington, 1996, 2006). This is the reason why this line of research is called SAP, because it believes that strategy is something that people do (Whittington, 2006; Johnson et al., 2007; Jarzabkowski and Whittington, 2008; Jarzabkowski and Paul Spee, 2009). As a result, the more that strategy approaches practice, the more evident it is that strategy is not an organizational attribute, but rather a reflection of the activity of individuals and thus a social phenomenon.\n3. ST: Giddens (1984) introduces ST by presenting its differences from interpretative sociology in which action and meaning receive a certain priority to explain human conduct. ST on the other hand focuses on structure and its constraining qualities, proposing an imperialism of the social object over the imperialism of the subject or, in other words, the interpretative sociology approach.\n4. Methodology: We have used a qualitative methodology, applying it to a single case study strategy (Eisenhardt, 1989). Considering the goal of this study, it can be characterized as explanatory (Saunders et al., 2009) as it aims to analyze how TSSC's strategy has resulted in significant improvements as seen through the lens of ST.\n5. Analysis and discussion of the results: We begin our analysis by describing the TSSC, its creation, design and hierarchical structure, followed by a description of its practitioners and an analysis of practices and praxis and their relationship to ST.\n6. Final considerations: The objective of this study is to analyze \"How has the relationship between practices, praxis, practitioners and existing structures positively influenced the results of this public healthcare system?\" In this paper, we have presented five strategic practitioners, six practices and the praxis that they perform to influence the results of the TSSC. In addition to this, we have developed a framework adapted from Orlikowski (2000) for each category of analysis representing the interpretative schemes, facilities and norms that have motivated the social practices present in the TSSC. We have also presented the stocks of knowledge (or structures) enacted by those strategic practitioners during their praxis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In analyzing the field of strategic management in public organizations, scholars have noted a lack of studies that investigate how public organizations actually apply strategic management tools (Hansen, 2011) as well as studies that investigate how strategic knowledge is developed and used in practice in public organizations (Bryson et al., 2010). Voicing similar concerns, the 2013 World Health Report pointed out the challenges facing many governments in providing universal health coverage and the importance of conducting new studies that focus on practical approaches using the existing knowledge rather than only investing in research related to new technologies. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how Telemedicine System of Santa Catarina (TSSC)'s strategy has resulted in significant improvements as seen through the lens of structuration theory (ST).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors support the analysis using the strategy as practice (SAP) framework of practice, praxis and practitioners and the ST of Giddens (1984), using Orlikowski's (2000) technology in practice framework. The authors have applied a qualitative methodology using a single case study which analyzes a healthcare system that has resulted from a successful cooperation agreement between two public organizations in Brazil. This research is based on the analysis and identification of the structural aspects (interpretative schemes, facilities, norms and stock of knowledge) that are enacted by the practitioners through their practices and praxis.\nFindings: The authors have identified five strategic practitioners that perform six strategic practices and praxis, and have analyzed the structures they enact during their praxis. The authors have also identified the interpretative schemes, norms and facilities that motivate these social practices and how they influence the results of the TSSC.\nResearch limitations/implications: As limitations of this study, the authors highlight the focus given to the service provider practitioners, leaving aside the political practitioners and patients. The researcher perception and possible biases must be considered also as a limitation, despite of the efforts to minimize them with the rigor of the methodology and the use of mixed data collection techniques to enable data triangulation.\nPractical implications: This research contributes to a better understanding of the benefits that the practice perspective offers and provides insights into the possible management cooperation between institutions. It also provides substantial evidence of the relationship between SAP and ST as it contributes to the reinforcement of empirical studies using ST. In addition to academic advances, this study contributes to the field by highlighting how the relationship between practices, praxis, practitioners and the existing structures has positively influenced the results of a public healthcare system and by presenting a successful initiative that has helped to improve the public healthcare system.\nOriginality/value: The authors believe that this paper will contribute to the field by highlighting how the relationship between practices, praxis, practitioners and existing structures has positively influenced the results of a public healthcare system and the roles played by the human agents involved.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Optimization model for a livestock collection problem
|
[
"Livestock",
"Transportation",
"Optimization techniques",
"Production planning",
"Meat",
"Norway"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper reports on an MIP model created for a project that has been set up with The Norwegian Meat Research Centre (Fagsenteret for kjott), Molde University College, and the largest cooperative and private slaughterhouses in Norway, Gilde Norsk Kjott and Fatland Jaeren. The purpose of the project is to study how we possibly can obtain cost effective transportation while at the same time taking care of animal welfare.Transportation of live animals to slaughterhouses is a very classical logistics problem. A number of vehicles with limited capacity must collect animals at diverse farms and bring them in to provide a steady flow of animals at the abattoir. As the number of slaughterhouses is being reduced, the need for cost effective transportation increases substantially. Also the fact that many slaughterhouses are now specialized in terms of animal types has the same effect.Combined with these effects stemming from increased competition in the business, there are also relevant regulations taking care of animal welfare. Some of these are national, some are imposed by the EU. The most prominent of these regulations is that no animal may spend more than eight hours on a vehicle. There are also regulations on how much space must be allotted to each animal. In a sparsely populated country like Norway, also strong regulations on mixing animal types (as well as animals from different herds) on a vehicle point in the same direction: increased need for transportation, and hence increased needs for effective transportation.There is a connection between financial gains and animal welfare. The better an animal is treated before being slaughtered, the more valuable meat results. The strength of this connection varies, however, among animal types and among the different regulations (time, mix of types, and mix of herds). So even though the welfare constraints may appear to produce only costs in an optimization model, there is also a positive effect, although hard to quantify. Also the incentive structure within the business hides this fact. There is no feedback from bad meat quality (for example, from a stressed animal) to the potential savings in the treatment of the animal that led to the stress. It is not clear how to handle this, but the effect is not to be neglected.The driving force behind the transportation planning is a slaughtering plan, which again is a function of expected demand and general knowledge about available animals. Of course, these two processes should be more integrated, but that is something left for later work. Here, we use the industry standard of letting production plans determine transportation.The model presented deals with multiple-period planning of transportation of live animals to a slaughterhouse according to a slaughtering plan - with emphasis on routing of vehicles. This involves decisions on when the vehicles should arrive to the farms and to the slaughterhouse and simultaneous design of vehicle routes for each period. The model objective is to minimize the total transportation costs.The model is interesting because it differs from known vehicle routing models and their extensions. It combines time scheduling of visits on each route a vehicle performs on a day with a careful orchestration of the vehicle's arrivals to the abattoir to secure continuous production. The model also includes animal welfare constraints. The vehicle routing nature of the model requires the use of continuous time variables, while from the production planning side the usage of discrete time periods is essential. The model links both types of time variables thus representing a combination of a vehicle routing and a multi-period production planning problem.The rest of this paper is organised as follows: we first present a detailed problem description, including problem characteristics and constraints, problem size, current daily planning routines and a review of existing literature on the relevant optimization problems. Next follows a specification of problem characteristics and assumptions for the basic model. The optimization model formulation is then presented, followed by directions for further research, including possible solution approaches.\nProblem description: The decision problem has two integrated parts: a vehicle routing component and a production planning component. In the vehicle routing problem (VRP), the scheduler needs to generate routes for vehicles that collect animals from supply farms and deliver them to the slaughterhouse. In the production planning problem, the scheduler needs to schedule the vehicles' returns to the slaughterhouse after the collection according to the slaughtering plan. Our goal is to develop a specific sequence of suppliers (farms) for each vehicle to visit on each route in such a way that the total transportation cost is minimized while honoring the operational constraints on the routes and the slaughtering plan.The scheduler has to take many factors in account, including general characteristics of the routing problem like demand, vehicle fleet and working rules, as well as production process characteristics (original for our problem) such as slaughtering plan and inventory level. On the other hand, the operational characteristics of the slaughterhouse routing activity will be specified, i.e. the constraints that govern the route configuration. In an operational setting, the routes driven on any day are subject to a number of constraints reflecting restrictions imposed by the vehicles, the drivers' schedules and animal welfare requirement.Nature of supply and demand\nRelevant optimization problems in the literature: The part of the problem dealing with allocations of transportation tasks to a fleet of vehicles with simultaneous routing for each vehicle represents the classical VRP (Dantzig and Ramser, 1959). The VRP is a computationally hard optimization problem with high industrial relevance. In the basic version of the VRP, the capacitated VRP (CVRP), all the customers correspond to deliveries and the demands are deterministic, known in advance, and may not be split. The vehicles are identical and based at a single depot, and only capacity restrictions for the vehicles are imposed. The objective is to minimize the total cost (i.e. a weighted function of the number of routes and their length or travel time) to serve all the customers. Earlier (Toth and Vigo, 2002) three different basic modeling approaches have been proposed for the CVRP in the literature: vehicle flow models, commodity flow models and set-partitioning formulations.The vehicle flow formulations may be adapted to model some variants of the CVRP, for example, may take into account the case of a non-homogeneous fleet, where each vehicle may have a different capacity, or incorporate the maximum distance/route duration constraints. The binary variables used in these models are associated with each road section in the road network and indicate the number of times the road section between two specific customers is traversed by the specific vehicle. These formulations have also been used to model such extension of the VRP as VRP with time windows (VRPTW), where the service at each customer must start within an associated time window and the vehicle must remain at the customer location during service (Cordeau et al., 2002). In the mathematical formulation for the VRPTW, the continuous time variables were first introduced, specifying the start of service at the customer when serviced by a certain vehicle.The literature on the VRP with multiple use of vehicles (VRPM) is very scant. But we find a heuristic algorithm (Taillard et al., 1986), and a modification of the VRPTW model (Hajri-Gabouj and Darmoul, 2003), taking into account multiple uses of vehicles with double time windows for the depot.In the literature on the numerous and diverse applications of vehicle routing, two industries can be of interest to us concerning the interaction between routing and production: dairy milk collection and newspaper delivery.In the dairy milk collection problem, there is an important similarity with the livestock collection problem: health regulations require that the time elapsed from the first milk pickup on the route until the milk tanker is emptied should not exceed a season-specific limit, thus protecting the quality of the milk. In Sankaran and Ubgade (1994) we find incorporated a constraint on the time between the first stop and return to the dairy for every tanker trip for the daily routing problem, mentioning that improvement in milk quality would more than offset the increase in the global transportation cost. The queuing situation that occurs when the tankers return to unload milk at a processing plant and there are not enough pumps to empty the tankers has also been discussed earlier (Basnet et al., 1997). The decision aid designed helps the schedulers in the allocation of tankers to the routes in order to alleviate pumping bay congestion by minimizing the make-span.The studies of the newspaper delivery problem (NDP) (Holt and Watts, 1988; Hurter and Van Buer, 1996) explicitly considered the interaction between the routing and production decisions. The challenge of newspaper delivery is to work with tight time windows, since newspapers are a perishable commodity. For a large newspaper, printing presses generally run for several hours, and as the printing progresses, vehicles are being loaded and dispatched. Generally, the newspapers for the remote transfer points (which have the tightest due times) must be printed and dispatched first. This suggests sequencing production by the geographical locations of the transfer points. In Holt and Watts' heuristic algorithm the critical start times for the routes (equal to the latest time the route can start and still meet its deadlines) are used to determine the loading sequence at the dock. Hurter and Van Buer considered the routing problem studied as a VRPTW, where the route start time depends on the completion time for the loading of the vehicle, which is computed from the production schedule. In their heuristic solution, the production schedule is altered if infeasibility (with respect to delivery time windows) arises for the route constructed.These NDP studies sought to coordinate production and vehicle schedules governed by demand and time windows of the transfer points. The rate of production (number of papers per minute) in the NDP is an important parameter in determining the planning horizon. In the livestock collection problem the situation is somewhat opposite: the delivery point is a slaughterhouse, and the termination time for the specific route cannot be associated with some time window, stating that \"this route must be back at the depot between time e and time l in order to be feasible.\" We will not have a situation where a single route is feasible or infeasible because of time windows constraints, it will rather be a question if the whole solution, viewed as a set of routes, is feasible or not with respect to production plan and the lair capacity. If the slaughterhouse is processing pigs during an eight hours day at a rate of 100 animals per hour, fetching 50 from the lair every half an hour, then a feasible solution must secure that at least another 50 pigs are available every half an hour.It should be noted from the previous review that, also several similar to our problem aspects were integrated to the VRP, solution methodologies are all heuristic, due to high complexity of the problem. It should be also mentioned that there are publications where mathematical models are used to combine the original nature of the problem with production/inventory management, for example, in ship routing (Christiansen, 1999) or in material handling scheduling (Khayat et al., 2003).\nAssumptions and simplifications: As described, the original problem is too complex to attack directly. On the first stage of the study (Gullberg and Hovden, 2004) we did not attempt to include all factors and restrictions described above in the optimization model. Rather, we attempted to determine what characteristics and operational constraints are essential for the problem, and to formulate a simplified basic optimization model in order to be able to test it on small instances, while leaving extension and detailed elaboration of this basic model for the future stages of the project. The assumptions and simplifications made reflect our experience with operations of the slaughterhouses on which our study is based.Specification of general characteristics\nMathematical formulation of the basic problem: We formulate the basic variant of the livestock collection problem as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem. First, we present the arc flow constraints: the spatial and the temporal aspects, including multiple usages of vehicles per day and welfare requirements on the travel time. Second, the constraints linking the incoming flow of animals and production, and the inventory constraints are introduced. Then, the objective function is presented, and the results of testing.Routing\nConcluding remarks and further research: In this paper, we have presented a real livestock collection problem that can be modeled as a mixed integer programming problem. The model integrates two components of supply chain management: routing of supply vehicles and production scheduling at the abattoir, where production plans determine transportation. Because of the complexity of the problem, some assumptions and simplifications have been made at the initial stage of our study to formulate the basic version of the model. The interest of the formulation is that it lifts any possible ambiguity about the precise problem definition. As a result researches who will work on this problem at the future stages of the project will have a precise characterization of it.The model can be fed directly to standard commercial optimization software for mixed linear programming. However, due to its complexity, only small sized data instances have been solved to optimality. Previously (Gullberg and Hovden, 2004) used CPLEX to solve the model for seven farms for a two days planning horizon, where each day is split into four production time intervals, for two vehicles with maximum three routes per vehicle per day, and found that adding the eighth farm made the problem too hard for CPLEX to find an optimal solution in reasonable time. We are aware that the proposed type of formulation is mostly descriptive in the sense that it cannot be solved directly for instances of the size that arise in practice. To be able to solve real-life sized instances of the livestock collection problem we hope to develop efficient approximation algorithms and heuristic methods at the next stages of the project. However, the MILP formulation could be used to assess the quality of heuristics on small size instances.There are several directions of our future study of the problem. At first, we continue the modeling process, reversing some of the simplifications in order to obtain a problem description that corresponds more closely to the real-life problem. The issues to be modeled are: considering different animal categories; including constraints prohibiting mixing of different animal types/categories on the same vehicle, precedence constraints, dynamic vehicle capacity, minimization of the fleet size, load-dependent costs.Later, a goal programming approach could be used to introduce some of the issues affecting the quality of the meat (such as the time animals spend on the vehicle or/and kept in the lair and the number of animals kept overnight) as additional goals in the problem.For the time being all the factors in the livestock collection problem are treated as deterministic. In the future, we may take the stochastic nature of some of these factors (for example, travel time) into consideration in order to have solutions that are more robust. However, such factors as planning horizon (normally one week), collection demands and production plan, according to our examination of planning routines at the two example abattoirs, are supposed to be known with certainty.Another direction of the study is to try to solve the model using constraint programming, or apply Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition approach with some model adjustments. However, the main direction is to develop, on the basis of the extended model, effective solution methods to solve instances from the real world. It is planned to develop a tabu search based heuristic for the problem, which is in itself a major undertaking. Later, column generation based approach will be tried. The latter approach could be exact, heuristic, or both. Obtaining a complete data set on a real-life instance is another challenging task of the project.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The value chain of the Norwegian meat production industry has recently been through major structural changes resulting in increased flows and transportation needs at all levels. The purpose of this paper is to present results of the initial stage of a five-year research project between the Norwegian Meat Research Centre, Norwegian meat companies and Molde University College. The main goal of the project is to develop a decision support system for the transport of live animals to a slaughterhouse to reduce transportation costs while maintaining high level of livestock welfare and meat quality, as these are three main factors for the profitability of both farmers and industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents a mixed integer programming model that combines vehicle routing and inventory control. We introduce the possibility for multiple routes for a given vehicle on a given day in a multiple-period planning perspective. Arrival times of the loaded vehicles to the slaughterhouse are controlled by production (slaughter) rate and inventory level at the abattoirs so that the supply of animals for slaughter is steady and production breaks are avoided. Livestock welfare is secured by the route duration constraints.\nFindings: - The model has been formulated and tested on small data sets. The major future challenge is to solve real-life problems from the involved companies.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main limitation is the present inability to solve large cases.\nOriginality/value: - The model combining transportation and inventory control in a setting of animal welfare constraints is original.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Corporatization and internationalization of state-owned enterprises: The role of institutional intermediaries
|
[
"Corporatization",
"Internationalization",
"Privatization",
"State-owned enterprises",
"Governments as strategists",
"Institutional intermediations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalization is changing the world of business. In this shifting scenario, enterprises of any kind need to rely on new navigators. The pressure on the business-government relationship prompts particularly state-owned enterprises (henceforth SOEs) to update their corporate mechanisms (Cuervo-Cazurra et al., 2014). To thrive in a time of globalization, SOEs need to loosen the link with governments and change their attitude toward corporate practices. At the same time, governments have to update their policies too. Although on one hand, they are losing control over enterprises, on the other they can target new and more ambitious goals such as the internationalization of domestic firms. However, a strategy aiming at expansion on the foreign markets governments must equip itself with proper tools. SOEs must first accomplish corporatization to complete the transition. Corporatization means the governance renovation of SOEs in the pursuit of greater efficiency and autonomy.\nLiterature review: SOEs in Europe experienced a major privatization program at the end of last century. Many European countries went through the sale of relevant stocks in the state-owned companies (Alonso et al., 2013). SOEs were at the time the backbone of the industrial policy of the state-guided capitalism in Europe (Baumol et al., 2008). Governments had set a regulated economy in place of a direct involvement into the SOEs (Schmidt, 2009; Colli et al., 2014). Regulated economies rebuilt interactions between the government and the former state-owned companies. Policy-makers turned their effort toward corporatization and internationalization of SOEs, on the basis of the rationality to implement meaningful policies aiming at the socially desirable public enterprises (Del Bo and Florio, 2012). The path toward privatization and internationalization, however, has been different according to the domestic actors' preferences more than the technological and competitive pressures (Kornelakis, 2015). For such reason, the paper compares different industries and countries.\nCorporatization and internationalization of SOEs in Europe: Aerospace and defence\nMethods: An exploratory case study\nA case study in institutional intermediation: the Italian Space Agency: State-owned holding Leonardo, formerly Finmeccanica, holds an aerospace company within the group, Alenia Spazio, which is now part of a multinational joint venture alongside French Thales. The strategy of the government has been fundamental to its development in the last decades. During the 1960s, the Italian aerospace industry was fragmented and only partially owned by the state through different public holdings. The government, first by the means of public procurement, and then by the creation of an intermediary institution, namely the Italian Space Agency, pushed several companies to aggregate technological competencies spread in several actors, and then use a SOE as vehicle to consolidate an innovative firm able to compete on the European market at the time of privatization (Landoni, 2016). Eventually, the company reached an industrial alliance with a European partner to become a global player (Landoni, 2017).\nDiscussions: The industries and SOEs presented so far help to distinguish between recurrent policies in support of internationalization. Recently, globalization and liberalization pushed state-owned companies through partial or full privatization. Both privatization and direct ownership in times of de-regulation of markets, however, called for an increase in performance of SOEs. Governments, which directly owned or operated companies, looked at corporatization and internationalization for increasing the economic performance of the former SOEs. In this sense, corporatization is just the first step toward international competition. Privatization pushed companies to improve their managerial and organizational competencies, i.e. corporatization, and governments assisted them in various forms, which reflect a different degree of intensity in support.\nConclusion: The purpose of this research was to provide a conceptual framework of the different role of the supporting instruments adopted by governments to drive SOEs' corporatization and internationalization. Thus, the study has shown the role of institutional intermediaries as the instruments that better nurture the process of corporatization for internationalization. By an exploratory study, this paper made explicit that corporatization affects internationalization, yet it is neither necessary nor sufficient, and that governments apply different strategies to foster SOEs' internationalization with different results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for the intermediation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Governments may apply different form of support with the aim of increasing corporatization and internationalization of SOEs. The paper suggests a strategy based on institutional intermediation as the more efficient to drive corporatization and internationalization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research selected cases concerning SOEs in different industries in Europe in search of recurrences from a novel theoretical perspective. Among them, a case study concerning the Italian Space Agency explores the development of an institutional intermediary.\nFindings: Government supports to SOEs appear in different forms and contribute to different results. A typology of the most recurrent forms shows three different types of actions governments have taken to support internationalization of firms. Intermediation seems the most suitable to trigger corporatization and internationalization.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study explores institutional intermediaries as a novel supporting strategy for governments. It proposes a novel concept based upon a single case study. Further research needs to test and verify the institutional intermediaries' impact drawing on a larger sample and different contexts.\nOriginality/value: So far, few attempts have linked corporatization to globalization. The paper tries to fill this gap between corporatization and internationalization of SOEs. Its value is the provision of a novel view that includes institutional intermediaries as instrumental to governments' strategy that aims to bridge the two components.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Employers' perspectives of online education
|
[
"Online education",
"Perceptions of online education",
"Value of online education",
"Employers and online education",
"Education",
"Computer based learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The continuously increasing enrollment of students in online courses and programs necessitates a closer look at the perceived value of online education especially as it pertains to the employers' perspective. Specifically, Allen and Seaman (2010) indicate that as of fall 2009 approximately 5.6 million higher education students were enrolled in at least one online course in the USA alone, a figure that represents an annual growth rate of 21 percent. Allen and Seaman further report that the growth rate for face-to-face courses in higher education is 2 percent and that the recent economic downturn has resulted in an increased demand for online courses and programs for about the majority (approximately 75 percent) of the institutions that were surveyed. Given the above figures, it is expected that the number of graduates with online degrees will continue to increase over the next few years.The expected proliferation of graduates with online degrees has two major implications for employers. First, the potential applicant pool based on which hiring decisions will be made will include a progressively higher number of applicants who have completed their degrees online. At the same time, employers are more likely to use the accessibility of online courses to their advantage for employee training and development purposes (Linardopoulos, 2010). Accordingly, employers are considered key stakeholders in online education and their viewpoint should be carefully considered during the development of new online programs and courses.Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to:(1) conduct a review of a representative set of currently available studies and papers regarding the employers' perceptions of online education;(2) identify gaps in the current set of studies; and(3) suggest future research directions regarding the employer perspectives on online education.The selected studies were reviewed with a focus on the following questions:(1) How do employers perceive the value of online courses and degrees?(2) Has the employers' perception of value of online courses and degrees changed as online educational offerings increased?(3) What are the variables that affect the perception of the value of online education from the perspective of the employers?\nMethodology: In order to review the findings of the current studies regarding the employers' perceptions of online education, a search was conducted on the ERIC and ProQuest research databases between January and February 2011. The following key words were used during the search:* online degrees and employers;* online degrees and employment;* employers' perceptions of online degrees; and* employment prospects and online degrees.The search results on the above listed databases were limited to include only scholarly/peer-reviewed journals. In addition, the search was restricted to papers published after 2008 in order to ensure the currency of the information included in the findings. However, three studies conducted between 2005 and 2007 were also used because they represented the first comprehensive attempt to research the topic under examination (employers' perceptions of online education).Furthermore, a general search was conducted on Google using the above referenced key words in order to obtain data on the employers' perspectives as depicted in the \"popular\" papers (non-scholarly/peer reviewed). No restrictions were placed during that search, but emphasis was again given to the papers published after 2008.Based on the two searches outlined above a total of seven studies were analyzed more closely. Those seven studies were deemed to be representative of the research on this topic.\nResults: The review of the studies listed above indicates a discrepancy between the employers' perception as depicted in the \"popular\" publications and the majority of the findings of the peer reviewed/scholarly papers. According to Columbaro and Monaghan (2009), who conducted a comprehensive literature review on this topic, the majority of popular media and papers present online degrees as \"viable options\" for students who want to advance their education. However, the authors do argue that in general those papers also warn potential applicants regarding the risk component associated with pursuing an online degree.Of particular importance are the studies of (Adams and Defleur, 2005, 2006; Adams et al., 2007; Adams, 2008). In this series of studies, the authors attempted to compare the applicants' potential of getting hired based on whether their degree was obtained online or face-to-face or via a hybrid instructional method. The studies focussed in a number of disciplines and in almost all of the cases, the results indicated that the candidate with a traditional degree had a much better chance of gaining employment.More specifically, in one of their earlier studies (Adams and Defleur, 2005) researched the employment chances of a faculty candidate who obtained their doctoral degree either entirely or partially online (hybrid delivery) compared to a faculty candidate who obtained their doctoral degree via the face-to-face delivery mode. The design of the study seemed to make clear to the respondents (search committee chairs) that the candidates share the same qualifications based on all other factors (e.g. recommendations, course evaluations, publications) other than the mode of delivery through which the doctoral degree was obtained. It should be noted that the authors do not mention the degree to which doctoral students interacted with their supervisor (in either of the three deliver modes). The results of the study clearly indicate that the candidate with the degree obtained via the traditional mode of instruction had a much higher chance of being hired when compared to the candidate who completed the doctorate in a fully online or hybrid setting. Specifically, the faculty candidate with a fully online doctorate was the preferred choice of only 2 percent of the respondents whereas the faculty candidate with the hybrid doctorate was the preferred choice of only 11 percent of the respondents. Accordingly, Adams and Defleur warn doctoral students to think carefully prior to pursuing their doctorate degree in an online setting. However, the results of this study are not confirmed (at least in one setting) by the findings of Guendoo (2008), according to which a faculty candidate who obtained the doctoral degree online will not be at a disadvantage when it comes to getting hired by a Community College. While the Community College administrators who participated in Guendoo's study did cite some concerns regarding the online degree, they also indicated that a potential faculty candidate will in no way be viewed more negatively simply due to the fact that the degree was obtained online. The different settings in which the Guendoo and the Adams and Defleur studies were conducted may, in part, explain why the results differ.In a follow-up study Adams (2008), looked at the factors contributing toward the reluctance of the hiring officers (Deans, academic directors, etc.) when it comes to hiring a faculty member with an online doctorate. Participants cited the following areas where the applicant who obtained the doctorate via an online program is perceived to be lacking when compared to the candidate with a degree that was obtained face-to-face: interactions (face-to-face), the reputation of the institution and mentored learning experiences (defined as mentoring in research and teaching activities, etc.), which is a typical focus of a face-to-face program.In a more comprehensive study, Adams and Defleur (2006) attempted to evaluate the general perceptions of hiring managers regarding the acceptability of online degrees. Through a survey of potential employers the authors obtained both quantitative and qualitative data. The results clearly indicate that employers are much more reluctant to hire candidates with online degrees compared to candidates who obtained their degrees through face-to-face instruction. Specifically, 96 percent of the participants would hire the candidate who obtained the degree face-to-face. The qualitative comments of the hiring managers provide additional insight into why the employers perceive the degrees obtained online as inferior; primarily the chief concern is the perceived lack of interaction associated with the online degree.In one other study, Adams et al. (2007) specifically assessed the hiring chances of a candidate with an online degree in health care professions. The results once again show that the applicant with a face-to-face degree has a better chance of being hired. Overall, according to Adams (2008), more than 95 percent of the \"gatekeepers\" in the health, business and academic industries view the traditional face-to-face degree as a more acceptable credential for employment.Assuming that the overall view of employers toward online degrees has not changed in the last two years, it is important to explore what accounts for the apparent overwhelming preference of hiring candidates with degrees obtained face-to-face vs online. According to Columbaro and Monaghan (2009), potential employers reported the following concerns pertaining to online degrees:* not enough academic rigor;* not enough face-to-face interactions;* more risk for cheating;* relationship with diploma mills; and* perceived lack of commitment (on the student's end) due to not being willing to come to campus.Columbaro and Monaghan (2009), further report the following variables based on which online degrees may be viewed more favorably from the employers:* reputation/recognition of the institution offering the degree;* accreditation of the institution/program; and* perception of online students being more self-directed and disciplined.The review of the studies above did not reveal concrete evidence of a changing perception regarding the value of the online degree on behalf of the employers. However, according to Linardopoulos (2010), there is anecdotal evidence according to which as more programs and course are offered online and more graduates who obtained their degrees online advance within their organization, the perception of online degrees being less credible as an employment credential will change.\nDiscussion: The review of the seven representative studies indicates that employers continue to view candidates who obtained their degrees in a traditional face-to-face setting more favorably compared to the ones who completed their degree online (at least within the disciplines that were examined in the selected studies). However, the review also highlights instances where the candidate with the online degree may not be at a disadvantage on the sole basis of the delivery mode through which the degree was obtained. In this case a candidate's skills and the stature of the institution through which the degree was obtained are considered to be more important than the delivery mode.In addition, it should be noted that the studies analyzed for this review have two significant limitations in terms of the data provided regarding the employers' perceptions of the online degree. First, while some of the studies report employer data regarding the perceptions of the online degree on specific industries this is not done on a comprehensive basis and therefore, only a few industries are represented (primarily academia and health care). Furthermore, the latest publication date of the studies from which data were obtained in order to develop this paper is 2008. This raises the question as to whether the employers' perceptions regarding online education that were reported in the selected studies (or their predecessors) are still accurate as of 2012. The lack of contemporary studies on the topic is indeed striking and surprising.In addition, a critical point of discussion that relates to the current perception of employers toward online education is the increased tuition reimbursement rate provided to the employees to complete online coursework. According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, of the 94 percent of the companies who provide some form of education assistance plans, more than two-thirds include online and distance learning courses (www.ifeb.org). This figure raises the question as to whether employers do indeed perceive the online delivery mode to be less effective or less credible.\nFuture research directions: The issues associated with the studies discussed above indicate the need for the development of a new research approach in order to more accurately identify and analyze the current employers' perspective on online education. This revised model should include the following components:(1) a clear indication of the advantages and disadvantages of the online degree as perceived by the employers;(2) a comprehensive report of the employers' perceptions of the online degree by specific industries; and(3) an examination of the tuition reimbursement rates provided by the employers for online courses and programs (in terms of amount, rationale, etc.).\nConclusion: Online education is expanding at an unprecedented rate. Consequently, it is expected that more candidates holding online degrees in the near future will seek employment and promotion. Therefore it is critical that the viewpoint of employers regarding the online delivery mode is identified and analyzed. Specifically, more research is needed in determining the variables that affect the employers' perception of the online degree. This is a particularly important point given the fact that many institutions do not in any way distinguish between the face-to-face and online programs and courses (e.g. in these cases no specific notation of the delivery mode through which the degree was obtained is noted in the students' transcript). This review is an attempt to provide the key variables that need to be considered for future studies in this area.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe the strengths and weaknesses of seven representative studies pertaining to the employers' perceptions of online education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper retrieved and analysed representative studies on the subject from two scholarly databases and Google.\nFindings: - The results indicate that there is a much greater likelihood that a candidate with an online degree would be viewed less favorably for employment purposes compared to the candidate with the face-to-face degree.\nOriginality/value: - The paper identifies the gaps in the current studies and suggests future research directions regarding this critical topic.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Food risk and knowledge in the satisfaction-repurchase loyalty relationship
|
[
"Consumer risk",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Customer loyalty",
"Fish (food)",
"Vietnam",
"Consumer behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: An understanding of why or how loyalty develops in different market situations becomes an important issue for both marketing managers and academics (Oliver, 1999). Satisfaction is suggested to be the most important antecedent to loyalty, but more recent studies have introduced several other antecedents of satisfaction and loyalty, such as perceived trust (Chiou and Droge, 2006) or commitment (Gustafsson et al., 2005). Emerging research has also studied how different moderators such as customer characteristics (Cooil et al., 2007; Homburg and Giering, 2001; Mittal and Kamakura, 2001), ambivalence (Olsen, 2005), involvement (Olsen, 2007; Seiders et al., 2005) or situational characteristics (Evanschitzky and Wunderlich, 2006) affect the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty.In the area of food, safety and risk seems to be of vital importance for Western consumer's meal decisions (Bredbenner et al., 2007; Frewer et al., 1994; Saba and Messina, 2002). Because consumer motivations in purchasing are more often to avoid mistakes rather than to maximize utility, perceived risk is suggested to be more powerful at explaining consumers' behaviour (Mitchell, 1998). However, even though perceived risk is an important construct in marketing (Campbell and Goldstein, 2001), we are aware of only few American and European studies (e.g. Grewal et al., 2007) investigating how it interacts with satisfaction in influencing consumers repurchase loyalty or intention (e.g. Lobb et al., 2006; Tsiros and Heilman, 2005). The role of risk in consumers decision making may be perceived differently in Western than Asian culture.Consumer knowledge related to a product or service is a relevant construct that seems to influence consumer general evaluation and behaviour (Alba and Hutchison, 1987). Customer knowledge is also suggested to have a moderating effect on the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty (Cooil et al., 2007; Evanschitzky and Wunderlich, 2006). Thus, this study will extend this literature by including the role of knowledge in a structural analysis of the interaction between perceived risk, satisfaction and loyalty. A further extension is to explore the role of perceived risk in satisfaction-loyalty framework in the context of a sample of Vietnamese consumers.In the following, we briefly review the conceptualizations of the constructs used in this study and the potential relationships among them. A set of hypotheses is derived and subsequently tested, using structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. In the last section of the article, we discuss implications of our findings, with particular respect to generating a deeper understanding of the satisfaction-loyalty research.\nConceptual framework: Consumer satisfaction and repurchase loyalty\nTheoretical model and hypotheses: Based on the theoretical discussion, the conceptual model is depicted in Figure 1.In the model, perceived risk is structured to have both a negative direct effect (Angulo and Gil, 2007; Chen and Li, 2007; Grewal et al., 2007; Mitchell, 1998; Park et al., 2005; Yuksel and Yuksel, 2006) and an indirect effect via satisfaction on repurchase loyalty, which means that satisfaction is suggested as a mediator between perceived risks and repurchase loyalty. The causal claims are based on the cognitive/quality-affective/satisfaction-intention/loyalty framework suggested by several researchers (e.g. Evanschitzky and Wunderlich, 2006; Oliver, 1999; Olsen, 2002), and that satisfaction is positively related to intention/behavioural loyalty (Mittal and Kamakura, 2001; Seiders et al., 2005; Szymanski and Henard, 2001).In addition, knowledge is also integrated into the model with a direct negative effect on perceived risk (Chen and Li, 2007; Klerch and Sweeney, 2007), a direct positive effect on both satisfaction (Pieniak et al., 2007; Cordell, 1997) and repurchase loyalty (Bell et al., 2005; Chiou and Droge, 2006). Moreover, knowledge is widely used as a moderator in the cognitive-affective-behavioural framework (e.g. Evanschitzky and Wunderlich, 2006; Bell et al., 2005); thus, the moderating effects of knowledge are also added. With this role, it is proposed that knowledge negatively moderates both the perceived risk-satisfaction relationship and the satisfaction-repurchase loyalty relationship (Bell et al., 2005; Chiou and Droge, 2006; Evanschitzky and Wunderlich, 2006). This means that these relationships will be stronger for consumers with less knowledge than for consumers with better knowledge. The hypotheses suggested for testing are as follows:H1. Perceived risk has (a) a negative direct effect and (b) a negative indirect effect via satisfaction on repurchase loyalty.H2. Knowledge has (a) a negative direct effect on perceived risk, (b) a positive effect on satisfaction and (c) a positive direct effect on repurchase loyalty.H3. Knowledge negatively moderates both (a) the perceived risk-satisfaction relationship and (b) the satisfaction-repurchase loyalty relationship.\nMethods: Sample and procedure\nResults: Reliability and validity of the measures\nDiscussion and implications: This study explores the relationships among perceived risk, satisfaction, repurchase loyalty and knowledge in the context of eating fish in everyday meals in a sample of 846 Vietnamese households. A model development strategy is used to test the proposed hypotheses. Initially, the direct and indirect effects of perceived risk and knowledge are estimated, and then the moderating effects of knowledge on the perceived risk-satisfaction-repurchase loyalty relationship are included in the analysis. By means of confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity of the constructs are supported in the model.Perceived risk only has an indirect effect on loyalty through satisfaction; thus, the finding provides evidences to support Oliver's (1997, 1999) point of view that the loyalty develops in different stages before reaching action loyalty. Consistent with previous studies both within general marketing and food consumption behaviour (Chen and Li, 2007; Yuksel and Yuksel, 2006), the relationship between perceived risk and satisfaction is highly negative. Higher perception of risks is associated with lesser satisfaction in eating fish. The result shows the importance of perceived risk when considering consumer satisfaction and loyalty toward fish in Vietnam. Compared to other studies of the quality/cognitive-satisfaction relationship (e.g. Olsen, 2002), perceived risk is associated as a negative quality with a product. Therefore, to enhance consumer satisfaction, management attention should focus on risk reducing strategies and work with improving trust, safety of quality attributes including food diseases. Quality control and management and giving the products a quality guarantee are two possible strategies (Angulo and Gil, 2007; Hansen et al., 2003).The present results confirm general marketing studies of a positive relationship between satisfaction and loyalty (Szymanski and Henard, 2001), and in the area of food or fish consumption or loyalty (Olsen, 2002). The average mean of the satisfaction score is high as 5.3 on a scale of 1-7, which indicates a very positive attitude toward fish among Vietnamese families. However, this also implies a very screwed distribution of satisfaction - but a common problem in most studies of this issue (Peterson and Wilson, 1992). Thus, the explained variance of repurchase loyalty based on satisfaction is relatively low (about 17 per cent) in this particular context. Therefore, marketers and companies need to include other variables besides satisfaction in order to understand antecedents or motives for explaining variation in repurchase loyalty toward fish among Vietnamese consumers. One such construct, which is suggested to influence perceived risk, satisfaction and loyalty/behaviour, is consumer's subjective knowledge of the product or product category.Consistent with previous studies (e.g. Chen and Li, 2007; Klerch and Sweeney, 2007), knowledge has a negative influence on perceived risk. This means that the higher the knowledge consumers have, the lower the risks they perceive, and in contrast, the lower the knowledge consumers have, the higher the risks they perceive. In addition, knowledge is suggested to be positively related to satisfaction (Cordell, 1997; Pieniak et al., 2007) and intention/loyalty (Bell et al., 2005; Chiou and Droge, 2006; Cooil et al., 2007; Evanschitzky and Wunderlich, 2006). This finding suggests that consumer education may be an appropriate strategy (Damen and Steenbekkers, 2007; McCurdy et al., 2006; Redmond and Griffin, 2005). Not only will it help consumers to be more satisfied with eating fish through improving their preparing and cooking skills, but will also help them reduce their perceived risks towards fish through methods of evaluating fish quality and choose the best fish for their home meals. A lower level of perceived risks will make them more satisfied and even more loyalty towards fish (Chen and Li, 2007; Park et al., 2005; Yuksel and Yuksel, 2006).As expected, there exists a negatively moderating effect of knowledge on both the perceived risk-satisfaction relationship and the satisfaction-loyalty relationship. That is, for low-knowledge consumers, the magnitude of the relationships between perceived risk and satisfaction, and the relationship between satisfaction and repurchase loyalty is stronger than for high-knowledge consumers. Our results are in accordance with studies of both Evanschitzky and Wunderlich (2006) and Capraro et al. (2003).Based on these and our findings, an important managerial implication is that for high-knowledge consumers, attempts at reducing perceived risk or increasing satisfaction to enforce loyalty are less successful than for low-knowledge consumers. Communication strategy should focus much more on improving knowledge and signing food safety for consumers with low-knowledge than the others. These findings also indicate that high-knowledge customers are subject to defection, thus seafood enterprises should use loyalty programme to keep them retention. In contrast, segments of low-knowledge consumers are more attractive than one of high-knowledge consumers. This study also suggest the possibility to segment the seafood market based on variables such as perceived risk and knowledge (e.g. Kennedy et al., 2005; McCathy et al., 2007).Limitations and directions for future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to test the relationships among perceived risk, consumer satisfaction and repurchase loyalty, and to explore the moderating role of knowledge on the relationship between these constructs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The results are based on a cross-section sample of 846 households in Vietnam using self-administrating questionnaires, with fish as a main research object, and analyzed using structural equation modelling.\nFindings: - The relationship between perceived risk and satisfaction is negative and satisfaction has a significantly positive effect on repurchase loyalty. This study suggests that perceived risk has an indirect effect on repurchase loyalty through satisfaction. Besides direct effects on perceived risk and satisfaction, knowledge proves to moderate negatively both the relationship between perceived risk and satisfaction, and the relationship between satisfaction and repurchase loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study mainly focuses on fish as a common food and considers the role of food risk with an emphasis on perceived health risk and subjective knowledge. Thus, future study should include other dimensions of risk, objective knowledge and other products. Other antecedents toward repurchase loyalty (e.g. price/value) or other moderators (e.g. ambivalence, personal characteristics) should be used in future studies.\nPractical implications: - Management attention should focus on reducing risks with which consumers may be faced through producing fresh or safe fish products, and communicating broadly safe signals of their products. Communication strategy should focus much more on improving knowledge and signing food safety for consumers with lower knowledge than the others.\nOriginality/value: - This is believed to be the first study to empirically examine the combined role of perceived risk and knowledge within a satisfaction-loyalty framework in the Vietnamese market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Perceived self-efficacy and interactive video retrieval
|
[
"Digital libraries",
"User interfaces",
"Information retrieval",
"User studies",
"Cognition",
"Video"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Attitude is everything, as the old saying goes. People's attitudes and beliefs, generally speaking, are shaped by a variety of factors. Self-efficacy, for instance, is defined as one's internal belief of their own ability to perform and complete tasks by executing the necessary or appropriate set of actions. Further, social cognitive theory credits learning to situational observation and self-efficacy, which is, in turn, also derives through observation (Bandura, 1977). Therefore, self-efficacy is integral to social cognitive theory. Self-efficacy, as a concept, has been examined throughout a number of different contexts and situations and, in turn, shown to be related to human motivation factors such as self-esteem and expectation (Nahl, 1996; Compeau and Higgins, 1995). Contexts of technology, including their use and adoption by users, have incorporated the element of self-efficacy (Thong et al., 2002).\nResearch questions: Different factors can influence users' attitudes about employing technologies in order to perform information-based tasks. Users' perceptions and use of interactive video retrieval systems, such as digital libraries, are no different; there are existing influences. Even more so, there can be different considerations and factors potentially influential to users' confidence and eventual use of systems for performing video-related tasks that warrant assessment, including characteristics of the information needs, the retrieval system or tools themselves, and individual characteristics of the users. Furthermore, the influence of perceived self-efficacy in the IIR process in conjunction with the unique characteristics of video and video retrieval systems (i.e. user interface features) motivate the examination of the following research questions. The primary research questions are also further specified by corresponding sub-questions:\nRelated research: A number of research areas contribute to the overall discussion and findings of the current study, including studies from psychology, information science, and video IIR. Each of these respective areas have reported research about the psychological effects and influences prior to tasks, situations, and behaviors, such as confidence, expectations of outcomes (of a given situation), and efficacy. It is important to review research from each of these areas to further support the appropriateness and significance of the current study.\nMethods: A survey method was employed to collect data that pertain to users' perceived self-efficacy in an interactive video retrieval context. The current study did not conduct formal IIR experiments, but rather assessed users' (i.e. survey participants') perceived self-efficacy as part of a brief scenario-like survey, which presented a general topic along with two different (video) information needs and a system context, and then asked participants to rate their confidence level for being successful in finding the requested video in that particular situation. The survey and accompanying approaches to data collection and analysis will be further described throughout this section.\nResults: The analyzed survey responses provide findings and evidence about users' perceived self-efficacy while facing an interactive video retrieval situation. Results of the current study successfully demonstrated significant relationships among the variables examined as being potentially influential to users' perceived self-efficacy. The results and corresponding findings from this analysis will be presented in turn, according to the posed research questions (RQ1-RQ4) and sub-questions of the current study.\nDiscussion: Perceived self-efficacy is significant for video IIR design, development, and evaluation, as user confidence can ultimately be a factor influential to initial and sustained use of technologies, tools, and digital collections. Furthermore, if users are not certain a given tool can help satisfy information needs and/or that its design can be accommodating to individual situations, inclinations to use such a tool may decline. User uncertainty (among other variables) is one attitude about technology use and ultimate acceptance, with self-efficacy being influenced by perceptions of usefulness and ease of use (Davis, 1989).\nConclusions and future work: Self-efficacy is a critical factor, one highly influential to ultimate decisions and courses of action taken by people. Personal beliefs, as described above, can be even more powerful than actual truth. Therefore, self-efficacy is a primary factor in and of its own right, and, as a result, a demonstrable underlying influence to many other outcomes and phenomena as well. This provides a basis and justification for why research of self-efficacy is warranted separately across different contexts, which has been observed across multiple areas including those involving technology.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine perceived self-efficacy of users within an interactive video retrieval context. The motivation for this research includes that understanding self-efficacy will provide insight on how potential users target resources and in turn promote and sustain use of retrieval tools and systems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey method was employed. In total, 270 participants rated levels of perceived self-efficacy for successfully fulfilling different video needs if using a particular system. Perceived self-efficacy was explored quantitatively, both overall and across different potentially influential factors, such as topic type, topic familiarity, system experience, and system context. In addition, open-ended responses on the survey were categorized through content-analysis and subsequently analyzed using weighted frequencies.\nFindings: Findings demonstrated significant associations between participants' perceived self-efficacy and different topical factors, including familiarity and topic type, and also system factors, such as exposure (or experience) and system context.\nResearch limitations/implications: User confidence is one belief or attitude about technology acceptance, with self-efficacy intersecting multiple factors related to initial and sustained use of technologies. Findings give researchers a look at users' preconceptions of interactive video retrieval situations, which, in turn, suggest positive implications for future research and design.\nOriginality/value: Video retrieval comprises considerations that are unique from other contexts due to the structure and physical makeup of video. However, until now, self-efficacy has not been directly examined in relation to video or according to several of the specific retrieval factors as explored in the current study, which is thus warranted.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Improving pediatric experience of pain during vaccinations: a quality improvement project
|
[
"Quality improvement",
"Nurse practitioner",
"Injection pain",
"Pain assessment",
"Pain mitigation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Immunizations given by injection are painful. The experience of having a painful injection can cause a life-long fear of needles, which can lead to potential avoidance of health care, including vaccine hesitancy (Taddio et al., 2015). There are techniques that can be implemented by health care providers to minimize pain during injections. However, these techniques are underutilized. Therefore, improving pain management during vaccinations is an opportunity for improvement in the quality of care delivered to children (Taddio and Rogers, 2015).\nMethods: Ethics approval to collect patient-related data for this QI initiative was obtained through Research Ethics Board at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. The model for improvement is the framework that was used to guide this project. It is considered to be useful for guiding QI projects within a limited timeframe. The model focuses on answering three main questions: what are we trying to accomplish? How will we know that a change is an improvement? What changes can we make that will result in improvement? Benefits of utilizing the model for improvement for projects with a limited timeframe include the improvement of processes, facilitation of teamwork and it provides a framework to make improvements with the application of statistical tools and methods, encourages planning based on evidence, emphasizes iterative learning and provides a way of empowering people in organizations to take action (API, 2017; Provost and Murray, 2011).\nResults: Children 0-36 months of age, who, in addition to routine physical, procedural, process and psychological pain mitigation strategies, had topical anaesthetic applied prior to injection, rFLACC scores indicate an improvement in observed pain. Sustained improvement in rFLACC scores was demonstrated using QI Macros for Excel XmR individuals run chart. Mean score for all data was 5.1 (n=36), represented by the center line on the run chart. Mean score prior to use of topical anesthetic was 5.5 (n=19). Mean score after topical anesthetic used during injections was 3.8 (n=17). Figure 1 contains the topical anaesthetic run chart. Staff expressed that the use of topical anaesthetic increased their firsthand knowledge of the benefits.\nDiscussion: This QI project addressed the interplay of clinician behavior, parental behavior and child behavior. Ultimately, improving pediatric experience of pain during injections is dependent on clinician and parent behavior. Pain accepting parents have been described in the literature and identified as a barrier to use of evidence-based pain mitigation strategies (Zhao et al., 2015). Clinician relationship with parents was important to influence parental behavior. Influencing behavior involves trust in the relationship, clear communication and deliberate dialogue centered on the desired change.\nConclusion: QI takes leadership and deliberate action to address barriers and challenge expectations. Utilizing implementation science clinician and parent behavior toward injection pain changed to improve the pediatric experience of pain during vaccinations. We have been able to sustain this change and implement pain mitigation strategies and pain assessment into the routine care of children undergoing vaccination at our clinic.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to share lessons learned from a quality improvement (QI) project that studied pediatric pain assessment scores after implementing additional evidence-based pain mitigation strategies into practice. Most nurses will acknowledge they implement some practices to mitigate pain during injections. Addressing pain during vaccination is important to prevent needle fear, vaccine hesitancy and health care avoidance. The aim of this project was to reduce pain as evidenced by pain scores at the time of vaccination at the North Bay Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic (NBNPLC).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The design for this study was quasi-experimental utilizing descriptive statistics and QI tools. The NBNPLC utilized the model for improvement to test change ideas. A validated observation tool to assess pain during vaccination with the pediatric population (revised Face Legs Activity Cry and Consolability) was used to test changes. The team deliberately planned improvements according to best practice guidelines to optimize use of strategies to mitigate pain during injections. QI tools and leadership skills were utilized to improve the pediatric experience of pain during vaccinations. Parents and clinicians provided qualitative and quantitative feedback to the project.\nFindings: Nurses tested pain assessment tools and agreed to use a validated tool to assess pain during vaccinations. Parents agreed to use of topical anesthetic during vaccinations. Improved pain scores during vaccinations were demonstrated with the use of topical anesthetic. Parents agreed to use of standardized sucrose solution during vaccination. Reduced pain scores were observed with the use of standardized sucrose water. To sustain implementation of the guideline, a nursing documentation form was devised with nurses agreeing to ongoing use of the form.\nResearch limitations/implications: This is a QI project that examined the intricacies of moving clinical practice guidelines into clinical practice. The project validates guidelines for pain management during vaccinations. Leaders within clinics who want to improve pediatric pain during vaccinations will find this paper helpful as a guide.\nPractical implications: Pain management in the pediatric population will be touched on in the context of parental expectations of pain. QI tools, lessons learned and suggestions for nurses will be outlined. Leadership plays an influential role in translating practice guidelines into practice.\nOriginality/value: This paper outlines how organizational supports were instrumental to give clinicians time to deliberately challenge practice to improve quality of care of children during vaccinations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Performance modeling and optimization for the stock preparation unit of a paper plant using genetic algorithm
|
[
"Performance optimization",
"Stock preparation unit",
"Genetic algorithms",
"Paper industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Due to the continuous advancement of technology and automation in manufacturing, the complexity of equipment increases so rapidly that the reliability of the equipment has come in focus and emerged as a thrust area especially for the mass production and process industries. So, it is almost impossible to survive without reliable systems. Thus, all the working engineering systems are expected to remain operative with maximum efficiency for the maximum duration i.e. reliable operation. The importance of a reliable operation has been realized in large complex process industries such as chemical, fertilizer, sugar, oil refinery, textile and paper plants etc. The goal of high productivity and high availability with minimum standby units, minimum storage capacity, minimum losses and minimum cost of failures is difficult to achieve in these industries. Such industries have continuous operation and hazardous work environments. The high system availability can be achieved by quantitative analysis method using various concepts of Industrial Engineering and Operation Research. This analysis performed for the system availability gives the factual knowledge in the form of failure and repair rates of various systems/subsystems.However, such units/subsystems are subjected to random failures due to poor design, lack of operative skills and wrong manufacturing techniques etc. causing heavy production losses. The failed systems can be brought back to the working states after repair/replacement of some components in minimum possible down time through effective maintenance planning and control. The factory operating conditions and the repair strategies play an important role in keeping the system operative with full capacity for maximum duration. This can be accomplished only through performance evaluation and analysis of each working subsystem of the plant concerned. The system performance can be quantified in terms of the availability if the real system is modeled mathematically and analyzed in real working conditions. It can be further optimized using some advanced optimization techniques. The central focus of the research work is to develop the availability models (under steady state conditions) and to optimize the performance for the stock preparation unit of a paper plant.The paper plant comprises large complex engineering units arranged in series, parallel or a combination of both the configurations. Some of these units are chipping, cooking, washing, bleaching, screening, stock preparation and paper production etc. These units are normally arranged in hybrid configuration. The important process of a paper industry, upon which the quality of paper depends, is the stock preparation process. In the process of paper formation, the chips from storage are fed in to a digester to form the pulp, which is processed through various systems called knotter, decker, opener and washing. Then the washed pulp is bleached to get chlorine free white pulp, which is further passed through screen and cleaner to separate out oversize and odd shape particles. After that in the stock preparation refining of pulp, addition of chemicals and filler (to change the paper properties), centri-cleaning and screening of pulp is done before finally sending it to the paper making machine. The schematic flow diagram of the stock preparation unit is shown in Figure 1.1.1 Literature review\n2. System description: The stock preparation unit of a paper plant comprises the following five main subsystems:1. Subsystem F1. This subsystem consists of three chests in series used to add the sizing chemicals and mixing is done with the agitator. The failure of any of these three components causes the complete failure of the unit.2. Subsystem F2. This subsystem consists of three refiners in parallel to crush and brush the fiber. Failure of any of these three components reduces the capacity of the system and complete failure of the unit occurs when all three refiners fail.3. Subsystem F3. This subsystem consists of one fan pump to mix the stock from refiners with white liquid and china clay. Its failure causes complete failure of the unit.4. Subsystem F4. This subsystem consists of one centri-cleaner to remove the unwanted and dirt particles from the stock by centrifugal force action. Its failure causes complete failure of the unit.5. Subsystem F5. This subsystem consists of one screen to remove foreign particle. Its failure causes complete failure of the unit.\n3. Assumptions and notations: The transition diagram (Figure 2) of the stock preparation unit shows the two states, the system can acquire i.e. full working and failed state. Based on the transition diagram, a performance-evaluating model has been developed. The assumptions and notations associated with the transition diagram of the stock preparation unit are as follows.Assumptions\n4. Performance modeling: The performance modeling is carried out using simple probabilistic considerations and differential equations are developed on the basis of Markov birth-death process. These equations are further solved for determining the steady state availability of the stock preparation unit. Various probability considerations give the following differential equations associated with the stock preparation unit:* State 0 - full capacity working with no standby.* States 1 to 2 - reduced capacity working.* States 3 to 15 show that unit is in failed state due to complete failure of one or the other subsystem of the unit. Equation 1 Equation 2 Equation 3 Equation 4 Equation 5 Equation 6 Equation 7 Equation 8 With initial conditions at time t=0.Pi(t) =1 for i=0.Pi(t) =0 for i [?] 0.Steady state analysis\n5. Performance optimization using genetic algorithm: Genetic algorithms are computerized search and optimization algorithms based on the mechanics of natural genetics and natural selection. Genetic algorithms have become important because they are found to be potential search and optimization techniques for complex engineering optimization problems. The performance optimization of the stock preparation unit is highly influenced by the failure and repair parameters of each subsystem. These parameters ensure high performance of the stock preparation unit. Genetic algorithm is hereby proposed to coordinate the failure and repair parameters of each subsystem for stable system performance i.e. high availability. Here, the number of parameters is ten (five failure parameters and five repair parameters). The design procedure is described as follows.To use a genetic algorithm for solving the given problem, the chromosomes are to be coded in real structures. Unlike, unsigned fixed point integer coding parameters are mapped to a specified interval [Xmin, Xmax], where Xmin and Xmax are the minimum and maximum values of system parameters. The maximum value of the availability function corresponds to optimum values of system parameters. These parameters are optimized according to the performance index i.e. desired availability level. To test the proposed method, failure and repair rates are determined simultaneously for optimal value of unit availability. Effect of the number of generations, population and crossover probability size on the availability of the stock preparation unit is shown in Tables I-III. To specify the computed simulation more precisely, trial sets are also chosen for genetic algorithm and unit parameters. The performance (availability) of the stock preparation unit is evaluated by using the designed values of the unit parameters.Failure and Repair Rate Parameter Constraints are l1, m1, l2, m2, l3, m3, l4, m4, l5, m5: Equation 13 Here, real-coded structures are used. The simulation is done to the maximum number of generations, which varies from 20 to 100. The effect of the number of generations on availability of the stock preparation unit is shown in Figure 3.The optimum value of unit performance is 74.934 percent, for which the best possible combination of failure and repair rates is l1=0.005, m1=0.2385, l2=0.022, m2=0.408, l3=0.01, m3=0.199, l4=0.008, m4=0.717, l5=0.0249, m5=0.3553 at generation size 60 as given in Table I.The simulation is carried out by varying the population size from 20 to 100. It is clearly shown in Table II that at population size 70, the optimum value of the unit's performance is 74.828 percent and for which the best possible combination of failure and repair rates is l1=0.006, m1=0.2333, l2=0.015, m2=0.3935, l3=0.0102, m3=0.225, l4=0.0123, m4=0.8855, l5=0.038, m5=0.2242.The effect of population size on availability of the Stock Preparation unit is shown in Figure 4.The simulation is done for the maximum number of crossover probabilities, which varies from 0.10 to 0.90. The effect of crossover probability on availability of the Stock Preparation unit is shown in Figure 5.The optimum value of unit performance is 74.353 percent, for which the best possible combination of failure and repair rates is l1=0.0061, m1=0.2394, l2=0.0127, m2=0.332, l3=0.0128, m3=0.222, l4=0.0153, m4=0.5261, l5=0.029, m5=0.1106 at crossover probability 0.60 as given in Table III.The above values reveal that to achieve the optimum unit availability level, the corresponding repair and failure rates of the subsystems should be maintained. The failure rates can be reduced by using good design, reliable machines and providing standbys etc. The repair rates can be improved by employing more workers for repair and utilizing better repair facilities. The maintenance workers can be trained beforehand so that quick repairs are possible.\n6. Conclusions: The performance modeling and optimization of the stock preparation unit of a paper plant has been carried out in this paper. The genetic algorithm is hereby proposed to select the various feasible values of the system failure and repair parameters. Then, the genetic algorithm is successfully applied to coordinate simultaneously these parameters for an optimum level of unit performance. The effect of genetic algorithm parameters such as number of generations, population size and crossover probability on the unit performance i.e. availability has also been analyzed. The findings of this paper are discussed with the concerned paper plant management and it is found that these results are highly beneficial to the maintenance engineers for the purpose of the effective maintenance planning to enhance the overall availability of the stock preparation unit of the paper plant concerned.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to deal with the performance modeling and optimization for the stock preparation unit of a paper plant using genetic algorithm. It provides the optimum unit availability level for different combinations of failure and repair rates of the subsystems of the stock preparation unit of the paper plant concerned.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this paper, efforts have been made to develop performance models based on real situations for the stock preparation unit. The performance in terms of availability has been evaluated on the basis of Markov birth-death process. After that, the performance optimization using genetic algorithm is done, which gives the optimum unit availability levels for different combinations of failure and repair rates of the subsystems of stock preparation units for enhancing the overall performance of the paper plant.\nFindings: - The effect of genetic algorithm parameters, namely number of generations, population size and crossover probability on the unit performance i.e. availability has been analyzed and discussed with the concerned paper plant management. It is found that these results are highly beneficial to the maintenance engineers for the purpose of effective maintenance planning to enhance the overall performance (availability) of the stock preparation unit of the paper plant.\nOriginality/value: - Most of the researchers have confined their work to the development and analysis of theoretical models which has little practical significance. To fulfill this deficiency, efforts have been made in the present work to develop a model based on real situations for the stock preparation unit.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate social responsibility in the apparel industry: An exploration of Indian consumers' perceptions and expectations
|
[
"India",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Garment industry",
"Apparel industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In last few decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has marked its importance in scholarly research, as evidenced by an increasing number of papers and journals dedicated to the topic (Castaldo et al., 2008; Ramasamy and Yeung, 2008). This is perhaps because as globalization has created jobs in developing countries, it has also given rise to the exploitation of more human and natural resources (Powell and Skarbek, 2006). This is particularly the case in the global apparel industry, where today, tens of millions of people work under sweatshop conditions (Dirnbach, 2008). The era of globalization means that most retailers do not own production factories, having divested their manufacturing in favor of outsourced production (Hale and Wills, 2005). Availability of inexpensive labor and low production costs make developing countries such as India, China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka very attractive. The apparel industry is a labor intensive industry and one that sees rapid style change. Consequently, competition to produce clothing on tight deadlines means that factories often increase demands on workers at the expense of their well-being (Dirnbach, 2008).\nBackground: CSR\nMethodology: Because an in-depth understanding of Indian consumers' perceptions of CSR in the global apparel industry is needed, a qualitative approach was deemed appropriate (Padgett, 2010). The primary method of data collection was the in-depth interview, which reveals the meaning of participants' experience and their world from their point of view (Kvale, 1996). After the authors received approval by the Institutional Review Board to conduct research with human participants, interviews were conducted in India with 26 participants (19 males and seven females). A convenience sampling method was used and participants were recruited via e-mail. Interviews lasted between one and two hours and were conducted until saturation in responses was achieved (Kvale, 1996). Interview questions were developed based on the review of the CSR literature as well as study objectives, and include: Is CSR important to you? Why or why not? Do you take CSR into consideration when making apparel purchasing decisions? Why or why not? Does CSR impact the image of an apparel brand or company? Do you think apparel companies should be required to be socially responsible? Why or why not?The average age of the participants was 29 years, with 12 participants having apparel industry knowledge and background. Among these 12 participants, six were working or had worked in Indian apparel factories, two were researchers in the area of labor issues in Indian apparel factories, two were government officials involved with labor issues in the Indian apparel industry, one worked at an NGO focussed on CSR and one participant was a faculty member in an apparel program. Because it was likely that participants with apparel industry experience would have more knowledge and awareness of CSR, in order to diversify the participant pool, the remainder of the participants did not have a background in the apparel industry and instead worked primarily in the information technology industry. Table I includes demographic information about the participants.Once the data were collected and interviews transcribed, responses were analyzed via a thematic approach. Bailey (2007) suggests that \"thematic analysis works most effectively when you seek themes that address your research questions, frame themes conceptually, and explore links among them\" (p. 155). The authors followed the process of interpretive analysis suggested by Spiggle (1994), by analyzing each interview separately and then merging the parts together into a consistent whole. The interpretation of issues that emerged across the interviews points to key areas of focus and suggests a framework for understanding the role of CSR in shaping Indian consumers' attitudes and apparel decision making.\nInterpretation: Six themes emerged through thematic analysis and are used to organize participants' responses regarding CSR: why CSR?; consumer decision making and CSR; awareness and purchase behavior; company image and purchase behavior; reward vs punishment; and Educating consumers. Pseudonyms are used in place of actual names to protect participants' confidentiality.Why CSR?\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of Indian consumers regarding CSR in the apparel industry, and to investigate its importance in the apparel decision-making process. In-depth interviews revealed issues impacting participants' perceptions of CSR that were organized into six major themes. Key findings of the study revealed that participants are supportive of CSR and think that corporations have an obligation to give back to society. All of the participants think that CSR is important, and believe that one of the key dimensions of CSR is the equitable treatment of workers. However, they think that Indian consumers need to become more aware of what CSR is and what it means for the manufacturing of products.Participants believe that education is important, in that once consumers are educated about the need for socially responsible practices, they will respond accordingly in terms of purchasing decisions. However, while participants indicate that CSR is important in terms of buying apparel, they did not necessarily want to pay unreasonably high prices or compromise quality for the sake of social responsibility. Ultimately, many believe that it is the retailer's job to adhere to socially responsible practices and that the retailer, not the consumer, should absorb the costs of CSR. Based on the issues that emerged in the data, a framework was developed to explain the role of CSR in the participants' decision-making process (see Figure 3).As depicted in Figure 3, despite the fact that participants believe that CSR is important, price and quality are the key factors that influence their decision to support socially responsible firms. If a brand/retailer claims to be socially responsible but does not provide the level of quality expected or a reasonable price, then they would be less inclined to buy the product, even if it is made under socially responsible conditions. For these participants, price and quality come first. This finding suggests that these consumers are not necessarily willing to compromise price and quality in order to support CSR. Such findings are consistent with the studies by Connolly and Shaw (2006) and Joergens (2006) which found that consumers are interested in buying products made by ethical and responsible business if price and quality are comparable.Another key finding of the interpretation is that participants indicated a willingness to pay more if the price is affordable and they can trust that their money is used for the right cause, such as going back to the workers (see Figure 3). An affordable price and trust influence the participants' decisions as to whether or not they will pay more for products made by socially responsible firms.Awareness is another crucial factor that surfaced in the interpretation, in that it impacts participants' decision to support socially responsible firms as well as their decision to pay more for products made by socially responsible firms (see Figure 3). This finding is similar to that of Arli and Lasmono (2010) in their study of Indonesian consumers which suggested that if consumers had the means to and were aware of CSR that it would impact their purchasing decisions. Thus it is important that companies try to educate Indian consumers and make them aware of their socially responsible practices, as lack of awareness is one of the primary reasons why consumers might not support companies who practice CSR. Ultimately, awareness is required on the part of the consumer in order for them to be willing to pay more for products produced by socially responsible firms.Clearly, consumer awareness of CSR is related to education. Participants suggested several ways to educate consumers, as they pointed out that awareness is the key for consumers to know enough about CSR to ultimately influence the decision whether or not they will support responsible firms. They think that the best way to educate consumers about CSR is through advertisements, print media, TV, the internet and point of purchase means. This finding is in line with Planken et al.'s (2010) study indicating that Indian consumers respond positively to cause-related marketing, however, this study goes further by specifying the types of marketing that would best be used among this consumer population. Many participants added that government agencies or social organizations might play a role in monitoring company behavior. If a company is found to be implementing socially irresponsible practices, then the records could be made public. Past research on CSR and consumer perception indicates that when a company gets bad press about its practices, there is often a consumer backlash against that company and its brand/product image (Becker-Olsen et al., 2005). Use of child labor by Nike is one such example. Negative consumer reaction could, as a result, help to force the issue of CSR. It is evident from participants' responses that Indian consumers are no different in this regard, and would be willing to support socially responsible companies provided they can trust the motives as well as outcomes.\nImplications: Overall, the findings of this study are consistent with those of previous studies (e.g. Becker-Olsen et al., 2005; Elliott and Freeman, 2001; Folkes and Kamins, 1999), but this study is one of the first to examine the issues relative to the Indian consumer population. India is an important sourcing destination for international apparel retailers, and at the same time, boasts a large population of consumers with a growing level of purchasing power. The results presented here shed light on what some members of this consumer group think about CSR, and specifically within an industry that makes significant contributions to their country's economy.This study provides information that retailers and marketers can use when seeking to connect with consumers in India via CSR. Specifically, findings of this study indicate that they must first gain the trust of consumers and keep price and quality comparable to other products available in the marketplace. Findings also revealed that Indian consumers may be open to purchasing products made by socially responsible companies, but the key is making them aware of the importance of CSR practices within the apparel industry. Once they are aware of its importance, these consumers will be more likely to include consideration of social responsibility when making a purchase decision.While this study addresses gaps in the literature on consumer perceptions of CSR in the apparel industry, there are some limitations. Because the data were collected specifically with Indian consumers, the findings may not be applicable to consumers in other developing countries. Participants were asked about their perceptions of CSR as consumers, thus it would also be important to know how manufacturers in India view CSR and what it means for their businesses. Understanding CSR from the retailer's point of view is also needed, as retailers typically drive the supply chain. Future research focussing on understanding CSR from a variety of different perspectives will help to better articulate its importance for addressing ethical concerns within the global apparel supply chain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore perceptions of Indian consumers regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the apparel industry, and to investigate its importance in the apparel decision-making process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative research design was used as the methodological basis for the study. In-depth interviews were conducted in India with a total of 26 participants (19 males and 7 females). Interviews lasted between one and two hours and were conducted until saturation in responses was achieved.\nFindings: - Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed via a thematic approach; six themes emerged that are used to organize participants' responses regarding CSR in the apparel industry. A conceptual framework grounded in the data was developed that highlights relationships between factors that surfaced as important to CSR in the decision-making process.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Because data were collected specifically with Indian consumers, study findings may not be applicable to consumers in other developing countries. Participants were asked about their perceptions of CSR as consumers, thus it would also be important to know how manufacturers in India view CSR and what it means for their businesses.\nPractical implications: - Results of this study provide in-depth insight into Indian consumers' perceptions of CSR in the apparel industry. Understanding CSR from the Indian consumers' perspective helps to articulate the economic and social value of addressing ethical concerns within the global apparel supply chain.\nOriginality/value: - The paper's findings are consistent with those of previous studies on CSR and the paper is one of the first to examine the issues relative to the Indian consumer population. India is an important sourcing destination for international apparel retailers, and at the same time, boasts a large population of consumers with a growing level of purchasing power. The paper provides insight into what this group thinks about CSR in an industry that contributes significantly to their country's economy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Impact of soft law regulation by corporate governance codes on firm valuation: the case of Germany
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Disclosure",
"Enforcement",
"Soft law",
"Capital market",
"Firm valuation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In their current green papers of corporate governance and external audit of 2010 and 2011, the European Commission (EC) plans several reforms to strengthen corporate governance quality in Europe (European Commission, 2010a, 2010b, 2011). In their green paper \"corporate governance framework\" of 2011, the EC criticizes the low decision usefulness (relevance and reliability) of the corporate governance reporting. To give investors more qualified information concerning the compliance of listed companies with the national corporate governance codes and to build up new trust after the financial market crisis, the EC discusses the future of soft law systems and the implementation of enforcement of the corporate governance reporting, e.g. by the national exchange supervisory authorities.\n2. Theoretical background: With respect to corporate governance aspects, agency theory is for sure the most often used approach (Duhnfort et al., 2008). It proposes that adequate monitoring or control mechanisms need to be established in companies to protect shareholders and other investors (Shleifer and Vishny, 1997). Effectively structured boards, up-to-date accounting practices and a transparent information policy exemplify internal mechanisms that encourage active monitoring of managerial decision-making processes (Kiel and Nicholson, 2003). The benefits of sound and effective corporate governance mechanisms are expected to outweigh its costs (Parsa et al., 2007). Accordingly, all corporations, be they large or small, are well-advised to follow and comply with standards of \"good\" corporate governance formulated in codes of best practice (Bartholomeusz and Tanewski, 2006). Code compliance, moreover, can also be considered as means to signal a high level of corporate governance quality to investors, analysts as well as to the wider public (Stiglbauer, 2010c). Vice versa, it is not surprising that those codes tend to be dominated by an agency theory perspective (Zattoni and Cuomo, 2010).\n3. Compliance with the GCGC and firm valuation: 3.1 Compliance with the GCGC\n4. Discussion: Contrary to theoretical assumptions, we don't consider companies' declared compliance with the GCGC as a value driver on the German capital market. There are, however, a number of reasons why such an impact might not exist. After corporate scandals, despite high levels of compliance with the GCGC (e.g. Siemens) and having lost its effect of newness, investors seem to distrust high levels of compliance with the GCGC more and more. Moreover, a gap between declared compliance with the GCGC and real action in companies may be a negative signal (Stiglbauer, 2010b) for the capital market and be considered a synonym for rather symbolic management than a responsible culture of good corporate governance (Wade et al., 1997). Investors seem to anticipate impression management behavior to qualify lower cash flow expected (Goncharov et al., 2006) when companies report high compliance rates (Westphal and Zajac, 1998). Accordingly, the assumption of Peltzer (2002) might be correct, that compliance with the GCGC could only be used as an instrument of public relations to win investors' favor, without really changing corporate governance structures inside the company. Furthermore, companies with bad corporate governance might even be motivated to report higher compliance rates or to use scope of interpretation of the GCGC (Graf and Stiglbauer, 2008a). This assumption is also supported by the fact that auditors only have to check whether the declaration of conformance with the GCGC has been reported. The auditor does not have to check the content or gaps between declared compliance and real action inside the companies. As a consequence, even companies without this gap may suffer from this because analysts do monitor and search for information more intensely than they would do instead. This is supported by the research of Milgrom (1981), who found that investors do consider missing information with bad information, when they are able to perceive whether the information is right and complete. In case of the information investors receive from companies' compliance statements, they cannot be sure whether the information is right or complete (no one tests the validity of the statements). Considering information integration and choice of information out of a vast of information investors have, it is not surprising that investors mainly discard information on corporate governance derived from companies' compliance statements. Thus, the basic process that investors do integrate this specific corporate governance information in the decision-making process and decide whether to invest or disinvest in a specific company by terms of companies' corporate governance framework presented by their compliance statements (Stiglbauer, 2010c) will not be initiated as long as investors are not able to evaluate the accuracy of the companies' corporate governance statements (Finkelstein and Hambrick, 1990).\n5. Conclusion: Although the GCGC generally is highly adopted among German listed companies, this short survey paper mainly does not state a positive significant link between code compliance and firm performance. There are huge implications that the corporate governance reporting does not contribute to a decision of useful business reporting and to improve the decision behavior of investors so far. The EC also criticizes in its recent green paper \"Corporate governance framework\" of 2011, the limited validity of the compliance with the national corporate governance codes and their disclosures in view of the soft law system and the missing enforcement of the substantial correctness of the disclosures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to provide insight whether disclosed compliance with the German Corporate Governance Code (GCGC) leads to higher valuation on the German stock market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on agency theory, stakeholder theory and institutional theory, the authors conduct a meta-analysis and evaluate the value relevance of the compliance with the GCGC.\nFindings: The research finds that compliance with the GCGC is mainly not a value-relevant factor for German companies listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research considered is not fully comparable with regard to observation date, full integration of the GCGC rules and company selection/sample size. Future research is encouraged to research the valuation effects of compliance with the GCGC for a longer time horizon, the use of uniform performance measures and the integration of all GCGC rules.\nPractical implications: Compliance with the GCGC has not proven to be a value-driver for German listed companies. The authors recommend companies to search for opportunities to make their corporate governance more comprehensive by expanding their corporate governance reporting and thus providing deeper insights on how their processes of management and control work.\nOriginality/value: The paper is the first investigation integrating the results of ten years of \"code compliance - market valuation\" research in Germany. We detect reasons why soft law regulation by corporate governance codes did not function on the German stock market. We additionally address behavioral aspects why investors do not give enough relevance to companies' corporate governance statements so far.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Trustworthy data-driven networked production for customer-centric plants
|
[
"Internet",
"Information flow",
"Network organization",
"Blockchains",
"Inter-organizational trust",
"Networked production"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The networked production of Industry 4.0 (Lee et al., 2015) and the Factory of the Future (FoF) (Karnouskos et al., 2012) will facilitate the control and optimization of individualized manufacturing where a customer's personal preferences can be swiftly fulfilled without any delay on the mass production process. However, the increased transparency of networked production poses severe cyber-security threats. The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and CPS in networked production increases the attack surface for a malicious user to sabotage critical infrastructure, gain unauthorized access to sensitive data about customers or intervene in collaborative production processes. These threats jeopardize the widespread adoption of Industry 4.0 processes, especially those that operate across the organizational trust boundaries of the manufacturing enterprise.\n2. Background and related work: This section reviews ongoing research on key concepts of Industry 4.0, cyber-security and blockchain technology for highly resilient decentralized trustworthy services.\n3. Motivating scenario on IoT-enabled networked production: In networked production, people, machines and business processes will interact with one another (see Figure 2) to enable personalized products through flexible, resource-efficient and cost-effective manufacturing. Interconnected systems will be linked to cloud services for remote monitoring and data analytics to optimize production plans, enable proactive maintenance and respond quicker to changing customer requirements.\n4. Secure and trustworthy data management with private blockchains: To ensure secure and trustworthy data management, all nodes build upon a trust model that provides the following guarantees as key security requirements:\n5. Evaluation: In this section, we evaluate our solution in a proof-of-concept Industry 4.0 hyperconnected production network scenario in which we define the following trust zones:\n6. Conclusion: Linking production facilities to the internet and connecting them to the cloud for remote monitoring and data analysis opens them up to severe security threats, ranging from sabotaging critical infrastructure from the outside, to unauthorized access to sensitive customer data and industrial espionage from within. Contemporary solutions exist to address these concerns on a small scale or in closed loop deployments with trusted third parties, they are inadequate for large-scale collaborative customer-centric production networks where a centralized authority is not available. The adoption potential of Industry 4.0 and its ambition toward full end-to-end transparency will not be reached if these threats cannot be mitigated.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Industry 4.0 envisions a future of networked production where interconnected machines and business processes running in the cloud will communicate with one another to optimize production and enable more efficient and sustainable individualized/mass manufacturing. However, the openness and process transparency of networked production in hyperconnected manufacturing enterprises pose severe cyber-security threats and information security challenges that need to be dealt with. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper presents a distributed trust model and middleware for collaborative and decentralized access control to guarantee data transparency, integrity, authenticity and authorization of dataflow-oriented Industry 4.0 processes.\nFindings: The results of a performance study indicate that private blockchains are capable of securing IoT-enabled dataflow-oriented networked production processes across the trust boundaries of the Industry 4.0 manufacturing enterprise.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes a decentralized identity and relationship management for users, sensors, actuators, gateways and cloud services to support processes that cross the trust boundaries of the manufacturing enterprise, while offering protection against malicious adversaries gaining unauthorized access to systems, services and information.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Participating by activity or by week in MOOCs
|
[
"Participation",
"MOOCs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The appearance of massive open online courses (MOOCs), their potential to democratize learning and the media attention they initially received have more recently given way to disillusionment over their inability to fulfil the promises of their early proponents. Much of this disillusionment centered on their high attrition rates and the demographics of those who succeeded - predominantly educated men living in North America or Europe (Kizilcec and Halawa, 2015). Arguments around the importance of considering learner intent emerged to explain why so few learners completed MOOCs (Kizilcec et al., 2013). However, user intent is only part of the story, and simple explanations that stereotype users as completers and topic shoppers inhibit our understanding of how people interact with this technology. We need a better understanding of the nuanced ways in which learners choose to interact with freely available educational resources (Anderson et al., 2014; Baikadi et al., 2016; Gasevic et al., 2014) if we are to improve them by adding new features, designing better content or designing better interactions among learners, their peers, support staff, the system and the content. For example, it is possible to turn MOOCs that are offered through the EdX platform into systems that recommend supplementary learning content to individual students, when more nuanced approaches are used to understanding student preferences and knowledge (Pardos et al., 2017).\nMethodology: We conduct a mixture of exploratory and model-testing analyses of learner activities within several MOOCs. These analyses aimed to identify learner activity patterns that are common across courses and those that vary across courses, while allowing each learner to exhibit a different balance of activity patterns.\nResults: Hypothesis testing results\nDiscussion: The consistency of the early activity factor structure lends some support to the hypothesis that MOOC participation is partially described by a relatively rapid initial dropout phenomenon described by time. This phenomenon is widely reported (Rose et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2013; Jordan, 2014), and this type of student behavior has even been used to begin developing early predictors of student withdrawal from the course (Sinha et al., 2014) or the next resource a student should use. However, all three courses also had some separation between types of activities in the EFA analyses suggestive of activity-based participation in addition to week-based participation. This type of activity-based participation has also been reported (Kizilcec et al., 2013). But the combined presence of time-based and activity-based behavioral factors has received little if any attention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide a new characterization of the extent to which learners complete learning activities in massive open online courses (MOOCs), a central challenge in these contexts. Prior explorations of learner interactions with MOOC materials have often described these interactions through stereotypes, which accounts for neither the full spectrum of potential learner activities nor the ways those patterns differ across course designs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To overcome these shortcomings, the authors apply confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis to learner activities within three MOOCs to test different models of participation across courses and populations found within those courses.\nFindings: Courses varied in the extent to which participation was driven by learning activities vs time/topic or a mixture of both, but this was stable across offerings of the same course.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results call for a reconceptualization of how different learning activities within a MOOC are designed to work together, to better allow strong learning outcomes even within one activity form or more strongly encourage participation across activities.\nOriginality/value: The authors validate new continuous-patterns rather than a discrete-pattern participation model for MOOC learning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Reorganising hospitals to implement a patient-centered model of care: Effects on clinical practice and professional relationships in the Italian NHS
|
[
"Hospitals",
"Organisational innovation",
"Roles",
"Patient-centered care",
"Medical professions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This work adds to the studies on healthcare innovation and focuses especially on the trends towards a patient-centered paradigm. The aim of the paper is to analyse the introduction of a patient-centered model (PCM) for innovating hospitals and to understand its impact on clinical practices and professional relationships. The work discusses the relationship between the new organisational model and the pre-existing social system of the hospital (Strauss et al., 1985), showing how their mutual influence and reciprocal interactions affect the implementation of organisational change.\n2. Trends of change towards patient-centered hospitals: In the changing scenario of the healthcare system, the hospital is the organisational actor exposed to wider changes and transformations (McKee and Healy, 2002). Traditionally, hospitals are conceived as functional organisational structures, namely structures where patients who require a similar area of expertise are grouped into independently controlled departments (Vos et al., 2011, p. 1). Although in several countries the functional model has long appeared the most appropriate to foster the knowledge development required by the medical sciences, the this model has recently started to show severe shortcomings, consisting mainly of organisational inefficiencies, and economic losses. Single clinicians often lack the capability to control workflow across departmental boundaries, meaning that the care activities implied in patients' trajectories may be poorly coordinated. Resources tend to be duplicated, causing waste and inefficiency, and autonomy in the use of resources often prevails over accountability. The excessive specialisation of staff resulting from clinical educational trends, as well as the professional demarcations reinforced by an organisation based on narrow functional areas, are increasingly acknowledged as unsustainable (Vos et al., 2011; Villa et al., 2009; Lega and DePietro, 2005).\n3. From design to practice: the challenges of implementing the patient-centered hospital: Since the early 2000s, due to the above described inefficiencies of the functional model, Italian policy makers have launched rationalisation plans aimed at increasing the hospitals' sustainability following the \"triple bottom line\" principles (Elkington, 1997). The rationalisation objective was transmitted from the central NHS to the 21 Italian regions that were ultimately responsible for the design and actual implementation of specific hospital innovations (see Lega, 2008 for more information about the autonomy of the Italian regions in managing their health system). Accordingly, several regions started to express interest in the PCM as a framework for increasing hospitals' effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of care. The first official regulation concerning the introduction of the PCM appeared in 2005 as part of the Tuscany Regional Healthcare Plan (Law n.40/2005). The 2005 law stated that, within three years after the establishment of the law, hospitals needed to engage in a gradual overcoming of the functional organisation and introduce different criteria for patient placement in the hospital. Such criteria should be defined according to the level of \"intensity of care\" (high, medium or low), namely the severity of patients' overall condition. Since 2005, several Italian regions have endorsed analogous indications. A substantial driver for change was the construction of new hospital buildings designed to accommodate the PCM, which interested five regions between 2004 and 2011 and is now in course among various others. All over Italy, therefore, the changes towards a PCM followed external, policy-driven pressures and triggered a top-down, gradual set of actions to prepare and enable personnel to cope with the restructuring.\n4. Methods: 4.1. Data collection\n5. Findings: The presentation of our data aims to make visible the different interpretations, understanding of, and reactions to, the PCM implementation that circulate among the various organisational actors. Our analysis shows that the introduction of the PCM actually challenges the clinical working practice and relationships. However, such challenges take on different meanings when comparing hospital policies and the views of senior managers - who are in charge of designing the new organisational model and the best solutions for implementation - with the workplace experiences of clinicians. Therefore, we organise our findings into two different emerging \"narratives\": the \"political narrative\" and the \"workplace narrative\". Each narrative develops three common themes: the understandings and interpretations of the PCM innovation; the effects of the PCM on the reconfiguration of clinical work and working practice; and the effects of the PCM on professional relationships. The presentation of the findings is enriched with excerpts from interviews transcripts and informal conversations, which provide first-hand descriptions of participants' experiences and, interpretations of the organisational change.\n6. Discussion: Our data suggest that tension exists between the formal organisational model designed by hospital directors and frontline clinicians' understanding of it. While this element could be somehow anticipated, we believe that our findings advance insights and make practical contributions to the field of implementing hospital innovation, on the following grounds: the need to take into account the social effects of innovating hospitals through a more nuanced and fine-grained analysis grounded at the workplace; the need to acknowledge the different understandings of health policies and hospital reforms that circulate between different health professionals. In this section, we examine these two issues, respectively. We then offer some conclusive reflections on how a \"qualitative sensitivity\", perceptive of the multiple narratives of changes that circulate in the organisations, may itself become a tool for managers to address the practical challenges of hospital innovation.\n7. Conclusions: In this paper, we examined the effects produced by a complex organisational change on the pre-existent configuration of clinical work and professional relationships. In doing this, we captured the co-constructed process whereby top-down hospital innovations and workplace practice shape and reshape each other, producing significant consequences that cannot be fully predetermined by policy makers but that significantly affect the implementation of innovations. The reflections we proposed emerged from a combination of multiple empirical data, specifically, an analysis of Italian health policies, interviews with senior hospital managers, and one in-depth case study particularly representative of the hospital innovation under analysis. In privileging depth over extension, we relied on the suggestion from Ovretveit (2011) that intensive case studies, sensitive to the social and contextual factors that influence organisational change, may offer \"analytical generalisation\", namely valuable insights that can help make sense of similar phenomena in analogous settings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how the introduction of a patient-centered model (PCM) in Italian hospitals affects the pre-existent configuration of clinical work and interacts with established intra/inter-professional relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative multi-phase study based on three main sources: health policy analysis, an exploratory interview study with senior managers of eight Italian hospitals implementing the PCM, and an in-depth case study that involved managerial and clinical staff of one Italian hospital implementing the PCM.\nFindings: The introduction of the PCM challenges clinical work and professional relationships, but such challenges are interpreted differently by the organisational actors involved, thus giving rise to two different \"narratives of change\". The \"political narrative\" (the views conveyed by formal policies and senior managers) focuses on the power shifts and conflict between nurses and doctors, while the \"workplace narrative\" (the experiences of frontline clinicians) emphasises the problems linked to the disruption of previous discipline-based inter-professional groups.\nPractical implications: Medical disciplines, rather than professional groupings, are the main source of identification of doctors and nurses, and represent a crucial aspect of clinicians' professional identity. Although the need for collaboration among medical disciplines is acknowledged, creating multi-disciplinary groups in practice requires the sustaining of new aggregators and binding forces.\nOriginality/value: This study suggests further acknowledgment of the inherent complexity of the political and workplace narratives of change rather than interpreting them as the signal of irreconcilable perspectives between managers and clinicians. By addressing the specific issues regarding which the political and workplace narratives clash, relationship of trust may be developed through which problems can be identified, mutually acknowledged, articulated, and solved.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effect of streaming services on the concentration of digital music consumption
|
[
"IT strategy",
"Panel data",
"Media industry",
"Digital distribution"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: New digital technologies have disrupted content industries' revenue models. One such disruptive technology that is currently taking over the music industry is streaming. Rifkin (2000) stated in The Age of Access that buying products and owning property have become antiquated. A shift from ownership-based to streaming-based business models is taking place in a variety of industries such as movies, games and books. For example, in the case of the home video industry, online content streaming services such as Netflix are thriving, with other cable and TV networks also providing streaming services. Similarly, Amazon introduced the Kindle Unlimited e-book subscription service in July 2014 to compete with other e-book publishers such as Oyster and Scribd. In the gaming industry, Microsoft announced a new gaming subscription service, Xbox Game Pass (Fowler, 2017).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Winner-takes-all and long tail phenomena\n3. Methods: 3.1 Data description\n4. Results: 4.1 Short-run analysis\n5. Conclusion: Although the content industry has traditionally been dominated by the superstar effect, after the introduction of the term \"long tail,\" there has been a controversy over market concentration in the digital environment. Previous literature examined the concentration by comparing physical and digital goods and drivers affecting market-level concentration were discussed. However, content industries have undergone another shift from ownership-based to access-based consumption. The new mode of consumption is changing the landscape of content industries, and it has triggered a discussion among researchers about its impact on aggregate demand and producer revenues.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to articulate whether consumers' use of music via streaming service benefits niche products and diversified consumption of music. It examines does winner take all or is long tail achieved in the digital music market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To investigate the degree of concentration in the digital music sales, this study measures multiple concentration metrics using the top 100 songs for 245 weeks listed on the Korean music ranking chart.\nFindings: Conflicting results are found between the analyses based on short-run and long-run data. When sales distributions are compared weekly or monthly, the results show that streaming services have a less concentrated sales distribution than download services. However, the result becomes the opposite in the long-run analysis (i.e. one year).\nOriginality/value: This study proposes that the non-technological drivers such as the beneficial addiction of music consumption can be a crucial driver affecting the usage concentration in music industry, coupled with the royalty policy of access-based services.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Collaborative project information management in a semantic web environment
|
[
"Design and development",
"Construction industry",
"Information management",
"Semantics",
"Worldwide web",
"Project management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Construction is an information-intensive process involving diverse project partners. The primary responsibility of design is to specify project information in detail enabling its construction and to satisfy the client's requirements as well (Eastman, 1999, p. 9). At the construction stage, the design information is translated into a physical facility. The construction project team usually involves architects, structural engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers, acousticians, fire safety experts, contractors and other specialists, who may be from different parts of the world. Globally-distributed participants and multi-disciplinary collaboration are two trends in contemporary construction projects. Effective communication between such project team members is a key to achieving success (Faraj and Alshawi, 2004). This brings benefits such as saving construction time, reducing cost and enhancing collaboration. To ensure that project information is effectively communicated between the different disciplines and across different time zones and cultures, it is imperative that the semantics of the information are adequately captured and transmitted. This could not be readily achieved using paper-based methods.Project information is now being shared using electronic means. Most designers use computer-aided design software, such as AutoCAD, in their work. These independently developed software/systems have greatly enhanced information management efficiency within construction projects. However, they have serious limitations in sharing information between systems and being interoperable with other systems. This has attracted attention in the collaborative design domain. While the worldwide web enables electronic information to be shared globally, it only supports information sharing at a document level, which is primarily for display purposes without adequate provision for information processing based on its meaning. For example, an electronic drawing can easily be circulated as an information container by e-mail or CD but its content, the design information, which is of greater importance to project team members, cannot be directly accessed in this process. This leads to information loss, overload and misunderstanding during communication. A more intelligent approach focusing on the semantics of information and the content of documents is needed.The advent of web services and the semantic web has opened up opportunities for improvements in project information management that will result in a new generation of interoperable systems. There is now the potential for designs to be developed through a system of collaborating design services. Within this environment, there is the need for effective mechanisms for information management, in addition to an ontology that facilitates the sharing of collaborative project information and the underlying semantics.This paper explores the above issues in collaborative design and construction, starting with a brief review of the opportunities for information management through enabling semantic web technologies. The key issues in effective information management are then outlined and the approach being adopted in the development of a system for collaborative project information management in a semantic web environment described. Examples are presented to illustrate the key concepts in both design and construction.\nThe semantic web: Basic concept\nInformation management: Current context\nSemantic web-based information management: Framework\nExample: Design example\nSummary and conclusions: This paper has explored the use of semantic web technologies to meet the challenges of collaborative project information management. Design and construction information, from heterogeneous repositories connected to the web, are given well-defined meaning, in computer-processable languages (XML, RDF and OWL). This enables several interactive activities between people and computers, such as interpreting the content of drawings, customized responses to queries, and update alerting. The semantics of project information is used in the collaboration between team members to avoid information misunderstanding, loss and overload during the information sharing and transfer process, as shown in the terminology sharing example, as well as the data integration and data/process dynamics in the construction example.Construction projects are characterised by the strong need for close collaboration between AEC team members, and require an effective approach to the management of information from diverse sources. Current IT tools enable designers and contractors to operate in an electronic era where large volumes of information are wrapped into digital documents and distributed through the internet. However, many project deliverables are not readily deliverable, in the information sense, because the information senders and receivers cannot adequately understand one other, or the sender can neither identify all receivers nor distribute information to them in a timely fashion. Meanwhile, the information from the sender cannot be directly used in the receiver's database due to data structure or language incompatibility issues. These communication and interpretation tasks are often processed manually by humans leading to errors and low levels of efficiency.These inadequacies of collaborative project information management can be effectively tackled within the semantic web environment. Semantic web technologies support communication between project team members at the information level rather than at the document level. They enable the meaning of electronic information to be identified by computers and interpreted between information repositories. The potential benefits include:* Adequately sharing information between AEC team members without information overload or loss.* Reducing the load of manual work (such as translating terminologies, inputting data from partners' databases to their own database, converting technical standards and measurement systems) and the risk of making mistakes in manual work.* Timely updating of data throughout the project team and consistency maintenance.* On-demand information retrieval service.Although many benefits have been highlighted above, some issues need to be carefully considered in the application of semantic web technologies:* Semantic web technologies are still developing and are far from maturity.* Considerable initial work needs to be done, such as identifying the attributes of documents, the development of metafiles and constructing concepts hierarchy and ontologies, before semantic web-based information management can be undertaken.* Much work is required on linking separated ontologies to achieve information management across various sources. Since very few widely-recognized ontologies exist so far, most project team members would develop their own ontologies independently. Three approaches could be applied in integrating ontologies. One is to enforce the use of a common ontology. Any professional individual vocabularies will be linked to the common ontology by an adaptive ontology (as shown in the terminology sharing example). The second one is the use of ontology mapping to map concepts in different ontologies. The third one is the use of ontology merger to integrate separate ontologies into a common one.It is evident from the foregoing that semantic web technologies provide significant opportunities to resolve many of the problems that exist in collaborative project information management. Although several barriers exist, project team members will still benefit from the Semantic Web in the future with its fast development and practices in the AEC domain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The advent of web services and the semantic web have opened up opportunities for a new generation of interoperable systems on the web. The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of semantics in design and construction, and how this has long been recognised and addressed to varying extents by researchers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - There is now the potential for designs to be developed through a system of collaborating design services and for input by the construction team members. The potential also extends to the construction phase where the designers can provide more timely responses to problems encountered in the field. Within this environment, there is the need for effective mechanisms for design and construction information management, in addition to an ontology that facilitates the sharing of design and construction information and the underlying semantics. This paper explores these trends in collaborative design and construction, and presents an ontology-based approach to project information management in a semantic web environment.\nFindings: - The findings include a framework for semantic web-based information management (SWIMS), which provides for effective collaborative information management. Examples, based on design and construction information, are presented to illustrate the key concepts.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents an innovative approach to overcoming the limitations of conventional information management approaches in construction. The proposed approach is expected to enhance collaboration, and avoid information loss, overload and misunderstanding,\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
E-fulfillment dimensions and its influence on customers in e-tailing: a critical review
|
[
"Returns",
"Repurchase intention",
"Shopping satisfaction",
"E-fulfillment dimensions",
"Pure e-tailing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Online retailing (e-tailing) is gaining more popularity among customers worldwide due to the ease of shopping and attractive deals. According to Euromonitor International report 2012, global online retail sales peaked at $579.9 billion representing 4 percent of the total retail market. Sales are expected to grow at a 15.06 percent compound annual growth rate for the 2012-2017 period due to the increasing penetration of the internet, smart electronic devices and better logistics infrastructure (Euromonitor International, 2013).\nScope of the study: We started our critical review process by identifying the literature review papers relevant to our study. We found a total of nine literature review papers (see Table I). However, these papers carried out literature reviews on broader themes such as e-commerce (Reynolds, 2000), e-service quality (Ladhari, 2010; Rowley, 2006), internet retailing (Doherty and Ellis-Chadwick, 2006, 2010), e-commerce and retailing (Burt and Sparks, 2003), the impact of e-business on supply chain management (Johnson and Whang, 2002) and taxonomy of multi-channel retailing (Beck and Rygl, 2015). The closest literature review paper to this study was by Agatz et al. (2008), who classified e-fulfillment issues of multi-channel retail into two categories: sales and delivery planning and supply chain management. However, that study focused on a review of analytic models in multi-channel retail. Our study primarily focuses on understanding the critical dimensions of the e-fulfillment process and its influence on customers in the pure e-tailing setting in order to design customer-centric e-fulfillment architecture. In all, 73 research articles found on this theme during the next stage of critical review process are discussed in the following sections.\nMethodology: We adopted the following four-step process for performing a critical review of the literature on e-fulfillment: select suitable online databases, identify appropriate keywords, assemble an appropriate sample of journal articles and select articles for review.\nLiterature review: In this section, we analyzed the pertinent literature on the various e-fulfillment dimensions described in Figure 1 and established their influence on customers in the pure play e-tailing setting. We classified e-fulfillment into two categories, namely, order procurement and order fulfillment. Order procurement was further sub-classified into three dimensions: e-business quality, product quality and pricing. Order fulfillment was further sub-classified into four dimensions: physical distribution service quality (PDSQ) dimensions; availability, timeliness, condition and reverse logistics. The detailed review is summarized in Table AI.\nConceptual framework: E-fulfillment is one major area of e-tailers' operations, which significantly influences customers' shopping experience (Koufteros et al., 2014; Lee and Lin, 2005; Thirumalai and Sinha, 2005) and repurchase intention (Koufteros et al., 2014; Posselt and Gerstner, 2005). Rabinovich and Bailey (2004) studied service quality aspect of order fulfillment and suggested three dimensions (availability, timeliness and condition). While, Mentzer et al. (1989, 1999) excluded reliability and considered condition dimension. Xing and Grant (2006) and Xing et al. (2010) extended Mentzer et al.'s (1989, 1999) framework by adding ease of return as the fourth dimension. While Koufteros et al. (2014) added billing accuracy as the fourth dimension of order fulfillment service quality and studied influence of all the four dimensions on encounter satisfaction in e-tailing. However, these studies did not include the order procurement dimensions (e-business quality and product quality) of the e-fulfillment process. Boyer and Hult (2005a, b) focused on IT, operations and marketing aspects of grocery e-tailers considering e-business quality, product quality and service quality dimensions. They found strong relationship amongst these dimensions and customer behavioral intentions and number of purchases. However, these studies (Boyer and Hult, 2005a, b) did not consider the various aspects of service quality.\nDiscussion and future research scope: The literature review showed that previous studies considered merely one or a very few dimensions of the e-fulfillment process. Some authors studied order procurement dimensions (e-business quality and product quality) and order fulfillment dimensions (availability, timeliness, conditions and returns) separately. Heim and Sinha (2001) first attempted to put together an integrated framework that included all e-fulfillment dimensions and studied its impact on customer loyalty. Some of these dimensions were established and tested out in different settings such as e-commerce, internet retailing and multi-channel retailing. This clearly establishes the dire need to holistically provide and test various dimensions of e-fulfillment in the context of pure e-tailing. This study will help pure play e-tailers develop intrinsic detailed insight into various dimensions of e-fulfillment and its links with customer expectations. Thus, this study enables pure play e-tailers to differentiate by focusing on these dimensions in the cut-throat competitive e-tailing market.\nManagerial insights: Sound understanding of the critical e-fulfillment dimensions and their links to customers' behavior and attitude will enable pure e-tailers to differentiate them in the crowded and extremely competitive e-tail market.\nConclusion: This study presented a critical and systematic review of the vast literature on the e-fulfillment process in e-tailing. E-fulfillment dimensions were divided into two categories: order procurement dimensions (e-business quality and product quality) and order fulfillment dimensions (availability, timeliness, condition and reverse logistics). A conceptual framework was proposed to empirically test the impact of e-fulfillment dimensions on customers' shopping satisfaction and repurchase intention. The proposed framework suggests that e-tailers not only be aware of e-fulfillment dimensions but also its linkages with shopping satisfaction and repurchase intention of the customer during the service encounter. This framework will help e-tailers to focus on improving certain e-fulfillment dimensions to enhance customer experience that may help them to retain the customers in the long term. Consumer research should focus on meeting the customer expectations during pre-purchase, at-purchase and post-purchase processes with the understanding of how to benchmark and improve the e-fulfillment dimensions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the dimensions of the e-fulfillment process and its influence on customers in pure e-tailing; to classify the pertinent literature that has evolved over time addressing relevant managerial issues; and to identify the gaps between the practices prevalent in the e-fulfillment and those suggested by academicians to develop insights for future research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A critical systemic literature review approach was used for the study with quantitative and qualitative analysis.\nFindings: The authors identified seven dimensions of e-fulfillment in the literature on pure e-tailing: e-business quality, product quality, pricing, availability, timeliness, condition and ease of return and explored its linkages with shopping satisfaction and repurchase intention of customers in e-tailing.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was skewed toward an empirical approach. The study does not include many of the analytical models in this space.\nPractical implications: This study helps e-tailers, academicians and practitioners understand critical dimensions of e-fulfillment and its influence on customers in the pure e-tailing setting in order to design customer-centric e-fulfillment architecture.\nOriginality/value: The study identified seven dimensions of e-fulfillment in the literature and explored its influence on shopping satisfaction and repurchase intention of customers in pure e-tailing. This is the first compilation of standalone/isolated studies available in the literature to provide e-tailers and academicians meaningful insights into e-fulfillment in the pure e-tailing setting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A holistic review of research on carbon emissions of green building construction industry
|
[
"Green building",
"Carbon emissions",
"Science mapping",
"Literature review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Increasing severe environmental situations have aroused worldwide attentions, and eventually construction market has become a target for environmental improvement, as building units consume about 40 percent of the world's energy, as well as approximately 33 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions are related to construction activities (Chau et al., 2015). Green building effectively controls negative effects on the environment and resources by providing a brand-new evaluation system and guides the entire construction market to an environmentally friendly direction through its brand effect. Although green buildings have a variety of definitions and rating systems, such as saving energy, material, land and water resources, improving of indoor environmental quality, and reducing pollution are widely accepted as general principles (Li, Yang, He and Zhao, 2014). The emerging building development model has stimulated wide public attentions due to its potential adaptable to current situation of serious pollution. Multiple researchers have studied cost (Illankoon et al., 2018), energy performance (Ghaffarianhoseini et al., 2013) and overall sustainability of life cycle process (Wong and Zhou, 2015).\n2. Methodologies: In this study, a systematic review process was introduced to explore the pre-defined research questions related to the latest research themes in GB-CO2, the overall performance of carbon emissions of green building, as well as the trends of GB-CO2 research. It integrated the review steps from earlier studies in GB-CO2 subjects (Chau et al., 2015; Jin et al., 2018; Olubunmi et al., 2016). This holistic review further provides a framework linking existing research areas within GB-CO2 to near future research directions, encouraging interdisciplinary research involving related research areas. The continued study then adopted a holistic approach in reviewing the state-of-the-art research of GB-CO2 in the recent decade. The initial phase was a bibliometric review of journal articles, followed by the science mapping of the literature sample, and then the qualitative discussion of research topics themes in GB-CO2. The workflow of this review-based study is illustrated in Figure 1.\n3. Results analysis and discussions of science mapping: 3.1 Science mapping of journal sources\n4. Analysis methods adopted by researchers: Following up the visual analysis from the literature, an in-depth classification analysis of the carbon emissions of green buildings is conducted to supplement the statistical analysis. The principles of data acquisition and analysis methods are applied to present a more clearly blueprint of the research strategies within GB-CO2, inspiring relevant scholars and construction practitioners on the validity and reliability of the research paradigm.\n5. Discussion of the gaps within GB-CO2: The trends of future research based on the current research topics and gaps are summarized state of the art and further research directions within GB-CO2. The five main research topics involved in green building carbon emissions are identified, namely, building carbon emissions reduction prospect; performance measurement; management practice; properties of materials; and decarbonizing design, model and strategies. Table IV presents the main research topics, as well as sub-topics for each category.\n6. Conclusions and implications: Carbon decoupling development model is receiving additional attention with increasing environmental pollution, and construction market has huge potential for reducing carbon emissions. In order to understand the state of the art and the gaps in GB-CO2 field, this paper extends earlier review works by complementing existing studies with a strong vertical visual approach delivered through science mapping tools. Further, systematic induction analysis is introduced to discuss the analytical strategy, core topics and gaps for the future GB-CO2 research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Addressing global warming challenge, carbon emissions reduction potential of the construction industry has received additional attentions. The decoupling of construction industry and carbon emissions through policies, technologies and model innovations is an effective way for reducing environmental pollution and achieve eco-urban target. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Within the scope of green building carbon emissions (GB-CO2) research, a large number of scientific literature has been published in construction discipline over the past few decades. However, it seems that a systematic summary of strategies, techniques, models and scientific discussion of future direction of GB-CO2 is lacking. Therefore, this paper carries out data mining on authoritative journals, identified the key research topics, active research areas and further research trends through visualization studies.\nFindings: This study contributes to the body of knowledge in GB-CO2 by critically reviewing and summarizing: professional high-quality journals have a greater influence in the scope of research, developed countries and developing countries are all very concerned about sustainable buildings, and the current hot topics of research focus on the application of the life cycle models, energy efficiency, environmental performance of concrete material, etc. Moreover, further research areas that could expand the knowledge of cross-national long-term carbon mechanisms, develop comprehensive life cycle carbon emissions assessment models, build technical standards and tests for the sustainable building material and systems, and exploit multi-objective decision models considering decarbonizing design and renewable energy.\nOriginality/value: This study is of value in systematic insight the state-of-the-art of GB-CO2 research in the more recent decade. A more vividly and effectively method is documented in extending the traditional bibliometric review to a deeper discussion. This study can also benefit construction practitioners by providing them a focused perspective of strategy and technologies innovations for emerging practices in green building projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Manager-employee psychological contracts: enter the smartphone
|
[
"Employment relations",
"Psychological contract",
"Connectivity",
"Information and communication technologies",
"Interpersonal behaviour",
"User-device relationships"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Technological devices have the ability to facilitate and even alter human relationships. However, despite the exponential growth of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) usage in the workplace (Peters and Allouch, 2005) research on how such technologies can impact the employment relationship between employees and their managers is still in its nascent stage. The psychological contract (a central concept in employment relations) refers to the idea that individuals within organizations have perceptions and expectations about their obligations to each other (Rousseau, 1989). Psychological contracts are subjective and can include a wide range of expectations about factors such as work hours and productivity (Conway and Briner, 2009). Psychological contract expectations usually form at the start of the recruitment process, however, expectations can change at any point during employment, especially if perceived promises are broken, interrupted or altered by noticeable events (Rousseau, 1995).\nTheoretical foundations: Psychological contracts\nMethodology: Our research questions explore whether an individual's relationship with their company-provided smartphone can change the psychological contract between managers and employees, specifically in regards to connectivity expectations and outcomes. A limited number of studies explore how an individual's attachment to their mobile ICT device can influence norms and expectations and by extension psychological contracts (Orlikowski, 2007; Wehmeyer, 2008). Although few in number, the studies that have been undertaken suggest that user-device attachment could influence psychological contracts through changes in expectations and researchers call for further empirical exploration of this idea (Wehmeyer, 2008). Therefore, it is our intention to further contribute to this emerging research agenda.\nFindings: The research was conducted with participants from four large companies within four different industries (stationery manufacturing, telecommunications, public services and government sector). The participants comprised 20 individuals at the employee level and eight individuals at the managerial level. There were 12 females and 16 males. Ages ranged widely with 16 participants being over 40 years old, and 12 under 40 years old. The roles of the individuals also varied. There were individuals in customer representative or organizer roles, field officers, individuals in office administration or accounts roles and those in IT or engineering roles.\nDiscussion: The study shows some discrepancies between employee and manager connectivity expectations. This means that there is a low level of mutuality between employees and managers in terms of these expectations (Dabos and Rousseau, 2004). While most employees felt that they are expected to be reachable, only half of managers expected their employees to be reachable. This suggests that expectations are miss-matched between managers and employees. Although, past studies have pinpointed discrepancies between managerial and employee expectations within their psychological contract (Cullinane and Dundon, 2006), the discrepancy in the present study is somewhat perplexing. This is because it is actually the employees themselves that feel increased expectations to be reachable when in reality only half of their managers expect this of their employees. This discrepancy might occur due to the implicit nature of the psychological contract. Most participants in the study learn about expectations through implicit rather than explicit ways, with most never discussing their actual expectations with the other party. This means that the only \"tangible\" factor that signals the reachability expectations is the smartphone itself because when an organization gives its employees mobile ICT devices this acts as a signal for reachability expectations (Richardson and Benbunan-Fich, 2011; Ruppel et al., 2013).\nConclusion: This study investigates how company-provided smartphones and individual attachment to them create connectivity expectations within the manager-employee psychological contract. The key finding is that when employees and managers receive smartphones from their employing organization, this device becomes integrated into the manager-employee psychological contract. By acting as a signal, company-provided smartphones can create perceived expectations to be constantly connected to work, and this expectation is especially true for managers. This suggests that company-provided smartphones can create hyper-connectivity expectations within manager-employee psychological contracts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how company-provided smartphones and user-device attachment influence the psychological contract between employees and managers in terms of connectivity expectations and outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected using qualitative semi-structured interviews with 28 participants from four organizations.\nFindings: The study showed that when organizations provide smartphones to their employees, the smartphones become a part of the manager-employee relationship through user-device attachment and this can change connectivity expectations for both employees and managers.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to participant numbers, these findings may not be generalizable to all employees and managers who receive company smartphones. However, the authors have important implications for theory. The smartphone influence on the psychological climate and its role as a signal for workplace expectations suggest that mobile information and communication technology devices must be considered in psychological contract formation, development, change and breach.\nPractical implications: The perceived expectations can lead to hyper-connectivity which can have a number of negative performance and health outcomes such as technostress, burnout, absenteeism and work-life conflict.\nSocial implications: Smartphone usage and user-device attachment have the potential to redefine human relations by encouraging and normalizing hyper-connected relationships.\nOriginality/value: This study makes an original contribution to psychological contract theory by showing that smartphones and attachment to these devices create perceived expectations to stay connected to work and create negative outcomes, especially for managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Persistence and half-life of URL citations cited in LIS open access journals
|
[
"Worldwide web",
"URL citations",
"Persistence",
"Half‐life",
"Journals",
"Referencing",
"Information retrieval",
"Online access"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The web is one of the popular sources for open access publishing and the dissemination of research results (Kousha, 2009). It has significantly improved access to scientific information and resources, providing a way of making data and applications accessible and shareable, with the added convenience of information retrieval and extraction (Lawrence and Giles, 1999). Even though web sources have changed information access, they have also created new challenges to the traditional scientific process, mainly due to the lack of persistence of web pages and sites (Thireou et al., 2007). Many studies have investigated the availability and persistence of URL citations cited in scholarly publications (Sellitto, 2004; Hester et al., 2004; Olfson and Lawrence, 2005; Goh and Ng, 2007; Ducut et al., 2008). Carnevale and Aronsky (2005) identified a high annual mortality rate for URL references in biomedical informatics journal that has led to 45 percent of URLs being inactive after five years. He also found that 10 percent of URL references from in-press articles were already inactive. Some other studies have also stated that online citations disappear at increasing rates over time (German, 2000; Tyler and McNeil, 2003; Dellavalle et al., 2003; Bugeja and Dimitrova, 2005; Chen et al., 2009). Bearing in mind the disappearing nature of URL citations, the present study has been undertaken to investigate the availability and accessibility of URL citations in two library and information science journals.\nReview of the literature: The spontaneous growth of the internet as well as web sources has allowed authors to use web sources with traditional sources such as books, journals, reports etc. Many studies have been investigated on the use, permanence and half-life of URL references cited in scholarly publications. This section highlights a comprehensive review of the literature related to the availability, permanence and half-life period of URL citations.Web citation availability\nResearch questions: In recent years web citations have become common in scholarly publications. This trend shows no signs of abating and result is that web citations have become the norm in scholarly literature (Goh and Ng, 2007). Use and accessibility of URL citations in LIS scholarly publication and the half-life period of URLs are the main focus of this study, which attempt to provide answer to the following questions:RQ1. Have citations to the web sources increased in open access journals in the field of library and information science?RQ2. Is there an association between the accessibility of URL citations and the age of URL citations?RQ3. What percentage of URL citations are missing? Which domain extension has largest percentage of missing URL citations?RQ4. What is the half-life of URLs cited in LIS journal articles?\nResearch methodology: Selection of journals\nResults: As shown in Table I, a total of 689 articles were published in the two LIS journals during 1996-2006. The highest number of articles published in a year was 91 in 2007, and the lowest was 31 in 1996. According to Table I there was a total of 15,395 citations in 689 articles, and an average of 22.34 citations was calculated per article. Additionally, among all citations (15,395) there were 2,890 URL citations with an average of 4.19 URL citations per article. The percentage of URL citations ranged from 5.25 percent in 1998 to 27.79 percent in 2009. The number of articles with URL citations increased significantly from 1996 to 2009. It increased from just four in 1996 to 60 in 2009.This clearly indicates that LIS authors are increasingly depending on the URL citations in their research works. This is also strongly supported by correlation analysis. There is a positive correlation between the total number of citations and URL citations cited in journal articles (r=0.920: correlation is significant at the 0.001 level, two-tailed) (Figure 1). Table I also presents a different view of the URL distribution in terms of number of web citations per article during 1996-2009. This ranged from a low of 0.45 in 1996 to a high of 7.73 in 2003. The average number of URLs was 4.19 across all articles and years.The result of the URL accessibility test indicated that of the 2,890 extracted URL citations, 2,136 (73.91 percent) were still accessible during testing, while the remaining URL citations (26.08 percent) encountered access errors (Table II).The percentage of missing URL citations decreased significantly from the year 1996 (42.85 percent) to 2009 (29.69 percent). These data indicate that there is an association between the accessibility of URL citations and the age of URL citations. This is supported by a chi-square test (kh2=157.009, df=13, p=0.000, c=0.227). There is a negative co-relation between the percentage of active URL citations and the publishing age (r=-0.134). As the age of the URL citations decreases, the percentage of active citations tends to increase.HTTP errors encountered when retrieving web pages\nDiscussion and limitations of the study: Results of the present study have shown that citations to web resources in scholarly publications have been steadily increasing during 1996-2009. This quantitative study collected citation data from two scholarly open access journals and analyzed the citations to web resources. The main findings included the high proportion of web citations in these journals' articles. Even though the percentage of missing URLs was only 26.08 percent, it is recognized that the web citation decay problem will remain in the foreseeable future and we have developed a growing list of recommendations to alleviate it.The major reason for missing web citations was HTTP 404 error (file not found). The results of the present study are similar to the previous studies of Spinellis (2003), Sellitto (2005), McCown et al. (2005), Aronsky et al. (2007) and Carnevale and Aronsky (2007). The loss of web citations used in scholarly papers has important implications for authors and the academic community. The disappearance of previously cited web resources challenges the reader's traditional assumption of reference availability and access (Sellitto, 2005). The high level loss of web citations associated with.com,.org and.edu domains questions their credibility and raises reliability issues. This high degree of missing organizational and educational domain resources was also documented by earlier studies (Markwell and Brooks, 2003; Sellitto, 2005).Limitations of the present study\nConclusion and further research: Today, the use of web citations is very common in journal articles and web citations are most popularly cited by LIS scholar community. These resources are considered very useful sources for researchers to access global information. However the persistence of these resources is a major problem. To avoid the possible decay of web citations, previous studies (Rumsey, 2002; Casserly and Bird, 2003; Spinellis, 2003; Goh and Ng, 2007) have given some suggestions to authors to overcome possible URL decay. On the basis of the findings of the present study, the following recommendations are made for authors to avoid possible URL decay.Authors should check the accessibility of URL citations before they are used in the reference list. If a URL citation is not accessible, the authors should try to retrieve the missing URL citations using search engines or the Internet Archive.The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library that was founded to build an internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. Now the Internet Archive includes text, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in collections (see www.archive.org/). The majority of missing URLs can be retrieved easily using this internet archive (Figure 4).URL citations used in the reference list should include a detailed bibliographical description (author, title, URL address, date of access, etc.). Publishers should require authors to adhere to the citation policies, styles, and formats established by their journals. Further, they should review their citation guidelines frequently and modify them, as needed, to ensure maximum access to the web content referenced by their authors. The publisher should archive the URLs cited in the articles they publish.These suggestions should be useful for authors, editorial staff, and publishers and they need to work together to improve existing citation conventions, promote URL use, and ensure that cited resources are accessible to future researchers.Further research work could also be conducted to retrieve missing URLs using various search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, Altavista, etc. The Way Back Machine of the Internet Archive may also be used to get back missing URLs. Researchers could also compare the retrieval efficiency of search engines and the Way Back Machine in accessing missing web citations. These would be topics for future study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The main purpose of the present study is to examine the availability and persistence of URL citations in two LIS open access journals. It also intended to calculate the half-life period of URL citations cited in journal articles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 2,890 URL citations cited in 689 research articles published in LIS journals spanning a period of 14 years (1996-2009) were extracted. In order to check the accessibility of URL citations, W3C link checker was used. After the initial check, inactive URL citations were listed. Domains and HTTP errors associated with inactive URL citations were identified for further analysis. The half-life period was calculated using the formula t(h)=[t ln(0.5)]/[ln W(t)-ln W(0)].\nFindings: - The research findings indicated that 57.61 percent (397 of 689) of articles have URL citations and percentage of URL citations increased from 5.98 percent in 1996 to 27.79 percent in 2009. It was found that 26.08 percent of all citations were not accessible during the time of testing and the majority of errors were due to HTTP 404 error code (not found). The domains.net and.gov were more stable compared to the domains.com/.co,.org, and.edu. The half-life was computed to be approximately 11.5 years, which compares favorably against earlier research works.\nOriginality/value: - This is a comprehensive study on the availability and persistence of URL citations cited in LIS journals articles spanning a period of 14 years. The findings of the study will be helpful to authors, publishers and editorial staff to improve existing URL citation conventions and to promote URL use to ensure that URL citations are accessible in future.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
"Dangerous conversations": a case study involving language
|
[
"Discrimination",
"Power",
"Criminal justice",
"Diversity",
"National cultures",
"Minority language",
"Oppression"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Over recent years the expression of explicit oppressive remarks about, or overtly oppressive behaviour towards, members of minority groups has increasingly become prohibited (Van Dijk, 1992; Dovidio and Gaertner, 2004). Particularly in professional contexts, prejudicial attitudes and behaviours now have the potential to spoil or devalue the identity of those with whom they are associated. Accusations of having acted in a discriminatory manner can assume the force of a \"moralistic weapon of mass destruction\" (Ballard and Parveen, 2008, p. 77) and so majority group members are motivated to avoid acting, or at least being perceived as having acted, in an overtly prejudiced manner in public settings (Augoustinos and Every, 2010; Shelton et al., 2010).\nMethods: The paper draws on qualitative interview data collected as part of a PhD study. In earlier publications we analysed this data set using a discourse analytic approach to explore how first language Welsh-speaking service users accounted for the linguistic choices they made in the criminal justice system. We explored how respondent accounts were used to legitimise or defend claims to Welsh identity (Madoc-Jones and Parry, 2012, 2013). Here we explore new issues, specifically how issues of linguistic diversity are sometimes ignored, deflected and leveraged in the criminal justice system in Wales. To this end we draw more on Bourdieusian theory which holds that accounts are embedded and embodied in a habitus that we understand to render exploration of diversity issues problematic and which predicates against critical reflection on good anti-oppressive practice. The PhD explored accounts of language use by 26 first language Welsh-speaking \"offenders\", who had been in prison during the preceding five years; and 25 service providers.\nFindings: Our previous publications have explored, and it is important to note here, how our Welsh-speaking study respondents primarily used English rather than Welsh during their most recent encounters within the criminal justice system. In most of these accounts, this was presented as a function of discrimination and oppression, namely that Welsh speakers were powerless over language selection and, related to this, victims within a discriminatory criminal justice system. For example, in the following extract Robert reflects back on his experiences:\nDiscussion: We intend our paper to encourage greater reflexivity in instances when diversity issues are raised and to render simplistic any attempt to automatically validate or invalidate claims of discrimination. To this end, our paper engages in a dangerous conversation. It illustrates afresh the phenomenon of diversity issues occasioning staff anxieties. While acknowledging power is unequally distributed, it illustrates how hierarchical models which designate minority group members as bereft of power are misguided (Bhui, 1996; Edwards, 2001). Conversely, it suggests that even those in apparently powerless positions can be active agents, utilising diversity issues in the exercise of, and resistance to, power (Van Dijk, 1996). Whilst primarily drawing on discourses of oppression to position themselves as powerless, respondents demonstrated through the selective use of (English or Welsh) language, the ability to wield \"temporary license\" and exercise power. Accounts of language were mobilised to castigate service providers and Welsh might be used selectively to delay the criminal justice process. Equally English might be used when engaging preferred (English) representation, to expiate (or at least not delay) processes and project appearances of compliance. Service providers in turn were not possessed of unqualified power. Their accounts evidence a wariness around diversity issues especially as it concerns challenging claims to particular considerations based on language abilities. Whilst in some context this unwillingness should obtain because it acts as a challenge to discriminatory tendencies, it may have a downside to the detriment of others. This is, first, victims and witnesses associated with proceedings who might be inconvenienced or even harmed by unnecessarily delays. Second, future Welsh speakers involved in the criminal justice system. Where the decision to use Welsh is perceived as deriving solely from its potential to interrupt or disrupt criminal justice processes, but this perception is supressed rather than explored, popular discourse in which diversity is exploited to gain unfair advantage may be reinforced. The potential service users have, as our data shows, to \"disrupt\" the doxa or existing habitas, thereafter becomes imbued with negative implications for the future of diversity politics and the \"struggles\" we have presented here go further.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing on the approach of Bourdieu (1977, 1986), and using language as an exemplar, the purpose of this paper is to engage in a \"dangerous conversation\" to explore how and why issues of diversity were mobilised, ignored and leveraged in one particular service context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative research exploring the language choices of 25 service users who had been processed through the criminal Justice System in Wales in the last five years.\nFindings: The argument is made that in some service contexts, a habitus obtains that renders reflexivity about diversity issues problematic and predicates against the critical reflection necessary to promote anti-oppressive practice.\nResearch limitations/implications: Small sample size, not generalisable.\nPractical implications: The authors intend the paper to encourage greater reflection on instances when diversity issues are raised and to render simplistic any attempt to invalidate claims of discrimination.\nSocial implications: Encourage dialogue about claims of discrimination and greater reflection by service providers about the legitimacy of such claims.\nOriginality/value: Anti-oppressive theorising has, for the most part, constructed minority group members as passive victims within hierarchical power relationships. While acknowledging how power is unequally distributed, the paper challenges hierarchical models which designate minority group members as bereft of power.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Asymmetric cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects of values-related and performance-related negative brand publicity
|
[
"Brand trust",
"Brand reputation",
"Brand evaluation",
"Brand perception",
"Brand crisis",
"Brand-related emotions",
"Negative brand publicity",
"Perceived diagnosticity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Consumers can access an abundance of brand-relevant information from many different channels every day. Diverse types of information channels allow consumers' convenient and efficient information access, and these provide brands with more opportunities to take advantage of marketing communication. However, these opportunities also increase the risk of brand crises that result from negative publicity (Monga and John, 2008). Negative brand publicity can be defined as the uncompensated dissemination of potentially damaging information presented as disparaging news about a brand in public media or by word of mouth (Sherrell and Reidenbach, 1986; Menon et al., 1999). Negative brand publicity is pervasive in the current marketplace and poses significant challenges to brand management. It can be classified into two broad types based on the nature of the events: values-related and performance-related (Pullig et al., 2006). Recent examples of values-related negative publicity include Volkswagen's rigging of the autos to manipulate the environmental tests for diesel emissions and McDonald's use of expired meat in China. On the other hand, Firestone's recall of tires with design and manufacturing defects and the continuous public attention for top management changes, redundancies and store closures due to strategic and financial mismanagement of the German warehouse retailer KarstadtQuelle are examples of performance-related negative publicity.\n2. Theoretical background and research hypotheses: 2.1 Values- and performance-related negative brand publicity\n3. Study 1: 3.1 Design\n4. Study 2: 4.1 Subjects, design and procedure\n5. General discussion: 5.1 Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This research aims to systematically explore the cognitive and emotional effects of values-related and performance-related negative brand publicity and investigate how the psychological effects translate into different behavioural outcomes. In addition, it examines the relative effectiveness of two major brand response strategies in mitigating negative publicity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 examines the effects of values- and performance-related negative brand publicity, using a 3 (negative brand publicity: values-related vs performance-related vs control) x 2 (brand: Dove vs Axe) between-subjects experiment. Study 2 further compares the effects of two major brand response strategies on consumers' post-crisis perceived trustworthiness and trust and responses towards a brand involved in negative publicity. A 2 (negative brand publicity: values-related vs performance-related) x 2 (brand response strategy: reduction-of-offensiveness vs corrective action) between-subjects design was used.\nFindings: The results suggest that values-related negative brand publicity is perceived as being more diagnostic and elicits a stronger emotion of contempt, but a weaker emotion of pity than performance-related negative brand publicity. Moreover, values-related negative brand publicity has a stronger negative impact on consumer responses than performance-related negative brand publicity. Interestingly, compared to perceived diagnosticity of information and the emotion of pity, the emotion of contempt is more likely to cause differences in consumer responses to these two types of negative brand publicity. Regarding brand response strategy, corrective action is more effective than reduction-of-offensiveness for both types of negative brand publicity, but the advantage of corrective action is greater for the performance-related case.\nOriginality/value: This research enriches the negative publicity and brand perception literature, showing the asymmetric cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects of values- and performance-related negative brand publicity. It also identifies the psychological mechanisms underlying consumer responses to negative brand publicity, and it provides empirical evidence for the relative effectiveness of two major brand response strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
E-learner experiences: what is the future for e-learning?
|
[
"E‐learning",
"Case studies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In May 2004, Ashridge published a research report based on case studies, surveys and interviews held at 29 of their \"virtual learning resource centre\" client companies. They sought to understand current approaches to e-learning with regard to implementation and value added. This article reflects on the lessons learned by the various organisations and their predictions for how e-learning will develop further in their organisations in the future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the future for e-learning is as bright as it has previously been heralded, or whether it is likely to fade into the background over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on 29 research case studies.\nFindings: - The importance of time and commitment are drawn out, suggesting that a slower pace of development may not necessarily be a bad thing. Organisations need to focus on what really matters - creating an environment that truly values learning, which for many may involved a substantial culture change. The importance of communication, promotion and marketing are presented, with the commitment from the top giving e-learning the necessary status it needs in order for it to be taken seriously throughout the company. Selection of technology is also important as this can be a limiting factor to further e-learning development.\nPractical implications: - Broader considerations for discussion as to whether an organisation is truly committed to an e-learning future or not.\nOriginality/value: - This article concludes the series by focussing on what the research tells us for the future development of e-learning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Estimating the business potential for operators in a local food supply chain
|
[
"Supply chain",
"Entrepreneurship",
"Local food",
"Business feasibility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As a consequence of a growing interest towards the quality of food and food producing practices, local food systems and food supply chain localization are rising trends, not only among consumers, but also among researchers and politicians (e.g. Ilbery and Maye, 2006; La Trobe and Acott, 2000; Marsden et al., 2000; Morris and Buller, 2003; Renting et al., 2003). Local food is often claimed to be healthier and fresher, and produced and supplied to the consumer's table in a more socially responsible and ecological way (e.g. La Trobe and Acott, 2000; Marsden et al., 2000). Local food has become a catchword and is seen as a counterpoint for global food processing and distribution chains and mass-produced food products (Hinrichs, 2003). Different community-supported agriculture (CSA) schemes have evolved to bring producers and consumers together, and operators like local food shops, electronic marketplaces, local wholesalers and distributors have emerged in local food supply chains.\nTheoretical background: Business potential estimation\nMethodology: For estimating the business potential of local food supply chain operations, some data is available in quantitative form, but some data needs to be collected with qualitative means, for example by utilizing expert opinions or collecting data with surveys. This study utilizes the available statistical consumption data and financial statement data, and completes the data with expert judgement to estimate the potential of a local food wholesales-stage business in South-East Finland. The methodological approach includes three main phases:\nPractical implications: A start-up local food wholesaler has major issues to deal with: where, what and how much can be sourced, at what price and margins the volumes can be sold, and whether the margin is big enough for sound business. The model presented in this study facilitates an iterative process where sound economic business, based on the average price and cost structures of the industry, is expressed in terms of the required market share. For a particular business model, the estimation model gives indicative, industry average-based results: the results of the model should be refined with analysis of the particular business model, especially its cost efficiency and other competitive parameters compared to the traditional way of doing business. The model was also built on the assumption that local food will not significantly raise the total consumption of food. Especially in new, service-related business ideas, it should be kept in mind that the added value on the service component can be quite significant. Therefore, the analysis of a particular business needs a follow-up phase where the model is evaluated thoroughly.\nConclusion: The aim of this study was to introduce an approach for evaluating the market potential and economic prerequisites for a local food supply chain operator. A major problem in getting a grip of the business is that local food is not a precisely defined concept. For this reason, there is no statistical data available on local food consumption or production. However, the increasing demand calls for better understanding of the business, and especially ways to evaluate the new, local food business ideas.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Estimating the business potential for local food intermediary businesses, like wholesales and retailing, can be extremely difficult. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach at finding out the possibilities of estimating the business potential of a business idea in advance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In the approach, a model is built based on two data sources. Statistical data on the food expenditure of households and average division of the revenues and margins of the local food supply chain are divided to production, intermediate level (wholesales/distribution) and retailing stages. To estimate the regional local food business potential as a whole, the market share estimations have been made by local food experts.\nFindings: The approach was tested and utilized in evaluating the feasibility of a local food wholesale business in South-East Finland. It produced a credible overview of the business potential and pinpointed the challenges of the local food wholesales. The study indicated also that expressing the feasibility in terms of the required market share for employee count is an easy-to-understand way to depict the feasibility of a business.\nResearch limitations/implications: The model gives indicative, industry average-based results: the results of the model should be refined with analyses on the particular business model, especially its cost efficiency and other competitive parameters compared to more traditional way of doing business.\nPractical implications: The model helps local food entrepreneurs and firms as well as their financiers to get a realistic picture of the business potential and the economic feasibility of the targeted business.\nOriginality/value: The study introduces a novel approach combining quantitative data and expert evaluation for evaluating the market potential and economic prerequisites of a regional food supply chain operator.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of emotional exhaustion among public healthcare professionals
|
[
"Job attitudes",
"Job demands",
"Job resources",
"Emotional exhaustion",
"Public healthcare"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: Burnout is a psychological syndrome emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal job stressors. The three key dimensions of burnout are: emotional exhaustion; feelings of cynicism, depersonalisation and detachment from the job; and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment (Maslach and Jackson, 1986). The core dimension of burnout is emotional exhaustion, which is identified with feelings of fatigue, irritability, frustration and wearing out, depleting the resources of the employee (Maslach and Jackson, 1981). Burnout and specifically emotional exhaustion has been studied previously in service organisations that work in direct contact with clients or users, such as those belonging to public healthcare. The own nature of healthcare activity justifies that meeting users' needs takes on a different meaning to that of other sectors, having to consider also the necessary interaction between professionals and patients (Schaufeli, 2007). In this sense, healthcare professionals present a greater risk of suffering emotional exhaustion than other employees due to the emotional involvement required taking care of other people (Grau-Alberola et al., 2010).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The nature of public healthcare highlights not only the need of understanding the role of emotional exhaustion in the relationship between employees' job demands and desirable employees' job attitudes, but also to adequate the combination of certain job resources and other organisational variables to moderate the employees' feelings of emotional exhaustion. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This viewpoint designs the theoretical approach that aims to understand the mediating role of emotional exhaustion among healthcare professionals and the capacity of certain variables to moderate it. The nature of the variables considered and the design of the theoretical model proposed highlights structural equation modelling as an optimal methodology to be used among a sample of European healthcare professionals.\nFindings: Managers should be able to design strategies to mitigate, eliminate and prevent the causes of emotional exhaustion in public healthcare with the objective to improve the health and quality of life of healthcare professionals, and consequently the quality of the service provided to patients and their families.\nOriginality/value: This viewpoint highlights the importance of analysing the influence of employees' emotional exhaustion on their attitudes in public healthcare. Direct relationships between emotional exhaustion and certain antecedents or consequences have been studied previously; however, studies analysing the mediating role of emotional exhaustion are very scarce and show mixed results. There are also few studies analysing the moderating role of certain job resources and other organisational variables in the relationships between employees' job demands, employees' emotional exhaustion and employees' job attitudes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
When service failure leads to sin: Exploring service transgression and customer forgiveness in a multi-faith context
|
[
"Service failure",
"Religion",
"Narrative",
"Transgression",
"Interpretive"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the past decade, there has been extensive research conducted in the area of service failure and its interactions with service recovery strategies, customer satisfaction and customer value (Sajtos et al., 2010; DeWitt et al., 2008; Lee and Park, 2010). Alongside the development of these key areas in service research, there has been a growing attention given to the impact of brand ethical transgressions upon customer reactions, which is seen as having more adverse implications than a product failure (Trump, 2014). Beyond service failure and ethical marketing research, this study seeks to examine the notion of \"service transgression\" which violates customers' religious beliefs through observing certain dietary guidelines that shape their religious identity. This is by far a neglected area of research although there are already established work that examines consumer choices with respect to their religious or spiritual dispositions (e.g. Choudhury, 2014; Kopalle et al., 2010). Among the well-known consumption prescriptions are dietary guidelines such as the Catholics who abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent, the practice of vegetarianism for Hindus and Buddhists, while Muslims and Jews generally abstain from pork (Cosgel and Minkler, 2004; Wilson and Liu, 2011). While the main purposes of these dietary guidelines are for spiritual advancement, these practices are also associated with physical health promotion, particularly in the contemporary societies (Tan et al., 2014).\nLiterature review and theoretical perspectives: Food and faith: their significance in daily living\nContext, method and procedure: This study posits its enquiry in the food consumption domain, specifically in Malaysia which is a multi-ethnic Asian country of more than 27 million people where its population includes. The Malay ethnic group, who are predominantly Muslims forms the majority of population at approximately 67 per cent, followed by Chinese and Indian ethnic groups who are largely Buddhists (20 per cent), Christians (9 per cent) and Hindus (6 per cent) (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2015). In this study, we explored service transgression in relation to religious dietary consumption through detailed narrative accounts of 15 participants consisting of five Muslims, five Buddhists and five Hindus; who were working adults residing in Malaysia. The participants were identified via purposive sampling where only participants who practised food restrictions based on their religious/spiritual faith were recruited for the study. Participation in the study was on a voluntary basis and all the participants were given pseudonyms to preserve identity anonymity. Table I presents the participant profiles which details demographic and faith-identity information.\nThematic analysis and findings: Specific narrations of critical incidents concerned a wide spectrum of service encounters ranging from experiences where participants almost consumed the forbidden food item or having accidentally consumed it in various service settings. Service encounters which were described as figural in the occurrence of service transgression of this nature include pizza order delivery, burger stalls, food courts, flight services and restaurants. Table II presents selected examples of critical incidents and customer responses in the context of service transgression that violate their religious beliefs. The responses from participants are contingent to the individual's interpretation of religious expectations. Observations from the interview protocols reveal common themes in the consideration of whether one has indeed transgressed against the religious norms, the assignment of blame and responsibility, and reparation of relationships.\nDiscussion of thematic findings: While the extant literature posits that religious individuals tend to place a more positive value on forgiveness in the event of experienced offences (e.g. McCullough et al., 2001; Tsarenko and Tojib, 2012), empirical research has not examined the forgiveness of offences that are perceived by the victims to be a desecration, which is a violation to one's soul (Worthington, 2015). As noted by Worthington (2015), transgressions of this nature are more difficult to forgive due to a higher intrapsychic and interpersonal cost involved. The results of the study lend support to these observations as the service transgression experiences led to a perception that the individuals' religious beliefs and sense of security had been compromised. This perception is accompanied by intense emotional reactions associated with the feeling of disgust, disappointment and guilt. This is particularly salient among individuals whose are strongly attached to their religious beliefs that form a moral code of conduct which is integral in daily living. Depending on their assumption of personal responsibility in these circumstances, some individuals may feel guilty for having sinned against the sacred, or for having committed murder of living beings (the animals). As a response to such situations, these individuals need to perform an absolution act to seek forgiveness from the sacred for the sinful act and to some extent, there is a need to pardon themselves. On the other hand, some individuals felt that since the intentionality to sin did not exist in the first place, their relationship with the sacred or their sense of spirituality would not be compromised. Nevertheless, these encounters call for greater caution and prevention in the future.\nTowards a typology of conflict framing categories: Based on the salient themes that emerged from the narrative accounts, further analysis was conducted by separating the reactions to these transgressions into meaningful categories based on individuals' conflict framings. The development of this typology helps to identify the types of conflict frames and the anticipated responses from the customers (Beverland et al., 2010). Central to the understanding of how consumers respond to service transgressions which violate their religious belief systems is how they frame the negative service incident from the perspective of their personal contexts. Drawing from the conflict management literature, intrapersonal perceptions are seen as the foundation upon which internal and interpersonal conflicts are built (Wilmot and Hocker, 2001) and individuals' perceptions tend to shape and define the valence of interaction and attributions about others' motives and intentions (Rogan, 2006). Hence, conflict framing in the context of this study, represents interpretive schemas by which individuals make sense of their religious identities and subsequently influences how they view and respond to the conflict situation.\nContributions and managerial implications: Methodological contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the notion of \"service transgression\" which violates customers' religious beliefs through observing certain dietary guidelines that shape their religious identity. While service transgression and customer forgiveness are predominantly examined using experimental procedures or questionnaire survey in existing studies, this study adopts an interpretive paradigm to explore the complexities and idiosyncratic narratives of individual perceptions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Detailed narrative accounts of 15 participants consisting of five Muslims, five Buddhists and five Hindus; who are working adults residing in Malaysia were gathered via in-depth interviews. Critical incident technique was employed with interpretive approach being undertaken to uncover key themes that form the essence of experiences in service transgressions.\nFindings: The responses from participants were mainly contingent to the individuals' interpretations of their religious expectations in the assessment of the incidents. Observations from the interview protocols reveal common themes in the consideration of whether one has indeed transgressed against the religious norms, the assignment of blame and responsibility and reparation of relationships. From the findings of this study, the authors developed a typology of conflict framing categories: \"damaged identity\", \"identity at risk\" and \"identity preservation\" by considering both dyadic and triadic service relationships in service failure incidents which involve a violation of customers' religious belief systems.\nPractical implications: The outcome of this study seeks to inform service providers on the impact of service transgression of this nature upon consumers particularly in a multi-faith society. Additionally, this study provides insights into the implementation of service recovery strategies if and when such situation arises.\nOriginality/value: By undertaking a narrative enquiry, this study uncovers personal sense making in this phenomenon within the contextual frame of societal and historical norms. The outcome of this study provides insights to service providers on the impact of service transgression upon consumers particularly in a multi-faith context such as Malaysia. Additionally, this study discusses managerial implications associated with the implementation of service recovery strategies if and when such situation arises.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Encouraging client's knowledge sharing in enterprise system post-implementation through psychological contract and entrepreneurial orientation
|
[
"Knowledge transfer",
"Survey",
"Contract",
"Methodology",
"Practice",
"Management practices",
"Post-implementation",
"Information system development",
"Phenomenon"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Post-implementation has been identified as an important phase in enterprise system (ES) projects, during which the ES can be continuously improved to more effectively cater to the needs of client firms (Gallagher et al., 2012; Gattiker and Goodhue, 2005; Zhu et al., 2010; Nicolaou and Bhattacharya, 2006) . For ES vendors, the major problem in this stage is a lack of specific domain knowledge regarding client firms' businesses, which leads to discrepancies between ES improvement and client firms' expectations (Pollock and Hyysalo, 2014). Indeed, acquiring knowledge from client firms is a predominant approach for vendors to compensate their gaps in knowledge and effectively improve ES (Smith and Shah, 2013). However, client firms are often hesitant to share their knowledge with vendors due to excessive cost and potential risks (Qi and Chau, 2013). On one hand, it takes a lot of time and effort to externalize tacit knowledge by interpreting it for vendors who themselves have limited knowledge of the subject (Nonaka, 1994; Gwillim et al., 2005). On the other hand, client firms worry about the risk of leaking sensitive information (e.g. operational data, business strategies, intellectual property) to their competitors. Moreover, the knowledge contributed by client firms might become \"public goods\" based on which new ES functionalities are developed and sold to others, including competitors (Pollock and Hyysalo, 2014). Given that such concerns act as hindrances to sharing knowledge, it is imperative to understand the mechanisms available for improving client firms' knowledge sharing in the post-implementation stage of ES projects. And yet, despite this necessity, scholars have yet to fully investigate how to encourage client firms to share their knowledge with vendors in ES post-implementation (Gwillim et al., 2005). The current study thus seeks to fill this gap by exploring factors that influence client firms' knowledge sharing.\n2. Theoretical background and literature review: 2.1 Backward- and forward-looking in decision making\n3. Hypotheses development: As displayed in Figure 1, this study aims to investigate the role of psychological contract fulfillment and obligation in improving knowledge sharing in the post-implementation stage of ES projects. The moderating role of EO is also incorporated to provide suggestions to ES vendors on executing different policies to encourage different client firms with various level of EO.\n4. Research method: 4.1 Data and samples\n5. Data analysis: We first checked the possible common method bias caused by perceptual data, which were collected from a single source at a single point in time. To begin, we adopted Harman's one-factor test. With eigenvalues greater than 1.0, all items were categorized into 10 components, which accounted for 68.366 percent of the variance. The first component did not account for the majority of the variance (16.309 percent). Second, we assessed the occurrence of common method bias by testing the model with a method factor and the traits (Liu et al., 2016; Flynn et al., 2010) and then calculating explained common variance (ECV). Results showed that the ECV of the method factor was only 4.177 percent. Third, we conducted a partial correlation analysis based on the marker variable analysis by parceling out a marker variable as a surrogate for method variance. We used both the smallest and second-smallest positive values in the correlation matrix as the conservative post hoc estimate of the correlation between marker variable and other variables (Malhotra et al., 2006; Zhou et al., 2012). The result proved that differences in the correlation coefficients between the original and adjusted values were less than 0.028, and the significance of all correlations remained the same as the original. Based on the aforementioned three tests, common method bias was not a serious concern in this study.\n6. Discussion, implications and limitations: 6.1 Discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between psychological contract and knowledge sharing behavior in the enterprise system (ES) post-implementation stage. The fulfillment and obligation of psychological contract are proposed as antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior performed by client firms. Additionally, entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is considered a moderator in the relationship between psychological contract and knowledge sharing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study adopted the questionnaire survey to collect data from 132 client firms of a focal ES provider in the garment industry of China. Hierarchical regression analysis was used for data analysis.\nFindings: Psychological contract fulfillment is negatively related to knowledge sharing, whereas the positive role of psychological contract obligation is supported. EOstrengthens the role of both psychological contract fulfillment and obligation in shaping knowledge sharing behavior of client firms.\nOriginality/value: This study adopts forward- and backward-looking approaches in decision making as a theoretical lens to investigate how to improve client firms' knowledge sharing behavior through psychological contract. By figuring out the roles of psychological contract and EO in influencing knowledge sharing, this research benefits both vendor and client firms in maintaining sustainable collaboration and continuous improvement of ES projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The chemical composition of some garden Dahlia tubers
|
[
"Common garden Dahlia",
"Dahlia cultivars",
"Dahlia tubers",
"Proximate composition",
"Minerals",
"Vitamins"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Dahlia was named after Anders Dahl (1751-1789), a Swedish Botanist and pupil of Linnaeus Carolus (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009). It is described as any of the tuberous-rooted herbaceous plants that make up the genus Dahlia, in the Compositae family, native to the higher elevations of Mexico and Guatemala. Dahlia was first introduced into Great Britain from Spain, and countless varieties of Dahlia were subsequently developed in Britain and elsewhere. Most of the horticultural varieties have been developed from the common garden Dahlia (D. pinnata) and D. coccinea, but other species and hybrids such as the cactus Dahlia (D. juarezii) are also grown. Desfontaines (1829) suggested that all Dahlia cultivars be combined under the species name D. variabilis, which binomial, although it is in violation of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN), is still used in some areas when referring to the garden hybrids. With regard to the agricultural potential of Dahlia, it should be noted that Dahlia tubers are still a popular food in some parts of Mexico (Whitley, 1985).Minerals are of critical importance in the diet, even though they comprise only 4-6 per cent of the human body (Ozcan, 2004). Human and animal studies showed that optimal intakes of elements such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, manganese, copper, zinc and iodine could reduce individual risk factors, including those related to cardiovascular disease (Anke et al., 1984; Mertz, 1982; Sanchez-Castillo et al., 1998). Major minerals, which include calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfur, potassium, chloride and sodium, are required in amounts greater than 100 mg per day and represent 1 per cent or less of bodyweight. Trace minerals, which comprise zinc, iron, silicon, manganese, copper, fluoride, iodine and chromium, are essential in much smaller amounts (less than 100 mg per day) and make up less than 0.01 per cent of bodyweight.The main source of vitamins for human beings is from food (Heudi et al., 2005), and lack of vitamins can cause serious diseases in humans even though only small concentrations are required to maintain good health (Combs, 1992).Since scientific information on Dahlia is quite inexistent, the present study attempted to investigate the chemical composition of Dahlia tubers in order to promote their utilization as an alternative food resource. Likewise, Booth et al. (1992) reported on the nutrient composition of 13 species (including Dahlia imperialis or bell tree Dahlia) among the indigenous leafy vegetables currently consumed by the Kekchi-speaking people of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.\n2. Materials and methods: 2.1 Materials\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 Proximate composition\n4. Conclusion: The objective of this research was to investigate the chemical composition of Dahlia tubers. Results showed that, despite the considerable variability observed among cultivars, Dahlia tubers abound in carbohydrates, fibre and protein. In addition, relatively high contents of essential minerals and vitamins have been recorded. These findings suggest that Dahlia tubers could be used as an alternative food resource for human nutrition. However, a further investigation is needed to identify other possible utilizations of this ornamental plant.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Dahlia is an ornamental plant originating from Mexico where it is considered as the National flower. The purpose of this paper is to investigate tubers from yellow, white and red-flowered cultivars of the common garden Dahlia (D. pinnata) for their chemical composition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The composition of minerals was determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS), whereas vitamins were analyzed by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).\nFindings: - Carbohydrates represented the major constituent in Dahlia tubers, followed by fibre and protein. Tubers of the yellow-flowered cultivar \"HGH\" contained the highest amount of carbohydrates, while tubers of the white-flowered cultivar \"BJ\" and those of the red-flowered cultivar \"XM\" abounded in fibre and protein, respectively. In addition, Dahlia tubers exhibited varying concentrations of minerals, among which potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and chromium were predominant. Tubers of the white-flowered cultivar \"LB\" contained the highest amounts of magnesium and phosphorus. Moreover, tubers of the red-flowered cultivar \"MLH\" showed the highest contents of potassium and chromium, whereas those of the red-flowered cultivar \"XM\" were rich in calcium and zinc. Furthermore, Dahlia tubers were found to contain water and fat soluble vitamins, among which vitamins B2, B6, B7 and E were the most abundant. Tubers of the white-flowered cultivar \"BJ\" exhibited the highest contents of water soluble vitamins, whereas those of the white-flowered cultivar \"LB\" abounded in fat soluble vitamins.\nOriginality/value: - Despite the considerable variability observed among cultivars, Dahlia might be utilized as an alternative food resource for human nutrition.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Governance and quality disclosure: the palm oil issue
|
[
"Regulation",
"Labelling",
"Panel analysis",
"Palm oil",
"Quality disclosure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A global food system and the related events lead to a demand rich in terms of vertical information flow. Since quality, with its different perceptions, is a difficult issue to observe and to measure, companies voluntarily disclose decisions, especially through the certification of their procedures.\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Dynamics of quality information disclosure\n3. Empirical analysis: 3.1 The case of palm oil\n4. Conclusions: Considering the previous studies on quality information disclosures, this paper contributes to highlighting their dynamics, taking into account a new economic phenomenon. The research focussed on the issue of palm oil issue in the sector considered, evaluating whether participating in a voluntary certification programme and/or replacing the ingredient have an impact on consumer reactions and company performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This research considers a current problem statement: mandatory indication of palm oil among the list of ingredients (Regulation No. 1169/2011). The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of company choices about palm oil on consumer demand and company performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data collection covers two years, 2013 and 2014. Financial data from the AIDA database are matched with information on palm oil certification and replacement. A panel data analysis is conducted to evaluate the impacts of certification and replacement on consumer demand and company performance.\nFindings: Considering consumer demand, positive significances have been found in terms of both palm oil certification and replacement. With regard to performance, there are positive significances only for palm oil replacement.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research is a first step in the study of palm oil phenomenon. Furthermore, the study takes into consideration only one specific industry that uses palm oil as an ingredient.\nPractical implications: There is a consumer demand expression for these two kinds of disclosures, considered in terms of both environmental (certification) and health (replacement) issues. However, only palm oil replacement leads to improved performance.\nOriginality/value: This study considers the market effects of the labelling programme through a new empirical application related to the palm oil issue. Starting from palm oil concerns, a new way through which an increase in the provision of information to consumers is likely to impact the behaviour of companies is pointed out.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A comparative analysis of the Chinese and South African work ethic
|
[
"Chinese people",
"Education",
"Work ethic",
"Labour force",
"Productivity rate",
"South Africa"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The concept of \"work ethic\" has intrigued researchers for a long time. It could be stated that it attracted attention right at the start of the human relations movement, which was marked by the work of Elton Mayo at the Western Electric Plant in Chicago from 1927 to 1932. The concept is certainly actively present in the theories X and Y construct, as described in McGregor's seminal work of 1960.The concept is not merely the realm of researchers and academics - it remains a definitive interest for managers at all levels, and across enterprises. The assumption is that there is a causal link between work ethic and individual work performance, indeed, this hypothesis has been confirmed by amongst others, Hamilton-Attwell (1998) and Du Gay and Pryke (2002). Even in a highly collectivist society, e.g. Mexico, there appears to be a direct linkage between productivity and work ethic, as described by Firestone et al. (2005).Definitions of work ethic abound. Miller et al. (2001, p. 2) define it as \"[...] a commitment to the value and importance of hard work [...]\". They further state that the concept was originally constructed by Max Weber in 1904, in his classic work entitled: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in which he postulated that the rise of capitalism was partly due to the puritan value of asceticism, as well as a belief in a calling from God.Similarly, Hill (1996, p. 1) defines work ethic as \"[...] the cultural norm placing a positive moral value on doing a good job because work has intrinsic value for its own sake [...]\". In the historical analysis of the work ethic which Hill provides, it is apparent that the concept can be traced back to the classical period, and that it has its roots firmly embedded in Judeo-Christian beliefs. Not surprising therefore, that the modern interpretation of work ethic makes constant reference to the so-called \"protestant work ethic\", a very exclusive term, in that it does not allow for interpretations from other cultures - an issue which is debated by Du Gay and Pryke (2002), who maintain that each culture develops its own personalised conceptualisation of the concept.In an economic sense, all countries stand in a relationship to other countries. This applies to South Africa and China as well. South Africa is the economic powerhouse of Africa, while China has the third biggest economy on earth (Fenby, 2009, p. xxxii). According to Chinability (2010) (www.chinability.com/GDP.htm), the situation shown in Tables I and II applies.For comparative purposes, 1 RMB (China yuan or renminbi) is equal to R1.09 (South African Rand), thus roughly similar.Comparatively speaking, the South Africa economy is about 6 per cent that of China. Statistics from the South African Government (2009) web site (www.southafrica.co.za/about-South-Africa/economy) reveal that South Africa is China's key trade partner in Africa, accounting for 20.8 per cent of Chinese trade in Africa in 2007. Further, the total trade volume increased from R60.7 billion ($7.9b) in 2006 to R88.3 billion ($11.56b) in 2007.A further index which should be considered in this context is the world competitiveness scoreboard for 2009. The World Competitiveness Yearbook has become an authoritative source on the economic competitiveness of nations. In 2009, 57 countries were evaluated in terms of a number of criteria, i.e. productivity and efficiency, labour market (costs, relations, and availability of skills), finance (Rand efficiency, stock market efficiency, and finance management), management practices, and attitudes and values.If South Africa is evaluated against China, the position shown in Table III appears.Whilst South Africa has improved its relative position from 2008 to 2009, and China has deteriorated, a vast gap remains in the competitive quality of the nations, and more so if Hong Kong is brought into the equation.In 2008, the People's Republic of China was the world's second biggest manufacturer, with 15 per cent of output (Fenby, 2009, p. xxxiii). The same author notes that the Chinese market economy has grown tenfold in three decades, and there are three primary factors responsible for this, i.e. cheap labour, cheap capital and high productivity. None of these factors are present in the South African economy.There are definite lessons which South Africa can, and should, learn from the Chinese. If the country is to become a competitive force on the world stage, serious attempts should be made to address weak points in the economy. As described in the World Competitiveness Yearbook, the human element plays a cardinal role, as can be determined from the above-mentioned indices. Productivity is a non-negotiable phenomenon, and as stated earlier, it appears as if there is a causal link between it and the work ethic subscribed to by a workforce.In order to evaluate the construct of the work ethic in the two countries, the following study was undertaken.\nMethodology: Measure\nResults: It was important to focus on the mean scores which the two subject samples obtained on each dimension, and also to consider the level of variability on each dimension. In order to assess these, independent student t-tests were conducted, the results appear in Table IV.Thus, it is apparent that there are significant differences between the two subject groupings on all seven dimensions. It is interesting to note that only on one dimension, i.e. leisure, the South African sample achieved a higher mean score than the Chinese sample. From the above, it can broadly be postulated that the Chinese exhibit a higher work ethic overall than the South African sample.\nDiscussion: According to Miller et al. (2001, pp. 26-7), it appears as if the MWEP scales relate significantly to attitudinal measures, being job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Although it is often debated whether these attitudes are significantly linked to individual and organizational performances, it would certainly be desirable to have a premium level of these attitudes in any organization, as opposed to the converse.Of the seven facets in the MWEP, six are positively slanted, while the other, leisure, can be construed as negatively aligned with a positive work ethic. Interestingly, if the Chinese sample is compared to the South African, this is the only facet where the latter obtains a superior score. The inference is clear: South Africans are essentially more concerned about having free time. In the overall context of the MWEP, this is a strikingly negative observation.Industrial action (strikes) is of the problematic areas in the South African economy. According to the South African Department of Labour (South African Government, 2009), a total of 497,436 working days were lost in 2008, leading to lost wages totalling nearly R48 million. This was somewhat of an anomaly, as it was the lowest figure since the 1990s. Comparatively, in 2006 a total of 4,152,563 working days were lost, and in 2007, 9,031,509 leading to lost wages of R316 million.It is thus apparent that dramatic intervention is required on a number of levels if the work ethic of the South African labour force is to be positively altered. In the late 1970s, China was an extremely poor country, brought to the verge of destruction by the economic policies of Mao Zedong. An estimated 250 million people lived in absolute poverty, and the country was in no position to compete economically with any of its Asian neighbours. After 30 years, it has the third biggest national economy on earth, and in 2007 was able to offer Africa triple the aid the continent receives from the West (Fenby, 2009). As a direct result of Deng Xiaoping's economic reform policies which started in 1978, more people have become materially more efficient, in the shortest time period, than ever before in human history. The same can hold true for South Africa (retaining the three caveats which Fenby (2009) identified: cheap labour, cheap capital and high productivity, two of which are linked to the concept of the work ethic).In informal discussions with Chinese workers held in 2010, four primary schools of thought emerged:1. A firm belief that hard work will bring desired results.2. Pride in personal accomplishments and hard work.3. Fear of embarrassment or shame in case of failure.4. Immense patriotic pride in China and its achievements.It is the present author's conviction that none of these apply to the South African labour force, and that most certainly could be partly responsible for the economic disparities between the two countries.It is proposed that in order to address this situation, four remedial activities are paramount:1. The promulgation of an individualistic work ethic through education. A large sector of the South African labour force essentially espouses a collectivist work ethic. This is an indirect outcome of the concept of Ubuntu, which dictates that one should take care of one's family and friends. Per se, a worthwhile and noble dictum, but in stark contrast with the values held by China, and indeed, the whole of the capitalist world. In addition, as a direct result of the apartheid system, a type of passive-resistant approach to work developed over decades, and is still very much in evidence in the second decade of the twenty-first century.A large-scale educational drive is necessary in order to turn this mindset around. This can be driven at all levels - family, community, schools as well as organizational and governmental level. Change will not be resultant overnight, but the next generation will certainly be more conversant with the principles of individualism.2. Incentives for performance. It is not justifiable to promote individualism as an ethos if there is no discernible result. It is imperative to link performance to outcome, which needs to be observable, measurable, tangible, immediate, and direct. If these requirements are not satisfied, the individualist work ethic will remain a hypothetical non-reality.3. Labour legislation. The South African labour legislation has been described as the most labour friendly legislation in the world. If more direct control over the economy is an ideal, the state should demonstrate willingness, as well as competence, to exercise such control. If this does not happen, the state should be cognisant of the fact that it will perennially remain a hostage to the whims and fancies of the labour force. Direct and centralized control in this sense is non-negotiable.4. De-politization of the relationship between government and labour. For an appreciable number of years, there has been a very close relationship between the African National Congress and Congress of South African Trade Unions. Indeed, this relationship was partly responsible for the demise of apartheid in 1994. However, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, this relationship has become tenuous and somewhat fractious at times. If a government is continually influenced by its labour ally in order to retain power, it certainly does not govern according to the true principles of democracy, which is designed to guarantee benefits to all citizens.It is obvious that if South Africa is to re-formulate its economic stance on the world stages, dramatic action steps have become a strident clamour for attention. It is not practical or feasible to retain a continuation policy of the present status quo, as this will certainly not render dramatic change. A bold and courageous stance has become necessary and urgent, which can, as per the Chinese example, put South Africa on the road to economic and social power.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - South Africa is a developing country, and within this context, it is essential to be economically competitive and proactive. Various sources reveal that the national productivity has been traditionally low, and continues to remain low. Within the context of the international arena, this is unacceptable. If South Africa is to become a recognised role player in the international arena, it is imperative to increase productivity like China. This paper aims to focus on the issues involved.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A 65-item inventory which measures seven conceptually and empirically distinct facets of the work ethic construct, i.e. the multi-dimensional work ethic profile (MWEP) was utilised to critically distinguish between the Chinese and South African workforces. The samples approximated 150 subjects in each grouping. Findings which emanate from this study have distinct ramifications for the South African economy.\nFindings: - It appears as if a linkage exists between productivity and work ethic, as illustrated by amongst others, Hamilton-Attwell and Du Gay and Pryke. Paradoxically, a number of other variables exist which impact on the productivity phenomenon, thus rendering a strict causal relationship between work ethic and productivity tenuous in nature. Despite this, it is a recognised reality that there is a substantive \"negativity\" in the work ethic of the South African labour force, possibly in relation to historical and cultural factors. The Chinese work ethic is diametrically opposed to that of South Africa.\nResearch limitations/implications: - In discussions with Chinese workers held in 2010, four primary schools of thought emerged: a firm belief that hard work will bring desired results; pride in personal accomplishments and hard work; fear of embarrassment or shame in case of failure; and immense patriotic pride in China and its achievements. It is the present authors' conviction that none of these apply to the South African labour force, and that most certainly could be partly responsible for the economic disparities between the two countries. Hence, additional research should be conducted to improve the current state of affairs.\nSocial implications: - Of the seven facets in the MWEP, six are positively slanted, while the other, leisure, can be construed as negatively aligned with a positive work ethic. Interestingly, if the Chinese sample is compared to the South African, this is the only facet where the latter obtains a superior score. The inference is clear: South Africans are essentially more concerned about having free time. In the overall context of the MWEP, this is a strikingly negative observation.\nOriginality/value: - One of the major challenges confronting South Africa, since the triumph of democracy in 1994, is low productivity of labour. Therefore, comparing South African work ethics with that of China will enable South Africa recognize the gaps in terms of behavior towards work and stimulate the countries international competitiveness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
E-learning spaces and the digital university
|
[
"Teaching",
"Universities",
"Higher education",
"Organizational change",
"Active learning",
"Learning spaces"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Higher education in the developed world is arguably undergoing one of the most profoundly turbulent set of challenges in living memory. Global economic, technological and pedagogical currents are interweaving to produce paradigmatic changes that challenge many of the traditional practices and environments of higher education institutions (HEIs). A discourse concerning the extent to which HEIs are being disrupted by the impact of these developments has now become well established (Christensen et al., 2001; Barber et al., 2013).\nPrinciples underpinning developing learning spaces: Over the last 40 years, there has been a gradual shift in the pedagogic models that underpin the delivery of teaching and learning practices in developed world HEIs. The traditional lecture theatre design, relatively unchanged for centuries, has been shaped by a broadly transmissive approach. This was reflective of a period when access to knowledge was restricted, expensive and often shaped by the scarcity of resources (Beichner, 2014; Bates, 2015). However, in recent decades, there has been a significant shift in our understanding of what constitutes effective pedagogies. There is now a broad acceptance (Fry et al., 2014) that constructivist and social constructivist approaches can be more effective in terms of enabling student learning. Coterminous with this development, the emergence of the internet and then the web have transformed the availability and accessibility of information and therefore traditional practices on which university curricula are based.\nNew learning spaces at City: City currently has 102 multipurpose, non-specialised teaching rooms across the institution that can be utilised by different schools for timetabled classes. These rooms are where a significant amount of teaching and learning takes place across the institution and run alongside other spaces specifically set aside for individual schools or for specialised teaching requirements and other spaces for students and academic staff such as dedicated computer and meeting rooms. At the time of writing (Autumn 2015), a total of 51 of these multipurpose rooms, described as flexible learning spaces, have been launched over the last five years. These are defined by City as \"rooms [...] which have flexible furniture to support group-based learning and discussions\" (Flexible Learning Spaces, n.d.). At 50 per cent of all multipurpose learning spaces, this amounts to a significant institutional and financial investment for fostering a broad range of models of teaching and learning. This estate redevelopment is part of City's Vision for 2016, which strives to establish City amongst the top 2 per cent of global universities (Building The Vision, n.d.).\nCity's learning spaces team: In 2014, a new learning spaces-themed team of dedicated educational technologists was created within LEaD. This team was tasked with running a focused programme of staff development, including raising awareness amongst faculty of the potential of these new spaces, encouraging or supporting them in the adoption of more interactive and collaborative practices in their teaching, working on the integration of digital technologies in the face-to-face classroom, and contributing to the design and development of new and additional formal learning spaces. These multi-faceted approaches for reaching and engaging the academic staff within the institution can be largely grouped into the following areas - staff development, communications, and research and evaluation.\nDeveloping staff and student digital literacies: The NMC Horizon Reports (HE editions) have often described a lack of digital media literacies amongst staff and students as a significant or even critical challenge that is impeding the adoption of such technologies in higher education. The 2010 edition (Johnson et al., 2010) proposed that \"digital literacy must necessarily be less about tools and more about ways of thinking and seeing\" (p. 5). In the most recent edition (Johnson et al., 2015), the indication was that HEIs have now recognised that faculty need to be better equipped in order for digital literacies to be instilled in their students, but that there remains an absence of consensus as to what digital literacy comprises. The two examples that follow relate to the digital technologies used at City in face-to-face teaching for enhancing the learning experience, rather than the use of distance or asynchronous tools such as blogs or online forums.\nConclusion: City has now amassed significant experience in researching, developing, implementing and supporting flexible and innovative HE learning spaces at an institution-wide scale. This has included experimenting iteratively with designing new forms of learning space, conducting extensive and broad ranging research and evaluation, actively involving multiple stakeholders in the process and incorporating a varied programme of staff development. Drawing on innovative work from HEIs in the USA, UK and Australia has informed City's discussions as to what constitutes effective contemporary learning spaces, as have visits to sector leaders in this area and inviting pioneering thinkers to contribute to the evolving vision. These have collectively provided evidence for many of the learning space innovations developed at City in tandem with research conducted within the institution. The existence of a multi-stakeholder specialist group as a forum has fed into senior decision makers deliberations, and has therefore been instrumental in driving the changes from both operational and strategic levels. Making the best use of the available space under budget restraints, balancing pedagogic needs with the pressures of massification, and sourcing and supporting appropriate in-class technologies have all shaped how City has responded to the need for upgrading our learning spaces. Staff development initiatives, including workshops for promoting and sharing good practice, the provision of resources for teaching activities within these spaces and help with the use of in-class technologies, have built on the successful implementation of institution-wide flexible learning spaces. However, there is still much work to do to achieve a transformation of learning, teaching and learning space redesign here at City. We recognise that as Fullan (2003) instructs, change is a journey, rather than a blueprint and that the process of successful management of change requires input from multiple stakeholders. Ongoing challenges remain, around engaging academic staff in new pedagogical approaches, raising the standard of digital literacies, and continuing to explain, promote and justify to the wider stakeholder community why the development of digitally enhanced learning spaces must remain a priority.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to share lessons already learned and work currently in progress from one higher education institution's experiences of developing several flexible and technology-enhanced active learning spaces. It further proposes that the potential of such spaces can be more fully realised through the enactment of programmes of digital literacy development amongst their users.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In identifying a convergence of profound challenges facing higher education and proposing that innovations in physical learning spaces are one approach to addressing such challenges, the paper examines a number of institutional policies and initiatives for rethinking and redesigning several physical classroom environments. It sets internal findings and position statements amidst a broader context of relevant field literature.\nFindings: The paper provides insights from several years of experience in higher education learning space development, including the benefits of iterative experimentation, the consultative role of a multi-stakeholder specialist group, the challenges of balancing pedagogic need with often conflicting institutional requirements and the value of varied programmes of staff development.\nOriginality/value: This paper's insights will be of value to individuals and institutions engaged in reconsidering their provision of physical classroom spaces in higher education and to those promoting the effective use of learning spaces in the digital university.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
New ethos transforms attitudes and approaches at RS Components: Key role of coaching in customer services
|
[
"Customer service management",
"Organizational change",
"Empowerment",
"Training"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Customer services has challenged itself to become the place to work at a UK components company, after a major program of employee training and empowerment changed the ethos of the department.\nCall-demand survey: RS Components carried out a complete call-demand survey to understand better why people got in touch with the company.\"This was a great learning exercise for us,\" said Scott Jayes. \"Historically we had categorized calls based on our own terminology; we now understand and categorize calls based on what customers want and/or need.\"For example, a typical customer might ask: \"I am looking on your web site and have not been able to find a product, can you help me please?\"Historically this call would have been transferred to the technical department, where staff would have given the necessary advice from the company's catalog to support that specific inquiry.\"What we hear today when we take this call is that the customer requires help searching on our web site and the colleague at this point will look to help the customer find the product online, in real time,\" Scott Jayes explained.\"This has two major benefits. First, when the customer has had experience of searching for products he or she will have greater understanding and knowledge of how to do this in the future. Secondly, we potentially identify why the customer was unable to find the product he or she wanted in the first time, and can improve our website accordingly for all customers.\"Over the last year of continuous improvement, RS Components has begun a number of \"had to\" projects to drive out failure. This has removed more than 100,000 calls, delivered over 300 improvement ideas and prompted 70 Special Thanks and Recognition (Star) awards from within the customer-service department.\nMore than 500 improvement opportunities: In April 2008 alone, employees identified more than 500 improvement opportunities through generating ideas and acting as, and on behalf of, customers.\"Our customers and colleagues alike told us that our call experience, although very good, was rarely great. We had 'trained' our agents and, indeed, our customers, to be very transactional, limiting our relationship development (off- and online) with them,\" said Scott Jayes. \"A number of colleagues therefore took up the challenge of developing further our call-review process to focus more on the overall customer experience and customer needs rather than following a script or process. This has now been fully adopted and very well received by colleagues and customers alike, resulting in more and more 'great' calls.\"He continued: \"Working with our marketing department and customers, we have reviewed and amended our customer-satisfaction program to focus on the experience across all customer touch-points in the organization, to grow customer advocacy and partnerships. Working closely with our e-commerce teams, we are now playing a key part in introducing, developing and enhancing all service offers online, including supporting customers with all self-serve options.\"In a bid to improve its \"in one capability,\" the company has realigned its teams and encourages employees to coach and support each other.RS Components is also investing in more effective communications. \"We have a commitment to engagement, interaction and challenge through our communication cells in every department, customer-service forums, working groups and action teams, in addition to quarterly forums to review our progress against our strategy and objectives,\" said Scott Jayes.\nCoaching is the key: \"Our colleagues have told us that, although training is important (and therefore we will continue to invest in this area) coaching is the key,\" he continued. \"We have developed an internal coaching council, introduced training partnerships and revised our recruitment and induction program to take account of the key role of coaching in the business.\"The company has shifted its emphasis from, for example, call scripting or measuring the average length of customer-service calls, to ensuring that employees deliver the best possible customer experience.\"We are seeking to understand the 'voice of the process' rather than push individuals for an extra 5 percent,\" said Scott Jayes.In line with these changes, managers' roles have moved from a traditional command-and-control approach to supporting team members through coaching, empowerment and challenge.\"We hold one clear vision - that we work for our customers and colleagues. Continuous improvement has been the catalyst for this,\" Scott Jayes commented.\"Working for our customers has infected the entire company. Through belief, perseverance and passion in our strategy, we have obtained complete support from our senior-management team.\"\nHow employees are trained: New recruits to the customer-service team receive a full induction and training program, which includes introductions the team manager and team members and ice-breaking sessions on day one.Subsequent training lasts around eight weeks. Tailored to individual learning styles, it includes coaching and mentoring, hands-on training and classroom sessions. The training deals with:* rapport, relationship building and customer-service excellence;* understanding the difference between customers who \"want to\" and \"have to\" get in touch with the company;* the culture of continuous improvement;* sales and e-commerce confidence-building; and* end-to-end customer-service processes.Trainees also have a \"nursery\" period, to practice in a controlled environment with one-to-one coaching support.A training and development program is in place for each employee throughout his or her career with the company.The firm measures not only the volume of training, coaching, one-to-one and appraisal sessions held each month, but also the effectiveness of these. \"We truly believe that the only way to deliver our vision and strategy is through our people and therefore continue to invest heavily in developing and retaining our customer-service professionals,\" said Scott Jayes.\"To ensure the first-call-resolution, next-call-avoidance concept is realized fully, an in-depth training program has been developed to give each new customer-service team member an understanding of customer demand from a value and failure perspective - understanding business end-to-end processes and customer expectations.\"Additional skill and process training has been supplied to equip colleagues with the tools and confidence to build customer and team relationships. All sessions have been supported and endorsed by HR, the training team and management at all levels.\"Emotional support is also provided in the form of workshops, open forums and daily staff-driven one-to-ones. An open culture is encouraged to share experience.\"Self-observation, awareness and monitoring are undertaken daily by a combination of colleagues, management and the whole team. An 'experience' scoring system is used, with feedback given immediately after a telephone call with regard to service excellence and development opportunities.\"Since we implemented the changes, sales revenue generated by the customer-services team has doubled,\" said Scott Jayes.\"Moreover, working in customer services has become a career of choice. We are seeing a continual flow of applicants to join the customer-services team - many coming from recommendations from existing team members.\"\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest Editor, wrote this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Describes major strategic changes - supported by training and empowerment - in the customer-services department of RS Components.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Explains what gave rise to the changes and the effects they have had.\nFindings: - Provides practical examples of how customer-service employees, less tied to following call scripts or completing a certain number of calls in a certain period of time, now have greater freedom to put the customer first.\nPractical implications: - Reveals how these changes have increased employee satisfaction and made customer services a more attractive place to work.\nSocial implications: - Highlights the value of giving employees more control over how they perform their work.\nOriginality/value: - Reinforces the idea that businesses perform better when staffed by employees who are treated well.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Determinants of extended warranty prices for consumer durables
|
[
"Values",
"Retailing",
"Quality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A large volume of research in marketing has examined the effects that warranty coverage can have on consumers' product perceptions and purchase intentions for durable goods. It has long been established that the presence of warranty coverage reduces purchase risk both in perceived (Shimp and Bearden, 1982; White and Truly, 1980) and actual forms (Kelley, 1988; Weiner, 1985). Furthermore, the numerous benefits that manufacturers can realize by offering product warranties have been identified using both prescriptive modeling and survey-based methods (Jiang and Zhang, 2011; Padmanabhan and Rao, 1993). However, many products fail after the manufacturer's warranty period has ended, and such failures can result in negatively charged emotional reactions among consumers (Jain et al., 2007; Lassar et al., 1998). To alleviate consumer hardship in such contexts, consumers are growingly being pitched with offers of extended warranties by retailers, manufacturers and third parties. These are insurance contracts that protect consumers against financial losses resulting from product breakdowns after the manufacturer's standard warranty has expired, and some policies also expand on the coverage offered by the manufacturer during the warranty period.\nProduct warranties: Most durable goods are sold with a manufacturer's warranty. The warranty provides coverage for labor and/or parts expenses associated with product breakdowns during the time period in which the warranty policy is in effect. Research has shown that the offering of warranties reduces buyers' perceptions of risk in both industrial (Chu and Chintagunta, 2011) and consumer markets (Shimp and Bearden, 1982; White and Truly, 1980) for durable goods. Research has also demonstrated that the reduction in buyers' purchase risk perceptions resulting from the presence of product warranties can in some cases be well justified, as products with more extensive warranty coverage typically tend to be more reliable and durable (Kelley, 1988; Weiner, 1985).\nPricing extended warranties: Extended warranties are a unique form of insurance, which protect consumers against repair and replacement costs associated with product breakdowns. Though a relatively new form of insurance, extended warranties operate in many ways that traditional insurance products have been serving society for centuries (Trenerry et al., 2009). The very fact that insurance is intended to protect policyholders against risks through the collection of policy premiums implies that one should expect a direct correspondence between the underlying risk and the insurance premiums collected. However, the extent to which the true underlying risks correspond to the collected premiums has been a focus of debate, nearly as long as insurance products have been in existence (Jenkins and Yoneyama, 2000). In a seminal study conducted by Kahneman and Tversky (1979), the correspondence between actual and perceived risks was systematically examined across different forms of risky events. This study, and numerous follow-up studies (Camerer, 2005; Tversky and Kahneman, 1992), have shown predictable inaccuracies in consumers' perceptions of risk. Namely, events which are unlikely to materialize tend to be overestimated grossly, whereas more significant risks are discounted and ignored by many. For example, consumers typically overestimate the likelihood of death due to venomous bites, whereas they significantly underestimate the risk of death due to heart disease (Bazerman and Moore, 2012; Lichtenstein et al., 1978). This is despite the fact that heart disease is a leading cause of death in many parts of the world, and venomous bites, though harmful and painful, rarely result in death.\nMethod: Data\nAnalysis: Across all the products studied, the average product price was $256.12, and the average extended warranty price and average warranty length were $21.87 and 2.33 years, respectively. The average SAP was 0.0503, indicating that, on average, the yearly cost of an extended warranty is about 5 per cent of the purchase price. The distribution of observations across product categories is as follows: digital cameras (1,644), GPS systems (645), hard drives (1,852), monitors (1,539), printers (1,165) and tablets (864).\nDiscussion: The findings in this study indicate that the SAP associated with extended warranties significantly vary across product categories. Products such as tablets and laptop computers which are mobile are subjected to usage risk and tend to have higher standardized annual premiums when compared to stationary products such as monitors and printers. This is an expected result as sellers of extended warranty policies would need to take into account the environmental and product application risks associated with consumers' use of each product, and, hence, extended warranty prices for those products which represent greater probabilities of failure due to accidents and consumer abuse would need to be higher.\nLimitations and future research: Several limitations of this study need to be acknowledged. The present study focused on understanding the insurance premium structure for extended warranties for only six product categories. More research is needed to examine if the findings can be generalized to other product categories. For example, although the products examined in this study were technology products, it would be interesting to find out if the patterns observed in this study apply to extended warranty premiums for simpler durable goods. Similarly, it would be interesting to examine if the findings here replicate for more complex durables such as automobiles and sophisticated multi-system technology solutions for commercial and industrial markets. In addition to extending the array of products, future research can capitalize on alternative sources of pricing data on extended warranties. For example, although the focus of this study was on pricing for the US market, a cross-national examination of extended warranty pricing practices may be called for, as past research has shown cross-national differences on how consumers perceive and react to product warranties (Erevelles et al., 2001).\nConclusion: Consumer dependence on extended warranties to mitigate risks associated with product breakdowns makes this line of research critical not only from an academic perspective but also from a public policy point of view. Understanding how consumers perceive product failure risks, and how such perceptions translate into consumer desire to purchase extended warranty protection, is critical to ensure that consumers are not under-protected or over-paying for certain types of durable purchases. Public policy measures have at times been put in place to ensure that consumers have secured the level of insurance protection that is in their best interest. These measures are intended to counter consumers' under-estimation of actual risks. For example, in flood-prone areas of the USA, home-owners are under some conditions required to purchase insurance coverage under the National Flood Insurance Program. Along the same lines, it is possible that for some categories of risk, consumers over-estimate the probabilities and, as a result, over-pay for insurance protection. Understanding the balance that consumers need to arrive at in countering risks with the appropriate level of risk protection is critical to consumer well-being. Given that prices are the mechanism by which this balance is achieved, it is hoped that this study will inspire future research in advancing our understanding of pricing practices related to extended warranties.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Research in marketing has extensively examined the signaling effects of product warranties on consumer perceptions. Although this stream of research has focused on initial product warranties offered by the manufacturer, studies of extended warranties, which protect consumers against product breakdowns beyond the warranty constraints of the manufacturer, are relatively scarce. This paper aims to empirically establish the effects of variables which influence the pricing of extended warranties for consumer durables.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using data on over 8,000 product offers in six durable goods categories, drivers of the annual premiums for extended warranties are empirically identified. Bivariate and multi-level hierarchical linear regression methods are used to establish the effects of factors which may drive the prices of extended warranties.\nFindings: The results reveal that the standardized annual premiums for extended warranties systematically vary across product categories and brands and are further affected by the retailer's decision to use odd price endings for the sold product and the extended warranty. The influences of warranty length and price level of the protected product on extended warranty premiums are also empirically established.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings indicate systematic variations in extended warranty prices as a result of the factors studied. Future research can extend this line of inquiry by utilizing alternative means of data gathering.\nPractical implications: Given that marketers often cross-sell many consumer durable goods with extended warranty policies, and considering the growth in consumer spending in this category, as well as the high retail margins associated with extended warranties, this paper contributes to the understanding of the mechanism by which extended warranty prices are determined in the marketplace.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to examine the determinants of extended warranty prices, as past studies have been normative and non-empirical in nature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Knowledge management and intellectual capital in networks of small- and medium-sized enterprises
|
[
"Competitiveness",
"Sustainability",
"Knowledge management",
"Intellectual capital",
"Small- to medium-sized enterprises",
"Networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Matters involving knowledge management (KM) and intellectual capital (IC) have gained space in the contemporary literature, being considered a subject of great interest in academic communities and in the business environment (Jordao, 2015; Ngah et al., 2015; Andreeva and Garanina, 2016; Rossi et al., 2016; Verbano and Crema, 2016; Cerchione and Esposito, 2017; Gonzalez et al., 2017; Mendoza, 2017; Novas et al., 2017). At the same time, inter-organisational and collaborative networks between organisations have become an important phenomenon throughout modern society (Poyhonen and Smedlund, 2004; Durst and Ferenhof, 2014; Jordao, 2015; Khalique et al., 2015), gaining prominence in academic, economic, social and business spheres (Balestrin et al., 2014), especially when formed between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Martins and Sole, 2013; Jordao, 2015). Khalique et al. (2015) emphasise the economic and social importance of SMEs as the main generators of employment and because they represent more than 90 per cent of the world's companies.\n2. KM and IC: conceptual and characteristic aspects: Although IC is a contemporary subject of high academic and professional relevance (e.g. Andreeva and Garanina, 2016; Omerzel and Jurdana, 2016; Verbano and Crema, 2016; Mendoza, 2017; Gonzalez et al., 2017), studies involving the subject and its formative elements are not new. In the 1970s, Martins (1972) already revealed that there were studies on the subject dating from 1891. Even so, authors such as Bontis (2000) and Novas et al. (2017) explain that there is not yet an exact dimension of the value of organisational IC.\n3. KM and IC in SMEs networks: According to Verbano and Crema (2016), previous studies show that IC plays a strategic role in SMEs, which are traditionally characterised by a shortage of resources. Muhammad et al. (2011) emphasise that this type of company finds it difficult to compete with large organisations and needs to act in networks to share their IC, especially knowledge, competencies and other resources to improve their organisation, processes and ability to innovate. In addition, Lin and Chen (2016) emphasise that SMEs should focus on IC (and its constituent elements) as a way to overcome their weaknesses, because of their scale, and generate a recognisable strategic value. However, several factors can contribute to the generation of IC and to the creation, systematisation and sharing of knowledge in this type of company, especially when organised in networks. Among the main factors, the literature highlights as more significant: the SMEs network formation process, the organisational context of such companies and their networks, the competitive strategies of SMEs and/or networks, SMEs values and relationships (organisational culture), and the stimuli for sharing of knowledge inside and outside the SMEs network. These five factors, potentiated by an adequate management of knowledge assets forming the IC, can generate a virtuous cycle in which KM processes stimulate the creation and development of more IC within SMEs and their networks, at the same time as the knowledge materialized in IC provides benefits to KM by helping SMEs to produce innovations and enhance performance, creating value and maintaining sustainable competitive advantages in the industries in which they operate.\n4. Research methodology: The research described in this paper is based on a study of a qualitative nature and takes an explanatory approach, using bibliographical and documentary research (Eisenhardt, 1989; Cooper and Schindler, 2006; George and Bennett, 2005). The study is explanatory by seeking to investigate an issue in a little-explored area of research and establish, through inferences, an analysis of the relationships observed between the phenomena researched. According to Cooper and Schindler (2006), qualitative studies are appropriate when seeking greater wealth of details and understanding of social significance, describing the complexity of a problem and/or analysing the interaction between the variables studied. Therefore, this study adopts a qualitative approach, as it intends to understand the logic and dynamics underlying a given phenomenon.\n5. Conception and analysis of the theoretical-conceptual model: The previous sections presented the theoretical grounding on which the central proposition of the model proposed in this paper is based: that the organisation of SMEs in networks causes positive effects on KM practices and on the IC of those companies. It is necessary to clarify that it is not appropriate here to define what is the best strategic approach of each company, or the main aspects of the organisational culture, or socio-behavioural or contextual issues to which each SMEs should be or should not be subject. What is expected is to provide a view of the relationships mentioned below, which provides a more accurate understanding of the reality of SMEs networks and their effects on KM and IC in this type of business.\n6. Discussion of the theoretical-conceptual model supporting KM and IC in SMEs networks: The idea portrayed in the relational conceptual model described in Figure 1 is that the relations of SMEs networks influence the dynamics of creation, systematisation and sharing of knowledge, as well as implying IC in such SMEs and their networks. The phenomenon examined, i.e., knowledge networks is formed by awareness of the need for SMEs to act jointly in inter-organisational networks, and for cooperation between those firms aiming to make them more efficient and competitive. By acting in this way, the interactions between companies' people (human capital) and structure (structural capital) and such SMEs networks create, systematise and share information and knowledge - transforming this in knowledge networks, as proposed by Tomael (2005). Furthermore, those SMEs networks potentiate the relations (relational capital) between people and/or companies, creating additional IC for these companies and their networks.\n7. Final remarks: KM and IC are prominent topics in academic communities and in the business world, with knowledge generally recognised by the international literature as a key factor of company competitiveness and sustainability, and especially in SMEs - which need to compete based on knowledge assets more than on traditional ones.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical-conceptual model supporting the analysis of the effects of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) networks on knowledge management (KM) and intellectual capital (IC).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reviews literature on KM, IC and networks theories. The role of SMEs networks on KM and IC was discussed, analysing previous studies that supported the proposition of the model in question. In such model SMEs networks are seen as knowledge networks which are analysed in terms of the network formation process, the context, the strategy, the organisational culture and the stimuli for the sharing of knowledge. KM is observed in terms of knowledge creation, systematisation and sharing. Finally, IC encompasses human capital, structural capital and relational capital. It is noteworthy that KM and IC were considered deeply and closely related.\nFindings: The conclusions obtained help to fill an important gap in the management, accounting, KM and IC literature, showing that the processes of creating, acquiring, maintaining, systematising and sharing information and knowledge and IC generation in SMEs networks can be influenced by the network formation process, by the organisational context, as well as by the strategy, organisational culture and stimuli to sharing knowledge.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper provides a theoretical contribution by increasing understanding of the effect of SMEs networks on KM and IC practices - an understanding still at the early stages in the literature. Moreover, the originality of the model proposed extends the relevance of this research, as the literature does not contain a sufficiently established and tested approach that simultaneously provides a clear view of the relations between SMEs, networks, KM and IC, highlighting how SMEs can use networks as a strategy to achieve a more effective management of the knowledge assets forming IC. So, the paper offers several avenues for future research.\nPractical implications: Based on previous empirical research, it was perceived that the original model presented in this paper is consistent, collaborating to improve management practice, providing a competitive benchmarking process. This can allow analysts, managers and other decision makers, by using SMEs networks to improve organisational performance, innovation, sustainability, competitiveness and value.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents an innovative theoretical-conceptual model focussed on the role of SMEs networks on KM and IC, indicating a strong link between the former and the latter in such enterprises in terms of performance, innovation, sustainability, competitiveness and value, an issue whose understanding, although quite relevant, is still incipient in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How to improve the stated helpfulness of hotel reviews? A multilevel approach
|
[
"Online reviews",
"Social media",
"Review helpfulness",
"China tourism",
"Key opinion leader",
"Cultural background"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The prevalence of the internet and the ever-growing numbers of online users make online sales a critical part of economic returns for most corporations in the hospitality and tourism industry (Buhalis and Law, 2008). Schuckert, et al. (2015a) suggest that nearly 71 per cent of travelers have booked independent travel-related products online and 31 per cent of all travelers on package tours tend to use online booking during traveling. Accordingly, these industries tend to pay more attention to promoting their products and/or services online, and attract online users or consumers to improve online sales (Ye, et al., 2009; Kim, et al., 2011).\n2. Literature review and hypothesis: 2.1 The determinates of online review helpfulness\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Data description\n5. Discussion and implication: 5.1 Main findings\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The prevalence of online review websites and the ever-growing difficulty of judging review quality result in the increasing need for consumers to reduce cognitive costs. Thus, the purpose of this study is to find out the determinants of review helpfulness based on a comprehensive theoretical framework and empirical model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study applied a comprehensive framework, including both review content quality and reviewer background, to investigate the determinants of review helpfulness. It also presents empirical models to further control factors around product features.\nFindings: Consumers are more likely to give helpful votes to those informative and readable reviews accompanied by extreme ratings. Reviewers who disclose information, have a high reputation and report a poor experience are always identified as helpful. Consumers also tend to signal suggestions from users with a local cultural background as subjective and useless.\nResearch limitations: This study focuses on upscale hotels in China. Information registered on TripAdvisor was used presenting a residential address not nationality. Only few controlling factors available because of the limited information are shown on online review websites.\nPractical implications: Managers of both hotels and online review websites need to focus on reviews and/or reviewers as KOLs who attract consumers' attention and affect their subsequent decisions. A dialogue with those KOLs can be by focusing on responding to reviews with certain characteristics. A reward system for reviews and KOLs may benefit review quality on online review websites and reduce cognition costs.\nOriginality/value: This positivistic research design, with multilevel approach, presenting a comprehensive conceptual framework and empirical model not only considering review- and reviewer-related factors but also controlled factors in product or service level (hotel-related characteristics).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Expeditions through image jungles: The commercial use of image libraries in an online environment
|
[
"Information retrieval",
"Grounded theory",
"Image use",
"Image retrieval",
"Work-based study"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The web has made a huge number of digital images available to users quickly, and comparatively cheaply. There is a range of creative professions which make use of digital imagery, and finding an appropriate, acceptably priced image on a tight, commercially driven timescale is a non-trivial problem. Clearly a major factor in finding a good image is the image retrieval systems that professionals use, and better design of those systems should result from a better understanding of the tasks undertaken by image searchers, their motivations and constraints. Currently creative professionals use a range of image libraries available on the web (described below) to source images from, and a set of authoring tools (Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word, WordPress, etc.) to create documents that use those images. In this work we look at the image retrieval task and the libraries and search engines that support that task.\nRelated work: Although there has been a considerable amount of research into image retrieval systems, image indexing and image searching behaviour, most of this work looks at specialised domains and users. There exist very few work-based studies of image users performing tasks in their own environment using image search engines. We very broadly divide related work in image use into two sections: \"image seeking\" which looks at the human side of the equation; how users understand and interpret images, and \"image retrieval\" which looks at the system side, in particular how tagging and classification schemes can be used to describe images to support image tasks like search and discovery.\nMethodology: We adopted a qualitative approach adapting the contextual inquiry technique (Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1998) which allows the gathering of indepth data from users within their own environment and context, with as little interference from the interviewer as possible. It consists of \"shadowing\" or observing the user in their own environment, with the opportunity for the researcher to ask questions for clarification. No analysis of data takes place at this stage, thus leaving both the participant and the interviewer free to be more engaged, and at ease, with the process. Contextual inquiry allows the interviewer to see the underlying structure or processes that form the participant's work pattern, where the challenge for the interviewee is \"to make the unarticulated knowledge about work explicit\" and to \"uncover the low-level details of work that have become habitual and invisible\" (Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1998). We supplemented this approach with a semi-structured interview to elicit further background information about image search. This work took place as part of a wider investigation into commercial image use which included image consumers, curators and creators. Only the results of the interviews with the image consumers are reported here.\nResults: The roles that images play\nDiscussion: Previous descriptions of image retrieval, and indeed of information retrieval more broadly, have categorised searches according to the orderliness and clarity of the searchers information goal; searches are broadly placed on a continuum from targeted search (where the user knows exactly what they want) to browsing (where the user has no explicit idea of the image they are after). These descriptions are largely based on experimental studies of users employing a single database of images to find search results. Our work fills a gap in the literature by studying image search behaviour in a commercial context, showing first, the effect of commercial constraints on search behaviour, and second, the effect of having access to many and diverse image libraries with rapidly changing content in the absence of a professional intermediary such as a librarian to assist the user. In this section we discuss our findings with an emphasis on the implications for the design of better image search tools.\nSummary and conclusions: Our work looked at the image seeking behaviour of creative professionals, specifically to answer four research questions on seeking behaviour: forming search goals, image use, search strategies and search criteria - answering these questions provides insight into the \"information expeditions\" metaphor we use in this paper. In several areas what we saw was consistent with image seeking behaviour models described in the literature, but commercial constraints affected the seeking behaviour in ways not previously reported. We also contend that the behaviour we describe as an \"information expedition\" - clear, well-defined goals, but unstructured information sources and tacit skill needed to get there - is not explicitly addressed in the literature (Westman, 2009). There is also evidence that information filtering functionality is required for images, which is informed by image use and determines search goals, with appropriate strategies and criteria for filtering adopted by users' in the journalism domain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Searching for appropriate images as part of a work task is a non-trivial problem. Journalists and copywriters need to find images that are not only visually appropriate to accompany the documents they are creating, but are acceptably priced and licensed. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A work-based study methodology and grounded theory are used to collect qualitative data from a variety of creative professionals including journalists.\nFindings: The authors report the findings of a study to investigate image search, retrieval and use by creative professionals who routinely use images as part of their work in an online environment. The authors describe the commercial constraints that have an impact on the image users' behaviour that are not reported in other more academic and lab-based studies of image use (Westman, 2009).\nPractical implications: The authors show that the commercial image retrieval systems are based on document retrieval systems, and that this is not the most appropriate approach in the journalism domain.\nOriginality/value: The authors describe the properties of an \"information expedition\"; the image seeking behaviour exhibited by journalists in an online environment, and contend that it is significantly different to existing image seeking models which represent other user types.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The strategic management of manufacturing networks
|
[
"Manufacturing strategy",
"Manufacturing networks",
"Manufacturing specializations",
"Plant roles"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The fundamental determinants of the competitiveness of a manufacturing network are the configuration of its constituent plants and their means of coordination (Rudberg and West, 2008). Network configuration management comprises decisions on the potential competitive advantage to be gained by choosing the location of a site on the basis of its proximity to market, its access to required technological expertise or its proximity to low-cost resources (Ferdows, 1997). It is generally accepted that plant location is one of the key factors that determines its strategic role in a network. Another is the range of operational capabilities that a site has developed, for example, an expertise to improve the performance of production processes (Ferdows, 1997). Ferdows has proposed that it is the combination of these two plant attributes that reveals the strategic role of a plant within an international manufacturing network. This hypothesis has been extensively tested (Vereecke and Van Dierdonck, 2002; Riis et al., 2007; Maritan et al., 2004) and it is considered a helpful concept for multisite facilities configuration management. However, this model offers insufficient insight into managing the reconfiguration of the strategic roles of plants in a network. Maritan et al. (2004) concluded, from the findings of their study, that it is insufficient to understand only the strategic role of each plant within a network for its strategic management, it is also important to understand the extent that key plant management decisions are centralized as different strategic plant roles may require different degrees of local management autonomy. Consequently, plants fulfilling different strategic roles may fashion different management systems to enable the effective pursuit of these roles. The proficient coordination of a manufacturing network is enabled by the establishment of procedures that link or integrate factories in a network to fit with the achievement of the strategic objectives of a business (Cheng et al., 2011). Manufacturing network coordination can also include decisions on the inter-facility allocation of resources to enable the further development of individual site competencies (Meijboom and Vos, 1997). In addition, to facilitate the smooth coordination of manufacturing networks, companies often develop common policies that influence the design and the development of their manufacturing network structure and infrastructure (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1984; Leong et al., 1990), not only in terms of manufacturing technology and capacity, but also with respect to production planning, control and procurement (Rudberg and West, 2008). Few would deny that throughout the life of a manufacturing network, there will be occasions when changes to its configuration and coordination will be required to match those taking place in the business environment. The literature on the strategic management of the configuration and the coordination of a manufacturing network, in combination, is limited (Shi and Gregory, 1998; Cheng et al., 2011). As a consequence, the scope of this study was designed to include an examination of the management of both of these manufacturing network management constructs.\n2. Literature review: 2.1. The strategic management of network configuration\n3. Research methodology: 3.1. The use of the case study method of research\n4. Case study results: 4.1. Case 1\n5. Conclusions, research limitations and future research: The aim of this research was to develop a conceptual model of the process of strategic manufacturing network management to guide practitioners with the performance of this task. This is a strategic management process that has not been mapped and described in detail in the literature previously, particularly one that incorporates network configuration and coordination management, in combination (Shi and Gregory, 1998). The process map derived from the findings of this study is shown in Figure 8. However, the proposed sequence and types of key decision to be made for this purpose have been derived from the findings of a single case study. Therefore, the generalizability of the findings is limited. Also, the research was carried out in a capital intensive, continuous processing manufacturing company and, therefore, its findings and the proposed process for the strategic management of manufacturing network operations should be tested in other types of manufacturing context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold; first, to investigate whether the manufacturing specializations of network plants fulfilling similar strategic plant roles (Ferdows, 1997) are common in type. Second, to examine current strategic manufacturing network management practice and develop a map of this process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three multisite manufacturing businesses participated in this case research. The first phase of the study consisted of an initial visit made to the headquarters of each firm to be briefed on its manufacturing network strategy and to collect company manufacturing performance data. Visits were then made to 11 network plants to collect site manufacturing performance data and to research the manufacturing specialization of each site and the degree of autonomy of its management team. The second phase of the research comprised a number of additional visits to the headquarters of one of the three case study firms to investigate the process employed to downsize its existing manufacturing network capacity in response to a significant decline in customer demand.\nFindings: Three common types of manufacturing specialization have been identified in the networks of plants studied and the case research findings have enabled the development of a process for manufacturing network strategy deployment.\nResearch limitations/implications: The proposed process for the strategic management of a manufacturing network is based upon the findings of a single case study and thus the generalizability of the findings is limited.\nPractical implications: Auditing the manufacturing specialization of network sites is an essential preparatory procedure for determining a manufacturing network strategy. How this information is used to facilitate the management of manufacturing network configuration and coordination and for manufacturing network strategy deployment is detailed in the paper.\nOriginality/value: A process map has been developed that includes a review of current network configuration and coordination policies, in combination, as these underpin manufacturing network strategy deployment. Such a process map has not been detailed previously in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Are European businesses getting the live e-learning message?
|
[
"Electronic media",
"Learning",
"Conferencing",
"Learning",
"Training"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In today's competitive business landscape, companies are constantly in search of creative business solutions to help them operate more efficiently and cost effectively. Recognizing that productivity is directly related to employee capability, successful businesses understand that the workforce is the company's number one asset. However, this has proven to be a headache for the training manager, who is tasked with the job of implementing a successful learning programme, but is often restricted by a hectic schedule and tight resources. With the pressure on to keep travel related expenses to a minimum, many training programmes are being neglected.\nLearning by doing: StratX was convinced that its distance learning approach needed to be instructor-led. In its programme design, StratX aimed to duplicate the classroom environment, but at a distance. To do so, it sought out an online platform that was reliable and secure to allow effective distance collaboration and learning. The answer was to invest in WebEx. The results of the teaching methodology enabled by WebEx were very positive. StratX director of e-learning solutions, Delphine Parmenter, says:Normally in web-based learning around 70 per cent of the people do not complete the course - it's so easy not to click the button. We've got that up to a 92.5 per cent retention rate, which I've got to admit is an extraordinary achievement for which we have WebEx to thank.This is due in part to the StratX e-learning programmes, which duplicates the classroom environment and includes computerized business games and online classrooms to build interaction in live learning experiences over the web with StratX consultants. In the future, the company plans to investigate pre-course and post-course components to support classroom programmes. Currently 10 per cent of StratX's business comes from its remote learning offering. StratX predicts that it will grow to 20 per cent during 2004 and many people in the company believe it will reach 40 per cent in 2008.\nReduced travel costs: GE is a great example of how to scale an e-learning programme for expensive, hard to transport machines. General Electric Medical uses WebEx to overcome the challenge of training and demonstrating on sophisticated equipment like X-Ray and MRI machines. Historically, GE would have flown in prospective clients or employees to centralized locations so they could get an understanding of how these machines work. However, by developing a lab combining hardware and software modules, GE can now train employees and prospects virtually without the resource drain of business travel.Ticketmaster uses WebEx to scale a training programme at the other end of the spectrum. With thousands of agents across the globe, Ticketmaster requires an effective manner to keep its network up to date on rapidly changing ticketing procedure specifics. Although the changes and updates to Ticketmaster's billing and reporting systems are not large in scope, to efficiently manage quarterly or bi-annual updates they needed a simple way to communicate with their agents - many that do not have cutting edge IT infrastructures. By using WebEx Training Center, Ticketmaster can quickly update all of its agents at once in a simple manner for the agents - using a web browser.\nSmall and medium enterprises: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe are definitely wising up to the benefits of e-learning. One example is shown by the adoption of WebEx to form a new e-learning channel for UK-based SME Entropy International. Entropy is an enterprise risk and performance management solutions provider for corporate governance and corporate social responsibility issues. Training Magazine, the global professional development magazine for training, human resources and business management professionals, has predicted that remote instructor-led training will dominate the training mix, increasing from its current level of 10 to 30 per cent of global training programmes in the next two years. Entropy takes this a step further by recording training sessions and building libraries of learning sessions. These training libraries are then used to quickly bring new employees up to speed and refresh others on past training sessions. A recent Huthwaite study for the ASTD Journal, a global professional association and resource on workplace learning and performance issues, confirms the need for this type of continuous learning; the survey found that that 87 per cent of new skills developed during training are lost within the first four weeks.SMEs such as Gem Learning in the US, that offer training to businesses have expanded their reach and increased their profits by being able to offer remote online training sessions for about the same price as classroom training. They are very enthusiastic about the fact that they can offer their customers highly secure (128 bit secure socket layer - SSL) training via WebEx without worrying about firewall issues or security breaches. These SME clients can also manage all of their billing through WebEx using VeriSign, a leading provider of critical infrastructure services for internet, and under the WebTrust security seal of approval.\nEvaluating e-learning solutions: There are a number of factors to consider when evaluating e-learning technologies. The first thing to consider is performance; the network over which the e-learning programme is delivered needs to be able handle traffic without applications appearing to be clunky and slow. An \"in synch\" service is essential if your e-learning programme is to run professionally. Secondly, it is important that the interface is designed for the best possible user experience. It is also important to consider scalability and deployment. It is often difficult to predict the exact number of people that will be using the service and whether that number of users is likely to fluctuate on a regular basis. Finally, when evaluating e-learning technologies, companies need to consider technical support. WebEx for example offers 24/7 technical support and a searchable knowledge database.\nBoard level buy-in: From the employees' point-of-view, better access to quality training is an attractive option. However, without support from the management team, e-learning initiatives face a significant challenge. According to Forrester research:Users are often unfamiliar with e-learning, distrust the different format and wonder if e-learning is a valid learning approach.It is therefore important for the training manager to help foster a receptive attitude that will develop e-learning within the company and to communicate the tangible benefits it offers to the board and the company. When people can learn in a live, hands-on environment using simple desktop applications and an internet browser, they are comfortable and have a chance to try new applications and techniques with expert \"over the shoulder\" help. Companies that continue to embrace services like WebEx for their strategic training needs and focus on making training a business and profit centre will not only \"get the live e-learning message\", but also effectively spread their skills throughout the enterprise.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to discuss how WebEx Training Center is helping organizations implement e-learning, looking at companies that are training employees in innovative ways and the conditions for providing the most engaging and interactive e-learning environment. It also aims to look at factors to consider before implementing an e-learning programme and how to ensure that the programme is adopted by the workforce.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In order to achieve this objective, case studies are used to illustrate the argument. The piece looks at a number of industries that are using e-learning, from small businesses to large enterprises.\nFindings: - It was found that e-learning is emerging as an extremely viable cost alternative to face-to-face learning and that the best e-learning environments provide an engaging and interactive environment.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is of use for training managers considering implementing an e-learning programme.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An investigation of the relationship between lean and well-being based on the job demands-resources model
|
[
"Work engagement",
"Well-being",
"Lean",
"Exhaustion",
"Job demands-resources model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The impact of lean manufacturing (LM) on employee well-being has been widely studied in a number of fields, including operations management (Conti et al., 2006; Hasle et al., 2012; Longoni et al., 2013); applied psychology (Landsbergis et al., 1999; Parker, 2003); industrial relations (Stewart et al., 2016; Vidal, 2007); and human factors and ergonomics (Saurin and Ferreira, 2009; Womack et al., 2009). However, despite these diverse contributions, the debate is ongoing and far from resolved.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 The job demands-resources model\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Case selection and context\n4. Results: 4.1 Hierarchical regression results\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Theoretical contributions\n6. Conclusion: While previous studies (Hasle et al., 2012) provide important indications of the effects of lean on employees, there is limited quantitative evidence concerning positive and negative lean-related job characteristics and their relationship to exhaustion and engagement. Drawing on the JDRM, the model developed in the present study incorporates SLPs as lean-related job resources, JIT-related job aspects as hindrance job demands and problem-solving as challenge job demands and assesses their effects on work engagement and exhaustion, including potential interaction effects between job resources and demands. A survey administered to shop floor workers in an Italian subsidiary of a multinational manufacturer found support for the view that SLPs act as job resources in a lean company, increasing work engagement and reducing exhaustion. The findings further indicate that JIT-related job demands act as hindrances, reducing work engagement and increasing exhaustion. Additionally, SLPs were found to mitigate the effect of JIT-related job demands on exhaustion, and JIT-related job demands were found to enhance the positive effects of SLPs on work engagement. Finally, while problem-solving job demands have a positive effect on work engagement, they effect on exhaustion is not significant, questioning their classification as job demands in a lean company.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how just-in-time (JIT)-related job demands, problem-solving job demands and soft lean practices (SLPs) jointly influence employee well-being in terms of work engagement and exhaustion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the job demands-resources model, lean-related job characteristics were classified as resources or demands, and a set of hypotheses was developed to test their effect on work engagement and exhaustion, including the potential interaction between job resources and demands. The hypotheses were tested using moderated hierarchical regression and structural equation modelling, based on data from 138 workers.\nFindings: SLPs act as job resources in a lean company, increasing work engagement and reducing exhaustion. Conversely, JIT-related job demands act as a hindrance, reducing work engagement and increasing exhaustion. However, SLPs can reduce the effect of JIT-related job demands on exhaustion, and JIT-related job demands may enhance the positive effects of SLPs on work engagement.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study provides no conclusive evidence on the hypothesized role of problem-solving as a challenge job demand.\nPractical implications: The results can guide practitioners' understanding of how to implement lean without harm to employee well-being.\nOriginality/value: By employing a well-grounded psychological model to test the link between lean and well-being, the study finds quantitative support for: the buffering effect of SLPs on exhaustion caused by JIT-related job demands, and for the role of JIT as a hindrance. These novel findings have no precedent in previous survey-based research. In addition, it reveals the importance of studying SLPs at an individual level, as what matters is the extent to which workers perceive SLPs as useful and supportive.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Order-to-delivery process performance in delivery scheduling environments
|
[
"Order processing",
"Delivery lead time",
"Performance management",
"Supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The importance of supply chain performance is emphasized by several scholars (e.g. Beamon, 1999; Lee, 2000; Brewer and Speh, 2000). Only a few studies (e.g. Lohman et al., 2004) have, however, analyzed the management of supply chain performance in any depth. From a logistics perspective, the order-to-delivery (OTD) process is one of the most important processes to manage. It can be defined as consisting of four sub-processes; customer's ordering, supplier's delivery, logistics service provider's (LSP's) transportation, and customer's goods receipt sub-process (Mattsson, 2004). We have some knowledge about performance management of the respective sub-process. But focusing on the individual sub-process is not enough, if striving towards supply chain performance. The knowledge about performance management of the entire OTD process is more limited and needs to be further developed. This research need for more holistic measurement of supply chain performance, avoiding local sub-optimization, was pointed out by, for example, Shepherd and Gunter (2006).The OTD process involves at least three actors: a customer, a supplier and a LSP, which together can be called a triad (Larson and Gammelgaard, 2001). The performance of the OTD process is affected by all three actors and performance management of this process should consequently be conducted with a triadic approach. Very few references have empirically studied triads, involving how LSPs contribute to supply chain performance, according to, e.g. Bask (2001). Only few references have studied performance management in dyads, i.e. involving customers and suppliers (e.g. Forslund and Jonsson, 2007). Phillips et al. (1998) advocated a management expansion from dyads to triads and then to supply chains, but this study did not focus on performance management.Lead time-related performance is central in a general OTD process. An extensive amount of research has concerned lead time reduction, e.g. related to the business process reengineering or lean and agility literature (e. g. Melan, 1993; Mason-Jones et al., 2000). However, lead time length is normally not considered the most important OTD process performance dimension; other dimensions such as on-time delivery are often ranked as being more important (Keebler et al., 1999; Forslund and Jonsson, 2007). Lead time performance concerns, except lead time length and on-time delivery, also other dimensions such as lead time adaptability and lead time flexibility (Mattsson, 2004; Supply-chain Council, 2005; Zhang et al., 2005). Previous studies (e g Mattsson, 2004; Forslund and Jonsson, 2007) show that even though customers require high on-time delivery and flexibility, the perceived performance is on average low.The different performance dimensions are related to the respective OTD sub-processes, and the performance of one sub-process are dependent on the performance of the other sub-processes. For high performance in the overall OTD process, the performance should be managed from the overall OTD process perspective. There is, consequently, a need to explore what performance dimensions are important to measure and manage in the overall OTD process. A performance model with metrics for the overall OTD process would be valuable to generate.The specific type of OTD process configuration affects the design and use of performance management. Most existing performance dimensions, such as on-time delivery (e.g. Forslund and Jonsson, 2007) and delivery flexibility (e.g. Supply-chain Council, 2005), are developed for OTD processes in order-by-order environments, where orders appear in a non-cyclic mode. An environment characterized of using long-term delivery schedules combined with call-offs is, however, becoming more common. No identified study addressed performance management and no established performance model in such environments have been identified. Therefore, this study focuses on a configuration where the customer has a make-to-delivery schedule type of OTD process. The supplier's delivery sub-process is triggered by delivery schedules rather than individual orders; a configuration commonly applied in, e.g. the automotive and white goods industries. The approached knowledge gap is the lack of performance models for OTD processes in delivery scheduling environments.Thus, the purpose of this article is to generate a performance model for an OTD process in delivery scheduling environments. The article is organised as follows; first, a conceptual review of performance dimensions and metrics for an OTD process in order-by-order environments is conducted. After the methodology, a triadic case study of an OTD process in a delivery scheduling environment is presented. The analysis identifies OTD process performance dimensions and generates models for OTD process performance in delivery scheduling environments.\nAn OTD process performance framework: This section contains the three sub-sections: the OTD process, OTD process performance dimensions and OTD process performance metrics. Here, focus is on the OTD process performances in order-by-order environments. The presented order-by-order performance framework is used as input to the case analysis and the generation of a performance model for delivery scheduling environments.The OTD process\nMethodology: A single case study was conducted in order to explore the performance measurement requirements and needs in a delivery scheduling environment. Such an approach is considered appropriate in early stages of emerging topics. In order to handle qualitative research in a structured way, the steps in the case study was conducted following the principles of Yin (2003). The triad was selected by convenience sampling (Bass, 1990). The studied customer is an OEM in the automotive industry, the supplier is a component manufacturer and their LSP completes the triad. The case should, thus, be very relevant for analysis of a delivery scheduling environment. A case study protocol was developed based on the purpose and the theory review. Data were collected from multiple sources, which are shown in Table I. Personal and telephone interviews using the case study protocol were conducted. Quantitative performance data from December 2007 to March 2008 were taken from the customer company's ERP system. Case descriptions were validated by the respondents. The quality and the limitations of the study are further discussed in the final section.\nThe triadic case study: The case study is presented by sub-process. Each section is introduced with brief company and sub-process characteristics. As the empirical study is conducted in a delivery scheduling environment, the first sub-process is called delivery scheduling sub-process rather than ordering sub-process.The performance of the customer's delivery scheduling sub-process\nGenerating an OTD process performance model: The analysis contains two phases. The first compares the measured performance dimensions of the case with the reviewed literature. The second generates two performance models for OTD processes in delivery scheduling environments, i.e. it presents performance models argued to fulfill the measurement needs of situations similar to that in the case study.Measured OTD performance dimensions\nConclusions, limitations and suggestions for further research: The purpose of this article was to generate a performance model for an OTD process in delivery scheduling environments. Two performance models for OTD process performance in delivery scheduling environments were developed, which are theoretical contributions of this study. The OTD process performance models in delivery scheduling environments contain four sub-processes and ten performance dimensions. As delivery scheduling environments focus more on delivery quantities than delivery times, the models are also more oriented towards quantity than time performance metrics. Delivery accuracy, or on-time delivery, is the most common OTD performance dimension in practice. Additional performance dimensions were defined in the conceptual analysis and identified as important in the empirical study, and were hence included in the performance model. It was also identified that flexibility is often more important than accuracy. The applied triadic approach enabled a more holistic supply chain performance study, as called for by, for example, Shepherd and Gunter (2006).Some limitations to the results have to be commented. Construct validity (Yin, 2003) was increased by the use of a case study protocol and by collecting data from multiple sources. The case descriptions were validated by the respondents. External validity (Yin, 2003) is, due to the explorative character of the study and the single case approach, limited to analytical generalization. We, however, believe that the case is typical for a delivery scheduling environment. The study was conducted in a Swedish setting, which might, although we cannot argue otherwise, limit the possibilities to generalize the findings. The use of a case study protocol also increases reliability (Yin, 2003). Reliability was further increased by the fact that all interviews were conducted by two, and the same, authors.The findings and some observations during the study lead to several tracks for further research. The operative metrics for the ten performance dimensions are not defined in the way they were in order-by-order environments. This is important to do in order to further develop and validate the presented models.Several obstacles to the low level of OTD process performance management were observed, related to poor sub-process interaction. The customer impacts the supplier's performance by the high quantity variability in the delivery schedule, which puts high lead time flexibility requirements on the supplier. The fact that the LSP only measures goods weight and volume and not article numbers is a problem for customers and suppliers. The LSP's transport precision, defined as the proportion of trucks on time, is consequently of low value. It is not possible for the LSP to provide customers with order acknowledgements and track and trace information which could decrease the quantity and delivery date flexibility needs of the customer. The LSP's booking system is considered difficult to manage which affects the accuracy of transport booking and further increases the lead time flexibility requirements. The customer is responsible for the transportation and therefore all communication in the triad is dyadic; between LSP-customer and between supplier-customer. The supplier impacts the customer's and LSP's performance by the long lead time, which has negative impact on almost all other performance dimensions. The supplier has started to build up a finished goods inventory in order to increase delivery flexibility and perform higher delivery accuracy. This results in higher costs and more tied-up capital at the supplier. Another example of a problem in the ERP systems in the triad is that the supplier makes a delivery notification in the ERP system which just is used for internal purposes and never reaches the customer. Consequently, the following are some empirically identified obstacles for high OTD process performance:* The LSP's measurement is not compatible with the measurement of the suppliers and customers.* Improper ERP/administrative systems or improper use of these systems are obstacles for high OTD process performance.* Dyadic communication is an obstacle for high OTD process performance.Several mismatches between what is considered important to measure and what is actually measured were also observed, but also between what is easy to measure, i.e. where available data exist, and what is actually measured. These observations and their effects should be studied further, in for example broader survey studies, in order to test the possibilities to generalize and develop the OTD process performance model.Long lead time is a major cause to low OTD process performance. It would be relevant to conduct a deeper study on lead time length performance. Studying lead time efficiency could reveal patterns related to cycle time inefficiencies, delays in sub-process interfaces and also in time additions made by management. Knowing more about lead time length behavior could positively impact the other performance dimensions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to generate a performance model for an order-to-delivery (OTD) process in delivery scheduling environments. It aims to do this with a triadic approach, encompassing a customer, a supplier and a logistics service provider.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper takes the form of a conceptual analysis and a triadic case study on performance measurement requirements in an OTD process characterized by delivery scheduling, and generating performance models.\nFindings: - Two OTD process performance models, one for the supplier's delivery sub-process and one for the customer's delivery scheduling, the logistics service provider's transportation and the customer's good receipt sub-process, in delivery scheduling environments are generated.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A single case study limits the levels of external validity and reliability to analytical generalization.\nPractical implications: - The generated performance models include definitions of four sub-processes and outline ten performance dimensions that should be of relevance for several companies to apply.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first approach that generates performance models for a triadic OTD process for use in delivery scheduling environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Work engagement as mediator between job characteristics and positive and negative extra-role behaviors
|
[
"Job demands",
"Job resources",
"Conscientiousness",
"Work engagement",
"Organizational citizenship behaviors",
"Counterproductive work behaviors",
"Jobs",
"Employees behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In the workplace, employees face various job demands, some interpersonal in nature. Interpersonal conflicts have been long considered stressful (Ilies et al., 2011; Karasek, 1979), affecting wellbeing at work (Rook, 2001) and shown to be related to negative extra-role behaviors, such as counterproductive work behavior (CWB) (Fox et al., 2001). Such behaviors refer to volitional acts that harm or intend to harm organizations and their stakeholders such as clients, co-workers, customers, and supervisors (e.g. intentionally working slowly, making fun of others at work, etc.) (Spector and Fox, 2005). Costs of such harmful behaviors can be either economic (e.g. theft), or psychological and interpersonal (e.g. psychological withdrawal) (Vardi and Weitz, 2004). Given these various costs, it is important to understand how interpersonal demands, such as conflicts, affect directly, or indirectly, harmful behaviors in the workplace. Fortunately, at work there are also various job resources that stimulate positive extra-role behavior, such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (Chen et al., 2005). OCBs are defined as intentional employee behaviors that are discretionary and typically not recognized or rewarded, but nonetheless improve the functioning of the organization (e.g. exceeding role expectations in attendance and work, helping others) (Organ, 1997). Moreover, certain individual characteristics are considered personal resources (e.g. conscientiousness) (Halbesleben et al., 2009) that play a significant role in promoting OCB (Organ and Ryan, 1995) and counteracting CWB (Dalal, 2005).\nHypotheses and research model: Demands and resources at work\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Descriptive analysis\nDiscussion: The purpose of the present study was to examine a model that includes job characteristics (i.e. ICAWs and POS), an individual difference factor (i.e. conscientiousness), and employee wellbeing (i.e. WE) in order to explain possible antecedents of OCBs and CWBs (see Figure 1). We have developed and successfully tested 13 hypotheses regarding the direct effects of job and personal characteristics on extra-role behaviors, as well as regarding the mediating role of work engagement. As expected, job resources positively and directly relate to positive extra-role behaviors (i.e. OCB) and job demands relate positively and directly with negative extra-role behaviors (i.e. CWB) - these relations being also partially mediated by affective-motivational state at work (i.e. WE). Also, there was a direct and partially mediated relation, through WE, between conscientiousness and both types of extra-role behaviors. Taken together, these results suggest that job resources and personal resources are related to WE, which in turn, is positively related to positive extra-role behavior. In a similar vein, our results suggest that job demands are related to decreased levels of WE, which, in turn, is negatively related to negative extra-role behavior. In addition, WE explain a larger part of the effect of POS on OCB than of the effect of ICAW on CWB. A possible explanation for this result could be that OCB and WE are rather determined by intrinsic motivation and the desire to have a positive impact at the work environment, where CWBs are motivated to restore the equity affected by stressful social exchange relationships.Theoretical and practical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study is based on the JD-R model and aims at understanding the role of work engagement (WE) as a mediator between job resources (i.e. perceived organizational support) and positive extra-role behaviors (i.e. organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB)), between job demands (i.e. interpersonal conflicts at work) and negative extra-role behaviors (i.e. counterproductive work behaviors (CWB)), and also between a personal resource (i.e. conscientiousness) and both types of extra-role behaviors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data from three Romanian organizations (n=258) were collected in a cross-sectional study. Two main models (fully mediated and partially mediated) tested the role of WE as a mediator, using structural equation modelling.\nFindings: - The results support the partially mediated model. All anticipated antecedents have a direct, and also an indirect relation with extra-role behaviors - via WE. In addition, the mediating effect was stronger for OCB than for CWB. Overall, the results show that job and personal characteristics differentially predict OCB and CWB, and that employees' affective-motivational state explains, in part, these job and personal characteristics - extra-role behaviors associations.\nOriginality/value: - The paper advances the knowledge about the JD-R model and its relevance for OCB and CWB. In addition, understanding work engagement's potential to stimulate OCB and inhibit CWB can aid professionals to advance beneficial behavioral outcomes in organizations by promoting wellbeing at work, thereby supporting the employees' healthy career development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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What is a document institution? A case study from the South Sami community
|
[
"Indigenous",
"Cultural centers",
"Sámi",
"Documentation",
"Document",
"Document theory",
"Document management",
"Culture (Sociology)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: The Sami are the indigenous population of the middle and Northern part of Scandinavia. Their territories are part of four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Traditionally they have lived by nomadic reindeer herding, farming, fishing and hunting. They were organized in small, decentralized units (called \"Siidas\" in Sami) regulated by unwritten agreements very different from the centralized and hierarchical political structure in the Scandinavian countries (Hansen and Olsen, 2004; Manker and Vorren, 1962). During the last 50-100 years only a small percentage have kept up the traditional livelihood; the rest have largely been absorbed in the same occupational pattern as the majority population (Stordahl, 1996). The Sami are accepted as an indigenous group in all four countries, but with unequal rights following this acceptance. Because there is no overall registration of the Sami population based on ethnic criteria, no one knows exactly how many Sami there are today, but there is estimated to be at least 50,000 Sami in Norway and about 80,000-100,000 in Scandinavia, including Russia. About 12,000 of the Sami in Norway speak Sami as their first language, and around 3,000 still have reindeer herding as their main occupation (Aubert, 1978, pp. 117-20; Statistics Norway, 2010).From the mid-1960s many institutions named as Sami cultural-and/or language centers have been established in Sami communities in the middle and Northern parts of Norway (The Sami Parliament, 2010). These centers combine many functions, which in Norwegian society are divided into different kinds of institutions like libraries, archives, museums, preschools, primary schools, and adult education. The Sami cultural centers also hold events like theatre, music, dance and cultural festivals (Lang, 2005). The Sami, who have seen their way of life gradually threatened by the majority society, have built most of the centers from \"below\", on their own initiative, but with support from middlemen in the Norwegian political system and with economic support from the Norwegian state (Gaelok, 1992). During the last 20-30 years the centers have played an important role in the revitalization process among the Sami population. They have contributed to the present situation where the Sami are constitutionally recognized as one of two (Norwegians/Sami) people living on the territory of the Norwegian state. They now have an elected Sami assembly (established in 1989), with a certain degree of political autonomy towards the Norwegian Parliament (Broderstad, 2001; The Sami Parliament, 2011).\nThe Norwegianization policy: When the first centre was established in 1964, the Norwegian Parliament had formally abandoned the oppressive \"Norwegianization\" policy against the Sami. But the consequences of this policy continued with great strength into the 1970s and 1980s and can even be felt today (Minde, 2003b). The goal of the Norwegianization policy was to make the Sami into \"good\" Norwegians. In order to carry through this policy, the use of Sami language in schools was prohibited by law between 1898 and 1962. Although this law was not fully enforced, the consequence was that thousands of children with Sami as their mother tongue never got the chance to use their language in school (Minde, 2003a). In 1902 a bill was passed that prohibited the Sami ownership of farmland. This law forced thousands of Sami to change their names to Norwegian names, which was mostly accepted by the authorities as a change to Norwegian identity. This enforced change gave the Sami formal ownership of farms that many of them had already cultivated for decades. Modern Norwegian institutions like schools, pre-schools, health institutions, national media, the political institutions, museums and libraries had no understanding of the Sami language and culture other than as a culture on the verge of extinction. The general technological development and modernization process also contributed to the heavy pressure against the traditional Sami culture during most of the twentieth century (Minde, 2003a).\nThe Sami centers: As a consequence of the Norwegianization policy there was a strong motivation in the Sami people to build up institutions that could document those parts of the Sami culture that were in danger of extinction (language, customs, building techniques, the nomadic way of living, etc.) and to establish new meeting places and develop new knowledge about their own culture and history, so that the small and often geographically remote Sami villages could be prepared for the future. Each centre, built from 1964 up to today, has its own unique and particular history, but the central idea behind them is to make visible the existence of the Sami nation and prove its right to exist. For this purpose the Sami centers developed into institutions storing, producing and using documents of different types for various purposes. The traditional Sami culture was a nomadic culture. They used organic materials for their dwellings and tools. Proof of their use of the landscape or terrain would soon disappear if it was not documented in one way or another. The first centre, Saemien Sijte in the South Sami area, was primarily occupied with different forms of documentation as techniques for the registration and preservation of cultural artifacts. The artifacts were not only perceived as documents of archaeological interest, but as documents providing a special meaning for the ethnic group. In this area the processing of the milk from reindeer had a special cultural significance. The process of milking the reindeers and making dry milk and different types of cheese was a main factor in the self-supported nomadic way of living. The milk and cheese production was a specialized process based entirely on organic materials and equipment; the processed milk and cheese were stored for months in wooden troughs dug down in special pits in the ground (Fjellheim, 1991, pp. 25-35). To register these sites the leaders at Saemien Sijte hired Sami from the area who had grown up in the traditional Sami culture instead of professional archaeologists as normally demanded by Norwegian museum authorities. The idea was that people who had grown up in the traditional reindeer herding culture would more easily spot places in the terrain where their foremothers and forefathers had lived and worked. It takes a trained eye to \"read\" the terrain and spot potential marks that indicate a milk pit. Places in the terrain were marked, their position mapped, descriptions written down, pictures taken and if tools were found they were taken to the centre for storage. The documentation process strengthened the feeling of identity and belonging among members of the local \"siidas\" (tribes). Sverre Fjellheim, a prominent Sami leader, and one of the first leaders of Saemien Sijte, put it this way (my translation):In my opinion the protection of Sami cultural values can, and ought to be, a process where registration, documentation, research, administration and protection and self-defined activities connected with culture and identity are closely linked, and this must function in a interaction between the professional institution and the local community (Fjellheim, 2004, p. 14).Fjellheim uses the term \"omradetilhorighet\", which can be translated as \"the way a people belong to a landscape\", to describe the process. Saemien Sijte's choice of local registrars led to a conflict with Tromso University Museum, which by law could claim that professional archaeologists should do the work. The dispute had to be settled by the University Board in 1990. The board accepted that documentation for indigenous peoples has a special significance in relation to identity, belonging and future, and supported Saemien Sijte and gave them formal acceptance in hiring Sami who had grown up in this area (Fjellheim, 1991, pp. 7-17). This way of documenting a culture is a way of preserving a bond between the past, the present and the future and strengthens the way native peoples belong to a landscape (Jernsletten, 2009). If the milk pits had been registered by professional archaeologists (non-Sami, by and large) the context of meaning provided by the documentation would have been different. The artifacts, maps, pictures and sites would have been made into documents of scientific status and most of them would probably have ended up in a university museum, interpreted and providing information and meanings of another kind.\nDocumenting traditional knowledge: What is the role of documents and documentation in the perspectives and ideology of the Sami centers? Why study the Sami centers as document institutions? I will try to answer this by discussing the synthesizing functions of the Sami centers in the light of a concept of documentation that was defined by leading thinkers and practitioners in the documentation movement in the first part of the twentieth century and later adapted by Buckland (1997, 2007) and others (Lund, 2009; Day, 2006). Suzanne Briet was a leading figure in the movement. In her seminal book What is Documentation? (Briet, 2006) she extends the definition of documents from written texts to representation of objects and even objects themselves. She connects information content explicitly with its material base and underlines its use as evidence or proof (Briet, 2006, pp. 9-10; Buckland, 1997, p. 805; Lund, 2009, pp. 401-5). Furthermore she defines a document as \"a proof in search of a fact\", and elaborates by saying that a document is \"any concrete or symbolic indexical sign [indice], preserved or recorded towards the end of representing, of reconstituting, or of proving a physical or intellectual phenomenon\" (Briet, 2006, pp. 9-10). In a discussion of \"Briet's rules for determining when an object has become a document\" Michael Buckland argues that:There is materiality: Physical objects and physical signs only; (2) There is intentionality: It is intended that the object be treated as evidence; (3) The objects have to be processed: They have to be made into documents; and, we think, (4) There is a phenomenological position: The object is perceived to be a document (Buckland, 1997, p. 806).Briet's and Buckland's definitions of what a document is fit the view of traditional knowledge as dynamic and alive, and underscores what Sami language and cultural centers need to do as the oral transmission of traditional knowledge loses its ground: institutionalize and make visible (we could say prove) a connection between a way of living in a specific landscape and cultural revival. Their definitions open the floor for a broader understanding of what a document institution should be. It must cross the borders between texts (the library), artifacts (the museum), files (the archive) and performance (the theatre/classroom) and include a phenomenological and cultural sensitive understanding of the documentation process. The Sami centers handle documents and document complexes of all kinds: Books, pictures, maps, movies, clothes, traditional buildings and building techniques, food, sacred places, stories, story-telling, music, theatre, language revival, different cultural events. But these documents are not treated as containing static and \"frozen\" or preserved knowledge, as in so many museums, archives and libraries, but rather with the aim of transmitting knowledge for future generations of Sami, thereby making the centres into \"proactive centres of documentation\" (Lund, 2009, p. 405). Today documents and documentation are vital in the political processes concerning land- and water rights in Norway. Two cases from 2001 (\"Svartskogdommen\" and \"Selbudommen\") are worth mentioning in this respect. In the \"Svartskog\" (Black Forest) case, a Sami village won a trial in The Supreme Court against the Norwegian state and was granted collective ownership to grazing and logging land due to \"time honoured rights\", although the Norwegian government possessed a legal title deed to the area (Bjerkli and Thuen, 1998; Matningsdal, 2002). Oral testimonies and the way the landscape and pasturelands could be seen as documenting a certain traditional use was accepted as evidence in court and treated as \"a proof in support of a fact\" (Briet, 2006, p. 9). The Supreme Court Judge in charge of this case said that written historical documents, oral traditions, anthropological reports and marks or signs in the landscape were treated as documents in court proving that the inhabitants of the village during many generations had used the area \"in good faith\". The concept \"in good faith\" is an important juridical principle in Norwegian law covering the right to use natural resources by established custom (Matningsdal, 2002, pp. 63-71). The Supreme Court Judge also said (although this was not mentioned in his written paper following the lecture) that his upbringing on a farm helped him to see or \"read\" the different uses of pastures when the jury made their inspection of the ground. For him the differences between how herded reindeer versus domesticated animals (cows and sheep, mainly) grazed the area documented how the land had been used and by whom[1]. The judge perceived the landscape as a document that evoked mental images or earlier experiences that validated it as \"supporting a fact\". We can assume that the cultural background of the Supreme Court Judge (growing up on a farm) facilitated his observation and enabled him to interpret signs in nature as messages to be informed by.\nConclusion: An important task for Sami cultural centers today is to document Sami traditions and lifestyles in such a way that they can serve as evidence in court proving the right of ownership to land and water in Sami regions (Eriksen, 2008; Hernes and Oskal, 2008). Laila Susanne Vars, the Sami lawyer and Research Fellow at the University of Tromso, recently elected as the Vice President of the Sami Parliament, put it this way: \"Documentation of Sami knowledge is the most urgent issue facing us today. [...] Sami traditional knowledge encompasses the beliefs, practices, innovations, arts, music, livelihoods, spirituality, and other forms of cultural experience and expression that belong to the Sami\" (Vars, 2008, p. 5). It is the most urgent issue, according to Vars, because without the documents there will be no evidence left of a traditional knowledge system where people, animals and landscape were interconnected in an intimate way and where knowledge were transferred through participating in the daily activities in the Siida (the traditional Sami village).Documentation among indigenous groups, and other grassroots movements, needs an institutional basis. Documentation of traditional knowledge more and more becomes a task for the Sami centers. Documentation is important because of the forced cultural invisibility, but also in a future-oriented perspective of keeping the language alive, about self-esteem and the claims for intellectual property rights, self-government and land rights. In this perspective the language is a document, the food is a document, and the music is a document, because they demonstrate who you are. The centers' documenting activity is closely connected to identity management, self-esteem and juridical claims (Eriksen, 2002). For a better understanding of these processes, established models for understanding and analyzing libraries, museums and archives are inadequate. Document theory seems like a promising alternative, because it offers a model that incorporates the active, interconnected way these centers collect, remediate and use a wide array of documents.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The Samis are the indigenous population of Northern Scandinavia. When the oppressive policy against the Sami population in Norway was lightened during the 1960s, many Sami communities established language and cultural centers for documentation and development of their language and cultural heritage as the oral tradition lost its ground in the modernization process. This paper aims to discuss how Sami cultural centers use documentation both as a way of remembering the past and as a political strategy in order to produce evidence for land and water claims.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The Sami centers are many-faceted institutions and document theory is suggested as a theoretical perspective in order to analyze why these institutions were established and how they are functioning today.\nFindings: - Two cases are presented. The first shows how the centers use documentation as a technique for restoring the past. The second is a ruling in the Norwegian High Court that shows a new turn in what can be accepted as documents proving indigenous land and water claims.\nOriginality/value: - This article is an attempt to introduce document theory as an analytical tool for analyzing the documentation processes in indigenous cultural centers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A conceptual model for enterprise risk management
|
[
"Risk management",
"Conceptual modelling",
"Enterprise architecture",
"Archimate",
"ISO 31000"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organizations are subject to a set of internal and external factors that may have an adverse effect on the achievement of the organization's objectives (International Organization of Standardization, 2009). These uncertainty effects are called risks (International Organization of Standardization, 2009). In everyday language, the word \"risk\" is used to describe the danger and uncertainty related to the possibility of an adverse event (Baranoff, 2001). Risks can be associated with uncertainty, threats from project failures, legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes and disasters, deliberate attack from an adversary, or events of uncertain or unpredictable root-cause (Abu El Ata and Schmandt, 2016).\n2. Research methodology: The design science research is particularly suitable for information systems research since \"the field should not only try to understand how the world is, but also how to change it\" (Carlsson et al., 2011). In contrast to research methods in information systems that are used to explore or confirm hypotheses, this research follows a design science research approach because the primary goal of this research) is to develop a new artifact (in this specific case the ISO 31000 metamodel).\n3. Research synthesis: In this section, the authors present and discuss the most relevant topics that sustain the proposal.\n4. Proposal: The primary purpose of this paper is to ease the ISO 31000 standard understanding and provide mechanisms that allow organizations to adopt and adapt this standard to their reality. One way to achieve this purpose is to develop a conceptual metamodel for ISO 31000 that enables a better understanding of the main concepts of the standard and their relations since these standards can learn from a rigid formalization and a systematic approach.\n5. A potable water network system demonstration: In addition to the proposed ArchiMate metamodel, this paper also uses an EA tool that allows organizations to align their architecture with frameworks and standards. In the enterprise environment, enterprise architects use ArchiMate and other similar languages to document and communicate the organization state, which supports model-based analysis, diagnosis, optimization and decision making (Ramos et al., 2014).\n6. Evaluation: To validate the relevance and quality of the proposal, 12 interviews were conducted with specialists in the area of risk management, the vast majority with many years of experience in this field. Information about the respondents is presented in Table II.\n7. Discussion: To evaluate the present proposal in a critical manner, it is important to discuss the various strengths and limitations of the proposed ISO 31000 metamodeling. The authors would like to highlight the following strengths: following the principle of comparability, when using these EA tools, it is eventually easier for an organization to compare and correct misalignments of its EA with a certain standard, in this case with ISO 31000.\n8. Implications: Enterprise models cross-cut different domains, such as strategy, processes, systems and technology. These domains can be observed from different viewpoints that produce the views that the stakeholders use to communicate, understand, and analyze a system. Therefore, applying the ArchiMate language and an EA tool to represent risk concepts results seems the ideal vehicle to consider these aspects in an integral way.\n9. Conclusion: In this paper, the authors discussed and proposed a metamodel to represent the concepts and relationships that exist in the ISO 31000 standard. The primary objective of this research is to reduce the perceived complexity of ISO 31000, thus facilitating the understanding of this standard. In order to achieve this objective, we propose an ArchiMate metamodel as well as an EA tool (Atlas) to help organizations promote ERM initiatives aligned with their structure and behavior.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to ease the ISO 31000 standard understanding and provide mechanisms that allow organizations to adopt and adapt this standard to their reality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research methodology adopted in this research was the design science research methodology.\nFindings: Key finding is that enterprise architecture (EA) models and EA tools can help reduce the complexity of the ISO 31000 standard and improve the communication between stakeholders.\nPractical implications: The research proposal serves the purpose of supporting the evidence collection for an enterprise risk management (ERM) initiative in an as-was, as-is, or to-be perspective.\nOriginality/value: Traditional ERM efforts operate on silos, limiting the sharing of risk information and the achievement of an organization-wide view of risks. EA can provide a common way to model complex business systems, from the strategic level to implementation details. This paper proposes the use of an EA model and an EA tool (Atlas) to represent ISO 31000, allowing a better understanding on the value of assets that can be affected from the manifestation of some risks over time.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Employees and sustainability: the role of incentives
|
[
"Performance management",
"Human resource strategies",
"Incentives"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Environmental sustainability is now a priority for many organizations, in keeping with public interest in firm performance beyond economic outcomes (Savitz and Weber, 2006). An annual investigation by the Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review of how organizations handle sustainability efforts reveals that it has become a permanent element of the corporate agenda (Kiron et al., 2013). Firms go beyond regulatory compliance to pursue environmental sustainability for a variety of strategic business reasons such as conformance to stakeholder expectations, social branding and potential cost benefits (see Hockerts, 2014), and for non-instrumental reasons such as leader values (Miska et al., 2014).\nConceptual development and hypotheses: Employee preference for environmental work objectives must be examined within the broader work context rather than in isolation since \"green\" goals represent only one of many goals toward which employees may be working (Unsworth et al., 2013). Consequently, successful organizational implementation of sustainability initiatives are subject to the trade-off considerations made by employees in their evaluation of personal utility in deciding which goals to pursue at any given time, an area which has not yet received much explicit attention in research on corporate sustainability (Hahn et al., 2010). Thus our conceptualization (and ultimately our experimental design) starts with financial and environmental performance objectives relevant to the employee level of performance and objectively equal in terms of personal benefit. We then consider how the perceived personal utility of pursuing the environmental objective may be enhanced. Whereas a superior financial incentive is one obvious form of premium, emerging sustainability research suggests task complementarity (e.g. when environmental objectives also benefit financial objectives) and alignment with organizational values (e.g. values that emphasize sustainability) as two potentially more cost-effective - possibly more effective overall - means. We discuss the theoretical lens and supporting research for each perspective below.\nMethods: Sample\nResults: Table III contains descriptive statistics and correlations of study variables. As a first step, the efficacy of the experimental manipulation of organizational values was investigated. The overall distribution of project choice was then reviewed as a preliminary evaluation of support for the posed hypotheses. Finally, hypotheses were formally tested using binary logistic regression.\nDiscussion: Organizational scholars are increasingly acknowledging the value inherent in null findings and a concern over the publication bias for findings of statistical significance (Kepes et al., 2012; Simmons et al., 2011). The present null findings lend credence to this point and offer counterintuitive guidance for employee engagement in organizational sustainability efforts. Using an experimental design, we manipulated two potentially influential contextual factors: whether an environmental objective complements vs substitutes (status quo) for a financial objective, and whether stated organizational values emphasize sustainability vs cost savings (status quo). Unexpectedly, a consistent majority of respondents favored the environmental objective across all four conditions. It seems that simply specifying and rewarding environmental objectives on par with financial objectives is sufficient to engage employees to some degree. This is a straightforward but impactful point since only 25 percent of the participants in this study indicated their employers tied rewards to sustainability.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: Organizational sustainability has become a priority on many corporate agendas. How to integrate sustainability efforts throughout the organization, however, remains a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine two factors that potentially enhance incentive effects on employee engagement in environmental objectives: explicit organizational values for sustainability and the performance objective's complementarity with incented financial objectives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors employed a quasi-experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, including a status quo condition against which the treatments were contrasted. Participants (n=400) were comprised of a cross-section of US employees from a wide range of occupations and industries. A post hoc qualitative analysis provided additional insights.\nFindings: Incentive effects were enhanced (i.e. preference for the environmental objective was significantly higher) when the environmental project offered complementary benefits for financial objectives, but not when organization values emphasized sustainability. An entrenched status quo bias for financial performance was discerned among a subset of the sample.\nResearch limitations/implications: Management scholars must pay close attention to the role of implicit norms for financial performance when investigating employee engagement in organizational sustainability efforts. From an applied perspective, framing sustainability objectives to emphasize financial benefits consistent with a financial mission may maximize employee engagement.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to understanding of organizational sustainability efforts at the individual employee level of analysis, a conspicuously small part of the organizational research surrounding this topic.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Benchmarking and pondering ASERL interlibrary loan operations, 2010 and 2013
|
[
"Benchmarking",
"Document delivery",
"Interlibrary loan",
"Academic libraries",
"Mixed methods",
"Library consortia",
"Library reorganizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) is a large regional research library consortium located in the US. In 2010, a group of librarians representing ASERL member libraries administered a survey to assess resource sharing issues and identify common practices. The survey inquired into fundamental resource sharing outputs, networks, and technologies. To measure current best practices, the survey also incorporated the Rethinking Resource Sharing STAR Checklist[1], devised and administered by the ALA RUSA STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee[2].\nLiterature review: The mixed methods research applications found in library literature include many assessments of services and operations, externally focused on client groups, constituencies, etc. (Asher et al., 2013; Brown and Sewell, 2013; deVries et al., 2010; Dunne, 2011). There is a smaller body of literature applying mixed methods internally, focusing instruments and analysis inward on librarians and their practices. Brooke et al. (2013) surveyed distance education students and librarians in UK universities to identify best practices for Distance Librarianship (DL). While reviewing distance education literature provided the authors with illustrative practices, to identify what practices are preferred they needed the collective input of practicing distance librarians and their clients. Brooke et al. used mixed methods to collect evidence of best practices, to compare opinions, and to \"[...] establish where changes should be made to provide high-quality distance learning support services, now and in the future\" (Brooke et al., 2013, p. 619).\nMethods: The surveys[4] used a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to describe and to understand the group's common operational practices and individuals' professional opinions. This mix of descriptive, factual data combined with the personal and professional experiences creates a richer, more nuanced understanding of ASERL's common practices and ILL operations and describes both metric and diagnostic benchmarks.\nThe data: The surveys were constructed and administered online. ASERL ILL managers were targeted in the 2010 survey (Table I). In response to ASERL's consortial alignment with the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC), the 2013 survey was expanded to include ILL managers from both organizations. Between the two surveys, participation varied. In 2010, 32 out of 38 eligible libraries completed the survey for a response rate of 84 percent. In, 2013, 34 out of 52 eligible libraries completed the survey for a response rate of just 65 percent. Of the 2013 survey libraries, 28 or 74 percent were ASERL libraries. Due to the lower response rate and the need to better compare the two surveys, the authors limited their analysis to ASERL respondents only.\nFindings: Interlibrary loan transactions\nLibrary reorganizations: The 2013 survey inquired into the impact of library reorganizations on interlibrary loan operations. Administrative and operational reorganization bring their own sets of issues and challenges. Given the evolving nature of resource sharing (e.g. the rise of e-resources, purchase-on-demand, collaboration with acquisitions operations), the authors wanted to establish programmatic benchmarks for ILL operations and organizational change.\nConclusions and opportunities: For future studies, mixed methods could provide the most effective methods for benchmarking and service assessment. Metrics tell only a part of the story. Qualitative data provide personal and professional insights giving depth and context to metric-oriented data. Qualitative analyses also illuminate programmatic characteristics of operations management and administrative change. This study was limited by its use of only comment data. Future benchmarking studies can be expanded to include other data sources such as interviews and focus groups and to gather more data regarding operations, changes, and challenges. Potential future topic areas include the impact of e-resources and the management of campus document delivery.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In 2010 and 2013, the libraries in the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) were surveyed to identify benchmarks and programs to support resource sharing. Benchmarks and challenges identified generate discussions regarding programming, networking, and other support to improve resource sharing operations. This paper seeks to address these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study compares and contrasts the two surveys using mixed methods data analysis. This study assesses ILL performance and explores the challenges and trends interlibrary loan practitioners see today.\nFindings: The article identifies changes and trends in consortia-wide transaction volumes; staffing levels; campus document delivery; professional issues and challenges; and library organizational schemes.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study did not include data from constituencies outside of interlibrary loan. It also did not include interview follow-ups with survey participants to discuss challenges and reorganizations in greater detail. Future interlibrary loan research could focus less on operational metrics and more on broader issues such as e-resources and change management. Mixed methods are effect tools for benchmarking and comparative case studies.\nPractical implications: Individual libraries can compare themselves to the operational benchmarks and use insights drawn from comment analysis to stimulate conversations regarding current and future roles for interlibrary loan. Consortia can duplicate the study to understand their operational benchmarks and their particular contexts.\nOriginality/value: The study provides comparative benchmarks for research libraries and consortia spanning three years. It demonstrates substantial shifts in issues faced by libraries and librarians.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Cultural differences between Korean and American apparel web sites
|
[
"Worldwide web",
"National cultures",
"Electronic commerce",
"Clothing",
"Korea",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In his 1983 essay, Theodore Levitt (1983, p. 92) argued that:A powerful force drives the world toward a converging commonality, and that force is technology ... The result is a new commercial reality - the emergence of global markets for standardized consumer products ... Gone are accustomed differences in national or regional preference.The internet has emerged as a global technology since Levitt wrote his essay. More than half of the households in Sweden, the USA, Canada, Denmark, Korea, Japan, and Norway have access to the internet (OECD, 2005). According to Pew Internet and American Live Project (2005) surveys, in December 2002, about 60 percent of American adults had been online. In the same year, nearly 80 percent of Korean households indicated they used the internet one hour or more each week (Korea National Statistical Office, 2005a).de Mooij (2004, p. 9), however, questioned the existence of the world envisioned by Levitt when she argued:Global homogeneous markets exist only in the minds of international marketing managers and advertising people. Even people with similar lifestyles do not behave as a consistent group of purchasers because they do not share the same values.In other words, de Mooij is suggesting that cultural differences exist.This leads to a question of whether the e-commerce marketplace is a homogeneous, global entity as suggested by Levitt, or a heterogeneous, global entity as suggested by de Mooij. To answer this question, clothing and accessory e-commerce sites are examined. Clothing and accessories are large components of e-commerce in both Korea and the USA. The Korea National Statistical Office (2005b) reported that clothes/fashions and related goods made up 14.5 percent of e-commerce sales in April 2005, second only to home electric appliances/electronics/telecommunication equipment (17.5 percent). The US Bureau of Census (2005) reported that clothing and clothing accessories accounted for 13.7 percent of e-commerce sales in 2003, second only to computer hardware (16.7 percent).The USA and Korea are leading countries in terms of internet usage and e-commerce. However, these two countries are culturally very different. An important question from a global perspective is whether this difference is manifested in apparel web sites since such differences could reflect different cultural orientations. This information could be helpful to those developing web sites for multinational firms - should the sites be country specific, or should they be \"one for all\"?Content analysis is used to identify the nature of consumer information on Korean and American web sites. The information from the content analysis is then used to examine whether cultural differences between the two countries could explain differences related to the nature of the respective apparel web sites.\nRelated literature and research questions: McCort and Malhotra (1993) noted that culture is a multidimensional concept reflecting language, education, and ecology, as well as social, economic, political, religious, and technological systems. Triandis (1972) delineated between physical culture - infrastructure created by a society such as roads and markets - and subjective culture - responses to experiences reflecting cognitive structures such as beliefs, values, attitudes, roles, and norms.Hofstede (2001) identified four basic cultural dimensions related to subjective culture: individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and power distance. Of particular interest is individualism/collectivism:Individualism pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose. Everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family. Collectivism pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive ingroups, which throughout people's lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty (Hofstede, 1991, p. 51).Collectivist cultures place importance on interdependence among people, while individualist cultures emphasize that people should function by themselves (Trandis, 2001). Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, all of whom share a Confucian cultural background, exhibit higher levels of collectivism relative to Americans.Collectivism/individualism is based on four values: considering one's self as independent or interdependent, importance of personal or group goals, importance of attitudes or norms as determinants of social behavior, and importance of exchange or communal relationships (Mills and Clark, 1982). Collectivism is often related to high family integrity, small distance from in-groups, and high sociability and interdependence. Individualism is often related to competition, self-reliance, emotional distance from in-groups, and hedonism. In addition, collectivists tend to change themselves to fit in rather than try to change the environment, while individualists tend to change the environment rather than themselves (Weisz et al., 1984).As implied above, important factors differentiating \"Eastern\" and \"Western\" cultures are Confucian values. The key principles of Confucian teaching identified by the Chinese Culture Connection (Hofstede and Bond, 1988, p. 8) include:The stability of society is based on unequal relationships between people ...The family is the prototype of all social organizations.Virtuous behavior toward others consists of treating others as one would like to be treated oneself: a basic human benevolence - which, however, does not extend as far as the Christian injunction to love thy enemies.Virtue with regard to one's tasks in life consists of trying to acquire skills and education, working hard, not spending more than necessary, being patient, and persevering.Based on the principles of Confucian teaching, The Chinese Culture Connection (1987) identified an additional cultural dimension called \"Confucian Work Dynamism\" reflecting a positive or negative orientation toward the cultural values associated with Confucian teachings. Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Taiwanese exhibit high levels of Confucian Work Dynamism.Hall (1976) examined the extent to which high- versus low-context - how much a listener is perceived as knowing about a subject under discussion - leads to communication differences among cultures. Context summarizes how people in a culture relate to one another, especially in social bonds, responsibility, commitment, social harmony, and communication. A high-context culture is one in which people are deeply involved with each other. As a result of intimate relationships among people, a structure of social hierarchy exists, individual inner feelings are kept under strong self-control, and information is widely shared through simple messages with deep meaning. On the other hand, a low-context culture is one in which people are highly individualized somewhat alienated, and fragmented, and there is relatively little involvement with others (Hall, 1976). Thus, in a high-context culture the bonds among people imply commitment, expectation, and mutual goodwill. There is an emphasis on conformity and group orientation. However, in a low-context culture, the bonds that tie people together are somewhat fragile, so that people move away or withdraw if things are not going well. Park and Jun (2003) noted that in collective and high-context cultures, group bonds and harmony are viewed as important and analytical procedures and structures tend to be avoided. In individual and low-context cultures, explicit communication and clear procedures are preferred.Okazaki and Rivas (2002) examined information content, cultural values and creative strategies on product-based home pages of Japanese multinational corporations in Japan, Spain, and the USA. They found that cultural values affect the use of \"convenience\" and \"modernity\" and web pages in Japan and the USA were more informative than those in Spain. Differences also existed with respect to the existence of individualistic and collectivistic values across the three countries; individualistic values were dominant in Spain and the USA, while collectivistic values were dominant in Japan.Chau et al. (2002) examined the online behavior of consumers from the USA and Hong Kong. In their study, Hong Kong subjects tended to use the internet more as a social communication device, whereas the Americans tended to use the internet for product information search purposes. In addition, Americans perceived heavy graphics with long download times as secondary concerns, whereas those from Hong Kong preferred animated graphics, video, and audio.There also are important differences between Korea and the USA from a physical culture perspective. Broadband penetration was about 24 percent for Korea in June 2003 - about 10 percentage points higher than Canada, the next closest country. At that time broadband penetration in the USA was about 8 percent (OECD, 2003). This makes it relatively easier to move large files over the internet in Korea relative to the USA.Research questions\nResearch methods: Data\nFindings: Brand and company information\nDiscussion and conclusion: The intent of this research was to answer two questions:1. Is there a difference in the content of Korean and American apparel web sites?2. Can differences be attributed to culture?To help answer these questions, the findings are summarized in Table IX.Content differences\nLimitations and future research: The fundamental limitation of this research is that it is descriptive. While there are statistically significant differences between Korea and the USA with respect to apparel web site content, and while cultural differences seem to explain the differences, this study does not demonstrate causation. In essence, this study concludes with the hypotheses that cultural differences affect web site content; however, this hypothesis still needs to be tested.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine whether cultural differences could explain differences between Korean and American apparel web sites.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The contents of American and Korean apparel web sites are compared. The chi-square test of independence is used to determine significant differences between the contents of the two countries apparel web sites.\nFindings: - The paper finds that American web sites provide specific information related to products and online purchase of products, while Korean web sites provide information related to consumers' relationships to the larger community. This difference could be due to cultural differences: the Korean culture tends to reflect collectivism while the American culture tends to reflect individualism.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The fundamental limitation of this research is that it is descriptive.\nPractical implications: - This research suggests that transcultural web sites may not be appropriate and that e-tailers need to be sensitive to cultural differences.\nOriginality/value: - The primary contribution of this paper is the identification of clear differences between Korean and American apparel web sites and that Hofstede's collectivism/individualism cultural value is a possible explanation of the difference between the two countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Sustainability in facilities management: an overview of current research
|
[
"Qualitative research",
"Sustainable buildings",
"Quantitative research",
"Literature review",
"Integrated strategic FM",
"Property management research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Climate adaptation, energy efficiency, sustainable development and green growth are societal challenges for which the facilities management (FM) profession can develop solutions and make positive contributions at the organisational level and have societal-level effects. It is well-known that buildings are responsible for approximately 40 per cent of the total energy consumption and one-third of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe (COD/2008/0223) and the USA (USGBC, 2013). Furthermore, an estimated 80 per cent (Junnila et al., 2003, 2006; Junnila, 2004) of the climate change impacts caused by buildings are created during their operating phase. The operating phase of a building is important not only for energy but also in relation to other sustainability challenges such as food consumption, biological diversity in the built environment, health, poverty and the use of non-renewable resources. Therefore, the ways we use, operate and manage buildings will have a substantial influence on the entire building sector, society and the planet in the near future. As Miller et al. (2010) suggested, focusing on the operation and management of buildings will create relatively more rapid advances in the sustainability sphere because a building's operation can be more critical than its design in this respect.\n2. A search for literature - the systematic literature review: As the purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the research related to SFM, basic keyword-based data scanning was insufficient. According to Fink's (2005) definition, a rigorous stand-alone literature review must be systematic by following a methodological approach, explicit in explaining the procedures by which it is conducted, comprehensive in its scope by including all relevant material and, therefore, reproducible by others who would follow the same approach in reviewing the topic. Therefore, a systematic literature review, or rather, a mixed-method systematic review, was chosen as a proper data analysis method for the purpose of this article. (Systematic reviews may examine quantitative or qualitative evidence, but when two or more types of evidence are examined within one review, it is called a mixed-method systematic review.)\n3. Analysis of current sustainable facilities management research: Based on an analysis of their abstracts, the 151 articles were divided into the following nine categories:\n4. Discussion: In this section, we discuss our findings and comment on the status of current research, as well as suggest directions for future research.\n5. Conclusions and future work: This literature review set out to identify all relevant published journal articles from the past five years (2007-2012), focusing on both sustainability and the use, operation and management of buildings (including commercial and residential buildings), to examine and synthesise the individual articles in a structured way, and to identify gaps in the literature. We identified 85 journals and 19,068 articles was identified out of which and examined 151 articles that together represent a broad basis of essential readings that form a scientific knowledge basis for current practices and for positioning future research in SFM. The appendices include lists of databases, journals and articles as a shared resource for future literature reviews.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Climate adaptation, energy efficiency, sustainable development and green growth are societal challenges for which the Facilities Management (FM) profession can develop solutions and make positive contributions on the organisational level and with societal-level effects. To base the emerging sub-discipline of sustainable facilities management (SFM) on research, an overview of current studies is needed. The purpose of this literature review is to provide exactly this overview.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This article identifies and examines current research studies on SFM through a comprehensive and systematic literature review. The literature review included screening of 85 identified scientific journals and almost 20,000 articles from the period of 2007-2012. Of the articles reviewed, 151 were identified as key articles and categorised according to topic.\nFindings: The literature review indicated that the current research varies in focus, methodology and application of theory, and it was concluded that the current research primary addresses environmental sustainability, whereas the current research which takes an integrated strategic approach to SFM is limited. The article includes lists of reviewed journals and articles to support the further development of SFM in research and practice.\nResearch limitations/implications: The literature review includes literature from 2007 to 2012, to manage the analytical process within the project period. However, with the current categorisation and the access to the reviewed journals and articles, it is possible to continue with the latest literature.\nPractical implications: The article provides an overview of theoretical and practical knowledge which can guide: how to document and measure the performance of building operations in terms of environmental, social and economical impacts? How to improve the sustainability performance of buildings? What are the potentials for and barriers to integrating sustainability into FM on strategic, tactical and operational levels?\nOriginality/value: The paper presents the most comprehensive literature study on SFM so far, and represents an important knowledge basis which is likely to become a key reference point for pioneers and scholars in the emerging sub-discipline of SFM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Correctness of aspect-oriented business process modeling
|
[
"Aspect-oriented modelling",
"Business process modelling",
"Correctness",
"Petri nets"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As it becomes increasingly common for organizations to work in a process-oriented manner, single organizations may be dealing with collections of hundreds or thousands business process models. Examples of such collections include 735 models in the BIT Process Library, 604 models in the SAP Reference Model, around 600 models in Dutch municipalities, around 250 models in the IBM's Insurance Application Architecture, and 6,000+models in Suncorp's process model repository for insurance (Dijkman et al., 2012). In such large collections of process models, the cross-cutting concerns were modeled as the integral parts of the business processes. The tangling of the cross-cutting concerns and base processes leads to this redundancy and less reusability.\n2. Related work: Aspect-orientation provides a new way of modularization by clearly separating cross-cutting concerns from core concerns. Some proposals to aspect-oriented business process modeling have already provided different concepts, notations, and maturity.\n3. Aspect-oriented business process modeling: In modeling aspect-oriented business processes, a meta-model which includes a number of different formal components is defined. These components are the base process, join point, advice, aspect, and weaving mechanism.\n4. Aspect-aspect weaving: Jointly deployed aspects may interact with each other. If not treated properly, interactions can give rise to interferences. Interferences are interactions that violate specified constraints (Kniesel, 2009; Kniesel and Bardey, 2006). The constraints of aspect-aspect interaction specify that the aspects must exhibit the specified effect and every effect must be applied only at the join points. For instance, logging activities of field accesses must be effective for all the matching field accesses in the woven process, while activity added by an aspect for the purpose of confirming field accesses must not show up where there are no filed assesses. Therefore, the errors or mistakes of aspect-aspect weaving are caused by the interferences among aspects. In the following section, we propose a method of weaving aspects together correctly.\n5. Base-aspect weaving: Base-aspect weaving weaves the aspects into the base processes. Petri net is used not only as the modeling language for the specification of business processes but also for the correctness analysis techniques. In comparison with other process models, the major characteristics of Petri nets are as follows (Reisig, 1985):\n6. Case study: The proposed method was applied to a systematic study on the modeling of a real-world banking process model, in order to prove the validity of the approach. The case study was conducted at the Yunnan Financial Engineering Institute and the aim was to improve the maintainability of the banking processes and made the processes more flexible and effective. Since banks have little room for error, the correctness of their business processes becomes very important. Accordingly, the case study was designed in terms of the real needs and a project team was formed. The team consisted of the authors of this paper and some technical and management personnel from the local banks. With the support of the employees from the banks, aspect-oriented and correctness controlling method were used in the banking processes and the performance assessments were analyzed.\n7. Conclusions: In the past, the cross-cutting concerns have been modeled as the integral parts of the business processes. This often leads to complexity, inflexibility, and less reusability. Aspect-orientation is a software engineering method that enables explicit separation and encapsulation of concerns (Mehmood and Jawawi, 2013). In this paper, based on the aspect-oriented concepts, an approach for aspect-oriented business process modeling is proposed. In the approach, Petri net is used not only as the design language for the specification of business processes but also as the analysis techniques that can effectively verify the correctness of business processes models.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Business process models, while primarily intended for process documentation, communication, and improvement, are often also used as input for developing process-oriented software systems (Ouyang et al., 2009). Ensuring correctness, handling complexity, and improving reusability and maintainability of business process models are important for all these goals. The purpose of this paper is to propose an aspect-oriented business process modeling and correctness controlling method based on Petri nets to satisfy these goals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The aspect-oriented paradigm provides a proper mechanism to modularization, and thus reduces the complexity of models, and also improves reusability and maintainability. However, weaving aspects into base processes may bring in mistakes or errors. To ensure correctness of modeling, this paper presents a formal approach to modeling aspect-oriented business processes and a method to ensure modeling correctness. Petri net is used as the process modeling language and its analysis techniques are applied to analyze the correctness of modeling. Two types of correctness, specifically, aspect-aspect correctness and base-aspect correctness are analyzed. A real banking process model is studied systematically in the case study to evaluate the approach and the performance assessments are conducted to show the cost and effect of the approach.\nFindings: Designing aspect-oriented business process models help organizations reusing the model elements to reduce redundancy of their model repository, improving their maintainability, and supporting them to adapt to the changes of business requirements with flexible modeling. It is important to stress that the correctness of business process modeling is important in ensuring the quality of the models, especially in the safety-critical business domains, such as financial business domain.\nOriginality/value: In this paper, separation of concerns is used to separate the cross-cutting activities and core activities in accordance with the different functions of these activities, and an approach to modeling aspect-oriented business processes is proposed. First, the cross-cutting activities are encapsulated as aspects, while core business activities are modeled as base processes. Then, according to the correctness requirements of business process models, based on the weaving mechanisms of aspect-oriented approach, weaving correctness is defined. Weaving correctness controlling methods between multi-aspects and between aspects and base processes are designed. Errors or mistakes of aspect-oriented business process modeling are prevented during the procedure of modeling to ensure error-free business process modeling.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The comparison of preferred languages of appreciation between Singapore employees and US employees
|
[
"Employee engagement",
"Appreciation",
"International differences",
"Singapore workforce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nLanguages of Appreciation: Feeling appreciated for one's contributions can both inspire job satisfaction and motivate employee engagement (Strack, 2014; Wolock and Martin, 2016). Extensive research has demonstrated that employees differ in what speaks appreciation to them, and five unique Languages of Appreciation have been identified (Chapman and White, 2019):\nUS Employees: Over 175,000 people (~90 percent US employees) have discovered their Primary Language of Appreciation by taking the Motivating By Appreciation (MBA) Inventory, and research (White, 2019) has shown that:\nSingapore Employees: Recent research suggests Singapore employees may value Acts of Service more highly than US employees (Qualtrics, 2018). Specifically:\nMethod: Using email domain names and knowledge of company location, this study compared:\nResults: The groups were different in their distribution of Primary Languages of Appreciation kh2 (3, N = 1888) 47.5, p = 0.00. Figure 1 reveals that the Singapore group chose Acts of Service as their Primary Language of Appreciation significantly more often than did the US employees. Interestingly, Acts of Service was the tied with Words of Affirmation as the most preferred Language of Appreciation by Singapore employees, whereas US employees preferred Words of Affirmation at a higher rate than Acts of Service.\nDiscussion: As the Qualtrics report suggests, workplace leadership positively interacting with employees at the personal level appears to be desired by Singapore employees. For Singapore employees, Acts of Service tied Words of Affirmation, as the most preferred manner to be shown appreciation in the workplace.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Recent reports suggest Singapore employees especially value practical assistance in resolving work-related issues. As such, this study explored whether the appreciation language Acts of Service was chosen as the Primary Language of appreciation by Singapore employees at a higher frequency than U.S. employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Nine hundred sixty-seven Singapore employees completed the Motivating By Appreciation (MBA) Inventory, which assesses individuals' preferred ways of being shown appreciation. A sample of 921 U.S. employees was created from the general MBA Inventory population that matched the Singapore employees group on age, gender and work setting.\nFindings: Acts of Service (39 per cent) was virtually equivalent with Words of Affirmation (37 per cent) as the most preferred Language of Appreciation by the Singapore employees, whereas U.S. employees preferred Words of Affirmation at a significantly higher rate (40 per cent) than Acts of Service (26 per cent).\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research is needed before the findings should be generalized to all East Asian cultures, and additional research is needed before conclusions should be made regarding specific cultural differences in action items preferred.\nPractical implications: Workplace leaders in Singapore need to be aware that understanding the work issues and providing practical assistance is highly valued by their employees and communicates appreciation as much as verbal and written praise. This emphasis on the desire for practical assistance is a cultural difference in comparison to their U.S. counterparts. Yet, in both cultures, the leader-employee interpersonal working relationship is a key factor that enables organizations to grow and work through changes successfully.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to compare preferred appreciation languages of Singapore and US employees, and report Singapore employees especially value practical assistance in resolving work-related issues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumers' behaviour in fast-food restaurants: a food value perspective from Spain
|
[
"Values",
"Loyalty",
"Trust",
"Satisfaction",
"Cluster",
"Consumer habits"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last few decades, the process of globalisation has led to important cultural and sociological changes that have seeped into consumers' habits and culinary preferences. For instance, today's consumers exhibit a heightened sensitivity about the food they eat, and their anxieties are wide-ranging: from the dangers of food poisoning, to the broad health impact of food (e.g. chemical additives, high fat content and the related chronic diseases), to the environmental and regulatory issues surrounding food production (Worsley and Lea, 2008). These concerns have arisen in tandem with many consumers spending less time buying and cooking their own meals (Ayechu and Dura, 2010).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 The relevance of values\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Conclusions: The present study aimed to understand how consumers' food values relate to their behaviours at fast-food restaurants. To this end, we joined the food values scale proposed by Lusk and Briggeman (2009) with the FRL model proposed by Grunert et al. (1993) in a survey of fast-food customers in Spain. Overall, the results corroborated the importance of designing segmented strategies in order to garner diverse consumers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand consumers' behaviour in fast-food restaurants in Spain. To this end, the authors conducted a survey that combined a classification of food values, as proposed in the relevant literature, with a related model that links personal values to behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample of 400 consumers was gathered from two different, leading fast-food chains operating in Spain. With these data, respondents were grouped through hierarchical cluster analysis and K-measures, and in accordance with Lusk and Briggeman's (2009) food values and the food-related lifestyle model. The authors validated these clusters by means of ANOVA and discriminant analysis, which led to useful observations about inter-group differences in consumers' habits, as well as their satisfaction, trust and loyalty.\nFindings: The results indicate that consumers can be clustered into three groups based their food values assessments: the \"mainly utilitarian\" group, the \"mainly hedonic\" group and the \"ethical values\" group. These groups not only demonstrate diverse habits, but also differ on key variables such as satisfaction, trust and loyalty.\nPractical implications: The authors offer several managerial recommendations for designing and developing segmentation strategies in the fast-food industry. Any such strategies should acknowledge that all consumer groups appear to value restaurants' efforts to provide them with both hedonic and utilitarian benefits, although the extent varies across groups.\nOriginality/value: Among the relevant literature, this research is the only one that examines the existence of distinct consumer groups based on their food values assessments. In addition, this paper analyses inter-group differences in terms of both diverse consumptions habits (frequency of visits, expenditure, etc.) and key marketing variables (satisfaction, trust and loyalty).\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Measuring the value of online communities
|
[
"Measurement",
"Metric",
"Value",
"Network",
"Community",
"Social media",
"Online community",
"Forum",
"Online",
"Statistic"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Objective: The owners of communities often find it hard to estimate their value and to maximise their benefits. This paper aims to provide a set of measures that enable a better understanding of online communities, their value and the strategic decisions best suited to them.\n2. Terminology: For the purposes of this paper we will use the terms \"visitor\", \"member', \"manager\" and \"owner\".\n3. Classification of online communities: In this paper, we will focus on online communities that meet five conditions:\n4. The evidence of worth model: Online communities can be classified by four key purposes, relating to the owner of the community (Mainelli, 2012; Harris et al., 2002):\n5. Measuring community strength: A strong or successful community will be a melting-pot of activity ready to take up and engage with on-topic ideas. The measure of this is usually presented to community owners by means of numerical statistics. These come in four varieties:\n6. Understanding and managing your community maturity lifecycle: As well as determining the measures appropriate to the community, one of the principal tasks of the manager is to enable an appropriate interpretation of those measures. One of the foremost factors to grasp in this regards is the lifecycle of a community.\n7. Other factors affecting value: Maturity along the community's lifecycle was one of the alternative axes by which to classify online communities. In the same way, the other possible classification axes are also relevant, as they contribute to a fuller description of any community. Therefore, the alternative axes will inform the sort of benefits that we should expect from the community.\n8. Conclusion: \"One size doesn't fit all\" when measuring the value of online communities. At each stage, if the best strategic decisions are to be made, the community and its contexts must be thoroughly understood. This paper has brought this out by our choice of purpose as the appropriate axis for classification, the selection from and weighting of the relevant elements from the evidence of worth framework, the statistical measures necessary to gain a fuller picture of the data, and the various other factors, such as the community's lifecycle, which contribute to valuation of a community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a set of measures that enable better understanding of online communities, their value and the strategic decisions best suited to them.\nDesign/methodology/approach: After an initial definition of terms and classification of online communities, a framework for assessing the value of communities is presented, enumerating benefits by their relationship to risk and reward. The disconnect between such benefits and the normal statistical measures of success is then addressed. The paper concludes with a short review of a range of other factors that should influence the valuation of online communities.\nFindings: There are three key points that should allow a structured approach to estimating the value of communities: a 12-part model for classifying online communities by their purposes; a consideration of how these should be measured; and a review of some other factors affecting the valuation of communities.\nOriginality/value: The paper allows a framework for stakeholders of online communities to converse, plan and make decisions regarding those communities. The paper uses a framework already tested in the charity sector by Z/Yen Group and applies it in the online community space.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Mindfulness at work: resource accumulation, well-being, and attitudes
|
[
"Attitudes",
"Mindfulness",
"Conservation of resources",
"Well-being"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The topic of mindfulness is garnering attention in a variety of academic disciplines, including social psychology, health psychology, and neuroscience. Despite increased interest, limited attention has been paid to mindfulness in the management sciences (Andrews et al., 2014; Dane and Brummel, 2014; Glomb et al., 2011; Hulsheger et al., 2013). Generally defined as a state of mind wherein the focus is on the present-moment experience without judgment (Dekeyser et al., 2008; Kabat-Zinn, 1994), findings in clinical and social psychology indicate that mindfulness is associated with physical and mental health (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Carmody et al., 2008; Dekeyser et al., 2008) and is widely accessible and easily trainable (Giluk, 2009; Kabat-Zinn, 1990, 1994).\nModel of mindfulness at work and organizational attitudes: The primary tenet of COR theory is that individuals make every effort to protect their own interests and achieve their goals. One mechanism used to attain this objective is the accrual of resources that are likely to result in positive emotional states and attitudes. We believe that mindfulness at work is a tool that can be used to accrue resources across one's career and theorize that this tool allows employees to build their energy resources by attaining work-family balance and job engagement. In turn, these employees may experience enhanced well-being through greater job satisfaction and lower psychological distress, and finally to a positive attitude toward the employing organization and their career there. These relationships are depicted in Figure 1.\nMethod: Our study was conducted in two phases. In phase 1 we began by developing a scale to measure mindfulness at work. Although mindfulness scales exist, none were suited to measuring the cognitive, work-related aspects of mindfulness of interest here. In phase 2, we tested the theoretical model shown in Figure 1 employing our newly developed mindfulness scale.\nResults: Initial analyses\nDiscussion: The practice of mindfulness at work has a host of beneficial effects for employees who engage in it and their organizations. Our goal in this research was to develop a scale that contextualizes mindfulness within the workplace and enables us to explore how this tool may influence employees' individual work lives and organizations as a whole. We achieved these goals using data from full time employees to understand how mindfulness at work contributes to employees' accrual of career-related resources (i.e. work-family balance and job engagement) (Hobfoll, 2001), to enhance their well-being (i.e. psychological distress and job satisfaction), and to contribute to their attitudes toward their workplace (i.e. intent to turnover and affective commitment). Because job satisfaction and intent to turnover are important factors in predicting long-term career success (Bretz and Judge, 1994; Dawis and Lofquist, 1984), better understanding these relationships may be important for employees and organizations alike. The findings from our research suggest that mindfulness at work is a tool that helps employees accrue resources which enhance their well-being and their likelihood of being committed and remaining in their current organization, important indicators of career success (Bretz and Judge, 1994; Dawis and Lofquist, 1984).\nConclusion: In conclusion, our results indicate that organizations may reap considerable benefits from training their employees in or providing programs that support the practice of mindfulness in the workplace. Using the resource of mindfulness and being equipped to recognize, respond, and refocus allows employees to acquire additional resources that benefit not only the employee through enhanced well-being, but also profit the organization through career success of its employees via lower turnover intentions and greater affective commitment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Mindfulness is a well-studied phenomenon in many disciplines. Little is known about its impacts on employees at work. The purpose of this paper is to focus on mindfulness at work, defined as a psychological state in which employees intentionally pay full attention to the present moment while executing job tasks. The research model, grounded in conservation of resources theory, depicts how mindfulness at work may help employees develop resources (work-family balance and job engagement) which may be associated with greater well-being (less psychological distress and more job satisfaction) and organizational attitudes (intent to turnover and affective commitment).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a sample of 503 full time employees, the authors test the model with structural equation modeling.\nFindings: Results supported the full research model, suggesting that mindfulness at work is an important antecedent to resource accrual, well-being, and organizational attitudes. Mindfulness at work exerted direct and indirect effects on turnover intentions and affective commitment.\nResearch limitations/implications: The inclusion of job engagement as a mediator provides an interesting counterpoint and extension of prior studies suggesting that job engagement negates the effects of mindfulness on turnover intentions (Dane, 2014).\nPractical implications: The research suggests that mindfulness at work is highly trainable and may enhance a variety of career outcomes.\nOriginality/value: This study extends emerging literature on mindfulness at work by offering a new scale grounded in established theory and the practice of mindfulness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Innovating the customer loyalty program with social media: A case study of best practices using analytics tools
|
[
"Social media",
"Innovation",
"Customer loyalty program"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nowadays businesses are facing tremendous challenges to retain customers. Usually, retaining current customers costs less than attracting new customers. That is why loyal customers can contribute more revenues with less time and attention (Yang and Peterson, 2004). According to a Forbes report (Lawrence, 2012), a 5 percent increase in customer retention can increase a company's profitability by 75 percent, whereas attracting new customers is five times more expensive than keeping existing customers. Also, loyal customers can help businesses spread positive word-of-mouth to others, which could bring in new customers. Therefore, maintaining current customers is very important to businesses. According to Rust et al. (2004), customer loyalty also brings other benefits in terms of customer retention, repurchase, and long-term customer relationships. As such, it is not surprising that the customer loyalty program has been an important part of every business. A business definitely wants to invest its customer loyalty program in order to reach a significant level of customer loyalty. By definition, a loyalty program is a rewards program offered by a company to its customers who frequently make purchases. A loyalty program may give a customer free merchandise, rewards, coupons or even advance released products. Loyalty programs are very popular throughout the service and hospitality industry. For example, frequent flyer programs are typical ones in the airline industry.\n2. Literature review: We conducted a literature search in order to find articles that cover the intersection of loyalty programs and social media strategies. Our search results revealed that the intersection of loyalty programs and social media strategies is a niche research area that few studies have been conducted and has been mostly neglected by mainstream marketing research. Also, it is unclear how social media strategies can effectively affect customer loyalty programs. As loyalty programs could have the possibility of not boosting members' loyalty (Soderlund and Colliander, 2015), businesses that fail to apply effective social media strategies to their loyalty programs could negatively affect customer satisfaction with the loyalty programs and even lead to the attrition of customers using improper loyalty programs. Due to the competition pressure, forward-looking businesses are nowadays forced to find new social media strategies for their loyalty programs to attract, gain and sustain loyal customers in order to stay competitive.\n3. Research design: 3.1 Why case study research?\n4. Research process: To investigate the SYW program, we collected the data from two major social media platforms: Slickdeal.com and Twitter. We then applied the social media analytics approach (He et al., 2016; Shahzad et al., 2017) to synthesize the patterns and insights from the massive content. Through the text mining process, we identified the top users who posted the most in forums and explored how those top users influenced other users. To validate the effectiveness of SYW loyalty program, we also analyzed the Twitter data and utilized the sentiment analysis method.\n5. Results: 5.1 Most mentioned words and word association\n6. Discussion: Social media provide an interactive environment for businesses to strengthen the dialogues and connections between customers and businesses. A business can encourage its customers by arranging user-specific activities to create personal experiences. The customers are thus able to perceive the higher value of and a sense of belonging to a loyalty program offered by the business (Kao et al., 2016). As a result, the customers will be more associated with the online activities of the loyalty program and have greater desire to participate in the program. On the other hand, if the customers do not receive the promised reward or if the indicated benefits of the loyalty program prove worthless to them, customer frustration may arise (Stauss et al., 2005). The SYW program was innovative in that it offered many new features and approaches for its members to earn points. It also enabled different customers to choose different products that suit them best. The strong desire of its members to earn points could be identified from the online forum at Slickdeal.com. Many of the discussion threads were continuous and active for many years. Until writing of this paper, the SYW members have continued to post messages about how to earn and use points from the beginning of this loyalty program.\n7. Conclusion: Loyalty programs have become a marketing mainstay in the services sector. Virtually all hotels, restaurants and retailers now provide some incentives to customers to encourage loyalty (Hoffman and Lowitt, 2008). Despite the numerous merits of loyalty programs, many loyalty programs are not successful in engaging their members. According to the study by Kolowich (2015), American households on average were enrolled in 29 loyalty programs but active in only 12 of them. Therefore, it becomes essential for businesses to find innovative strategies to make their loyalty programs more engaging and attractive so that their loyalty programs can create more value for both companies and customers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Few academic studies specifically investigate how businesses can use social media to innovate customer loyalty programs. The purpose of this paper is to present an in-depth case study of the Shop Your Way (SYW) program, which is regarded as one of the most successful customer loyalty programs with social media.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses case study research as the methodology to uncover innovative features associated with the SYW customer loyalty program. The authors collected the data from SYW's social media forums and tweets. The data set was analyzed using social media analytics tools including the R package and Lexicon.\nFindings: Based on the research results, the authors summarize innovative social media features identified from SYW. The authors also provide insights and recommendations for businesses that are seeking to innovate their customer loyalty programs using social media technologies.\nOriginality/value: The results of this case study set a good example for businesses which want to innovate and improve their customer loyalty programs using social media technologies. This is the first in-depth case study on the SYW program, one of the most successful customer loyalty programs with social media. The results shed light on how social media can innovate customer loyalty programs in both theory and practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using appreciative inquiry in sales team development
|
[
"Business development",
"Change management",
"Sales force"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nWhat is appreciative inquiry?: Appreciative inquiry is a change methodology that has been developed in the USA over the last 25 years. Its initial and chief proponent is David Cooperrider (Cooperrider and Srivastva, 1987) of Case Western University who first developed the approach during his PhD studies. Since then practitioners interested in a truly different approach to change and development have enthusiastically adopted it.\nWhy appreciative?: The fundamental difference appreciative inquiry brings lies in its basic premise: that an organisation is a living human system, not a machine, and that therefore its growth is nurtured through human growth processes. A key human process necessary for growth is that of recognition and appreciation. Psychologists highlighted the importance of human contact and interaction to human development over 50 years ago, discovering that food and water were insufficient on their own to promote healthy infant growth (Harlow, 1962; Bowlby, 1951). To thrive, human infants need to experience being caressed, being looked at and spoken to; they need to receive love and attention. In the same way Cooperrider demonstrates that human systems such as teams and organisations grow through the process of being appreciated.\nWhy inquiry?: The other fundamental difference appreciative inquiry offers is an understanding that we live in a socially constructed reality (Cooperrider and Whitney, 2005). Social constructionism is the idea that we do not see or interact with the world \"as it is\" but as we perceive it to be; we then act on the basis of our perceptions as reality. Interestingly this idea that the world we live in is a projection from our brains onto the world is increasingly being supported by neuro-psychology (Damasio, 2000). However the challenge of sense-making extends beyond the individual. To live successfully in groups we need to co-create a shared sense of the world to be able to interact meaningfully together. In other words perception and sense-making are, at heart, social activities or processes. Asking questions is an important sense-making and developmental process. Questions do more than generate information, they are an important social process that direction our attention.When our attention is directed in a particular direction it is like shining a high-powered light on a previously murky corner: we may have known it was there but we have never really looked at it before. In the same way, questions that direct our attention towards unconsidered, unarticulated, less explored areas of our organisation, team or life can reveal hidden resources, strengths and possibilities. Within appreciative inquiry questioning is itself is seen as a powerful tool for change, not just a precursor to change.\nHow do you do it?: David Cooperrider (Cooperrider and Whitney, 2005) has provided a clear methodology for the appreciative inquiry process. However, both the model and the language has developed within the USA and as such practitioners need to give consideration to how the modes and the language translate to their own national and regional context. Some work has been done to explore these issues in application to the UK and European Union (Lewis et al., 2007).\nAppreciative inquiry topic: Initially the team, group or organisation needs to identify a topic for investigation. For many of us our default mode is to focus on a problem or problem area. Appreciative inquiry encourages, indeed requires, us to focus instead on an area we want to grow. We need to identify and focus on what we want more of, not what we want less of. We do not want more problems therefore we need to focus our attention on something other than the problem. So if the problem is falling sales, we might want to focus on rising sales. If the problem is a lack of team-work, we might want to inquire into effective team-work. Appreciative inquiry helps us to appreciate that the terrain is uneven, that is to say that while sales overall might be falling, there will be differentials for each person, each product and each client. By focussing on the sales that are rising, not falling, or falling more slowly we can start to see what we are doing that is having the effect we want. In essence it is about learning from our successes, learning from what is going right, and focusing on what we want.Careful thought and reflection needs to go into the framing of the final topic and of the initial question. As Cooperrider et al. (2005) note, the seeds of change are implicit in the first question asked. Once the appreciative inquiry topic has been identified there is a four-stage process for change.Discovery\nUsing appreciative inquiry to support a regional sales team development day: Background\nConclusion: This paper has outlined the methodology of appreciative inquiry and also given an account of using appreciative inquiry creatively in a sales team development context. It has demonstrated the extreme flexibility and versatility of this approach. Further, appreciative inquiry through its use of imagination, inquiry, conversation, creation and connection, helps a team to grow towards their vision for the future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explain the appreciative inquiry change methodology and to demonstrate how it can be applied to a specific work challenge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper first explains the appreciative inquiry method and gives an account of how the approach was applied to a sales team development event.\nFindings: - Appreciative inquiry is a change approach that is growing in popularity. This paper demonstrates the flexibility of this approach within the context of change and development. In the case study under examination the incorporation of appreciative inquiry based practice enhanced both the development experience and post event performance.\nPractical implications: - This paper gives clear guidance on the basic model of appreciative inquiry and how it can be practically employed in a familiar context.\nOriginality/value: - Appreciative inquiry offers an alternative approach to organisational development to either personality based or problem solving based development. By calling on the human facilities of imagination, emotion, conversation, engagement, orientation, and self-direction it offers a truly psychological approach to human group development\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Time affluence, material affluence and well-being among Turkish managers
|
[
"Managers",
"Turkey",
"Remuneration",
"Personal needs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: What does it mean to be rich? Many societies have focused on material affluence (MA) though a growing body of research findings has indicated that money does not \"buy\" happiness (see Burke, 2007, 2009). Kasser and Sheldon (2009) argue instead that time affluence (TA) is more likely to be associated with happiness and well-being. They reported results from four studies that support their view.In their first study involving a US sample of 1,078 adults, TA was significantly and positively correlated with both job and family satisfaction. Income was also significantly and positively with both satisfaction measures as well.In their second study, again involving a sample of adults in the USA, both TA and MA had had positive and significant relationships with three measures of subjective well-being (SWB), while work hours and family income had insignificant but positive relationships with SWB. TA and MA were correlated 0.24 (p < 0.05).College students participated in their third study which found that TAS was positively correlated with SWB while MA was not. Both mindfulness and the satisfaction of psychological needs partially mediated the TA-SWB relationship. Individuals reporting more TA indicated higher levels of SWB because they experienced more mindfulness and greater satisfaction of their psychological needs. In this study, TA and MA were correlated 0.18 (p < 0.06).In total, 145 adults participated in their fourth study; MA and TA were correlated 0.30 (p < 0.05). They found that both TA and MA were significantly correlated with SWB; hours worked and income was also related to SWB. Again, mindfulness and the satisfaction of psychological needs partially moderated the TA-SWB relationship.Why should TA enhance one's satisfaction and well-being? If one has TA, they can also have time to engage in activities such as mindfulness that meet important psychological needs. Kasser and Brown (2003) found that work hours were negatively correlated with life satisfaction in a sample of US adults. In addition, most workers want to work fewer hours and have more free time (Hayden, 2003).Work hours and their effects\nMethod: Procedure\nMeasures: TA and MA\nResults: TA and MA\nDiscussion: Our findings suggest some tentative conclusions. First, the concepts and measures of both TA and MA seemed to be relevant in the Turkish context. Both had adequate levels of internal consistency reliability. Second, our results replicated US findings and extended them to employed men and women in the manufacturing sector in Turkey, a large secular Muslim country that is rapidly changing from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing and service economy. Third, TA was found to be associated with positive work and well-being outcomes, extending the earlier Kasser and Sheldon (2009) study. Fourth, MA was also associated with positive work and well-being outcomes, perhaps even more so than in the US study. MA might emerge as a more powerful predictor of both kinds of outcomes in a sample in which almost half were earning less than US$15,000 per year. Aycan (2001), reports results of a survey of 1,213 senior business students from 15 different universities in Turkey that showed that pay was an important motivating factor for them.Why should MA and TA contribute to satisfaction and feelings of well-being? MA allows one to satisfy both basic and acquitted needs. Individuals can also \"keep up with the Joneses\" if this is important to them. In addition MA allows individuals to take part in satisfying activities (e.g. vacations, attending the theatre, visits to parks and museums, family dinners at restaurants). TA allows individuals to both participate in activiti9esk that meet important psychological needs such as self-development, contact with friends and family, and spiritual development (Kasser and Sheldon, 2009). In addition, Sonnentag and Fritz (2007) have begun a research program exploring the role of recovery experiences after work on individual well-being. They considered four such experiences: psychological detachment, relaxation, master and control. Use of these is likely to be positively related to TA and partially explain why TA is associated with higher levels of well-being.There were some difference in the US and Turkish results. MA and TA were uncorrelated in Turkey but were significantly and positively correlated in the US samples. Our Turkish respondents indicated relatively similar levels of both TA and MA, with MA being slightly higher TA is likely to be in short supply in a sample in which about 40 percent of the respondents worked 51 h or more a week.There are several potential cross cultural implications of the TA and MA concepts. Country and culture differences in their emphasis on materialism, on hours worked per week, on weeks of government mandated vacation time, on the importance of the family, on the significance of religion and spirituality and on opportunities for earning income, are likely to play a role in both levels of TA and MA and potential correlates of them.Limitations of the research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Based on US college student and adult samples, Kasser and Sheldon suggested that time affluence (TA) may be a more significant predictor of subjective well-being than material affluence (MA). This paper aims to replicate and extend their findings to an employed sample from another country and culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected from 877 men and women managers and professionals working in the manufacturing sector in Turkey using anonymously completed questionnaires.\nFindings: - This sample worked long hours and earned significantly less income than did the US samples. TA and MA were uncorrelated in this sample though positively and significantly correlated in the US samples. Income emerged as a significant predictor of MA but not TA. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for both personal demographics (e.g. age, education) and work situation characteristics (e.g. organizational level, organizational tenure) showed that TA and MA were significant predictors of most work outcomes (e.g. job satisfaction, job stress) and indicators of psychological well-being (e.g. psychosomatic symptoms, life satisfaction).\nResearch limitations/implications: - Data were collected at one point in time so issues of causality cannot be addressed. Results suggest that further research on TA and MA should be carried out in countries having different values and levels of development than in North America.\nOriginality/value: - These findings partially replicate US results and extend them to women and men working in a single occupation in another country. They suggest that further research on TA and MA should be carried out in countries having different values and levels of development than in North America.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer empowerment in insurance: Effects on performance risk perceptions in decision making
|
[
"Perceived risk",
"Consumer empowerment",
"Purchase decision involvement",
"Consumer relationship marketing",
"Decision delegation preference",
"Financial decision making",
"Perceived performance risk"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Digital technologies have changed the way consumers interact with companies; they now diversify their information sourcing and have access to global offerings. In addition, they can take on new roles in the service process ranging from more control in decisions to a very high degree of customer involvement where customers themselves become the predominant actors in the innovation and provision of services (Maas and Graf, 2004). The general consensus is that digital technologies have the potential to change the consumer-service provider relationship so that consumers are no longer bound to be passive actors in the market (Deighton and Kornfeld, 2009; Harrison et al., 2006; Kozinets and Graduate, 1999; Kucuk, 2009; Shipman, 2001). What does this change in consumers' self-perception mean to the insurance service provider and its relationship to consumers? Does consumer empowerment provide an opportunity to maintain and strengthen the consumer relationship?\n2. Theoretical foundations and conceptualization of the consumer empowerment construct: The concept of empowerment has its origins in community psychology (Rappaport, 1981, 2008) and has been applied in contexts such as organization research (Conger and Kanungo, 1988; Thomas and Velthouse, 1990) information system research (Fuller et al., 2010) and consumer research (van Beuningen et al., 2011; Fuchs et al., 2010; Harrison and Waite, 2015; Wathieu et al., 2002; Wilkinson, 1998). Nevertheless, consumer empowerment remains a poorly defined concept (Starkey, 2003), research on empowerment is fragmented and eclectic (Labrecque et al., 2013; Rucker et al., 2011; Zimmerman, 1990), and the concept is very loosely used by practitioners and academics (Denegri-Knott et al., 2006; Wilkinson, 1998). This is challenging for marketing professionals because a change in consumers' self-perception has a large impact on the consumer-service provider relationship. The varying meanings and ideologies increase the complexity of the concept and are thus not conducive for practical use. For those who intend to turn empowerment into a strategic instrument, it is important to have a sound conceptual basis.\n3. Conceptual framework and hypothesis development: Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework used in this study, which builds on self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977) to explain the impact of consumer empowerment on perceived performance risk in insurance decision making. This framework relies on two effects that self-efficacy theory describes. First, beliefs about self-efficacy and controllability shape individuals' expectations about the outcome; second, individuals' beliefs determine behavior (Bandura, 1988; Wood and Bandura, 1989). Thus, this paper empirically tests whether perceived self-efficacy and perceived controllability affect perceived performance risk, defined as consumers' expectation of a failure, and decision delegation preference, reflecting decision-making behavior. Moreover, the framework includes findings from the purchase decision involvement concept in developing hypotheses.\n4. Methodology: Insurance services provide a highly relevant context to research the impact of perceived consumer empowerment on perceived performance risk. First, risk perceptions play an important role in deciding on insurance services (Byrne, 2005), as the amount at stake can be vital and the probability of having particular events of damage or loss not covered is often perceived as high due to the intangibility. Second, insurance is often associated with painful, displeasing events, which reduces personal engagement (Newholm et al., 2006). Third, information asymmetry in the insurance industry is traditionally high. In empowering consumers, insurance providers can address these knowledge imbalances and support their consumers to make informed decisions. Parallels can be drawn to the financial services sector but also to other complex services within the legal and health industries. Thus, the conclusions will have wide relevance for companies acting within industries with complex services which decide to lay the foundations for their consumers, thereby helping to empower them.\n5. Data analysis and results: Data are tested for normality violations, which distort variances and covariances, by investigating skewness and kurtosis (DeCarlo, 1997). Scores range from -1.04 to 1.35 for skewness and from -1.13 to 1.12 for kurtosis, which indicates that the data set does not include serious issues (Bollen, 1989). Confirmatory factor analysis is conducted to assess the validity of the measures. In the initial model, standardized factor loading (SFL) for the fourth item of decision delegation preference (\"If there were to be a fundamental change in my personal circumstances, I would prefer my adviser to take a more active role in the decisions to be made\") is 0.58, just under the value of 0.60 suggested by Bagozzi and Yi (1988), but still exceeding the 0.5 threshold proposed by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). The average variance extracted (AVE) is then examined to decide whether the items should be retained. The AVE of the factor Decision Delegation Preference results in a value of 0.482; thus, this variable is removed to obtain better convergent validity. Two other questions have an SFL lower than 0.60, but they are kept in the analysis as the AVE is sufficient and to be consistent with theoretical foundations.\n6. Discussion and implications: In consumer research, consumer empowerment is considered as a significant factor for managing customer relationships (Bhat and Darzi, 2016). The current study investigates the effects of consumers' perceived empowerment on perceived risk in a consumer-provider relationship in the insurance industry. The findings enhance the understanding of the psychological and behavioral effects of consumer empowerment and help practitioners to comprehend the implications of a consumer empowerment strategy. Several contributions to the existing literature are made.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of consumer empowerment in the relationship between consumers and service providers. It draws on self-efficacy theory to conceptualize consumer empowerment and explain the impact on perceived performance risk in insurance decision making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employs data collected from an online survey involving 487 consumers in Switzerland, who recently decided on an insurance service. A structural equation model quantifies both the psychological effects on consumers' perception of insurance services and behavioral effects on their decision-making process.\nFindings: Perceived consumer empowerment is conceptualized by perceived self-efficacy and perceived controllability. Both have a significant impact on perceived performance risk, while the former is partially mediated by the preference to delegate the decision to a surrogate. Moreover, customers' involvement in the purchase process moderates both the direct and indirect effect of perceived self-efficacy on perceived performance risk.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results are based on consumers' perceptions from a single country. Furthermore, consumers' perceptions were surveyed with a time lag after the decision-making process. To increase rigor, perceptions should be collected during decision making.\nPractical implications: Results show that consumer empowerment can be employed as a risk reduction strategy. Consumers with self-efficacy and controllability beliefs perceive significantly less performance risk; however, practitioners should consider that consumers are also motivated to make decisions independently rather than delegating their decisions. Furthermore, consumer empowerment depends on consumer will. For largely indifferent consumers, empowerment does not affect risk or decision delegation preference.\nOriginality/value: The study is among the few empirical works to examine the effects of consumer empowerment on the consumer-service provider relationship on an individual level. Furthermore, applying consumer empowerment in relationship marketing implies a shift in research focus to the question of how consumers construe decision-making situations rather than objectively measuring the state of consumer relationship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Using student activity trends to inform purchasing: a layered model for collection management
|
[
"Collection development",
"Research paper",
"Collection management",
"Collection assessment",
"Holistic assessment",
"Student-focused assessment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Academic libraries face a myriad of challenges meeting the needs of an ever-changing user base. New degrees and programs are established, while others are eliminated. Each year, new groups of students and faculty bring unique research interests. Budgets also struggle to keep pace with inflation leading to decreased spending power; continuing subscriptions comprise a growing chunk of acquisition budgets, leaving fewer funds for other purchases. The imperative to be thoughtful in the distribution of scarce resources has led to the development of assessment strategies that help libraries understand better their users' needs and habits. The paper explores the development of a layered model for describing research and curricular activity that subject librarians can use to inform collection management decision-making, using the Mathematics Department at Central Michigan University as an example.\nThe model: The first layer of the model is a basic understanding of student academic activity and faculty research interests. Data gathered may include number of students, number of degrees awarded, credit hours taken at various levels, number of faculty including rank and areas of faculty specialization. Course enrollment and graduation data can be compared over time to identify trends. Deeper understanding of the department may come from syllabi, course assignments or citation analysis of creative output, including theses and dissertations (Smith, 2003), conference presentations (Bales and Gee, 2013) and published papers (Lightman and Manilov, 2000).\nImplementation: The scope of the model used will depend upon many variables, particularly available data; inconsistencies in data presentation and availability require flexibility and willingness to accept \"good enough\" data (Tatarka et al., 2010), as in the example above where less than complete runs of data are used. Further limitations on time and other resources require librarians to select the most-appropriate questions to ask and available data to analyze, taking time to develop a \"set of workflows and internal protocols\" (Tararka et al., 2010, p. 209) and identify required tasks and timelines. It is important to note that model maintenance is required to ensure useful information; gathering new data and updating the picture are necessary for responsiveness. Finally, implementation can vary from a concise snapshot of a subject area (Duncan and O'Gara, 2015) to a needs analysis to an in-depth analysis of a small sub-area of a subject. The current example model of mathematics will continue to be developed, to identify the most-appropriate data to collect and analyze and to develop best practices to sustain collection assessment efforts in the library.\nConclusion: The need to effectively manage library collections is great; libraries are being asked to justify their existence, demonstrate their value and are doing more with less. Understanding student populations through the development of sustainable models can allow for deep analysis of library collections and facilitate responsive purchase decisions that meet the needs of users. A follow-up analysis of similarities and differences between academic disciplines may yield further insight into user preferences and habits. As Agee (2005, p. 95) concluded:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of a layered model for describing student activity that librarians can use to inform collection management decisions. It proposes using student activity in the classroom and the library, physically and virtually, to increase understanding of student curricular and research needs. The model can be used as a tool to facilitate conversations and can be adapted for use in large and small projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper used a theoretical approach using Mathematics Department as an example, with supporting evidence from existing studies and research. As a theoretical paper, data are discussed in the framework of what information you might use.\nFindings: Experimentation suggests that the framework of student activity provides a meaningful assessment of collection contents that can be used to inform collection development activities. Implementation of the model in response to a specific research question may build evidence towards the assertion that patterns of academic activity and library use should be used to improve collection offerings.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research is required to determine which criteria are most appropriate for inclusion in specific collection development activities and which questions are best suited for modeling.\nPractical implications: The paper includes implications for developing student \"personas\" that can be used in collection building and beyond.\nSocial implications: The framework introduced can be used by libraries of any size or type to develop a layered model of student, or more generally user, activity.\nOriginality/value: This paper adds a flexible, responsive process to the body of collection assessment methods.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Dialogic collaging to cultivate shame resilience in writing classrooms
|
[
"Shame",
"Teacher education",
"Pedagogy",
"Play",
"Dialogic teaching",
"Collage",
"Shame resilience",
"Writing identity",
"Writing instruction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a recent essay, Whitney (2018) invites writing teachers to address the shame often surrounding experiences of writing in classrooms and schools. Grounded in the work of Brown (2012) and others, writing-related shame is conceptualized as an identity threat, a global feeling of worthlessness in response to a specific struggle or failure with writing (Whitney, p. 130). Brown (2012) usefully differentiates shame as a global experience of unworthiness (e.g. \"I am shit\") as distinct from a specific writing struggle a writer may be having: \"this is a shitty first draft\" (Lamott, 1994) or experience of guilt: \"that was a shitty thing I did to my friend, sending such a mean text to her.\" Because shame is the price humans must pay for letting themselves be seen (or in the case of writing, \"read\") by others, Brown (2012) suggests that becoming comfortable with the inherent vulnerability of our humanity is key to shame resilience.\nSituating the pedagogical approach: The dialogic collage work narrated here evolved in response to two pedagogical traditions in the field of English education, namely, expressivist writing instruction and dialogic writing theory.\nSetting the scene: the institutional space: Mary has, therefore, been exploring such dialogic collage work as a way to address student struggles with writing-related shame and other difficult emotions in her postsecondary writing classrooms in the midwestern US. Although she has used the approach in a range of writing classrooms, workshops and faculty development settings, the story told here unfolded in a 400-level course offered in the English department at a large public university in the midwestern US. Many, but not all, students who typically enroll in the course are prospective secondary English teachers in their fourth year of a five-year teacher preparation program that culminates in a year-long unpaid teaching internship. The course aims to equip students with direct experiences with and knowledge about writing and its instruction in secondary classrooms.\nWorking with collage to dialogue with self and others: elaborating the pedagogy: Pedagogical background and rationale\nSal's story: one student's perspective on dialogic collaging: As a student, I (Sal is the first-person referent in this section) was immediately taken aback when I was asked to represent my \"writing-self\" in the form of a collage. I was intrigued by the idea of making a collage, but I have never been a confident writer and I was apprehensive to reflect on a part of me that I so strongly valued, yet felt so deficient in.\nFurther discussion, implications and conclusions: If Brown (2012) is right that humans experience shame as identity threat, it helps to explain the worst-case scenario so often witnessed in writing classrooms: writing-related shame leads students to dissociate the label \"writer\" from their identities - and from their sense of who they are becoming - altogether. Dialogic collaging can provide opportunities to reflect on how we see ourselves as writers, guiding us toward the possibility of developing resilience to feelings of shame surrounding writing. As Sal's story invokes, at the most fundamental level, it invites writers to confront how they are, in fact, already writers in some sense of the word. This vantage point - creating and responding to a visual representation of how I, as a writer specifically, see myself in a particular moment - opens up possibilities for recognizing and giving voice to difficult emotions, like shame. Working with an aesthetically crafted juxtaposition of images on a card, rather than words, can allow people to see one possible portrayal of themselves as writers. This imagistic focus can create space for a certain distance from the feelings - like shame - that may be evoked by the collage. Working with images offers a way to dispassionately witness one's difficult emotion, without becoming overwhelmed or caught up in the maelstrom.\nImplications for future secondary teachers and teaching practices: So far, we have discussed how dialogic collaging can facilitate students working through feelings of writing-related shame, but our story also has implications for considering how participation in this activity could shape the future writing instruction of preservice teachers who experienced it. Sal, for his part, hopes to teach high school English in the midwestern or northeastern US upon completing his teacher certification program. In considering future practice, he believes the process of thinking about issues of shame has cultivated a capacity to be more empathetic in response to students who may have similar struggles with writing-related shame. He thinks this may make him a more compassionate and patient teacher - at the very least, motivating him to be more persistent and encouraging to students that he might otherwise have thought to be unmotivated or disinterested writers. However, interestingly, we have realized in writing the paper that writing-related shame was never explicitly discussed in the class, nor did Sal fully come to understand the significance of addressing writing-related shame through the dialogic collaging activity alone. Rather, his insights about the importance of writing-related shame have mostly come through the process of working together on this project.\nQualifications and further considerations: It furthermore seems important to recognize that dialog collaging offers but one pathway for addressing writing-related shame and the story we have unfolded here is highly particularistic to one institution, one course, one instructor and a small group of students (n = 7). The unusually small class size may have gone a long way in creating an environment of honest self-exploration, connection and solidarity. Our story, like any story, is not meant to be generalizable so much as generative.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Recently, practitioner literature in English education has taken up the issue of writing-related shame in classrooms, calling for teachers to help students develop resilience. One possible approach for nurturing shame resilience around writing is dialogic collaging: students make and dialogically engage with collages and with colleagues to explore the self-as-writer and to connect with others around writing struggles and joys. The purpose of this paper is to share and critically reflect on this pedagogical approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To share, interpret and consider the limitations and implications of the dialogic collaging pedagogy in service of writing-related shame resilience, the authors offer a multi-voiced narrative about one classroom instantiation of college, from the perspective of a university writing teacher and a student of writing.\nFindings: On the interpretation, this story unfolds three central themes as follows: dialogic collaging can help students to develop a more realistic and situated sense of self-as-writer. That is, students can come to appreciate how \"becoming a writer\" is a process they - and others around them - are already in, rather than an unreachable achievement at which they will inevitably fail. The stance of playfulness nurtured through the dialogic collage process can provide a helpful distance between self and writing. These processes may - under certain conditions - support shame resilience.\nResearch limitations/implications: The conclusion reflects on whether more explicit attention to shame could be fruitful and on the dynamics of teacher vulnerability in writing classrooms.\nPractical implications: The authors hope to inspire writing teachers - particularly in secondary, post-secondary and adult education - to engage with dialogic collaging as part of their pedagogical repertoires.\nOriginality/value: Dialogic collaging is a pedagogical approach not previously discussed in the literature on secondary and post-secondary writing instruction, offering one promising way to address writing-related shame. It can make visible and build solidarity around how others are also in the midst of a process of becoming - as writers and/or with writing. This appreciation can help nurture a more realistic, playful and shame-resilient stance toward self-as-writer.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Implementation of the surgical safety checklist in hospitals of Iran; operating room personnel's attitude, awareness and acceptance
|
[
"Iran",
"Patient safety",
"Surgery",
"Attitude",
"Operating rooms"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Healthcare provision is an inherently interdisciplinary issue involving teams including physicians, nurses and other specialists. A well-functioning team is vital for appropriate provision of healthcare processes. Many adverse side effects of healthcare procedures are caused by poor teamwork rather than a lack of medical skill (Lingard et al., 2004; Sevdalis et al., 2009; Waehle et al., 2012). Although medical problems can occur in patients in the non-acute realms of healthcare, there are very serious risks associated with surgical procedures. Between 1990 and 2010 in the USA, there were more than 9,000 cases of surgical \"never events\" that occurred as a result of a surgical procedure, such as retained foreign bodies, wrong site, wrong patient and wrong procedure. Major morbidity complicates 3-17 per cent of all inpatient surgical procedures in developed countries, with mortality rates of 0.4-0.8 per cent. In developing countries, mortality rates are estimated to be between 5 and 10 per cent for major surgical procedures (Haynes et al., 2009; de Vries et al., 2010, 2011; Weiser et al., 2010). According to that report, half of those adverse events were thought to be preventable (Haynes et al., 2009). Malpractice payment for these events was $1.3bn (Mehtsun et al., 2013).\nMaterials and methods: Design and setting\nResults: The survey was run with 167 surgical team members with 145 people responding (86.6 per cent response rate): 40 surgeons (27.6 per cent), 35 anaesthetists (24.1 per cent), and 70 nurses (48.3 per cent). Summarized general characteristics of participants are presented in Table II. The average age and tenure of participants were 39+-6.51 and 10.27+-5.01, respectively. More than half of the respondents were male.\nDiscussion: The aim of study was to evaluate the WHO SSC for awareness, attitude and acceptance among operation room personnel in Iranian hospitals.\nConclusion and recommendations: The surgical safety checklist is a potential method to prevent some of the inevitable risk involved in surgical operations. Although a high level of support and acceptance is often observed in operating rooms, knowledge and awareness of using the checklist and its objectives were low. As a result, efforts should be made to increase awareness and knowledge about how to use the checklist and its benefits on patient safety and teamwork. Also, there is a need to consider and address social and cultural issues, such as working volume of surgery team personnel, timing of when the checklist is carried out, support of key managers and empowering operating room staff to complete the checklist. Finally, it is recommended that everyone's involvement in the process of using the checklist, support of key managers, on-going education and training, and taking into consideration barriers to using the checklist, will improve the efficiency of its application in operating rooms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) has improved patient safety effectively. Despite the known benefits of applying the checklist before surgery, its implementation is less than universal in practice. The purpose of this paper is to determine the operating room personnel's attitude, their awareness and knowledge of the SSC, and to evaluate staff acceptance of the SSC (including personal beliefs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This cross-sectional study was conducted in eight tertiary general hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Some 145 operating room personnel (surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses) were selected for the study. Data collection was carried out via a validated questionnaire in three parts which included socio-demographic, attitude, awareness and acceptance. Data were then analysed using the Kruskal-Wallis and kh2 statistical test.\nFindings: Out of the 145 participants in the study, 92 per cent were aware of the existence of the SSC and 73.9 per cent of them were aware of the objectives of SSC. Overall, the attitude to SSC was positive. The attitude of surgeons was positive towards the impact of the SSC on safety and teamwork. Surgeons were significantly more sensitive to the barriers of SSC application compared to nurses and anaesthetists (p=0.046). Among the three groups, nurses had the highest level of support for SSC (p=0.001).\nPractical implications: Despite high acceptance of the checklist among staff, there is still a gap in knowledge about when exactly the checklist should be used. Therefore, involvement of all surgical team members to complete the checklist process, support of senior managers, on-going education and training and consideration of the barriers to its implementation are all key areas that need to be taken into account.\nOriginality/value: This is the first research to examine the operating room personnel's attitude, awareness and acceptance about SSC in Iranian hospitals. The outcomes of this study provide documentation and possible justification for effective establishment of SSC in Iran and other countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effects of old-age stereotypes on organizational productivity (part three)
|
[
"Self-determination theory",
"Old-age stereotypes",
"Organizational productivity",
"Selective optimization",
"Socio-emotional selectivity theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nSolutions: addressing motivation, flexibility, and changes in resources: Productivity regarding old-age stereotypes is largely related to the following three topics: motivation, flexibility, and the gain and loss of resources. It is necessary to examine the topics from both a managerial and employee perspective, and to examine both the stereotypes involved as well as empirical findings that are both supportive and contradictory. The psychological theories outlined above will serve as a framework for these solutions.\nConclusion: As the number of old-age workers is growing, it is necessary to emphasize the barriers to adequate integration of old-age workers. Ageism, as mention in the introduction of this paper, is one of the most common stereotypes. The consequences of ageism affect and compromise organizational growth and performance (Posthuma and Campion, 2009). Additionally, this issue makes it more difficult for old-age workers to perform at their best (Kenrick et al., 2002). The most common stereotypes regarding age are: slower learning, decreased physical and mental ability, less flexibility, less adaptability, less motivation (Fritzsche et al., 2009), less innovativeness, and less productivity in relation to wage demands compared to younger workers (Hendricks et al., 2008). These stereotypes all suggest that people perceive old-age workers as less productive compared to their younger counterparts. As mention before, individual work performance does not depend entirely on age, but rather is mediated by different factors that vary throughout life (Skirbekk, 2004; Engelhardt et al., 2010; Silverstein, 2008). Nevertheless some argue that productivity decreases as the workforce ages, though this often occurs due to self-fulfilling biases.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine common stereotypes regarding old-age workers and the effect of these stereotypes on organizational productivity, as well as to suggest practical solutions for accommodating old-age workers and increasing productivity in all employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This three part paper will present a thorough review of relevant literature (1991-2014, with the exception of two studies from 1976) that were conducted on the topics of old-age stereotyping, the effect of old-age stereotyping on organizational productivity, and methods for adequately motivating and managing old-age workers. Studies concerning psychology theories are also examined in order to provide a framework for practical solutions, as well as demographic statistics on population age and employment trends.\nFindings: This paper identifies a number of old-age stereotypes that have decreased organizational productivity in empirical studies, including reluctance to change, decreased learning ability, intelligence and memory, poor health and accidents, higher organizational costs, decreased motivation, and low innovation and productivity. Findings also suggest that old-age workers can positively affect productivity, and that low productivity is often a result of stereotyping.\nResearch limitations/implications: The prevalence of old-age stereotyping and its impact on organizational productivity may differ by culture, industry, type of employment, education level, and other factors, and thus further research may be necessary. The literature reviewed may not adequately represent worldwide organizational trends, as the literature is largely comprised of studies performed in North America and Europe.\nPractical implications: Solutions based on these findings are taken directly from the literature or derived from literature on psychology theories, which include self-determination theory, socio-emotional selectivity theory, and selective optimization and compensation theory. The practical solutions proposed address work environment, motivation, rewards, flexibility, and the loss and gain of resources in old-age workers.\nSocial implications: The proportion of old-age workers is increasing and it is therefore necessary to determine ways to adequately integrate old-age workers in the workforce. Furthermore, this can raise productivity in all employees.\nOriginality/value: This paper demonstrates that old-age stereotyping is both prevalent and detrimental within an organizational context. These findings and solutions can potentially be used by organizations in order to increase individual and overall productivity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effects of culture on leadership styles in China, Germany and Russia
|
[
"China",
"Germany",
"Culture",
"Leadership styles",
"Russia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In every business, no matter where that business is located, there are multiple aspects that create a successful business. One of these key critical aspects is the leadership style of its leader. The leader can either make or break a business. He/she can cause it to be beyond successful and dominant or can bring it down to where it sinks and eliminates itself from being competitive. Needless to say, leadership style is extremely critical and significant when it comes to the business world.\nConclusions and findings for future research: This study has related how a country's chosen leadership styles are directly related to the culture that they evolved from. In China, the culture is extremely traditional with every aspect of life having an ultimate purpose. The prevailing style in China is a paternalistic style. The leader is seen as a fatherly figure. He would encourage and build relations with the people that he is leading; nevertheless, what he says goes no matter what. The values and virtues of the Chinese culture can be seen and demonstrated through this leadership style. In Germany, the culture is very structured and individualistic. Everyone has a place and a purpose. The leadership style that dominates here is a transactional style. The leader has full authority, but the people still have a sense of oneself and separate from the leader. It is a very aggressive style with no tolerance for mistakes of any sort. The style is very straightforward and does not hesitate for anything. Compassion or anything along those lines is not recognized nor does it exist. This goes back to a culture of individual people who strive for perfection and direction (Seladurai, and Carraher, 2014).\nLiterature review: The literary sources we chose to work with and develop this study were a great deal of help. They contained past researches and studies on specific leadership qualities in each country we were researching. Only a few of the sources actually correlated leadership styles from the culture. They would just give background on the culture of the country and then go into the leadership styles of the country. They were able to help us draw lines and connections between the two, which help to build a strong paper. Some of the sources actually had statistical data for which leadership style would be more effective, which we think would also make for very interesting future research. Because then it could come to the point where leadership styles are not based off of cultural values and norms, but instead are based on statistical numbers. Given certain variables and criteria with weights and beta analysis, an actual value can be given to a specific leadership style based solely off of which would be more effective according to an equation. As suggested by the editor our future research in the area should examine variables far and wide to examine what variables might influence the relationships between culture and leadership.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine how the leadership styles in the business world of paternalistic China, imperative Germany and authoritative Russia are affected by the distinguishing cultures of each country.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The information contained throughout this paper was collected through online research of databases as well as primary data collections.\nFindings: The findings showed that leadership styles of a country can be traced back to the culture values of that country. Even with all countries having a different culture and different leadership styles, in each one both constructs strongly overlap each other.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the narrow comparisons of leadership styles between these countries. Value is added by studying the separate leadership styles in very different cultures, and how they affect the business world in their culture.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Recommendations for health information technology implementation in rural hospitals
|
[
"Process improvement",
"Electronic health record",
"Health information technology",
"Medication administration process",
"Workflow"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Health information technology (HIT) systems have been recognized as a solution for reducing medication errors and improving the quality of care in the healthcare field (Bates et al., 1998; Poon et al., 2006, 2010; Jaana et al., 2012; El-Kareh et al., 2013; Patterson, 2012). Since the late 1990s, HIT systems have been promoted in the healthcare sector not only because they are compatible with the commonly used clinical documentation system and the electronic health record (EHR) system (Khoury, 1997; Krall, 1995; Berg et al., 1998), but also because they include a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, a barcode scanning system, electronic medication administration records (eMAR, a formal computer-based record of the drugs administered to a patient), decision support tools, etc. (Wakefield et al., 2010; McCartney, 2006, 2011; Goldschmidt, 2005). The aforementioned systems cannot be considered separately if the US healthcare providers wish to achieve meaningful use of the EHR which was introduced by the US administration in a law known as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act in 2009 (Blumenthal, 2010; Jha, 2010; Casey et al., 2013).\n2. Methods: In this study, an observational analysis was used to map the workflow of the medication administration process while using the new HIT system in a rural hospital in the USA. The medication administration process was described by hierarchical task analysis (HTA) diagrams. Follow-up focus groups with the medical staff were held to review the medication administration process HTA diagram and explore violation against work standards associated with the HIT system. This study focusses on investigating the misconduct of work standards that are related to the HIT in the medication administration process. The process of medication administration is considered to be a series of complex tasks that involve multidisciplinary interactions between the medical staff, including physicians, pharmacists, and nurses (Fraind et al., 2002; Grigg et al., 2011; Sittig and Singh, 2010; Wetterneck et al., 2012). Most HIT systems (e.g. EHR, CPOE, or the barcode scanning system) are involved in the five main phases of the medication administration process: prescribing, documenting, transporting, administering, and monitoring (Agrawal, 2009; Agrawal and Glasser, 2009; Aspden et al., 2007). These HIT systems were developed primarily to prevent adverse events such as medication errors in drug ordering, transcription, dispensing, and administration (Lisby et al., 2005; Boockvar et al., 2010; Abramson et al., 2014).\n3. Results: For this study, seven observational periods (based on the number of patients) were conducted during the morning medication administration rounds. Each observational period was approximately three hours. Observational data primarily included the nursing tasks performed while passing drugs to the patients. All the tasks were converted into a hierarchical structure and presented in an HTA diagram. Figure 1 shows the HTA diagram for administering medications when using the new HIT system.\n4. Discussion: This study is based on a series of detailed task analyses and focus group interviews that were used to demonstrate violations of work standards during the medication administration process while working with a new HIT system in a rural hospital. The results show that the potential adverse factors are interconnected and revealed the complexity of the clinical interactions among the medical staff, patients, technology, facility logistics, and the workflow. These findings suggest that the assessment of clinical tasks when using a new HIT system is necessary for adapting to the evolving workflow. These continuous process improvements to the clinical workflow should be introduced before, during, and after HIT system implementation (Carayon et al., 2014).\n5. Conclusions: Rural hospitals usually have fewer resources for obtaining an ideal HIT system that operates flawlessly within their preferred workflow (American Hospital Association, 2011; McCullough et al., 2011). Thus, it is important to introduce the concept of continuous process improvement into rural hospitals so as to clearly define a \"context-appropriate\" workflow and develop proper accommodations regarding the evolving clinical practice caused by implementing a new HIT (Huang and Gramopadhye, 2014). This study provides a roadmap for investigating potential adverse factors while using a new HIT in a rural hospital. In total, 15 recommendations for implementing HIT are provided to help facilities make the transition to a new HIT system. These recommendations can also be guidelines for any other facilities which are adopting a new HIT. The study methodology can also be applied to other clinical practices to investigate violations, deviations, or adverse factors affecting a clinical work standard.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate violations against work standards associated with using a new health information technology (HIT) system. Relevant recommendations for implementing HIT in rural hospitals are provided and discussed to achieve meaningful use.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An observational study is conducted to map medication administration process while using a HIT system in a rural hospital. Follow-up focus groups are held to determine and verify potential adverse factors related to using the HIT system while passing drugs to patients.\nFindings: A detailed task analysis demonstrated several violations, such as only relying on the barcode scanning system to match up with patient and drugs could potentially result in the medical staff forgetting to provide drug information verbally before administering drugs. There was also a lack of regulated and clear work procedure in using the new HIT system. In addition, the computer system controls and displays could not be adjusted so as to satisfy the users' expectations. Nurses prepared medications and documentation in an environment that was prone to interruptions.\nOriginality/value: Recommendations for implementing a HIT system in rural healthcare facilities can be categorized into five areas: people, tasks, tools, environment, and organization. Detailed remedial measures are provided for achieving continuous process improvements at resource-limited healthcare facilities in rural areas.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A multidimensional analysis of Aslib proceedings - using everything but the impact factor
|
[
"Citation analysis",
"Scholarly communication",
"Usage statistics",
"Impact factor",
"Journal evaluation",
"Mendeley"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: After a publication history of almost 65 years and a recent title change to Aslib Journal of Information Management, it seems timely to take stock of AP by analyzing it with the help of bibliometric methods. When it comes to evaluation of scholarly journals, the impact factor (IF), developed in the early 1960s by Eugene Garfield and Irving Sher at the Institute for Scientific Information as selection criteria for journals to be covered by their famous Science Citation Index (SCI) (Garfield and Sher, 1963), is usually brought up. However, the IF is well known for its flaws including its short citation and publication windows, the asymmetry of document types between numerator and denominator, its inability as a means to represent skewed distributions and its field dependence (Archambault and Lariviere, 2009; Haustein, 2012), not to mention its misuse for author evaluation. Thus this study will apply a multidimensional approach to journal evaluation, showing that the IF is not able to fully represent the impact of a journal and citation-based indicators tell only part of the story (Rowlands and Nicholas, 2007). Based on the concept introduced by Grazia Colonia (2002) and Juchem et al. (2006) and further developed by Haustein (2012), Aslib Proceedings (AP) is analyzed with various indicators from five dimensions of journal evaluation, namely, journal output, content, perception and usage, citations and management. AP is used as an example to show that multidimensional analyses will reveal strengths and weaknesses of a journal from various perspectives. We demonstrate differences between author and reader communities, developments of the journal and subjects over time and show that although some topics are not frequently cited, they have high impact based on the number of downloads.\n2. Methods: In the following, the methods and selected indicators used to analyze journal output, content, perception and usage, citations and management are briefly introduced and described. For a detailed literature review and extensive description of indicators and methods, the reader is referred to Haustein (2012).\n3. Results and discussion: AP is a peer-reviewed Library and Information Science (LIS) and information management journal and the main publication venue for the British ASLIB-Association for Information Management, former Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux founded in 1924[5]. AP was established in 1949 and is published bimonthly by Emerald[6]. It is covered by both WoS and Scopus.\n4. Conclusions: This paper provided an empirical analysis of AP, focussing on five dimensions of journal evaluation (Juchem et al., 2006; Haustein, 2012): output, content, perception and usage, impact and management. It showed that, although the journal has a strong focus on the UK in terms of authors and readers, the share of British authors has decreased since 2006, making room for more international authors which, in turn, provides evidence of the internationalization of LIS research. Countries' have a different relation with the journal: while some are mainly producers of papers (e.g. UK, Iran, Singapore), some others are mostly users (e.g. Malaysia, India, USA). Topics covered by AP became more diverse over time, and are not equal in terms of impact. The highest citation impact is obtained by an SI on blogs and papers related to electronic books, students and libraries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that the journal impact factor (IF) is not able to reflect the full impact of scholarly journals and provides an overview of alternative and complementary methods in journal evaluation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Aslib Proceedings (AP) is exemplarily analyzed with a set of indicators from five dimensions of journal evaluation, i.e. journal output, content, perception and usage, citations and management to accurately reflect its various strengths and weaknesses beyond the IF.\nFindings: AP has become more international in terms of authors and more diverse regarding its topics. Citation impact is generally low and, with the exception of a special issue on blogs, remains world average. However, an evaluation of downloads and Mendeley readers reveals that the journal is an important source of information for professionals and students and certain topics are frequently read but not cited.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is limited to one journal.\nPractical implications: An overview of various indicators and methods is provided that can be applied in the quantitative evaluation of scholarly journals (and also to articles, authors and institutions).\nOriginality/value: After a publication history of more than 60 years, this analysis takes stock of AP, highlighting strengths and weaknesses and developments over time. The case study provides an example and overview of the possibilities of multidimensional journal evaluation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Tracking resident pre-rounding electronic health record usage
|
[
"Efficiency",
"Pediatrics",
"Informatics",
"Education",
"Quality indicators",
"Critical care"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), residents are tasked to collect data in a short time in the morning to present in an organized fashion during interprofessional rounds and to provide clinical care. Thus, the resident must know which data are pertinent and be able to locate them in a timely manner to be prepared for rounds. Additionally, they must perform this task even though patient census or acuity may be high in the PICU.\nStudy design: This was a retrospective observational study using time-tracked resident EHR data during their PICU rotation with specific focus on pre-rounds. Our study was approved by the institutional review board and was classified as non-human research. As the time-tracking software is programmed to focus only on EHR time (i.e. not any other computer related activity, such as e-mailing), and data were not obtained through interaction or an intervention with the individual, user consent was not obtained to perform this study.\nResults: Demographics\nDiscussion: Our aim was to determine how critical care resource utilization impacts the time spent in the EHR. By using an EHR embedded built-in time tracking software, we established that patient acuity is a factor that can significantly influence the resident pre-rounding process. While these results may be predictable, they are important. In the USA, concerns have arisen regarding provider efficiency and excessive screen time (Carayon et al., 2015; Babbott et al., 2014; McDonald et al., 2014). Additionally, time spent on the computer can negatively impact resident education and satisfaction (Block et al., 2013; Victores et al., 2015). With increasing resident's duty hour restrictions, resident workflow's importance has intensified (Chen et al., 2016), thus new approaches to observe resident workflow must be evaluated.\nConclusion: Residents rotating through the PICU spend more time preparing for rounds involving patients who require significant critical care resources. This information can be useful to determine optimal resident to patient workload and unit staffing. Future research is required to assess this EHR tool's ability to contribute to physician workflow study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Residents collect information from the electronic health record (EHR) to present during rounds, but this crucial process is understudied. The purpose of this paper is to examine the feasibility of utilizing an EHR embedded time-tracking software to quantify resident pre-round EHR activity and how patient acuity impacts this activity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This was a retrospective observational study that quantified resident EHR activities (total time spent, tasks performed and patient encounters accessed) during pre-rounds on their pediatric intensive care unit rotation between May 2016 and December 2016. Patient encounters were reviewed to determine resident ownership and critical care resources provided.\nFindings: Allo 21 eligible participants were included. In total, 907 patient encounters were included to evaluate patient acuity impact. EHR usage per patient encounter (median in minutes (25th, 75th percentile)) was significantly affected by the critical care resources utilized. Total EHR time: both ventilator and vasoactive support (10.54 (6.68, 17.19)); neither ventilator nor vasoactive support (8.23 (5.07, 12.72)); invasive/noninvasive ventilator support (8.74 (5.69, 13.2)); and vasoactive support (10.37 (7.72, 11.65)), p<0.001. Chart review, order entry and documentation EHR times demonstrated similar trends.\nPractical implications: Residents spend more time utilizing the EHR to collect data on patients who require significant critical care resources. This information can be useful to determine optimal resident to patient workload. Future research is required to assess this EHR tool's ability to contribute to physician workflow study.\nOriginality/value: EHR embedded time-tracking software can offer insights into resident workflow.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Relating CEO leadership behavior and organization culture in the Indian context
|
[
"India",
"Organizational culture",
"Indian work context",
"CEO leadership behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Modeling the relationship between a leader's behavior and the organization's culture is an enduring ambition of scholars. More specifically, developing leader-organization models that incorporate national culture has become increasingly relevant, as the globalization era increases national diversity and makes it more likely that there be a cultural mismatch between the CEO and employees. Of note, India-born executives are increasingly rising to senior leadership positions - conspicuously, in western business and Silicon Valley technology organizations (CNN Money Invest, 2005; Tech In Asia, 2016). This paper addresses this phenomenon by exploring the relationship between a CEO's leadership behavior and organization culture in the Indian context. An outcome of including Indian national culture in the development of leader-organization theory may be that the generalizability of existing western-based theories may increase in their predictive power, or perhaps instead an outcome may be to re-direct scholars down an altered path that fittingly inserts national-culture-related factors into the prevailing leader-organization models.\nMethod: A convenience sample of senior managers (see Alban-Metcalfe and Alimo-Metcalfe, 2000) - those with direct access to the CEO of their company - completed a questionnaire consisting of two separate instruments measuring: their CEO's leadership behavior, and the organizational culture of their respective firms; demographic data were also collected from each participant. Data were analyzed using factor analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis.\nResults: The data are processed in three distinct steps: exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and step-wise multiple regression analysis. The outcome of each of these three steps is presented below.\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between CEO leadership behavior and organizational culture, specifically in the context of Indian organizations. Two research questions are addressed: (RQ1) in the Indian context, are specific characteristics of leadership behavior correlated with specific characteristics of an organization's culture; and (RQ2) in Indian context, which aspects of leader's behavior are most prominent in their relationship to the organization's culture? The quantitative analysis presented in the Results section indicates that overall, CEO leadership behavior does indeed have a strong relationship with organizational culture. Moreover, the constituent dimensions of CEO leadership behavior also have a statistically significant relationship with the more granular dimensions organizational culture.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between CEO leadership behavior and the culture of the organization within the context of Indian organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two five-scale questionnaires were completed by senior executives (n=485) who have interaction with their CEO. The first instrument captured the executives' perspective of their CEO's leadership behavior along six dimensions (People Centric, Global Ambitions, Opportunity Sensing, Visionary, Exemplary, and Dependable). The second instrument captured the executives' perspective of their organization's culture along six dimensions (Results Focused, Talent Development, Employee Empowerment, Equity and Fairness, Open Communication, and Decentralization). These data were analyzed using factor analysis, correlation analysis, and least-squares regression.\nFindings: A correlation analysis indicates that a significant relationship exists between several aspects of CEO leadership behavior and characteristics of the organizational culture. Regression analysis indicated that the overall CEO leadership behavior prominently explains (R2=0.397) the organization's culture. Notably, two CEO dimensions, People Centricity and Global Ambition, were found to have an exceptionally high degree of association with the culture of the organization.\nResearch limitations/implications: There is consistency between findings from western academic leader-culture research and the same in the Indian work setting.\nPractical implications: Findings of this study can serve as a guidepost for the selection of leaders in an organization.\nOriginality/value: There is a scarcity of leader-organization research involving national culture features; the Indian context is fundamental to this study and is called for by the growing presence of India-born leadership in western organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using the theory of planned behavior and cheating justifications to predict academic misconduct
|
[
"Dishonesty",
"Behaviour",
"Students"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There is considerable evidence that cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct are prevalent in high schools (Josephson Institute of Ethics, 2008; Williams, 2001), colleges and universities in the USA (Davis et al., 1992; McCabe and Trevino, 1993, 1997; Whitley, 1998), Canada (Christensen-Hughes and McCabe, 2006; Genereux and McLeod, 1995), Australia (Brimble and Stevenson-Clarke, 2005), England (Newstead et al., 1996) and many other countries (Koljatic et al., 2003; Magnus et al., 2002). Academic misconduct appears to be related to attitudes toward unethical behaviors in the workplace. Indeed, some research suggests that people who cheat in school are more likely to engage in unethical behavior at work (Nonis and Swift, 2001; Sims, 1993; Stone et al., 2009). Cheating in school is a likely precursor to engaging in unethical behaviors at work and thus, may threaten worker career success and pose risks for organizational ethical violations. Indeed, in McCall et al.'s (1988) study of derailed executives, two of the top ten career derailers, betrayal of trust and being too ambitious/playing politics, are closely related to academic misconduct.\nThe theory of planned behavior and academic misconduct: The TPB (Ajzen, 1985, 1991) stipulates three components predict intention to engage in a specific behavior and subsequent engagement in the behavior. The crux of the theory is that intentions to engage in a behavior precede actual engagement in the behavior. Intentions to engage in a behavior are affected by three components:1. attitudes toward the behavior, i.e. beliefs about a behavior or its consequences;2. subjective norms, i.e. normative expectations of other people regarding the behavior, and3. perceived behavioral control, i.e. the perceived difficulty or ease of performing the behavior.Ajzen added perceived behavioral control to the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) to enhance prediction in situations where behavior may be constrained and/or the behavior violates norms or rules. An obvious example of this is the case of cheating, plagiarism and other academic misconduct behaviors that violate academic integrity policies.A bibliography of TPB articles on Ajzen's web site showing 56 theory and review papers as well as 690 empirical papers (Ajzen, 2008) reflects the extensive use of the theory. A review of the studies on Ajzen's web site shows that the TPB has been used to predict many types of behavior; most commonly, researchers have used the TPB to predict behaviors related to the promotion of health and safety as well as environmental protection. A meta-analysis by Armitage and Conner (2001) of 185 independent studies published through 1997, found that the TPB accounted for 27 per cent and 39 per cent of the variance in behavior and intentions, respectively.While the TPB (Ajzen, 1991) has been used to predict a wide variety of behaviors, its use has been fairly limited in the area of academic misconduct. Specifically, it has been used both in an a priori study of cheating, lying and shoplifting (Beck and Ajzen, 1991), an a priori study of cheating and plagiarism (Harding et al., 2007), and two ex post facto studies of cheating and plagiarism (Passow et al., 2006; Stone et al., 2007). Also, a review by Whitley (1998) used the TPB to categorize personality, demographic and situational variables as the basis for a model of academic misconduct. The most direct test of the efficacy of the TPB for predicting academic dishonesty has been beck and Ajzen's (1991) study. This study utilized the TPB model for predicting three behaviors, shoplifting and two academic integrity violations, cheating on an exam and lying to get out of an exam or assignment in a sample of 146 psychology students.Though moral obligation is not part of the TPB model, Beck and Ajzen (1991) included it as a predictor arguing it might add incremental validity to account for these types of behaviors. While results showed moral obligation added statistically significant explanatory power, Beck and Ajzen concluded its addition was of little practical value. Despite this, Whitley (1998), Passow et al. (2006) and Harding et al. (2007) included moral obligation in their models. Beck and Ajzen's (1991) results showed that perceived behavioral control explained the most variance in both cheating and lying. Unlike the health, safety, and conservationism-related behaviors that are positive and generally consistent with social norms, cheating and lying run counter to norms and rules and have been less well-studied using the TPB. Thus, examination of factors (e.g. perceived behavioral control) reflecting constraints on behavior may be especially important in the prediction of behaviors such as cheating.\nComponents of the TPB model: Ajzen's (1985, 1991) Theory of Planned Behavior has five components:1. attitude toward the behavior;2. subjective norms;3. perceived behavioral control;4. intentions; and5. behavior.The theory suggests that attitudes, norms and perceived behavioral control function independently to determine intention to perform (or not perform) some behavior. Intention is the immediate antecedent to behavior. Generally, favorable attitudes and supportive group norms result in both strong intent to perform and actual performance of a behavior, but perceived behavioral control, the perceived ease or difficulty of executing the behavior, can affect both level of intent and the intent-to-behavior relationship. For example, a student may have a favorable attitude toward cheating on exams and his/her friends may also engage in cheating, but the level of examination monitoring in a specific class may make cheating very difficult or impossible.Attitude toward behavior. According to Beck and Ajzen (1991, p. 286), attitude toward behavior refers to \"the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the behavior in question.\" to the extent that students condone or condemn academic misconduct, they are more or less likely to form intentions to engage in cheating or plagiarism as well as actually engage in the behavior. For example, a study of 244 college undergraduates conducted by Storch and Storch (2003) found a strong association (r=0.50) between engagement in academic misconduct behaviors and approval of such behaviors. Whitley's (1998) review also found a large effect (d=0.81) for attitudes toward cheating across 16 studies, such that students who cheat have more favorable attitudes toward cheating than students who do not cheat. Stone et al. (2007) and Harding et al. (2007) found attitudes to be significant predictors of cheating. Harding et al. (2007) noted, as did Beck and Ajzen (1991), that perceptions of moral obligation and attitudes were highly correlated (0.69 in the Harding et al. study).A somewhat indirect indicator of students' attitudes towards academic misconduct is their propensity for reporting academic misconduct by others; students who report misconduct by others are presumably less likely to engage in academic misconduct themselves. Research has shown that students with favorable attitudes toward academic integrity policies are more likely to report cheating than those who regard the policies as unfair (Simon et al., 2004).Subjective norms. There is considerable research showing that people are influenced by the behavior of others. This influence can create a pressure to conform to the behavior of members of a group (e.g. Asch, 1951), or may convey either what most people do in a given situation (i.e. descriptive norms) or behaviors that are associated with approval or sanctions (i.e. injunctive norms) by others (Reno et al., 1993). In his review of academic misconduct research, Whitley (1998) found a very strong relationship between subjective norms and cheating behavior. Specifically, his review of 16 studies that examined social norms revealed that students who perceive social norms that condone cheating cheat more than students who perceive social norms that do not condone cheating (d=0.929).Research by McCabe and colleagues categorized subjective norms as a contextual factor influencing students' likelihood of engaging in academic misconduct. In their study of 1,750 students from nine public colleges and universities, McCabe and Trevino (1997), found that contextual factors including peer behavior (i.e. how often others cheat), peer disapproval (i.e. students' perceptions of other students' disapproval of cheating) and fraternity/sorority membership accounted for 27 per cent of the variance in self-reported cheating. Additionally, the findings of McCabe et al. (2002) along with those of Smyth and Davis (2004) suggest that students acquire a subjective norm that cheating in college is a common behavior despite institutional policies that prohibit it. McCabe et al. (2002) found that students' perceptions of peers' behavior was the best predictor of academic dishonesty regardless of the presence or absence of an honor code. Also, in a recent study involving 5,331 graduate students, McCabe et al. (2006) found the perception that other students are cheating accounted for the most variance in cheating. Moreover, results of a survey-based study of 824 undergraduate and graduate business students conducted by Chapman et al. (2004) indicated that students were much more likely to cheat if friends were involved in the cheating offense. While 75 per cent of the respondents indicated they would cheat if a friend was involved, that figure dropped to 45 per cent if only an acquaintance was involved.The notion that social norms can outweigh behavioral prohibitions outlined in institutional policy as well as accepted ethical standards is further supported by work of Davis and colleagues (Davis et al., 1992). Their survey of 6,000 students attending 35 different schools of varying sizes, found that even though 90 per cent of students said it is wrong to cheat and that instructors should care if students cheat on an exam, 76 per cent said they had cheated in high school, college or both. More recent work by Smyth and Davis (2004) found that although 92 per cent of a sample of 265 two-year college students indicated that cheating is unethical, 45 per cent of the sample also indicated that cheating is acceptable social behavior. Likewise, Chapman et al.'s (2004, p. 246) research led them to the conclusion that \"nearly 75% of all students will cheat at some point in some situation.\" and that \"students know what cheating is and that they believe it is morally wrong. But they continue to cheat because they feel that the benefits outweigh the potential costs, and they believe cheating to be the 'norm.'\"These findings suggest that suspected cheating by other students and perceptions regarding frequency of cheating are the bases of norms regarding academic misconduct. Additionally, these findings suggest potential conflict between attitudes toward cheating and perceived social norms and imply that the key determinant of behavior, as found in several TPB studies, is perceived behavioral control. While most academic misconduct researchers have categorized norms and their sources as contextual variables, Stone et al. (2007) argued that categorizing contextual variables as the subjective norms of the TPB model is a more parsimonious and heuristically valuable approach.Perceived behavioral control. Perceived behavioral control affects both intentions and behaviors. Its addition to the TPB is to allow for prediction of behaviors not under complete volitional control. Ajzen (1991) contended that when individuals perceive constraints on intended behaviors, perceived behavioral control could help explain discrepancies between intentions and behavior. Thus, the relative importance of attitudes, norms and perceived behavioral control will vary across situations and behaviors. When attitudes and norms are strong, perceived behavioral control may have little effect on actual behavior. When behaviors are perceived as challenging or there are barriers to performance, however, perceived behavioral control becomes a more important factor predicting behavior. Ajzen (2002) argues that perceived behavioral control is related to self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977) in that both reflect the perceived ability to perform a behavior. An unpublished meta-analysis (Cheung and Chan, 2000, as cited in Ajzen, 2002) may explain the direct and indirect (through intentions) relationship between perceived behavioral control and behavior. In their meta-analysis, Cheung and Chan (2000) found perceived self-efficacy accounted for significant portions of variance in intentions beyond attitudes and beliefs and for behaviors beyond that predicted from intentions. Controllability, on the other hand, contributed significantly to predicting behaviors but not intentions.An example of perceived behavioral control's influence on academic misconduct is McCabe et al.'s (2002) finding that students' degree of certainty of being caught engaging in academic misconduct predicted extent of dishonesty independent of an institution's policies regarding misconduct. Thus, students have a greater propensity to engage in misconduct if sanctions are not imposed or are not severe enough to outweigh potential benefits of cheating even when instructors and administrators warn students about the consequences of cheating (Bunn et al., 1992; McCabe et al., 2002).Very little academic integrity research has tested the perceived behavioral control component of the TPB model. In Whitley's (1998) review, five studies demonstrated a moderate mean effect size (d=0.64) in the prediction of a variety of unethical behaviors. Stone et al. (2007) found perceived behavioral control was a significant predictor for cheating intentions. Passow et al. (2006) and Harding et al. (2007), however, found perceived behavioral control accounted for little variance in cheating behavior. The foregoing review and synthesis of previously published research with components of the TPB model suggests that components of the TPB model will be related to academic misconduct.Intentions. In the TPB, intentions are considered to immediately precede behavior and are regarded as a central factor in the model as they capture the motivation for behavior (Ajzen, 1991; Beck and Ajzen, 1991). According to the model, the stronger a person's intention to engage in a behavior, the greater the likelihood the particular behavior will be elicited. A meta-analysis (Armitage and Conner, 2001) found the TPB, while superior at predicting self-reported behavior, accounted for 20 per cent of the variance in a variety of actual behaviors. Beck and Ajzen (1991) found that intentions to engage in unethical behavior are highly correlated with actual unethical behaviors including lying, shoplifting and cheating. Reliability of intentions across six months was high with a reported correlation of 0.83. In the current study, intentions were measured as the extent to which participants considered cheating under different circumstances.Behavior. The purpose of the TPB model is prediction of a variety of human behaviors. In studies of academic misconduct, the behaviors of interest are actual engagement in various academic violations including cheating, plagiarism, and inappropriate collaboration.Expanding the theory of planned behavior for academic misconduct\nMethod: Sample\nResults: Quantitative analysis\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to show that academic misconduct appears to be on the rise; some research has linked academic misconduct to unethical workplace behaviors. Unlike previous empirically-driven research, this theory-based study seeks to examine the usefulness of a modification of Ajzen's theory of planned behavior to predict academic misconduct.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 271 students enrolled at a US university were surveyed. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model.\nFindings: - The modified theory of a planned behavior model in which intentions and justifications both serve as antecedents to behavior fits the data well. The model accounted for 22 per cent of the variance in intentions to cheat and 47 per cent of the variance in self-reported cheating.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The primary limitations of this research are the cross-sectional research design, the self-selected sample, and the single source of survey data.\nPractical implications: - The study extends the TPB model in the prediction of misconduct behavior. Attitudes, subjective norms, behavioral control, intentions and justifications were related to cheating behaviors. Academic misconduct may be reduced by shaping attitudes toward cheating, changing perceptions of subjective norms regarding the prevalence of cheating, and lowering students' perceptions of their control of cheating by, for example, emphasis on the consequences of getting caught. Understanding and reducing academic misconduct are important for promoting ethical behavior and values in future worker and organization leaders.\nOriginality/value: - Identification of factors that influence academic misconduct is an important aspect of professional development research, given its link to workplace misconduct. To date, academic misconduct research has been primarily empirically- rather than theory-driven. The current study identifies factors that contribute to academic misconduct by extending an established theoretical model of behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A critical study of quality parameters in health care establishment: Developing an integrated quality model
|
[
"Health care",
"Quality parameters",
"Integrated quality model",
"Patient care",
"Service quality assurance",
"India"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One widely accepted health definition is in the World Health Organization's constitution:Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity.In recent years, this statement has been amplified to include leading a socially and economically productive life (Park, 2007, p. 13). Healthcare is defined as a multitude of services rendered to individual, families or communities by health service professionals for promoting, maintaining, monitoring or restoring health (Last, 1993). Within these definitions, standards for maintaining health are discernible, which healthcare staff should strive to achieve.Quality defined\nResearch objectives and methodology: Our aim, therefore, is to critically examine healthcare quality parameters that are practically useful and flexible for self-correction by applying knowledge management in any contemporary environment. We propose an integrated model for healthcare establishments (HCE) after critically evaluating relevant quality parameters. Our findings should help healthcare staff achieve effective patient care by enhancing patient satisfaction. Our objectives are to:* Identify and critically analyze relevant HCE quality parameters.* Suggest an integrated HCE quality model with components acceptable to hospital staff that help to achieve patient satisfaction.The integrated quality-model components were derived from the literature and subjected to scrutiny in one healthcare establishment - a north Indian 440 bed multi-specialty government hospital. The components were circulated and discussed with the hospital's chief executive and circulated among 50 hospital-staff members. Two-thirds were 30 years or older; i.e. they were mature and experienced. All specialist medical staff held postgraduate medical degrees. A toal of 28 percent of the logistic staff had between five to ten years service. They ranged from graduate interns trainees to highly experienced staff. The model was thus discussed (via questionnaires and interviews) with hospital staff directly involved in patient care, logistics and management. Hospital staff acceptance of the quality model was established by asking them to consider its applicability. The patient's hospital service perceptions, reflecting their overall satisfaction level, were also assessed. To accomplish these objectives, our methods were based on extant literature that identified various healthcare quality parameters, commonly practiced and used to maintain quality within healthcare. These were critically analyzed to discern pitfalls and shortcomings in the literature.\nLiterature review: Service-quality components, traditionally, are generally attributed to a few authors; for example:* Swan and Combs' (1976) seven instrumental and expressive quality attributes.* Donabedian's (1980) structure, process and outcome.* Lehtinen and Lehtinen's (1982) interactive, physical and corporate quality.* Maxwell's (1984) six quality components: effectiveness, efficiency, acceptability, access, equity and relevance.* Gronroos' (1984) technical and functional quality.Several service quality models evolved from these authors' works. The Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988) SERVQUAL model is prominent. Despite controversies regarding SERVQUAL validity and reliability (Teas, 1994; Newman et al., 2001); its application, with or without modification, is common in healthcare. SERVQUAL modifications vary from researcher to researcher: Lim and Tang (2000) added \"accessibility/affordability\", Tucker and Adams (2001) \"caring and outcomes\" while Johnston (1995) increased SERVQUAL to 18 dimensions, which generally fall under those identified by Potter et al. (1994): technical, interpersonal, amenities and environment (Table I).Table I touches on associated supportive qualities desirable for achieving better care by supporting clinical work and patient satisfaction. However, it does not provide a well-defined integrated healthcare quality model, which is required for growing knowledge-intensive services. The model's healthcare quality parameters, therefore, require critical analysis using relevant literature to avoid vagueness, which has serious and profound effects on society at large.\nCritically analyzing existing healthcare quality parameters: After reviewing the healthcare quality literature, we noted several problems, shortcomings and pitfalls. Additional parameters, therefore, are proposed (Table II).The parameters, criteria and awards in the quality assurance literature seem to have not been developed specifically for healthcare, therefore they remain ambiguous. Piecemeal attempts have been made to adopt hospital quality criteria. However, they remain general attributes, which may not fully meet an integrated model's specific requirements. Quality parameters were based on a basic assumption that patient care is comparable to service products and after-sale service. This assumption is flawed as it involves four tangibles: manufacturer/service provider; seller; product and customer. It is the customer who judges product utility and after-sale service, thus emphasizing service quality. However, in many healthcare services situations, it may not always be possible to apply this model as customers in this case are patients - some critically ill. These customers may not be in a position to evaluate service quality. Healthcare quality parameters, therefore, need developing separately to keep hospital environment facets intact by correlating quality criteria/parameters with professional functions and hospital supportive services. The healthcare quality model thus has practical utility/applicability to external and internal customer satisfaction.Quality expectations lead to a debate among personnel overseeing complex organizations such as modern HCEs. Raja et al. (2007) used a quality assessment instrument combining MBQNA, EFQM and KBEM criteria; however, their results show that doctors, nurses, technicians and patients attach different importance to hospital sub-factors. They claim their evidence supports actions to overcome unworkable quality and process management actions. They emphasize developing a quality award based on a model that interprets relationships between service quality and award factors. Dey et al. (2006) advocate developing an integrated quality management model to overcome inherent flaws in other healthcare quality management tools. Therefore, there is a need to develop a specific quality model that integrates and covers important parameters related to HCE functions. Facilities, knowledge and performance management are emphasized by Liyanage and Egbu (2005) and HCE survival is dependent on multiple factors like managing human resources, worker attitude and practices to achieve desired objectives within existing resources.\nDiscussion: Hospitals are not manufacturing units that use raw inputs; nor are they purely service industries where mainly intangible services are provided to mostly healthy populations - customers who enjoy the products or services. A patient is a person with deranged function and has voluntarily sought medical help. The patient is the input and part of the process and, therefore, the most important output factor. It is the intangible and tangible interactive processes in a particular disease process that challenge clinicians struggling with myriad complex facts and figures to change disease processes and restore normal functions so that the patient is rehabilitated to a fully functioning individual in society. Output will depend upon patient-generated inputs and his/her treatment response. The remedy can be planned using modern medical science and may be achieved with appropriate application and management that conforms to knowledge-intensive EBM (Liyanage and Egbu, 2005; Dopson and Fitzgerald, 2006; Bujak and Lister, 2006). In complex HCE situations, the patient is neither able to perceive disease complexities nor can the physician accurately forecast the outcomes. Therefore, HCE/hospital quality models have to be considered and designed by specifically keeping patient care in mind. This undoubtedly is a patient-medical scientist - hospital interactive relationship model. Thus, its quality parameters cannot be similar in content and impact to the manufacturer-seller-product-customer and after-sale service or service industry model, which deal mostly with healthy customers, which principally cannot be similarly replicated in healthcare (Yasin and Alavi, 1999; Mills and Rorty, 2002; Stahr, 2001; Fowdar, 2005; Raja et al., 2007).Core and supportive quality parameters\nIntegrated quality model parameters validation/acceptance: The model components derived from literature were already validated by their respective authors. Additionally, our hospital staff approved the parameters thus signifying their importance unequivocally (Table III). Technical accuracy, applicability, usefulness, practical utility, relevance, inbuilt mechanism to self correct, knowledge management and ability to improve continuously were explored in the interviews. The managerial and professional/medical technical synergy in the integrated quality model was well appreciated. It emerged that these components were indirectly and directly being applied in the hospital; however, they needed further application as an integrated quality model to improve patient satisfaction (Table IV).\nPatients' hospital-service perceptions: Hospital services were graded 'very good' by 40 percent of our patients (Table IV), which suggests higher satisfaction with hospital services. These outcomes, coupled with our own hospital facilities and process observations and discussion with staff, revealed that the quality model parameters were being applied indirectly or directly though not in an organized manner. They reflect utility and effect, which is expected to be enhanced owing to the integrated quality model's cascade effects. However, this requires long-term study. The integrated quality model's acceptance by the staff indicates its utility for the hospital supported the clientele's positive image.\nConclusions and recommendations: Healthcare means providing evidence-based services to patients, who her/himself has an input. The objective primarily is to save life and limb by managing disease processes. Patients cannot be treated as goods or inputs in a manufacturing or a service system and these quality standards do not apply. After thoroughly reviewing the healthcare-quality literature and its overall impact, important medical and managerial aspects have emerged. We developed an integrated HCE-quality model, validated by healthcare staff. Our HCE integrated quality model includes important components like services designed to:* meet disease burdens;* optimize care and cost;* use knowledge to continuously improve healthcare quality;* incorporate core and associated supportive quality parameters;* refine and synergize services at the professional/technical and managerial levels;* address priority areas to achieve optimal critical care for casualty cases, operation room/theatre and intensive care unit services; and* use clinical governance to improve service structure, process and outcome.Our model also includes the treatment chain for improving internal customer inputs such as referral to other services. We include evacuation management provided by modern ambulance services and appropriate documentation and maintaining appropriate records to improve healthcare management at every level. Additionally, patient hospital-service expectation and perception is included to gain an overall picture. Our HCE integrated quality model should help staff and services to continuously self improve. It should synergize medical, technical and managerial processes with an ultimate aim to optimize resources and cost, which will benefit patients and related interest groups/stakeholders such as families, payers, insurers, government and society at large. Further research should be carried out to assess quality parameter impact by analyzing patient perceptions, thus correlating our quality parameters with satisfaction levels. We recommend that our integrated quality model is analyzed and developed in other HCEs, especially government healthcare services. We recommend that alternate quality parameters, suited to particular HCEs, are developed for effective healthcare management.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to identify and critically analyze healthcare establishment (HCE) quality parameters described in the literature. It aims to propose an integrated quality model that includes technical quality and associated supportive quality parameters to achieve optimum patient satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors use an extensive in-depth healthcare quality literature review, discerning gaps via a critical analysis in relation to their overall impact on patient management, while identifying an integrated quality model acceptable to hospital staff.\nFindings: - The article provides insights into contemporary HCE quality parameters by critically analyzing relevant literature. It also evolves and proposes an integrated HCE-quality model.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Owing to HCE confidentiality, especially regarding patient data, information cannot be accessed.\nPractical implications: - The integrated quality model parameters have practical utility for healthcare service managers. However, further studies may be required to refine and integrate newer parameters to ensure continuous quality improvement.\nOriginality/value: - This article adds a new perspective to understanding quality parameters and suggests an integrated quality model that has practical value for maintaining HCE service quality to benefit many stakeholders.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Direct and indirect effects of work-family enrichment: role of gender role ideology
|
[
"Work‒life balance",
"Work‒family enrichment",
"Gender role ideology",
"Innovative workplace behaviour",
"Decision latitude",
"Work‒family culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Given the increasing attention that positive psychology has been garnering today, work-life researchers have started focusing on the positive side of the work-family interface (Carlson et al., 2006; Greenhaus and Powell, 2006). Resultantly, a significant amount of research articles have emerged on work-family enrichment (WFE), which Greenhaus and Powell (2006) defined as \"the extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other role\" (p. 73); WFE is thereby a bidirectional phenomenon (work to family and family to work). However, the present study examines a single direction of the work-family interface (work to family), as prior studies have consistently found work characteristics to be stronger predictors of work-family interface than family characteristics (Aycan and Eskin, 2005).\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses development: The COR theory Hobfoll (1989, 2001), Hobfoll et al. (2018) has been commonly used to explain the antecedents and outcomes of work-life interface (Chen et al., 2014; Haar, 2013, p. 201; Jaga et al., 2013; Moazami-Goodarzi et al., 2018; Robinson et al., 2016). The theory states that people are motivated to gain or maintain resources, including \"objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies that are valued by the individual or that serve as a means for attainment of these objects, personal characteristics, conditions or energies\" (Hobfoll, 1989). Furthermore, obtaining and retaining personal, social, and material resources creates in people, families and organizations a sense that they are capable of meeting stressful challenges. The theory also asserts that people employ key resources such as their money, time and energy not only to respond to stress, but also to build a reservoir of sustaining resources for future. The COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989) also argued that individuals show a positive reaction to any events or conditions when they are able to participate in activities they like (Halbesleben et al., 2014). Further, the study believes that getting support from the organization in terms of WFE and perceiving higher levels of WLB will make employees more resourceful, as a result of which they can fulfill their work-family demands (Ten Brummelhuis et al., 2012), thereby showing more positive attitudes and behaviors at the workplace. Thus, going by what has been discussed above, the moot point in the COR theory states that WFE is a resource gain process (Jaga et al., 2013), whereby employees feel contented at having plenty of resources, due to which they may look to avoid activities that are resource consuming (extra-role behaviors) (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001). In fact, they may even use these resources to improve their performance in both the domains. This could equally be explained by the notion of the resource gain spiral (Hobfoll et al., 2018), which suggests that when employees gain resources at their workplace, they become resourceful and motivated to perform activities for generating further resource (Halbesleben et al., 2014; Hobfoll et al., 2018). The relationship of WFE with its antecedents and outcomes may be understood by the dynamics of resource employment, effectively meaning that one role (i.e. work/family) provides suitable resources that assist employees in managing responsibilities of the other role (i.e. family/work), and thereby enhancing the quality in the receiving domain. Drawing on the COR theory, the following sections explain the antecedents (i.e. work-family culture and decision latitude), WFE-outcomes (i.e. innovative work behavior) relationships, whereby WLB as a mediator and GRI as a moderator have been proposed.\n3. Method: 3.1 Sample and study procedure\n4. Analytic procedure: The data were analyzed using SPSS V.20. First, descriptive statistics were computed, followed by correlation. After obtaining a significant correlation between all variables, direct and indirect effects were assessed using the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013) in SPSS. The PROCESS is an amalgamation of regression and bootstrap method. The results are interpreted on the basis of beta coefficients and bootstrapping confidence interval to check for mediation.\n5. Results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Discussion: The purpose of the present study was to examine the antecedents (work-family culture, decision latitude) and outcome (IWB) of WFE with WLB as a mediator between WFE and outcomes and GRI as a moderator between WFE-WLB relationships (moderated mediation). As hypothesized, work-family culture and decision latitude positively predict WFE, thus supporting the results from previous studies (Wayne et al., 2006; Gordon et al., 2007; Baral and Bhargava, 2011a, b; Mishra and Bhatnager, 2019; Grzywacz and Marks, 2000). Further, these findings suggest that providing work-family culture in terms of supervisor's support to employees in managing work-family demands enhances their work-to-family enrichment. The other two dimensions of work-family culture, that is negative career consequences for using work-family policies and organizational time demands, should be reduced to increase the enriching experiences of the employees. The study also found that if an employee gets freedom at work in the form of decision latitude, this enhances his/her enriching experiences from work to family. The study also found that WFE is positively related to IWB, which is in consonance with a recent study (Mishra et al., 2017). Although other studies have examined the relationship between WFE and other discretionary behaviors like organizational citizenship behaviors (Baral and Bhargava, 2011b), these findings revealed that when an employee's work experience yields benefits to his/her family, it increases his/her performance at work, whereby she/he becomes more innovative. This study examined WLB as a mediator between WFE and IWB. Results suggested that WFE positively predicted WLB, which corroborates with some of the recent arguments made in this regard (Greenhaus and Ten Brummelhuis, 2013; Casper et al., 2018). In contrast to the old conceptualization of WLB in terms of conflict and enrichment (Frone, 2003), recent findings have revealed that WFE and WLB are distinct constructs, whereby WFE positively predicts WLB. The study also found that WLB primarily acts as a mediator between WFE and IWB. This partial mediation describes the underlying mechanism in WFE-outcome relationship. Similar to other studies, this study also suggests that enriching experiences result into increased balance perceptions in employees, which, in turn, lead to positive outcomes (Carlson et al., 2009; Chan et al., 2016; Haar, 2013; Bansal and Agarwal, 2017a). Moreover, supporting some of the arguments of recent studies (Korabik et al., 2008; Rajadhyaksha et al., 2015; Rajadhyaksha and Velgach, 2015), this study found that GRI does influence the WFE-WLB relationship. As hypothesized, it was found that GRI moderates the WFE-WLB relationship in a manner whereby high GRI (egalitarians) employees experience more WLB when experiencing the same level of WFE as compared to low GRI (traditional) employees. More specifically, egalitarians give equal preference to both their domains (i.e. work/life). Therefore, when these employees have WFE, they perceive more balance because one domain is beneficial for the other domain.\n7. Theoretical contribution: This study makes several contributions to work-life literature. First, earlier researchers mentioned that work-family research suffers from a negative bias (Litano, 2017; Morganson et al., 2014) and is heavily skewed towards the conflict perspective (Lapierre et al., 2018). However, this study contributes to sparse but growing literature on positive aspect of work-life interface (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2014); also, this study fills the gap highlighted in extant literature about the scarcity of WFE research (Shaffer et al., 2011). Second, understanding the factors contributing in positive work-life interaction among employees is increasingly important for organizations, given its impact on positive individual and work-related outcomes (Aguinis et al., 2017; Rucker et al., 2011; Rungtusanatham et al., 2014). This study suggests that providing supportive work-family culture and high decision latitude leads to higher WFE for employees, which, in turn, leads to increased employee performance at the workplace. It is a significant contribution, as innovative work behavior is considered to be more costly and risky as compared to the other extra-role behaviors (Agarwal, 2017; Janssen, 2000), as it is directly related to organizational innovativeness for gaining competitive advantage (Agarwal et al., 2012). Therefore, identifying work-family culture and decision latitude as the predictors and IWB as an outcome of WFE would be beneficial for both researchers and practitioners alike. It may be noted that only a few studies earlier have examined these antecedents and outcomes in relation with WFE. Third, this study offers insights into the relationship between WFE and employee outcomes (IWB) by revealing WLB to be an underlying mechanism in an enrichment-outcomes relationship. The salient contribution of this study is by examining a new psychological mechanism underlying enrichment-outcome relationship. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study examining WLB as a mediator in WFE-IWB relationship. Fourth, this study suggests that WFE and WLB are distinct constructs in a manner that WFE positively predicts WLB perceptions of employees; this is another significant contribution, as it helps in understanding the relationship between WFE and WLB, which is critical for work-family research (Casper et al., 2018; Haar, 2013). The study's fifth contribution is that it has theoretically formulated and empirically examined whether an individual's disposition (GRI) can actually moderate the direct and indirect effects of WFE. To the best of authors' knowledge, no study has been conducted earlier that has examined the moderating role of GRI in WFE-WLB relationship. Thus, finding the attenuating role of GRI is certainly an important contribution to extant work-family literature. Sixth, this study significantly contributes by proposing and testing a moderated mediation model, which jointly incorporates the mediating (i.e. WLB) and moderating (i.e. GRI) mechanisms into a single model that explains how and when enrichment leads to employee outcome (IWB) by using PROCESS macro for SPSS (Hayes, 2013). As recent development in mediation literature unequivocally discourages researchers from using Baron Kenny's approach because of its severe limitations (Aguinis et al., 2017; Rucker et al., 2011; Rungtusanatham et al., 2014), recent research suggested to follow the Preacher and Hayes (2004, 2008) approach and bootstrapping method (Memon et al., 2018). Finally, this study contributes by studying the phenomena in the Indian context, as extant literature has suggested that work-life interface is a cultural phenomenon (Powell et al., 2009), and most of the earlier studies conducted were in the western context (Bansal and Agarwal, 2017b; Shaffer et al., 2011). Thus, this study extends the work-family research in a non-western context on a sample of dual working couples.\n8. Managerial implications: Our findings also hold several important managerial implications. Organizations/managers should be instrumental in providing a supportive work-family culture that enriches employees' work-family domain. They should adopt measures to reduce negative career consequences for availing WLB practices and, in turn, motivate their employees to avail them. Recently, many Indian organizations have been adopting different strategies to reduce organizational time demand of their employees, by providing facilities like work from home, compressed week and flexible working hours; these strategies certainly help employees to fulfill their family demands and also help them to balance out their work-family needs (Bansal and Agarwal, 2017a). Organizations also must be aware of the positive effects of WFE on employee outcomes like their satisfaction, engagement and performance. This study suggests that WFE can promote IWB among the employees; this extra-role behavior is very important for organizations to get sustainability and competitive advantages (Andersson et al., 2014). One must remember after all that innovation is a key driver for economic growth and well-being of developed and emerging economies today (Global Innovation Index, 2014), especially in the Indian context, whereby the Indian Prime Minister has given special importance to \"Make in India\" campaigns (Press Information Bureau, Government of India, 2014), simply to promote innovations.\n9. Limitations and future directions: First, the present study adopted a cross-sectional analysis approach; therefore, it is not in a position to give strong evidence for causal relationships. Second, data for this study were obtained from a single source in the form of a survey questionnaire. Thus, longitudinal and qualitative research designs may be useful to further understand how employees actually think about their work-life and workplace arrangements. Third, cross-cultural research on work-family interface suggests that WFE is a socially constructed phenomenon (Lewis, 2003), and this study has been conducted within a specific context. Consequently, one should be cautious before generalizing these findings to other contexts. Future studies may use similar variables under different contexts in order to ensure generalizability. Lastly, data were collected from dual working parents only; data from another sample like single parents or non-parents may be beneficial for deeper knowledge about their perceptions of work-life interface. Although the present study supports the mediating role of WLB in an enrichment-outcomes relationship, more research is definitely needed to further validate this finding, by examining WLB as a potential mediator between WFE and its other outcomes. Given the Indian cultural context, examining the moderating role of cultural dimensions like power distance and collectivism (Dedahanov et al., 2016) in the WFE-outcomes relationship is also a very promising avenue for future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents (i.e. work-family culture and decision latitude) and outcome (innovative workplace behavior (IWB)) of work-family enrichment (WFE). The study also examines the moderated mediation hypothesis between WFE and outcome, considering work-life balance (WLB) as a mediator and gender role ideology (GRI) as the moderator.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data for the study were collected through a questionnaire survey from 426 Indian dual working parents, working in various sectors, through purposive sampling technique.\nFindings: The study found that work-family culture and decision latitude are positively related to WFE, which, in turn, results in increased IWB, with WLB acting as its mediator. Further, the study also found a moderating effect of GRI between WFE and WLB relationship; more specifically, the relationship between WFE and balance is stronger for egalitarian employees (high GRI).\nResearch limitations/implications: Using self-reported questionnaire data and a cross-sectional research design is the limitation of this study.\nOriginality/value: The study examines a relatively less focused phenomenon of work-life interface, that is WFE in one of the underrepresented contexts like India; further, the study extends the range of antecedents and outcomes of WFE. Additionally, it contributes to understand the enrichment-balance relationship, whereby it explains the role of GRI in developing a balanced perception.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A critical analysis of service ecosystems research: rethinking its premises to move forward
|
[
"Value co-creation",
"Value co-destruction",
"Loosely coupled systems",
"Institutions",
"Resource integration",
"S-D logic",
"Co-creation",
"Service ecosystem",
"Service dominant logic (SDL)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: All over the world, service ecosystems emerge and develop, made of interdependent networks of multiple interconnected actors who interact directly or indirectly (Ng and Wakenshaw, 2018). This rise has prompted substantial research into these \"relatively self-contained, self-adjusting systems of resource-integrating actors connected by shared institutional arrangements and mutual value creation through service exchange\" (Vargo and Lusch, 2016, p. 11). Such studies have expanded service research beyond dyadic or even network analyzes because service ecosystems encompass not only connections and ties (as networks do) but also flows and exchanges among actors (Lusch and Vargo, 2014; Meynhardt et al., 2016). Those studies also rely, for their foundational basis, on four intertwined premises of service ecosystems as follows:\n2. Methodology: The identification of an appropriate set of studies, in a transparent and rigorous manner, followed the guidelines for systematic literature reviews provided by Booth et al. (2012) and Gabbott (2004). Accordingly, the review comprises three stages, namely, search the literature, assess the literature base and analyze and synthesize the findings (Booth et al., 2012; Mustak et al., 2016).\n3. General overview of service ecosystems research: 3.1 Nature and evolution of service ecosystems research\n4. A critical analysis of the premises of service ecosystems: Although the service ecosystem concept benefits from the quantity and depth of the S-D logic literature in which it is entrenched, it also suffers from the limitations of that literature stream. In particular, S-D logic suffers from a positive bias, as noted previously (Chowdhury et al., 2016; Echeverri and Skalen, 2011; Ple, 2017; Ple and Chumpitaz Caceres, 2010). This positive bias reflects S-D logic's \"inherently optimistic and favorable perspective\" (Ple and Chumpitaz Caceres, 2010, p. 431) on the processes or outcomes of interactions among actors, as reflected in its terminology, namely, value co-creation, collaboration among actors, service exchange to the benefit of the actors and improvement of the actors' well-being (Akaka et al., 2014; Edvardsson et al., 2014; Lusch et al., 2016a, 2016b; Storbacka et al., 2016). This bias limits the explanatory power of S-D logic though because it prevents it from accurately reflecting or assessing actual business situations that often may be characterized by non-collaborative or even destructive interactions and negative value outcomes, summarized in the notion of value co-destruction (Cabiddu et al., 2019; Chowdhury et al., 2016; Echeverri and Skalen, 2011; Ple, 2017; Ple and Chumpitaz Caceres, 2010; Smith, 2013). In turn, with its roots in S-D logic, we argue that the service ecosystem concept suffers from similar biases. Most academic literature on service ecosystems accordingly has adopted an overly optimistic perspective on both the nature of the relationships among the interacting actors and the outcomes of their interactions. Moreover, prior literature considers co-creation the sole outcome of smooth interacting processes among actors that share similar institutions (Beirao et al., 2017; Lusch et al., 2016a, 2016b; Storbacka et al., 2016; Vargo and Lusch, 2010).\n5. Discussion and conclusion: 5.1 Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the development of service ecosystems literature and its four premises as follows: the characterization of service ecosystems as loosely coupled systems, the existence of shared institutional arrangements among actors, the occurrence of resource-integrating interactions among actors and value co-creation as the stated purpose of service ecosystems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: With a systematic literature review, the paper identifies and analyzes 98 articles on service ecosystems. An examination and a cross-check of the central elements of the articles reveal gaps and limitations in the analysis of service ecosystems. These results lead to the formulation of four propositions and suggestions for further research.\nFindings: The four premises of service ecosystems are constrained by overly optimistic perceptions that prevent theoretical advancements. These premises overlook possible tight coupling; power asymmetries; divergent interpretations of institutions and institutional arrangements; divergent interpretations of actors' resource-integrating actions, intentions and abilities; and the co-destruction of value. Four propositions are formulated to address these challenges.\nResearch limitations/implications: The shortcomings reflect the systematic literature review, which only covers a specific area of the extant knowledge base, namely, English-language articles published in peer-reviewed international journals.\nOriginality/value: This study extensively and critically investigates the premises of service ecosystems for the first time, proposing a more holistic, dynamic and realistic understanding of them. In so doing, it paves the way for renewed conceptualizations of service ecosystems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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