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Salesperson's listening ability as an antecedent to relationship selling	[ "Listening", "Salespeople", "Communication", "Relationships", "Trust", "Performance", "Employee behavior", "Buyer-seller relationships" ]	[ { "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 the article.\nActive empathetic listening as antecedent to relationship building behaviors: Active listening requires that the listener attend to the sender's message with regards to both verbal and nonverbal elements (Brownell, 1990). This implies that listening is not a passive activity in which the listener simply acts as a vortex which information flows into, but the listener assures the speaker they hear them via head nods and eye contact. The listener also seeks to understand the speaker by asking questions or repeating what was said for the sake of clarity. Active listening is an information gathering process in which the listener is fully engaged in the conversation.\nHypotheses: The process of gathering both literal and emotional information through AEL is a unique contribution to research in personal selling. It is proposed that using AEL will enhance the salespersons ability to build trust and relationships with their customers. More specifically, when salespeople use AEL they should be better able to meet their customers' needs because of greater levels of understanding and therefore develop better relationships.\nMediators of sales performance: Trust in the salesperson has been correlated with satisfaction in buyer seller relationships (Aggarwal et al., 2005) and has been proposed to be a mediator along with relationship quality when the outcome variable is sales performance (Palmatier et al., 2006). When hypothesizing a relationship between trust and relationship quality Aggarwal et al. (2005) found that higher levels of trust were related to higher levels of satisfaction in the buyer/seller relationship. It is proposed in the present model that trust will be positively related to relationship quality:\nMethodology: Sample\nDiscussion: When examining the hypothesized relationships it is apparent that they are generally supported directionally and via their significance (with the exception of H5). The support of the hypotheses in the present study may also be seen as lending credibility to the relationship marketing model developed by Palmatier et al. (2006) and Comer and Drollinger's (1999) theoretical model on the personal selling process. Overall the findings sustain the notion that salespeople with higher levels of AEL will have higher quality relationships, and be regarded as more trustworthy. Further, when levels of trustworthiness are high the level of relationship quality is higher which results in higher sales performance. Examination of the standardized coefficient (0.62) indicates that the path between trust and relationship quality is strong. This finding indicates that as trust in the salesperson increases by 1 standard deviation the perceived level of relationship quality increases by 0.62 standard deviations. Trustworthiness of the salesperson should result in a better relationship between the buyer and seller. Active empathetic listening also had a strong relationship to trust (standardized coefficient 0.65). Salespeople with greater levels of AEL should be able to instill higher levels of trust in the relationship.\nManagerial implications: Sales managers whose sales force is engaged in dyadic communications with buyers and are interested in developing long term relationships with them may benefit most from this study. The findings indicate that AEL is positively related to greater levels of relationship quality and superior levels of trust. AEL may be seen as a means in which salespeople can enhance these relationship building skills. In order for salespeople to take advantage of this higher form of listening they will need to be trained in active listening behaviors as well as the ability to see the sales interaction from the buyers' point-of-view (empathy). Salespeople can be trained to be more empathetic when interacting with their customers by recognizing emotional signals in facial expressions, tone of voice and other non-verbal behaviors. Being more aware of the customers feelings will provide the salesperson with additional information that will likely help them to build a better relationship through responses that demonstrate greater levels of understanding on both a literal and emotional level.\nLimitations and future research: In the present study a cross sectional sample of salespersons was used in order to examine AEL and its link to relationship quality, trust and ultimately performance. In order to have a more depth understanding of the effect that AEL has on interpersonal skills and ultimately performance a longitudinal study would be ideal. A longitudinal study would be better able to determine what the long-term effects of AEL are in the buyer/seller dyad. Further, in the present study we examined all of the variables from the salespersons' perspective. Self-report measures used in the present study limit the interpretation of the findings. It would be of value to use customer/salesperson dyads in future research in order to determine if there are gaps in perceptions of communication skills, relationship quality and trust. A potential threat to the present study is that of common method bias. Because the data were collected through self-reported measures it poses a threat to the findings in the study. Another important limitation is that of a single indicator to predict sales performance. Single indicators are less desirable when specifying a structural model but can be used to estimate a construct (Hu and Bentler, 1999).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In this study, active empathetic listening is purposed as being an antecedent to a salesperson's communication skill, ability to maintain quality relationships and build trust. The study proposes that communication skill, relationship quality and trust all moderate the relationship between AEL and sales performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey research using salespersons was conducted; structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses of the model.\nFindings: The findings confirmed that AEL was positively related to salespersons' communication skills, relationship quality and trust. The proposed moderators of communication and trust received support when predicting sales performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: This was the first empirical study to examine the role of AEL in a relationship selling model. AEL was found to directly affect levels of trust, relationship quality and overall communication skills of salespeople. More research on the role of AEL in the relationship selling process should be investigated.\nPractical implications: Managers that focus on long-term relationships in a dyadic buyer-seller relationship may benefit most from this study. A scale that can be used to measure existing levels of AEL in the sales force is included. AEL may better enable salespeople to develop long-term relationships with their customers.\nOriginality/value: This study examines a form of listening (AEL) that is proposed to be superior to other forms of listening within the personal selling context. Presently little research on the importance of listening and its impact on relationship building exists. This is the first study to test AEL as an antecedent to relationship skills of salespeople.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An artificial intelligence approach to support knowledge management on the selection of creativity and innovation techniques	[ "Knowledge-based systems", "Knowledge management", "Creativity and innovation techniques", "Design teams" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In any new product development (NPD), creativity is a necessary skill for design teams (Starkey et al., 2016). Innovation requires reaching new and unexplored solutions, which demands intensive creation capabilities (Brown, 2010; Anderson et al., 2014). High demand, tight deadlines and conflicting requirements strain design teams to create at a high pace (Kwong et al., 2016). Expertise and effort are needed from team members to be creative, demand that can be eased using creativity and innovation techniques (CITs) (Thia et al., 2005; Graner and Missler Behr, 2013; Bertoncelli et al., 2016).\n2. Creativity, innovation and techniques: With the increasing complexity of design practice, creativity went from a spontaneous ability to become a central topic of interest in market and research contexts (Kowaltowski et al., 2010; Crilly and Cardoso, 2017), becoming a vital issue for organizations. Markets are more stratified; innovation life-cycles have shrunk; environmental impact, social factors and new stakeholders demand from design teams the ability to co-create with customers, suppliers and service staff to deal with conflicting requirements (Baxter, 2011; Revilla and Rodriguez-Prado, 2018). This scenario demands a great creative capacity, reaching ideas at a high pace to sustain competitiveness (McAloone, 2007; Daly et al., 2012).\n3. Knowledge-based system development: As a now consolidated research field, AI has gone from futurism to our daily lives, aiding humans to perform tasks, manage knowledge and deal with large amount of information (Duan et al., 2019, Dwivedi et al., 2019). As a branch from AI, KBS systems are focussed on integrating human knowledge by managing complex and heuristic expertise by storing important skills in reliable and permanent systems (Duan et al., 2019). While AI envisions \"how to make computers do things, which, at the moment, people are better\" (Rich et al., 2009 p. 3), KBS or Expert System focus on consolidating heuristic expert knowledge into computational systems able to aid decision-making (Ikram and Qamar, 2015).\n4. Knowledge-based system inference process: As a first case study, we envision an engineering design team working on a project to improve a tractor for agriculture. Each member works individually with specific parts of the machine and receives required tasks from the manager. Once a week the whole team assembles in the organization's meeting room to discuss the progress, as well as construct the architecture and linkages among different parts. The team is currently in a meeting struggling to define important parts of the tractor, thus resorted to the KBS. It is the third week with little progress and the work is almost behind according to the schedule. Main reason for divergence is between two team members that disagree in the linkage of some parts, both with solid arguments.\n5. Knowledge-based system verification and validation: Many approaches have been developed to consistently evaluate computational systems. Traditional software validation processes are often inadequate for KBS (Caraca-Valente et al., 1999; Knauf et al., 2007) and it can be impractical and costly to test every possible scenario (Knauf et al., 2002). Among many alternatives reported in literature (Batarseh and Gonzalez, 2015), the Turing-test methodology provides a sufficient validation scenario for many KBS applications (Knauf et al., 2002) by contrasting experts' answers to the KBS outputs (Batarseh and Gonzalez, 2015). This can be done by direct comparison (the case is solved by the expert and the system simultaneously); or by mixing anonymously the solutions of expert to the KBS outputs, for then requesting other experts to rate them (Knauf et al., 2002).\n6. Conclusion: The irrational and random creativity perpetuated for many years has been questioned by studies presenting a more structured and rational view, including methods and techniques to support and promote creation (Amabile, 1997; Mostert, 2007; Vieira et al., 2012; Toh and Miller, 2015). Being creative raises chances of successful innovation (Baxter, 2011) and guides the solutions to satisfy stakeholders.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Creativity is an important skill for design teams to reach new and useful solutions. Designers often use one or more of creativity and innovation techniques (CITs) to achieve the desired creative potential during new product development (NPD). The selection of adequate CITs requires considerable expertise, given the multiple application contexts and the extensive number of techniques available. The purpose of this study is to present a creativity support system able to manage this amount of information and provide valuable knowledge to improve NPD.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study presents a knowledge-based system prototype using artificial intelligence (AI) to support knowledge management on the selection of CITs for design. CITs assertion is modelled through a double inference process using five categories, correlating over 500 different entry scenarios to 24 implemented CITs. The techniques are classified according to: design stage, innovation focus, team relationship, execution method and difficult of use. Prototype outputs explanations on the inference process and chosen techniques information.\nFindings: To demonstrate the system scope, two opposite design cases are presented. The system was validated by experts in knowledge management and mechanical engineering design. The validation process demonstrates relevance of the approach and improvement directions for future developments.\nOriginality/value: Though literature contains toolkits and taxonomy for CITs, no work applies AI to identify design scenarios, select best CITs and instruct about their use. Validators reported to know less than half of the available techniques, showing a clear knowledge gap among design experts.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Social media: is this the new organizational stepchild?	[ "Qualitative research", "Executive support", "In-depth interview", "Organizational activities", "Social media marketing objective" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Consumers increasingly use social media as a trusted source of information to share opinions on firms' offerings. These consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-brand communications provide both great opportunities and threats to a firm's relationships with existing and potential customers (Kiron et al., 2012). Some firms have thus begun to incorporate social media into their marketing programs (Berthon et al., 2012). While the strategic importance of social media has prompted many researchers to investigate various aspects of social media, most attention has been given to consumer-oriented social media research: including consumers' motives in engaging in different social media platforms (Cheung et al., 2011), activities driving consumers' high and low social media engagement (Men and Tsai, 2012) and impact of different cultures on usage and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) behaviors (Chu and Choi, 2011; Jackson and Wang, 2013). Also, researchers have investigated how firms can better gather consumer-generated content to achieve their various objectives such as attracting more consumers to their brand page (de Vries et al., 2012; Smith et al., 2012).\nResearch on organizational processes and activities: When innovative technologies emerge, the resulting business potential often causes firms to adopt the new technology and, therefore, adapt their activities to embrace the new opportunity (Zhu et al., 2006). The emergence of social media challenges firms to adapt their organizational activities to be successful in the evolving market. From this perspective, a review of the literature based on the adoption of innovative technology provides a relevant theoretical framework for the current research.\nResearch methodology: As very little is known about organizational activities needed to make social media a part of the firm's strategic marketing approach, the current research is exploratory in nature and, thus represents an under-researched phenomenon. We used literature related to the adoption of new technology and organizational behavior to create a framework for the identification of activities that organizations would likely modify or create when adopting innovative technology. Based on this framework, we sought contextual information from firms actively involved in social media and used qualitative methods to gather, code and analyze the results. We recruited companies from multiple industries and of various sizes (e.g., the number of employees and sales volume) to obtain rich and real data to improve the generalizability of the findings (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Yin, 2008).\nResults: Top management vision\nDiscussion: Findings from the interviews present organizational processes and activities where firms attempt to efficiently and effectively achieve their social media marketing objectives. The activities identified in extant literature (not bold in Figure 1) provided a basic framework for the current research. Through the interview process, we found that some of the activities were well adopted by firms to embrace social media, whereas others were not well implemented. We also had new activities emerge (bold in Figure 1), which were previously not identified in new technology adoption literature. Accounting for extant and new activities, we developed a framework to better represent the relationship of activities to organizational processes. Figure 1 shows the activities as categorized into the four organizational processes. The four processes will help social media marketing researchers and managers in their efforts to investigate and achieve social media marketing objectives.\nConclusions: The current research is meaningful in that it approaches social media from the organizational process perspective, which has received little attention in the social media literature. Findings suggest that, although some organizational activities are important for firms to embrace social media, many firms did not adopt and implement them internally, leading us to the view that social media is the \"step-child\" of corporate functions, not receiving the resources or attention that other, more traditional functions would receive.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate what activities allow the firm to efficiently and effectively integrate social media into its strategic marketing activities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As the current research investigates a new area of focus in the literature, an exploratory study consistent with the adoption of new technology in a firm was used to identify salient activities. In-depth interviews with those who oversee their firm's social media strategies were conducted to discover and assess organizational activities.\nFindings: Findings suggest that many firms did not adopt organizational activities important for effective social media execution, leading us to the view social media as the \"step-child\" of corporate functions, not receiving resources more traditional functions would receive; those responsible for the social media function, an exercise in external communications, may be hampered by poor internal communications; and few firms have defined and measured goals for social media where employees are held accountable for supporting an overall marketing strategy.\nPractical implications: The findings point the way for future confirmatory empirical research of organizational activities, top management team support and effective internal communication in the rapid-response environment of social media. Findings also provide implications for marketing practitioners for the use and measurement of social media to achieve marketing objectives.\nOriginality/value: The current research is meaningful and unique in that it approaches social media from the organizational process perspective, which has received little attention in the social media literature.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The psychology of "managing mistakes": some implications for coaches and managers	[ "Psychology", "Learning", "Problem solving" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a previous edition of DLO (2006, Vol. 20, No. 4), John Allpress, the English Football Association's head of under-16 player development, explained that football (soccer) coaches - and, by analogy, managers - can and should encourage active experimentation by their players (or employees). One of the main consequences of adopting this attitude, according to Allpress, is the further need to allow players to make mistakes, and for coaches to create a supportive environment where mistakes are seen as learning opportunities. This article aims to support these conclusions with an examination of psychological theories of learning, and considers the practical implications for sports coaches and managers.The assumptions that validate this argument are that any coaching philosophy should be underpinned, in large part, by some pedagogical theory (i.e. a method of teaching). This, in turn, must be rooted in an understanding of how people learn: a psychological theory of learning. As Wikeley and Bullock (2006) have pointed out:Coaching requires an understanding of the complex business of how people learn ... The quest for a universally accepted theory of learning has engaged educational researchers and psychologists, but most models remain inadequate.\nPsychology of learning: As noted by Wikeley and Bullock (2006) above, there is, as yet, no consensus on the central question: how do people learn? It is possible, however, to highlight some of the weaknesses in widely accepted theories and present tentative alternatives. For brevity, Karl Popper's caricature of the two main schools of thought in the psychology of learning will be used here. These two schools are \"association psychology\" and \"constructivism\"; or in Popper's (1981) terms: the \"bucket\" and the \"searchlight\" theories of learning, respectively.The \"bucket\" theory holds that the learner is an empty vessel into which information can be poured (see Figure 1). The information received by the learner is \"joined together\" in the brain and stimulus-response (or S-R) bonds are formed. To use a sporting example, a winger in football often receives similar passes from defenders and attempts to hit successful crosses to onrushing strikers. According to the bucket theory, the more times a player successfully associates cause and effect (e.g. observing an attacking run and hitting a cross), the stronger the S-R bonds become and we say they have \"learned well\". This is the \"common-sense\" or intuitive understanding of learning through repetition most people (and certainly most sports coaches) implicitly hold.This theory, though supported by empirical research (mostly with animals) and used on various educational courses (i.e. most coach education courses), is fundamentally mistaken and it is easy to see why by looking more closely at the \"searchlight\" theory proposed by Popper (1981).The first point to note is that people do not simply receive information from their environment (as assumed by the \"bucket\" theory). If this were the case, football players would not know in what direction to look to see the ball coming, or which foot to raise the control the ball successfully. According to Popper, we actively construct a \"toy\" environment in our brains based on expectations about the world around us. This internal \"toy\" environment helps us to direct our attention (i.e. to have expectations) and is accurate enough for us to act with confidence most of the time. Here the learner is pictured as active, rather than passive, and is guided by expectations which act as a searchlight, illuminating a limited set of possible solutions to problems in our environment.Consider, for example, a midfield player surveying the field ahead of them. Their gaze is directed by the expectation that team-mates will be running ahead of them; the selection of pass is based on the expectation that a through ball played on the floor, given the position of defenders and the run of the striker, will lead to a goal scoring opportunity. This is a tentative hypothesis or potential solution to the problem they are confronted with, based on expectations (which are, in turn, based on prior experiences). Only by trying out a solution can they know if it is the \"right one\" in a given situation. Hence, the searchlight theory says that we are creative animals who learn by making and testing bold hypotheses about solving problems in our environment (see Figure 2, where R = successful result and N = negative result). By eliminating the false theories and retaining the successful ones, we learn from our mistakes (Figure 3 describes Popper's theory of learning through \"informed trial and error\").\nImplications for coaches (and managers): Let us first consider the likely actions of a bucket theorist coach. By assuming their players are like empty vessels into which information can be poured, we should expect them to do plenty of talking: imparting the wisdom they have accumulated over many years of experience. Second, we might expect them to conduct lots of repetitive drills since this is, of course, the best way to strengthen S-R bonds. Finally, we would expect them to give lots of one-way, corrective information helping their players to make links between relevant bits of information (relevant to the coach that is).Of course, we know that the bucket theory is fundamentally flawed, so let us turn our attention to the searchlight instead. Those coaches assuming their players are like searchlights - creative problem-solvers with the capacity to learn from their own errors - would certainly adopt a very different coaching style. They would structure their sessions around problems (see Jones and Turner, 2006) then let their players get on with the task of solving them. They would encourage creativity and novel solutions to problems (not necessarily the same ones they were taught). They would allow the players time and space to make mistakes - as long as they were not repeating the same ones. And they would never, ever assume that they knew the \"best way\" of doing something because, according to the searchlight, a solution is always tentative, never certain.\nConclusions: * People learn through conjecturing tentative solutions to problems, based on expectations about the environment, and eliminating those that are unsuccessful.* If this theory of learning is accepted, it means coaches (and managers) should react in such a way as to facilitate this process. The best way to do this is to allow (or even encourage) people to make mistakes and learn from errors.* In practice this means coaches and managers should attempt to create supportive environments that encourage creative problem solving and help people learn from, rather than penalise, errors.* The role of the coach or manager is therefore shifted from \"omniscient dictator\" to \"orchestrator\" (Jones and Turner, 2006).A further implication of accepting this theory of learning - or rather the broader analogous theory of the growth of knowledge - is that a team or organization that fails to learn from its mistakes cannot grow beyond the limits of the ideas of the person(s) in charge. However, if the conclusions noted above are adhered to, and mistakes are managed constructively, the growth and development of a team or organization can only be limited by the imagination of the players or employees that constitute its members.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper has two main aims: first, to outline the importance of an understanding of psychological theories of learning for coaches and managers; and second, to delineate the practical implications of adopting either of the two psychological theories presented for coaches and managers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The main theoretical insights in this paper are derived from the work of the renowned philosopher, Sir Karl Popper, and especially his caricature of learners as active \"searchlights\" as opposed to passive \"buckets\" (Popper). The basic tenets of the \"searchlight\" and \"bucket\" theories are illustrated with the assistance of analogies from coaching football (soccer) and an argument is advanced in favor of adopting the former.\nFindings: - Following from the adoption of the searchlight theory of learning, the paper argues that managers and coaches should work to create environments that foster and support learning. In such an environment, people are treated as creative problem solvers and errors or mistakes are regarded as important learning events.\nPractical implications: - In conclusion it is argued that knowledge can only grow in organizations where mistakes are effectively managed rather than punished or ignored.\nOriginality/value: - This paper advances important arguments from the field of epistemology about the nature of learning and the organisational environment. It will be of value to coaches and managers who are interested in how knowledge grows and who wish to foster this process in their organisations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Building operation and maintenance: manpower in Hong Kong	[ "Training", "Education", "Construction", "Maintenance", "Professional", "Manpower" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Urban development is characterized by progressive construction of buildings, which often represents one of the largest industrial sectors in modern economies (Raja et al., 2013). On top of elaborate planning, design and construction, proper upkeep of the buildings throughout their long post-occupancy periods requires considerable human and material resources (Building Maintenance Information, 1996). Central to the upkeep are efficient building operations (e.g. minimized energy use for facilities in buildings) and effective maintenance for buildings (e.g. optimal repair for dilapidated facade). Achieving these targets is a common goal, yet also a typical challenge, for cities across the world.\nBackground of the study: In recent years, the Building Services Operation and Maintenance Executives Society (BSOMES), which is the leading organization of professionals dealing with O&M works for buildings in Hong Kong, has noticed the less-than-satisfactory development of O&M manpower for buildings. Therefore, a collaborative research study which aimed at revealing the state of the manpower was jointly conducted by BSOMES and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The objectives of the study were to investigate the supply and demand of building O&M practitioners; find out any gaps between the required and possessed competences of the practitioners; and identify ways to meet the manpower needs.\nResearch method: In addition to a study team who undertook the research tasks, a project committee comprising O&M experts (including the president, vice president and committee members of BSOMES) was formed to oversee the progress of the study, liaise with relevant parties to facilitate data collection and provide advice during the study.\nFindings: Respondents of the surveys\nConclusions: Under the abovementioned study, a model integrating manpower levels, trades and natures of works for operating and maintaining existing buildings was developed and a full spectrum of jobs which are specific for O&M works were established. The study, being the first of its kind focusing on building O&M manpower, unveiled not only the manpower size, vacancy and income but also a variety of recruitment, competence and education issues which are influential to the development of the manpower.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The study aims to reveal the state of building operation and maintenance (O&M) manpower in Hong Kong. In addition, the study included supply and demand of O&M practitioners, gaps between their required and possessed competences and ways to meet the manpower needs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: After developing a model that integrates manpower levels (L), trades (T) and natures (N) of O&M works (named as \"LTN\" model), a full spectrum of O&M jobs were established followed by collecting data of 75 organizations and 402 stakeholders through two surveys.\nFindings: Besides the large O&M workforce, vacancy rates of the jobs were found to be significant. For the different trades and natures of O&M works, the knowledge/skills levels perceived by the stakeholders were lower than the corresponding importance levels.\nResearch limitations/implications: The methodology of the study can be used in future research for revealing the state of O&M manpower in Hong Kong and cities alike. The way in which the \"LTN\" model was developed may be used as a reference for constructing similar models for manpower research in other industries.\nPractical implications: The findings and the measures for improving the O&M manpower can assist policymakers and human resources departments to formulate necessary education and training courses for the building industry.\nOriginality/value: The study is the first of its kind focusing on building O&M manpower. The state of the manpower it unveiled forms a basis for comparison with similar findings in future.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Engaging with engagement: how UK business schools could meet the innovation challenge	[ "Strategy", "Incentives", "Engagement", "Impact", "Business schools", "Capability" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In 2012, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts, invited the Association of Business Schools (ABS) to examine ways to increase the impact of UK business schools on innovation and growth in the UK economy. This paper, by the report's two main authors, summarizes the recommendations and the thinking behind them.\nIntroduction: How can British business schools better engage with business practice, even as they continue to achieve solid research records and attract large numbers of students? The Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, posed this question to the ABS and asked it to commission a report that addressed this question. The report, published in 2013 (Thorpe and Rawlinson, 2013\nDesign of the study: The authors worked with a task force of expert academics and researchers, which oversaw the research and validated the thinking behind the conclusions (for members of the task force, see footnote 1). The report marshalled a range of existing initiatives and ideas, and the work began influencing change even as it was being conducted[3].\nContext for change: Change within business schools would, we recognized, involve some complex and interconnected issues. Business schools and their faculty operate within a system of incentives and rewards, rooted in academic culture and history. There are important areas where this system undermines the objectives of innovation and engagement on which we focused. So - in addition to the report's focus on examples of demonstrated good practice and how they could be replicated and scaled up -the report also looks at the implications for some of these systemic factors.\nAppropriate pedagogies: We recommended that schools should make more use of well-proven course-design features that reduce disconnects between teaching and practice.\nFaculty experience: We made recommendations to promote business engagement among academically trained faculty, and academic participation among the practically experienced. This starts with doctoral training.\nManaging company relationships: We recommended that business schools should better resource the management of institutional relationships with companies, moving away from individually funded projects towards relationships covering placement opportunities, research links, and support for teaching programmes. Such multi-touch, institutional relationships promote continuity and interdisciplinary engagement. They help junior faculty, who often lack the personal reputations that attract business interest.\nAccreditation and standards: We pointed to the potential positive impact of improving how impact (particularly that of research) is measured and assessed.\nWorking with research centres: We recommended promoting research in larger teams, and centres with multi-dimensional roles.\nDiversifying the mix of schools: We recommend that many institutions should focus more on their strongest academic competencies and a preferred flavour of business engagement.\nConclusions: Two themes run through our recommendations: the need to change incentives to better recognize and reward activities that directly impact business; and the need to build capabilities to deliver greater engagement in teaching and research, and better support for innovation and SMEs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how business schools can better engage with business practice, building on literature that highlights their lack of impact and questions their business-model sustainability. Reporting exemplars of good practice in engagement (in both research and teaching), the paper offers six recommendations for Deans of business schools, government, and businesses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research was undertaken for a report commissioned by the Association of Business Schools for the Minister of State for Universities and Science. Methods included a review of published literature; surveys of practising managers, managers who had changed careers to work in business schools, managers who had taken MBA degrees, doctoral students, deans of business schools, and fellows of learned societies; and interviews with individuals close to government who were themselves preparing reports on shaping government policy for business development and economic growth. Examples of good practice were examined for both content and lessons on how they developed.\nFindings: Six recommendations are proposed, on programme design; faculty skills and experience; developing partnerships and relationships; assessing impact; managing and organizing research; and differentiating business-school offerings for enhanced profile and distinctiveness. Two further crosscutting themes relate to the incentives that might be required for change to happen, and the capabilities needed for delivery.\nOriginality/value: Originality in the paper stems from its focus on the solutions to the problems identified, as opposed to the restatement of the problems themselves.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Automated support of software quality improvement	[ "Quality improvement", "Computer software", "Software tools", "Automation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The importance of software quality assurance and process improvement is widely recognized. A number of models for quality improvement and assessment have been developed, and some of them are specifically targeted for the software industry, such as the Software Capability Maturity Model (SW-CMM) and ISO/IEC 15504. The SW-CMM was developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) (Wesley, 1995). Used to identify the key elements of effective software processes and to evaluate the maturity of an organization's software processes, it has become a de facto standard for software process assessment and improvement. The SW-CMM is composed of five incremental maturity levels, and consists of 18 key process areas and 316 activities which together guide organizations in improving their processes and the quality of their products. SW-CMM will be replaced by CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) in 2005 (Software Engineering Institute, 2002).The ISO/IEC 15504 model is an international standard for software process assessment (International Organization for Standardization, 1998). It was first published in 1998 as a Technical Report Type 2. It consists of two dimensions:1. the process dimension provides the definition of the processes, and is organized into five process categories; and2. the capability dimension describes a series of process attributes, which represent the measurable characteristics of the processes.The model also defines six levels for ranking capability of a process. Besides these two models, there are other assessment models such as BOOTSTRAP (Kuvaja, 1999) and Trillium (April and Coallier, 1995).The goal of quality improvement is to improve development processes to better meet customer requirements and expectations. Software process improvement (SPI) has been adopted by many organizations trying to improve their competitiveness. The benefits of SPI include improving the efficiency and effectiveness of various organizational processes, increasing customer satisfaction, improving the quality of software products and services, reducing process costs, errors and cycle time, and improving the predictability of software engineering (Lepasaar et al., 2001).Many tools for quality improvement have been developed. They can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of process improvement implementation by providing many functions that reduce the effort involved in data collection, root cause analysis, change management, document management, etc. However, for a process practitioner planning to purchase SPI tools, the availability of so many tools poses a tool selection problem and the practitioner will want to know the answers to a number of important questions, including:1. What functions should these tools provide?2. Which set of tools should be purchased in order to cover all the required SPI functions?3. Are there functions that are simply not supported by the available tools?The objective of our study is to answer these questions by:* Identifying the main functions required to support SPI. This will help us to answer Question 1.* Determining the \"state of support\" offered by software quality improvement tools. This will help to answer Questions 2 and 3.\nMethodology: To achieve our objective, we adopt the approach outlined in Figure 1. We first study several common quality improvement (QI) models and extract the key activities from these models. Then, we group these activities into key SPI \"functions\" that are useful to process practitioners.Many quality improvement models have been used by various organizations to guide the development of a long-range, integrated plan for initiating and managing a SPI program. We have selected three models. The IDEAL model is selected for our study because it has been developed specifically for software organizations. We also select the PDCA model because it is the most commonly used quality improvement model. The DMAIC model is included in our study because the six sigma process has been shown to produce impressive improvements. It is noted that both PDCA and DMAIC can also be used in other industries such as manufacturing and servicing.In identifying the key SPI functions, we rely initially on our previous experience in helping companies to improve their process and quality and on the key activities of the PDCA model. We identified eight key SPI functions:1. data collection;2. process assessment;3. problem identification;4. problem analysis;5. process definition;6. solution identification;7. result measurement; and8. document management.Then we reviewed the activities recommended by the IDEAL and DMAIC models to identify other key functions. We found one more function, namely, the \"process tailoring\" function.In classifying these functions, we follow two key principles:1. the activities in each function all serve the same objective; and2. the activities in a function may be assigned to a specific individual or a team.The next step is to survey the functionalities provided by the existing SPI tools. By comparing the functions provided by these tools with the \"required\" functions, we can identify any gaps that may exist and recommend functions that should be included in the SPI tools.In late 2003, we started searching the internet for information on SPI tools. After studying descriptions of their features found in white papers and product websites and working with demonstration versions, we selected tools that provided at least one of the SPI functions and that were suitable for use in software development organizations. We found 38 tools in 2003. In September of 2004, we again conducted the survey, finding eight new tools.\nQuality improvement models: We first give an overview of three quality improvement models used in our study.The IDEALSM model\nMapping SPI functions to QI models: In this section, we map the SPI functions to the three QI models to show that the SPI functions that have been identified are indeed required to ensure process improvement success. First, the IDEAL model (Gremba and Myers, 1997) has five phases:1. initiating;2. diagnosing;3. establishing;4. acting; and5. leveraging.In the \"initiating\" phase, the organization should identify business needs and drivers for improvement, establish goals and objectives for SPI, determine scope, and develop a high-level plan. An organizational assessment should be conducted. In this phase, the organization should carry out data collection, tailoring processes, and assessing processes so that it can correctly identify the problems, and confirm the goals, scope and plan of the SPI.The \"diagnosing\" phase starts the organization on the path of continuous SPI, conducting appraisal activities and establishing baselines for the organization's current state. This phase thus requires the SPI appraisal function, process assessment. Since establishing baselines is part of the work of solution identification, we obtain the mapping shown in Table IV.The \"establishing\" phase has 14 steps. Training and the formation of a technical working group cannot be mapped to the SPI functions, but an organization should review their improvement objectives and past improvement efforts, and evaluate the processes to help them identify problems and determine key business issues. This phase thus requires process assessment and problem identification. The organization should also identify current and future improvement efforts, and define new processes to meet its business targets. The organization should prioritize the improvement objectives and create or update the SPI strategic plan. All of this can be viewed as part of the work of solution identification.In the \"acting\" phase, the organization should follow its improvement plan, develop solutions, and pilot these solutions. After piloting the solution, the results must be evaluated and the best solution selected. These activities correspond to the functions result measurement and solution identification. The last phase, \"leveraging\", deals with learning, revising, and preparing for the next SPI cycle. The organization should review the information gathered from previous work, identify new problems, analyze these problems, and define new goals for future SPI.We next map SPI functions to the PDCA model, as shown in Table IV. At the \"Plan\" phase, the organization creates the SPI group which will then assess current processes, gather baseline data, and determine the root causes of problems (problem identification and problem analysis). Finally, the organization will formulate an action plan, which is part of the work of solution identification. In the \"Do\" phase, the organization will implement the action plan, which can be viewed as solution identification.In the \"Check\" phase, the organization should measure results, compare results to the defined baseline, compare the performance to established goals, and, if necessary, refine the solution. If there are still significant gaps, the organization should prepare to develop another solution. In the \"Act\" phase, the organization should standardize effective changes, train staff, and monitor the process performance. During monitoring, the organization should periodically measure results so that all the improvement activities remain under control. In this period, the organization should assess the processes again so that it can identify new problems that should be fixed in the next SPI cycle.For the Six Sigma DMAIC model, the organization follows eight steps in the \"Define\" phase, first forming the improvement team and establishing the project charter. The team can then define and analyse the problem, and develop a high-level plan. The improvement team should also categorize the customers and prioritize each of their requirements. This work is part of problem analysis. In the Measure phase, the improvement team should determine what to measure and tailor its processes for assessment. Then it should carry out data collection and process assessment, calculate the current sigma level and the process capability, and build up benchmarks. Building up benchmarks is part of the work of solution identification.In the \"Analysis\" phase, the team should first analyze the problems and determine their root causes. Then it should brainstorm ideas for process improvement, propose processes to be improved, and define new processes. Finally the team should develop a process map for the revised processes. These activities belong to the functional area of solution identification. In the \"Improve\" phase, the team should pilot solutions, develop performance metrics, and measure results. Then it should select a solution and finalize an implementation plan. These activities belong to the functional area of solution identification. Finally, it should implement the selected solution. In the Control phase, the improvement team should develop a control strategy, implement the control plan, track data, measure and communicate improvements, provide regular reports to management, and prepare for future improvements.All phases of all three models require that the organization track its SPI activities, record the results of each phase, and publish progress reports. These are all part of the document management function, as shown in Table IV.\nSurvey of QI tools: This section presents our survey of QI tools, providing a snapshot of the state of support offered by commercial tool vendors.Supported functions\nConclusion: Our study has identified nine key functions that are required for quality improvement: data collection, problem identification, problem analysis, process tailoring, process assessment, process definition, solution identification, measuring results, and document management. This set of functions has been validated against three common QI models: IDEAL, PDCA, and DMAIC.We also present the state of tool support of software quality improvement. Our survey indicates that:* No tool provides support for the problem identification function.* Most tools can provide several SPI functions to help software organizations to improve their process capability and the quality of their products.* More tools are becoming available for SPI and they are supporting more integrated functions.* No integrated set of tools that supports all SPI functions is currently available. The result suggests that quality practitioners will need to do some tailoring and customization in order to have a complete set of SPI tools that can work seamlessly together. The effort required for this needs to be factored into any improvement project.The next step of our study will focus on developing a framework for integrating various SPI tools. We are working on an ontology-based approach to process improvement. Ontology can eliminate conceptual and terminological confusion, and provides a representation vocabulary specialized to software process. Unified terms and conceptions enable knowledge sharing, and ontological analysis can also clarify the structure of knowledge. Using ontology to represent processes, SPI functions, and process models not only provides formal descriptions but also supports better analysis.Another area of investigation is to study the impact of tool support in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of SPI. We would like to know the relative impact of different SPI tools on the productivity and success of improvement projects. We plan to do a survey of companies that have used some SPI tools and those which have no tool support.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Quality improvement is critical to the success of software development organizations. Automated tools can greatly assist in the implementation of quality improvement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the state of tool support of software process improvement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors first review three quality improvement models that can be used for improving the quality of software products, and then identify the required activities of the quality improvement effort based on those models. These activities identified then serve as a reference list to determine the support provided by commercial tools. The paper then conducts two surveys of software quality improvement tools and presents the results.\nFindings: - The results from two surveys indicate that: there is no tool that supports problem identification; most tools can provide several software process improvement functions to help software organizations to improve their process capability and the quality of their products; and there is no set of tools that can provide a complete coverage of all improvement activities.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the authors have conducted a detailed search on the internet to identify SPI tools, such a survey will miss those tools which have no presence on the internet. However, the authors are confident that their results can reflect what is available in the marketplace.\nPractical implications: - Process practitioners will learn about the state of support available in the marketplace and what they may need to develop on their own to provide complete support for their improvement efforts.\nOriginality/value: - The paper proposes a classification of software process improvement functions and present a first survey of software quality improvement tools. The results will be beneficial to process practitioners.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The unnatural networker's guide to networking: It is about much more than simply working the room	[ "Networking", "Interpersonal relationships", "Personality types" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: We are all told we should network. But what if you find it hard to talk to people? What if you would rather not go networking at all?\nHow introverts look at the world: How do introverts look at the world? Susan Cain contends that introversion is about gathering information on a situation and waiting before taking action. Instead of diving in confidently and gregariously, introverts will proceed cautiously.\nTips for successful networking: Here are three more tips to make networking more successful.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Helps people to help people to become better at networking.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Examines some differences between introverts and extroverts and explains why introverts can be better at networking than extroverts.\nFindings: Provides a number of tips, including setting goals, looking for the right body language and following up, that can help to make people into good networkers.\nPractical implications: Asserts that a high proportion of people are not natural networkers but that good networking skills can be learned.\nSocial implications: Highlights the importance of being good at networking for business and personal success.\nOriginality/value: Advances the view that effective networking is about much more than simply \"working the room\".\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The framing and reframing of corporate financial results: How corporate earnings releases become news	[ "Newspapers", "Journalism", "Investor relations", "Written communications", "Financial reporting", "Financial information" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The purpose of corporate financial communication is to reduce the information asymmetry between corporate managers and investors by providing the latter with accurate and reliable information about corporate performance. To protect the interests of non-expert investors, financial reporting is a highly regulated form of corporate communication, subject to both national legislation and international accounting standards. As a consequence, financial reports are typically accepted as a rule-bound reality with the illusion of no alternative interpretations of past events (Aerts, 1994). For large organizations, financial reporting encompasses voluntary quarterly earnings releases in narrative format as well as the annual report, which includes the highly regulated financial accounts and a more discretionary narrative performance review. The narrative parts of financial reports provide companies with ample opportunities for presenting their performance in the best possible light (Abrahamson and Park, 1994; Hrasky and Smith, 2008; Morgan, 1988).\nLiterature review: Framing\nMethodology: The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of self-serving framing techniques in quarterly earnings press releases on the corresponding news-agency releases. This section describes the sample and the coding procedure for the empirical study.\nResults: Thematic manipulation\nDiscussion and conclusion: This paper has investigated the reframing of corporate earnings releases in the corresponding news-agency releases. The contrastive analysis has revealed a number of significant differences in the presentation of corporate performance. First, corporate earnings releases contain significantly more quotes, more positive quotes, more positive headlines, more positive words, and fewer negative words than the news-agency releases. This is in line with Davis and Tama-Sweet\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: News agencies are important stakeholders for large organizations, since the news they distribute will be adopted by other news outlets, which influence public opinion and hence corporate reputation. The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of how corporate earnings press releases are transformed into financial news by investigating whether the frames introduced by companies are adopted or reframed by news agencies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A content analysis of framing techniques in corporate earnings releases and their corresponding news-agency releases was performed, focussing on the financial figures and benchmarks presented, performance attributions, and the tonality of the texts.\nFindings: The findings suggest that news agencies reframe earnings releases at the textual-pragmatic level by reducing their length, using fewer financial figures, and changing the position of these figures in the texts; they increase transparency by avoiding adjusted financial figures, qualifying figures, and adding analyst assessments; and they change the tonality by down-toning positive statements and highlighting negative aspects.\nOriginality/value: This paper makes a contribution to the field of corporate financial communication, which has not shed much light on the transformation of earnings press releases into financial news. In addition, this paper contributes to the stream of research on journalistic transformations of corporate press releases in general, which has ignored the influential role of news agencies as both manufacturers and wholesalers of news.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Some are more equal than others: Working for equality in England's healthcare organizations	[ "Equality", "Healthcare organizations", "Gender mainstreaming", "NHS England", "Organizational resistance", "Policy entrepreneurs" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: It's commonly accepted in many European countries that equality between men and women is generally \"a good thing\". So much so that governments have passed legislation placing a duty on public sector bodies to explain what they are doing to actively promote equality. So far, so good. Except that in practice, there still appears to be quite a gap between national policy development and local implementation.\nLaying down the law: In 1997, the United Nations' Economic and Social Council identified gender equality as an \"overarching and long-term development goal\". It described gender mainstreaming as \"the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels\". Gender mainstreaming means ensuring that the goal of gender equality is central to all activities, \"to transform discriminatory social institutions, laws, cultural norms and community practices\" and ultimately, eliminate inequality.\nAction on inequalities in England's health service: For some years, the UK's National Health Service (NHS) has adopted the principles of gender mainstreaming. Arguing that gender considerations needed to be integral to decision-making and service provision, it developed policies outlining gender-sensitive approaches to services. Examples include:\nLocal agents of change: Anyone tasked with the local implementation of equalities policies now faced a more complex environment. Little evidence is available on how the health sector has responded so far to this public sector duty. So researchers began an exploratory study of the situation - as seen by those whose job it is to turn national policy into local practice.\nMaking equalities policy effective in practice: The equalities leads hoped to embed best practice in the emerging culture of the new healthcare structure. In practice, \"equality\" must compete against other organizational objectives and priorities. Rather than being integral to each and every mainstream policy, this was seen as an added extra carried out by nominated individuals, who need not necessarily have any specialist expertise.\nComment: This review is of \"Gender equalities work in health organisations in England\", by Payne and Bennett (2015). It reports on an exploratory study into the way equalities work is perceived at local level. This research draws on the experiences and opinions of equalities leads tasked with reporting on the progress of implementing equalities legislation in the policies and programs of their organization. In doing so, it highlights some of the challenges associated with the transition to an integrated approach to inequality based on nine \"protected characteristics\".\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: It is commonly accepted in many European countries that equality between men and women is generally \"a good thing\". So much so that governments have passed legislation placing a duty on public sector bodies to explain what they are doing to actively promote equality. So far, so good. Except that in practice, there still appears to be quite a gap between national policy development and local implementation.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
FTSE4Good: exploring its implications for corporate conduct	[ "United Kingdom", "Corporate social responsibility", "Companies", "Ethical investment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and background: This paper reports on an empirical study1 into aspects of the FTSE4Good investment indices, which were launched in the UK during July 2001. These indices represent subsets of the well-established \"FTSE\" share trading indices with inclusion in the listings being subject to various ethical criteria. This study investigates how FTSE4Good is perceived from the viewpoint of its constituent companies, and, in particular, how constituent companies believe that membership of FTSE4Good is influencing their behaviour. By behaviour we refer to change within a company in the broadest sense. So the term, for our purposes, will be used to include reporting as well as other practices. We are thus using the term to subsume both \"social disclosure\" and \"social performance\" (Ullmann, 1985). Although we use \"behaviour\" as an umbrella term, we shall also seek to distinguish between disclosure and performance to the extent that our empirical findings allow.The paper reports on the findings obtained from two sources: a small sample of interviews with representatives of FTSE4Good listed companies, and a questionnaire survey of FTSE4Good listed companies. Although there is a growing body of research examining ethical and socially responsible investment2 (SRI), much of this work has been conducted from the viewpoint of parties external to the companies which are the subject of the research. For example, there is a burgeoning literature examining the performance of SRI funds compared to non-SRI funds (see for example, Luther et al., 1992; Mallin et al., 1995; Gregory et al., 1999; Kreander et al., 2005); as well as some more recent work on the comparative financial performance of SRI indices (Collison et al., 2008; Curran and Moran, 2007; Schroder, 2007). A considerable literature has also developed, not necessarily concerned with SRI per se, but focusing more generally on the relationship between social and financial performance (see for example, Ullmann, 1985; Jaggi and Freedman, 1992; Herremans et al., 1993; Orlitzky et al., 2003; Gray, 2006; Murray et al., 2006). A number of studies have looked at the nature of the selection (or exclusion) criteria used by ethical/SRI funds (see, for example, Mackenzie, 1998; Mackenzie and Lewis, 1999; Friedman and Miles, 2001; Barnett and Salomon, 2003; Jayne and Skerrat, 2003), while several studies have addressed the potential for ethical investing to impact upon companies' behaviour (see, for example, Michelson et al., 2004; Guay et al., 2004). However, few studies have sought perceptions about the impact of ethical investment from within the investee companies themselves (but see Hockerts and Moir, 2004; and Vandekerckhove et al., 2007). In particular, little is known about how companies which satisfy criteria for listing in an \"ethical index\" (such as the FTSE4Good) view their \"ethical\" tag: nor is there much known about how such a listing in, or exclusion from, an ethical index impacts upon the behaviour of these companies. The primary contribution of the present paper is to provide some insight into these under researched areas.An important point to consider at the outset relates to the use of the term \"ethical\". Whether the FTSE4Good initiative should, or at least reasonably could, be thought of as an ethical investment initiative is a moot point. As at July 2005, its constituent companies included 80 per cent of the FTSE100 (an index based on the top one hundred UK companies ranked by market capitalisation). This membership would appear to stretch the meaning of ethical investing beyond its \"usual limits\", or at least it would seem to \"muddy the waters\" of what is meant by socially responsible investing, even though FTSE4Good is a member of the UK Social Investment Forum and the inclusion of a company in a FTSE4Good index involves the application of ostensibly ethical criteria.The contestability of the ethical investment status of the FTSE4Good initiative is central to this paper and so the issue is discussed in the first literature review section, which follows; in this review we highlight tensions about the potential for FTSE4Good to change organisations or to merely operate as another tool for legitimation. The subsequent section outlines the aims and criteria of FTSE4Good and situates them in the broader context of ethical investing approaches. In the subsequent two sections of the paper, the research methods employed and then the findings are respectively presented. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the research.\nLiterature review: Change or legitimation\nResearch methods: The empirical work reported in the paper comprises a small number of interviews, followed by a postal questionnaire. Each of the methods is described separately in this section, but in the subsequent section the presentation of the findings from each component of the investigation is integrated.Interviews\nFindings: The findings in this paper will be reported under three main headings: views on the inclusion criteria operated by FTSE4Good; perceived reputational benefits to constituents of a FTSE4Good listing; and the impact, if any, of the FTSE4Good inclusion process on the behaviour of the constituent companies themselves. Within each main heading, insights from the interviews will precede the presentation of the questionnaire results.Inclusion criteria\nDiscussion and summary: The two principal aims of this paper are to investigate constituent company perceptions of FTSE4Good, and the impact of FTSE4Good listing on listed companies' disclosures and performance. The evidence was obtained via interviews with representatives from companies and a survey of FTSE4Good constituent firms. In order to put this evidence into context the current section of the paper begins with a polemical element in which the ostensible aims, as well as the potential ambiguities and contestable implications of the initiative are considered.Given the various motivations and possible effects that may be imputed to the FTSE4Good initiative we acknowledge that any interpretation of the reported results must inevitably be tentative, and readers, like the authors, will necessarily bring their own world view to bear in interpreting the evidence. Nevertheless, a number of points can be made.Evidence that is consistent with a view of FTSE4Good as an exercise in legitimation is not hard to assemble. The principal effects on corporate conduct are very much related to reporting. This is most clearly demonstrated by the questionnaire results in Table V, and is corroborated to a limited extent by the comments from the interviewees. However, although there was some acknowledgement in the interviews of the influence of FTSE4Good on reporting, it was also stated that this activity was already being prompted in any case by peer group pressure. One interviewee remarked that the causality was the other way round in that their improved accountability had enabled them to join FTSE4Good. While the interviews cannot in any way be regarded as constituting a representative sample - even the questionnaire results would not presume to make this claim as explained above - they do allow some insights regarding motivations and influences that would be hard to capture by questionnaire. Thus one interviewee spoke quite frankly about the \"legitimacy that would be gained from being included [in the index]\". Another interviewee spoke candidly about reputational benefits when alluding to \"opinion formers such as government think tanks\". Some of the strongest expressions of agreement with the statements in the questionnaire related to reputational benefits - in particular with respect to NGOs, investors, employees and governments.Other areas of impact on conduct were explicitly investigated in the questionnaire; they revealed that policy decisions and management systems were the areas which showed most influence after reporting. The degree to which such indications relate to substantive areas of changed conduct or merely to cosmetic alterations cannot, frankly, be meaningfully inferred given the limitations of the questionnaire instrument. The insights from the interviews could imply a rather superficial influence as in this statement referring to the incentive to return EIRIS questionnaires, \"Ooh if we answer 'no' we will get chucked out of FTSE4Good - is there any way we can produce a policy document?\" Such references to the procedures of governance - rather than to substantive changes of practice - may be seen as analogous to the critiques by Power (see, for example, Power, 1994, 1997) of the audit function. A central part of Power's analysis is that assurance may be related to the mere existence of procedures rather than any verification of substantive performance. The statement from the fund manager who was reported above by Warwick-Ching (2004) showed a clear, and unconcerned, understanding that FTSE4Good \"focused on disclosing a company's policies, whereas ethical funds focus more on what companies do\".On the other hand the insights from the interviews could be consistent with a potentially significant response as suggested by a comment about the absence of a \"board commitment\" being highlighted by consultants who used other FTSE4Good companies as a benchmark. Of course the term \"board commitment\" could cover a range of meanings from a substantive assessment of responsibility for social and environmental impacts to the form of an ostensible acknowledgement of responsibility in the area - a distinction which may often be obscure even to those charged with the responsibility.Assuming that FTSE4Good can be a vehicle for real change in corporate behaviour, the potential for it to make a significant difference would appear to depend on a delicate balance being preserved between making the ethical criteria ever more demanding (which is a stated aim of FTSE4Good) while not going beyond the realpolitik of what is achievable. In this respect the slightly ominous statements about \"calling FTSE's bluff\" should the initiative try to go too far too fast, need to be set against the perception of peer group pressure - emphasised in the interviews - which means that boards of directors do not want the stigma of being ejected from FTSE4Good. Evidence of FTSE4Good's success in maintaining this balance may be found in the very symmetrical set of responses which questionnaire respondents gave to the statements relating to strengthening or extending the ethical criteria.The delicacy of the FTSE4Good balancing act can be viewed more critically as equivalent to what Haigh and Hazelton (2004) saw as ineffectual engagement by SRI fund managers regarding negative externalities. They also suggested an explanation for the lack of more robust interventions by SRI funds: \"By presenting evidence that responsible self-regulation is being exercised, financial markets counter government regulation\" (p. 68).This paper would be incomplete without acknowledgement of the widely held concerns about the power of business, and scepticism about the scope for its negative externalities to be addressed through the kind of voluntary initiative investigated in this paper. In a society dominated by corporations, is the FTSE4Good initiative merely tinkering with the symptoms rather than addressing key systemic drivers which build in anti-ethical postures and which reduce social responsibility to that which is allowed to co-exist within a framework based on maximising shareholder value?The leading campaigner for sustainability, Jonathon Porritt, cites, in an appraisal of capitalism, two authors in particular (Korten, 1995; and Bakan, 2004) who have popularised these concerns - concerns which have been long acknowledged, and which underlie much of the \"accountability\" literature (see for example, Gray et al., 1996; Gray, 2002).While the wider ramifications of corporate hegemony go beyond the scope of this paper - its power to capture those institutions, which potentially offer a countervailing influence, must be at the forefront of any critical appraisal of FTSE4Good. Porritt (2005) is clear on what is a necessary condition for change in the light of Bakan's celebrated characterisation of corporations as psychopathic:If CSR can help, even on the margins, to mitigate those character traits, then we should do nothing to discourage even the most superficial engagement. But it is an illusion to think that the responsibility for putting all this to rights lies predominantly with the companies themselves. If society wants companies to rebalance the respective interests of shareholders and other interested stakeholders ... then it is society - through its governments - that must reframe their respective obligations. Governments, not companies, have the democratic mandate to intervene in order to shape market forces (Porritt, 2005, p. 103).Given the number and the size of its constituent companies, FTSE4Good could perhaps claim to offer more than \"superficial engagement\". Should it be viewed as a grandiose plan to alter the conduct and reorder policy priorities of the corporate sector? Or will it, in effect, act not merely as a legitimation device, but also contribute to a process of corporate capture which will reduce or defer the political will which is needed to realise Porritt's aspiration? Will it do all that while for good measure, devaluing the whole concept of socially responsible investing, thereby vitiating any emancipatory potential (Gallhofer and Haslam, 2003) that the SRI movement could have had? Based on our assessment of the evidence assembled in the current paper, we incline to the pessimistic view of the potential for the FTSE4Good initiative to effect real change in corporate behaviour - notwithstanding the bona fides of those who are closely involved in the initiative.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of the paper is to critically evaluate membership of the FTSE4Good \"socially responsible investment\" indices (membership of which is based on ethical criteria), which were launched in the UK in July 2001 as a means of increased accountability and change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper adopts an interpretive and critical approach when examining the perceptions of company representatives. The empirical findings are based on a small number of interviews and a postal questionnaire. Some descriptive and inferential statistics are used to summarise and help interpret the questionnaire results.\nFindings: - Respondents indicated that inclusion in the indices had a significant effect on their firms' reputation, and on relationships with specific stakeholder groups. All interviewees emphasised that peer group pressure encouraged top management to maintain their membership of the indices. Questionnaire respondents indicated an even balance of views regarding tightening the admission criteria for the indices. The influence of FTSE4Good on corporate conduct was found to be limited and mainly confined to reporting activity, though policy and management systems were amongst other areas where some impacts were noted. A small proportion of respondents felt that membership of the indices had had some significant influences on their companies.\nOriginality/value: - The investigation of the influence of a \"mass market\" ethical investment index on constituent companies is where the main originality of this paper lies. In particular the interviews with constituent firm representatives and the questionnaire results are novel for ascertaining perceptions about the impact of inclusion in the indices on constituent companies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Trust and commitment as mediators between economic and non-economic satisfaction in manufacturer-supplier relationships	[ "Trust", "Commitment", "Economic satisfaction", "Manufacturer-Supplier relationships", "Non-Economic satisfaction", "Spanish SMEs" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Several studies support the notion that the constructs of trust, commitment and satisfaction are important for establishing and maintaining successful and enduring business relationships (Palmatier et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2010; Svensson et al., 2010; Hutchinson et al., 2012; Mpinganjira et al., 2013; Rindell et al., 2013; Mysen et al., 2013). They are therefore considered as important constructs in the development and establishment of relationship quality in business relationships (Ulaga and Eggert, 2006).\nFrame of reference: The importance of satisfaction in business relationships is frequently noted in the literature. For example, numerous studies have found that satisfaction is important for the success of buyer-seller relationships (Dwyer et al., 1987; Geyskens et al., 1999; Jap and Ganesan, 2000; Rodriguez et al., 2006) and that satisfied businesses are more likely to continue the relationship than those who are dissatisfied (Geyskens et al., 1999). Several other studies find that satisfaction also creates incentives to participate in collective activities (Brown et al., 1991; Rindell et al., 2013; Schul et al., 1985; Svensson et al., 2010).\nResearch positioning: A buyer-supplier relationship starts with expectations, as shown in Figure 1, toward future transactions with the aim of continuing to grow (Visentin and Scarpi, 2012) and then a sequence of transactions that either do not meet, meet or exceed expectations, in turn leading to either satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Visentin and Scarpi, 2012, p. 1135). Figure 1 illustrates the evolutionary phases of a business relationship based upon the constructs of economic satisfaction, trust, commitment and non-economic satisfaction, and also indicates the contextual limitations of the current study.\nResearch model and hypotheses: The research model in Figure 2 starts with an assessment of perceived economic satisfaction. When there is a positive assessment of economic satisfaction, trust increases in the business relationship (Zaheer et al., 1998). Furthermore, commitment to maintain the business relationship becomes essential (Anderson and Weitz, 1992; Morgan and Hunt, 1994), which in turn leads to a certain degree of non-economic satisfaction (Geyskens et al., 1999).\nMethod: Definitions, research context and sample\nEmpirical findings: Measurement and structural models\nResearch implications: Extensive research has adopted the concepts of satisfaction, trust and commitment in assessing the strength and quality of business relationships. This present study applied a dual construct of satisfaction, both economic and non-economic. The empirical findings shows that the degree of economic satisfaction among Spanish SMEs with suppliers is an important element that influences the motivation and scope of relationship exchanges, reinforcing trust, commitment and non-economic satisfaction, as shown in the research model in Figure 1. The study reveals that economic satisfaction stimulates trust and commitment, which in turn influence non-economic satisfaction, but that there is no significant direct relationship between economic and non-economic satisfaction.\nManagerial implications: This study, as in previous ones, corroborates the importance of trust and commitment in business relationships (Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Svensson et al., 2010). Both constructs play a key role in the generation of a suitable and relational atmosphere of interaction between manufacturers and suppliers. Both trust and commitment are significant precursors to non-economic satisfaction. Consequently, managers should behave competently and honestly in all activities conducted with partners. This behavior will have a positive effect on trust and commitment.\nConcluding thoughts and suggestions for future research: This study has tested and reported the measurement and structural properties of a research model (Figures 1 and 2) comprising the constructs of trust, commitment and economic and non-economic satisfaction. It makes a threefold contribution to existing theory and previous research. First, it tested the constructs of economic and non-economic satisfaction, indicating satisfactory validity and reliability. Second, it supported the notion that there is no direct relationship between economic and non-economic satisfaction. Third, the empirical findings also indicated satisfactory validity and reliability, indicating that the constructs of trust and commitment are moderators between economic and non-economic satisfaction.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test a research model in which trust and commitment are mediators between economic and non-economic satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample for this study comprises a total of 600 small and medium-sized Spanish enterprises from various industrial sectors. A total of 259 usable questionnaires were returned, generating a response rate of 43.2 per cent. The research model is tested with structural equation modeling using AMOS-software.\nFindings: The empirical findings regarding the studied business relationships confirm the independence between economic and non-economic satisfaction, and the mediating role of trust and commitment. Furthermore, the findings confirm that there is no direct cause-effect relationship between economic and non-economic satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: Numerous inter-organizational studies have tested satisfaction as two separate constructs (economic and non-economic satisfaction). This study goes further by positioning economic satisfaction as a precursor to other more relationship-oriented constructs and outcomes (trust-commitment and, in turn, non-economic or relational satisfaction).\nPractical implications: Managers should consider economic and non-economic satisfaction as two separate aspects of relationship quality in business relationships. Furthermore, although these aspects appear to be connected, managers should take them into consideration with respect to the levels of trust and commitment involved in business relationships. Managers should be aware that the level of economic satisfaction is an influential precursor to the levels of trust and commitment that in turn impact on the level of non-economic satisfaction as an outcome.\nOriginality/value: This study makes a threefold contribution to existing theory and research. First, it tests the constructs of economic and non-economic satisfaction, indicating satisfactory validity and reliability. Second, it provides empirical support that there is no direct relationship between economic and non-economic satisfaction. Third, the empirical findings also indicate satisfactory validity and reliability, indicating that the constructs of trust and commitment are moderators between economic and non-economic satisfaction.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
They earn and send; we spend: consumption patterns of Pakistani migrant households	[ "Pakistan", "Consumption patterns", "Expenditure", "Domestic remittances", "International remittances", "O12", "O15" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Migration, whether from villages to cities or from one country to another, can involve a change in consumption patterns of the migrants' households back home. The money migrants remit leads to higher household income which can be differentially consumed, saved or invested. These monetary remittances help diversify the migrant household's sources of income depending on the extent the household and migrant incomes are correlated. Furthermore, migration exposes the households to new lifestyles and consumption behavior. These social transfers generate different patterns of food, health, education, living and recreation expenditures. These marginal consumption patterns of remittances shape the growth and developmental effects of remittances on the migrants' home economy.\n2. Literature overview: Remittances are often found to be spent on consumption goods rather than saved or invested (Chami et al., 2003; Clement, 2011; Durand and Massey, 1992). Studies such as Chandavarkar (1980, p. 39) and Tabuga (2007) assert that remittances are frittered away on consumer items symbolizing social status and ceremonies at the cost of more productive expenditures. Findings from other studies challenge this pessimistic view. Even though the migrant household may increase its consumption spending as a result of receiving money from the migrant member of the household, the additional funds may improve the household's living conditions. Expenditure on more and better quality food leads to better nutrition and food security (Durand et al., 1996; Jimenez, 2009).\n3. Data description: This study is based on the 2010-2011 round of PSLM survey carried out on 16,341 households. The PSLM is a representative country-wide survey that collects data on household economic and demographic features. A two-step random stratified sampling scheme is adopted with the sample stratified on a province and rural/urban basis.\n4. Empirical methodology: Model estimation proceeds in two steps. First, least squares are fitted to estimate the impact of remittances on household budget shares by employing the Working Leser specification. In the second step, a set of propensity score matching (PSM) techniques is used to control for potential selection bias present in the model by matching various observable characteristics of the recipient and non-recipient households. Probit model is used to calculate propensity scores. Common support is defined and average treatment effects on the treated (ATT) are consequently obtained using Nearest Neighbor (NN), Radius matching and Kernel matching methods.\n5. Findings: 5.1 Working-Leser estimations\n6. Robustness and sensitivity checks: An overall good balancing does not always imply joint balancing of all the covariates which can lead to less bias reduction. This problem can be tackled by integrating covariate balance into the weight function employed to adjust the control units (Hainmueller, 2012). This method of \"Entropy balancing\" can significantly improve the quality of covariate balance and allows better use of information present in the data. The method preprocesses data by adjusting weights to include the selected covariates on the known moments of the covariate distribution, thereby obtaining exact covariate balance. Table X gives the results of Entropy balancing for the two types of remittances[6].\n7. Discussion and conclusion: This study examined consumption patterns of Pakistani households with respect to international and domestic remittances. A number of conclusions can be drawn from the study.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze differential consumption patterns of Pakistani migrant households resulting from foreign and domestic remittances.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using the Working-Leser model and a number of matching techniques, the authors analyze a representative household survey carried out in 2010-2011 to compare various expenditure categories of recipient and non-recipient households across different income brackets.\nFindings: Results show that foreign remittances lead to significant consumption changes. Contrary to the widely held view, remittances do not raise the budget share on consumer goods and recreation, while allocation on education increases substantially. Households receiving domestic remittances also reflect strong focus on human capital with significantly higher shares of health and education. Recipients of international transfers living below one dollar a day spend proportionally more on food compared with their non-recipient counterparts whereas their education and health budget shares are not dissimilar.\nPractical implications: The positive effect of remittances on expenditures on human capital coupled with a lack of evidence suggesting an increase in the share of conspicuous spending resulting from remittances highlights the beneficial role that remittances play in a developing country.\nOriginality/value: Extant literature lacks consensus on whether migrant remittances should be treated as a temporary or permanent source of household income. In this study, the authors argue and empirically show that the two need not be mutually exclusive, and may co-exist depending on the nature of remittances and household characteristics.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Pitfalls and prospects among "temp" workers: Changing conditions create challenges for workers and management	[ "Regulation", "Contractual arrangements", "Temporary work", "Agency working" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nA simple world?: To the layman, the world of temporary agency work would appear to be a simple enough one to understand. It involves companies whose levels of work fluctuate so much - seasonal jobs, for example - that it makes sense to take on temporary workers supplied by agencies, in return for an hourly fee.\nCreating a framework: Among developments of recent years, framework agreements establish a list of preferred suppliers. Typically, they do not involve placing one agency in lead position over the others although gaining access to such agreements can be highly lucrative and therefore competitive. New challenges have been created, too, by contractual arrangements where agencies act as employer of the \"temps\" that they hire out to third party firms. In the UK, manpower, a large supplier of temporary agency labor has for a long time marketed itself as an employer of people it hires out, providing holiday pay, training and a range of other benefits.\nGaps in regulations: Some contractual arrangements take advantage of gaps or flexibility in the regulations, such as the \"Pay between Assignment\", where a temporary work agency offers an agency worker a continuing contract of employment and agrees to pay that worker between assignments. This means that after 12 weeks with a hirer, the agency worker will not be entitled to the same pay as if he had been recruited directly, although workers covered by this exemption will still be entitled to other provisions such as annual leave.\nThe road ahead: Fluctuating work levels mean there will always be a need for agency \"temps\". However, new supply practices and opportunities will make the more \"modern\" agency worker a core part of many private and public sector organizations. In some cases, contractual forms outlined here will only be sustainable in larger organizations. It remains the case that many temps spend years with an agency and a client firm with little opportunity to progress into an internal labor market.\nComment: This review is based on \"Temporary agency work: evolution, regulation and implications for performance\" by Forde and Slater (2016). An extensive investigation into the world of \"temps\"; it offers insights that clarify a hugely significant area of employment which is often the subject of misconceptions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This papers aims to look at important developments in the agency industry, which generate implications for the performance of agencies, \"temps\" and their user firms. The paper sets out key performance implications of these developments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper reviews literature on subject and draws on 15 years of primary research and secondary analysis of the sector by the authors.\nFindings: There are many models of temporary agency worker supply and ways of accommodating \"temps\" in the workplace. This paper considers some of the challenges for managers, as well as tensions that can arise, not least from implementation of the agency working regulations.\nOriginality/value: This paper sheds light on new developments in the agency sector and draws out performance implications of continued and changing use of agency workers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Promoting worker loyalty: an empirical analysis	[ "Loyalty", "Generation", "Gender", "Expected rewards", "Transition economies" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Firms benefit from employing loyal workers. Loyal workers actively engage in their organization's objectives, act in accordance with their organization's long-term well-being, and neither seek alternative employment nor respond to outside offers even when offered slightly higher pay (Abdullah et al., 2011; Niehoff et al., 2001). Loyal workers tend to exhibit higher productivity (Brown et al., 2011; Drizin and Schneider, 2004; Yee et al., 2010), reduce labor turnover costs (Branham, 2000; Hoffman, 2006; Ton and Huckman, 2008), and provide enhanced customer service (Duboff and Heaton, 1999), all of which yield additional revenues to firms.\n2. Data description: Local project coordinators in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Serbia used both personal connections and snowball technique to contact over 700 workplaces in both large and small metropolitan areas to request permission to conduct the employee survey. In organizations where permission was granted, the questionnaire was administered in common areas or at specific job sites[4]. Workers who agreed to participate had the option of returning a complete or incomplete questionnaire[5]. All indicated their understanding of the procedures used to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of their responses. Workplace response rates were not recorded, but of the 15,000 questionnaires distributed, more than 10,880 were deemed useable[6]. While not a representative sample of firms or employees by country, the data are unusually rich. For example, we not only have each participant's birth year, educational attainment, workplace tenure, and average monthly earnings, albeit self-reported, we also have information about participants' assessment of their performance relative to others at their organization doing similar work, and whether they held multiple jobs at the time the survey was conducted or recently experienced unemployment.\n3. Loyalty and reward measures: Worker loyalty measure\n4. Methodology: Our primary objective is to empirically assess the link between worker loyalty and expected rewards, focusing on whether reward desirability plays a role. Our loyalty measure was constructed by summing the responses to four survey questions about worker commitment to staying at his/her firm (see Table II). To facilitate interpretation of the estimated coefficients, we rescale our loyalty measure to be in the unit interval (subtract 4 and divide by 15). We conduct the regression analysis using OLS, and check the robustness of our results by employing fractional logit regression analysis, to account for the bounded nature of our dependent variable (Papke and Wooldridge, 1996).\n5. Results and discussion: Loyalty and expected rewards\n6. Summary and conclusions: We analyze the link between expected rewards and worker loyalty using employer-employee matched data collected in six culturally and economically diverse countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Serbia; countries that underwent a transformation from socialist economies to market-oriented economies. One strength of our study is the extensive set of worker and workplace controls we are able to use in our analysis. However, due to the cross-sectional data employed, we are not able to establish causality, and given the convenience sample, as opposed to a representative sample, we are not able to generalize our results to a broader population. Consequently, we view the results as exploratory; a first step in establishing a more global perspective of factors contributing to worker loyalty and performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the link between worker loyalty and expected rewards, with special attention to reward desirability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using employee-employer matched data collected from over 10,880 employees in nearly 670 workplaces in six culturally and economically diverse former socialist countries, the authors investigate the link between worker loyalty and expected rewards, taking into account reward desirability. Worker loyalty is measured using a composite of four variables related to participant's commitment to staying at his/her organization. The authors employ both OLS and fractional logit regression analysis, clustering at the firm level, and restricting the pooled sample to include only those participants who responded to all questions used in this analysis. In the basic model, the authors include expected rewards, with an extensive set of worker and workplace controls; in the extended model, the authors add reward desirability and the corresponding interaction variables.\nFindings: Using pooled data, the authors find that loyalty is positively correlated with expected rewards, and most strongly linked to the intrinsic reward chance to accomplish something worthwhile. When reward desirability is taken into account, consequences of unmet expectations emerge, and the relative importance of respectful and friendly co-workers diminishes. Neither generational nor life-cycle differences in loyalty are evident.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to financial constraints, country samples included in the pooled data are not nationally representative; nor are workplace samples representative. Personal contacts of local project coordinators and the snowballing technique used to expand the number of participating workplaces, as well as the requirement that participants be able to read the survey instrument, may contribute to selection bias. As such, the findings should be viewed as taking a preliminary or exploratory step toward developing a more global perspective of factors influencing worker loyalty and performance until longitudinal and nationally representative data become available.\nPractical implications: The findings indicate a positive link between loyalty and expected rewards, and when reward desirability is included, the loyalty consequences associated with unmet expectations. While rewards identified as highly desired (bonus, job security, friendly co-workers) are positively linked to loyalty, the strongest link is associated with chance to accomplish something worthwhile. Promoting worker loyalty is linked to offering programs to develop more skills and more job autonomy among those employees who desire it, as well as meeting expectations related to promotion.\nOriginality/value: Unlike existing studies, the authors pool data from multiple countries and control for a wide variety of worker and workplace characteristics in the analysis of the loyalty-reward structure link.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Cary Cooper on engagement, wellbeing, and the persistence of the glass ceiling	[ "Human resources", "Human resource management", "Employees behaviour", "Wellbeing", "Workplace stress", "Health", "Job insecurity", "Organizational psychology", "Organizational behaviour", "Productivity", "Engagement", "Presenteeism", "Glass ceiling", "Diversity", "Positive discrimination", "Work‐life balance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In 1992, Cary L. Cooper and Marilyn Davidson published Shattering the Glass Ceiling: The Woman Manager. The book outlined the various challenges women faced in the workplace, and made recommendations for how they could be overcome. Fast-forward over 20 years, and while much progress has been made, the same issues persist.\nYou've written extensively on many workplace issues, most notably women in the workplace and employee wellbeing: Looking specifically at women in the workplace grew out of the more general workplace stress issue. For years I looked at different occupations, setting up theories, and collecting data on over 100,000 people in a whole variety of professions. We always found that women tried to juggle too much, and had difficulty with issues such as glass ceilings. Gradually, I moved into the broader area of wellbeing, looking at what enhances and what depletes a person's workplace wellbeing, taking into account the positive side of organizational behavior and psychology as well as the negative.Since the recessions, wellbeing has become very important. In most workplaces, whether in the UK, US, or internationally, there are fewer people, doing more work, feeling more insecure, and being managed more abrasively. People in managerial roles are being told by their line managers that they have to deliver to the bottom line, so we are seeing more and more stress being delegated downwards. As a consequence, their management style is becoming increasingly autocratic, abrasive, and much more bureaucratic.Every couple of years I carry out a study of a cohort of 10,000 managers, from shop-floor to c-level, for the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), called the Quality of Working Life Survey. Part of this survey is a Management Style questionnaire, asking participants to detail the management style of their manager. The results were quite shocking: the vast majority said their managers were autocratic and bureaucratic. The least common management style was the empowering, engaging manager. This in what is supposed to be the era of engagement. Something is going wrong.Part of the cause is job insecurity: If you are insecure as a manager, and you are getting metrics placed on you by your manager, and so on up the hierarchy, then you are going to be getting your subordinates to deliver the goods because your job is at risk. It is sad because engagement as a construct is a good idea, but in practice we are not seeing it.\nWhat is the relationship between engagement and wellbeing?: Our research shows that the more engaging the management style, the higher the productivity, and the lower the levels of mental and physical ill-health. We have clear evidence that there is a link between a more engaging management style and higher wellbeing, resulting in lower sickness absence, lower presenteeism, and higher productivity. Again, the issue is that in most organizations people are so fearful of losing their jobs.Engagement is only one facet of wellbeing. Wellbeing is about managers who are engaging, but also those who praise and reward rather than find faults; it is about flexible working arrangements; not having a long working hours culture; making sure people feel valued and trusted; giving them autonomy and control over their job. Engagement is only one sub-set of a wellbeing culture.Before 2007, we recruited managers with a range of task competencies, who delivered to the bottom line. We did not focus on their social- and interpersonal skills. The economic crash then occurred, and the skills we now need from managers are of a different sort. They are skills around managing teams, elevating morale, creating the right kind of culture, being sensitive to people who are not coping very well. These skills should now be the main feature in the selection of managers, skills we never considered necessary before 2007-2008. As a consequence, we have bottom-line people, not necessarily socially-skilled people, who are not engaging employees, and are not sensitive to people's emotional needs and fears.If you take the G8 countries, the UK is bottom of the table in terms of productivity, per capita. Part of the problem is that we do not have the right management style in place, as my CMI study showed. We will get productivity benefits if we create better wellbeing environments. Flexible working becomes important, as that is a signal to an employee that they are trusted and valued.My prescription is that we could enhance the productivity of UK PLC if we have a different breed of manager by training or recruitment. Let's retrain managers now, and recruit a different breed in future, being careful in our selection process to take into account not only technical and task competencies, but also social and interpersonal skills.\nYou have mentioned job insecurity as a serious issue: Insecurity leads people to be very cautious, and act in ways that do not necessarily contribute to productivity. About 30 years ago, a newspaper called me to ask why sickness and absence was declining during such a difficult economic time. I told them it is not absence we should be worried about, but presenteeism. They asked what the hell that was, to which I replied, it is people turning up to work because they are frightened of not turning up to work. If you are ill, you still turn up. If you are job dissatisfied, or feeling stressed, you still turn up. Effectively, you are showing face-time. You come early, you stay late, and ultimately that burns people out.According to the Salisbury Centre for Mental Health's 2008 study, presenteeism costs around PS15 billion per year, whereas absenteeism only PS8 billion. Since then, it has got a lot worse: Presenteeism is now double the cost of absenteeism, probably nearly triple, because people are feeling more job-insecure. In contrast, absenteeism has stabilized.We need people to be productive. Therefore, presenteeism is a symptom of what is more disturbing for the UK, which is out very low productivity per capita.\nWhat does work-life balance really mean in today's world?: I am afraid it has become a big issue because of the long working hours culture. Now, people feel they have to arrive earlier and stay later to show commitment. We need more flexible working, and given that we are a knowledge- or service-based economy, there is absolutely no reason why most people could not work flexibly.By flexibly, I do not mean working exclusively from home, by the way. It is about enabling the individual to do their work given the new technologies available, so they can also meet some of the demands they may have in their personal life.The evidence is clear from a 2008 study I did for the UK government, called the Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Well Being. It showed that allowing all employees access to flexible working tripled your return on investment. If you only offer it to people with children, you get half that return, so it is still cost-effective, but less effective than if you open it up to anybody. Besides, why should only people with kids be allowed to request flexible working? People are living longer, so elder-care is becoming as, if not more significant than child care.That is part of the solution to the work-life balance issue. We do not need everybody in a central office for 12 hours a day; it could be counter-productive. The majority will still want to be in a central office environment because that is what they are used to and they want their social needs met, but there will be a significant number who want to work more flexibly, and we should allow that.\nWomen in the workplace is still a pertinent issue. A recent Center for Creative Leadership study found that, after the introduction of legislation in Norway in 2004, the percentage of women on company boards has risen to over 40 percent: UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said he would like to see 25 percent female representation on company boards, but that is a like-to rather than a legislative requirement. Initially, we need more women in management roles, particularly in senior management roles. What I do not want to see is women put on boards just because they are women, and do not have the background and experience, just to make sure you hit whatever percentage representation is required. If we do that, and there are failures, the men who do not want women in senior roles will see it as justification for their views.My own view is we have to find every which way to destroy the glass ceiling, so that women can get into senior management roles, and gradually create a supply chain directly to the board. I am for female representation at all levels of organizations, and believe, to a certain extent, in positively discriminating to ensure they get to senior management level. Most important is that the whole pipeline is developed, not just the very top. I do not want to have 30 percent of women on boards, but only 5 percent at top management level below board; that makes no sense.Another reason we need more women in the workplace is because of their innate management style, having more emotional intelligence. I mentioned earlier about social and interpersonal skills, and women, on balance, are better equipped than men. Over the next decade we will need managers who are very sensitive to other people, who can build teams, and personally I think women are better at that than men. Therefore, we need women throughout organizations and we need them soon. But, male-dominated cultures, glass ceilings, all sorts of factors militate against that actually happening fast.\nIt is remarkable that we are still discussing this is 2013 ...: I totally agree. I wrote Shattering the Glass Ceiling over 20 years ago. I have done this for years, and we are still in the same place. Yes, there are more women in middle management roles, but there is still a relatively small number at c-level.\nDo you have a solution?: Personally, I would not legislate. Norway already had a better supply chain of women in management roles, so they had something to draw on. People won't like to hear this, but I feel there aught to be a form of positive discrimination, particularly up the supply chain. We need to try to get more women who are middle managers into senior manager roles, more senior into top, and more top onto boards.By positively discriminating I mean this: if you have two candidates, equivalent in ability and experience, one male and one female, you pick the woman. But only if they are equivalent. For me, that is what the construct of positive discrimination is, for others it means something else.I am for that in the short-term, because I have not seen that much progress. But I would not legislate to say 40 percent should be on boards, 50 percent at senior management, because then you will find people throwing women in there because you have to adhere to the law. I would rather they apply against men, but only get preferential treatment if they are equivalent to the men.\nAbout the author: Cary L. Cooper is Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health. He is the author/editor of over 120 books (on occupational stress, women at work and industrial and organizational psychology), and over 100 chapters in books. He has written over 400 scholarly articles for academic journals, and is a frequent contributor to national newspapers, TV and radio. He is currently Founding Editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Editor-in-Chief of the medical journal Stress & Health. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, The Royal Society of Arts, The Royal Society of Medicine, The Royal Society of Public Health, The British Academy of Management and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. Professor Cooper is past President of the British Academy of Management, is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and one of the first UK-based Fellows of the (American) Academy of Management (having also won the 1998 Distinguished Service Award for his contribution to management science from the Academy of Management).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an interview with Cary L. Cooper, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Interview.\nFindings: - In this wide-ranging interview, Professor Cooper discusses numerous prevalent workplace issues, including productivity, wellbeing, job insecurity and presenteeism.\nOriginality/value: - The interview offers insight for HR professionals from one of the foremost thinkers in organizational psychology and behavior.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Towards a better understanding of system analysts' tacit knowledge: A mixed method approach	[ "Skills", "Knowledge transfer", "Information systems development (ISD)", "IS professionals" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The state of the art of information system (IS) development is far from perfect in terms of implementing systems that fully meet user requirements. In spite of recent advances in system development tools (e.g. work flow models, diagrams, requirements engineering tools), the real issue is that no such tool can completely replace the systems analysts' cognitive skills and abilities, as well as the tacit knowledge gained from on-the-job experience (Burgetz, 1991; Schenk et al., 1998). The importance of these skills and tacit knowledge is illustrated in ever-increasing popularity of the agile software development approach where skills and tacit knowledge of people are emphasized over structured processes in dealing with the heuristic nature of uncertain business requirements (Ryan and O'Connor, 2013). Thus, to better meet user requirements, it is imperative that systems analysts use their \"how-to\" knowledge that they have tacitly learned through years of on-the-job experience.\nRequirements analysis: a tacit, knowledge-intensive domain: Requirements analysis (a.k.a. requirements engineering) refers to such activities as eliciting, analyzing, and validating what the user requires from a system and the constraints under which it operates and is developed (Paetsch et al., 2003; Lucia and Qusef, 2010). These requirements analysis activities are important in all development approaches, including agile development.\nTheoretical foundation: Polanyi (1966) introduced the term \"tacit knowledge\" and identified this knowledge as personal and generally difficult to articulate. Polanyi's notion of tacit knowledge lies in an interpretive perspective, and primarily emphasizes a process of knowing (i.e. tacit knowing), instead of what is in our heads (i.e. knowledge content). Polanyi (1969) stated that, \"knowledge is an activity which would better be described as a process of knowing\" (p. 132). Stated in this way, it may follow that Polanyi viewed all knowledge as tacit. Regardless, it is clear that, to Polanyi, it seemed impossible to articulate tacit knowledge and make it independent of human actions.\nResearch methodology: As discussed previously, tacit knowledge is grounded in personal experience and has a great impact on individuals' performance. One element of personal experience is on-the-job exposure. Therefore, the research subjects for this study were successful systems analysts with a great deal of on-the-job exposure identified by their senior managers. We selected systems analysts who presumably possess a substantial level of tacit knowledge, i.e., those who have spent significant time in their systems analysis position as well as having exhibited success on their job. Figure 2 depicts the research procedures undertaken. We used the \"storytelling\" approach, a semi-structured interview technique suggested by Sternberg et al. (2000) to articulate tacit knowledge. Built on Flanagan's (1954) \"Critical incident technique\" which seeks to identify workplace situations associated with effective and ineffective behaviors, the interview encourages subjects to reflect on their knowledge by being asked to recount stories or incidents in which the subjects learned important lessons about their jobs. Focussing on stories or incidents should be helpful as a way to direct subjects toward their personal experience and away from theory or formal learning where tacit knowledge has taken place. Individual interviews of the participating systems analysts were conducted at the participants' place of work and at times convenient to them. The interviews focussed on lessons relating to systems analysis that are not written in books or taught in classes.\nResults: A total of 132 tacit knowledge items were generated from the interviews of 25 subjects. As previously discussed, two of the key characteristics of tacit knowledge are a procedural structure (i.e. \"how to\") and relevancy to individually valued goal attainment. Thus, it is clear that the tacit knowledge categories derived from the interview data were organized around particular goals that analysts pursue during systems analysis, and in the form of how to achieve such goals. The knowledge items represent effective practices and rules of thumb the expert analysts applied to overcome challenges related to requirements analysis tasks.\nDiscussion: The role of tacit, experiential knowledge\nConclusion: Expert systems analysts are distinguished from novice systems analysts based on the tacit quality of the knowledge acquired through accumulated on-the-job experience. Transferring this knowledge from expert to novice can accelerate the evolution from novice to expert and, therefore, improve the effectiveness of systems analysts and the quality of information systems developed. However, to date, transfer of knowledge between individuals in an organization continues to be a problem in organizations. Using a sample of 25 experienced systems analysts, we generated 132 tacit knowledge items that in turn generated 14 categories of functionally related tacit knowledge items in systems analysis domain. The predominant categories include communicating, eliciting cooperation, selecting/administrating elicitation techniques, and confirming requirements which together comprise over 50 percent of the tacit knowledge elicited. The study also found that the more experienced analysts see systems analysis in behavioral, managerial, and political terms and focus heavily on interpersonal, project management, and organizational issues. These results can be used to develop training programs to assist knowledge transfer to other analysts, thus accelerating the transition from novice to expert systems analysts.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to elicit tacit knowledge exhibited in expert information system (IS) professionals in a form that can be shared with others; and to develop categorical framework suggesting key content areas of tacit knowledge in the requirements analysis domain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Requirements analysis is selected as the main focus of this study due to the importance of this phase to the success of IS development and the nature of requirements analysis tasks requiring extensive amount of tacit knowledge. The authors used the \"storytelling\" approach, a semi-structured interview technique for knowledge elicitation.\nFindings: The study resulted in 132 knowledge items using a qualitative method and categorized them into 14 categories using cluster analysis. The study found that experienced, successful analysts see systems analysis in behavioral, managerial, and political terms and focus heavily on interpersonal, project management, and organizational issues.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitations in the research sample, or in the recollection capability of the research subjects could compromise the comprehensiveness of the tacit knowledge in the requirements analysis domain; however, the elicited knowledge at least represents important dimensions one might reasonably find in this domain.\nOriginality/value: Very little research has attempted to capture this tacit dimension of system analysts' knowledge. Thus, capturing and transferring the tacit knowledge from experts should help in the evolution of novice to expert system analysts thereby improving both their effectiveness and the quality of the information systems developed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Global dispersion of offshore service providers: an information processing perspective	[ "Customer service", "Information processing perspective", "Knowledge-intensive services (KIS)", "Collaborative technology", "Global dispersion", "Offshoring service providers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The increasing phenomenon of global knowledge sourcing in which organizations outsource certain knowledge-intensive activities to various locations around the world rather than carrying out all their activities internally has been extensively documented (Lewin et al., 2006, 2009). This has led to the rapid growth of new specialist organizations providing offshored knowledge-intensive services (KISs) such as Infosys, WIPRO and Pangea3, as well as new markets for existing service organizations such as IBM, Accenture and Capgemini.\nLiterature review: There have been many definitions of offshoring. However, generally speaking, offshoring can be defined as the location of one or more activities in the firm's value chain in a foreign (offshore) location (Schmeisser, 2013). This includes both internal offshoring, where the offshored activity is carried out within the organization, sometimes referred to as \"captive offshoring\", and external offshoring, where the activity is carried out by an external organization, sometimes referred to as \"offshore outsourcing\". In this paper, we focus on the latter and specifically on the OSPs who carry out the outsourced services on behalf of clients.\nHypotheses development: Task characteristics\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nResults: The results from regression models on geographical dispersion are reported in Table III. Models 1-5 test the effects of task characteristics and customer requirements on global service delivery and the use of collaborative technology on spatial dispersion. Model 1 reports the effects of control variable only; Model 2 includes task characteristic measures and controls; Model 3 tests the effect of customer requirements on global service delivery and controls; Model 4 examines the effect of collaborative technology usage and controls; and Model 5 includes all explanatory and control variables.\nDiscussion: The results confirm the importance of considering the effects of task characteristics and collaborative technology on the global dispersion of OSPs, consistent with previous organization theories on organization structure (Daft and Lengel, 1986). However, they further highlight the importance of also considering communication with the customer, as knowledge is often co-created with the customer in offshoring service relationships (Verma et al., 2012). This adds an additional dimension that needs to be included in the organizational mix for OSPs.\nConclusion: As highlighted in the literature review, there is scant research on offshoring service providers compared with offshoring clients, although offshoring services involve close interaction between both clients and service providers. Our study makes a number of contributions by highlighting the importance of collaborative technology and global customer service in the global dispersion of activities in OSPs and, more generally, other KIS organizations. We summarize below the theoretical and practical implications.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to propose a new theoretical perspective on the organizational design of offshoring service organizations by adopting an information processing perspective which incorporates the factors of collaborative information technologies, task commoditization and global customer service delivery that are characteristic of modern-day knowledge-intensive service (KIS) organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors analyze data from a large multiyear survey of offshoring service providers conducted in 12 countries.\nFindings: The authors show how use of collaborative technology is significantly and positively related to spatial and configurational dispersion, task commoditization is significantly and positively related to spatial and temporal dispersion and need for global customer presence is not related to spatial, temporal or configurational dispersion.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper integrates concepts from management information system (MIS), operations management and international business to show how collaborative technology, task characteristics and customer service requirements affect the global dispersion of KISs.\nPractical implications: The results show how use of collaborative technology, task characteristics and global customer service requirements need to be jointly considered in the global dispersion of activities by KIS providers.\nOriginality/value: The study sheds light on the effect of the key factors on different dimensions of global dispersion (i.e. spatial/temporal/configurational dispersion) in offshoring service provider organizations. Second, it shows how the traditional information processing perspective on organizations can be updated and applied to KIS organizations by incorporating the factors of global collaborative information technologies, task commoditization and global customer service.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A comparative computational and behavioral analysis of real estate performance: Anchoring on the post-financial crisis	[ "Framing", "Conditional CAPM", "Endogenous time-preferences", "Momentum and behavioural pricing analysis", "Real estate investment performance", "Risk attitude" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The performance of the commercial real estate market following the recession and financial crisis of 2007-2009, is characterized as a dichotomy. The confusion and uncertainty of this market phase is defined by either: divergent agents' (a(t)) perceptions of this period as one of growth and rebound from the crisis and recession; or, as a time of slow recovery reflecting a disruptive response to the fundamentals and total uncoupling of asset performance from market and financial structures. This dichotomous perception of the market and focus on alternative decision factors tends to vary among the diverse risk profiles of the agents operating in the market, their operating associations with institutions/rules, geographical positions, and temporal phases and durations in and over which they operate. The diversity in agents' (a(t)) characterization of the market state (s(t)) and conditional asset performance path are modeled as dynamic functions of the asset attributes (khit) and information signals (Ph). These indicators are linked to and considered significant factors affecting the performance paths affected by the financial crisis and the Great Recession.\nOverview, data, systematic literature analysis: state-space variables, frame and financial frictions: A useful framework that helps explain commercial property performance since the financial crisis of 2007-2009 was introduced by Chen (2015) who addressed the preferential conflicts between the rational expectations underlying the CAPM model and the behavioral economist's value prospects defined by pricing differences operating in states of gain or loss, as identified by Kahneman and Tversky (1979). The analytic approach used in this paper is based on behavioral and institutional theory and process offered by Bowles (2004) and Hall (2011). Bowles synthesizes the surveys, laboratory tests and computational experiments published in an array of interdisciplinary fields including psychology, decision behavior, neoclassical, institutional and behavioral economics. Drawing on the aggregate body of literature spanning the 1970-2016 period, a situation-dependent constructs that can be used in the analysis and evaluation of changes in decision preferences and behavior that affect asset performance is developed. This longitudinal approach provides insight into behavioral responses across varying states of risk and uncertainty by those agents having to deal with limited access to information (Ph), temporal and situational ambiguity, and having to act with limited agent capacity and understanding (Skn(Ph)). For further insights, see Bowles (2004), Loewenstain and Prelec (2000), Tobin (1958), Thaler (2016), Kahneman and Tversky (1979), von Neumann and Morgenstern (1947), Mehra and Prescott (1985) and Hall (2011).\nMethodology and analysis: As noted previously, myriad systematic factors have been incorporated in analytical models by various authors to characterize agents (a(t)), asset attributes (khit, Zit\|khit, and RZ) and state variables (s(t)). In addition to the array of idiosyncratic variables (e(t)), authors have also explored changes in relationships among variables that have occurred over time as discussed by Ang and Chen (2007), Klemkosky and Martin (1975) and Chen and Keown (1981). A review of those variables combined with discussions of the changing state frame provides some additional insights into the forces affecting real estate performance over time. The addition of the behavioral dimension of changes in agent expectations, perceptions and behavior in this paper supports the development of a systematic approach that can be used to investigate the dynamics that explain changes in asset performance and asset potential over time. This analysis recognizes that real estate asset pricing is contingent on perceived risk exposures, comparing expected returns between alternative investments. Latent variables of this contingent effect can be empirically isolated on an intertemporal basis by exploring observed deviations. This analysis can be further refined when asset classes are categorized according to hierarchal risk components. This hierarchal ranking is subject to the specification of risks priced as dimensional functions of the fundamental and institutional constructs as denoted by static asset attributes (khit), dynamic asset attributes (Zit\|khit) and resource/production fundamentals (RZ) that play a moderating role between asset flows and the risk attitudes of investors (a(t)). These attitudes in turn affect the perception and filtering processes by which the income, cash flows and/or dividends specified by contractual, operational rules and standards (i.e. the quantitative measures) are used to price assets. This is especially significant in the context of market exchange where transaction prices are negotiated among competing parties. Since leverage is often used, the analysis can be partitioned into debt and equity components. In this context, debt assets by design are less risky than equity assets since debt instruments typically have a fixed income or cash flow based on a contractual constant coupon rate. This relatively constant rate with a constant/stable income is typically a function of its original price or face value. As such, changes in debt value for contractually fixed income are limited to exogenous shocks and shifts that impact value when specified in space and time (s(t)). This structural and institutional design of debt instruments limits risk exposures and emphasizes value as a function of duration and time-preferences.\nFindings of two-pass CAPM analysis: The analysis presented in this paper reveal that there has been an increasing, if not total uncoupling, between the decisions and measures that have traditionally been assumed to link the financial sector with the overall real economy over time. This conclusion can be observed by the revealed disjoining across market states or regimes that have affected the gap between real estate performance and capital market pricing. In particular, the two-pass CAPM analysis conducted with Equations (1) and (2) supports the development of the data and statistics presented in Tables II and III that introduced the market state-space group correction. This analysis which incorporate latent state variables reveal that the property and capital markets are uncoupled in each market state sector and over the long run. This is indicated in Column 11 of Table II. This interpretation is supported by the measures indicated by the spread between the endogenous risk free asset rate, E(RZ\|M) and the risk free capital rate (RF) as noted in Column 6 and 8, respectively. The uncertainty observed across these asset class relationships is further indicated by the potentials for errors in variables and errors in equations as shown in Columns 4 and 5. The factors were derived through Equation (1), the first pass of a CAPM pricing of real estate returns is in established economic and market phases, which makes it possible to quantify the short-term market-specific assets rates. These return forms have been identified in economic and behavioral finance models as beta discount rates as discussed in the cited literature.\nAlternative methodology and perspective: An alternative analytical approach is used to address the dichotomy and complexity that characterize the current property market and its economic construct as it has evolved across time. The need for such analysis is punctuated by the magnitude of the spread between asset positions illustrated in Figure 5 and the statistics and parameters offered by Tables II and III, using Equations (1)-(3). In combination, these factors suggest that the measurement errors of concern may be suggesting the possibility of missing variables, even with the use of latent variable considerations and the adjustments employed. This approach addresses an inherent weakness in CAPM's structure associated with its parsimonious reliance on a two moment pricing structure. Limiting pricing to mean-variance analysis may make measurement efficient, but it offers limited insights into agents' preferences and expectations in relation to risk attitudes, which are major drivers of assets expectations and resultant behavior, especially in inefficient real estate markets. To adjust for these limitations Chen (2015) employed moment theory to expand the CAPM analytics from a mean-variance pricing model to one that considers the third and fourth moments of return/risk distributions.\nReasons for the analysis, measurements and findings as processed: The analysis, measurements, and findings presented in this research were formed by systematic literature search and informed by analysis of the myriad factors that have emerged over the study period to help predict asset performance and agent behavior. Drawing on the insights gleaned from the literature, the results of preliminary analysis argued that in order to understand the performance of the post-crisis property market and expected performance, it is necessary to consider the influences and contagion effects that distinguish the market from previous regimes. As noted, many of the variables cited in the literature are not directly measureable or tractable, but are rationally effective and categorically delineated as latent state variables. Therefore to investigate the potential of these factor loadings, it was necessary to investigate these relationships over time as they are conditioned and constructed by delineated market regimes. To help delineate the key issues and isolate their potential for measurement, CFA was used to group them into factors associated with agent behavior a(t), asset attributes (static khit, dynamic Zit\|khit, or statistical RZ), state variables s(t) and the idiosyncratic factors not associated with the more systematic issues specified in the literature and models. Figures 1-4, assisted with the taxonomy of these factors and assisted in specifying the structure and frames that constrain the analysis and options, as well as helping identify changing patterns and market states.\nConclusions and future research: Based upon the consideration of agents' behavior a(t), psychophysical dynamics Zit\|khit: RZ, and idiosyncratic measures et as they are influenced by latent state-space variables s(t), it is shown that the market performance since the financial crisis of 2007-2009 has been characterized by a different structure and combination of risk return relationships than in previous regimes. In effect, the risk-seeking behavior that was employed by many agents trying to overcome losses incurred during the Great Recession has carried over into the supposedly corrected market. Our analysis suggests that asset pricing based on risk taking in a market that accepts low to moderate returns is in effect uncoupled from potential risk exposures associated with underlying spatial fundamentals. The uncoupling of asset fundaments from financial decisions is due in part to the institutional support for the low interest rate environment that has characterized the post-recessionary period. Since this environment cannot be assumed to carry on in the future, the construct data as developed and the paths and patterns identified in this paper infer an unstable process and future state of expectations (E(s(t+1)). Thus, the perception of stability that is assumed by those benefiting from the current banking environment, are subject to probable exogenous shocks and probable uncertainties over the intermediate-to-long term. The Federal Reserve's off and on signals that it is ready to increase interest rates is highly significant to asset performance and agent behavior. The implications of an exogenous shock triggered by eventual increases in interest rates, renewed attention to risk premiums, and demand for higher returns that signal a new regime on asset performance are dramatic. Looking at the history, it is possible that the market is exposed to the same potential erosion of equity positions that resulted after the supply-side collapse in property markets that began in 1986 and value losses resulting from the financial crisis of 2007-2009 following the de-regulation and boom of the early 2000s. Thus, the dynamic constructs that have conditioned the level of current real estate prices should not be expected to be sustained and insights into the potential impact of a regime shift can be derived by comparing the phases of volatility illustrated in Figures 1-6.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate changes in the commercial real estate market dynamics as a function of and conditional to the shifts in market state-space environment that can influence agent responses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analytical design uses a comparative computational experiment to address the performance of property assets in the current market based on comparison with prior structural patterns. The latent variables developed across market sectors are used to test agent behavior contingent on the perspectives of capital asset pricing conditionals (CAPM) and a behavioral momentum/herd construct. The state-space momentum analysis can assist the comparative analysis of current levels and shifts in property asset performance given the issues that have arisen with the financial crisis of 2007-2009.\nFindings: An analytic approach is employed framed by a situation-dependent model. This frame considers risk profiles characterizing the perspectives and preferences guiding a delineated market state. This perspective is concerned with the possibility of shifts in market momentum and representativeness conditioning investor expectations. It is observed that the current market (post-crisis) has changed significantly from the prior operations (despite the diversity observed in prior market states). The dynamics of initial findings required an additional test anchored to the performance of the general capital market and the real economy across time. This context supports the use of a modified CAPM model allowing the consideration of opportunity cost in a space-time dynamic anchored with the consideration of equity, debt, riskless asset and liquidity options as they varied for the representative agents operating per market state.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper integrates neoclassical and behavioral economic constructs. Combines asset pricing with prospect theory and allows the calculation of endogenous time-preferences, risk attitudes and formulation and testing of hyperbolic discounting functions.\nPractical implications: The research shows that market structure and agent behavior since the financial crisis has changed from the investment and valuation perspectives operating as observed and measured from 1970 up to 2007. In contradiction to the long-term findings of Reinhart and Rogoff (2008), but in compliance with common perspectives and decision heuristics often employed by investors, this time things have changed! Discounting and expected rates of return are dynamic and are hyperbolic and not constant. Returns and investment for property assets are situational (market state-space specific) and offer a distinct asset class, not appropriately estimated by many of the traditional financial models.\nSocial implications: Assist in supporting insights to measure in errors and equations that result in inefficient resource allocation and beta discounting that supports the financial crisis created by assets subject to long-term decision needs (delta function).\nOriginality/value: The paper offers a combination and comparison of neoclassic asset pricing using a modified CAPM (two-pass) approach within the structural frame of Kahneman and Tversky's (1979) prospect theory. This technique allows the consideration of the effects of present bias, beta-delta functions and the operation of the Allais Paradox in market states that are characterized by gains and losses and thus risk aversion and risk seeking behavior. This ability for differentiation allows for the development of endogenous time-preferences and hyperbolic discounting factors characteristic of commercial property investment.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
On the composition of scientific abstracts	[ "Information retrieval", "Algorithms", "Information science and documentation", "Abstracting", "Abstracts", "Text retrieval" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Scientific abstracts contain what is considered by the author(s) as information that best describe documents' content. They represent a compressed view of the informational content of a document and allow readers to evaluate the relevance of the document to a particular information need. According to Hartley (2008), an abstract gives a summary of the content of an article that is comparable to its title and key words but provides different degree of detail: \"All articles begin with a title. Most include an abstract. Several include 'key words.' All three of these features describe an article's content in varying degrees of detail and abstraction. The title is designed to stimulate the reader's interest. The abstract summarizes the content\" (Hartley, 2008, p. 23).\nMethods: Dataset\nResults: We analyze the similarities between sentences in abstracts and article bodies according to three different criteria:\nDiscussion and conclusion: This paper provides a first analysis of the similarity between the text of scientific abstracts and the body of articles, using sentences as the basic textual unit. Our results show that about 16 percent of abstracts are composed entirely of original sentences and the remaining 84 percent contain at least one sentence which is similar to a sentence in the body of the article. Overall, an average of 23 percent of the sentences in abstracts are close reformulations of sentences in the body of articles. The similarity measures that we use in this study allow us to detect only a part of the paraphrases and reformulations that can exist between sentences in abstracts and sentences in the article body.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Scientific abstracts reproduce only part of the information and the complexity of argumentation in a scientific article. The purpose of this paper provides a first analysis of the similarity between the text of scientific abstracts and the body of articles, using sentences as the basic textual unit. It contributes to the understanding of the structure of abstracts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using sentence-based similarity metrics, the authors quantify the phenomenon of text re-use in abstracts and examine the positions of the sentences that are similar to sentences in abstracts in the introduction, methods, results and discussion structure, using a corpus of over 85,000 research articles published in the seven Public Library of Science journals.\nFindings: The authors provide evidence that 84 percent of abstract have at least one sentence in common with the body of the paper. Studying the distributions of sentences in the body of the articles that are re-used in abstracts, the authors show that there exists a strong relation between the rhetorical structure of articles and the zones that authors re-use when writing abstracts, with sentences mainly coming from the beginning of the introduction and the end of the conclusion.\nOriginality/value: Scientific abstracts contain what is considered by the author(s) as information that best describe documents' content. This is a first study that examines the relation between the contents of abstracts and the rhetorical structure of scientific articles. The work might provide new insight for improving automatic abstracting tools as well as information retrieval approaches, in which text organization and structure are important features.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Design management as dynamic capabilities: a historiographical analysis	[ "Dynamic capabilities", "Design management", "Historiographical analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The understanding of the role of design management as a dynamic capability and a part of a company's strategic process is something that is accepted but has not yet been discussed in depth. A good and effective design does not come about by chance, but rather through efforts to manage its ideas, processes and activities to achieve better performance and increase consumer interest (Ahire and Dreyfus, 2000; De Mozota, 2006; Chiva and Alegre, 2007). The emphasis on design management has become increasingly evident when discussing good product design, its relationship to design professionals and consumers' final ratings (De Mozota, 2006). Acklin (2013) opines that design should be seen as part of an organisation's strategy and that more emphasis should be placed on its own processes and the study of customer needs. According to Ravasi and Stigliani (2012), an investigative line called design management arose in the mid-1980s, focusing on design as a process that is responsible for supporting the commercial area and product allocation on the market. It is possible to gain advantages through the accumulation of design values and a strategic profile (Jevnaker, 2000). Design management involves learning, creativity and knowledge; the use of revolutionary technologies; innovation; and skills that can generate more value for products (Jevnaker, 2008; Verganti, 2011; Dell'Era et al., 2017).\nTheoretical framework: Dynamic capabilities correspond to companies' abilities to select, modify and adapt their resource bases. They are routines and organisational practices that include the integration and reconfiguration of internal and external competencies (Teece et al. 1997; Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000; Helfat et al., 2009).\nDynamic capabilities: According to Teece et al. (1997), the main issue being discussed in terms of strategy is how firms reach and generally keep their competitive positions. In this sense, the industry structure is seen as directly influencing the competition and the strategies of enterprises. These authors have some components of dynamic capabilities: They:\nDesign management: Design is deeply related to organisational competitiveness, as it interferes with strategy, costs, marketing, logistics and quality. The efficient management of design functions is a vital internal capability, even if the functions are outsourced (Fernandez-Mesa et al., 2013).\nMethodology: To investigate the way in which the field of knowledge on design management as a dynamic capability is being constructed, we searched for articles published on the ISI Web of Science database's Social Sciences Citation Index. First, to ensure the sample's substantive relevance, we selected articles whose titles or abstracts contained one of the following keywords: \"design management\" or \"design leadership\" or \"service design leadership\" or \"design thinking\" and \"dynamic capabilities\" or resource or process or integration. The search procedures and selection criteria were established as follows: period: any; peer reviewed; and disciplines: business, management and accounting.\nAnalysis and discussion: The analysed articles discuss design management from different viewpoints. These include outsourcing processes, part of the process of implementing quality management in relation to firm size, CEO participation in design decisions, design investments and firm performance, design management in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with or without experience in design processes, project quality and new product design, design-driven innovation and dynamic capability.\nConclusion and future directions: This research contributes to the design management literature in several ways. First, it presents the main conditions for characterising design management as a dynamic capability. Second, it presents design management as a way of allocating company resources that may be considered high-value strategic resources and it is directly related to the innovation management process. Finally, it contributes to theory so that future publications may test variables related to carrying out the process of design management in organisations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to analyse design management as a dynamic capability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a systematic review with paper searches conducted on the ISI Web of Science database's Social Sciences Citation Index, complemented by a historiographical analysis developed using the HistCite software.\nFindings: The analysis of paper allowed for the identification of three processes that, if integrated, construct design management as a dynamic capability, namely, design learning, design coordination and design skills. Design learning corresponds to the skill of acquiring and absorbing knowledge and practices and spreading them throughout the whole organisation, and design coordination corresponds to the capability to coordinate the activities and practices that are necessary for good design. Finally, design skills comprise a set of techniques and knowledge that generate synergy, creativity and innovation.\nPractical implications: This perspective suggests a new concept of design management that allows organisations to achieve a competitive advantage in environments of rapid technological change.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the literature on design management as a dynamic capability. Another contribution is that design management presents itself as an important dynamic that is capable of creating and maintaining a competitive edge through its potential to generate innovation and creativity and to make firms more flexible and dynamic.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Conflict resolution styles and personality: The moderating effect of generation X and Y in a non-Western context	[ "Conflict management", "Conflict", "Personality", "Five-factor model", "Generation Y", "Generation X" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Conflict creates a challenge for many managers, an issue very common in today's workplace. These conflicts are likely to arise between individuals or groups because of differences in values, expectations, needs, workplace practices, and personalities, which, in turn, could produce conflicting actions and preferences. However, poorly managing such conflicts in the workplace can have adverse effects on the level and frequency of future conflicts and can negatively affect productivity, job performance (Meyer, 2004; Trudel and Reio, 2011), and organizational commitment (Thomas et al., 2005). Workplace conflict has also been shown to have a positive relationship with absenteeism and employee sickness (Giebels and Janssen, 2005). On the other hand, properly managing such conflicts has been shown to decrease stress, improve long-term relationships, and reduce emotional defensiveness (DeChurch et al., 2007). Nevertheless, the conflict management style that the individual chooses to adopt may largely influence the outcome of the conflict.\nConflict: Organizational conflict may befall parties because of contradictory emotions about a certain issue, limited resources, incompatible ideologies, different values, lack of communication, and workplace practices, etc. Such conflicts are likely to occur between individuals or groups since each have their own beliefs, attitudes, and values. Jones et al. (2013, p. 880) define it as \"the discord that arises when the goals, interests, or values of different individuals or groups are incompatible, and those individuals or groups block or thwart one another's attempts to achieve their objectives.\" Nevertheless, if a conflict is properly managed, it can lead to both personal and organizational benefits (Silverthorne, 2005). Otherwise, it can negatively affect organizational outcomes such as productivity, absenteeism, commitment, and job performance (Meyer, 2004; Thomas et al., 2005; Giebels and Janssen, 2005; Trudel and Reio, 2011). Still, managing these conflicts is no easy process; a wide range of organizational actions must be taken, including understanding positions, communicating, and problem solving as well as dealing with emotions (Brett, 2001; Behfar et al., 2008).\nPersonality: Personal features primarily define and forecast human conduct. These personal characteristics also designate different individualities, which can contribute to implications about behavioral consequences (Liao and Lee, 2009).\nPersonality and conflict management styles: Several researchers have, for decades, intended to expose the nature of the relationship between personality and conflict style (Anwar et al., 2012). Pepin (2005) affirms that findings of these studies have been inconsistent, where some found a weak relationship between personality and style of conflict, while others found a strong relationship between them.\nGenerations X and Y: Born between the years 1965-1980, ranging in age from 35 to 50, Generation X, otherwise known as the Baby Busters, was the first generation to really have to deal with the dramatic shift in workplace paradigms brought about by the technological revolution. They were the first to own personal computers, and the first to modernize. They are seen as generally driven by the mantra \"work to live\" (Fraone et al., 2008) This generation has witnessed many crises in its time. They are \"accustomed to recurring economic recessions,\" and familiar with \"oil shortages, terrorist attacks, and soaring inflation.\" According to Saleh (2008), generation X developed skepticism and independence, which helped them succeed in an entrepreneurial setting. They are considered to have a great work ethic and unflinching loyalty when it comes to their workplace.\nHypothesis development: Several previous research studies explored the relationships between the Big Five personality traits and the different conflict management styles, which led to identifying some significant associations among them. This study, however, intends to take things further by investigating a possible moderator of the various relationships. Thus, the main research question of this paper is the following:\nResearch design and data collection: The aim of this research is to test whether generations X and Y, as separate cohorts, moderate the relationship between conflict handling styles and personality.\nConstruct measures: The question relating to age asked about date of birth, divided into the following categories: 1981-2000, 1965-1980, and 1964 or before. These categories were chosen in order to identify generations X and Y. The answers of participants born before 1965 were removed from consideration.\nResults: Demographics\nDiscussion: The results indicated no moderating effect of generations X and Y between the dominating conflict handling style and the Big Five personality traits. This seems in line with the characteristics of generations X and Y, which do not comprise the use of power to complete any objectives. This is true especially for generation Y who prefer to work in teams instead of dominatingly leading as they are more team oriented (Howe and Strauss, 2000).\nConclusion, limitations, and future research: Earlier research that examined the relationship between personality and conflict management styles have found varying results ranging from weak to strong relationships. The understanding of what influences an individual's choice of which management style he/she chooses is of great use for managers in general and human resource managers in particular. This study showed that the inconsistency could be the result of some factors that moderate this relationship. The age of individuals contributes to the strength or the weakness of the various relationships between personality and conflict handling styles. Findings suggest that generations X and Y do not moderate the relationships among the personality traits and the dominating and obliging conflict styles. They do, however, have varying moderating effects on the relationships between specific personality traits and the integrating, avoiding, and compromising styles.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Conflict in the workplace creates a challenge for many of present day managers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating effect of generations X and Y on the relationship between personality and conflict handling styles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is conducted using a sample of 199 employees working in the electronic retail sector in a non-Western culture. The five-factor model of personality traits is used to measure personality, while conflict styles are measured using Rahim's Organizational Conflict Inventory II.\nFindings: Results indicate that generations X and Y moderate the relationship between specific personality traits and conflict handling styles.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study investigated the moderating effect of generations X and Y on a sample of employees within the electronic retail service sector in Lebanon. It is recommended that future research examine such a relationship in other sectors and cultures for generalizability. Since generation Z (born in the late 1990s) will soon be entering the job market, further studies should include this cohort when investigating the relationships. Finally, for a deeper understanding of the relationship, it is advisable to use both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods.\nPractical implications: The understanding of what influences an individual's choice regarding his/her choice of conflict resolution styles is of great use to supervisors in general and human resource managers in particular. This will assist in developing training programs that help employees acquire the appropriate skills necessary to control their impulses in a conflict situation. Training should comprise conflict resolution and communication skills that could help bridge the gap between generations. Effectively managing generational conflict in the workplace can positively contribute to the level and frequency of future conflicts, which in turn, can lead to favorable organizational outcomes.\nOriginality/value: Earlier research that examined the relationship between personality and conflict management styles have found varying results ranging from weak to strong relationships. The understanding of what influences an individual's choice of which management style he/she chooses is of great use for managers in general and human resource managers in particular. This study showed that the inconsistency could be the result of some factors that moderate this relationship. The age of individuals contributes to the strength or the weakness of the various relationships between personality and conflict handling styles. Findings suggest that generations X and Y do not moderate the relationships among the personality traits and the dominating and obliging conflict styles. They do, however, have varying moderating effects on the relationships between specific personality traits and the integrating, avoiding, and compromising styles.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A comprehensive examination of antecedents of cultural intelligence amongst students: Testing the moderation effect of third culture kids	[ "Cultural intelligence", "Cross-cultural competence", "Third culture kids", "UAE education", "Work skills" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's increasingly interconnected world characterized by globalization, increased migration and technological advancements, multiculturalism has become a norm in our day-to-day lives. Furthermore, global forms of work such as corporate expatriation and inpatriation, self-initiated international transfers, virtual collaborations, international business travel, short-term transfers, etc., have resulted in a rising number of professionals whose roles and responsibilities go beyond the domestic work context (Mayrhofer et al., 2012). While studying the long-term labor force projections, Toossi (2006) envisaged how the increasing racial and ethnic multiplicity will be one of the factors shaping the composition and growth of the labor force going forward into 2050. As the workforce continues to become increasingly diverse, intercultural competence has become a coveted skill in today's job market. Stressing the need for cross-cultural competence, the Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2018 reports, \"we must learn better how to interact effectively with people who are different; we must burnish our intercultural knowledge, and our empathy, openness, and respect for what is different\" (INSEAD, 2018, p. 7). As businesses transcend national boundaries, the amplified intercultural interactions often present challenges for professionals, both in domestic as well as international organizations (Kwantes and Glazer, 2017). According to Tarique and Weisbord (2013, p. 140), \"the high cost of preparing employees for the challenges of working across cultural, political, and national boundaries creates a need for data that can assist international human resource management professionals in identifying specific characteristics of successful expatriates.\" Organizations today need employees who can overcome the challenges put forth by cultural differences and work harmoniously with culturally diverse stakeholders. As Engle and Nash (2016, p. 23) observe, \"business has clearly expressed the need for their employees to be able to operate in today's diverse and multicultural business environment, and they look to universities to supply them with candidates who have such skills.\" To develop competencies to match the demands of the contemporary workforce, one of the mandates of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business' (AACSB International, 2013) Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards for Business Accreditation is that skills need to be developed in students to enable them to work effectively in diverse and multicultural environments. So what are the capabilities that universities can develop amongst students to enable them to navigate the challenges put forth by today's multicultural work environments?\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: CQ was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct comprising of four facets, namely, meta-cognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational CQ and behavioral CQ (Ang et al., 2007). Meta-cognitive CQ is the higher-level understanding that cultural differences exist and the ability to question and correct assumptions that one has about another culture. Cognitive CQ is the actual knowledge one has about a particular culture, like knowledge of various social, political and economic institutions. Motivational CQ is described as the motivation one has to seek out and succeed in culturally diverse contexts. And finally, behavioral CQ is the ability to display culture appropriate verbal and nonverbal behavior. The literature on the antecedents of CQ primarily uses the theoretical lens of the experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984), social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) and contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954) to study its antecedents. On similar lines, we draw upon these theories and present our hypotheses to explore the different antecedents of CQ. First, we talk in brief about the effect of the cultural background of students and then we present the antecedents and the corresponding hypotheses. Figure 1 represents the conceptual model of this study.\nMethod: Research setting\nAnalysis and findings: The collected data were subjected to further analysis through partial least squares-structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS.3.0 (Ringle et al., 2015) to test the validity and reliability of the latent variable and hypotheses of the study. The PLS-SEM is a non-parametric technique and highly appropriate when the data is non-normal (Hair et al., 2012). We checked the normality of all the data points of the study by using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and found the data to be non-normal, which necessitated us to use PLS-SEM.\nDiscussion: Direct effect hypotheses\nTheoretical and practical implications: This study amplifies research on CQ in several ways. First, we contribute to the study of antecedents of CQ by examining several of the identified antecedents in one comprehensive study. Furthermore, some newer student specific CQ antecedents are explored such as watching films from other cultures and having friends from other cultures. Second, we contribute to CQ training by testing the effects of students' background on different kinds of antecedents and interventions. The study clearly shows that different antecedents act differently for TCKs and MCKs. These findings contribute to the gap identified by Raver and Van Dyne (2017) in their research on CQ training. We also contribute to the research on TCKs by investigating how their characteristics lead to the development of their CQ as opposed to their counterparts, the MCKs. Finally, we contribute to research on education in two ways. First, we provide a comprehensive set of factors that can be used as a baseline for designing academic courses for cultivating intercultural competence amongst students. Furthermore, our research also contributes to education in the Middle East, which boasts of a high number of multicultural students. This is one of the few studies based in this region that provides insights into how we can use the multiculturalism existing in this part of the world to raise global citizens of tomorrow. It provides insights into the learning requirements of the students in the UAE as per the cultural makeup of this country.\nLimitations and further research: We will next list the limitations of our study and suggest directions for future research. First, like all cross-sectional research studies, these relationships have been tested at a particular point in time. It would be interesting to administer the antecedents as interventions to the students and study the pre and post intervention CQ levels of students. This could be one of the areas of further research. Second, the generalizability of the findings is limited to this sample. The TCKs and MCKs in this study are from one passport culture. It would be desirable to repeat this study on a sample consisting of TCKs and MCKs from different passport cultures and explore how national culture impacts the findings of the study. Third, we can explore the cultural distance between the passport culture and host culture in case of the experiences that the students have had, and then assess the impact of these antecedents on the development of CQ. Like a study by Engle and Nash (2016) found that spending time in a country outside one's native regional cluster led to the higher development of CQ rather than a country in the native regional cluster. The research undertaken in this paper can be further extended to test the different dimensions of CQ amongst cross-cultural kids (Van Reken and Bethel, 2006) and investigate which antecedents of CQ majorly contribute to the development of their CQ. In conclusion, we hope this research provides a direction to understand the impact of cross-cultural dynamics on education and how academic institutions can develop global citizens of tomorrow.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the various antecedents that impact the development of cultural intelligence (CQ) among students. The study also explores how growing up as a third culture kid (TCK) or a monoculture kid (MCK) impacts the relationship between the antecedents and CQ.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using data from 307 students consisting of both TCKs and MCKs, the authors test the direct effects and moderation model amongst the antecedents and CQ. Convenience sampling was employed to choose the participants for the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and administered to the students via e-mail.\nFindings: The results indicated that short-term trips abroad, undertaking a cross-cultural management course, local culture proficiency, watching films from other cultures, language of work proficiency, having friends from other cultures and interaction with people from different nationalities had a significant effect on CQ.\nPractical implications: This study provides a list of variables that facilitate the development of intercultural competence amongst students, which can be used as a base by academic institutions to develop various courses, classroom activities and university programs. Also, classifying students as TCKs and MCKs helps us understand which CQ antecedents are more important for which category of students.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the first studies on antecedents of CQ, which explores the impact of being a TCK or MCK on the development of students' CQ.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Action learning partnerships: carbon, commerce and community co-learning at a Canadian university	[ "Community–university partnerships", "Climate change education", "Action learning", "Carbon footprinting" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper discusses an innovative university course: the University of Northern British Columbia's (UNBC's) third-year undergraduate/graduate course, carbon and energy management (CEM). The course represents an equally innovative partnership between the UNBC (Canada), the Prince George Chamber of Commerce (Canada) (PGCOC) and local Prince George businesses/non-profits. The authors describe the course briefly, and then focus upon the contributions of the class to integrating the university and its community in joint sustainability initiatives.\n2. Description of the study areas and methodology: 2.1 Study context\n3. Results and discussion: Two broad populations benefit from the CEM course. The first is the community of Prince George, including the Chamber of Commerce and participating businesses and non-profits. The second are UNBC's students, faculty and administrators. These benefits are documented, in part, through the reflections of those involved in the course, in one capacity or another.\n4. Conclusion: The CEM course has reinvigorated community discussion around sustainability and, in particular, the challenge of climate change. The model offered by this innovative partnership mobilizes knowledge in two directions - it has the potential to improve sustainability education in institutes of higher learning while simultaneously improving environmental performance in the business world. Still, the limitations and concerns surrounding partnership and community empowerment strategies need to be acknowledged; such a \"downloading\" of responsibility is a product of neoliberal climate policies that have placed a greater burden on often under-resourced individuals, firms or communities to act as agents of change. It is clear that if this program is taken to the next step, the partners need to more fully understand small and medium businesses' capacity to innovate on sustainability (Burch et al., 2016). Increasing the skills and capacities required for community-level monitoring and response to climate change exemplifies the importance of shared and collective responsibilities within climate solutions. This approach reflects the ongoing shift from traditional government to governance models in the sphere of environmental policy. As a partnership between the business community and university, the CEM course exemplifies how climate change-adaptation strategies are enacted by a wider diversity of actors in the contemporary city, with the potential to open up new political spaces for sustainability experimentation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss an innovative course offered as a partnership between the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) (Canada), the Prince George Chamber of Commerce (Canada) and local businesses: UNBC's third-year undergraduate/graduate course, carbon and energy management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors have all participated in the development, design and/or delivery of the course and have provided their reflections on the experience. In addition, they sought insights from students and other interested people on the impact and significance of this course.\nFindings: Carbon and energy management is an action learning-based co-created course initiated by the Chamber to address an interest in mitigating climate change amongst local businesses. Among businesses, the carbon economy is under considerable discussion. The increased awareness of climate change, and the need to better manage carbon, has led to local businesses eager to reduce greenhouse gases but lacking the expertise necessary. UNBC students (undergraduate and graduate) learn innovative and practical skills through creating carbon footprint analyses for small- to medium-sized business/non-profit clients, providing recommendations on reducing reliance on fossil fuels and formally presenting their findings to their clients. After five years, 46 businesses and non-profit organizations have participated in the course along with over 30 students and 5 separately hired student interns. The Chamber is now rolling out the program for Canadian Chamber of Commerce interested in similar community-university partnerships.\nOriginality/value: This paper describes a course that is a novel approach to university-community partnerships, both in approach and focus area. The linking, through the course, of small- to medium-sized businesses with the provision of plans for carbon reduction developed by university students is an unusual approach. However, there is significant value to all partners in the approach. Allowing the main community partner to serve as the lead in the project also offers an unusual experience and perspective for the university partner, as often such partnerships are largely driven by the post-secondary institution's interests and needs, which can create a challenging power dynamic. Instead, the course offers a lesson in how a university can be clearly in service to the community at the community's invitation. Finally, this paper offers reflections on the value of this type of project for creating sustainability initiatives from the perspective of all participants, students, faculty, university administration, city government, participating businesses and the Chamber of Commerce, demonstrating the critical need for understanding a project as an intersection of all participating actors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Model for BPM implementation assessment: evidence from companies in Indonesia	[ "BPM lifecycle", "Business process management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Concepts and methods related to business processes have received considerable attention among researchers and practitioners. In recent years, business process management (BPM) has emerged as a field of interest for researchers in business administration and computer science (Weske, 2010). Researchers in business administration emphasize improvements in business processes in companies (Cetinkaya et al., 2011). Researchers in computer science concentrate on improving the performance of tools and software to support managerial aspirations for business process improvement.\nBusiness process management: BPM has gained increasing attention from practitioners and academics in recent decades. However, as suggested by Skrinjar and Trkman (2013), despite the increasing focus on BPM, there have been many criticisms of it. One of the debates concerns what BPM actually means, i.e. the definition of BPM itself. This section will first address the definitions available and articulate the definition used in this paper. A review of the principles of good BPM, the BPM lifecycle, BPM project/program implementation framework, BPM maturity models and practical aspects is also provided.\nModel development: As mentioned previously, the BPM-IA model considers several constructs: the BPM lifecycle, the BPM project/program implementation framework, principles of \"good\" BPM, BPM maturity and critical practices. The contribution of each construct to the BPM-IA model is achieved through the following steps:\nMethodology: The study was conducted in two stages. The first stage focused on developing a model for BPM-IA, as described in the previous section. The use of the model in real cases was examined in the second stage of the study. The case studies were used to answer the research questions stated initially in this paper. The case companies are currently conducting their process management. The study objectives led to the choice of an exploratory research methodology. Exploratory studies aim to find out what is happening, seeking new insights and generating ideas and hypotheses for new research. One of the approaches commonly used in exploratory studies is case study (Flyvbjerg, 2007). According to Yin (2014), case study is particularly suitable when the study is largely exploratory in nature, context is important, the phenomenon is contemporary, the researcher has no control over the context and the research attempts to answer \"how\" and \"why\" questions.\nResults and analysis: The model described in the previous section was applied for the three case companies in Indonesia. General information on the case companies is summarized in Table V. The first company, Cement, was a cement producer that had implemented ERP since 2010. The second company, Telco, was a telecommunications company serving millions of customers throughout Indonesia that had implemented ERP since 2001. The ERP system was fully integrated in Telco in 2008. The last company, Auto, was an automotive manufacturer that had implemented ERP since 1992.\nDiscussion: Most of the BPM literature, especially on the business process and business process maturity model, focuses on certain BPM factors, areas or practices. This study proposes a different perspective by providing a model for assessing BPM implementation in each stage of the lifecycle and at the same time considering practical aspects of BPM implementation, principles of good BPM, BPM maturity factors and critical practices. The BPM-IA model was used to assess BPM implementation in three case companies in Indonesia to ensure its ability to satisfy the objective of the research.\nPractical implications: The results of the assessment may have several practical implications. First, the three companies, which have implemented ERP for over five years, all acknowledged that they define their business processes prior to ERP implementation. The difference lies in how they identify the business process (process identification). In the Cement case, the company identifies it business process based on the as-is condition of the company at the time, involving the key stakeholders in the company. Telco uses a reference model, e-TOM, to aid in identifying its business process. Auto, on the other hand, has opted to implement the ERP modules and model the business process based on the ERP modules. This shows one of the most crucial decisions in ERP implementation, i.e. the choice to preserve the existing business process or follow the best practice embedded in the ERP systems. The findings for the three companies suggest that the decision very much depends on the companies' condition and more importantly their commitment to taking the necessary steps to deal with the consequences of the choice.\nConclusion: This study has proposed a new model for BPM-IA that maps the tasks in different stages of the BPM lifecycle with the BPM project/program implementation framework, the principles of good BPM, BPM maturity and critical practices. The model has been used to assess BPM implementation in three case companies in Indonesia that have implemented ERP systems for a reasonable period of time.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation commonly fails to recognize the need to treat it as a business process automation that must be managed and monitored continuously. Moreover, many studies on business process management (BPM) assessment focus on snapshots of different areas of BPM and not on the different stages of the lifecycle. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model that combines the BPM lifecycle, program/project implementation framework, principles of good practice, maturity and critical practices to assess how companies implementing ERP apply different BPM practices, as well as which areas are lacking and why.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The relevant literature was examined to develop the model for the study. Case studies of three companies in Indonesia were then conducted. The state of BPM implementation in each case was assessed through interviews, document reviews and observations.\nFindings: This study found that three leading companies in Indonesia, implementing ERP for more than five years, obtained high scores for BPM implementation. They perform well in terms of process identification, implementation, monitoring and control, but are weak in process discovery and re-design, mainly because they do not optimally use specific tools for process modeling and there is a lack of process governance. The studies also pinpoint potential linkages between competition intensity and the nature of the industry with the need for good BPM.\nResearch limitations/implications: The model has only been tested in three cases in different industries and therefore the results, while providing good insights, cannot be generalized. More detailed assessment of certain BPM practices is needed. Furthermore, the assessment for each stage of BPM implementation was made at a single time, potentially yielding less detailed results than by assessing each stage of the BPM lifecycle.\nPractical implications: The companies implementing ERP began with business process definition, but employ different process governance. The model developed here can be useful for leaders and teams to identify weak areas of practice within the stage of the BPM lifecycle; it can be used as an assessment tool for companies currently conducting BPM projects or programs including ERP implementation. It can also provide a roadmap for companies intending to conduct BPM programs.\nOriginality/value: Most of the BPM literature focuses on specific aspects. This study proposes a different perspective by providing a model to assess BPM implementation in each stage of its lifecycle and at the same time considers practical aspects of implementation, principles of good practice, maturity factors and critical practices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Reflections on women's career responsibilities in neoliberally driven universities	[ "Career development", "Career satisfaction", "Human resource development", "Human resource management", "Career guidance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Reflections on a sequence of career-related conversations with 12 senior women scholars employed in public universities in Aotearoa (New Zealand) provide the motivation for this paper. At the time of the conversations (2013-2014) neoliberal intensification dominated the public and private sectors of this jurisdiction. The seniority of these scholars indicates institutional recognition of their career competencies in the neoliberally driven university. Their professional profiles identify their concerns with social justice and environmental responsibility. The conversations were intended to reflect with the scholars on their career experiences in the neoliberal context and their intention to contribute to their aspired visions for the future.\nAotearoa (New Zealand) in the vanguard of neoliberalism: feminist implication in the social construction of (career) realities: Reviews and critique of the reason and rise of neoliberalism underpinning capitalist globalization since the 1970s are now plentiful. Explicit examples of early and persistent critics include Chomsky (1996), Lyden (2017), George (1999), Kelsey (1999, 1997) and Stiglitz (2013, 2010, 2003). Exacerbation of contemporary inequality experienced in the neoliberally dominated Aoteroa New Zealand is canvassed by Rashbrooke (2013, 2018). This model for global development is deemed by its critics to be socially, economically and environmentally unsustainable (Humphries-Kil, 2017; Davies, 2014). Crises in each sphere highlight the urgency to rethink and transform the prevailing economic system generally in order to serve a dignified life for all and a responsible relationship with Earth as the source of all life (Martin et al., 2019). Public universities provide a crucible for such rethinking and transformation. Cohorts of scholars, however, report factory-like career conditions and disciplines that undermine their creativity and vitality. Ylijoki (2005) reports, for example, that at the turn of the twenty-first century many academics faced a sort of identity crisis as an outcome of \"the growing external push towards market-orientation and academic capitalism [...] at odds with the values and morals they have internalized as the cornerstones of their professional identities\" (p. 571). In a reflection on such forms of academic capitalism well established in Scandinavia and the UK at that time, Henkel (2005) found that while the value an appreciation of academic autonomy had remained strong, the resources and capacity for management and negotiation were deemed unequally distributed (p. 173).\nMorphing metaphors: [...] metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphoric in nature [...] the essence of metaphor is understanding one kind of thing in terms of another.(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, pp. 3-5)\nA career research project as (feminist) action: The conversational approach taken in this research is an extension of narrative-style enquiries into the way individuals make sense of themselves, of their lives and of events and experiences. The value of narrative-style research as reviewed by Ylijoki (2005) recognizes that human beings construct or constrain their identities in part through their responses to power and to diverse forms of hegemonic influences through \"joint performance of tellers and listeners\" (p. 562). Yanow and Schwartz-Shea (2006) explain that such conversation guidance does not so much to provide direct answers to pre-set research questions, but serves to enhance understanding through the clarification of emerging ideas under discussion. The conversational method chosen in our research emphasizes the possibility that mutual reflection on aspects of particular narratives can expose hegemonic contradictions and serve not merely to make sense of the past or present for an individual but to encourage an active engagement in the collective shaping of the future of humanity.\nServing the common good: The mandate to serve the common good is articulated by diverse universities the world over and has been so for generations. Harvard Business School (2016), for example, claims to \"educate leaders who make a difference in the world\" (para 1). The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management seeks \"to develop principled innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice\" (MIT Sloan School of Management, 2016, para 1). The University of Waikato (2016) is established \"Ko te Tangata\" (For the people) (para 2). Such lofty mission statements, however, appear to be selectively harnessed to the overly competitive market model of development. One potential transformational response to such critique is articulated by Muff et al. (2013, p. 24) in a call to shift from \"trying to be the best in the world to becoming the best for the world,\" a vacuous call for those who believe the persistent endorsement of a destructive free market model deemed fit for all purposes. Such a call invites intensified reflection of the personal and organizational framing of scholarly careers.\nConclusion: constituting responsibility: From the 1970s, the form of globalization now widely labeled as \"neoliberalism\" is intensified in many parts of the world. By the second decade of the twenty-first century pressure has mounted on states to address the associated degradation of public services and infrastructures, to appease voter bases marginalized in various ways, or to pacify (or disparage) systemic critics and victims.\nCodicil: In this Codicil we provide an extract from a communication by the New Zealand TEU dated April 12, 2019 generated from results of a 2018 survey informed by surveys undertaken in 2013 and 2016 to provide a benchmark for analyses of tertiary education sector worker experiences (https://teu.ac.nz/2019/04/tertiary-education-survey/). The fieldwork on which our paper is based was conducted at a similar time to the union's research and brings further texture to this report:Research being released on May Day will show that concerns around increased workload, academic freedom, and a decline in both staff and student wellbeing remaining as key issues impacting those in the sector. Key findings of the work by Drs Sarah Proctor Thomson and Charles Sedgwick include a decline in academic autonomy, a closing down of collegial structures, a decline in standards accompanying a pressure for students to pass, and the negative impact on wellbeing for both staff and students [...] This long-term focus is important because it helps to identify how teaching and learning at the highest level is shaped by enduring institutional issues, the vicissitudes of political life and policy trends.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on career aspirations and experiences explored with senior women organizational scholars employed in neoliberally driven public universities in Aotearoa (New Zealand) legally mandated to serve as a critic and conscience of society.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Over the 18 months period, three sequential research conversations were conducted with each of 12 participants known for their commitment to social justice and planetary well-being. The conversational approach allowed for spontaneous participant-lead development of ideas. Sequencing of conversations allowed for reflection on matters raised in previous conversations.\nFindings: Vitality and creativity deemed essential to scholarly careers were reportedly under pressure. Career concepts in use indicate a protean commitment to self-direction but also recognized constraints of institutionally driven neoliberal output regimes. Detrimental impacts of neoliberal values permeating their employing institutions were offered spontaneously often in radical feminist terms but paradoxically given liberal feminist remedies.\nResearch limitations/implications: The 12 diverse transcripts of participant conversations generated remarkable similarities that indicate the influence of career articulations on the social construction of reality. The implications of this interpretation invite further reflection on the consequences of normalization of career metaphors and their implication in the intensification of institutional control, the weakening of professional autonomy and the system preserving restriction of career-related responsibilities.\nPractical implications: Highlighting constraints to creativity and vitality necessary for scholarly work can inform further research into professional influences on justice and environmental matters in and beyond the Academy.\nSocial implications: In this paper a short review of Aotearoa (New Zealand) as in vanguard of neoliberal intensification globally, the implication of this doctrine in neoliberally driven universities and the impacts on career opportunities, degradations and responsibilities of scholars are explored.\nOriginality/value: The conversational research process contrasts with more tightly framed empirical research methods by generating spontaneous participant-led articulations of career-related dynamics explored and expanded over subsequent conversations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A sustainable model for business schools	[ "Business schools", "Performance measures", "Finance", "Costs", "Financial structures", "Private providers", "Competition" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: At the core of each business school, a dialectic takes place between two distinct purposes - the goal of producing knowledge and the goal of educating students. Individual institutions have different views and different market segments and approaches exist (AIM, 2006; Antunes and Thomas, 2007; Thomas, 2007; Iniguez de Onzono, 2011; Fragueiro and Thomas, 2011). At one end of the spectrum there are research-intensive institutions while at the other there are teaching-led, or even research-less schools. Most schools are somewhere in between, leaving them with a dual system of purposes and corresponding metrics that are all too often contradictory and confusing rather than cohesive.\n1. Sources of revenue: 1.1 The state\n2. What is our value proposition? Research vs teaching, rigour vs relevance: 2.1 Academics - research\n3. Adding it all up: While not all business schools will face financial challenges in the near term, fault lines are clearly visible. Traditional sources of income are less stable than they once may have appeared. Government, the primary source of funding in the OECD countries will not continue to expand educational budgets for ever. Examples to the contrary are already evident in many countries. Student tuitions cannot go on rising forever. Many MBA programme fees, we believe, have reached levels that are not sustainable and raise a real question of value and fairness. Income from executive education or from donations can be substantial, but are not in the reach of all schools.On the cost side, we posit that many institutions are using a faculty model which is very luxurious. No other industries that we can think of use their main human capital to directly generate income for <10 per cent of their annual time at one end of the spectrum or only about 30 per cent at the other.There are actions that business schools can take which address many of these challenges. The question is whether they are willing to do so as individual institutions or whether the \"system\" of business education will get in the way - in other words because other schools will not change their system and thus systemically nothing changes.The income side is probably harder to shift. Schools can, however, seek to diversify their streams of income into adjacent fields like executive education, work-based learning and online learning. There are already UK-based universities who have gone further and are involved in housing, in transport and in entertainment venues.The cost side offers greater possibilities. Instead of endlessly bemoaning the lack of academically (doctorally) qualified faculty, business schools should realistically introduce a parallel track of clinical faculty who have higher teaching loads but are also required to be up-to-date on industry developments and who additionally publish, but importantly, do not only pursue publishing in top-tier academic journals.By investing in learning technologies, business schools can provide valuable, cost-effective tuition in many of the basic areas of management. This will then allow an efficient, high value-added use of faculty time as they will be able to focus on more sophisticated, complex areas of the business curriculum.Business school academics need also to be realistic about their own teaching loads. By accepting to teach one additional class, major benefits can accrue to their institutions, and thus, by extension, to their own working environment.More broadly, business school associations and accrediting agencies, as well as media organisations that rank business schools, ought also to reflect on the expectations they have of business schools. The threshholds for doctorally qualified faculty who are actively publishing in top-tier journals is, we would suggest, excessive. If the level of own research which is actually taught by academics is as low as the cited study suggests, it is really not clear that such a single-minded emphasis on research is realistic.A variety of alternative examples do presently exist. Many are out of the mainstream like the predominantly adjunct-based models of some of the for profit business schools. Others are trying to change the system from within (Lorange, 2008; Fragueiro and Thomas, 2011). By acknowledging the equal roles of clinical and research faculty, by abolishing tenure and introducing performance-related pay, or by emphasising teaching performance rather than research output as the primary form of evaluation, the dynamics and economics of business education can be changed. These alternatives, however, remain isolated examples rather than general trends.All of these challenges are all taking place in a rapidly changing educational landscape. These include the role of for-profits, the welcomed growth of middle-income and developing world countries' own educational infrastructure, the advent of recessions and cost pressures in the competitive environment. More broadly, they are taking place in a world where uncertainty seems very high and critically, where genuine thought must be given to climate change, resource constraints, ever-increasing populations and sustainability. Business schools surely are in a position to give some real thought on what type of a business model is appropriate for business when it seems obvious that continuing to expand consumption is not feasible, that financial short-termism is dangerous, and that stewardship, as opposed to maximising shareholder value, is surely what it needed.We thus believe it is time for a serious reflection on the sustainability of business education.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the financial models used by business schools, with a specific focus on the cost side of the model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper systematically looks at sources of revenue and areas of expenditure under different business school models.\nFindings: - The paper finds that the faculty model used by many business schools, with the need to devote significant effort to generate academic publications, is very cost intensive and not efficient. The paper suggests that alternative models can be developed which would make business schools more financially sustainable.\nOriginality/value: - While there has been a lot of societal attention paid to sources of income, most notably tuition, very little attention has been paid to the actual use of resources within the business school environment or to alternative models which could be used to deliver high quality education at lower cost.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Enterprise risk management in family firms: evidence from Austria and Germany	[ "Family firms", "Family CEO", "Enterprise risk management (ERM)", "Family influence" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper provides an empirical investigation of the question of whether family firms differ from non-family firms in their implementation of enterprise risk management (ERM). To the best of our knowledge, this relationship has not been explored explicitly in the ERM or the family business literature[1]. This seems regrettable since family firms are known to account for the majority of firms and jobs in most countries worldwide (Bennedsen et al., 2015; IFERA, 2003; Masulis et al., 2011).\n2. Literature and hypotheses: While no prior studies have explicitly focused on ERM in family firms, some related papers include hints on the application of ERM or risk management in family firms. For instance, Paape and Spekle (2012) found that owner-managed Dutch firms are less prone to invest in ERM. Similarly, the study by Henschel and Durst (2016) of small firms in China, Germany, and Scotland reveals that small owner-managed firms are less likely to use risk management methods. These findings from quantitative research are complemented by insights from qualitative studies suggesting that if owner-managed firms engage in risk management, they rather do so in an informal or tacit way (Gao et al., 2013; Herbane, 2010; Poba-Nzaou et al., 2014). For instance, Herbane (2010) noted that owner-managers may informally manage risks by keeping their eyes open for potential risks in day-to-day management. These findings match notions that, in general, owner-managed firms apply formal management practices to a lesser extent than firms not managed by owner-managers (Kelliher and Reinl, 2009; Kotey and Slade, 2005; Lavia Lopez and Hiebl, 2015; Lovata and Costigan, 2002; Richbell et al., 2006). Most such research has argued that owner-managers draw less on formal management methods because they do not want to be restricted in their entrepreneurial freedom by more formal practices (Kelliher and Reinl, 2009; Mintzberg and Waters, 1982; Nordqvist and Melin, 2010). In addition, owner-managers may also lack relevant knowledge or education to implement formal management methods, such as risk management (Gao et al., 2013; Lavia Lopez and Hiebl, 2015; Richbell et al., 2006; Watt, 2007).\n3. Methods: 3.1 Sampling procedures\n4. Results: Table I presents the descriptive results for our variables. As can be seen in this table, the proportions of family and non-family firms are roughly evenly split in our sample. Most of the firms in our sample (57.9 per cent) can be regarded as small due to them having 50-249 employees. Considering our two dependent variables (ERM EXISTENCE, CRO EXISTENCE), it becomes evident that only a minority of sampled firms (38.4 per cent) have adopted ERM, while an even smaller minority (8.9 per cent) have a dedicated CRO.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: Based on related empirical findings and agency theory, we suggested that family firms are less likely than non-family firms to have adopted ERM. In addition, we theorized that firms with a family CEO show a lower probability of having adopted ERM. Overall, our findings lend support to these expectations and indicate that family firms and firms with a family CEO show significantly lower application rates of ERM compared with non-family firms and firms with a non-family CEO. Although not statistically significant, these findings can also be found when analyzing the existence of a CRO position as the dependent variable.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Family firms are the most prevalent type of firm worldwide. Nevertheless, the existent enterprise risk management (ERM) literature is silent on the adoption of ERM in family firms. Family firms exhibit specifics likely to influence the adoption of ERM. Most importantly, they often feature lower levels of agency conflicts, which should make them less prone to invest in mechanisms to control such problems. Consequently, it is expected that family firms are less prone to invest in ERM. This paper aims to explore this basic expectation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on a survey of 430 firms from Austria and Germany.\nFindings: It is observed that family firms show a lower adoption of ERM, especially in family firms where there is a family CEO.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results suggest that future empirical ERM research should more closely analyze or at least control for family influence.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the first to analyze ERM adoption in family firms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Innovation, firms' performance and environmental turbulence: is there a moderator or mediator?	[ "Mediation", "Moderation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The increasing pace of globalization, changing customers' demands, increasing competitiveness and rapid technological advancements create an environment in which sustained competitive advantage is difficult to achieve and sustain (Bhatt et al., 2010). Besides, rapid technology advances increase the need for firms to continuously adapt, improve and innovate in order to survive (Chen et al., 2010). In other words, the contemporary business environment is characterized by constant changes and dynamic turbulences (Menguc and Auh, 2006). The ability of a firm to respond to market pressures and changes is a critical success factor in such environments. Since customers' needs and expectations continually evolve, delivering improved product and services requires ongoing responsiveness to market needs and innovation efforts. Therefore, an important driver of firm competitiveness and success is the ability to innovate in dynamic business environments (Zaefarian et al., 2017; Uzkurt et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2009). The concept of innovation though has received considerable attention from the researchers and management literature (Tajeddini and Trueman, 2008). In this regard, many scholars considered innovation as critical firm's capability indispensable for the survival, profitability and growth of modern business organizations (Kyrgidou and Spyropoulou, 2012; Tajeddini, 2011). Firms with high innovation capability support new ideas, support change, encourage risk-taking and stimulate new business approaches (Tsai and Yang, 2014). As a result, greater innovation contributes to increased business performance (Bolivar-Ramos et al., 2012; Boyer and Lewis, 2002). Thus, some scholars offered and empirically confirmed positive impact of innovation on firm's business performance and competitiveness (Hurley and Hult, 1998; Tsai and Yang, 2013a, b; Menguc and Auh, 2006).\nLiterature review: Theoretical background\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: The DCV suggests that a firm can achieve superior performance if it possesses capabilities to integrate, build and renew internal and external resources and knowledge (Yu et al., 2013). One of the most recognized dynamic capabilities in the contemporary economy is innovative capability or innovation. In other words, innovation is an immediate source of competitive advantage that leads to an improvement in performance (Camison and Villar-Lopez, 2014). The main reason for firms' engagement in innovation activities is because of the expected positive impact of innovations on firms' success (Varis and Littunen, 2010). Innovative firms welcome new ideas, value change, encourage risk-taking and stimulate novel approaches to addressing market needs (Augusto and Coelho, 2009). These firms are more capable of developing new products. Also, managers at such firms tend to devise new ways of resolving business problems (Tsai and Yang, 2014). Because highly innovative firms value change, they are more likely to improve their operations, production methods and product development processes continually (Tsai and Yang, 2014). As a result of their improvement, these firms may achieve higher performance by enhancing their operational efficiency and effectiveness. Chatzoglou and Chatzoudes (2018) state that innovation is the main challenge for firms since it seems to be a key driver of long-term business success while Omri (2015) suggests that innovative products and processes can facilitate firm survival and growth by creating new demands on the market. Thus, this study presents the following hypotheses:\nMethodology: Sample\nResults and discussion: Reliability and validity tests\nConclusion, contributions, and limitations: Building on prior studies and drawing strength from theoretical models on innovation, environmental turbulence and business performance, this study investigated the proposed relationships to find out if environmental turbulence raises the innovation and how these constructs contribute to business performance. Consequently, this study developed and tested two conceptual models. Model 1 presented the joint effects of product and process innovations on firm's business performance considering environmental turbulence as an antecedent variable of these relationships. The results of SEM analysis revealed that product and process innovations are justifiable constructs in predicting business performance. At the other side, environmental turbulence enhances both types of innovation. Model 2 presented the moderating role of environmental turbulence in the relationship between both types of innovation and business performance. The findings of the analysis revealed that both product and process innovations have the positive impact on business performance. However, environmental turbulence does not moderate significantly these relationships. Thus, environmental turbulence appears to promote product and process innovations. Besides, both product and process innovations enhance business performance. This implies that DCV makes sense for the influence of both product and process innovations on business performance. It implies that a firm can achieve better business performance when it is able to effectively utilize its internal resources to enhance its innovation capability to address changing business environments quickly. Besides, the results suggest that contingency theory stands for the extent of the innovation, i.e. the level of innovation capabilities depends on the external environment.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to draw on dynamic capability view and contingency theory to clarify the nature of the effect of environmental turbulence on the relationships between firm's both product and process innovations and business performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors developed and empirically tested two structural models using structural equation modeling approach. The first model deals with both product and process innovations as the mediators between environmental turbulence and business performance. The second model considers the moderating effect of environmental turbulence between innovation and business performance.\nFindings: The findings show that environmental turbulence does not moderate the relationship between innovation and business performance. The authors have found a clear role of environmental turbulence in boosting innovation rather than moderating the relationship between innovation and performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data set is a cross-section of heterogeneous firms regarding the industry.\nPractical implications: Managers should be aware of the importance of the innovation for the environmental turbulence and dynamism counteracting. The results imply a negative influence of environmental turbulence on business performance. However, with the innovation in the equation, this influence can be positive, because it boosts firms to innovate and though to achieve better business performance.\nOriginality/value: It contributes the management and innovation research and practice through offering insights into the role of environmental turbulence in product innovation, process innovation as well as organizational business performance through comprehensive analysis of mediation and moderation effects between the observed constructs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A TOPSIS method to evaluate the technologies	[ "Analytic hierarchy process", "Hydrogen", "Natural gas", "TOPSIS", "Power generation", "Criterion" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Clean, low-cost power generation; these are the trends of the energy market today, in a highly competitive environment with rising environmental concerns. Concepts like energy policy and green house gas emissions reduction, that used to exist in scientific discussions only, are now already a part of the national and international political scene. The warnings of the scientific community are now been taken into consideration and have a permanent place in conferences relevant to energy and the environment. The increasing world power consumption, over 80 per cent of which is generated by means of fossil fuel combustion processes, has raised the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere more than 30 per cent above the level of the pre-industrial era (Marban and Valdes-Solis, 2007). Expected demand for electricity would require during the coming two decades the installation of as much power generation capacity as was installed in the entire twentieth century (Lior, 2008). Considering this, the world community has already taken measures to reduce CO2 and other green house gas emissions. Such reductions are possible by developing more efficient technologies, using renewable energy sources and utilizing new, cleaner fuels. Natural gas is a widely used fossil fuel that is cleaner than coal and petrol. There is abundance of natural gas and its utilization is constantly increasing in the last 50 years (Afgan et al., 2007a). Power plants that utilize natural gas have significantly lower emissions than other fossil fuel plants. Hydrogen on the other hand, is viewed as the fuel of the future and has been recently gaining a lot of attention. A great number of studies have been carried out concerning issues to be addressed in order to facilitate the introduction of hydrogen in the energy balance (Hennicke and Fischedick, 2006). Alternative fuels including hydrogen-enriched fuels were studied for use in power generation (Gokalp and Lebas, 2004). The effect of hydrogen injection as additional fuel in gas turbine combustors was evaluated (Juste, 2006). Power plants that utilize hydrogen could potentially have absolutely zero emissions. However, hydrogen is more of an energy carrier than a fuel (because its production requires energy) and hydrogen technologies cannot yet be considered mature and are relatively more expensive. This paper uses the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology to evaluate the relative importance of the criteria's and TOPSIS method to evaluate the different power plant technologies that use natural gas or hydrogen as a fuel using economic, environmental and technological criteria.\n2 Related literature: Past researchers have already applied TOPSIS in selection problem for different manufacturing facilities using various mathematical models, heuristics and MCDM techniques. The merit of MCDM techniques is that they consider both qualitative parameters as well as the quantitative ones. MCDM includes many solution techniques such as simple additive weighting (SAW), weighting product (WP) (Hwang and Yoon, 1981), and AHP (Saaty, 1980). The personnel selection problem, from the multi-criteria perspective, has attracted the interest of many scholars as in Saremi et al. (2009) and Seol and Sarkis (2005). Wang et al. (2006) present a model to select the exact web service based on user's preference Sun (2002) presented a logical and systematic procedure to evaluate the computer numerical control (CNC) machines in terms of system specifications and cost by using the technique for order preference by the (TOPSIS) method, which is observed to be quite capable of solving such type of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. Atmani and Lashkari (1998) developed a production planning model for solving the machine tool selection and operation allocation problem in flexible manufacturing system (FMS). The model determines the optimal machine tool combination and assigns the operations of the part types to the machines, while minimizing the total cost of processing, material handling and machine set-up. Rai et al. (2002) and Mishra et al. (2006) applied fuzzy goal programming technique to model the problem of machine tool selection and operation allocation. The AHP has been used before in several studies to evaluate power generation plant technologies, such as the evaluation of power plants with regard to their non-radioactive emissions (Chatzimouratidis and Pilavachi, 2007) and with regard to the impact on the living standard (Chatzimouratidis and Pilavachi, 2008). It has also been used to perform a comparison between conventional and renewable power technologies (Akash et al., 1999) and to make a sustainability comparison of fuel cell systems SOFC, PAFC, MCFC with respect to environmental, societal and economic impacts (Mannan et al., 2008). Methods other than AHP have also been used in the past to evaluate power plants. A multi-criteria evaluation of plants that produce hydrogen and use it as a fuel was presented (Afgan et al., 2007b) and a sustainability assessment of the phosphoric acid and solid oxide fuel cells was carried out and then compared with new and renewable energy systems (Afgan and Carvalho, 2004).\n3 Description of power technologies: Nine different energy generation options were selected for evaluation. It should be noted that there are differences in the levels of maturity of the technology of these options. Therefore, the data on emerging technologies may be preliminary and less reliable than the data of more mature technologies. However, it is interesting to see how upcoming and developing technologies perform compared to mature and established ones. It should also be noted that for the hydrogen options under consideration, it is assumed that hydrogen is supplied through a distribution network and is not produced on site. Below follows a brief description of these options.\n4 Description of criteria: The criteria used for the evaluation of the selected energy production technologies are efficiency, CO2 emissions, NOX emissions, capital cost, operation and maintenance costs (O&M costs), electricity cost and service life. All criteria data were collected from the bibliography unless otherwise mentioned. All economic data were found in US$ and were all converted to February 2008 US$ and then in February 2008 euros.\n5 TOPSIS method: The procedural steps of TOPSIS method are enlisted as below (Rao, 2007):\n6 Methodologies used: The criteria is taken as follows (efficiency, CO2 emissions, NOX emissions, capital cost O&M costs, electricity cost, service life). The alternatives are taken as follows:\n7 Results: The results drawn from the analysis in technology wise is as follows: natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cells>natural gas combined cycle>natural gas fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cells>natural gas internal combustion engine>hydrogen fuelled solid oxide fuel cells>hydrogen internal combustion engines>hydrogen combustion turbines>hydrogen fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cells>natural gas turbine. It shows that the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cells are the best technology available among all the available technology considering the seven criteria such as service life, electricity cost, O&M costs, capital cost, NOX emissions, CO2 emissions and efficiency of the plant.\n8 Conclusions: In this paper, nine energy generation options were evaluated with regard to seven criteria. The energy generation options were the hydrogen combustion turbine, the hydrogen internal combustion engine, the hydrogen fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cell, the hydrogen fuelled solid oxide fuel cell, the natural gas fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cell, the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cell, the natural gas turbine, the natural gas combined cycle and the natural gas internal combustion engine. The criteria used for the evaluation were efficiency, CO2 emissions, NOX emissions, capital cost, O&M costs, electricity cost and service life. The AHP was used to perform the evaluation of the criteria weightage. The most dominant electricity generation technology proved to be the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cells which ranked in the first place among nine alternatives. This was to be expected since the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cells promises to deliver ultra clean and low cost power generation. Considering the fact that natural gas prices are expected to drop as its production methods are evolving (Marban and Valdes-Solis, 2007), the cost of the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cell generated electricity is expected to be very competitive in the future. However, the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cells is not a currently available technology, as it is still under research, and its actual performance characteristics when it becomes commercially available could be very different from the ones used in this paper. The natural gas turbine ranked in the last place in the nine alternative generation technologies. This was to be expected since this natural gas turbine has a very high capital cost and O&M costs combined with a short service life and produces rather high emissions compared to other technologies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate nine types of electrical energy generation options with regard to seven criteria. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to perform the evaluation. The TOPSIS method was used to evaluate the best generation technology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The options that were evaluated are the hydrogen combustion turbine, the hydrogen internal combustion engine, the hydrogen fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cell, the hydrogen fuelled solid oxide fuel cell, the natural gas fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cell, the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cell, the natural gas turbine, the natural gas combined cycle and the natural gas internal combustion engine. The criteria used for the evaluation are CO2 emissions, NOX emissions, efficiency, capital cost, operation and maintenance costs, service life and produced electricity cost.\nFindings: The results drawn from the analysis in technology wise are as follows: natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cells>natural gas combined cycle>natural gas fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cells>natural gas internal combustion engine>hydrogen fuelled solid oxide fuel cells>hydrogen internal combustion engines>hydrogen combustion turbines>hydrogen fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cells> and natural gas turbine. It shows that the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cells are the best technology available among all the available technology considering the seven criteria such as service life, electricity cost, O&M costs, capital cost, NOX emissions, CO2 emissions and efficiency of the plant.\nResearch limitations/implications: The most dominant electricity generation technology proved to be the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cells which ranked in the first place among nine alternatives. The research is helpful to evaluate the different alternatives.\nPractical implications: The research is helpful to evaluate the different alternatives and can be extended in all the spares of technologies.\nOriginality/value: The research was the original one. Nine energy generation options were evaluated with regard to seven criteria. The energy generation options were the hydrogen combustion turbine, the hydrogen internal combustion engine, the hydrogen fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cell, the hydrogen fuelled solid oxide fuel cell, the natural gas fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cell, the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cell, the natural gas turbine, the natural gas combined cycle and the natural gas internal combustion engine. The criteria used for the evaluation were efficiency, CO2 emissions, NOX emissions, capital cost, O&M costs, electricity cost and service life.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Innovative behavior and venture performance of SMEs: The moderating effect of environmental dynamism	[ "Performance", "Innovation", "Small- to medium-sized enterprises", "Organizational innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute the backbone of a strong market economy. SMEs generally contribute more to job creation than do large businesses particularly in the case of startup companies. In order to guarantee the sustainability of the SME industry, an increase in the funding of the SME sector needs to be accompanied by the development of SME activities, particularly in the area of innovation and financial resources. Innovation is vital for these firms which need to find a competitive edge to gain entry on international markets (Becheikh et al., 2006). SMEs are generally more flexible and therefore better positioned to generate and implement new ideas. The simple organizational structure of SMEs is, in fact, a fundamental characteristic which is conducive to innovation (Keskin, 2006).\n2. Review of the literature: Research has upheld the idea that firms should pay close attention to the association which exists between the level of innovation and the level of change and complexity within the industry (Evans, 1991). Organization theorists state that firms which are more involved in innovative activities increase their market share growth (Gopalakrishnan, 2000; Verhees and Meulenberg, 2004). Schumpeter, in his book The Theory of Economic Development points out that innovation is an opportunity for entrepreneurial firms because it generates income through the temporary creation of a monopoly (Schumpeter, 1934). According to Porter (1980), introducing innovative products, processes, or business models creates opportunities for SMEs to stand out in the competitive landscape. SMEs can also override price competition by offering highly innovative products and processes (Lazzarotti and Manzini, 2009; Rosenbusch et al., 2011). Finally, this research suggests that innovative products and processes can facilitate firm survival and growth by creating new demands on the market.\n3. Research model and hypotheses: 3.1. Innovative behavior and firm performance\n4. Study design and methodology: 4.1. Data collection and sampling issues\n5. Empirical testing of hypothesized model: 5.1. Partial least squares (PLS) path modeling\n6. Discussion: Limited research links innovative behavior, innovative output and firm performance. The present study explores this link further thus opening discussion in the literature by proposing a model which shows the influence of managers' innovative behavior on successful innovation output thereby positively affecting business performance. Our research develops a framework for studying innovative behavior, environmental turbulence, and firm performance. The model was tested using data collected from Tunisian SMEs. The results support direct and mediating hypotheses and reveal that both managers' innovative behavior and innovative output are critical for successful performance. The findings also show that an uncertain environment negatively affects innovation strategy in SMEs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between innovative behavior and firm performance to determine empirically whether managers' innovative behavior impacts directly or indirectly on firm performance through innovative output. A proposed conceptual model is tested with the moderating effects of environmental dynamism.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An empirical study tests the conceptual model of a multi-industry sample of Tunisian small and medium-sized enterprises. For this analysis the author applies the partial least squares (PLS) technique using the software package SmartPLS, version 2.0.\nFindings: Empirical findings reveal that innovative behavior acts on innovation output thus having a positive and significant effect on business performance. Direct effect on business performance is found to be positive but weakly significant. These positive relationships tend to decrease when market conditions are highly dynamic.\nPractical implications: Managers should be aware of the strategic potential of their innovative skills which can reinforce a firm's innovativeness in order to improve business performance.\nOriginality/value: This paper proposes a model showing how a manager's innovative behavior affects innovation output thus enhancing firm performance. The proposed conceptual model gives a more specific vision with the introduction of environmental dynamism as a moderating factor.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Characterizing peer-judged answer quality on academic Q&A sites: A cross-disciplinary case study on ResearchGate	[ "Social media", "Academic social networking", "ResearchGate", "Academic social Q&A", "Answer quality", "Peer judgment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, academic social networking sites (ASNSs), such as Academia.edu and ResearchGate, have been gaining popularity among scholars. ASNSs enable scholars to communicate with one another online for the main purposes of cooperation and acquiring relevant academic information (Nandez and Borrego, 2013; Jordan, 2014; Jeng et al., 2015). One of their most important features is a social question and answer (Q&A) platform for scholars to raise and answer academic questions (Jeng et al., 2017). As the examples in Figure 1 show, users can post questions related to specific disciplines or topics, such as information reliability in information science, or shadow patterns in history of art; they can also provide answers to others' questions, based on their knowledge and expertise.\n2. Related works: Since few previous studies have focussed on assessing the quality of academic information on ASNSs, our literature review is expanded to encompass three topics: peer judgement of answer quality on general social Q&A sites; the quality assessment of academic content; and the relevance and credibility of academic content on social media. This section aims to provide a theoretical basis for exploring the characteristics of high-quality academic answers.\n3. Characteristics examined for high-quality academic answers: In this section, we discuss the two types of characteristics examined in this paper as related to the quality of academic answers. The first type concerns the information publishers' authority, derived by the answerer's history and academic reputation, which has been validated effectively in studies on evaluating the quality of general answers and research papers (Fu et al., 2015; John et al., 2011; Mukherjee, 2007; Ugolini et al., 1997). The second type concerns information content, which is a crucial basis for peers to judge information quality. In particular, we consider academic-related and non-academic content characteristics. The content characteristics were adopted from Jeng et al. (2017), who identified several important content characteristics of academic answers. In the following, we will describe the meaning of each characteristic, especially on ResearchGate's Q&A platform, and how it is potentially related to answer quality.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Data set\n5. Results: 5.1 Answer characteristics and answer quality\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Comparison of the peer-judged quality of academic answers and generic answers\n7. Conclusion and future work: In this study, we proposed a statistical framework for analysing how academic answer quality is judged by peers. How various proposed answer characteristics are associated with answer quality was tested by analysing academic answers from ResearchGate's Q&A platform. The important characteristics for judging academic answers were investigated, identified and compared across the three disciplines of Art, LIS and Phys.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Academic social (question and answer) Q&A sites are now utilised by millions of scholars and researchers for seeking and sharing discipline-specific information. However, little is known about the factors that can affect their votes on the quality of an answer, nor how the discipline might influence these factors. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using 1,021 answers collected over three disciplines (library and information services, history of art, and astrophysics) in ResearchGate, statistical analysis is performed to identify the characteristics of high-quality academic answers, and comparisons were made across the three disciplines. In particular, two major categories of characteristics of the answer provider and answer content were extracted and examined.\nFindings: The results reveal that high-quality answers on academic social Q&A sites tend to possess two characteristics: first, they are provided by scholars with higher academic reputations (e.g. more followers, etc.); and second, they provide objective information (e.g. longer answer with fewer subjective opinions). However, the impact of these factors varies across disciplines, e.g., objectivity is more favourable in physics than in other disciplines.\nOriginality/value: The study is envisioned to help academic Q&A sites to select and recommend high-quality answers across different disciplines, especially in a cold-start scenario where the answer has not received enough judgements from peers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A window into Eve Online	[ "China", "Business performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A window into Eve Online: a study that looks into the world of online video gaming, how it can be improved and why customers love them.\nBackground: Eve Online is unlike any MMO out there on the market today. Created by the company CCP that is based in Iceland, Eve Online is the world's only true sandbox game. A sandbox game is a game that allows the player to do whatever they want with no or few restrictions. In an MMO sandbox, it is the players who create the majority of the content in the game so there is no overarching storyline. In addition to this, everyone that plays Eve Online is put on a single server called Tranquility. However, there is a separate server for people who play in the People's Republic of China because of legal reasons imposed by the government.\nObservations: To personally understand Eve Online and to begin the research process, we created a virtual character and joined the corporation Section 8, which is part of the alliance called Fatal Ascension. Fatal Ascension is the second most powerful alliance in a coalition, most commonly called the CFC (the Cluster F*** Coalition). The CFC is the most powerful coalition in the game. The CFC comprises about 50,000 members. To understand Eve Online's structure more, see Appendix 2.\nSurveys: The majority of our information came from the surveys that we posted on many of Eve Online forums. A copy of the survey and the results and their unedited comments are in Appendix 1. The reason for posting these questions on the forums was to gather as many responses as possible from a wide variety of player bases. Each alliance and corporation in the game has a Web site and forums, so posting on a few would only target those in different areas of Eve instead of collecting a wider base of information.\nInterviews: Informally, we interviewed a few people in our corporation Section 8. On the program, Team Speak, which is the primary means of communication, we asked them questions and took notes to further our research. Primarily, we interviewed four players:\nResults: The only area of the game that got a high negative rating was whether or not CCP is good at retaining their customers. From the comments, people said, and:\nRecommendations: People play Eve Online because of the community of the game. They originally come for a variety of reasons, but they stay because they become a part of a community. To retain customers, CCP should take measures to increase the social interactions of new players:\nInternational ramifications: Cultural awareness;\nClosing thoughts: Eve Online is a social network unlike any other. Facebook is all about staying in contact with people you already know. Eve Online is a social network all about meeting new people. Since becoming a regular play in Eve Online, we have met people from all over the world. All players need to do is get connected to other players and they are hooked for life. Eve is also a game of possibilities. One day you can be earning millions and millions of in-game currency, the next day you could be planning the fall of an empire. In the Eve virtual world, you can be whatever you want to be, but players increase the enjoyment of the game when they share it with other people who also enjoy the game. One comment summarizes the true feeling of Eve players best \"I love Eve. The people make the game. There is also nothing more exciting than building an empire of real people with your friends\".\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study Eve Online. Most people use their computers to surf the Web, check e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or various other social networking sites. Although computer gaming has been around for years, only in the past 10-15 years has it really taken off as a primary use for a desktop.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Individuals use computers as a tool, to relax and get away and, in the case of Massive Multilayer Online games (MMOs), they use computers as a gateway to a virtual world. MMOs are fairly new to the gaming world, yet the concept is simple. Combine all the game players and throw them into a single intractable game, where they can deal with other players on a daily basis, essentially creating a metaverse.\nFindings: Eve Online is unlike any MMO out there on the market today. Created by the company CCP that is based in Iceland, Eve Online is the world's only true sandbox game. A sandbox game is a game that allows the player to do whatever they want with no or few restrictions.\nOriginality/value: Everyone that plays Eve Online is put on a single server called Tranquility. However, there is a separate server for people who play in the People's Republic of China because of legal reasons imposed by the government. We examine Eve Online and make suggestions for future research to examine country differences with China.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How management innovations are successfully implemented? An organizational routines' perspective	[ "Management innovation", "Case study", "Innovation implementation", "Organizational routines", "Routine evolution" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: During the past few decades, as competition intensifies and globalization accelerates, innovation has become a most important and sustainable source of competitive advantage and even economic growth (e.g. Damanpour and Schneider, 2006; Tushman and O'Reilly, 2002). Firms around the world are actively involved in innovation, especially management innovation, aiming to realize the critical contributions to success of firms through creation and implementation of a new operation model, management concept and methods, organizational structure, or resource allocation mode (e.g. Birkinshaw et al., 2006, 2007, 2008; Hamel, 2006, 2007; Lin and Su, 2010, 2014; Mol and Birkinshaw, 2009; Vaccaro et al., 2012). Such management innovation reflects intentional reversals of personnel and structural growth dynamics in organizations and assists in productivity, improving quality and enduring competitive advantage for continuous development (Pil and MacDuffie, 1996). However, in most cases, management innovations have failed to meet intended objectives (Marks, 2006; Paper and Chang, 2005; Quinn, 2004). A survey in 2008 reported that only one-third of organizational innovation initiatives were considered successful by their organizational executives (Meaney and Pung, 2008). Therefore, it has become an urgent task to improve performance of management innovations.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Management innovation\n3. Methodology: 3.1 The case study\n4. Case analysis: According to the innovation proposal (see Section 3.2), DD innovation of HOAU was a systematical project referring to organizational structure change, market reposition, standards reset up, business process redesign and operation model reestablishment. However, the establishment of the proposal was only the beginning of innovation. It was implementation that transferred value into practices and produced innovation effects. Actually, it took HOAU almost three years to implement DD innovation and finally got a success. During the implementation period, besides obvious changes in organizational structure, service standards and the process, the existing organizational routines reflecting fundamental features of HOAU and employees' cognition and behaviors were overturned and new organizational routines for DD service were created. From an explicit perspective, implementation exhibited a series of continuously activities taken by HOAU; while from an implicit perspective, it reflected gradual changes occurring in DD participants' cognition and behaviors, namely, the evolution of organizational routines. Therefore, this research attempted to explore the evolution mechanism of organizational routines in innovation implementation by considering both explicit innovation activities and implicit changes of participants' cognition and behaviors. A three-phase process of evolution was identified, including the existing-organizational-routine-domination phase, the new-routine-creation phase and the new-routine-solidification phase.\n5. Discussion: 5.1 The framework of routine evolution in innovation implementation\n6. Conclusion: This paper addresses how management innovations are implemented deeply at the most micro level of organizations, namely, organizational routines or investigates the process through which organizational routines evolve in implementing management innovations, with existing routines overturned and new routines created and solidified. Based on existing literatures on management innovation and organizational routines, we set up a three-phase framework of organizational routine evolution in innovation by adopting an exploratory case study on DD innovation of HOAU in China. The findings offer many valuable insights for further research in how to improve effectiveness of innovations in special context of China and hold important implications for management practices. Despite its limitations, our research makes several important contributions to emerging literature on management innovation and organizational routines. However, more research should go deeply into the details of routine evolution and offer more effective paths for improving the performance of management innovation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address how management innovations are implemented deeply at the most micro level of organizations, namely, organizational routines, or to investigate the process through which organizational routines evolve in implementing management innovations, with existing routines overturned and new routines created and solidified.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper adopts an interpretive and exploratory case study on the case of Day-Definite (DD) innovation which has successfully brought Arima World Group Company Limited (HOAU) into a new value-added arena, in terms of timing, security and high service quality. Considering that DD innovation reflects a systematic innovation of the whole organization, this paper focuses on it to explore the complex implementation mechanism of management innovation. Multiple approaches were utilized during data collection to meet criteria for trustworthiness, including semi-structured interviews, archival data and observation; and the data analysis went through a five-step process.\nFindings: The results confirm management innovation as a complex project concerning organizational routines which represent a central and fundamental element of organizations. Also, it finds that organizational routines evolve in innovation implementation through a three-phase process consisting of the existing-routine-domination phase, the new-routine-creation phase and -solidification phases, each exhibiting different innovation activities and characteristics of participants' cognition and behaviors; recreation of new routines is the key for routine evolution, thus for success of management innovations.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is constrained by several limitations. The set-up framework of organizational routine evolution in innovation implementation needs a further confirmation in more organizations; other elements, such as cognition of managers, resource orchestration, environmental elements or organizational culture, should be considered for the success of innovation implementation; and more attention should be paid to the potential power asymmetries among participants and its potential influence on forming shared schemata and subsequent new routines, besides interactions and role taking.\nOriginality/value: The findings offer some valuable insights for further research on management innovation and organizational routines and hold important implications for management practices. This research extends research on management innovation and the Kurt Lewin Change Theory and Change Model to explore innovation implementation at a most micro level; furthers research on organizational routines, especially routine dynamic theory, by holding the two-component view and exploring the process through which organizational routines evolve; and contributes to research on the relationship between organizational routines and innovations by taking an organizational routines' perspective. It reminds managers of the depth and complication of innovation implementation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An empirical investigation of the relationship between government revenue and expenditure: The case of the Fiji Islands	[ "Government", "Capital expenditure", "Public revenue", "Fiji" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: An apposite fiscal policy is a vital ingredient for economic development. Despite being a short run policy measure, fiscal policy can have lasting macroeconomic consequences. In the debate about economic policy, fiscal policy is viewed as an instrument used to mitigate short run fluctuations in output and employment and bring the economy closer to potential output (Zagler and Durnecker, 2003). Fiscal policies are in large part contingent on government's expenditure allocations and revenue collections. Persistent budget deficits could be avoided if policy makers understand the nature of the nexus between expenditure and revenue. On the policy side, the nature of the relationship between government expenditure and government revenue is essential for three reasons. First, if government revenue causes government expenditure, budget deficits can be eliminated by policies aimed at stimulating government revenues. Second, if government expenditure causes government revenue, it implies government behavior as one where it spends first, and later, to pay for this spending, they raise taxes. Such a situation can induce capital outflow due to the fear of paying higher taxes in future. Third, if the \"fiscal synchronization hypothesis\" does not hold, it implies that expenditure decisions are made in isolation from revenue decisions, which can lead to serious budget deficits should government expenditures increase more rapidly than government revenues (Narayan, 2005). For these reasons, it is important to study the relationship between government revenue and government expenditure.Given the policy relevance of the nexus between government revenue and government expenditure, over the last couple of decades this issue has been investigated for a number of countries. The bulk of the studies has focused on the USA. For instance, Anderson et al. (1986), using traditional econometric techniques, found that expenditures cause revenues in the USA. Apart from revenue and expenditure variables, they also studied two additional variables, namely real GNP and inflation, to help explain the growth of government spending and taxes. Marlow and Manage (1986) examined the causal relation between federal expenditures and receipts in order to assess the proposition that increased taxes will reduce deficits. Using the Granger causality technique, they found unidirectional positive causality running from receipts to expenditure. Ram (1988), citing mixed conclusions by the two studies highlighted above, provided additional evidence on causality. He found that, in general, causality runs mainly from revenue to expenditure. Miller and Russek (1990), however, found bi-directional causality between government taxes and spending.In studying evidence from Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland, Kollias and Makrydakis (2000) found that in Greece and Ireland, tax and spending decisions are taken simultaneously. They found support for \"tax and spend\" hypothesis for Spain and absence of any causal relationship for Portugal. Li (2001) studied the revenue and expenditure relationship for China and found evidence for bi-directional causality. In reconsidering Taiwan's experience, Fuess et al. (2003) found one-way causality from government revenues to expenditures.In a recent study, Carneiro et al. (2004) investigated this issue for Guinea-Bissau. They concluded that Guinea-Bissau's experience is consistent with the \"spend and tax\" hypothesis. Moreover, Narayan (2005) studied the expenditure and revenue nexus for nine Asian countries. He found support for \"tax and spend\" hypothesis for Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka in the short run and for Nepal in both short and long run. He reported evidence of neutrality for the other countries like India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand. In another recent study, Narayan and Narayan (2005) found support for the \"tax and spend\" hypothesis for Mauritius, El Savador, Haiti, Chile, and Venezuela, while for Peru, South Africa, Haiti, Guatemala, Uruguay, and Ecuador they found evidence of neutrality.The goal of this study is to examine the government revenue and government expenditure nexus for Fiji. The contribution of this study to the literature is twofold. First, this is the first study that examines government revenue and expenditure nexus for Fiji. This investigation is crucial for Fiji from a policy point of view since Fiji has experienced persistent budget deficits over the last three decades. Fiji has had budget deficits since 1970, except for 1990. During the early 1970s budget deficits were fairly stable. However, in the post-1989 period there has been a sharply increasing trend in the budget deficits (Narayan and Narayan, 2003). Second, this study departs from other studies in an important way, for we not only model the government revenue and government expenditure nexus in an aggregate sense but we also consider the nexus at the disaggregated level. More precisely, we model the relationship between government revenue and the various components of government expenditure, and we also model the relationship between government expenditure and the various components of government revenue.The balance of the paper is organized as follows. In the next section, we discuss the theoretical framework motivating the empirical analysis on the nexus between government revenue and government expenditure. In Section 3, we discuss the econometric methodologies. In Section 4, we discuss the empirical results. In the final section, we provide some concluding remarks together with some policy implications.\n2 Theoretical framework: The literature has identified three main hypotheses to explain the nexus between government revenue and government expenditure. One is the \"tax and spend\" hypothesis, which perceives a causal relationship running from revenue to expenditure. The advocate of this thought is Friedman (1978), who argued that raising taxes would lead to more expenditure. Friedman (1982) explains:You cannot reduce the deficit by raising taxes. Increasing taxes only results in more spending, leaving the deficit at the highest level conceivably accepted by the public. Political rule number one is government spends what government receives plus as much more as it can get away with.The second is the \"spend and tax\" hypothesis, which argues that increased taxes and borrowing arises because of increased government spending. Peacock and Wiseman (1979) make a case that expenditures increase due to crises and the increased levels of expenditure continue even after the crisis is over. They are of the view that severe crisis that initially force up government expenditure, more than taxes, is capable of changing public attitudes about proper size of government. The main idea here is that the original tax increases due to the crisis becomes a permanent feature in the tax policies (Narayan, 2005). In an empirical sense, this hypothesis implies unidirectional causality running from expenditure to revenue.The third is the fiscal synchronization hypothesis owing to Barro's (1979) tax smoothing model. This hypothesis explains that spending and taxation decisions are taken simultaneously. This idea that revenues and expenditures change concurrently was explained by Meltzer and Richard (1981) in their quest to explain the size of government. In an empirical sense, this hypothesis postulates bidirectional causality between government expenditure and government revenue.\n3 Model: Following several recent studies (Narayan, 2005; Narayan and Narayan, 2005) on developing countries, we estimate the following bivariate model which models the relationship between government revenue and government expenditure: Equation 1 In addition to model (1), as argued earlier, our main contribution is that we estimate two additional models where:1. we model government revenue as a function of the various components of government expenditure; and2. we model government expenditure as a function of the various components of government revenue.Hence, our proposed model (2) takes the form: Equation 2 and our proposed model (3) has the form: Equation 3 In these three models, AR represents aggregate revenue, AE represents aggregate expenditure, CP represents customs duties, IT represents income tax and estate duties, DE represents departmental expenditure, and PD represents public debt charges.\n4 Econometric methodology: 4.1 Unit roots\n5 Data and empirical results: 5.1 Data and unit root test results\n6 Conclusion: In this paper, we investigated the causal relationship between government revenue and government expenditure using cointegration and Granger causality approaches over the period 1968(1)-2003(4). Our main contribution was that not only did we model the relationship between government revenue and government expenditure in an aggregate sense, but we also modeled them in a disaggregated sense. In other words, we examined the relationship between government revenue and the various components of government expenditure. Similarly, we examined the relationship between government expenditure and the various components of government revenue. Our main findings were that:* government revenue and government expenditure in both the aggregate and disaggregate sense were cointegrated;* in the short-run government expenditure Granger caused government revenue in an aggregate sense, departmental expenditure Granger caused aggregate revenue, and there was bidirectional causality running between government expenditure and customs duties; and* in the long-run there was evidence of fiscal synchronization.Our finding that there is causality between government expenditure and taxes is compatible with the hypothesis \"spend and tax\" in the short run. This has actually been the case in Fiji when value added tax was increased from 10 to 12.5 percent in order to accommodate increased government spending. As cautioned by Narayan (2003), these type of policies are likely to be viewed negatively by potential investors and indeed skilled human capital, for due to the fear of paying higher taxes in future, capital flight is one of the most likely outcomes.As Narayan and Narayan (2004) highlighted, the current account deficits are of concern to Fijian policy makers as it currently stands at around 12 percent of GDP. Given this they suggest articulation of prudent fiscal policies. Our finding that government revenue and government expenditure are cointegrated and both Granger cause each other is welcome; however, what is most alarming is that despite the fact that expenditure and revenue decisions are made simultaneously and not in isolation, Fiji has not succeeded in stemming current account deficits. Given this alarming situation, we suggest that policy makers consider expenditure reforms. For instance, while over the last decade or so, in recognition of expanding expenditures relative to revenues, there has been development plans focused on civil service reforms to reduce expenditure, nothing concrete has been achieved to date. This policy action needs to be reinvigorated and viewed with much urgency.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Understanding the relationship between government revenue and government expenditure is important from a policy point of view, especially for a country like Fiji, which is suffering from persistent budget deficits. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between government revenue and expenditure for Fiji.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The Johansen test for cointegration and Granger causality test are used to conduct the empirical analysis.\nFindings: - The key findings are that: government revenue and government expenditure in both the aggregate and disaggregate sense are cointegrated; in the short-run government expenditure Granger causes government revenue in an aggregate sense, departmental expenditure Granger causes aggregate revenue, and there is bidirectional causality running between government expenditure and customs duties; and in the long-run there is evidence of fiscal synchronization, implying that expenditure decisions are not made in isolation from revenue decisions.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This fiscal synchronization has not been able curb the current account deficit in Fiji. Moreover, the confirmation of the spend-tax attitude of the government does not bode well for the level of investments and skilled human capital in Fiji as this may perpetuate tax increases in the future. Given that the Fiji Government is currently trying to rein in the escalating level of fiscal deficit, it is an opportune time for them to engage in extensive expenditure reforms.\nOriginality/value: - The findings of this paper should allow policy makers to make informed decisions. Furthermore, the paper is different from others because apart from examining the revenue and expenditure in an aggregate sense, it also considers the different components of revenue and expenditure.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumer perceptions of online review deceptions: an empirical study in China	[ "E-commerce", "Information manipulation theory", "Online review deceptions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With the proliferation of e-commerce and online shopping, it has become common practice for people to read online product reviews prior to making purchases. An increasing number of marketing scholars have highlighted the impact of online reviews on product sales and marketing strategies (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Karakaya and Barnes, 2010; Burton and Soboleva, 2011; Cui et al., 2012; Park and Cho, 2012). According to the most recent survey by Dimensional Research, an overwhelming 90 per cent of respondents claimed that positive online reviews influenced their buying decisions, while 86 per cent said buying decisions were influenced by negative reviews (Gesenhues, 2013). As a result, firms have strong incentives to monitor and manipulate online product reviews on their own websites or third-party forums to alter both the quantity (i.e. the number of reviews) and the quality (i.e. rating and content) of the reviews so as to influence consumer perceptions. For example, the publisher Elsevier offered people $25 gift cards for positive reviews of textbooks (Northrup, 2009). The communication manager of DeLonghi was caught writing glowing reviews about their high-end espresso machines (Pilon, 2009). Such practices have also been adopted for products in a wide range of categories. As more firms realize the power of online product reviews, it is expected that more will engage in either direct or indirect word-of-mouth (WOM) manipulation practices.\nLiterature review: Manipulating online product reviews\nPhase One: in-depth interviews: We first report a qualitative study to explore consumer awareness, suspicion, detection and evaluation of different review manipulation tactics. The in-depth interviews with 16 experienced online shoppers in Phase One is appropriate in getting otherwise hidden information with the aid of a relaxing setting.\nPhase Two: a quantitative survey: Participants and procedure\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: To influence consumer perceptions, firms often manipulate online product reviews on their own websites or third-party forums by anonymously adding positive reviews, deleting unfavorable reviews or offering rewards to encourage favorable reviews. This study aims to investigate consumer perceptions of online review deceptions and how these perceptions influence their subsequent purchase behavior. In particular, consumers' awareness, suspicion and detection are studied and specific manipulation tactics are evaluated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Both qualitative and quantitative studies are relied upon to understand consumer perceptions of online review deceptions. In-depth interviews with 16 experienced online shoppers were conducted to collect the illustrative accounts concerning consumer awareness of online review deceptions, their suspicion, detection and evaluation of different manipulation tactics. A survey of 199 consumers was then followed to validate and corroborate the findings from the qualitative study and generalize the interview results onto the general public.\nFindings: The results from in-depth interviews suggest that consumers take a negative view toward online review deceptions, but the degree of negativity varies across different manipulation tactics. Moreover, different types of manipulations vary in terms of perceived deceptiveness, ease of detection and unethicality, as well as their effect on consumer purchase intention and perceived helpfulness of online product reviews. The findings from the survey further confirmed the qualitative findings.\nPractical implications: The findings have a number of meaningful managerial implications for industry associations and policymakers on whether and how to regulate online review deceptions.\nOriginality/value: This study applies and extends information manipulation theory and deception detection literature to an online context to increase the richness of the relevant theories. It is among the first to empirically investigate online review deceptions from a consumer's perspective, as opposed to a firm's perspective as previous studies have done.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The state of the art in static and dynamic games	[ "Supply chain management", "Competitive strategy", "Channel relationships" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Most of the research that models inter-firm relationships (or firm games) applies static and dynamic games. Numerous surveys explore the state of the art through either static or dynamic games with particular emphasis on only one specific class (e.g. advertising, Jorgensen, 1982). Research has not yet explored the state of the art by reviewing both static and dynamic games simultaneously. A number of features characterize these two types of game. Static modelling and dynamic modelling differ mainly in respect to time. Static games work adequately for modelling singular and sporadic market transactions (coordination), whereas dynamic games definitely appear to be more appropriate when investigating long-term relationships and alliances (cooperation and collaboration) (Payan, 2007).Some research that models both static and dynamic games uses a number of controversial applications; therefore the objectives of the research and the methodology used in each case are rarely a good match. For instance, Savaskan et al. (2004) characterize a remanufacturing game by modelling the return rate as a static variable, while Majumder and Groenevelt (2001) clearly demonstrate that it is strictly related to a dynamic phenomenon.However, the exploration of the state of the art in inter-firm relationships reveals certain advantages of using both static and dynamic games. In particular, this review extracts and analyzes several pieces of information from a number of papers in order to investigate what the main differences between static and dynamic modelling are, to what extent these two methodologies have been used and how their applications have evolved over the last 25 years. It explores the most frequent game-configurations proposed by previous studies, as well as the resolution methods that have been applied most often. This research answers these questions by adopting both qualitative and quantitative approaches, therefore contributing to the identification of the most suitable research methods to be used by future research and highlighting the major areas under investigation. Furthermore, it explores the evolution in the application of static and dynamic modelling and identifies the resolution methods that need to be applied when investigating inter-firm relationship, as well as the main features that influence this decision. The qualitative approach describes the technical differences between static and dynamic methods and gives evidence of their appropriateness when applied to a game. In particular, a number of features characterize the suitability of a model, such as, the planning horizon considered, the type of game to be modelled, the mathematical computations required, the characterization of the solution and its objectives. Moreover, it explores the state of the art in static and dynamic games by identifying their main applications, game configurations, the nature of the games and the resolution methods applied.Quantitative analysis transforms some of the information extracted from the qualitative analysis into categorical variables in order to obtain additional information about the state of the art in inter-firm relationships. In particular, the information concerns: the date of publication, the deterministic or probabilistic modelling, the competitive or collaborative environmental set up, the resolution methods adopted, the number of players and the static and/or dynamic setting implemented. The simultaneous use of all of this information identifies the potential directions for future research to be undertaken for both static and dynamic research.The paper is organized as follows. First, it reports the technical differences between static and dynamic games as well as their appropriateness when applied to inter-firm relationships. Second, it investigates the state of the art in static and dynamic games qualitatively, and then develops a descriptive survey as well as a multiple-correspondence analysis (MCA) in the quantitative investigation. Finally, the paper ends by drawing conclusion from the findings, underlining the main distinctions between static and dynamic modelling and identifying the unexplored areas for potential future research.\nTechnical differences between static and dynamic games: The existing literature on inter-firm relationships reports extensively on a large number of theoretical games using both static and dynamic modelling. Essentially, the choice of which is adopted depends on the nature of the game. On one hand, static models are time-independent. Any change in the parameters of the system is completely ignored, therefore generating myopic solutions (Zaccour, 2008). This class of game is mainly used to characterize decisions on customer demand (deterministic and random, endogenous, and exogenous), vertical and horizontal competition, and no-risk actions (Kogan and Tapiero, 2007). On the other hand, a dynamic setting appears to be considerably more appropriate when modelling variables characterized by carry-over effects. For instance, advertising not only affects current sales considerably, but also feeds the brand equity, which in turn has an influence on sales (Zaccour, 2008).Table I summarizes the main differences between static and dynamic games. This comparison is extremely important for addressing both the advantages and disadvantages of static and dynamic modelling, and therefore identifying the most suitable research method that future research in this domain should adopt.Static games are most suitable for single (one period) games. Their application to the supply chain (SC) does not seem appropriate since this is characterized by long-term and cooperative relationships (Ballou, 2007). Nevertheless, the literature shows numerous studies that apply static games to short-term and single-period relationships, resulting in myopic solutions. In static games, the optimal value of the decision variables of the players is derived by developing a system of first-order conditions. Time does not influence any of them; therefore static modelling should be used in inter-firm relationship only to investigate short-period games.By contrast, dynamic modelling is a good fit for modelling long-term inter-firm games. By choosing the optimal control variables, dynamic modelling describes the optimal trajectory of the state variables that will optimize the players' objective functions. Differential games are adequate to model cooperative and non-cooperative settings. Each rule is defined from the beginning of the game and players keep or modify it according to the adoption of an open- or a closed-loop strategy. An open-loop strategy definitely fits when modelling integrated SCs that are characterized by diffused trust, collaboration and commitment. A closed-loop strategy, in contrast, models SCs that are not at all integrated, as well as partnerships, alliances and other forms of inter-firm relationships, in which the partners develop long-term strategies that are mainly driven by coordination. The difference between closed- and open-loop strategy reflects the difference between coordination and cooperation (Payan, 2007).\nState of the art in static games: In a static setting, all players take their decisions and maximize their own objective functions at a specific instant of time. The results of the game are immediately visible and the actions lack any link with the future. The game ends after that each player has moved, and the actions may be performed simultaneously or in different steps. The literature of SC management reports extensively on a number of papers that apply this class of game.Most of the research focuses on the criteria of minimizing cost or of maximizing profit. Each firm executes a precise set of actions with the purpose of maximizing its own expected value. Cachon and Netessine (2004) report an accurate argument on coordination and management in a static setting.The main issues addressed under a static framework\nThe state of the art in differential games: The literature on differential games is extremely vast and covers a number of areas and subjects. Sethi (1977) reviews the literature on differential games in marketing, presenting an up-to-date survey of dynamic advertising models. Some years later, Jorgensen (1982) proposes another survey based on differential games in advertising. Several books and papers survey applications in the area of SC, marketing (Erickson, 1992, 1994), and economics (Clemhout and Wan, 1974).The main issues addressed under a dynamic framework\nQuantitative analysis: Data collection\nConclusion: This paper reviews the state of the art of static and dynamic methods applied to games that model inter-firm relationships for the purpose of drawing their evolution over time and contributing to the identification of: what research methods should be adopted by future studies in this domain, which games need to be further characterized and what research areas are still unexplored. In this sense, the findings identify the existing gaps and encourage future research to contribute in these directions. Several papers investigate the literature on inter-firms relationships and review numerous issues, such as, Cachon (2003), Erickson (1994) and Jorgensen (1982). The difference between static and dynamic modelling has been disregarded by each of them; therefore this paper fills this gap by reviewing a number of theoretical papers. Moreover, qualitative and quantitative investigations are applied in order to extrapolate as much information as possible.The application of static and dynamic methods dates back to the 1980s, with applications of monopolistic and oligopolistic games, which have only recently been applied to SC games as well. Although both of them have been extensively developed in the literature, the correct association between the modelling and the game objectives is frequently lacking. For the most part, static and dynamic methods differ for two important features: their technical differences and their correct application to the game.From a technical point of view, static and dynamic games differ in the planning horizon covered; static games are time-independent and are played at a precise instant of time. Thus, the outcomes are immediately visible. By contrast, dynamic games evolve whenever the players commit and deal on strategies that are characterized by carry-over effects: each game is evaluated along a finite or infinite planning horizon.Until now, static games have developed the modelling of (mainly) cooperative two-player games in a probabilistic framework, for which qualitative and explicit solutions are always easy to apply. Future research could be characterized by static games in non-cooperative scenarios but including multiple-player models. Although these changes would increase the complexity of the models, the implementation of deterministic games and the application of numerical analysis would help to create adequate resolutions.Dynamic models could be developed by including both probability and risk. Applying deterministic scenarios only leaves several gaps. Theorists and practitioners could obtain further knowledge when studying inter-firm relationships in uncertain scenarios. Moreover, the right combination of state- and control variables allows researchers to work in that framework and even to obtain explicit and qualitative solutions.The new stream of research investigating both static and dynamic games simultaneously concentrates mainly on the modelling of two-player games in a deterministic setting and on working in competitive and collaborative scenarios. As the complexity increases, the numerical analysis appears to be the most suitable method of resolution. Future research in this area could develop games with more than two players by applying probabilistic modelling and developing both explicit and qualitative analyzes according to the complexity of the game.One missing feature common to both static and dynamic games is competition between firms that cooperate, for example, competition between SCs. All of the papers concentrate on the development of competitive and non-competitive games at firm-level, while disregarding the relationships between firms when working in different SCs. Future games could be developed in this direction, applying either static or dynamic modelling. To date, the research lacks the analysis of inter-firm relationships outside the SC, as well as analysis of the competition between SCs. These two research areas need to be extensively developed and investigated by future research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the state of the art in static and dynamic games (or inter-firm relationships). This research area has changed significantly over the last 25 years through the development of phenomena such as the supply chain and the progressive overcoming of monopolistic and oligopolistic frameworks. By exploring the state of the art in inter-firm relationships, this paper aims to identify the most suitable research methods to be used by future research in this domain and to highlight the major areas under investigation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This research adopts both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative approach describes the technical differences between static and dynamic methods and gives evidence of their appropriateness when applied to a game. Quantitative analysis transforms some of the information extracted from the qualitative analysis into categorical variables in order to obtain an indication of the major issues still to be addressed.\nFindings: - The resulting findings identify the extent of the use of static and dynamic modelling in previous research and how their use has changed over time, what resolution methods need to be applied when investigating inter-firm relationship, what features influence this decision and what research areas still remain unexplored.\nOriginality/value: - The existing literature on the modelling of static and dynamic games lacks an exhaustive review. Several contributions investigate the literature on inter-firms relationships and review numerous issues, but focus only on static or dynamic modelling. This paper fills this gap by reviewing a number of theoretical papers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Are managerial gender stereotypes universal? The case of Hawai'i	[ "Managers", "Equal opportunities", "Women", "Gender", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Management researchers have consistently found that traits stereotypically attributed to males are also attributed to hypothetical managers, while those traits considered stereotypically female are not considered managerial (Deal and Stevenson, 1998; Powell et al., 2002). Over the years, it appears that the \"think manager = think male\" schema has weakened somewhat, especially among women, but seems to persist in varying degrees the world over (Willemsen, 2002). Ours is the first such study to include Hawai'i participants, and compare their attitudes to those in the Continental United States (CUS).Stereotypes\nMethod: Participants\nResults: We received 315 valid surveys. First, Following Deal and Stevenson (1998), we used the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test to detect statistically significant differences among participants based on whether they are male or female, from Hawai'i or the CUS, and whether they received a questionnaire describing a male, female, or unspecified manager. The Mann-Whitney U is similar to the T-test, but uses ranking rather than numeric values and is less likely to be distorted by outliers. Second, we ran an analysis of variance to test for interaction effects among participant gender, hypothetical manager gender, and Hawai'i origin. We report only results with significance of 0.05 or better.Hypothesis testing\nDiscussion: When we began analyzing the Hawai'i results, we found so few differences between descriptions of male and female managers that we wondered whether participants had paid attention to the instructions. Had they even noticed the gender of the hypothetical manager? These fears were put to rest by the results from the CUS participants, particularly the male participants. Their responses aligned with gender stereotypes in a strong and non-random way. Our results are consistent with other studies using the SDI: Over the last 30 years, female students and managers have become more positive and accepting toward the idea of a woman manager, while male study participants have not. This consistency of these results with past studies, while perhaps not reassuring to advocates of equal opportunity, indicates that our results are valid.Our results indicate that the \"think manager = think male\" bias is significantly weaker in Hawai'i than it is on the continent. We believe that finding a culture with a relatively mild \"think manager = think male\" bias is noteworthy, in light of how prevalent this bias is internationally (Schein, 2001). We would like to see further study of Hawai'ian culture and values as they apply to perceptions of leadership and management. We do not pretend that it is possible simply to borrow selected attitudes from around the world and impose them on American businesses in order to eliminate gender bias. Culture has deep roots, and change is slow. The celebration of the \"feminine\" aspects of leadership long advocated by organizational scholars is not generally practiced by managers (Fondas, 1997). Moreover, workplace practices are more effective when they are culturally appropriate (Van De Vliert et al., 2004). Some practices do not translate easily across cultures, as those who participated in the Japanese management craze of the 1980s can attest. Our hope is that further inquiry into different cultures with various conceptions of leadership may lead to a better understanding of some of our unquestioned assumptions about leadership and management.Opens in a new window.Figure 1\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to compare the extent to which the stereotype of \"manager\" aligns with the stereotype of \"male\" in the Continental United States (CUS) and Hawai'i.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In total, 176 male and 187 female business undergraduates in Hawai'i and the CUS were asked to describe either a manager, a male manager, or a female manager using the 92-item Schein Descriptive Index.\nFindings: - Men and women in Hawai'i, and women in the CUS, did not report a strong \"think manager = think male\" bias, but male participants in the CUS did: These men described hypothetical female managers as comparatively obedient, submissive, timid, reserved, fearful, uncertain, passive, and interested in their own appearance. They rated male managers as relatively more firm, independent, persistent, self-reliant, and having a high need for achievement.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The relative lack of a \"think manager = think male\" bias in Hawai'i is remarkable, since this bias is observed worldwide. Further investigation would confirm or clarify these findings.\nPractical implications: - Stereotypical views persist among some of our future business leaders, but are not universal. Educators and businesspeople should be aware of the strong \"think manager = think male\" bias still extant among male business students in the CUS.\nOriginality/value: - Although the persistence of the \"think manager = think male\" stereotype is troubling, this stereotype is not universal. While past cross-cultural investigations treat the US' culture as homogeneous, we find significant regional differences with regard to managerial gender stereotypes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
"Running is my boyfriend": consumers' relationships with activities	[ "Relationship marketing", "Practice theory", "Activity theory", "Consumer activity", "Customer activity", "Customer dominant logic" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"Running Is My Boyfriend\" is the headline of a blog entry written by runner \"Louise\". In her blog, she discusses her long-term relationship with the activity of running, which she sees as both meaningful and associated with benefits and sacrifices. The current paper develops this notion in the context of consumer marketing and presents the idea that consumers are able to have relationships with their own recurring activities. The paper does this by applying a relationship marketing perspective to consumer activity, using it as a framework for understanding how consumers relate to their own everyday consumption activities.\nFraming of consumer activity in marketing: This section briefly discusses how consumer activity has been framed in marketing. It presents an alternative \"activity-relationship\" perspective on consumer activity and explains how this perspective differs from the previous ones. Throughout the section, a gym service will be used as an example to illustrate the difference between the presented frameworks. A gym service retains the sports-focused theme of the examples used later in this paper but serves as a context within which the consequences of the different perspectives on activity are clearer than in the case of running.\nConceptual foundations of the activity-relationship view: This section discusses the conceptual foundations of the proposed activity-relationship view. It considers how relationship marketing has been conceptualized by previous research and whether existing relationship conceptualizations are applicable to the link between consumers and their recurring activities. The section first identifies which elements are central to relationship marketing and then discusses how the identified elements apply to consumer activities. To show how the themes can be found in practical consumer contexts, each presented element is exemplified by a set of quotes from runners' blogs. In the quotes, runners discuss their relationships with the activity of running. Runners were selected, because they can be expected to be able to articulate their relationship with this particular activity. The blog entries were found through an online search and are presented anonymously with changed names. Thus, consent should not be required (Kozinets, 2002). Blog entries as research material have been argued to provide candid and easily accessible insights into people's everyday lives, allowing people to share their personalities, passions and points of view (Nardi et al., 2004; Hookway, 2008). However, blog entries must be treated with some caution, as people may want to present an idealized image of themselves (Hookway, 2008). The quoted blogs tended to be candid, however, often openly discussing the hardships of life and running.\nConclusions and implications: In marketing, consumer activities have previously been seen as a medium for responding, relating, performing or interacting. However, the consumer's activities themselves have not been seen as relatable objects. Rather, relationship marketing has seen activities as part of relationships - for example, as in the actor-resource-activity model (Hakansson and Snehota, 1995). The main contribution of this paper was to apply a relationship perspective to consumer activities. The paper introduced the idea of consumers having relationships with their own activities, which resulted in the \"activity-relationship\" perspective on marketing. Instead of focusing on how consumers relate to other actors (or objects), the analytical focus is on understanding how they relate to their own activities. The paper compared the activity-relationship approach with other existing approaches to understanding consumer activity in marketing (i.e. the SOR approach, the interaction approach, practice theory and activity theory) and found that the previously existing approaches do not focus on the consumers' relationships with their own activities. Even though practice theory and activity theory expressly include people's activities and the meaning structures that accompany them, their analytical focus is elsewhere. Consequently, the activity-relationship approach is unique and complements established perspectives on consumer activity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The paper aims to introduce the idea that consumers have relationships with their own recurring activities. Instead of the usual notion of investigating the relationships between actors, or between actors and their possessions, the paper focuses on the relationship between an actor and a particular activity in which the actor regularly participates.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is conceptual and exploratory in nature. It discusses different perspectives of consumer activity in marketing and then introduces a relationship view of activity. The paper proceeds to outline the conceptual foundations of this view by applying relationship characteristics found in the literature. Quotes from runners' blogs are used to illustrate the different identified relationship themes.\nFindings: The paper argues that consumers can be seen as having long-term relationships with their activities, and it introduces the concept of the \"activity relationship\". The paper proceeds to demonstrate how this concept differs from the previous conceptualization of consumer activity and relationships.\nResearch limitations/implications: The activity-relationship perspective on consumer behavior opens up new venues for marketing research. It also facilitates new types of marketing practice, whereby producers can focus on supporting their customers' relationships with valuable activities.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents a novel perspective on relationships. It contributes to consumer research and the customer-dominant view of marketing, whereby the customer's perspective is put in focus and businesses serve as ingredients in the customer's own context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementation of a clinical governance framework to 17 Combat Service Support Brigade, Australian Army	[ "Clinical governance", "Governance structures", "Continuous quality improvement", "Healthcare quality", "Organizational development for effective clinical governance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Background\nDesign: An electronic survey was designed to collect army members' feedback on the clinical governance framework. The survey comprised 20 questions, the majority focussed at eliciting quantitative replies, with the opportunity to provide further explanation in free text spaces (Table I). The questions focussed on broad aspects of the users' experience of the clinical governance framework, including the frequency of engagement with clinical governance, level of understanding of clinical governance and areas where the clinical governance framework could be improved. A pilot study (n=12 participants) was undertaken and a number of minor amendments were made to the survey questions.\nResults: In total, 105 fully completed surveys representing 9.9 per cent of eligible members. The participant characteristics are presented in Table II.\nDiscussion: In this paper, we describe the implementation of a clinical governance framework and present results from feedback provided by users on their application of the clinical governance framework. The data suggest that implementation of a clinical governance framework is not easy, even within a military environment where the culture is to follow orders and obey the chain of command.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In 2012, Headquarters 17 Combat Service Support Brigade (HQ 17 CSS Bde) implemented a clinical governance framework. The framework is intended as a quality improvement tool through which excellence in deployed healthcare is achieved. The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of this clinical governance framework to 17 CSS Bde and present feedback provided by users on their application of the clinical governance framework.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An electronic survey was disseminated to the four 17 CSS Bde deployable health battalions (n=1,061). Qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data using thematic analysis.\nFindings: In total, there were 105 responses providing valid data for analysis. The data identified mixed understanding and awareness of clinical governance amongst participants, and pinpointed aspects of the framework that needed refinement.\nPractical implications: The results highlight important challenges implementing a clinical governance framework for deployable health units. The authors propose embedding clinical governance education in all army soldier and officer health courses to remedy deficits in knowledge and understanding. Recommendations for further development of the clinical governance framework are also made with particular emphasis on education, clinical risk and clinical evaluation.\nOriginality/value: This paper offers unique insight into the implementation of a clinical governance framework to the 17 CSS Bde, Australian Army. The results suggest that levels of understanding and awareness of clinical governance are stalling its translation through the military hierarchy. The data identify that implementation of a clinical governance framework is not easy, even within a military environment where the culture is to follow orders and obey the chain of command.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Early entry, capabilities and shakeout in the US brewing industry	[ "Hazard", "Capabilities", "Brewing industry", "First-mover", "Shakeout" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Are both first-mover advantage and capability developers more likely to survive consolidation in industries with stable products and low levels of technological change? To explore this question, we gathered longitudinal data of the US brewing industry from 1938 to 1980, a period when the industry experienced a lengthy consolidation falling from 446 brewers to 27. During these 42 years, there is substantial documentation of the changes within the brewing industry (Hatten, 1974; Hatten and Hatten, 1987; Hatten et al., 1978; Kerkvliet et al., 1998; McGahan, 1991; Tremblay and Tremblay, 2005; Ackoff and Emshoff, 1975). Evidence indicates that this industry was marked by limited opportunities to build traditional first-mover advantages, given the stability of brewing technology, the commodity nature of brewing inputs and low customer switching costs. For example, Schlitz started brewing beer in 1853 and, during the years of our study, held either Number 1 or Number 2 position in the industry until failing in 1976 (Tremblay and Tremblay, 2005; Greer, 1981). In addition, there has been little product innovation, as almost all beers on the US market between the late 1800s and 1980s were light lagers. Therefore, using the brewing industry as our context, we ask: in low-technology industries with standardized products, can both first-mover advantage and capability development protect firms during periods of industry consolidation?\nTheory and hypotheses: Traditional explanations for industry shakeout\nIndustry context and data: We tested our hypotheses in the US brewing industry. The brewing industry is an ideal context for this study in that most brewers competed only in the beer industry. In addition, the brewing industry is a different context than most previous early-entrant studies in that it had a very stable product during the majority of the shakeout period. In the mid-1850s, lager was first introduced to the USA in Philadelphia, and the new beer was so much preferred over the heavy ales that Americans had been drinking that by the turn of the century, almost all beer consumed in the USA was a light lager (Tremblay and Tremblay, 2005).\nMethodology: Outcome variable\nResults: First-mover/early-entrant advantage\nDiscussion: Firms do not randomly survive periods of industry consolidation. Evolutionary-based explanations of industry shakeout argue that more able firms expand by increasing research and development expenditures. The process of expansion closes niches, making entry by new entrants more difficult and encourages exit as less able firms find themselves unable to compete. In the brewing industry, we witness an evolutionary form of shakeout in which the older, larger and more able firms first expanded through distribution capabilities and then drove down their costs through manufacturing improvements. These innovations slowly forced the smaller and less innovative competitors to exit, so that in 1980 at the end of the time frame of our study, there were only 27 brewers left in the market.\nFuture research and conclusion: Using longitudinal historical data from the US brewing industry, this paper applies an evolutionary perspective on industry shakeout to test first-mover/early-entrant advantage and capability development in the US brewing industry (Klepper, 1996). Our findings indicate that in the brewing industry, there are significant early-entrant advantages that lasted for over 100 years. In addition, we found that firms which entered early were also more likely to be the firms who continually developed capabilities across the decades.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how early-entry and process-based capability development affected firm survival during shakeout in the US brewing industry between 1938 and 1980.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hazard analysis was conducted on US brewing industry data spanning 42 years from 1938 to 1980.\nFindings: Both early-entry and later capability developments enhance the probability of survival. In addition, firms which entered early were also more likely to be the firms who continually developed capabilities across the decades.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study contributes to our understanding of shakeout in traditional, non-high-technology businesses. However, because it is a single industry study, the ability to the generalize findings to other industry contexts is limited.\nPractical implications: Early entry can determine survival in industries with stable products and low levels of technological change.\nSocial implications: Policy-makers interested in competitive dynamics should take note of the historical conditions that lead to industry consolidation in traditional industries, which, while not as glamorous as the technology sector, provide the core of US industry.\nOriginality/value: Historical firm characteristics can impact industry structure and firm survival for over a century.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Challenges of privatizing academic medical centers in Saudi Arabia and appropriate strategies for implementation	[ "Organization", "Management", "Health policy", "Clinical governance", "Emerging healthcare delivery structures", "Health economics", "Emerging health economies" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The term \"privatization\" is referred to the ownership conversion from public status to either private for-profit or private not-for-profit status (Ko et al., 2014). In recent times, the privatization of healthcare services seek more attention in many countries and is a widespread policy approach used for getting healthcare savings or improving in efficiency, especially in the USA and Europe (Villa and Kane, 2013). In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Ministry of Health (MOH) along with other government sectors provide approximately 80 percent of the healthcare services in the nation, while the private services are mostly covered by the employers of private organizations under the 1999 Compulsory Employment Based Health Insurance (Alkhamis, 2017). Besides, MOH in KSA spent more than 12 trillion Saudi riyals for the healthcare services and direct expenditure on such services accounts for 7 percent of the Kingdom's budget for the MOH. Saudi Vision 2030 stated that the public sector should emphasis on its planning, regulatory and supervisory roles in healthcare. As a result, MOH intended to privatize 2,259 health centers and 295 hospitals by 2030 (Saudi Gazette, 2016). A main challenge faced by MOH is funding the healthcare services since the Saudi Government contributes the total expenditure of public health services and delivers the services at free of cost. Further, growing population, high cost of new technology and more public awareness about health and diseases also put a considerable cost pressure on Saudi Government (Walston et al., 2008). Moreover, financing the healthcare sector by the government may be threatened by the financial unrest in the country caused by the decline in oil price that leads to the reduction in oil revenues, which is considered as a backbone of its income (Alkhamis, 2017). In 2016, Saudi total health expenditure accounts for 8.2 percent of its general government expenditure and total health expenditure per capita is observed as $1,147 (WHO EMRO, 2018). In addition, current health expenditure in 2016 accounts for 5.74 percent of gross domestic product of Saudi Arabia (Word Bank Data, 2019). For instance, Saudi Government has recently allotted about $1.2bn for the King Khalid Medial City, a healthcare construction project which includes an academic medical center (AMC) to meet the need for facilities to overcome life-threatening diseases (Saudi Gazette, 2017). Moreover, MOH has planned to encourage the privatization of public hospitals to improve accessibility to health care services, and reduce the government's annual expenditure (Almalki et al., 2011). This privatization program by MOH has been identified as a part of the 2020 National Transformation Program, which intended to enhance the efficiency of public hospitals by functioning them on a commercial basis with the aid of specialized health companies (Saudi Gazette, 2018). In this situation, healthcare experts in the nation have initiated to widely discuss the feasibility of privatizing the healthcare sector.In Saudi healthcare system, AMCs or university teaching hospitals comes under other government bodies category which provides 20 percent of health care services (Ram, 2014). MOH is responsible for directing these bodies with an appropriate means to attain its health objectives (Almalki et al., 2011). An AMC is a group of organizations and functions which are dedicated to enhance the health of patients and population by integrating their roles in patient care, medical education and research (Kohn, 2004). In KSA, it is the government which funds AMCs across regions as they treat patients whose care is complex and hence costly, and also no income is generated from patient care (Al Muhanna, 1999). Although AMCs are started using the funds provided by the government initially, they try to manage the operating costs recently on their own by means of self-operation system (i.e. independent from the direct administration of the university). These AMCs should possess their own budget, but that it should be supervised by the relevant university to provide the required healthcare services and the conductive environment for medical education, training and research. Since AMCs are in position to have their own budget, the privatization can be considered as an alternative choice to meet their financial burdens. The government could also experience the relief of the financial pressure on its investment budget by the means of privatization policy; however the government must monitor, regulate and enforce contracts with the private organizations for successful implementation of such policy (Al Muhanna and Al Kuwaiti, 2017). At the same time, AMCs should consider their key functions such as patient care, medical education and research prior to privatization, which may have a negative impact from privatization. Although few studies have discussed the possibility of privatization of healthcare sector with respect to Saudi context (Alhowaish and Shinawi, 2018; Alkhamis, 2017), no studies have analyzed the benefits and risks of adopting this approach in an AMC setting. Therefore, this study aims to discuss about various benefits, followed by appropriate strategies to overcome the challenges of privatization of AMCs in the Kingdom.\nMethodology: To accomplish the study objectives, a literature search was conducted using electronic databases such as Google scholar, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science to gather research articles focusing on the benefits and challenges facing privatization of AMCs in the Kingdom. Further, appropriate strategies are suggested to overcome those challenges.Benefits of privatizing AMCs\nChallenges faced in privatizing AMCs: Challenges in patient care\nStrategies to overcome the challenges in privatization of AMCs: AMCs should upgrade themselves at a minimum of management, infrastructure and workforce levels prior to privatization, so that it makes easier to gain enough attention of health care market.After achieving privatization, AMCs should only focus on patients who are in actual need of hospital-level care and avoid the strategies which may mislead the patients to unnecessary hospital-level care due to the privatization. At the same time, AMCs can conduct awareness campaigns among Saudi population through public private partnership, thereby attract them toward early screening for diseases. This may also indirectly increase the patient flow and reputation to AMCs.Even though AMCs can be privatized, they should maintain integration system with PHCCs because patients at PHC may reach AMCs for further treatment and AMCs should also maintain the extension of community services to Saudi population. Since AMCs are involved in teaching, research and patient care, it is necessary to have an optimal patient flow in AMCs to attain the teaching and research objectives. In addition, AMCs held full responsibility to deliver a high-quality care irrespective of number of patients treated.AMCs should concentrate on both urban and rural community after privatization in order to maintain fairness and equity of healthcare services. The government should develop regulations to protect the rights of rural people and assure them with advanced patient care following privatization.AMCs converting to private for-profit or not-to-for-profit status should concentrate on bed strength and availability of uncompensated care to the patients. The increase in bed strength and uncompensated patient care would increase patient satisfaction and reputation of hospital services. Such problems can be solved by encouraging a third-party payer to take care and regulate such issues.An increase in cost per admission and cut of unprofitable services while privatization of AMCs may affect the teaching, research and patient care, which are provided by them. AMCs can change cost per admission without affecting their objectives as well as the patient flow. Unprofitable services should be carried out to fulfill the teaching, research and patient care and necessary strategies should be implemented to avoid loss in such services. So, the Government of Saudi Arabia should allow the privatization of AMCs with a considerable legal control over policies and procedures to minimize the dramatic rise of cost and profit-seeking behavior which may affect the public and create pressure on government.AMCs should allow restructuration without job loss and benefits, which is the main reason for resistant to privatization. Restructuration of AMCs while privatization should limit job loss and enhance job security and satisfaction among faculty members. It should also follow the principle of Saudization and offer more job opportunities to Saudi citizens. This will create a good reputation among Saudi population and encourage the privatization of government hospitals. In addition, benefits such as free medical treatment to the employees and their families should be continued. In addition, AMCs should concentrate on the negative impact of privatization in terms of patient safety and service quality due to reduced staff and increased workload, and in turn develop necessary strategies to overcome these issues effectively.Privatization of AMCs should also allow the indigent care and commit to serve the population. Further, it will reduce pressure on AMCs from government with regard to the healthcare services. AMCs should maintain the quality of patient care even after privatization and get accredited by the national and international accreditation bodies to ensure quality in their healthcare services provided, which would assist them for their growth in medical education and health care sector. The board of members of AMCs representing the government and private partners should be framed to enhance the competence of their achievement in both clinical and managerial aspects, reduce healthcare expenditure, make quick decisions on financial and administrative problems, regulate the contract of quality of HCP and enhance the quality of healthcare services.AMCs should utilize the funds of private partnerships while purchasing of new medical equipment, upgrading the IT facilities, expansion of infrastructure and healthcare services, thereby reduce the financial burdens on government and improve the quality of medical education and patient care. Further, digital health technology can be adopted in AMCs to meet their objectives in a collaboration with private partners. The government should also set regulations on privatization of AMCs especially in the aspect of medical research to monitor the violations of ethical guidelines and resolve the controversial issues pertaining to patency, exploitation of patients and funds. A third-party payer to health services should be allocated and clear cut regulation approved by The Royal Law should be created and appropriate regulatory bodies that regulate and monitor the performance should be established.\nConclusion: In the current situation, the attempt to privatize the AMCs is appreciable and a suitable one to reduce operating costs, improve profit margins and to enhance their efficiency of healthcare services. But necessary strategies are required to overcome the increase in price, decrease in patient flow and quality of patient care, negligence of rural community, job losses and lack of support from the public. The government should also develop a uniform legislation policies and procedures in privatizing the government hospitals to eliminate the negative impact of privatization in medical education, research and healthcare services. Consequently, third-party payers are need to be strengthened and appropriate regulatory bodies should be established. Even though this study is only limited to AMCs in Saudi Arabia, it adds a value to the existing literature related to the privatization in Saudi health care system.\nImplication for research and practice: AMCs in Saudi Arabia can consider these challenges and develop appropriate strategies prior to initiate the process of privatization. In addition to patient care, it is crucial for AMCs to ensure their commitment to medical education and research following privatization. On a theoretical level, this study described the possible challenges that arise from privatization of AMCs. However, interviews and field surveys with administrators and stakeholders of AMCs can be conducted in future to reveal the pros and cons of privatization of AMCs in Saudi Arabia, which would provide a qualitative data for analysis.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: A crisis in the financial sustainability of the public healthcare sector often compels governments to consider privatization. The purpose of this paper is to summarize various strategies to overcome the challenges facing the privatization of academic medical centers (AMCs) in Saudi Arabia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors discuss the challenges faced in privatizing AMCs in delivering their core functions such as patient care, medical education and research. Further, the appropriate strategies are listed to overcome these challenges in privatization of AMCs.\nFindings: The authors described the benefits of privatization that include a reduction in the financial burden on government healthcare expenditure, quick decision making and creation of new financial models to improve healthcare services. On the other hand, the profit motive of private management could create pressure on patients and may divert AMCs from their primary objectives. Therefore, it is imperative for the government to develop and implement appropriate strategies that balance the benefits of privatizing AMCs with eliminating the negative impact of privatization on patient care, medical education and research.\nOriginality/value: Though AMCs privatization is currently feasible in Saudi Arabia, appropriate strategies are essential to overcome the challenges of its implementation. The government should frame a uniform rules and regulations prior to privatizing public hospitals so that it will fulfill the purpose in an efficient manner.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The current status of course offerings in pricing in the business curriculum	[ "Prices", "Pricing", "Curriculum development", "Business studies", "Marketing strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: To be competent managers, business people must embrace a customer-oriented philosophy of management referred to as the marketing concept. According to the marketing concept, an optimum marketing strategy requires managers to develop the correct blend of the marketing mix that delivers value and best satisfies the needs of the target customer (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008). For managers to understand and know how to accomplish that responsibility, schools of higher education must adequately prepare students with knowledge about all the components of the marketing mix. Information of sufficient breadth and depth about each component, and the interaction of the components, must be provided so graduates will know how to establish an optimum marketing strategy. Consequently, sufficient class time in the curriculum must be devoted to concepts and issues related to the product, promotion, distribution, and price.Accrediting bodies such as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) do not designate specific subjects to be taught. Instead, subject matter consistent with assuring that the school's learning goals are accomplished is required. Therefore, curricula vary from school to school and program to program. According to the AACSB guidelines, two of the areas in which undergraduate business programs will normally be expected to provide learning experiences, knowledge, and skills are \"markets\" and \"distribution of goods\" (Assurance of Learning Standards, 2007). Although no specific components of the marketing mix are mentioned, adequate preparation in \"markets\" and \"distribution of goods\" requires the assumption that subject matter associated with the mix components will be included.The marketing mix components (4Ps) are normally given about equal attention in introductory marketing textbooks. Since decisions regarding the marketing mix are interrelated, authors tend to stress the need to adequately understand all 4Ps if an optimum marketing strategy is to be achieved. However, at least four studies have indicated that the 4Ps are not treated in that manner beyond the introductory course in business curricula. A 1984 study of 75 undergraduate catalogs of four-year institutions offering a marketing major or concentration indicated that 4 percent offered a pricing course, and none of the schools required a pricing course for all marketing majors (McDaniel and Hise, 1984). In a 1990 study of marketing curricula, only 3.6 percent of the 250 schools examined offered a course specifically oriented toward the study of pricing (Snyder and Stanley, 1990). In another study of 150 schools accredited by the AACSB, courses that could be clearly classified as being devoted to one of the 4Ps were studied. Fewer than one in 100 of such courses were found to be a course on pricing (Kellerman et al., 1991). A more comprehensive study was published in 1998. A survey of 700 marketing departments at schools in the USA resulted in 204 usable responses. Of the schools replying, 13 percent were found to offer a course in pricing. Of the schools not offering a pricing course, 22 percent indicated an interest in adding a course within the following two years (Maxwell, 1998). When compared to course offerings available in the other 3Ps, the number of courses offered in pricing was clearly fewer in number (Kellerman et al., 1991).A total of 16 activities that can lead to growth and profit for a company was studied. While customer relations was deemed to be the most important activity, CEOs considered pricing strategies to be a close second (McDaniel and Hise, 1984). Of the members of the New York Marketing Association interviewed, 71 percent reported that they would be more interested in recruiting students who had completed a course in pricing than those who had not (Maxwell, 1998). On a semantic differential scale, 66 percent of the marketing educators interviewed considered price knowledge important for business graduates (Maxwell, 1998). Given these three facts and the dearth of course offerings in pricing, numerous authors have concluded that students majoring in marketing would benefit from taking a course in pricing (Schibrowsky, 1995; Kellerman et al., 1991; McDaniel and Hise, 1984).Since no known follow-up on the progress of adding pricing courses to the undergraduate marketing curriculum has been done, the need for this information is important to assess any occurrence of progress. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the availability of pricing courses, determine what curricular trends are happening in the area of pricing, ascertain the status of price in the curriculum, and discuss the future direction for pricing in the curriculum.\nMethodology: The schools considered for the study consisted of those institutions with undergraduate programs accredited in business by the AACSB. At the time the study was conducted, the AACSB's list of accredited schools numbered 443 (AACSB, n.d.). The data for the study were obtained from the online versions of the catalogs of each accredited school.Data were gathered successfully from 363 (81.9 percent) of the 443 schools on the list (see Table I). The other 80 schools were omitted from the study for a variety of reasons. Web site location problems were encountered with 31 schools. Another 49 schools had to be eliminated for the following reasons:* a marketing major could not be located in the catalog (a marketing major may not be offered);* no clear statement of marketing degree requirements could be identified;* only graduate degrees were offered; and* a specific list of marketing courses offered was unavailable online.The marketing offerings of each qualifying school were examined to determine the existence of a course devoted specifically to pricing or including pricing as a significant component. The extent to which price was or was not purported to be addressed in each course was determined by analyzing the course descriptions and titles. Only courses that were judged to contain a significant (nontrivial) pricing component qualified as pricing courses. Information taught in the course was assumed to be consistent with the course title and description.\nFindings/discussion: A total of only 33 schools (9.1 percent of the 363 schools studied) list a course in their online catalog that demonstrates a significant emphasis in pricing (see Table II). Of these, a common approach is to offer a course in product (development) and pricing. Of the 33 schools with pricing courses, 16 schools (4.4 percent of the 363 schools studied) combine the topic with product development or some close variant thereof. One school combines pricing with distribution channels, one combines pricing with financial analysis, and one offers a course in credit and price management. That means only 14 schools (3.9 percent of the 363 schools studied) offer a course dedicated solely to the topic of pricing.No clear tendency was found toward taking a policy, tactical or strategic approach to the topic of pricing. Based upon both the course titles and the course descriptions, pricing as a topic is sometimes treated as a tactical decision and sometimes as a strategic decision. However, one thing was fairly consistent in the data. Of the 33 schools offering pricing courses, only three schools (0.8 percent of the 363 schools studied) require the course for their marketing majors. The other 30 list the course either as a general elective, or as one elective among a group of electives from which an appropriate number must be chosen to complete the degree. Another indication of the perceived importance of the topic is the fact that of the 33 schools with a pricing course only two schools (0.6 percent of the 363 schools studied) offer more than one course in pricing. One school has a course in \"pricing policy\" and a course in \"pricing strategy\", while the other has a lower level course simply titled \"pricing\" and an upper level course titled \"pricing tactics and strategy\" (see Table III). Another indication of the level of attention given pricing in curricula, beyond just offering a course, is the frequency with which the course(s) is/are offered. Unfortunately, the online data are quite incomplete. Only eight of the 33 schools listed the frequency of the pricing course offering. Of these, six schools offer the course only once a year and two offer the course twice a year.The above data suggest that, currently, pricing is not given the same level of coverage in AACSB-accredited programs as other marketing topics. A specific assessment of the extent of coverage of the other 3Ps among the 363 schools studied is not included in this analysis. However, positing that far more than 33 schools offer such specific required and elective courses seems like a safe thing to do. This level of course attention is thus confirmed to continue to be consistent with previous research conducted more than ten years ago.Also, as indicated previously in one of the most comprehensive studies on the subject, 13 percent of the responding chairpersons in marketing departments reported offering a course in pricing (Maxwell, 1998). The same study indicated that in 22 percent of the schools not offering a pricing course, the chairperson expressed an interest in adding one within the next two years. In the nine years since that study was conducted, not only has the availability of pricing courses not increased as the chairpersons anticipated, but availability has actually decreased. A z-test for the difference between two percentages (13 percent in the Maxwell study and 9.1 percent in this study) is statistically significant beyond the 0.01 level.Another measure of the nature of interest in teaching pricing at the undergraduate level is seen in the availability of textbooks on the topic. Pricing is given fairly good coverage in most, if not all, of the best-selling principles of marketing textbooks. Pricing, as a topic, is also considered in textbooks covering other topic areas in marketing, including: international marketing, consumer behavior, and retailing. However, as a stand-alone topic area, pricing has not drawn as much coverage. At the present time, only a few of the major textbook publishers (Pearson Prentice-Hall and Wiley) list a traditional pricing textbook. One major text in the area, by Kent Monroe, (McGraw-Hill), reached the third edition, but is only available in an international edition. Finally, several excellent trade publications and even an e-book (Maxwell and Estelami, 2005) are available on the market. However, trade books on pricing are usually not structured to serve as traditional textbooks.Academicians continue to publish scholarly articles on pricing in marketing journals. For example, the Journal of Product & Brand Management has devoted special issues to pricing in 2004, 2005 and 2006 (Emerald, n.d.). Quality dissertations also continue to be published in the area (see the Fordham University Pricing Center (2006) 2007 Doctoral Dissertation Competition). The Marketing Science Institute (2007) continues to support and publish research in the area of pricing with a recent study currently highlighted in the Winter 2007 issue. The Harvard Business School Publishing (n.d.) division lists 689 relevant items in a search of their available publications (cases, articles, notes and others).Why, with so much material available, is so little attention given to the specific topic of pricing in stand-alone courses? One possible explanation is that curricula generally offer only a limited number of credit hour opportunities for coverage of marketing topics. As a result, a decision must be made about which areas or topics are more or less essential in the marketing curriculum. Because pricing is covered in most of the other courses as a concurrent topic, the conclusion may be that enough coverage is provided therein. In addition, almost all of the schools offering a pricing course list it as an elective, which may be offered infrequently. Another plausible explanation is that few doctoral students specialize in pricing, and only a small number take coursework in a pricing specific course. Thus, interest in creating a course in a subject area in which a person is not highly specialized is less likely to occur. Additionally, price setting tends to be more of an art than a science in many ways. Thus, interpreting the value the consumer attaches to the product is often quite subjective, and as a result, how to teach requisite price-setting skills and techniques becomes somewhat difficult. Regardless of the reason, comparing this study with previous studies leads to only one conclusion - little or no change has occurred in the offering of pricing specific courses during the last few decades. Certainly, no improvement in the availability of pricing courses has occurred, and most likely, availability has actually declined.\nFuture research: Additional research can be conducted to compare the curricula of programs not offering stand-alone pricing courses with schools offering these courses. A preliminary overview of the nature of the schools with pricing courses versus those without these courses has yet to be done. We suspect that statistically significant relationships are unlikely to exist in areas such as school size, public versus private schools, number of students, or number of faculty. We might hypothesize, however, that a relationship exists between the offering of a pricing course and the total number of marketing electives available. While it may be difficult to prove, we also suspect a relationship between the presence of a pricing course and the research interests of the faculty at the school may exist.The data set developed for this study of pricing, as a part of the curricula of AACSB-accredited programs, has voluminous information about the various other marketing courses being currently required and offered as electives. We now have a snapshot of the marketing courses required and offered at most of the AACSB -accredited business programs. Time and effort will be required to go deeper into this data to examine the content of marketing degree programs in general, as well as the prevalence of other \"special\" topic areas in marketing education. One question that might be examined is just what courses (topics) are required for an undergraduate marketing degree. Also, another interesting area of potential study presented itself as a byproduct of this study. What distinctions are being made in marketing education among policy, tactical, and strategic approaches to pricing, and in marketing curricula in general?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to determine the availability of pricing courses in AACSB-accredited undergraduate programs, determine what curricular trends are happening in the area of pricing, ascertain the status of price in the curriculum, and discuss the future direction for pricing in the curriculum.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The population examined consisted of institutions with undergraduate programs accredited in business by the AACSB. At the time the study was conducted, the AACSB's list of accredited schools numbered 443. The data for the study were obtained from the online versions of each school's catalog which could be accessed. The sample consisted of 363 (81.9 percent) of the accredited schools. The marketing offerings of each qualifying school were examined to determine the existence of a course devoted specifically to pricing or including pricing as a significant component.\nFindings: - The paper finds that a only 33 schools (9.1 percent) list a course in their online catalog that demonstrates a significant emphasis in pricing, and only 14 schools (3.9 percent) offer a course dedicated solely to the topic of pricing. Comparing this study with previous studies leads to the conclusion that the availability of pricing courses has not increased as anticipated, and has actually decreased.\nPractical implications: - Numerous papers have concluded that students majoring in marketing would benefit from taking a course in pricing. This paper asks why so few courses are offered given the interest in, and attention to, the topic. Business educators should be raising questions about the content of curricula being offered.\nOriginality/value: - This study should raise awareness about the lack of attention toward pricing in the business curriculum. The study also indicates that additional research is needed to compare the curricula of programs not offering a stand-alone pricing course with schools offering these courses, and begin to address this concern.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Entrepreneurship and service innovation	[ "Organizational performance", "Innovation", "Entrepreneurship", "Competitive advantage", "Entrepreneurial orientation", "Triadic connect" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction to the special issue: Business marketing reflects a broader concept that includes emergence and greater attention given to services (Malhotra et al., 2008; Ndubisi, 2013). Service \"as the application of specialized competences (knowledge and skills) through deeds, processes, and performances for the benefit of another entity or the entity itself\" (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, p. 2) contributes significantly to the growth of every economic system. In today's increasingly dynamic, complex and unpredictable business environment, service organizations/industries, value-added service providers and non-tangible goods providers (Malhotra et al., 2008; Ndubisi, 2012; Vargo and Lusch, 2004) try to renew themselves and add value through entrepreneurial activities and innovation. Innovation is the adoption of an idea or behavior new to the adopting organization, which involves all dimensions of organizational activities, such as a new product or service, a new production process technology, a new structure or administrative system and a new plan or program within the organization (Damanpour, 1991).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a special issue on entrepreneurship and service innovation, and to conceptualize the link between entrepreneurial orientation, innovation and entrepreneurship or new entry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Analysis of secondary data.\nFindings: Entrepreneurial orientation (EO), innovation (IN) and entrepreneurship are in a vital \"triadic connect\", where EO supports innovation in organizations and innovation promotes new entry or new venture creation - a vehicle for commercialization of innovations.\nResearch limitations/implications: There is a need for empirical validation of the linkages proposed in this conceptual paper.\nPractical implications: This \"triadic connect\" between EO, IN and entrepreneurship or new entry is a source of or key driver of organizational performance (OP) and competitive advantage (CA).\nOriginality/value: The theorization and schematization of the \"triadic connect\" (i.e. EO-IN-NE link) and outcomes (namely, OP and CA) is presented.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Achievement motivation, strategic orientations and business performance in entrepreneurial firms: How different are Japanese and American founders?	[ "Entrepreneurialism", "Strategic marketing", "Strategic orientation", "Achievement motivation", "Cross-national research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Entrepreneurial activity is credited with much of the growth in productivity and per capita income among industrialized nations, and entrepreneurial firms are considered catalysts for the revitalization of stagnant economies and a major source of new business development and new job creation (Knight, 2000; Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2005). Despite their considerable economic role, a significant proportion of entrepreneurial firms fail after only a few years of existence. Estimates range from about half of all new firms failing within the first four years from start-up (Spaeder, 2003), to three-quarters disappearing within five years (Hay et al., 1993), up to assessments that nine out of ten entrepreneurial ideas backed by venture capital fail to sustain in the marketplace (Brown, 2004). Consequently, compared to large established corporations, entrepreneurial firms typically do not have the luxury of making mistakes early on. Entrepreneurial firms need to overcome barriers to entry and achieve a sustainable marketplace position, often with limited resources and no pre-existing sources of cash flow. This would suggest that the set of decisions by the founders of entrepreneurial firms and the strategic orientations that guide these decisions are of vital importance (Aragon-Sanchez and Sanchez-Marin, 2005).\nConceptual background: Strategic orientations\nHypotheses development: The founder's achievement motivation and strategic orientations in entrepreneurial firms\nResearch design: Data\nAnalysis and results: A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to test the hypotheses. Specifically, multi-group analyses - using the data from both the Japanese and US samples simultaneously - were performed in AMOS 19. The maximum-likelihood method was selected as the method of model estimation. To increase reliability of our single-item measures (i.e. strategic orientations) we set those items as latent variables with an error variance set to 0.70.\nDiscussion and implications: The share of small- to medium-sized enterprises in both established and developing countries has increased dramatically over the past two decades and with it the levels of private and public funding for new entrepreneurial firm (OECD, 2005; National Science Board, 2000). These trends have created a substantial need to identify and understand the factors most pertinent to predict entrepreneurial firms' success.\nLimitations and future research directions: The study suffers from some limitations that could provide future research opportunities. First, it is difficult to generalize from the study's findings to all types of firms since these only relate to entrepreneurial firms. It is possible that the results do not hold for large, established firms. Future research might involve comparative research including both entrepreneurial and established firms. Second, this study focusses on a key characteristic of founders: their achievement motivation. Future research may first find it useful to study additional personal characteristics of the founder that can shed light on strategic decision making, such as goal congruency, rigidity, attitudes toward risk or communication skills. In a cross-cultural context it may be also useful to study national culture characteristics, such as individualism or uncertainty avoidance, which may be especially relevant for entrepreneurs. Third, there may be room to test the robustness of our theory using different measures. For example, we used firm descriptions to measure the strategic orientation of the entrepreneurial firm. While similar approaches have been used in previous research (e.g. Kohli et al., 1993) and there are advocates of using single-item measures, even in cross-national settings (Bergkvist and Rossiter, 2007; Myers et al., 2000), multiple-item measures might alternatively be used in subsequent research (e.g. Gatignon and Xuereb, 1997; Narver and Slater, 1990). Fourth, there may be room to test the robustness of our theory using additional countries as the use of only two countries limits the generalizability of this research (Cadogan, 2010). Finally, while our analysis controls for a number of personal characteristics (e.g. the founder's age), firm factors (e.g. size) and environmental factors (e.g. industry), other key variables are omitted and may be accounted for by future studies (e.g. the competitive environment).\nAcknowledgement: The authors would like to acknowledge helpful comments from Donald Lehmann, Leigh McAlister and Miklos Sarvary. The authors are listed alphabetically and each contributed equally in this project.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: There is a lack of research on the link between the personal disposition of an entrepreneurial firm's founder, the firm's strategic orientation and its performance outcomes. Also, there is a lack of cross-national research on entrepreneurial firms' strategic orientations. This paper seeks to address these gaps by exploring the differences in strategic orientation choices and their performance outcomes for American and Japanese entrepreneurial firms, focusing on founders' achievement motivation as a key personal disposition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted among 397 Japanese founders and 189 American ones.\nFindings: This paper's key counterintuitive finding is that Japanese and American founders of entrepreneurial firms are more similar than is often suggested. The paper first finds that in both Japan and the US, achievement motivation is positively related to customer orientation and cost orientation while not being related to technological orientation. Second, it is found that the adoption of customer orientation is positively related to the profitability of both Japanese and American entrepreneurial firms, although the effect is stronger in the US. It is also found that the adoption of technology orientation is negatively related to the profitability of both Japanese and American firms, although the effect is less negative in Japan. Finally, it is found that the adoption of cost orientation does not have an impact on the profitability of either Japanese or American entrepreneurial firms.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the first studies to examine how founders of entrepreneurial firms use their personal disposition to shape the strategic orientation of their firm.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The trade-off theory revisited: on the effect of operating leverage	[ "Abandonment option", "Financial leverage", "Operating leverage", "Trade-off theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the pioneering work of Miller and Modigliani (1958) the capital structure literature has attempted to solve the \"capital structure puzzle\" (Myers, 1984). To date, two main theories have emerged providing alternative perspectives on the optimal use of corporate debt. The static trade-off theory (Scott, 1976) assumes that a manager sets a target debt ratio in order to trade-off the benefits (tax advantages) and cost (bankruptcy cost) of debt financing. The more recent pecking order theory is based on informational asymmetries and states that firms prefer internal over external financing, and debt over equity in the case of external financing (Myers, 1984).\n2. The model: 2.1 Assumptions\n3. The earnings/leverage relationship: We now explore the theoretical implications of our model (and the inclusion of operating leverage) on the relationship between current earnings and the optimal financial leverage ratio denoted L\n4. Empirical findings: This section provides some empirical evidence in support of our model implications. There have been numerous cross-sectional tests of capital structure theories examining whether leverage ratios vary across firms as the theory predicts. The literature is extensive and we do not attempt to reproduce it here, instead we focus on the new implications of our model in regards to the influence of the contribution margin and fixed costs on a firm's financial leverage[14]. We point the interested reader to Frank and Goyal (2008) - Section 3.2 in particular - and the references therein for details of related empirical studies.\n5. Conclusions: In the context of the trade-off theory of capital structure, existing theoretical modelling provides contradictory conclusions on the relationship between corporate earnings and optimal financial leverage. However, strong empirical evidence of an inverse relationship between these two quantities calls for a reconciliation of theory and evidence. Previous studies have used mean-reverting earnings to provide such a reconciliation, however, the present paper relaxes such strong assumptions and shows that the relationship need not be process specific and can, instead, be a direct result of correctly incorporating the effect of fixed operating costs (operating leverage), and hence the possibility of non-financing related distress, into project and firm valuations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of operating leverage, and the subsequent abandonment option available to managers, on the relationship between corporate earnings and optimal financial leverage, thereby providing an alternative (rational) explanation for the observed negative relationship between these two quantities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Working in a dynamic capital structure setting, where corporate earnings are modelled as an exogenous stochastic process, the paper explicitly adds fixed operating costs to the firm's value optimisation. This introduces a degree of operating leverage (DOL) and a non-zero value to the implicit abandonment option of the firm's manager. Solving for the firm's optimal timing and financing decisions the paper is able to derive the relationship between current corporate earnings and optimal financial leverage for a large class of earnings uncertainty assumptions. The theoretical implications are then tested empirically using a large selection of S&P 500 firms.\nFindings: The analysis reveals that the manager's flexibility to abandon the project introduces nonlinearities into the valuation that are sufficient to reconcile the trade-off theory with the empirically observed negative earnings/financial leverage relationship. The paper further finds theoretical and empirical evidence of a positive relationship between operating and financial leverage.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies have used mean-reverting earnings as an explanation for the observed negative earnings/financial leverage relationship in a trade-off theory setting. The paper shows that the relationship does not need to be process specific. Instead, it is a direct result of the financial flexibility of managers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Talent management and its technological partners	[ "Employee development", "Human resource management", "Learning", "Content management", "E‐learning", "Competences" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Talent management is some five years old. Bob Little looks at where it is come from, its relationship with other HR-related technology and how it is contributing to organisational success.\nTalent management and its technological partners: Talent management systems have come a long way since their emergence in the mid-naughties. Yet, some five years on, there still seems to be confusion among systems buyers - for example, about where talent management fits with the traditional learning management systems (LMSs) and the less-traditional learning content management systems (LCMSs), as well as debate about the value of these systems to an organisation.When talent management was in its infancy - some four years ago - David Wilson, a corporate learning analyst with Elearnity, commented:One of the difficulties facing corporate learning today is that people within an organisation only look at individual parts of the \"talent management suite\".Wilson, who was speaking at a conference in London, went on to say that the key drivers of corporate change were:* regulation, compliance and risk management;* globalisation;* competition and market dynamics;* earning and share price; and* adverse demographics.\"For some time, compliance has been a major driver for the adoption and use of LMSs,\" he said. \"Globalisation is an issue in the UK because, here, large companies that want to continue to grow have to operate internationally.\"All markets are becoming more competitive and, thus, more subject to change. Earnings tend to be reported quarterly - and share prices tend to reflect earnings. This tends to force businesses to think in periods of three months - which may be too short a timescale for learning programmes to demonstrate their effectiveness and benefit,\" he cautioned.\"And adverse demographics are beginning to take their toll of organisations. For example, not only is the average age of staff in BP now 50 years old but increasing numbers of workers - especially specialists - are contractors. What will happen to companies over the next ten years as their workforces age? Will this give a boost to talent management systems?\"In this, circumstances have proved Wilson to be generally correct - although the recession which began in 2008 has forced employers to reduce workforces and defer worries about an ageing workforce until \"better times\" come along. Moreover, it would be nice to think that those involved in corporate learning now take a more holistic view of the components that comprise \"talent management\".\nImplications for organisations and corporate learning: Nonetheless, the issues that Wilson outlined have not gone away and continue to have implications both for organisations and for corporate learning. The key implications for organisations - in terms of corporate learning and talent management - are related to issues of compliance; performance management, increasing organisational flexibility (including outsourcing and off-shoring), and increasing organisational agility (through collaboration, building teams and \"knowledge on demand\"). The key issues for corporate learning still include:* The need to align learning and development activities to complement strategic business strategic needs and values.* A shift from measuring inputs (events) to assessing outputs (results).* The diversification of learning delivery options - including greater use of e-learning, m-learning and electronic performance support systems (EPSS).* Streamlining management processes and systems - improving service levels, efficiency and responsiveness.* The realisation that work and learning are interrelated and interdependent and can no longer be thought of as separate from one another.All of these issues bring challenges for LMSs because the boundaries of what we want to record are changing - especially in terms of proving compliance.Once upon a time, it was enough to record how many people took which course and, perhaps, what scores they achieved in the post-course assessment. This provided the basis for a management report which pleased the HR department because it showed lots of \"numbers\" and thus justified their existence. However, it meant nothing to members of the main board because the numbers in the report bore no relation to the business-critical numbers in various spreadsheets that were important to them - notably the balance sheet.Consequently, \"traditional\" LMSs became less fashionable and more emphasis was placed on the LCMS. In addition to doing what an LMS does - allow access to learning materials and record assessment scores - the LCMS can keep records of individuals' learning records and skills competencies, thus providing valuable data on such things as skills gaps within an organisation. In other words, an LCMS can go some way towards providing an embryonic talent management system. This is particularly true following recent technological advances that enable some LCMSs to personalise the learning materials they make available to a learner. This personalisation takes into account that learner's existing knowledge, learning preferences, location (and thus the bandwidth of the \"learning delivery device\" to which he/she has access) and so on, to provide an \"individualised\" - and thus more relevant and efficient - learning experience.Moreover, in recent months, there has been further disturbing news for the traditional LMS. Google has created CloudCourse - an open source learning platform, running under AppEngine, Google's Cloud Based environment. Google is using it internally for several LMS type functions - from registration to classroom management and Google claims that it will be evolved as developers experiment and extend the functionality.\nLMS death knell: While this is a long way from being the death knell for the proprietary LMS (simply because so many organisations have one of some description or other), it is an interesting move from a software developer that has many IT and human resources at its command. In many ways, it was merely a matter of time before a major player in the software world had a serious look at the LMS. Until the advent of cloud computing, there did not seem to be a way whereby the large software developer could use all its large scale advantages to compete on price - as well as in product sophistication terms - with the \"small but cheap\" LMS producers. With Google's news, the tide may just be turning.While the traditional parameters of the LMS world are changing with the application of open source and cloud computing, the LCMS world is also changing. LCMSs and digital repositories, their near neighbours-in-technology, are becoming more sophisticated and now provide much of the functionality required for today's talent management systems to prove their worth.One recent example where an LCMS is being used in a talent management context - especially in relation to the personalisation of learning materials - involves LCMS provider Giunti Labs (www.giuntilabs.com) and the France-based professional education specialist, Cegos (www.cegos.fr and www.cegos.co.uk/).The two companies began their collaboration in 2007, when Cegos chose Giunti Labs and its LCMS, learn eXact, to enable Cegos to offer a generic and blended learning catalogue, combining classroom training, e-learning and pre- and post-training evaluation in a modular, flexible, personalised solution for end user organisations. In 2009, Cegos and Giunti Labs were awarded the Gold IMS Learning Impact Award for building Cegos' Management Skills Catalogue using the learn eXact LCMS.Cegos employs 1,200 consultants and works in 30 countries across the globe. Its catalogue serves some 200,000 learners worldwide and provides over 200 modules in 14 languages, with options for using these in the context of blended learning. Courses are localised following the best international practices, adjusted to suit the local context and culture where the learning programme is deployed. The Cegos online catalogue currently addresses 12 business programmes, including: Management and Leadership; Project Management; Finance; Professional Effectiveness and Development; Sales and Marketing; Purchasing, as well as Training Expertise.\"Cegos is benefiting from reductions in time and costs involved in content authoring and management through using Giunti Labs' LCMS,\" said Pascal Debordes, eLearning Director at Cegos. \"And, since this collaboration enables learner tracking and reporting on all e-learning, learners now experience substantial cost savings - in both travelling and time - through reducing the amount of classroom based learning they need in order to achieve competence.\"\nDeveloping competition: \"In a world of rapidly developing competition, organisations need to identify their workers' skills, knowledge and competencies, as well as deliver the right learning content to each user just in time, where and when the user needs it,\" commented Fabrizio Cardinali, CEO of Giunti Labs.Giunti Labs' products help to meet organisations' learning individualisation needs through the skills-based personalisation features of eXact Portfolio - an ePortfolio and skills management system to help clients attract, develop and maintain employees, as well as align them to corporate strategic goals and so build a lasting competitive edge.Cegos runs a comparison analysis - to benchmark blended-learning and classroom-based delivery worldwide - on an ongoing basis. To date, all results show improved learning retention, performance and quality of achievements within the organisations using the Cegos/Giunti Labs' system.Moreover, Cegos' clients report that the module-based format is highly effective in supporting targeted usage. They also claim to have found it excellent in terms of the customer interface.\"The Cegos catalogue can be loaded on any LMS and related tracking can support planning and management within the competency development cycle,\" said Debordes. \"All content is SCORM compatible and tracked, allowing for a highly personalised diagnosis of learning gaps and needs, which are then addressed in the blended scenario.\"At that meeting in London in 2006 where David Wilson set out the basic issues of corporate learning, Paul Sparta, CEO of talent management systems provider Plateau Systems (www.plateau.com), explained that organisations need highly functional software to develop, manage and optimise organisational skills and talent. He added: \"They also need scalability and adaptability in these systems to allow them to meet the organisation's needs both today and tomorrow.\"\nTalent management applications: Talent management applications deal with:* workforce planning;* workforce acquisition (recruitment, selection and induction - or, as Americans say, \"on-boarding\");* performance management;* career development;* succession planning;* learning management (until relatively recently, the only technologically-provided option, via an LMS); and* compensation management.\"Ultimately, competency management underpins all of these things,\" said Sparta. \"Moreover, talent management applications also have relationships with business process management, content management and knowledge management.\"\"If you can manage learning, performance, career and 'succession' within an organisation effectively, you are engaging in 'talent management',\" he added. \"And all these things are closely connected to competencies, knowledge assets, people and 'the organisation'.\"If you have knowledge and competencies without the 'people and organisation' aspect of the formula, you have no 'context' for the organisation. In order to provide a context for the organisation, there has to be 'process'. Without this, you devalue the importance of knowledge in an organisation,\" he said.\nPaaS talent management solution: In 2010, Plateau Systems, launched Plateau Foundation, the talent management industry's first platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution. Heath Williams, Plateau's vice president of international sales, said: \"In Europe, customers are looking for talent management solutions that are easily adaptable to their specific business requirements. It's only now that solutions have the functional breadth and flexibility to build and keep customers\" competitive advantage in terms of corporate knowledge and skills.\"The current challenging economic conditions in Europe are forcing companies to think ever more seriously about talent management issues - especially competencies, skills gaps and succession planning,\" he added.As yet, talent management systems, along with LCMSs, are not cheap. So they are the preserve of the larger organisation - but, then, it is the larger organisation that needs this sort of technological help to discover, keep, analyse and act on key HR-related data as it strives to build and keep its competitive advantage.For the large organisation, a flexible, unifying platform approach for HR applications - encompassing an LCMS and a talent management system - enables company-wide standardisation of data, interfaces and operations. In turn, this should lead to improved abilities to respond to, and manage, changes in the business - leading to reduced long-term costs through improved efficiencies.HR systems technology may be making the right sort of progress at the right time - to help their users to make progress too.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the development of talent management systems and their evolving relationship with learning management systems (LMS) and learning content management systems (LCMS).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper uses factual reporting to provide the overview.\nFindings: - While the traditional LMS is in decline, the LCMS has much in common with - and can augment - a talent management system. Technological developments (cloud computing, PaaS and so on) are having an effect on these relationships.\nPractical implications: - Talent management systems are becoming increasingly important for would-be successful large (especially multi-national) companies. The capacity and the business requirements of the LMS are changing. The LCMS offers a number of advantages for the modern business over the LMS and can collaborate with a talent management system to achieve strategic business objectives. Competency data - and competency management - lie at the heart of building competitive advantage in the modern business world.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first such analysis of the development of talent management systems and their evolving relationship with LMS and LCMS in relation to the corporate learning sector. This paper will be of interest to those looking for: a historical perspective on talent management system development; an explanation of talent management and its place within business strategy, and/or the latest technology developments (mid-2010) in this sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Erotic retailing in the UK (1963-2003): The view from the marketing mix	[ "Retailing", "Marketing", "Sexuality", "History" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Erotic retailing is concerned with products and images that are sexually arousing, but not pornographic. The commercial opportunities for erotic retailing derive, in part, from the influence of earlier fashion trends, themselves derived from a revised feminist appraisal of sexuality in the 1960s and 1970s, punk in the 1970s, and the sports styles of the 1980s (Ehrenreich et al., 1987; Evans and Thornton, 1989). From a broader sociological standpoint, the expansion of erotic retailing can thus be understood as an aspect of greater individualism, of identity or many identities, and of representation over reality (McNair, 1996).The starting date of this review, 1963, was marked by the Beatle's first LP, and the publication of Frieden's (1963) book, The Feminine Mystique, which inspired the beginning of the Women's Liberation Movement through its attack on what Frieden labelled the cult of domesticity, which, she alleged, had reduced the independence and liberties gained by women during World War II, and had encouraged their return to the kitchen. By the end date, 2003, the definition of the erotic retailer causes us to rethink our approach to the contemporary retail environment.The rest of the paper contains three main sections. The first discusses the historical development of sex shops, including the new sex shops and their neighbourhoods and electronic erotic retailing, through the lens of the marketing mix. The second section reviews the sex products being marketed - underwear, sex toys and items for fetishism. In the third and final section, the threads of the argument are drawn together.\nThe history of sex shops through the lens of the marketing mix: According to Rafiq and Ahmed (1995) and McCarthy (1960) initially defined the elements in the marketing mix, the 4Ps, as the controllable variables that an organisation can co-ordinate to satisfy its target market. As such, they formed the various means for competition (Gronroos, 1997) to optimise the profit function through resource allocation. The four \"Ps\" of the marketing mix - product, place, promotion and price - are briefly described as follows (Copley, 2004):* Product. The item or service being marketed, through its features, quality, benefits and quantities.* Price. This includes the price of the item and product assortments and lines, price changes and payment methods.* Place. The location where the product or service is available to the customer, including distribution channels.* Promotion. Market communication is achieved by personal selling, advertising, direct marketing, public relations (PR), sales promotion and sponsorship.Since 1960, the model has broadened beyond its origins in economic theory to encompass aspects of sociology and cognitive psychology (Hakansson and Waluszewski, 2005). Indeed, criticism of the 4Ps has centred on its inception in the production and supply context of the 1950s, and its appropriateness to later twentieth century marketing functions. Consequently, it has been extended with a further 3Ps of participants, process and physical evidence (Booms and Bitner, 1981), and an eighth P for personalisation, to reflect a services marketing orientation (Goldsmith, 1999). The growing importance of the political environment led Kotler (1984) to propose two additional Ps of political power and PR to the marketing mix. As marketing's focus has moved to consumers and consumption, so it has arguably broadened into an integrated and networked approach to organisational resources (Brownlie and Saren, 1992). This has accompanied the decline of mass markets and growth of specialisation, supported by database management and customer relationship marketing principles, which evolved into the one-to-one marketing opportunities developed on the internet.In spite of its deficiencies, the 4Ps remain a staple of the marketing mix. The subsequent Ps have yet to overcome a consensus about their eligibility and agreement over their practical application. Consequently, this research examines the 4Ps in a highly segmented market, the retailing of erotic underwear and toys for women that emerged at the end of the last century, in part a consequence of the \"pornographication\" of society and consumption (McNair, 2002). This market can be termed erotic retailing, one characterised by fashionable products and high service levels. In this context, it is important that firms are able to design and direct their activities according to the needs and desires of customers (Gronroos, 1997) as interactive resources, supported by - but not as separate elements - physical evidence and personnel.Normally, product is considered first as the basic resource in the exchange process. However, place is a strongly integrative element. The small scale, highly localised outlets appear to be important sources of knowledge, useful for product development and value creation (Hakansson and Waluszewski, 2005). The physical evidence dimension also finds strong support in the place, as the retailers emphasise the store environment, its colours, themes, lighting, and layout. The history of sex shops is discussed below within this context to demonstrate the development of the marketing concept.Place\nConclusion: The gradual breaking down, through the media, of taboos associated with sex and pleasure has helped to create a new market of affluent women wanting retail outlets where sex toys, lingerie and erotic material could be purchased over the counter. It was becoming clear that women especially wanted to be able to shop in places where they felt confident and were able to ask questions without the restraint imposed by a public space. It is now possible not only to look at erotic underwear, but also to touch and wear many designs and colours, in environments which encourage interactivity. Increasingly, sex toys also provide an experiential role. Design has played an essential part of this process. Re-assessment of the function of sex toys and new product designs have changed attitudes to sexual pleasures and the nature of erotic retailing. For women, the application of new store design concepts has turned an area previously perceived as sleazy into one that is both acceptable and desirable. These exclusive product designs and store concepts support the generally high price points found in this market.The ease of women looking at women, not dressing up for men, and for all women to feel sexy, is the achievement of these specialist shops, and their influence on more mainstream stores selling underwear as part of a wider product assortment. The promotion of eroticism in the marketing mix has relied on the visual cues of product and place, their connotations and media interest in \"selling sex\". Attractive shop windows and the displays of merchandise can be used ironically or not, laughed at publicly, and taken seriously in private. The media have relentlessly excited interest in erotic retailing, whilst simultaneously repressing it. At least, the automatic association of \"naughty\" and \"sex shop\" does seem to have diminished in the media in recent years, and the appearance of designer sex toys has enabled them to discussed more seriously.The new women's erotic retailing appears to be growing rapidly enough to suggest that intimate enjoyment and sexual pleasure are there to be experienced rather than passively gazed at. Such experiential environments support arguments for the integrated planning of variables in the marketing mix. Moreover, they affirm the need for retail marketers to seek sources of value from outside the firm. This can be demonstrated in the value derived from the media's interest in sex, through marketing communications and new product planning, through accessible primary store locations, concessions and promotions. Such transference of ideas, images and products has made eroticism visible in the wider retail environment, and has enabled it to become an acceptable part of the retail marketing mix.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to trace the changes in the retail outlets that supply erotic products and toys. It explores changes in attitude towards these products over the four decades under review.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The marketing mix (the 4Ps of marketing) is the lens through which the past and contemporary retail environment for such erotic products is examined.\nFindings: - What emerges from the story of the journey from backstreet to online is the change in attitude towards both shops and products, and the development of shops selling sexually-arousing products to women, a trend unique to the last decades of the twentieth century.\nOriginality/value: - The combination of an historical approach and the theoretical concept of the marketing mix provides a fresh view of the under-researched area of erotic retailing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The prioritization and categorization method (PCM) process evaluation at Ericsson: a case study	[ "Evaluation", "Business process management", "Case study", "Contextual awareness", "Explorative", "Prioritization and categorization method" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business process management (BPM) is a key priority of practitioners, CIOs, BPM managers and researchers. In recent years, more and more IS researchers have begun exploring new thinking and principles for managing business processes and challenge the traditional exploitative BPM paradigm (Kohlborn et al., 2014; vom Brocke et al., 2014; Rosemann, 2014), which BPM paradigm focusses on methodological challenges related to how to model, analyse, simulate, automate and mine business processes, and the development of tools, systems, and techniques that can be implemented by firms to achieve operational excellence. However, exploitative BPM fails to address more strategic or cultural challenges facing BPM managers, in addition to ignoring contextual, industrial and institutional factors that play a role in innovating business processes, as well as the capability required. Explorative BPM is an emerging direction in BPM research that calls upon researchers and practitioners to pay more attention to process design that truly excites and engages stakeholders, with the aim of building new capabilities that firms need to sustain business into the future (Rosemann, 2014).\n2. Literature review: In a literature review on business process, Solaimani and Bouwman (2012) provide an overview of research areas that are generally speaking related to business process modelling (e.g. Giaglis, 2001; Yu and Wright, 1997; Lin et al., 2002; Recker and Rosemann, 2009), business process re-engineering (e.g. O'Neill and Sohal, 1999; Yu and Wright, 1997; Lin et al., 2002), BPM (e.g. Lee and Dale, 1998; Van der Aalst et al., 2003; Duffy, 1994) or business process automation (Kirchmer and Pantaleo, 2005; Watson and Holmes, 2009). Some other, less extensive, business process areas are discussed by O'Neill and Sohal (1999), including business process improvement, core process redesign, process innovation, business process transformation, breakpoint business process design and business scope redefinition. In this paper, we focus on BPM. In the last two decades, BPM research has advanced knowledge on process innovations and process improvements (Van der Aalst, 2013).\n3. PCM: PCM consists of two models, a process assessment heat map (PAHM) and a process categorization map (CM). The design rationale of PCM is to embrace a BPM life-cycle view, which implies that a continuous assessment of process characteristics is made at different stages of the process lifecycle. Next, the six core elements of BPM, as discussed above, are used in the assessment. In this way, the method is grounded in theory. In addition to the theoretical grounding, the method is empirically grounded, eliciting the tactical knowledge and practical experience from the BPM managers and stakeholders involved by using the business concepts that managers use in everyday practice.\n4. Research method: Ericsson was selected for an in depth-case study to evaluate the use of PCM. Case study research is a common method for evaluating designed artefacts (Hevner et al., 2004). The case is a unique case. We applied the same proposed approach also in other cases for validation purposes, but the involved organizations did not grant permission to publish the results. This study as discussed in this paper adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach (Yin, 2013; Eisenhardt, 1989). This qualitative approach is also recommended by BPM community to develop adaptable knowledge for practitioners (Roeser and Kern, 2015). Core elements in the case study are the complexities and insights gained when analysing BPM practice, and specifically the use of the PCM in a process assessment and improvement project. The timeline and major activities are shown in Table III.\n5. Results: PCM was first configured based on Ericsson's business needs and the requirements from the Ericsson Steering Group (ESG). Second, the configured PCM was used to evaluate the selection of core/primary processes, with 55 stakeholders taking part in the evaluation. Further evidence was collected during meetings with process managers, training sessions with employees, and interviews with a senior process manager and a PCM consultant.\n6. Discussion: The aim of this paper has been to demonstrate and evaluate the PCM at Ericsson. The results of the case study show that the method allowed us to assess processes in an explorative way, given the consideration of company's organizational characteristics and industrial environment, allowing companies to improve or (re)design processes that match their business development. The PCM is a novel method of implementing explorative BPM. This paper adds new knowledge and empirical evidences to apply explorative BPM in business.\n7. Conclusion: This paper contributes to existing BPM research by presenting a new method that can be configured to fit a specific business or industry context and to support BPM contingencies. It is an explorative approach, focussing on innovation, capability development, alignment to business, and it is focussed less on modelling, architecture and IT systems. We advance BPM by proposing a collective design approach that is inspired less by architectures, modelling approaches and IT systems, as-is common in most business process modelling and management projects.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate and evaluate the prioritization and categorization method (PCM), which facilitates the active participation of process stakeholders (managers, owners, customers) in process assessments. Stakeholders evaluate processes in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and relevance against certain contextual business and industry factors. This collective evaluation serves as a foundation for the management decision-making process regarding process improvement and redesign.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The PCM is examined based on a case study at Ericsson. In total, 55 stakeholders, representing different organizational levels and functions, assessed eight core processes. Follow-up interviews and feedback after the evaluation sessions were collected for triangulation purpose.\nFindings: The PCM helps Ericsson evaluate its processes within business context and industry environments. The results show that, to realize seamless end-to-end processes in the eight assessed processes, Ericsson has to make a greater effort to improve its process structures, governance and culture for fulfilling the needs of future business. Ericsson Steering Group is satisfied with the insights provided and has decided to train more stakeholders to use PCM.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is based on a single case within a specific organizational setting. The results may not be necessary generalizable to other business and industry settings. Organizations need to configure PCM in consideration of their own processes and business contingencies to explore and fulfil their process improvement purposes.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents a new context-aware, easy-to-use and holistic method for business process management (BPM), the PCM. The method requires the active engagement of stakeholders, it focusses on developing dynamic BPM capabilities and fully embeds organizational contingencies and contextual factors in the decision-making regarding BPM. This paper contributes a novel method to explorative BPM.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Creativity and knowledge creation: the moderated mediating effect of perceived organizational support on psychological ownership	[ "Creativity", "Perceived organizational support", "Knowledge sharing", "Knowledge creation", "Psychological ownership", "Systems model of creativity", "Creative performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The conditions or factors influencing creativity in an organization are important considerations for human resource development (HRD) and management interested in organizational development for creativity. Organizations make efforts to enhance the creative capability for self-renewal based on higher order knowledge assets to be agile (Nonaka et al., 2006). The reason is that creativity has been credited with nurturing a competitive advantage in contemporary organizations with rapid industrial changes (Joo et al., 2013; Sozbilir, 2018). As companies intensify their competition, the key role of creativity as a driver of growth or performance becomes more important (Zhu et al., 2018).\nConceptual framework: The systems model of creativity describes that creativity is socially constructed and interacted between subsystems, and elicits a creative outcome (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988; Csikszentmihalyi and Sawyer, 1995). This framework consists of individual (person), field and domain, namely, individual, social and cultural factors (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988; Styhre and Sundgren, 2005).\nReview of the literature and research hypotheses: Creativity and knowledge creation\nMethod: Data collection and participant procedures\nDescriptive statistics: Descriptive statistics, confidence and correlation are shown in Table 2. The reliability diagonals showed strong internal consistency across all measurements. The correlation pattern was consistent with both theory and previous studies.\nDiscussion: In summary, this study investigated in detail the collaborative interaction mechanism by which creativity was diffused. To do so, it primarily identified the influences of creativity, PO and POS on knowledge creation based on a theoretical foundation, Csikszentmihalyi's (1988) systems model of creativity. For empirical testing, the moderated mediating analysis was used in the context of a public service organization in Korea.\nImplications for human resource development research and practice: Despite the many studies on creativity in the organization that have been preceded (Csikszentmihalyi, 2014; Joo et al., 2013), there is a lack of detailed strategy for designing an organization that could make creative performance, helping HRD on the basis of systems theory. This study could present some implications to bridge such a gap through revealing how to spread creative performance theoretically and performing moderated mediation analysis for testing.\nLimitations and further research recommendations: The current study may have several limitations that are noteworthy. First, our findings are based on the Korean public sector, which could result in the limitation of generalization. Comparison research exploring other types of organizations and cross-cultural research would be worthwhile. Second, this study used single-source and self-reported data, which could result in common method bias. Statistically, although the perception-based responses did not decrease the reliability of the research results (Miles and Huberman, 1984, p. 231), multiple data collection resources should be required. In addition, a longitudinal design that may help confirm the causal claims of the relationships is recommended. Finally, the conceptual research model is developed by applying Csikszentmihalyi's (1988) systems. In particular, PO and POS, which are considered to be one of salient factors in the context of the organization, were presented as individual and cultural factors for this study. Besides, although the current study is valuable in that creativity is considered as the precedence variable rather than the outcome, which is common in the existing literature, future research needs to be considered for developing models from various perspectives of creativity. This approach could provide more comprehensive understanding of the effects of human creativity and the mechanisms of knowledge creation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the influences of creativity, psychological ownership (PO) and perceived organizational support (POS) on knowledge creation, using the integrative systems model of creativity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey was used to collect data from 188 workers in Korean public service organizations. Analyses, including bootstrapping and hierarchical regression analysis, were performed to determine the mediating effect of PO and also the moderating and the moderated mediating effects of POS.\nFindings: The results showed that PO mediates partially between creativity and knowledge creation and that POS moderates the relationship between PO and knowledge creation. Notably, the moderated mediating effect of POS was only significant when employees had a high level of POS.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that creativity dissemination requires employees' social consciousness, collaborative interactions and organizational support. The results imply that human resource development (HRD) practitioners need to cultivate the creativity capacity in the organization.\nOriginality/value: This study discusses the effects of PO and POS on creative performance, which HRD professionals and organizational leaders draw attention to for organizational development. Implications for organizational composition and interventions to enhance creative performance are provided.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Does investment in project management pay off?	[ "Project management", "Investment", "Survey", "Projects", "Maturity", "Company", "Cost reduction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Currently, projects are managed by companies on a daily basis and their implementation requires deploying varied methods for their successful completion. To improve efficiency in managing projects, companies must implement adequate methods, techniques and tools. The staff are trained in project management and career paths are developed. Specialised software is required. Company structures need suitable modifications to support project execution.\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: 2.1 Project management value\n3. Research method: 3.1 Survey description\n4. Data analysis and discussion: 4.1 The relationship between the change in maturity level and the costs of projects\n5. Practical and social implications: 5.1 Turbulent environment and project management application\n6. Conclusions: Projects play an important role in an organisation's growth and development. Companies currently manage significant numbers of projects. The success of projects is very often closely connected to the success of the entire company from both the operational and strategic perspectives. Therefore, it is crucial for companies to increase their know-how in project management. The most recognised method leading to the improvement of efficiency of activities related to managing projects is the assessment of maturity levels in project management. Companies that receive the assessment results can identify gaps in different areas for potential improvement. However, the question is where to begin and in what sequence. Resolving this issue is extremely important because improvement involves investments which are very often limited and can be employed in the chosen area(s) one at a time. Therefore, in this study, we tried to reduce the knowledge gap in the topic of investment in project management and the potential outcomes of such activity. Therefore, we sought to investigate whether investment in increasing the maturity in project management potentially reduces the costs of forthcoming projects.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: There is a significant knowledge gap in the common understanding regarding the value that investment leading to an increase in project management maturity brings to the organisation. The purpose of this paper is to narrow this gap by investigating the relationship between an increase in the project management maturity level and the project's performance. Additionally, it advocates the investment roadmap approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is part of a worldwide research initiative into maturity in project management covering 447 global companies. For this purpose, survey data from experts from 194 select companies was analysed.\nFindings: The cost of forthcoming projects depends on the level of maturity of project management and type of industry.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is limited to three different industries (machinery, construction and information technology) and by the method of assessing their future project costs. New research directions are suggested.\nPractical implications: The results of the study should help companies in allocating limited resources appropriately using the proposed roadmap.\nSocial implications: An increase in project management maturity can be achieved through different investment methods. This will benefit society as well.\nOriginality/value: The paper focuses on global companies dealing in machinery. The area has not been explored sufficiently from the project management perspective. It discusses the relationship between an increase in maturity and future project costs in three industries: machinery, construction and information technology. The paper suggests practical guidelines for project management and sequences in proper investments when resources are limited.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Karl Knies, Austrians, and Max Weber: a Heidelberg connection?	[ "Economic theory", "Economic history" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nKarl Knies's place in recent literature: Karl Knies is generally regarded as a representative figure in the Older Historical School in Germany. However, he has not received the due attention so far in the revived discussion on the German Historical School since the late twentieth century. Hennis's (1984, 1996) repetitive suggestion of Knies's likely influence on Max Weber and the publication of a facsimile edition of Knies's Money (Das Geld, 1996) did not change the situation. It seems some difficulties in understanding this man have hindered contemporary researchers from dealing with him[1].Although he completed Money and Credit (Geld und Credit) that consists of Money (Knies, 1873) as its first part and Credit (Der Credit, Knies, 1876-1879), the second part, he was not a systematic writer. His another opus, Political Economy (Politische Oekonomie, Knies, 1853), dealt with the nature of this discipline exclusively and contained no substantial theory in economics. In this book he denied the concept of causal law in economics and admitted only such relationship as can be grasped by analogies. In its original edition Knies used the term of \"historical method\". However, Money and Credit neither followed the terminology of this methodological canon, nor contained ample historical reflections that might be anticipated from this expression. As he replaced \"historical method\" in the title by \"historical viewpoint\" in the second edition, his historicism was not a practiced methodology, but rather a philosophical view of the economic theory with social and political perspective[2]. For a better understanding of Knies we have to know his system of political economy, in which both of his opus are integrated and assigned their proper places. This was just missing.By the discovery of a student's notebook of Knies's course on general economics (Allgemeine (theoretische) Volkswirtschaftslehre) (Knies, 2000), the situation has changed considerably. Now, we can follow what Knies taught his students as his system of political economy, to which both of his main publications were mentioned as important referential literature. He offered his students a then standard economics course that was modified by historical relativism and contained within a social and political perspective. In my judgement, it was a successful course that had both depth and width.Further, this notebook can throw a light to the substantial aspect of the academic relationship around Knies. In fact, Heidelberg was one of the centers where young promising economics students gathered and leave with various academic ambitions. By knowing the standard course Knies offered them, we can assume Knies's possible influences on them in the orientation of their further research. In my view, this is clear in Knies's relationship to two Austrians, Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk and Friedrich Wieser, and to the successor of his chair, Max Weber, since the theory of value lies in the center of this relationship. In the case of his relationship to Americans such as J.B. Clark, R.T. Ely or to Japanese such as Noburu Kanai[3], it needs further investigation.In the next section, I will give a brief sketch of Knies's teaching activities in Heidelberg. This is a general frame for the understanding of the nature of the discovered material (course notebook). Then an overview of the course is given. In the last section the relationship of Knies, Austrians, and Max Weber is discussed.\nKnies as teacher: After his move from Freiburg to Heidelberg in 1865, Knies taught there over 30 years. General economics (Allgemeine Volkswirtschaftslehre) was his main course besides the course of public finance (Finanzwissenschaft) and that of practical economics and economic policy (Praktische oder spezifische Nationalokonomie und Volkswirtschaftspolitik). In addition, he opened a seminar in economics (Staatswissenschaftliches Seminar: Praktikum fur politische Okonomie) regularly. Knies established his reputation as a teacher there and his courses attracted not only German students but also foreign students coming from all over the world. J.B. Clark visited Heidelberg in 1874, Eugen Bohm-Bawerk and Friedrich Wieser in 1876, R.T. Ely in 1878 and N. Kanai in, 1887. As Schumpeter put it, \"Karl Knies was above all a great teacher who made Heidelberg as a center of study and research in which the most diverse types were welcomed and made to work together\" (Schumpeter, 1954, p. 850).Table I summarizes Knies's teaching activity in Heidelberg. The source was the Course Lists[4] of the University in each academic term and Knies's file of the list of lecture fee payers[5]. The figure under the abridged course signifies the number of registered students in the payers' list. In the beginning, he had to teach statistics for several years. His book on Statistics (Knies, 1850) would be of use in this course. From the late 1870s the course of general politics (Allgemeine Verwaltungslehre) seems to be added to his teaching obligation. However, the number of registered students never exceeded half of the numbers of general economics. It seems Knies could not establish his fame in another division of the state sciences (Staatswissenschaften).In the mid-1880s, it became the routine for Knies to have general economics, general politics, and a seminar in the summer term and public finance, practical economics, and a seminar in the winter term. In the year when the discovered notebook was written, 1886, Knies's teaching obligation was: general economics from 11 to 12 in the morning of every working day, general politics from 12 to 1 pm on every working days except Saturday, and economics, seminar from 4 to 6 pm on Monday. The writer of the notebook, Wolfgang Mittermaier, registered his name in the payers' list of Knies's general economics together with his 61 fellow students. The summer term began this year officially on 28 April, but Knies started his course on general economics on 3 May and ended on 31 July.The tripartite system of economics - general economics, economic policy, and public finance - was established by Karl Heinrich Rau, Knies's predecessor in Heidelberg. Although Knies differed in the methodology and economic policies from Rau, he preserved many elements, especially in teaching, from him. Knies taught all of the three courses that Rau's famous textbook designated[6]. Knies's course on general economics began from the discussion of the relation of wants and goods and then followed the life of goods from emergence, distribution, and consumption reflected the typical order of the standard economic courses. Further, as we see later, Knies could not supersede Rau in the theory of value.Knies's innovation in the teaching lies in his early introduction of seminar in economics. Knies opened his first seminar in the winter term of 1871/1872. This anteceded four years to the start of Carl Menger's seminar in Vienna. Since Knies's main effort in the 1870s was devoted to the completion of Money and Credit, the topics of the seminar in this decade were probably related to the monetary theory. In the early 1980s the topics related to the revised edition of Political Economy might be added. But Knies's seminar did not give birth to a distinct school as Menger's Viennese seminar did. All of those who attended his seminar kept respect to Knies, but they never formed Knies's school. As Schumpeter's remark cited previously suggests, Knies's Heidelberg seminar was a forum where variously minded students gathered and exchanged their views openly.\nCourse on general economics[7]: I need not repeat the story of discovery of the notebook of Knies's general economics (Yagi, 2000). In short, it was found in the Karl Bucher library now housed at the Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, and transcribed by Prof. Takeshi Mizobata (Kansai University of Social Welfare, Akoh), and Dr Hans-Eberhard Caspary. Wolfgang Mittermaier, the student that attended Knies's course and wrote it down was Bucher's cousin-in-law, who later became the professor of criminal law in Heidelberg.In my knowledge, two other student's notebooks of Knies's course remain. One is that of public finance that was taken by G. Seitz in, 1874. This is conserved in the Harvard University Library. However, it is written in a scratching style with no table of contents. Another is R.T. Ely's notebook of the first part of general economics, now housed at Louisiana State University. Ely came to Heidelberg in, 1878 and acquired the degree under Knies there (Ely, 1938, pp. 41-7). However, probably from the reason of difficulty in listening, he typed from the notebook of Dr Friedrichs that had attended Knies's course in 1870 and added many corrections to it. Since these notes have no table of contents, it is impossible to acquire full knowledge of the course[8]. After reading its first dozen of pages and comparing them with Mittermaier's, I came to conclude that Ely's represents Knies's course in a still premature stage in 1870s. The order of the course that begins with the wants (Bedurfnis) and then enter economic goods (wirtschaftliche Guter) is the same and Knies's stress on the social nature of human beings and communal base of the state nature is apparent there already. However, no same sentence between two exists. Clearly, Mittermaier's notebook excels Ely's in the richness and exactness of the argument[9].The whole course consists of 70 chapters. Probably, each one corresponded to one day's lecture. At first, four chapters are used to make students to prepare the course. After this, 66 chapters are divided into ten parts. Before entering the summary of the course, it is convenient to know the composition of the course (Table II).As I wrote already, this order follows a typical German style textbook that focuses the life of goods from its production to its consumption. Though he separated the part of production and that of labor, it does not seem that he wished to develop his own theory in these parts. Rather, the significant parts of this course lie in the parts of circulation. Based on the criticism of the labor theory of value of British economists and socialists (esp. Karl Marx), Knies represented his own view of market price as an alternative in the center of his theoretical course. Factors on the side of production influence the economic phenomena (such as market price) together with factors on the demand side. However, these influences are conveyed only through the real actions of persons on the market. The apparent peculiarity of the course that it has two special parts on money and credit runs in the similar direction. This not only reflects the fact that Knies used his Money and Credit as a quasi-textbook in this part of lecture, but also his stress on the concrete forms and various relations of the trade on the market.The introductory chapters\nAustrians and Max Weber: It was in Knies's seminar in 1876 that the two Austrians, Eugen Bohm-Bawerk and Friedrich Wieser read their first original works on the theory of value.Two Austrians\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To establish the place of Karl Knies in the history of economics of the German-speaking academics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Knies's economics teaching is summarized on the basis of a student's notebook of the course on general economics in Heidelberg, 1886. Knies's relation with two Austrian visitors, Friedrich Wieser and Eugen Bohm-Bawerk, is explored. Finally, Knies's influence on Max Weber and Weber's difference from Knies is discussed.\nFindings: - This paper provides the structure and the summary of Knies's lecture, illuminates his inability to grasp the significance of Austrian value theory, and shows the new position that Max Weber acquired by absorbing the Austrian theory into the framework of historicism.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The comparison of (possibly) remaining notes of Knies's lectures may reveal the development as well as the wide coverage of his teaching in Heidelberg. Knies's influence on Max Weber should be studied more in detail by an archival investigation of young Weber's unpublished writings.\nOriginality/value: - The mild and synthetic feature of the real teaching of Knies, \"the methodologist of the Historical School\", and the true distinction of the Austrian value theory from the \"use value\" theory of German economists are shown clearly. Thus, the relation between Historicists and Austrians is established from the viewpoint of the economic theory.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The moderating effect of team psychological empowerment on the relationship between abusive supervision and engagement	[ "Engagement", "Abusive supervision", "Team psychological empowerment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research suggests that up to 60 per cent of employees experience abusive supervision (Aasland, et al., 2010). Such behaviour has many well-documented negative consequences including employee turnover, aggression and financial loss (Karimi et al., 2014; Mackey et al., 2017; Schyns and Schilling, 2013; Tepper et al., 2006). Recent studies suggest that employee engagement may also be compromised by leaders' destructive behaviour (Barnes et al., 2015; Leary et al., 2013; Poon, 2011). This is an undesirable situation given the important role of employee engagement in fostering many desirable work-related outcomes (Airila et al., 2014; Schaufeli and Salanova, 2007; Shuck and Wollard, 2010). Given the improbability of eliminating abusive supervision from organisational contexts (Reed and Olsen, 2010), calls have been made for studies to explore the factors that may act as resources employees can draw on to temper its negative consequences (Martinko et al., 2013).\nMethod: Participants and procedures\nResults: Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations\nDiscussion: Tepper et al. (2017) called for further research to investigate employee responses to abusive supervision. Our work responds to this call, building on insights derived from the psychological empowerment literature (Kirkman and Rosen, 1999) and the JD-R model (Demerouti et al., 2001). The results from this study revealed that abusive supervision is a precursor to lower levels of employee engagement. This is in line with Breevaart et al. (2014) and corroborates previous studies which found a negative relationship between problematic supervisor behaviour and engagement (e.g. Barnes et al., 2015; Leary et al., 2013; Poon, 2011).\nImplications for practice: Abusive supervision is an unfortunate feature of many work environments and while directing attention to its source is one valuable route of address, such interventions are demanding and complex (Lam, 2016; Tepper et al., 2017). Our study suggests that there is a value in attending to the role of team bonds in withstanding the deleterious effects of abusive supervision. This could take the form of sophisticated team-building interventions that promote a strong sense of shared purpose, mutuality and support (Tannenbaum et al., 1992; Tesler et al., 2017) which serve as resources for team members to draw on to cope with abusive supervision (Frieder et al., 2015).\nLimitations and directions for future research: The use of self-report measures was justified on the basis that it was the subordinates who judged whether or not their leaders were abusive. However, the use of self-report measures is often criticised as rendering findings susceptible to problems of common method variance bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003). In response to this criticism, Spector (2006) argued that the claim that common method bias automatically affects self-report survey variables is a popular, yet overstated position. Thus, we engaged in many important steps to minimise the risks owing to social desirability and common method bias by following the guidelines suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2003). For instance, we relied on voluntary participation by our respondents and ensured their total anonymity to counter any socially desirable response tendencies. Moreover, a Harman's single-factor test was conducted which determined that common method bias was not a cause for concern (Podsakoff et al., 2003).\nConclusion: Destructive leadership is unfortunately not an unusual feature of many work contexts which contaminates many desirable features of organisational behaviour. Attempts to address its root cause are important yet complicated. An additional path to undertake in this regard is to consider effective responses to such behaviour. Our study suggests that attending to team dynamics and characteristics is a worthwhile endeavour on this point, serving to limit the deleterious effects of abusive supervision and protect those behaviours considered vital for organisational effectiveness.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Managers exert considerable effort to foster employee engagement given its positive organisational consequences. However abusive supervision, not uncommon in the organisational context, is said to damage hard-won gains in this arena. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the deleterious effects of abusive supervision on engagement can be attenuated. Specifically, the paper examines the moderating role of team psychological empowerment (TPE) in the negative relationship between abusive supervision and engagement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper employs survey data from a diverse sample of 191 employees.\nFindings: Abusive supervision is negatively associated with employee engagement. TPE moderates the negative relationship between abusive supervision and engagement (vigour and dedication components).\nResearch limitations/implications: The use of self-report measures in this cross-sectional study limits the generalisability of the findings and inferences of causality. Future studies should replicate this investigation among intact teams.\nPractical implications: Interventions designed to build team effective team dynamics are accessible and fruitful approaches managers can use to counteract the destructive effects of abusive supervision.\nOriginality/value: Managers need to have multiple routes to address the challenges raised by prevalent abusive supervision. The study highlights that working to enhance team dynamics is a cogent strategy to deal with this destructive feature of many organisational contexts.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Elections and externalities of health expenditures: Spatial patterns and opportunism in the local budget allocation	[ "Elections", "Health expenditure", "Spatial econometrics", "Local expenditures", "H72", "H75", "I18", "C31", "C33" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent decades, the literature on fiscal federalism has improved our understanding of the relationship among governments, both in the same layer or between different government tiers. Many of these studies emphasize the issue of externalities in decentralized governmental layers, when jurisdictions may choose the level of expenditure as well as taxation or regulation and this choice may (positively or negatively) affect the fiscal choices of other governments. Although this effect may induce lower efficiency in public expenditures (Akin et al., 2005), decentralization is usually prescribed as a powerful tool to provide citizens with more accountability about governments (Costa-Font and Moscone, 2008), even if centralization offers equality to unequal jurisdictions in terms of preferences or spillovers (Besley and Coate, 2003). One of the main channels for accountability is the emulation induced in same-level jurisdictions, in a yardstick competition (Besley and Case, 1995) or in a modified model of yardstick from the top (Caldeira, 2012).\n2. Spatial interactions in public health expenditure: The models that hypothesize spatial interactions basically state that the behavioral features of a group affects each individual's choice (Manski, 1993). One of the main assumptions in these models is that the proximity may help understand the nature and intensity of interactions between two individuals in an application of the first Law of Tobler[2] (Almeida, 2012). Owing to this interaction, collective behavior or an aggregate pattern may emerge and produce a significant spatial correlation for the empirical data (Anselin, 2010).\n3. Institutional features: Brazil is a republican federation under presidential system and has three autonomous layers of administrative divisions. Besides the central government, there are 27 regional divisions (26 states and one federal district) and 5,570 municipalities[4]. Each of those layers has its own executive and legislative incumbents, both directly elected (except in the federal district, which obeys different rules), but the elections are not synchronized. Local elections (for mayors and city councils) are held every four years, whereas elections for regional and federal seats take place in a two-year staggered election. The terms begin in January of the year following the election and last four years.\n4. Theoretical framework and empirical strategy: In the theoretical framework for our empirical analysis, we consider that the public health spent at local level is a process that implies global spillovers, as discussed below. Because of that, our approach consists in a Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) panel with individual specific slopes.\n5. Discussion: In spatial econometric models that consider global spillovers (as in this case, with a SDM model), changes in explanatory variables in a particular jurisdiction affect not only the individual (the municipality) but also all other individuals. These impacts are named direct and indirect effects (LeSage and Pace, 2009). The direct effect reveals the impact of changing a particular element of an exogenous variable on the dependent variable of that same jurisdiction, whereas the indirect effect measures the impact of the same marginal change on the dependent variable of all other units, which corresponds to the average column/row effect (Elhorst, 2010b). The estimated direct and indirect effects of a variable may have same or opposite directions; therefore, we must observe both effects in the estimation outputs (Elhorst, 2010a). In this section, we analyze the results of our models, including the direct and indirect effects of the explanatory variables.\n6. Conclusive remarks: In this study, we tested the hypothesis that policymakers' choices regarding health spending at the local level are spatially correlated and electorally oriented. We check the influence of a set of demographics, electoral, political and economic determinants of public health activity in the local level. We performed a spatial panel data analysis with a SDM specification, encompassing 399 municipalities from 2005 to 2012, estimating two models: the first one controlling for elections years and the second one controlling by election type (local and central). Our contribution to the literature lies in the following four findings.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of local public health expenditure in a decentralized health system, taking into account the electoral calendar and the effect of central and local elections, besides spatial interaction among municipalities and political alignment. The authors state that the expenditure in public health at the local level is positively influenced by vicinity and by elections calendar.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors performed a Spatial Durbin Model with a balanced panel using the data from 399 Brazilian municipalities from 2005 to 2012. The authors use a distance-based spatial matrix, whose choose was based on simplicity and relevance of Moran's I and Geary's C coefficients for spatial autocorrelation. The authors also cluster the data in the estimations, according to the distribution of regional facilities in the entire period and considering the occurrence of regionalization in public health services.\nFindings: The empirical contribution lies in four issues: first, the authors demonstrate a positive spatial effect in the public health expenditure. Second, the estimations show that election-year shifts public spent, as a response for vote-seeking incumbents' behavior. Third, reelected mayors increase local public health allocations, as well as single candidates and incumbents from the same party of central governments. Finally, populational concentration directly decreases health expenditure (even if those municipalities represent a lower unit cost of acquiring votes, the optimization of public health infrastructure and mobility in achieving public health services negatively affect health spent).\nOriginality/value: This study supports the statement that public health spent at local level is positively influenced by vicinity and by occurrence of elections.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Why do large firms pay higher wages? Evidence from matched worker-firm data	[ "Productivity rate", "Pay structures", "Belgium", "Private sector organizations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The existence of a positive effect of firm-size on workers' wages is well documented in the economic literature (Oi and Idson, 1999a). Yet, there is little consensus about the particular reason why large firms pay higher wages (Winter-Ebmer and Zweimuller, 1999). Traditional explanations suggest that large firms:* employ more qualified workers;* compensate workers for bad working conditions;* have more market power and share their excess profits with their workers;* avoid or mimic unionisation; and* substitute high monitoring costs with wage premiums.Empirical papers offer only partial evidence for these traditional arguments. As a result, alternative hypotheses have been recently developed. Oi and Idson (1999b) suggest, for instance, that workers are more productive in large firms and, therefore, ask for higher wages. Another explanation might be that large firms prefer to match high-skilled workers together (Kremer and Maskin, 1996; Troske, 1999) and create internal labour markets in order to increase the stability of their workforce (Idson, 1996).This study is one of the few, with Bayard and Troske (1999) and Oi and Idson (1999b), to test the validity of these recent hypotheses. Moreover, it is the first to analyse the magnitude and sources of the firm-size wage premium in the Belgian private sector. To do so, we use a unique matched worker-firm data set. This data set derives from the combination of the 1995 Structure of Business Survey (SBS) and the 1995 Structure of Earnings Survey (SES). The former provides firm-level information on financial variables and in particular on the productivity of the workforce (e.g. value added). The latter contains detailed information on individual workers (e.g. gross hourly wages, bonuses, age, education, sex, and occupation) and on firm characteristics (e.g. sector of activity, level of wage bargaining, and firm-size). Firm-size is measured by the exact number of employees. This continuous variable overcomes the potential measurement errors present in studies where the categorized employer-size data are converted into a continuous measure of firm-size (Albaek et al., 1998).The remainder of this paper is organised as follows. Section 2 reviews the literature (both theoretical and empirical) dealing with the effects of firm-size on workers' wages. Sections 3 and 4 present, respectively, the data and the empirical results. The last section concludes.\n2 Review of the literature: 2.1 Theoretical background\n3 Data: The present study is based upon a unique combination of two large-scale data sets. The first, carried out by Statistics Belgium, is the 1995 SES. It covers all Belgian firms employing at least ten workers and with economic activities within sections C to K of the Nace Rev.1 nomenclature[4]. The survey contains a wealth of information, provided by the management of the firms, both on firm-level characteristics (e.g. sector of activity, size of the firm, and level of wage bargaining) and on the individual workers (e.g. age, education, gross hourly wages, sex, and occupation). Firm-size is measured by the exact number of employees. This continuous variable overcomes the potential measurement errors present in studies where the categorized employer-size data are converted into a continuous measure of firm-size (Albaek et al., 1998). Unfortunately, the SES provides no information on the productivity of the workforce within firms. Therefore, it has been merged with the 1995 SBS. The SBS is a firm-level survey, conducted by Statistics Belgium, whose coverage differs from the SES in that it includes neither the financial sector (Nace J) nor firms with less than 20 employees. The SBS provides firm-level information on financial variables such as sales, value added, and value of production. The final sample, combining both data sets, covers 41,593 individuals working for 1,865 firms. It is representative of all firms employing at least 20 workers within sections C to K of the Nace Rev.1 nomenclature, with the exception of the financial sector.Table I sets out the means (standard deviations) of selected variables for the overall sample as well as for small and large firms[5]. We note a significant difference between the mean characteristics of workers employed in small and large firms. The point is that on average individuals employed in large firms earn significantly higher wages, work a slightly larger number of hours, and have less (potential) experience but more seniority. Table I also shows that large firms employ a higher proportion of men, generate more value added per capita[6], and pay bonuses for overtime, shift work, night work and/or weekend work to a larger fraction of their workforce. Finally, let us notice that large firms are over-represented in the manufacturing sector (see Appendix 1 for a more detailed description of the data).\n4 Empirical results: 4.1 General analysis\n5 Conclusion: This paper has investigated the magnitude and sources of the firm-size wage premium in the Belgian private sector. To do so, we used a unique matched worker-firm data set. This data set derives from the combination of the 1995 SBS and the 1995 SES. The former provides firm-level information on financial variables and in particular on the productivity of the workforce (e.g. value added). The latter contains detailed information on individual workers (e.g. gross hourly wages, bonuses, age, education, sex, and occupation) and on firm characteristics (e.g. sector of activity, level of wage bargaining, and firm-size). Firm-size is measured by the exact number of employees. This continuous variable overcomes the potential measurement errors present in studies where the categorized employer-size data are converted into a continuous measure of firm-size (Albaek et al., 1998).Our findings show the existence of a significant and positive firm-size wage premium in the Belgian private sector, even when controlling for many individual characteristics and working conditions. A substantial part of this wage premium derives from the sectoral affiliation of the firms. It is also partly due to the higher productivity and stability of the workforce in large firms. Yet, findings do not support the hypothesis that large firms match high skilled workers together. Finally, results indicate that the elasticity between wages and firm-size is significantly larger for white-collar workers and comparable in the manufacturing and the service sectors.Unfortunately, we were not able to control for the potential non-random sorting process of workers across firms of different sizes. The point is that our data set contains no information on supply-side variables that are generally used to account for selection effects (e.g. the marital status, the household composition). This is an important limitation. However, it should not be overestimated for at least two reasons. On the one hand, several studies found no or only partial evidence for the existence of a selection bias (Albaek et al., 1998; Main and Reilly, 1993). On the other, it is not clear whether the instruments used in the literature to control for the selection bias are valid. Be it as it may, the endogeneity of firm-size in the Belgian private sector remains an empirical question that should be addressed in future work. It would also be interesting to rely on matched worker-firm panel data so as to control for the non-observed characteristics of the workers and/or firms. However, at the moment such data do not exist for Belgium.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper analyses the magnitude and sources of the firm-size wage premium in the Belgian private sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a unique matched employer-employee data set, our empirical strategy is based on the estimation of a standard Mincer wage equation. We regress individual gross hourly wages (including bonuses) on the log of firm-size and insert step by step control variables in order to test the validity of various theoretical explanations.\nFindings: - Results show the existence of a significant and positive firm-size wage premium, even when controlling for many individual characteristics and working conditions. A substantial part of this wage premium derives from the sectoral affiliation of the firms. It is also partly due to the higher productivity and stability of the workforce in large firms. Yet, findings do not support the hypothesis that large firms match high skilled workers together. Finally, results indicate that the elasticity between wages and firm-size is significantly larger for white-collar workers and comparable in the manufacturing and the service sectors.\nResearch limitation/implications: - Unfortunately, we are not able to control for the potential non-random sorting process of workers across firms of different sizes.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is one of the few to test the empirical validity of recent hypotheses (e.g. productivity, job stability and matching of high skilled workers). It is also the first to analyse the firm-size wage premium in the Belgian private sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Economic recession and investment on human resource information systems (HRIS): Perspectives on some South African firms	[ "Human resource management", "Management information systems", "Human resource information systems", "Recession", "National Bureau of Economic Research", "South Africa" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Every business strives to make a profit. When they do, they are then able to retain labor as well as maintain their systems. The opposite is the case when businesses do not make profit. In this case they tend to cut down on some of their investments such as human resources and systems (such as software). Essentially human resources departments as well as other departments are issued daunting mandates: save money, be more efficient, automate as much as possible and make time for strategic planning meaning that organizations must thrive. A situation of this nature is exacerbated by an economic recession.The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER, 2010) defines an economic recession as a significant decline in activity spread across the economy lasting more than a few months. It is typified by a decrease in economic activity that causes a rise in the unemployment rate (Nagle, 2010, p. 6), and reduced activity and economic hardship for a substantial number of people (Lee and Shields, 2009). Recession affects both humans and organizations. It reduces government spending (Webber and Swinney, 2010); it could drive organizations bankrupt (Freeman, 2010) and impacts on vulnerable or precarious workers, including migrants (Rogers et al., 2009). Recession is characterised by people holding back from spending as much money as they normally would or demand fewer goods and services and also when a nation's economy recedes or pulls back (Nagle, 2010). As far back as 1967, Geoffrey Moore loosely called a recession \"the period marking the end of expansion (Moore, 1967).\" Lockshin (2008) writes that it is a period that \"signals worsening economic times.\" NextLevelSMG (2008) says it is \"a precarious time for marketers and their budgets.\" Arnold (2009, p. 803) counsels that the magnitude of a financial and economic crisis calls for a fundamental reassessment of all areas of business. Generally, a recession marks a period of social, political as well as economic change (Rogers et al., 2009).Today's businesses have embraced technology for speedier delivery of goods and services as well as staff retention and empowerment. Cost of setting up and maintaining technology can be expensive. During slower economic times, the question that gets asked is how to maintain visibility with reduced cost. Against the backdrop that technology can be expensive to set up and maintain, an economic recession accelerates the dilemma to not invest in or discontinue the use of technology.Human resources information systems (HRIS's), also called human resources management systems are usually a critical part of an organizations management information systems (MIS's). Many theorists are of the opinion that HRIS's are no doubt growth enablers to organizations (Lengnick-Hall and Moritz, 2003; Beulen, 2009). The introduction of HRIS in an organization does have some impact on change dynamics of the organization. Introducing a new system requires a number of interventions namely environmental assessments and diagnosing organizational problems (Kovach et al., 2002; Nah and Delgado, 2006) determining performance gaps (Ravichandran and Lertwongsatien, 2005), identifying sources of possible resistance (McAfee, 2003; Barut and Dogerlioglu, 2010), taming them and generally getting a larger buy-in.A HRIS is a systematic procedure for collecting, storing, maintaining, retrieving, and validating data needed by an organization about its human resources, personnel activities, and organization unit characteristics (Kovach and Cathcart, 1999). Kavanagh et al. (1990, p. 27) define it almost similarly as the system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute pertinent information regarding an organization's human resources. HRIS's are usually a component of an organization's strategic philosophy. Every organization's strategic philosophy is underpinned by their value proposition (Lengnick-Hall and Moritz, 2003). Value to the organization must be customer centric to provide return on investment (Jooste et al., 2009). Value is defined as costs minus benefit (Jooste et al., 2009, pp. 73, 324). What this means is that should an organization decide to invest in a HRIS, it must be based on the conviction that the system must have mutual benefit to the organization and the organization's audience.During a recession, human resource departments are under more pressure to prove that their systems are an investment that will pay off, and not just an additional cost. Generally, during a recession businesses scale down expenses. Recession has a way of leaving a backlog of unattended important matters. Webber and Swinney (2010) wrote that even though the economy had exited recession, the strength of economic growth over the short term was uncertain. Against this background, does it therefore make any sense to invest in a HRIS during a recession?This paper's real intention is to establish whether businesses will want to invest in an HRIS, suspend, or totally discontinue their use and why, during an economic recession. It also hopes to decipher which organization's activities are largely supported by HRIS, and the factors that inform the application of HRIS in these activities.\n2. Theoretical background: Globalization and its concomitant complexities have brought about certain institutional and structural changes that have compelled researchers to further investigate the state of affairs of every organization. Globalization has opened the door to many benefits. It has encouraged openness and promoted a freer exchange of knowledge, ideas, goods, and services (Ukpere and Slabbert, 2007, p. 349). Innovations, creativity, and investments have blossomed across the globe (Scholte, 2000, p. 19). However, globalization has brought a downward spiral in the wages and working conditions of workers owing to a high profitability drive and the new cut-throat global competition (Martin and Schumann, 1997, p. 160 cited in Ukpere and Slabbert, 2007; Went, 2000, p. 28). Globalization also means that what affects organizations in one part of the world, eventually translates into the same kind of effect in another part of the world.In an economic recession, the tendency is to cut cost and focus on activities that are extremely relevant. Gunasekaran et al. (2001, pp. 349, 353) are in agreement that investment in information technology strengthened an organization's comparative competitiveness while warning that such investments required careful strategic considerations. Schwartz and Zozaya-Gorostiza (2003, p. 58) refer to uncertain and or unforeseen circumstances that may thwart the achievement of benefits from an HRIS investment if careful panning was ignored. Kumar (2004, p. 17) makes mention of \"jump events\" that may affect HRIS infrastructure value. Essentially, against the backdrop that HRIS provides enormous benefits to organizations, a convincing case must be made to persuade decision makers that the benefits of HRIS outweigh the costs (Lengnick-Hall and Moritz, 2003, p. 369).Given the enormous positive claims of internet technology, organizations are thus urged to continue to embrace the splendor of technology in order to remain competitive. Management of people at work endures better with appropriate, well-designed HRIS (Grobler et al., 2006; Nel et al., 2008).2.1 What does a recession bring with it?\n3. Statement of research problem: Poor economic climate is usually characterized by cost-cutting and increased regulatory requirements. Yet in the face of all these, HR faces growing demands to communicate the value it creates in ways that CEOs can better appreciate. Sustainability therefore becomes a buzzword. Sustainability is a strong business principle that simply means to sustain positive results over a longer period, for more stakeholders, while continuously reducing cost and negative impact of various kinds. Productivity and profitability depend on making sure everyone is working at his or her full potential. Organizations need to produce more beneficial business outcomes such as productivity, revenue, customer satisfaction, employee engagement. But can they really given the bad turn of the economy?Be that as it may, during a recession it is important to look beyond short-term results and narrow interests. As we are now in a global recession partly as a result of an over reliance on short-term strategies and a failure to recognize the interconnectedness of various systems within a global economy, we have seen the domino effect that can occur. Intense global competition provides an eloquent reason why sustainability has become such an important trend. Competition for resources, natural and human, is intensifying on a global scale. With the rise of developing nations there are expanded market opportunities and also expanded sources of competition. The only way that an organization can achieve sustained competitive advantage is to have a long-term strategy.Following competition in a global economy is the need to constantly innovate. Innovation is essential in a world where unforeseeable changes approach us from every direction. Innovation can take the form of small improvements that reduce costs or improve processes in small degrees, or in the form of breakthrough ideas that transform entire organizations. In either case, it is people that make the difference. People are the source of innovation; and people are the key to sustainability.3.1 Research questions\n4. Methodology: This study is a survey. The population represents organizations that utilize the HRIS. Since the study focussed specifically on organizations using HRIS, it was necessary to use a purposive (non-probability) sampling method, thereby ensuring that the samples possess the attributes of the population. For data collection, an HRIS questionnaire was obtained from Hussain et al. (2007) and was then modified to suit the purpose of this study. Acknowledging that the focus of the study was to understand whether it makes any economic sense to the organization to invest in an HRIS during a recession, the study posed closed-end questions and Likert scale questions to the respondents so that their responses are focussed in the manner that it is suitable for data capture and data analysis.Validity of the data collection instrument was ensured in two ways: it was earlier used in a study by Hussain et al. (2007); and professionals and academics in the field of human resources were consulted to ensure that the questionnaire collected the relevant data. A reliability statistical test, using the Cronbach's a, was done and a coefficient of 0.757 was achieved for the closed-ended items (nine questions) on the usage of HRIS and another coefficient of 0.898 was achieved on the collection of the Likert scale items (nine questions) on the perception of the effect of recession. These figures are acceptable as they are close to 1 and hence the reliability is acceptable. Previous studies (Brown et al., 2009, p. 541; Chen et al., 2006, p. 490; Khalili and Hossein, 2003, p. 30) stated that a reliability coefficient exceeding 0.7 for any test or scale was the minimum acceptable reliability coefficient.The sample for this study was derived from construction, manufacturing, transportation, and logistics organizations operating in South Africa. As indicated earlier, these organizations have been chosen based on the assumptions (and following secondary sources) that each uses HRIS. If the secondary sources are to be believed, it can then be assumed that these organizations do not operate manually or without some form of technology. Out of the 50 questionnaires that were administered to respondents (comprising managing directors/finance directors and human resources directors) that participated in this study, only 45 of them were returned. Out of the 45 questionnaires that were returned, 39 questionnaires were completely answered and useful for data analysis. SPSS was used to analyze the data collected. The analyses are in the form of descriptive information and correlation coefficients of Pearson's. The finance directors were chosen because they mostly influence decisions regarding expenditure in these organizations, while human resources directors were chosen because of their presumed familiarity with HRIS.\n5. Findings: At the beginning of the paper three research questions were posed. Are there high levels of disinvestment in HRIS during a recession? Are there low levels of trust and confidence in HRIS during a recession? Could there be an absence of concerted commitment in leveraging technology even in the face of an economic crunch?5.1 Respondents' profile\n6. Further studies: As indicated in the previous sections, the findings suggest that there may be a need to carry out more studies that focus on different strata of respondents. The stratification may be based on the numbers of employees in the organization or the annual turnover of the organization. It may also be proper to use more respondents to arrive at more reliable findings that may be generalized.The positive correlations among some variables suggest that there are relationships that may need to be further researched.\n7. Conclusion: The introduction of HRIS in an organization does have some impact on change dynamics of the organization. This statement could not be truer in a recession. During a recession, human resource departments are under more pressure to prove that their systems are an investment that will pay off, and not just an additional cost. The study has significantly indicated that HRIS serves an important function in organizations, especially the large ones. The study has also disclosed that having made initial investments (otherwise called sunk cost), organizations become obliged to continue to invest (in terms of renewal of licences) in order to maintain their systems. It was also found that bigger organizations tend to rely more on HRIS than smaller organizations that may not need solid MIS to undertake certain human resource functions.The study is, however, inconclusive with regards to virgin investments in HRIS's. One could then guess that it might not be an attractive option during a recession, for an organization that has not invested in HRIS.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of an economic recession on human resource information systems (HRIS) investment decisions by asking: Are there high levels of disinvestment in HRIS during a recession? Are there low levels of trust and confidence in HRIS during a recession? Could there be an absence of concerted commitment in leveraging technology, even in the face of an economic crunch?\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An HRIS impact questionnaire was used, targeting human resource and financial managers. The data obtained were analyzed using Statistical Programme for Social Sciences (SPSS).\nFindings: - The findings suggest that while a recession is acknowledged, the continued use of HRIS is not considered a risk factor that warrants cost cutting.\nOriginality/value: - This is an original study. It will add value by indicating to management the significance of strategic decision making. The study also points out the need for further research in order to make more sense of certain variables.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How experiences with trading a company's stock influence customer attitudes and purchasing behavior	[ "Emotions", "Customer attitudes", "Individual investors", "Customer behaviour", "Household finance", "Marketing-finance interface" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Individual investors have attracted a lot of attention recently and numerous companies have shareowner marketing programs in place to address individual investors (Vogelheim et al., 2001). Such programs aim at winning existing customers as shareholders or, conversely, encouraging shareowners to become customers. Many investors want to support the company they invest in by also buying its products and services (Aspara, 2009). On the other hand, individuals might be convinced of a company as a provider of high-quality goods and services and thus trust the company to be a profitable investment as well. Indeed, investors often reason that \"good stocks are stocks of good companies\" (Shefrin, 2001). This is also why chief financial officers (CFOs) prefer smooth instead of volatile earnings. As individual investors are also potential customers of the firm's products, CFOs are worried that volatile earnings negatively affect perceptions on the company's products and financial stability (Graham et al., 2005). These observations are in line with findings that individual investors' subjective perceptions play an important role when deciding which companies to invest in (Aspara, 2013).\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Individual investors - shareholders and customers at the same time\n3. Conceptual model and hypothesis development: The conceptual model for this study is presented in Figure 1. The conceptual model proposes that selling a stock for a loss (gain) leads the shareowner to experience negative (positive) emotions. Negative emotions are being distressed, upset and nervous, while positive emotions are being enthusiastic, excited and determined (Watson et al., 1988). We assume the shareowner to be a customer of the respective company simultaneously. Based on Bagozzi's (1996) findings on spill-over effects, we expect that the shareowner-customer transfers the negative (positive) experiences with the stock to his or her customer attitudes and behavior toward the company. Inspired by Heskett's (2002) hierarchy, we focus on the following customer attitudes and behavior: satisfaction and loyalty, switching intentions, tendency to engage in positive word-of-mouth (WOM), and the likelihood of filing complaints. We expect that negative (positive) experiences with trading a company's stock will lead to a greater tendency to display destructive (supportive) customer attitudes and behavior related to a company. In particular, a customer's satisfaction with and loyalty to the company, as well as the tendency to engage in positive WOM, are negatively (positively) affected when selling a stock for a loss (gain), and a customer's switching intentions as well as the likelihood of filing complaints are positively (negatively) affected when selling a stock for a loss (gain).\n4. Research design: 4.1. Data collection\n5. Data analysis and results: To test the conceptual model, it is first examined whether the manipulation of investors' emotions worked as intended. Then, to analyze the impact of selling a stock for a loss (gain) on negative (positive) emotions and subsequently on shareowner-customers' attitudes and behavior, we develop and test separate models for the loss and gain manipulation groups. Structural equation modeling (SEM), and in particular the partial least squared (PLS) method, is used. The models are relatively complex and the sample sizes rather small and thus a PLS method such as in SmartPLS (Ringle et al., 2005) is preferred over a covariance-based SEM technique (Hair et al., 2011). We apply the PLS approach with a 5,000 subsamples bootstrapping procedure and individual sign changes (Hair et al., 2012). Table III summarizes the results of the hypotheses tests.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: 6.1. Discussion of results\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential spill-over effects from negative (and positive) experiences with trading a company's stock on shareowner-customers' emotions and subsequent customer attitudes and behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual framework that links selling a stock for a loss (or gain), emotions, and customer attitudes and behaviors is developed. The framework is tested with data from a sample of Dutch investors that is analyzed with structural equation modeling through the partial least squares method in SmartPLS.\nFindings: Selling a stock for a loss vs selling a stock for a gain have different effects on shareowner-customers' attitudes and behavior toward the company. Losses induce negative emotions which in turn result in lower satisfaction and behavioral loyalty as well as in increased propensity to complain about the company. Investment gains, however, result in more positive emotions which then lead to increased preference of the company whose stocks were traded over its competitors and increased engagement in positive word-of-mouth (WOM).\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is focussed on shareowner-customers' experiences with stocks of companies active in the consumer industry. Future research could address whether the results generalize to other industries.\nPractical implications: The findings emphasize the importance of a close collaboration between the marketing and investor relation departments. Complaints of shareowner-customers should be taken seriously and incentives to stimulate repurchases as well as those that encourage positive WOM engagement are recommended.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to examine possible negative spill-over effects from experiences obtained during stock trading on shareowner-customers' attitudes and behaviors toward the stock's company.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Food product traceability and supply network integration	[ "Tracking", "Supply chain management", "Generation and dissemination of information", "Food industry", "Team working" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A series of food scandals involving animal disease, food contamination and poisoning, sustainable production, fraud, and issues regarding production methods including labor issues, have resulted in the implementation of food product traceability measures. \"Product traceability\" requires that businesses have the expertise to retrieve product history information. In response to public concerns, the EU General Food Law of 2005 was created to ensure process quality to secure the supply of safe foods. The need for food product traceability is furthermore increasingly a global issue, as evidenced by the growing number of legislative measures in different countries.Developing food product traceability systems has proven a major challenge both technically and economically. Focus in these practical efforts has been directed to solving product traceability from primarily a technical perspective. It is especially information and communications technology (ICT) professionals that have dominated many projects involved in developing product traceability. However product traceability clearly also involves intra- and inter-organizational efforts since products need to be traced form raw-material to finished product; from \"sea-to-plate\" or \"farm-to-fork\". Food supply is a collective responsibility of a network of global business actors supplying foods through managing flows of foods, who also share the collective responsibility for providing information about food products and the relevant features of its supply. Supply chains and networks are therefore contexts of tracing food products.SCM including logistics, relationship marketing, and marketing channels are business management research fields with an inter-organizational approach. Product traceability depends on not only how product supply is integrated in a chain or network, involving primarily logistical and marketing processes, but involves highlighting information connectivity between actors supporting product supply (marketing and logistics). Information is the core resource object involved in tracing a product. Information connectivity is therefore the aspect of supply integration that creates foundation for later tracing products. The purpose of this study is use understandings derived from primarily marketing and supply chain management (SCM) to develop conceptual understanding regarding tracing food products in an inter-organizational business setting.SCM as well as marketing channels literature is rooted in systems thinking. The following section discusses systems thinking in combination with network understandings of the relationships involved in securing food product traceability. The discussion is illustrated with findings from a case study of distributing and tracing seasonal fresh strawberries. In conclusion, the paper proposes that food product traceability be viewed from a more network-oriented perspective, and that achieving this competence in practice is dependent on cross functional interaction.\n2. Discussion: 2.1 Food product traceability\n3. Case study: 3.1 Methodological considerations and introduction to the case\n4. Concluding discussion: The strawberry case is a unique narrative account depicting firstly how this is a food product where the goal is to provide product safety and a quality supply in an economically feasible manner. Second, it is a fresh food that is extremely perishable. This means that the aim of the supply chain is to seek to protect the product through rapid transformation. The time limit also impact on informing about these products limiting the usefulness of tracking. Third, business aims are sought in a complex supply network context with diverging interests of different supply network actors. Fourth, in this setting, information is within a short time-frame of the goods flow provided and used by these different actors and adapted for use though different types of electronic and paper documents.Product traceability represents a unique adaptation of technical product supply and providing information about this supply in a business context involving competence in product transactions and logistical supply. In this setting, efficient product traceability is dependent on information connectivity, a technical aspect in supplying, tracking and tracing products. The major technical components in providing information about a product are: information content, media form used, information carriers, and information systems. Interplay between product traceability, an organizational resource, and information connectivity, an expression of technical information resource use, are described as the focal points in Figure 7.Figure 8 places interaction (as shown in Figure 7) between information connectivity and product traceability in a broader managerial perspective reflecting \"purpose\" behind tracing products and its dependence on both organizational and technical aspects of supply network integration.On the provision side, product traceability is a knowledge component related to an informational sub-system with a primary purpose to trace products. This system is a part of any company's information system that again is tied to information systems of other firms. Information connectivity describes the features of this tie between information systems. On the use side, information about product history may to varying degrees be integrated with other forms of information provision, most clearly marketing and the logistical supply of products through multi-functional intra-firm cooperation and involving multiple interacting business relationships. This represents a cross-functional view of product traceability embedded in the more \"core\" business function of product supply. This approach can thereby prove as a starting-point in detecting synergies related to economizing product traceability through highlighting interactions between heterogeneous resources used in relation to different supply network functions.The study evokes a theoretical view that product traceability involves intertwined technical and organizational competence. Developing product traceability, the key issue indicated in the introduction, clearly involves developing knowledge about tracing products. Solving the need to more effectively and efficiently trace food products is through this study possibly not so much a question of managing or controlling daily routines, as it is to bring people with different types of competence together to seek innovation on a continuous basis. Developing product traceability may therefore be recommended achieved through a simple but relatively uncontrollable task. Bringing people from different professions together to work in cross-functional teams may cause the needed innovative frictions. Such teamwork may contribute to develop routines for tracing products embedded in existing food supply and tracking systems. The development of quality food product traceability should include experts in inter-organizational development, logistics, ICT, and food distribution and marketing. This list is by no means exhaustive and needs to be adapted to actual case settings.Teamwork as opposed to \"knowledge management\" is therefore proposed. Human resources need to be placed in focus to develop food product traceability since it is in different humans the relatively unruly and different needed competencies reside. This is proposed as the first stepping stone to operationally solving the problem of developing food product traceability.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop a more precise conceptual understanding of the interplay between food product traceability and supply network integration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A resource-based network approach was used to create a framework with empirical evidence from a fresh strawberry product case.\nFindings: - A conceptual model describes product traceability as interacting with different organizational and informational resources.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is a preliminary model that substantiates a cross-functional approach teamwork-based to developing product traceability.\nOriginality/value: - The study shows developing food product traceability as a complex undertaking dependent on information connectivity including a technical aspect of supply chain integration, and different forms of knowledge, an organizational aspect of supply chain integration.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
100 research rules of the game: How to make your research world class; how to successfully publish in top international refereed journals	[ "Research", "Rules of the game", "Publishing research", "Writing research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction to, and philosophy behind, the 100 research rules of the game: It is important for doctoral students, early career researchers and even more senior colleagues to know the basic, and at times minor, pedantic principles required to successfully publish research - what I call the \"rules of the game[1],[2]\". These basic principles are ones I have learned and am still learning from colleagues and through trial and (a lot of) error. I share these rules with the intention of helping those at an earlier stage in their career to learn the principles which are often so taken for granted that they remain unspoken, tacit knowledge.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: There are several basic, and at times minor, pedantic principles required to successfully publish in good-quality international peer-reviewed journals. These are what the author calls the \"rules of the game\". Many are so basic, so taken-for-granted, tacit knowledge, that at times supervisors do not tell their students about them. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author has assembled 100 research rules of the game from her work over many years with doctoral students and early career researchers. Each rule is accompanied by short advice. Additional citations are included directing readers to further resources on the 100 research rules of the game.\nFindings: The paper documents 100 research rules of the game.\nResearch limitations/implications: There are many other rules of the game not included in the author's list of 100 research rules of the game.\nOriginality/value: This paper is a one-stop-shop brief introduction to the author's 100 research rules of the game.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Review and discussion of production assurance program	[ "Quality assurance", "Production management", "Reliability management", "Energy industry" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Customers are interested in purchasing product as per specification, in the correct quantity, and of the correct quality, at the specified time. To meet customer requirements, production processes must be able to manufacture and deliver the product as per specifications. Modern production systems are often large, complex, automated, and integrated. Failures are likely to occur more or less frequently in such systems. For a production plant, the consequences of failure include the high cost of equipment maintenance, possible loss of production, and exposure to accidents. Failure can also lead to annoyance, inconvenience and a lasting customer dissatisfaction that can play havoc with the responsible company's position in the marketplace. Therefore, making correct decisions in a dynamic business environment is a major challenge for production plant engineers and managers all over the world. Such a situation necessitates tools and engineering solutions to minimize the total business risk and reduce uncertainties through assurance of world-class production plant performance, which can ensure that the right level of production can be obtained in order to meet customer demands.Reliability and maintainability analysis techniques have proved to be effective tools during both the design and operation of a production plant. There is literature covering reliability programs for different industries, but not specifically addressing the issues related to production and production availability; see, for example, Knowles et al. (1995), Klinger et al. (1992), Hagen (2006), Lentz (1995), Pecht et al. (2002), Guthrie et al. (1990), and Ke and Hwang (1997). Many of the concepts related to reliability and maintainability are covered in the following standards:* Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1998, 1999);* National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1998);* International Atomic Energy Agency (2001);* International Electrotechnical Commission (2001);* International Electrotechnical Commission (2006a), etc.The main focus of these standards and literature is on the process of ensuring a reliable product and production plant as well as reducing system uncertainty. However, the issues of production availability, which are critical for meeting customer requirements, which may in turn increase risk and uncertainties in decision-making, are not considered in these standards.In this paper, to deal with these issues, the concept of production regularity, which was introduced by the Norwegian oil and gas industry (Norwegian Technology Standards Institution, 1998) to assess the delivery capability of production plants, is further developed by extending the concept of dependability to include capacity performance and customer requirements or market demand. A key document for regularity concepts is the Norsok Z-016 (Norwegian Technology Standards Institution, 1998) standard entitled \"Regularity management and reliability technology\". In 2008, a new ISO standard (ISO 20815) entitled \"Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries - Production assurance and reliability management\" (International Organization for Standardization, 2008) was issued based on the Norsok Z-016 standard. In the Norsok Z-016 standard the concept of \"regularity\" is defined as \"A term used to describe how a system is capable of meeting demand for deliveries or performance\". In the ISO 20815 standard the term \"production assurance\" replaces the \"regularity\" concept and is defined as \"activities implemented to achieve and maintain a performance that is at its optimum in terms of the overall economy and at the same time consistent with applicable framework conditions\". However, most of the literature published is based on the Norsok Z-016 standard and focuses on the model and method for production performance analysis (see, for example, Aven, 1987; Hokstad, 1988; Aven, 1989; Rausand, 1998; Signoret, 1998; Kawauchi and Rausand, 2002; Zio et al., 2006). However, how to implement and execute such concept on a detailed level is not discussed, and engineers and managers may face many problems in the implementation and execution process. The new ISO standard provides \"processes and activities, requirements and guidelines for systematic management, effective planning, execution and use of production assurance and reliability technology\" (International Organization for Standardization, 2008). However, in this paper we are more interested in the principle behind these tools. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to review, discuss and further develop the production assurance (PA) concept, and to define and describe a typical production assurance program (PAP) and its elements.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the concept of PA is reviewed and discussed. The purpose of the presentation is not to give a complete overview of existing theories, but to introduce the reader to the relationship between the concept of PA and the dependability concept. This cannot be achieved simply by referring the reader to the published literature, since the points to be made are not properly addressed in a useful way. In the following section, a typical PAP will be defined and various elements of PAP will be identified and discussed. A number of issues related to each element of PAP will be discussed, using examples from the offshore oil and gas industry as illustrations. A subsequent section contains further discussion, while a final section contains conclusions.\nThe production assurance concept: Capacity performance and dependability are both important dimensions of the delivery capability of a production plant. In general, functions such as operation, logistics and maintenance play a central role in assuring availability and building a strong delivery capability. However, the concept of system availability as described in the dependability concept (International Electrotechnical Commission, 2001) does not provide any information about capacity, production rate or deliverability. Therefore, it is not adequate for measuring a plant's ability to deliver according to what is promised to customers and the market. If, for example, one has a production plant availability of 90 percent, the plant capacity and production rate may be less than desired (e.g. due to process capacity bottlenecks, reduced functional efficiency due to aging, reduced effectiveness due to the use of old technology, or due to ineffective process organization), and the production performance goals may not be achieved. Therefore, a new concept should be developed to consider dependability and capacity performance with respect to customer demand.Hence, to deal with this issue, in this paper the concept of dependability is linked to the concept of production assurance, which should include capacity performance and customer requirements or market demand, as shown in Figure 1.Review and discussion of the dependability concept\nDevelopment of a production assurance program: A production assurance program (PAP) can be used for implementation of the production assurance concept. As a typical PAP is not defined yet in a systematic way, this section defines a typical PAP and present and discusses different elements of PAP based on an explorative literature study. The program describes the PA activities necessary to fulfill the objectives, how they will be carried out, by whom, and when. These activities provide input to decisions about conceptualization, design, manufacturing, construction, installation, operation, and maintenance. The PAP is influenced by the policies of the organization, the product being developed, and practices unique to the organization. These policies cause the PAP to vary from organization to organization and from product to product. However, there are some common features which will be examined in the rest of this section. According to Barabady and Aven (2008), a PAP can be defined as follows:A PAP is a formal management system, which assures the collection of important information about plant performance throughout each phase of the plant's life cycle, and which directs the use of this information in the implementation of analytical and management processes which are specifically designed to meet two specific objectives:* Confirmation that the plant is expected to attain, or continues to attain, each of its performance goals (e.g. production availability, deliverability, technical integrity, reliability, etc.) to reduce the total business risks and to meet customer demands and achieve profit goals while conforming HSE requirements.* Identification of opportunities and cost-effective ways to implement and execute improvement actions needed to enhance production availability performance, reduce risks and uncertainties, and improve profits, efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity.The PAP will focus on the allocation of resources available for performance improvement in those areas where the economic return is largest, or/and to optimize the design and operation of the plant.It should be noted that the objectives of a PAP are related to the optimum overall economic performance of the equipment during a system's life cycle phases, as well as the reduction of health, safety, and environmental risks, quality improvement, and considerations related to human factors and customer satisfaction. Based on a literature review as well as discussions with a number of experts in industrial companies in Sweden and Norway, we define the following four broad functional elements for a typical PAP:* establishment of goals, performance criteria, and requirements;* management program and implementation procedures;* production assurance assessment methods; and* information management and decision making system.These elements will be discussed in the following four subsections.Establishment of goals, requirements and performance criteria\nDiscussion: As mentioned, the main objective of a PAP for a production plant is to ensure that the right production level is obtained. A PAP can be used as a tool not only for documenting a production plant's performance, but also for providing decision support for optimization and development of the production plant to improve its performance and to reduce risk and uncertainties. The output of a PAP can be used in financial planning, cost-benefit evaluations, and sales contract negotiations. PAPs are also a valuable tool for creating maintenance and operation strategies for production plants.In a PAP, the starting point is the definition of goals and requirements. Goals are more internally driven and may or may not be reached achieved. Requirements, on the other hand, are more specific and often customer-driven. Goals can be modified to satisfy requirements. It should be noted that goals have different dimensions that may be in conflict. Thus, an overall evaluation needs to be performed, balancing all the dimensions to obtain a good decision. However, transforming overall PAP goals into specific requirements is complicated. For example, consider an offshore installation producing oil and gas: the gas from the water and oil coming from the well, separated by the separation unit, is first compressed by two turbocompressors (TCs), then dehydrated through a triethylene glycol (TEG) unit, and finally exported. Based on these functions, the sub-level requirements can be defined as: the separation unit and the triethylene glycol (TEG) unit shall have a minimum probability of function at a demand x (e.g. 6x106 Sm3/d).Instead of a sharp definition of requirements, ranges of probability may be used. For requirements stated in this manner to be meaningful, they must not be seen as a sharp cutoff; instead, the analyst should always look for alternatives and then evaluate their performances. Then, depending on the situation, different levels of requirements may be acceptable. This principle can be applied for all functions, and using this approach, the high-level requirements (which could be described as \"confidence in meeting the goals\") are ensured. In general, the PAP must focus on the functions or specific tasks and missions of design elements instead of the design elements themselves. This is because a particular design element can perform several functions, and the consequences of the failure of one function are likely to be quite different from the consequences of the failure of another function.This study has shown it is a challenge to implement and apply PAPs in a practical setting, given the lack of implementation guidelines. How to implement and apply PAP in a pragmatic way and on a detailed level, especially for application areas other than the petroleum industry, remains to be clarified. Furthermore, it is not clear (due to lack of information) how to design for PA in the design phase as well as how to manage and improve PA in the operation phase. However, to improve PA, it is always necessary to look for alternatives, to evaluate their performances, and, depending on the result of this evaluation, to accept the best alternative.Existing methods and tools for production plant performance analysis and management have been primarily developed for the planning phases, specifically for the petroleum sector. Further research must extend these tools and methods into the operational phases to be able to incorporate in more detail aspects related to operation and maintenance strategy. This research could be based partly on well-established theories and methodology developed within the field of reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) over the last decades. However, further research and development is necessary to be able to analyze and manage this challenge, as these new application areas require a more holistic and a more specific approach. Generally there is a gap between theory and applications in this field. One of the main challenges in implementing existing approaches is to find a balance between simplicity of models and methods, and models and methods that have a sufficient theoretical basis.The question is: how will the system perform in the future from the PA point of view, and how can uncertainty be reduced using the PAP? It is important to ensure that the PAP information is adequate for decision-making, and that the information is provided in a cost-effective and timely manner. How to deal with identified uncertainties when conducting PA analyses for a production plant remains a challenge. The uncertainty in the predictions made during the initial design stages can be expected to be relatively high because of the lack of design detail. As the design becomes more detailed, relevant generic data can be used to obtain more accurate predictions. Finally, as sufficient testing and operating data become available, the uncertainties in the predictions will be further reduced (for more discussion, see Hjorteland et al., 2007). It should also be noted that the effectiveness of a PAP depends upon the quality, accessibility, and fidelity of the information used to provide feedback to the management systems about how well they are performing and where to make improvements. Experiences from the operational phase of a production plant should be transferred to parties involved in the design phase of new and similar plants to stimulate improvements. This includes a review of assumptions made for the predictions in the design phase in comparison to actual conditions experienced during operation, including operational principles and maintenance logistics.\nConclusions: This first part of this paper described the concept of PA by means of an exploratory literature survey related mainly to the offshore oil and gas industry. However, the findings can be transferred to other application areas. The paper suggests that a combination of the capacity performance, customer demand and dependability concepts can be used to describe PA. Therefore, PA provides a more comprehensive measure of a production plant's real performance as compared to system availability performance as it provides information about the production plant's delivery capacity, production rate and ability to deliver according to design or customer demands. Hence, the concept of PA helps the decision maker to estimate whether a production plant is able to meet the customer requirements or not.The second part of this paper defined and described a typical production assurance program (PAP). The implementation of such programme can play an important role in support decision-making processes for managers and engineers dealing with challenges in meeting customer demand and production control as well as in reducing uncertainty in daily operation and maintenance decisions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to review, discuss and further develop the production assurance (PA) concept; and to define and describe a typical production assurance program (PAP) and its elements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An explorative literature study covering PA and dependability concept was carried out on contemporary literature. During the course of the study, meetings and discussions with a number of experts in Sweden and Norway were performed. Different types of data and examples from the oil and gas industries are used to illustrate and support the discussions.\nFindings: - This paper indicates that the concept of PA helps the decision maker to estimate whether a production plant is able to meet customer requirements, as it provides information about the production plant's delivery capacity, production rate and ability to deliver according to design or customer demands. PAP can provide a basis for effective production control.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The material analysed was mainly related to the oil and gas industry. However, the findings and discussion can be transferred to other areas of application, such as mine production plants and chemical process plants.\nPractical implications: - A PAP is a valuable tool for production plant managers and engineers, not only for documenting a production plant's performance, but also for providing decision support for the development and optimization of the production plant to improve the plant's performance and reduce risk and uncertainties.\nOriginality/value: - In this paper the concept of dependability is extended to include capacity performance and customer requirements or market demand, which provides a measure for delivery assurance or plant production performance in relation to customer requirements. This paper also develops a generic PAP to achieve a high level of delivery assurance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing and validating a common body of knowledge for information privacy	[ "Information privacy", "Common body of knowledge (CBK)", "Internet users’ education and training" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the modern era of internet, rapid technological advances have improved aspects of the human life (Lin, 2016). The internet offers new opportunities for individuals, such as e-commerce and social networks. In addition to personal computers, mobile devices, such as smartphones, allow users to access various services in a ubiquitous manner (Lohr et al., 2009). However, along with the new opportunities, new threats to security and privacy have also emerged, which are growing rapidly in number and complexity (Bannister, 2005; Lohr et al., 2009).\n2. Related work: 2.1 Related work on information privacy awareness and education\n3. The methodology for the development of the InfoPrivacy common body of knowledge: We initiated this research by examining existing CBKs from various backgrounds (i.e. academic, industrial, governmental) and various fields (e.g. information security and assurance, information security and critical infrastructures, information systems security, software assurance, cloud computing and Big Data). The study of the aforementioned CBKs helped to build an understanding about the structure of the CBK for Information Privacy.\n4. The proposed InfoPrivacy common body of knowledge: In this section we present the proposed InfoPrivacy CBK. We selected to use conceptual maps as an efficient mean for concept depiction, with the utilization of the software Inspiration Version 9.0. First, we analyze the 1st level concepts and then we present the detailed concepts. The concepts corresponding to the 1st level of InfoPrivacy CBK analysis are represented using blue shapes, those in the 2nd level are pink, while the 3rd and 4th levels of the analysis are pale yellow and green, respectively.\n5. The validation of InfoPrivacy common body of knowledge by experts: 5.1 Validation methodology\n6. Discussion: In this paper we proposed a new CBK for information privacy, titled InfoPrivacy CBK, to address the research gap of enabling information privacy awareness, training and education programs. The InfoPrivacy CBK can become the basis for the design of such programs to provide internet users with the necessary skills to understand the meaning and importance of information privacy, become aware of privacy threats in various online contexts and also to address privacy threats in their everyday life online activities. More specifically, in this section we aim to provide recommendations for awareness and education programs instructed by the state or enterprises. We also aim to highlight underexplored research areas and urge the research community to investigate them.\n7. Conclusion: In this work, a CBK for information privacy, called InfoPrivacy CBK, was developed and validated, in a field where no such research effort has been recorded. InfoPrivacy CBK includes five domains and four levels of analysis. It is illustrated with conceptual maps. Following the development of the proposed CBK, this study included an empirical validation with the participation of seven information privacy experts in Greece. The experts evaluated InfoPrivacy CBK largely positively both in terms of its structure and content and the extent to which it achieved its intended goals.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to present a common body of knowledge (CBK) for the field of information privacy, titled InfoPrivacy CBK. The purpose of the proposed CBK is to guide internet users to better understand the concept of information privacy and associate information privacy-related concepts. The InfoPrivacy CBK was created with an educational orientation to provide the basis for designing privacy awareness and training programs and organizing relevant educational material.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed CBK for information privacy was developed conceptually and includes five domains and four levels of analysis. It is illustrated with conceptual maps. The authors identified a variety of concepts related to information privacy and created a set of categories to categorize the concepts. They used, as inclusion criteria, both theoretical and practical information privacy aspects, so that the developed CBK can address the challenges of modern technologies for preserving information privacy.\nFindings: To validate and refine the conceptually developed CBK, the authors conducted an empirical research, in which seven information privacy experts participated. The experts commented largely positively for the structure and content of InfoPrivacy CBK, as well as for the extent to which it achieves the intended educational goals.\nResearch limitations/implications: The proposed InfoPrivacy CBK was validated by a limited number of information privacy experts, mainly due to the lengthy and in-depth participation that was required.\nPractical implications: The InfoPrivacy CBK can be used primarily by privacy awareness and training programs developers, such as organizations, data protection officers, the state, educational policy makers and teachers.\nSocial implications: Internet users will benefit from InfoPrivacy CBK by acquiring knowledge and skills from theoretically grounded training programs, which can enhance their awareness and critical thinking on issues related to the protection of their information privacy. This will lead to more privacy-aware online societies, communities, networks, etc.\nOriginality/value: This work intends to bridge the existing gap in the literature through the creation of a novel CBK for information privacy; information privacy is a field for which no such research effort has been recorded. This paper offers important knowledge in the field of information privacy, which could be useful to both technological education designers and learners (students, employees, etc.).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A change management approach to evaluating ICT investment initiatives	[ "Change management", "Communication technologies", "Investments" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of the need for organisations to develop robust and responsive information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructures to support organisational planning and control is now widely accepted (Irani, 2002). ICT is no longer viewed as a technical \"service\", but is regarded as a critical resource that leads to organisational value (Kohli and Devaraj, 2004), and is essential to being competitive in almost any industry or market (David et al., 2002). Following prolonged periods of heavy investment, most organisations are now fundamentally dependent upon their ICT infrastructures and the systems they support (Ward and Peppard, 2002). ICT-related investment has risen to the extent that most organisations have seen this become an important category of total organisational expenditure (David et al., 2002; Fitzgerald, 1998), with heavy financial outlay often being made on the expectation that this activity will automatically result in organisational value and benefit (Gibson, 2003). However, it is often the case that ICT-related investment does not deliver value or meet business objectives (Fitzgerald, 1998), and indeed regularly results in new problems being introduced in place of old ones with the expected business benefits not being realised (Love and Irani, 2004). This perception of widespread ICT failure is not new, being described by Fincham (2002) as a long-standing problem, reflecting a general incapacity to deliver. The reasons for such underperformance are varied, but according to Gibson (2003), are either technology- or business-related. Technical problems (such as projects expanding due to scope creep, or becoming bogged down due to the complexity of integrating products, legacy systems, and new data), can generally be contained and corrected prior to significant negative business impact occurring. However, business problems (such as not developing new workflow processes, not adapting the structure of the organisation, and keeping old cultural practices in place even when they impede new ways of working) are not easily rectified.Given the high levels of expenditure associated with ICT and the fact that ICT projects often compete with other projects for funding, the ability to be able to evaluate investments effectively is probably of greater importance today than at any time in the past (Fitzgerald, 1998). Managers are routinely requested to conduct ex ante (predictive) and ex post (retrospective) evaluation of ICT initiatives in order to justify expenditure and explain business benefits (Torkzadeh and Doll, 1999), and there is no shortage of literature explaining how to conduct such evaluations, with hundreds of models available (Tavana, 2003). However, despite the availability of this plethora of methods and techniques, empirical studies demonstrate that organisations continue to experience problems (Renkema and Berghout, 1997), management struggles to evaluate projects (Kleist, 2003), and measurement of ICT investment payoff remains a challenge for businesses (Bannister and Remenyi, 2000). Although much research has previously focused on ICT investment and its various failings, continuing under-performance and implementation concerns suggests that there are still substantive recurring problems that need to be addressed (Scott and Vessey, 2002). These ongoing difficulties, and the perceived lack of benefits resulting from ICT investment, suggest that existing forms of ICT evaluation - particularly ex ante evaluation (which is intended to be predictive and hence forecast in some way the likelihood of success of a particular investment) - may not be entirely appropriate.In additional to the apparent limitations of existing evaluation techniques, a further recurring problem associated with failed ICT-based investment is poor change management (Willcocks and Griffiths, 1997; Sherer et al., 2003). While it is recognised that real benefit occurs only when ICT investment is accompanied by necessary business change (Gibson, 2003), and that understanding the corresponding changes required within an organisation is fundamental to the understanding of the role of ICT in adding value to organisational initiatives (Powell and DentMicallef, 1997), the management of change before and during the implementation of ICT is a complementary activity that has generally been overlooked in the ICT payoff literature (Sherer et al., 2003). There is therefore clearly a need for additional investigation in this area.The aim of this paper is to contribute to the body of work in this under-researched area by presenting a framework designed to facilitate greater understanding of ICT investment initiatives and their implications by analysing them in terms of key themes derived from a study of the literature of change and change management. It is not argued that the framework be used to replace existing evaluation techniques, but that the information revealed through its use can better inform the evaluation process. A case study is presented to illustrate the empirical use of the framework, along with a series of proposals for additional investigation.\n2. Literature review and framework: The extant literature on ICT evaluation suggests that despite the wide variety of models and methods available, numerous and diverse problems remain, indicating that existing approaches could be improved. Indeed, Renkema and Berghout (1997) claim that these models (particularly ex ante non-financial) are often derived from a single case study, lack a theoretical basis and do not build on existing knowledge. The ICT project literature highlights the crucial role of effective change management during the process of investment and implementation, yet there is relatively little material available that deals explicitly with the subject of change as complementary activity. In this section we provide an overview of the literature relating to ICT evaluation and to the concept of change. We conclude the section by presenting a framework (derived from a study of existing literature, hence intended to partly address the criticisms of Renkema and Berghout, 1997) designed to facilitate understanding of ICT investment initiatives and to contribute to their evaluation.2.1 Evaluating ICT initiatives\n3. Case study context: The organisation forming the focus of this investigation operates within the public sector in the UK, and receives its funding (indirectly) from the UK central government. The study focuses specifically upon the replacement of the organisation's financial system, and consequently the implementation of changes to its information systems infrastructure and working practices. Details of the organisation have been anonymised in order to disguise the research site and protect the positions of participants. Some months before this study took place, the organisation appointed a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who entered an extremely hierarchical and status-conscious environment. Immediately upon his arrival, the new CEO embarked upon a series of one-to-one meetings with senior management, and as a result of this activity, the organisation planned a major restructuring which would result in the dismantling and subsequent merger of numerous departments and support units. As a direct consequence of this activity, substantial numbers of staff would be displaced and redeployed elsewhere within the organisation. This restructuring activity took place over a period of 18 months, the latter third overlapping with the initiation phase of the change project that forms the focus of this study.\n4. Methodology: Previous research has highlighted the significance of the human and organisational issues involved with ICT evaluation, and the changes in social, political and cultural subsystems brought about by ICT investment (Ryan and Harrison, 2000; Ryan et al., 2002). However, the complexity of change as a phenomenon is beyond doubt (Peters, 1992), and when coupled with the concept of ICT evaluation, it presents a multifaceted and complicated problem domain necessitating a research approach that recognises the varying epistemological assumptions that underpin these areas.Given that this paper presents an investigation into the potential value to ICT evaluation of developing an understanding of ICT initiatives from a change management perspective, there was a need to employ a research methodology that was sensitive to the human, organisational, political and cultural aspects, and one which was capable of facilitating the unearthing of the various stakeholder viewpoints, values and experiences embedded within this complex set of circumstances. We consequently employed an interpretive case study approach (Orlikowski and Baroudi, 1991). The case study is the method of choice when the phenomenon under investigation (in this case, the instance of change) is not readily distinguishable from its context (Yin, 1993), and indeed may be a manifestation of the values, culture, and behaviour of stakeholders within that context. In accordance with this, our aim was to use the framework as a sensitising instrument (Miles and Huberman, 1994; Robson, 2002; Yin, 1993) in order to appraise and review the components of the framework (previously derived from a critical review of the change management literature) within the context of the case study.The unit of analysis facilitates comparison of results with those from cases that focus upon the same unit of analysis (Yin, 1993), and given that our aim was to assess the validity of the framework, the unit of analysis was the change initiative. However, given that opportunistic rather than systematic sampling was employed, we acknowledge limitations in terms of generalising our findings to a wider population. Instead, we offer detailed examination of processes in context, which Hartley (1994) argues can help to specify the conditions under which behaviour is likely to occur. A common strategy to achieving construct validity is the use of multiple measures of the same construct within the same study (Yin, 1993). Our use of multiple sources of evidence and data collection methods (and hence our approach to achieving construct validity) are discussed below.4.1 Data collection\n5. Results and discussion: Most ex ante investigation takes place during the initiation phase of change. The results presented in this section are derived from the data gathered during the initiation stage of the project, and reflect the views of the researchers. The views of the user-base and management team are also presented where appropriate.5.1 The ex ante evaluation\n6. Conclusions, limitations, and future research: Given the integral position of ICT in organisational processes, and the fact that most organisations are now fundamentally dependent upon their ICT infrastructures, effective ex ante ICT evaluation is clearly an important activity. This, coupled with the view that true business benefit from ICT occurs only when ICT investment is accompanied by necessary business change, suggests that it is highly appropriate to exploit the literature on change when developing new approaches to ICT evaluation.This paper has presented such an evaluative framework, being based upon theories of change and corresponding to a three-phase model of change implementation. We have endeavored to test the validity of the framework by applying it to a real-world instance of systems change. Results indicate that although the framework is not a panacea (and we recognise the limitations of a single study), it can assist in identifying areas of concern that have routinely caused problems in change management projects, and if undetected, have the potential to develop into instances of Gibson's (2003) technical or business-related failure.In the case provided, use of the framework assisted in the identification of a number of key areas of concern. However, it must be conceded that the framework did not provide any indication that implementation would be plagued by technical problems and would incur significant indirect costs. We therefore contend that although the paper realises its aim of contributing to the body of work in an under-researched area, we acknowledge that there is still much work to do.We also recognise a number of limitations associated with the investigation - for instance, in terms of external validity, results generated from a single study are clearly limited. We also acknowledge that it is unclear what impact (if any) the restructuring exercise had on the project to replace the financial system. Although we were aware of the restructuring exercise during our investigation, it was not possible to focus specifically upon this aspect. Clearly it would be useful in future to employ the framework in a context that is not experiencing other significant parallel changes.We also recognise that it would be desirable in future to conduct a longitudinal study in order to employ the framework during both ex ante and ex post evaluation activities for a single initiative. Other areas for future activity include further development of the framework to include consideration of the influence of parallel change initiatives, and consideration of more detailed and formal reflection of the people aspects.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Despite the availability of methods and techniques designed to assist with predictive and retrospective evaluation of ICT initiatives, management continues to struggle to perform meaningful evaluations, and the measurement of ICT investment payoff remains a challenge. A recurring problem associated with failed ICT-based investment is poor change management. This paper aims to focus on the value of understanding the change management aspects of ICT investments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A framework was developed from a study of the change management literature. An empirical investigation involving a qualitative case study approach was then conducted in order to assess the efficacy of the framework during the evaluation process.\nFindings: - Business benefit from ICT is likely only when ICT investment is accompanied by appropriate change management skills. The study highlights the particular importance of communication, championing and change agency, resources, and the project timescale.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Results were generated from a single case study. It is also acknowledged that it is unclear what impact (if any) a parallel project had on the project under investigation.\nPractical implications: - The paper highlights the value of effective change management, placing particular emphasis on effective communication during all stages of a project.\nOriginality/value: - The paper explicitly employs change management techniques in order to identify potential problem areas. It recommends longitudinal research be conducted in order to employ the framework during both ex ante and ex post evaluation for a single initiative.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring the gap between policy and practice in private branding strategy management in an emerging market	[ "Emerging markets", "Marketing strategies", "Private branding", "Retail chain" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The idea offered in the middle of the nineteenth century that retailers should market products under their own brand names has now become a global phenomenon (Herstein and Gamliel, 2004). Originally perceived as low-priced alternatives to more established brand names, today many retailers are shifting their own-brand offerings to more upmarket premium brands to better reflect their store personality and the image they wish to portray to the public (Huang and Huddleston, 2009). This shift forms part of a long evolutionary process surrounding brands which reflects on five key historical eras: the emergence of private brands (1840-1860), the decline of private brands (1861-1928), the rise of private brands (1929-1945), the stability of private brands (1946-1975), and the competitive nature of private vs manufacturer brands (1976 to-date) (Herstein and Gamliel, 2004).\nLiterature review: The influence of private brands on retail chains\nResearch methodology: The food retailing industry in Israel is highly competitive and is characterized by narrow operating margins. Small-scale private brand retailing began in the 1980s with only a few players. Today, the industry consists of two large chains which have their own private-label product lines and there also exist a number of smaller supermarket chains that have established an entity in order to improve their bargaining power with suppliers.\nAnalysis: The data analysis revealed a series of eight factors that tended to prohibit this chain's marketing efforts of private-label goods (see Table II). The factors that were found are related to the conduct of implementing private-label brand strategies. We now discuss each of them in detail and in the discussion section will highlight some alternative explanations to account for the difference between penetration levels in emerging vs developed country contexts, thus supporting our next findings.\nGap 1: retail chain philosophy foundations: Previous research suggests that having a strategy to promote private brands can bring benefits to retailers in terms of differentiating themselves from competitors, as well as contributing further to enhance the retailer's image (Ailawadi et al., 2008; Collins-Dodd and Lindley, 2003). The retail chain management's declaration is that private branding is one of the three foundations of its marketing philosophy, which sits alongside service and atmosphere, as captured by the marketing director's comments (as follows):Our business philosophy is based on three basic foundations: service, atmosphere and private brands [...] Without private brands, we cannot differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Private branding is no less than a strategic device for our retail chain. If in the past retailers believed that it is enough to differentiate themselves by offering good service to their shoppers and offering them a nice atmosphere, today these aspects are not powerful enough since they can be copied very quickly and everybody today uses these buzz-words. Therefore, we believe that our own-label products are our most powerful device to differentiate ourselves.\nGap 2: product development strategy: Previous research has referred to the number of private-label product categories which the retailer operates in as being a factor that influences overall sales (Putsis and Cotterill, 1999). Offering a large number of private-label categories for retailers signals some degree of commitment, quality, and less perceived risk associated with having to rely or depend upon national-label manufacturers. The importance of private-label diversity is well recognized by the chain's senior management as expressed by the marketing director:Shoppers greatly appreciate a retail chain that provides them with a variety of good quality products at fair prices and as long as the retail chain knows how to supply private-labels in any category, it makes it a real powerful retail chain compared with its competitors.\nGap 3: information management approach: Most participants stressed the importance of implementing a private branding strategy holistically whereby each store manager should know exactly how to implement the strategy. In practice, store managers claimed that they were left to their own devices in terms of implementing the chain's private branding strategy. This meant they were not working to any basic system that followed up on any previous success or failure. According to store managers, they were left to contact and update each other regarding their own success stories in a rather sporadic fashion. When one manager was successful, s/he may contact other store managers to communicate such information. This did not reach senior management as there was no requirement. One store manager succinctly described the feelings of the store managers regarding the information management approach (or lack of it):We know that essential information about one store manager's private brand sales' success doesn't reach all the store managers since we can't contact everyone around the country. It is very frustrating that senior management manages this in an unprofessional way. This information is key to the success of marketing our own-brands. We can learn a lot from processing such information, and it is expected that senior management should analyze it and distribute this information to every store manager in the country.\nGap 4: employee participation: Through proactively engaging employees with work processes, retailers can leverage performance advantages (Rucci et al., 1998). Senior management is well aware of the need for employees to contribute in order for private-label sales to be successful. The chain believes the most useful way to promote private brands is by getting employees to push such produce ahead of national brands. The marketing director confirmed:Our store managers know exactly what we expect them to know and we expect them to understand that each stores' employees should act as ambassadors and market our own-labels to our shoppers.\nGap 5: pricing policy: Several studies have illustrated the importance of positioning private brands as low-price alternatives (Hoch et al., 1994; Sethuraman and Cole, 1999). The main reason for purchasing such goods is their price attractiveness when being compared to national brands. Senior management at this retail chain is aware of this issue and realises that such produce cannot possibly compete with national brands if the price difference between the two offerings is not realistic enough. Store managers believe that good prices will attract more shoppers but in practice, consumers do not see a significant difference between national and private brand prices. In some instances it seems that the reverse is true with private brands being more expensive than national brands. The importance of low prices is also reflected in the official financial reports of the company:[...] we believe that an important factor in the purchase decisions of a large portion of the Israeli public is the price of the products it purchases.\nGap 6: place policy: Previous research has demonstrated the significant relationship between shelf space allocation and sales performance (Lim et al., 2002; Dubelaar et al., 2001; Nogales and Suarez, 2005). Giving more and better shelf space to private labels over national brands increases their visibility and the likelihood of purchase, for example placing them on eye-level shelves and close to national brands (Hoch, 1996).\nGap 7: promotion policy: For the purpose of achieving low-cost structures, retailers often avoided expenditure on private-label advertising (Baltas, 1997). In a recent empirical study, it was found that the variance in private-label penetration can be attributed to differences in advertising intensity (Nenycz-Thiel, 2011). According to the retail chain's management declaration regarding promotion policies for private brands, priority is supposedly given to its own-label products at the expense of national brands. However, store managers claim that the policy is not being implemented as senior management forces the most prominent national manufacturers to pay for the retail chain's printed advertising campaigns. Such advertisements carry the retail chain's logo but heavily promote national brands. The store managers regard this policy as a mistake, as it contradicts the company's overall policy. One store manager expressed his views:When our shoppers get our leaflet, they can't see any part which mentions our private brands. This is absurd! Instead of promoting our own brands we give full exposure to the national brands in our brochures and leaflets.\nGap 8: quality policy: In the last two decades private-label products in developed countries have moved fundamentally upmarket (Geyskens et al., 2010). Such products are no longer just low-priced alternatives to national brands and today retailers manage their private label lines with more consistency, and as a result, store image, customer loyalty, and retail sales have all increased (Braak et al., 2013).\nConclusions and managerial implications: The main aim of this study was to investigate the reasons surrounding low-penetration rates of private-label goods within an emerging market context. The previous literature has suggested that some predetermined conditions may exist which influence the prevalence of private-label products. In order to strengthen our findings, we will briefly summarize several reasons relating to such low-penetration rates.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Private-label goods are now available in more than 55 countries worldwide and their total sales value is estimated to be in excess of one trillion US dollars. The prevalence of such goods, however, drastically differs across countries. Whilst market share in some developed economies exceeds 50 percent, penetration appears much lower in emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate marketing issues surrounding such low-penetration levels in emerging markets.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews were conducted with: 36 store managers and the marketing director of a large emerging market retail chain.\nFindings: Eight factors were found to impede the retail chain's vision regarding implementation of the private branding strategy.\nPractical implications: Several implications are extracted from the study, mainly in the context of emerging markets that managers should consider in order to improve their private branding strategies.\nOriginality/value: Although some research has aimed to shed light concerning the significance of private brands from retailers' perspectives, such research has not tended to address the issue of how to implement private brand strategies in emerging markets. To bridge the gap, this study investigates these issues from a retail chain management perspective in order to potentially leverage performance advantages associated with the nurturing of private-label branded goods.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Knowledge fixation and accretion: longitudinal analysis of a social question-answering site	[ "Communities", "Individual behaviour", "Knowledge processes", "CQA", "Q&A" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Social question-answering (Q&A) sites provide a platform for users to post questions on general or more specialist topics and receive answers from the community of users. Curated Q&A thread pages then become a resource of value more widely to web users looking for the same, or similar solutions to problems. Aspects of gamification and collaborative filtering - introducing game-like features of point scoring, achievement badges and rankings for asking and answering queries, and allowing users to vote on others' contributions - are common in these sites, and act as an incentive for members to provide answers. At the same time, they shape the way the information resource evolves and appears to the web user on subsequent visits. While the time to \"populate\" a question-answer resource may be quite short (fixation) a question will remain open for subsequent interaction, to be further enhanced, rated or edited by the community (accretion).\nDesirable norms and architecture for a knowledge commons: Online, social Q&A lowers the barriers of entry to a community of knowledge to a simple interest and willingness to contribute. Social Q&A provides an online analogue of a social epistemological system, with community members providing \"testimony\" as to the best answer to a question. The foremost theorists in social epistemology regard their field as normative, in providing a framework for an epistemological system to converge on the truth (Goldman, 1999). Conditions of such systems include inclusivity, diversity and authority. A system should be inclusive, in allowing anyone to contribute testimony. It should be diverse, in encouraging a range of opinion on which the information seeker can draw. It should be authoritative, in that users should be able to gauge the authority of the testifier and their warrant for knowledge (Matthews and Simon, 2012).\nSocial Q&A and user motivations: Sites such as Stack Overflow attract two overlapping yet partially distinct user groups - those seeking answers and those providing them (Mamykina et al., 2011). Askers vary from relative experts to beginners and are often engaged in a software development project at the time of asking (where the problem in question may be inhibiting progress). Answerers similarly vary in expertise and experience but are usually interested in providing answers to unanswered or \"active\" questions on topics within their personal range of knowledge - where active implies those recently posted or commented on. A third group of more passive users will subsequently view the question/answer threads but not interact with them. Frequently, these people will be software developers having similar issues to the original poster.\nQuality in social Q&A: I have outlined desirable qualities of knowledge exchange at the philosophical level and in terms of user motivations. One way to establish how well these are being met is to develop metrics and quality evaluation techniques that operate over sets of user-contributed content. Tradeoffs between speed and quality are of particular interest to the present study.\nBias and the effects of voting, community size and use of gamified interfaces: So quality is multidimensional and related to speed in ways that may enhance or reduce user satisfaction. We need to further understand how these architected social systems, respectively, support speed and quality and thereby shape the resource over time. In general, a number of forms of bias - both epistemically positive and negative - may be found within socio-technical systems. First, there is bias introduced by the technology platform itself, through the way in which information is selected and presented to the user. Second, there is bias relating to the user community (norm-oriented bias) and how it may self-moderate or police. A third type of bias emerges as a result of user interaction with the technology, and may become manifest as the filtering effected on an information resource, or the order of presentation such that the user is more likely to read a particular section of the information.\nKnowledge accretion in collaborative authoring environments: While knowledge accumulation in social Q&A has received limited attention, more work has been directed towards other online systems and it is worthwhile discussing this literature as it helps to draw out similarities and differences between types of platform. Perhaps the most widely studied collaborative knowledge technology is the wiki, and the specific instance most widely studied is Wikipedia. Here, approaches have looked at the dynamics of paper authoring and editing for different types of topic, and have reached a quite good understanding of how knowledge builds and changes over time.\nMethods and approach: This work used the Creative Commons data dump of the Stack Exchange web sites, a periodically published data set containing partial information for a range of social Q&A sites, with Stack Overflow the largest. Most of the work was conducted using the May 2011 data, but where indicated the December 2011 data dump was used. The May 2011 data set contains some 6,479,788 posts - incorporating both questions and answers - from amongst 756,695 users. By December 2011, the totals had grown to 7,397,507 posts and 887,372 users.\nFindings: I first present the findings of the effects of timing on user acceptance of an answer. I go on to look at characteristic question profiles based on visualisation of the timeline of received answers and community votes. After looking at the extent of editing activity I will conclude with an overview of efforts to maintain the corpus over time through the identification of duplicates and the removal of off-topic posts.\nConclusion and discussion: The analysis largely confirms the temporally biased nature of this type of social Q&A community. Askers require quick answers, and will choose speed over quality if they allow them to achieve some form of cognitive/epistemic closure. The community at large will also mostly limit voting on a question-answer thread while it is active, most commonly in the few days following creation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate longitudinal features of an established social question-answering (Q&A) site to study how question-answer resources and other community features change over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Statistical analysis and visualisation was performed on the full data dump from the Stack Overflow social Q&A site for programmers.\nFindings: The timing of answers is as strong a predictor of acceptance - a proxy for user satisfaction - as the structural features of provided answers sometimes associated with quality. While many questions and answer exchanges are short-lived, there is a small yet interesting subset of questions where new answers receive community approval and which may end up being ranked more highly than early answers.\nResearch limitations/implications: As a large-scale data oriented research study, this work says little about user motivations to find and contribute new knowledge to old questions or about the impact of the resource on the consumer. This will require complementary studies using qualitative and evaluative methods.\nPractical implications: While content contribution to social question-asking is largely undertaken within a very short time frame, content consumption is usually over far longer periods. Methods and incentives by which content can be updated and maintained need to be considered. This work should be of interest to knowledge exchange community designers and managers.\nOriginality/value: Few studies have looked at temporal patterns in social Q&A and how time and the moderation and voting systems employed may shape resource quality.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Training and development in small professional services firms	[ "Small business", "Affective commitment", "Training", "Development", "Professional services", "Innovative behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In a rapidly changing and highly competitive global economy, differentiation among competing firms on the basis of their human capital resources becomes increasingly important (Aguinis and Kraiger, 2009). A firm's human capital is a key factor in its economic survival and its ability to achieve a sustained competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). Learning through employee participation in formal training and development (T&D) programmes influences the development of human capital resources (Noe et al., 2014). Training is the systematic approach that affects individuals' knowledge, skills and attitudes particular to a specific occupation, and, if it is based on the science of training and learning, it should lead to changes in cognition, behaviour and affect (Salas et al., 2012). Development, on the other hand, refers to systematic efforts aimed at affecting individuals' knowledge, skills and attitudes for the purposes of personal growth or future jobs and/or roles (Aguinis and Kraiger, 2009). Reviews of T&D literature have identified the multiple benefits of T&D for individuals, teams, organisations and society (Aguinis and Kraiger, 2009; Salas and Cannon-Bowers, 2001).\nBackground and rationale: Human resource development (HRD) in smaller firms is a neglected area of research (Cardon and Valentin, 2017; Nolan and Garavan, 2016; Short and Gray, 2018). For example Nolan and Garavan (2016) conducted a systematic review of research into HRD in SMEs from 1995 to 2014. They examined 31 journals and found only 117 relevant papers. HRD includes formal, structured T&D activities and as Tam and Gray (2016, 672) noted, \"much of what is known empirically about HRD comes from the studies of large organisations\". Thus, the current knowledge base is deficient because small and large firms are fundamentally different (Welsh and White, 1981) and context affects employee attitudes and behaviours (Johns, 2006). Regarding employee attitudes, there is a need to determine whether the generally positive impact of investment in T&D on employees' affective commitment in large organisations (Newman et al., 2011) can be extended to small professional services firms. As regards behaviours, although stimulating employee-driven innovation through knowledge and skill development activities is a key factor in small firm success (Lundkvist and Gustavsson, 2018; OECD, 2013), Sheehan et al. (2014, p.4) noted that \"only a handful of studies have explicitly examined the relationship between HR practices and firm's innovation rates and no previous work has focussed exclusively on HRD's role in innovation\".\nConceptual model and hypotheses: This section presents the conceptual model (Figure 1) and briefly reviews some of the evidence for the proposed links. As noted, few studies have examined associations between employees' participation in T&D and their attitudes and behaviours in the small firm context. Similarly, quantitative research that examines work context variables in small firms that facilitate or inhibit employee participation in T&D is sparse. Accordingly, the development of hypotheses has drawn primarily on studies conducted in larger firms.\nMethod: Respondents and procedure\nAnalyses: Data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Prior to the hypotheses testing, several statistical tests were conducted. The reliabilities of the constructs were tested at a threshold of >0.70 (Sekaran, 2003). To obtain adequate reliability for the affective commitment construct, two items were dropped from the analysis because of poor loadings. Descriptive analysis was conducted to determine means and standard deviations for all the variables. Bivariate correlations were determined to test inter-correlations among constructs. Three types of analyses were used to test the hypotheses. First, multiple regression analysis was employed to test H1. Second, hierarchical regression analysis was used to test H2b, H2c, H3b and H3c. The predictor variable was entered into model one. Control and predictor variables were entered into model two. This was done to determine how much variance the predictor variable explained in the criterion variable, after controlling for the effect of the control variable. Third, PROCESS macro analysis (version 3.0) was used to test H4 because it provides a direct test of the mediating effect (Chen and Shaffer, 2017; Hayes, 2013). PROCESS macro uses a bootstrapping method to determine indirect effects. In this study, data were bootstrapped to 5000 at 95 per cent bias-corrected confidence intervals. Macro model 4 was used for the analysis due to the simple mediation analysis. In PROCESS macro, significant effect is obtained if zero does not fall between the confidence intervals (Hayes, 2013). In the PROCESS macro model, the mediating effect was confirmed by using Preacher and Kelley's (2011) Kappa-squared and Sobel test. Furthermore, because macro model 4 produces results of direct relationships, H2a and H3a were tested using PROCESS macro.\nResults: Table II contains the means, standard deviations, correlations and Cronbach's a of the constructs. Data in the table show the following: participation in T&D events is significantly positively correlated with both affective commitment and IWB; affective commitment is significantly positively correlated with IWB; and training policies and practices is significantly positively correlated with participation in T&D. However, the results show no significant relationship between attitudes towards T&D and participation in T&D events. The results also show adequate reliabilities of constructs because the Cronbach's a score of each construct exceeded 0.70 (Sekaran, 2003).\nDiscussion: Despite the numerical and economic significance of small firms in national economies (Storey, 2018) and the profound impact of employee participation in T&D on organisational success (Aguinis and Kraiger, 2009), there is a surprising lack of research on HRD in small businesses (Short and Gray, 2018). More specifically, there is scant research that has examined how employee participation in T&D might affect employee attitudes and behaviours (Cardon and Valentin, 2017). Our study addressed this area of neglect and the results of our analyses are largely consistent with tenets of social exchange theory (Emerson, 1976) and the notion of perceived organisational support (Eisenberger et al., 1997). The results make four empirical contributions to the literature on T&D in small firms.\nConclusion: Small firms are both numerically significant and major providers of employment in national economies (Muller et al., 2015). Yet there is limited research on how T&D affects key employee attitudes and behaviours, especially in firms with 50 or fewer staff (Cardon and Valentin, 2017). To address this limitation of the literature, the present study examined whether two work context variables were related to levels of participation in T&D, and whether levels of participation in T&D events were associated with employees' affective commitment and propensity to enact IWBs in small firms. Using data from 203 employees in small professional services firms, our analyses suggests that policy and practice supportive of T&D can indeed influence levels of T&D activity and that providing employees with opportunities to participate in T&D events will promote both employees' commitment to the organisation and their propensity to enact IWBs. These findings have important implications for small firms which tend to rely on wholly work-based experiences for the development of employees' knowledge and skills. Such an approach to learning for work may inadvertently shape a workforce that lacks commitment to the organisation and that has a diminished capacity for IWB.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine whether participation in training and development (T&D) events is associated with employees' affective commitment and propensity to enact innovative behaviours in small professional services firms. The study also investigates associations between both attitudes towards T&D and policy and practice supportive of T&D and levels of participation in T&D events.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data from 203 employees in small professional services firms employing 50 or fewer staff were analysed using regression analysis and PROCESS macro.\nFindings: Only policy and practice supportive of T&D was associated with participation levels. Participation in T&D events was positively related to affective commitment. Furthermore, employees who participated in more T&D events were more likely to enact innovative behaviours, while affective commitment mediated the positive relationship between number of T&D events attended and innovative behaviours. Contrary to expectations, neither participation in just training nor participation in just development was associated with either attitudes or behaviours.\nPractical implications: The findings have important implications for small firms which tend to rely on wholly work-based experiences for the development of employees' knowledge and skills. Such an approach to learning for work may inadvertently shape a workforce that lacks commitment to the organisation and that has a diminished capacity for innovative behaviours.\nOriginality/value: There is limited research on how T&D affects attitudes and behaviours in small firms. Large and small firms are fundamentally different, thus findings from studies in large firms may not extend to small firms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Estimating hierarchical constructs using consistent partial least squares: The case of second-order composites of common factors	[ "PLS", "Consistency", "Second-order construct", "Composite of common factors", "Goodness-of-fit", "Variance-based structural equation modelling" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Structural equation modeling (SEM) is an analytical technique that is increasingly used in many scientific disciplines. Two different approaches exist: covariance-based SEM, for example, implemented in LISREL (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1989) or AMOS (Arbuckle, 2003), and variance-based SEM (Reinartz et al., 2009), implemented in software such as SmartPLS (Ringle et al., 2005), PLSGraph (Chin and Frye, 2003), or ADANCO (Henseler and Dijkstra, 2015). SEM allows researchers to represent complex relationships between theoretical - often latent - constructs in a so-called structural or theoretical model, while also making it possible, at least in principle, to estimate the fit of that structural model with empirical data through a measurement model. Various types of constructs have been distinguished. For the present discussion it is crucial to understand the differences between these types.\nLiterature review: The use of more abstract levels of constructs, i.e. constructs consisting of several dimensions and levels, is increasingly common for a range of theoretical and empirical reasons (see Jarvis et al., 2003; Wetzels et al., 2009 for an overview), most importantly, because such models reduce model complexity and increase parsimony, as fewer paths need to be estimated (see e.g. Becker et al., 2012).\nA PLS-based three-stage approach to consistently estimate and test hierarchical constructs specified as composites of common factors: We propose a new PLS-based approach to consistently estimate and test hierarchical constructs that are composed of reflective first-order constructs. We call it a \"three-stage approach,\" because it requires three rounds of estimation. The three-stage approach is meant to excel over the extant approach in two pivotal ways. First, the approach provides the means to calculate consistent estimates. Loadings, weights, and path coefficients can be estimated consistently. Second, the three-stage approach includes two assessments of the goodness of model fit. It thereby facilitates answering the research question about the existence or usefulness of a second-order construct - a question of confirmatory research. Figure 2 depicts the three-stage approach and its steps.\nStage 1: In Stage 1, we estimate our model with the second-order construct not included. The purpose of the first stage is to obtain the scores and the consistent correlations of the first order constructs.\nStage 2: In the second stage, the second-order construct is included in the model. The purpose of the second stage is to obtain consistent estimates for the structural model. Several steps need to be taken to obtain consistent estimates.\nStage 3: The third stage strongly resembles the second stage, but differs in purpose. The purpose of the third stage is to obtain consistent estimates for the structural model including the relationships between the first-order common factors and the second-order composite. In the third stage, again the second-order construct is included in the model, but this time its correlations are corrected for attenuation. Several steps need to be taken to obtain consistent estimates.\nStudy 1: simulated data: In order to demonstrate the efficacy of the new three-stage approach for modeling and estimating second-order composites of common factors, we expose the three-stage approach to simulated data, and compare it to the repeated-indicator approach, the two-stage approach, and the hybrid approach. Simulated data offers the advantage that the true population model is known.\nStudy 2: field study: In this section, we apply the different approaches to empirical data. Thereby, we illustrate that also in empirical research settings, the results are substantially affected by the choice of approach. We obtained empirical data from the authors of a recently published field study (Bouzaabia et al., 2013). In this paper, we only replicate the analysis, rather than focusing on theory building. For the theory and operationalization of the constructs we refer to the original article. The model in this example links three constructs: a dependent variable, store satisfaction (Oliver, 1980), a mediating variable, store image (cf. Bloemer and De Ruyter, 1998; Semeijn et al., 2004), and an independent variable, in-store logistics performance (cf. Garrouch et al., 2011; Mentzer et al., 1999). In the following paragraphs we concisely explain the three constructs and provide a rationale for the model.\nResults: The geodesic discrepancy between the empirical correlation matrix and the implied correlation matrix of the saturated model (i.e. a model in which all constructs are allowed to covary) is 0.403 and lies below its corresponding HI99 value. Consequently, the implied correlation matrix does not differ significantly (1 percent level) from the empirical correlation matrix. Also, the SRMR of 0.065 provides evidence for an acceptable model fit (Hu and Bentler, 1999). We can thus conclude that the measurement model provides an adequate explanation of the covariation in the data. Dijkstra-Henseler's rA for satisfaction is a healthy 0.865, and the reliability of the second-order composite is 0.842. The AVE of satisfaction is 0.608 and thus exceeds the threshold for acceptable convergent validity. The highest HTMT value in the whole model is 0.682, which means that there is sufficient discriminant validity throughout the model. The goodness-of-fit of the structural model including the second-order composite is good as well: The geodesic discrepancy of 0.107 lies even below its corresponding HI95 value of 0.126, and the SRMR is 0.059. This shows that the second-order composite does not create significant misfit.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Research in the social sciences has increasingly made use of PLS path modeling techniques. A range of recent reports and critical studies on PLS path modeling has emphasized the importance of correct model specification and consistent estimates for theory building. Inappropriate modeling practices and inconsistent estimates may lead to wrong interpretations and conclusions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Many important constructs of business and social sciences are conceptualized as composites of common factors, i.e. as second-order constructs composed of reflectively measured first-order constructs. Current approaches to model this type of second-order construct provide inconsistent estimates and lack a model test that helps assess the existence and/or usefulness of a second-order construct. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel three-stage approach to model, estimate, and test second-order constructs composed of reflectively measured first-order constructs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors compare the efficacy of the proposed three-stage approach with that of the dominant extant approaches, i.e. the repeated indicator approach, the two-stage approach, and the hybrid approach by means of simulated data whose underlying population model is known. Moreover, the authors apply the three-stage approach to a real research setting in business research.\nFindings: The study based on simulated data illustrates that the three-stage approach is Fisher-consistent, whereas the dominant extant approaches are not. The study based on real data shows that the three-stage approach is meaningfully applicable in typical research settings of business research. Its results can differ substantially from those of the extant approaches.\nResearch limitations/implications: Analysts aiming at modeling composites of common factors should apply the proposed procedure in order to test the existence and/or usefulness of a second-order construct and to obtain consistent estimates.\nOriginality/value: The three-stage approach is the only consistent approach for modeling, estimating, and testing composite second-order constructs made up of reflectively measured first-order constructs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Communication style in primary health care in Europe	[ "Communication", "Doctors", "Patients", "General practice", "Health services", "Behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is generally held that a good doctor-patient relationship and successful consultation outcomes depend on the consultation skill of the doctor, the organisation of the health care system, and the cultural background, including the ability for doctors and patients to communicate in a common language (van den Brink-Muinen et al., 2003a). New health care systems, the development of medical and information technologies, multicultural medical staff and patients as well as other changes in society have influenced the doctor-patient relationship, and new consultation styles have emerged (Elwyn, 2004). Three health care system variables are considered important with regard to the role and the position of GPs, and are thought to influence doctor-patient communication. Firstly in terms of influence is the nature of the health care system in which GPs work as gatekeepers with registered patients as opposed to freely accessible medical care in a system where patients are not registered with one specific practice. GPs are the first physicians to have contact with health problems before patients are referred to medical specialists. Second in terms of influence is the employment status of GPs, i.e. salaried employment or self-employment. Third in terms of influence is the payment system, which may be: a fee-for-service system in which GPs are paid, which may be according to the medical interventions performed; a capitation system where they receive a fixed amount of money for every patient; or a mixed system of fee-for-service and capitation fee.Since the reorganisation of the health care systems in Estonia, Poland and Romania in the early nineties most GPs now act as gatekeepers and nearly all GPs are self-employed. In Estonia and Poland, GPs are paid by capitation fee while in Romania there is a mixed system. Furthermore, European harmonisation will probably result in the integration of health care and health care policies that may stimulate cross-border health care provision in Europe (Ciheur, 2001).Already we are seeing an exchange of medical professionals and patients between different European Union member states (van den Brink-Muinen et al., 2003b). This tendency is particularly evident in new EU-countries such as Estonia and Poland, where a shift in the medical workforce to the other EU-countries has taken place. For example, in Estonia, a survey was carried out in late 2003 among representative samples of Estonian medical doctors, residency-programme doctors, final year medical students, dentists, nurses and midwives concerning their plans and reasons for migration. The survey was conducted for the purpose of making a prognosis on the mobility of health professionals within the EU. The results showed that about half (56 per cent) of Estonian health care professionals would like to work abroad, either permanently or temporarily, and around 5 per cent (about 700-800 health care workers) had definite plans to go. According to the researchers, the latter figure is most likely representative of the emigration that the Estonian health sector will have to face in the years ahead (Jesse et al., 2004). This survey showed that consultations will more often be cross-cultural in the future, as the environment in which doctors work becomes more and more multicultural. Accordingly, it will become even more common for doctors and patients from different countries and cultures to meet in the consultation room.It is reasonable to conclude that doctor-patient communication may be influenced by factors related to national (and cultural) differences, the training in consultation skills during GPs' speciality training, patient and GP characteristics and difficulties with language translation. In Estonia, in the early 1990s it was decided to reintroduce family practice as a specialty into the Estonian medical training system; since 1993, a three-year full time residency programme has been available. Similarly, vocational training for GPs in Romania takes three years and was introduced in 1991. Health care in Poland is in a period of transition, and more and more GPs currently undergo vocational training.It is not known how the newly introduced gatekeeping role for GPs as well as consultation skill training might influence consultations in the reformed primary health care systems of the new EU-countries. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate firstly doctor-patient communication in consultations of newly qualified general practitioners in a newly reorganised health care system, and secondly differences in consultation characteristics and communication patterns between new and old EU-countries.\nMethod: Countries involved\nResults: The affective communication of GPs and patients\nDiscussion: The communication patterns in the new EU-countries Estonia, Poland and Romania partly differed from the old EU-countries, but also from each other. In other words, most differences did not occur along a new-old or east-west divide. It appears that the new EU-member states cannot be considered to constitute a group of countries with similar communication patterns, although their health care systems are rather similar and are in a process of transition from centralised state systems (Semashko model) to a western model.A number of differences between the new EU countries were found. For instance, in Romania the communication style was more psychosocially oriented, whereas in Poland and Estonia the orientation was more biomedical. Additionally, in Estonia the communication was more affective (empathy, concern, reassurance) than in Poland and Romania. However, in the old EU-countries of the UK, Germany and Switzerland communication was even more affectively oriented.One striking difference emerged between the old and the new EU countries emerged - the GPs in the new EU countries took more speaking time than their colleagues of the old EU-countries. Therefore, their patients got (or took) less time to tell their story. This difference may possibly be due to the only recent and not yet fully completed transition to the gate-keeping system at the time of data collection. Patients in new EU countries may not yet be used to discussing problems (especially those of a psychosocial nature) with their GP. Another reason could be that in the new EU countries the hierarchical distance between doctors and patients is greater than in Western European countries. Such an explanation refers to differences in cultural norms and values that may influence the communication patterns.A different cultural background may also be apparent in the more psychosocial orientation in Romanian consultations compared to Poland and Sweden, or in the relatively small amount of social talk about non-medical matters between Swedish GPs and patients in comparison with Belgian doctors and patients. Likewise, in the UK giving signs of agreement was more common than in other countries and cultures.A particular type of affective behaviour may be more likely to reflect the prevailing norms in one country or culture than in another. In Sweden, for instance, rapport building may be more usual than social talk. And in the Netherlands, showing agreement may be more usual than rapport building.The communication styles in The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Estonia and Poland were more biomedical than psychosocially oriented compared to the other countries where psychosocial talk was more common. This may indicate a north-south division of European countries rather than a division between new and old EU countries. The southern temperament of people in Romania, Spain, Switzerland and (French-speaking) Belgium may be related to more emotional talk. This is one of the cultural aspects that might cause problems when comparing communication between countries, just like the possibly more hierarchical doctor-patient relations in Eastern European countries as opposed to Western European countries. Interestingly, consultation length is longer in the non-gatekeeping countries (Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden) than in the countries where the GPs act as gatekeepers. Based on the results of the Eurocommunication Study I, it was found that patient characteristics have as much effect on consultation length as the characteristics of countries and GPs combined (Deveugele et al., 2002). Apparently, the relationship between the organisation of health care systems and consultation length deserves further exploration because the length of consultation definitely has an important impact on health care costs (Boerma and Fleming, 1998).These are some examples of how cultural differences may affect communication and therefore, the quality of health care and the patients' health. It is a challenge for future research to determine which cultural characteristics are reflected in the communication styles between doctors and patients. Besides differences in language, differences in health attitudes and health beliefs may also play a role in (mis)communication between doctors and patients (Waitzkin and Britt, 1989; Payer, 1989; Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005; Tahepold et al., 2006). Differences in communication patterns in intercultural medical encounters and their effect on patient outcomes are thus an important field of research in the future.Limitations of the study\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate doctor-patient communication in consultations of newly qualified general practitioners (GPs) in a newly reorganised health care system and differences in consultation characteristics and communication patterns between new European Union (EU)-countries (Estonia, Poland and Romania) and the old West-European EU-countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Observation of videotaped doctor-patient consultations by means of Roter's Interactional Analysis System; GP, patient and observer questionnaires. Data were collected from 92 GPs and 1,376 patients in Estonia, Poland and Romania and compared with known data from old EU countries. Main outcome measures were verbal and nonverbal communication of GPs and patients, as well as consultation characteristics.\nFindings: - Differences were found in the communication patterns of the new EU-countries Estonia, Poland and Romania compared to the old EU-countries. For instance, the verbal contribution of the GPs in the new EU-countries was greater than in the old EU-countries. Differences were also found between the three new EU-countries. In Romania there was more psychosocial talk than in the two other new EU-countries, whereas in Poland and Estonia there was more biomedical talk. The Estonian communication was more affective, the Polish and Romanian more instrumental. In general, the differences were not found to be related to a \"new-old\" or \"east-west\" distinction. Clearly, cultural norms and values play an important role in doctor-patient communication.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sampling method differed somewhat from one country to another.\nPractical implications: - With the integration of Europe in progress, cross-cultural aspects should be addressed when doctors are being trained in communication skills in their undergraduate and postgraduate education.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study to investigate doctor-patient communication in newly reorganised health care systems and differences in doctor-patient communication between new and old EU-countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Supply-side resilience as practice bundles: a critical incident study	[ "Supply chain resilience", "Dynamic capabilities", "Critical incident technique", "Mixed-methods research", "Bundles of practices", "Operations performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Upstream supply chain disruptions are becoming a major managerial problem for operations professionals (Autry et al., 2013). Accordingly, there is increasing scholarly interest in how firms can develop capabilities to manage unanticipated changes along the supply chain (e.g. Ponomarov and Holcomb, 2009). Within the current resilience literature some conceptual frameworks exist describing what resilience entails in a business environment and characterizing it (Christopher and Peck, 2004; Craighead et al., 2007; Sheffi and Rice, 2005). However, most existing frameworks are too abstract; detailed studies of what actually constitutes resilience capabilities are sparse.\n2. Theory development: Supply-side resilience as dynamic capability\n3. Research methodology: Methodological overview and sampling procedure\n4. Results of the main study: Results of the qualitative data analysis\n5. Discussion: Prior to drawing conclusions, we discuss our findings in relation to the existing resilience literature. The discussion is structured according to the propositions formulated at the outset of this study, that is, operationalizing resilience as practice bundles, as well as, the impact of these practice bundles on operations performance.\n6. Conclusion: We conclude that supply-side resilience capability can be operationalized along the two dichotomous dimensions \"proactive/reactive\" and \"internal/external\" in a 2x2 matrix. Accordingly, the study finds four supply-side resilience capabilities: proactive-internal, proactive-external, reactive-internal and reactive-external. Moreover, all four of these resilience capabilities positively influence buying firms' manufacturing operations performance in recovery after an upstream supply chain disruption. This impact on operations performance is both direct and synergistic as a consequence of the complementarities among the four identified resilience capabilities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a typology of supply-side resilience capabilities and empirically validates these capabilities and their constituent bundles of practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is primarily qualitative, employing the critical incident technique to collect data across 22 firms and seeking to validate how and why practice bundles form and relate to operations performance. It contains a frequency of occurrence analysis for the purpose of triangulation, a minor statistical part to provide some additional evidence of bundle formation and correlation between adoption of bundles of practices and recovered operations performance after upstream supply chain disruptions.\nFindings: Four supply-side resilience capabilities are conceptualized along two dichotomous dimensions - \"proactive/reactive\" and \"internal/external\" - in a 2x2 matrix as proactive-internal, proactive-external, reactive-internal and reactive-external resilience capabilities. Empirical support for the conceptualized typology is found. Bundles of specific practices that can be associated with each capability are identified. Moreover, the study finds a relationship between these practice bundles and recovered operations performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The statistical part is used just to provide some additional evidence through factor and regression analyses that these capabilities exist and do benefit adopting firms.\nPractical implications: Specifies practices that lead to recovered operations performance in the event of supply disruptions.\nOriginality/value: Advances current theory by operationalizing resilience as a set of dynamic capabilities in terms of practice bundles that aid in recovering operations performance upon supply disruptions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Outsourcing in private healthcare organisations: a Greek perspective	[ "Outsourcing", "Health services", "Private sector organizations", "Greece" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This research note presents the major findings regarding outsourcing in private healthcare organisations in Greece. Based on a predecessor paper titled \"Outsourcing in public hospitals: a Greek perspective\", which was published in Issue 1 of 2006, a study was carried out to investigate the extent of outsourcing, the decision-making process, the impact of outsourcing, and the future trend of outsourcing in private healthcare organisations in Greece.More specifically, a survey was conducted during September-October 2004. The target population included all private healthcare organisations operating in Greece. 100 private healthcare organisations were randomly selected from the list of all registered private healthcare organisations in Greece. A questionnaire, together with a cover letter and a reply envelope were mailed to the general manager of each private healthcare organisation. Two weeks after the questionnaires were sent out, reminder telephone calls were made to approximately 30 randomly selected organisations that had not responded. A total of 25 usable questionnaires were received, representing a response rate of 25 percent.\nResults: All respondents indicated that their healthcare organisations currently outsource one or more activities.\nExtent of outsourcing: In addressing this topic, respondents were asked to specify the services most frequently outsourced, the degree of commitment to the services of external providers, the percentage of budget allocated to contract service providers, and the average duration of the contracts signed with these providers. The responses to these issues are presented in this section.Private healthcare organisations in Greece outsource a variety of activities. Laboratory, cleaning and cafeteria are the services most frequently outsourced. On the contrary, the services that are least outsourced include laundry, food, and clinical/diagnostic equipment maintenance.The degree of commitment to using the services of external providers varies among the responding private healthcare organisations. Just over half (52 percent) of the respondents indicated that their commitment to the services of contract providers was \"moderate\" or \"extensive\", while the remaining users indicated that the commitment of their healthcare organisations was \"limited\" or \"very limited\".The degree of commitment is also reflected in the percentage of the budget allocated to contract service providers. About three-fifths of the respondents allocate 5 percent or less of their total budget to these providers, whereas only two private healthcare organisations allocate 15 percent or more of their total budget to such providers.In terms of formal contracts, all responding private healthcare organisations have signed contracts with their external service providers. Of these contracts, 75 percent have duration less than two years but more than one year, whereas the remaining 25 percent of the private healthcare organisations have signed contracts with duration more than two years.\nDecision-making process: To illustrate the outsourcing decision-making process employed by private healthcare organisations in Greece, respondents were asked to assess the involvement of a number of functional areas in this process, the sources of information regarding contract providers, the importance of a number of factors affecting the outsourcing decision, and the importance of a number of criteria on which contract providers were evaluated. The responses to these topics are discussed in this section.Regarding the outsourcing decision-making process, personnel from the administrative department are actively involved in the majority of these decisions, followed by personnel from the finance function. A number of private healthcare organisations indicated that personnel from the purchasing and the legal functions are actively involved in this process. Finally, personnel from the nursing and technical functions are involved in the outsourcing decision-making process in a limited number of responding healthcare organisations.The most popular way for becoming aware of contract service providers is through sales calls by representatives of these providers. In deciding whether to continue the cooperation with an external service provider, the motivation to outsource must be adequately satisfied by the contract service provider. The main driving forces are cost savings, customisation, and customer satisfaction, which could also explain why service quality, and the price offered by the external providers are the main criteria used by private healthcare organisations for the selection of the most suitable service provider.\nImpact of outsourcing: The impact of outsourcing on private healthcare organisations was investigated in terms of organisational impact, benefits, difficulties, and reduction of full-time positions. The responses relating to these issues are discussed in this section.In the majority of the cases, the respondents view the use of external service providers as having had a significant impact on customer satisfaction, on cost reduction, and on the quality of the services provided by private healthcare organisations in Greece. The benefits realised after the implementation of the outsourcing decision have further explained the relatively high satisfaction level of the users and, hence, the positive development of the private healthcare organisations. Economies of scale and the use of the external provider's infrastructure were the main benefits realised by the users after outsourcing, which greatly satisfy their driving forces initially.In terms of implementing the decision to outsource, 22 users indicated that they experienced one or more difficulties in bringing contract service providers on-line. The most often mentioned difficulties included the lack of coordination and integration between the healthcare organisation and the external provider as well as the insufficient understanding of the provider regarding the user's operations. Resistance to changes, and price negotiation problems were mentioned by a small number of respondents.Theoretically, the decision to outsource may lead to an elimination of a number of full-time related positions in the private healthcare organisation. About three-quarters (72 percent) of the respondents indicated that outsourcing has not led to a full-time staff reduction, whereas 16 percent of the users indicated a reduction between 1-10 percent of their full-time staff. Only one healthcare organisation reported elimination greater than 20 percent of full-time positions due to outsourcing.\nFuture trend: The focus here is on the future plans and concerns of private healthcare organisations in Greece regarding outsourcing, and whether they consider changes in the level and nature of their cooperation with contract service providers.In Greece, the majority of the private healthcare organisations are satisfied from their cooperation with external service providers, and they believe that this has led to positive developments within their organisations. With a high current level of satisfaction, about three-forth of the responding organisations predict a moderate or substantial increase of outsourcing in the near future. The reason for this can be found in the input measures, which are important determinants of the decision to outsource activities in private healthcare organisations.\nDifferences between public and private healthcare organisations: In this section, we will show the major differences regarding outsourcing between public and private healthcare organisations in Greece.* In public hospitals, personnel from the finance and the purchasing departments are actively involved in the decision-making process, whereas in private healthcare organisations personnel from the administrative and finance departments are actively involved in this process.* For public hospitals, competitive bidding is the most popular source of information regarding contract providers, whereas representatives of contract providers directly contact the private healthcare organisations.* Respondents in private healthcare organizations argue that the impact of outsourcing on cost reduction was higher compared to the respective argument made by respondents in public hospitals.* Improvement in service quality levels is the major benefit experienced by public hospitals from outsourcing. On the contrary, economies of scale and use of the external provider's infrastructure are the major benefits from outsourcing mentioned by private healthcare organisations.* In private healthcare organisations, about 90 percent of the respondents indicate that they experienced one or more difficulties in bringing contract service providers on-line. On the contrary, about 66 percent of public hospitals faced problems during their cooperation with an external service provider.* Overall, respondents in private healthcare organisations appear to be more satisfied from their cooperation with external providers than respondents in public hospitals.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present a study carried out to investigate the extent of outsourcing, the decision-making process, the impact of outsourcing, and the future trend of outsourcing in private healthcare organisations in Greece.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey instrument was designed and mailed to a random sample of 100 private healthcare organisations in Greece. A total of 25 usable questionnaires were received, representing a response rate of 25 percent. The survey instrument focused on the extent to which private healthcare organisations outsource services, the decision-making process for choosing an external service provider, the impact of outsourcing, and the future trend of outsourcing.\nFindings: - Private healthcare organisations in Greece outsource a variety of activities. Cost savings, customisation, and customer satisfaction are the main factors affecting the outsourcing decision. The cooperation with a contract service provider has led to an improvement in customer satisfaction and to a cost reduction. Most users are highly satisfied with the performance of these companies and believe that there will be a future increase in the usage of these services.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides a framework regarding outsourcing in private healthcare organisations.\nOriginality/value: - This research fills the gap in the area of outsourcing in private healthcare organisations in Greece.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Using interpretive structure modeling to analyze the interactions between environmental sustainability boundary enablers	[ "Innovation", "Benchmarking", "Interpretive structural modelling", "Green supply chain management", "Environmental sustainability", "Reverse logistics", "Strategic evaluation", "Core competences", "Closed-loop supply chain" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In a world of finite resources and disposal capacities, recovery of used products and materials has become an endemic concern in industrialized countries. As a result, many countries have started to emphasize the prevention and control of pollution caused by discarded hazardous wastes. Regulations and laws are established to restrict and regulate the procedure for the return and recycle of these hazardous wastes. The European Union (EU) has established stricter codes for the handling of products containing hazardous substances, such as Directive 2002/96/EC related to \"Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment\", Directive 2002/525/EC related to End of Life and the \"Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment\" regulations. To deal with this serious problem the Indian government has also taken many steps and has come up with innovative measures. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is the nodal agency for policy, planning and coordinating the environment programs, including electronic waste. The management of e-waste was covered under \"management, handling and trans-boundary movement\" rules 2007, part of EPA 1986 and Environment and Forests Hazardous Wastes Management Rules 2008. In May 2012, new rules are issued by the union MoEF to address the safe and environment friendly handling, transporting, storing, and recycling of e-waste. The concept of material cycles is gradually replacing a \"one way\" perception of economy. Increasingly, customers expect companies to minimize the environmental impact of their products and processes.\n2. Literature review: evolution of green supply chain management: According to Merriam-Webster enabler is defined as \"as one that enables another to achieve an end\" where enable implies to make able; give power, means, competence, or ability to. Thus for the purpose of this research enabler is considered as a variable that enables (ability to) the attainment of sustainability in a supply chain. This definition is consistent with the use of the term enabler in ISM models like enablers of flexible manufacturing systems (Raj et al., 2008), growth enablers in construction companies (Bhattacharya and Momaya, 2009), IT enablement in supply chain (Jharkharia and Shankar, 2004), enablers of reverse logistics (Ravi et al., 2005), IT enablers for Indian manufacturing SMEs (Thakkar et al., 2008), supply chain performance measurement system implementation (Charan et al., 2008).\n3. ISM methodology and model development: ISM falls into the soft operations research (OR) family of approaches. The term ISM refers to the systematic application of graph theory in such a way that theoretical, conceptual, and computational leverage is exploited to efficiently construct a directed graph, or network representation, of the complex pattern of a contextual relationship among a set of elements. In other words, it helps to identify structure within a system of related elements. It may represent this information either by a digraph (directed graph) or by a matrix. ISM model also portrays the hierarchy of the enablers. The development of a hierarchy helps in the classification and categorization of the enablers, and thereby formulates their respective strategies and policies while providing clarity of thought. A model depicting relationships among key enablers would be of great value to the top management to delineate the focus areas. ISM methodology helps to impose order and direction on the complex relationships among elements of a system (Warfield, 1974; Sage, 1977). The ISM methodology is interpretive from the fact that the judgment of the group decides whether and how the variables are related. The process of structural modeling consists of several elements: an object system, which is typically poorly defined system to be described by the model; a representation system, which is a well-defined set of relations; and an embedding of perceptions of some relevant features of the object system into the representation system. Interpretation of the embedded object or representation system in terms of the object system results in an interpretive structural model (Sage, 1977).\n4. Discussion of results: As seen in Figure 2, there is no enabler in the autonomous cluster which indicates no enabler can be considered as disconnected from the whole system and the management has to pay an attention to all the identified enablers of sustainability in supply chains. In the next cluster we have independent variables like Legal boundary, Organizational boundary, proximal boundary, and cultural boundary toward sustainable practices, which have high driving power but little dependence. These enablers play a key role for integrating sustainability in a supply chain and have strategic importance. The next cluster consists of those enablers that are termed as linkage variables and include informational boundary, economic boundary, and technological boundary, which is influenced by lower level enablers and in turn impacts other enablers in the model. The three linkage enablers are interconnected in a way that information boundary facilitates the organization that at what point of time it is economically infeasible to carry on with the environmental responsibilities due to end-of-pipe or incompatible technologies. The last cluster includes enablers like \"Temporal boundaries\" and \"Political boundaries\". In this cluster particularly the Temporal boundary has highest dependence and form the top-most level in the ISM hierarchy. It represents the enabler that is the resultant action for effective integration of sustainability in a supply chain. Its strong dependence indicates that it requires all the other enablers to come together for effective implementation of sustainability practices. But it is important as it is finally required by the supply chain to measure the effectiveness of environmental sustainability practices in the supply chain. Although, the present research delineates the relationship between the key defined variables so that the overall structure could be extracted for the supply chain system, we find some industries are already practicing and imposing the pointers (enablers) considered in this paper. A few real world examples are outlined as follows.\n5. Conclusion: The ISM model developed in this paper clearly portrays that for carrying out green practices, the supply chains require that each echelon within a supply chain should morally and ethically be involved in environmental sustainability as these can be considered as the attributes of legal boundary (Sarkis, 2012). Similarly, extraneous to proximity, may be at international level, or at individual, group, and organizational levels, the management should inculcate the culture of environmental sustainability. Further, the model portrays that it is imperative that \"Information boundary\" leads to \"Temporal boundary\" which clearly indicates that time is the ultimate action for environmental sustainability. This validates the statements made by various researchers mentioned in Section 1 that lean practices through information coordination within an organization and timely information from consumers for re-evaluating the supply chain is imperative from environmental sustainability perspectives. Under political boundaries, the issues of power and trust at organizational and inter-organizational level play a significant role toward environmental sustainability. However, it may largely depend upon cultural boundary context.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The modern business community understands the importance of long-term satisfaction of consumer. Enabling the consumer to return products is a significant part of the equation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the sustainable boundaries in terms of their relationship toward greening a supply chain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using interpretive structural modeling the research presents a hierarchy-based model to realize the driving power and dependence of sustainable boundary enablers.\nFindings: The research shows that there exists a group of enablers having a high driving power and low dependence requiring maximum attention and of strategic importance while another group consists of those variables which have high dependence and are the resultant actions.\nPractical implications: This classification provides a useful tool to supply chain managers to differentiate between independent and dependent variables and their mutual relationships which would help them to focus while making strategic, tactical or operational decisions as and when required while designing a green supply chain.\nOriginality/value: This research assumes importance in context of greening a supply chain when globally enterprises are getting a lot of pressure from consumers as well as the regulatory measures from the government. Sustainability demands that the resources be used in lean manner through information coordination with all partners in a supply chain. The findings of this study would help delineate those variables that should to be necessarily considered to design a sustainable supply chain.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Learning and teaching research methods in management education: Development of a curriculum to combine theory and practice - a Swiss case	[ "Business administration", "Curriculum design", "Management education", "Learning environment", "Learning-centred course design", "Research methods teaching" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For more than 30 years, management scholars and practitioners have criticized the lack of purpose and relevance of management curricula, as well as master's degree programmes which lead to students \"learning the wrong things in the wrong ways\", often producing \"people who can talk about practice rather than people who are competent practitioners\". Management students often perceive research method courses as uninteresting and irrelevant, since they typically follow a career in business rather than research (Edwards and Thatcher, 2004). Due to their diverse backgrounds and education, these students often do not know how to access scientific work and have only a limited understanding of scientific methods and restricted expertise in gaining evidence-based knowledge. Hence, they tend to rely heavily on case examples, unscientific textbooks, non-research-oriented magazines, and \"expert\" advice in addition to their own personal experience (Rousseau, 2006; Rousseau and McCarthy, 2007). Students may also face a \"theory-abrasive\" environment in their company, where practical knowledge and conventional problem solving are considered more useful than scientific knowledge, even when the former contradicts scholarly findings (Benson and Blackman, 2003).\nPedagogical challenges in research methods teaching and implications for research curriculum design: Business schools need to prepare students for productive and compassionate roles in modern organizations. Linking management theory and practice is one of the most effective steps towards developing intelligent managerial practitioners equipped to face complex management problems and deal with messy and ambiguous situations (Fukami, 2007). To accomplish these lofty goals, business schools need to bridge the relevance gap between academic research and management practice and include this objective as part of their educational mission (e.g. Bennis and O'Toole, 2005; Armstrong and Fukami, 2009b). One way that management education can address the research-practice gap is to help management students learn about research methods by applying purposeful and relevant curricula and effective teaching approaches.\nA Swiss case presenting the development of a research curriculum, institutional context and programme: The two-year MSBA programme aims to offer a scientifically sound and practice-related management education which meets the requirements of the Swiss market and qualifies graduates for their career. It is designed to meet the needs of students who want to work part-time and opt for a master's degree in corporate/business development. The programme is internationally compatible and allows mobility for student and faculty thanks to its modular design and the European credit transfer system. The combination of practice-oriented scholarly research and an orientation towards broad general management and problem-solving skills, taking typical corporate situations into account, distinguish this programme from other national and international MSBA programmes, which follow a more functional or sector-specific logic. The relevance of scholarship and practice-oriented research is strengthened by devoting 42 of the 90 available credit points to the development of research-related management knowledge and skills.\nDevelopment of the curriculum for learning and teaching research methods: The entire master's programme is designed to develop transferable skills along with the appropriate discipline-specific knowledge, learned in a similar context to which it will be used later in the practitioner's career (e.g. Bransford et al., 2000; Donovan and Bransford, 2005). The integrated research curriculum aims to foster research-related management knowledge and skills, i.e., research, social, learning and reflective knowledge and skills. In total, 30 years of research suggest that generic skills such as problem-solving skills, teamwork, communication skills and self-regulated learning are domain-dependent and knowledge based and should be learned together with subject knowledge (e.g. Schmidt et al., 2011).\nAssessment of the newly developed research curriculum: The first four runs of the research curriculum have been successfully completed. In this section, we will analyse and discuss the extent to which the research curriculum equips management students with research-related competencies and skills so they are able to utilize and conduct relevant management research to inform their practice.\nMethods: To assess the programme, we have triangulated data gleaned from multiple viewpoints: continuous written and oral feedback has been systematically gathered from both students and core faculty members and external validation measures were consulted (e.g. Armstrong and Fukami, 2010). By combining qualitative statements with comparable quantitative ratings and students' perceptions together with those of their teachers, we have tried to draw a balanced image of the learning outcomes of our programme.\nSample: A course evaluation survey was conducted at the end of the first term for four years (2009-2012) to evaluate the first module. Of the 122 students who took the course, 87 students completed the survey. Students rated their level of agreement or disagreement with several statements on a six-point scale (6=very much, 1=not at all).\nResults of the assessment of the research curriculum: Students' perceptions of the value of the research curriculum and research methods teaching for their learning\nConclusions and implications: Conclusions and recommendations for management educators\nFurther implications: Overall, the newly designed part of the curriculum on learning and teaching research methods of our master's programme seems to meet its aims and the major pedagogical challenges arising from a positivist epistemology, a narrowly analytic view of management education and traditional approaches to teaching research methods.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In the context of the creation of a two-year Master of Science in Business Administration programme to offer a scientifically sound and practice-related management education in Switzerland, a curriculum for learning and teaching research methods had to be designed. Major pedagogic challenges were identified and addressed by curricular responses in terms of pluralism in knowledge production forms, a holistic approach to competence development and a learner-centred course design. The resulting design of the part of the curriculum on research methods is presented. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To assess the outcomes and its response to the given challenges, the feedback from existing regular evaluations was used and additional surveys were conducted. Students' perceptions and those of their teachers were combined to form a balanced view.\nFindings: The results indicate that the new curriculum is an appropriate approach- it led to gains in research methods knowledge and skills and improvements in research-related social and reflexive competencies. The assessment of the outcomes of learning research methods in management education reveals an interesting research gap.\nOriginality/value: This paper assesses a newly developed research curriculum for management students implemented in a new master's programme in Business Administration at a mid-size university of applied sciences in Switzerland. Three pedagogical challenges in teaching research methods were addressed to target the theory-practice gap in management education. The authors opted for a research methods curriculum that links management research and practice by encouraging pluralism in knowledge-production forms, a more holistic view of competence development in management education and a learning-centred course design.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Naive dialecticism and Chinese employees' commitment to change	[ "China", "State‐owned enterprise", "Commitment to change", "Naive dialecticism", "Performance change", "Change management", "Employees behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalization and economic transition have brought about unprecedented challenges and competition to Chinese organizations (Lin and Germain, 2003; Ralston et al., 2006; Tsui et al. 2004). Chinese organizations have to seek competitive advantages by implementing a series of changes in institutions, administration and technologies, which have attracted the attention of researchers all over the world due to \"the lack of systematic knowledge about managing in highly dynamic contexts\" (Tsui et al., 2004, p. 134). However, most research on Chinese transforming organizations has been dominated by a macro and system-oriented focus, such as the influence of market transition on firm structure (e.g. Boisot and Child, 1988; Hall and Xu, 1990) and growth (Guthrie, 1997; Peng, 1997; Zhou et al., 2006). Some researchers have called for a more micro, psychological focus pertaining to issues important to Chinese organizational change (e.g. change schema), yet micro-level research in this area remains limited. Even though some research has addressed employees' work attitudes and behaviors during organizational transition (e.g. He et al., 2004; Hui et al., 2004), few studies have examined employees' psychological reactions toward a specific change, an important psychological mechanism through which the change relates to individual-level work outcomes. Accordingly, this study focused on employees' commitment to change and examined its relationships with naive dialecticism (as a cognitive antecedent) and performance change (as a behavioral outcome) in the context of change in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs).There are three reasons why we conducted this study in the context of changes in Chinese SOEs. First, Chinese SOE changes provide a useful context for understanding organizational transformation and associated management challenges as they occur in an emerging market economy (Tsui et al., 2004). A changing SOE will thus constitute an ecologically valid \"experimental condition\" in which researchers can examine employees' commitment to change and its correlates. In particular, since the central goal of Chinese SOE changes during economic transition is to improve efficiency and production, observing how employees' performance changes with their commitment to change becomes possible and meaningful. This study will contribute to commitment to change theory by including a rigorous validity criterion: performance change. Second, naive dialecticism, rooted in Chinese Confucianism and Taoism, is a Chinese meta-epistemology (Nisbett et al., 2001; Peng and Nisbett, 1999; Spencer-Rodgers et al., 2010) and may be one of the most important and unique cognitive antecedents of employees' commitment to change and behavioral change in the Chinese context. As naive dialecticism is not typical of Westerners and has never been addressed in the previous change literature, its inclusion in the commitment to change model represents an \"inside out\" approach - \"identifying the unique or at least important issues to Chinese firms, managers and employees, even if such phenomena might be foreign to scholars outside this context\" (Tsui, 2006, p.3), which should add valuable and novel insights. It also extends the previous literature on naive dialecticism (Peng and Nisbett, 1999), which calls for greater research on the role of Chinese dialectical thinking in organizational and managerial contexts (Spencer-Rodgers et al., 2010). Third, improved knowledge about Chinese firms has enormous practical implications for Western firms who cooperate and compete with them, as China is one of the world's fastest growing economies (Tan and Peng, 2003). This study will contribute to the understanding of Chinese organizational transformation and change management by focusing on change in Chinese SOEs as Chinese SOEs occupy a significant share of the Chinese economic output, with 30 percent of the total assets of the industrial and service sectors (2nd National Economic Census, 2008), and are also spearheading the Chinese economic transition (Lin and Zhu, 2001).\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Transformation and organizational change of Chinese SOEs\nMethod: Data collection and procedure\nResults: Table III presents descriptive statistics and correlations among the variables. The correlations among the naive dialecticism components and the three kinds of commitment to change ranged from -030 to 0.29. The correlations among performance change and the components of naive dialecticism variables and those of commitment to change ranged from -0.13 to 0.29.Moderated multiple regression was used to examine the relationships among the three types of commitment to change and performance change (H1a, H1b, H2a and H2b). In the first step, the three types of commitment to change were entered together with the control variables. Two dummy variables were created representing the airline company and the HR service company (the communication company served as the excluded group). Then the interaction terms for the three types of commitment were entered in step 2. Following the recommendations of Aiken and West (1991), any variable used as a component of the interaction terms was mean-centered. As shown in Table IV, only the affective commitment to change variable was positively and significantly related to performance change. Therefore, H1a was supported. Neither of the other two commitments nor the interaction-terms among the three commitments was related to performance change. Thus, H1b, H2a and H2b were not supported.Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relations among the two naive dialecticism components and the three components of commitment to change (H3a, H3b, H3c, H4a, H4b, and H4c). Contradictory thinking and change thinking were entered together with the control variables in step 1 and their interaction terms were entered in step 2. As shown in Table V, contradictory thinking was negatively related to affective commitment to change, but was not related to continuance or normative commitment to change. Thus H3a was supported, but H3b and H3c were not supported. Change thinking was positively related to all three forms of commitment to change, supporting H4a, H4b and H4c.To examine the mediating role of affective commitment to change in the relationship between naive dialecticism and performance change, relations among both naive dialecticism components and performance change were first tested. The results showed that only contradictory thinking was negatively related to performance change after controlling for the demographic variables, thus supporting H5 (see Table VI). Whether affective commitment to change mediates the relationship between contradictory thinking and performance change was thus examined. According to Cohen and Cohen (1983), if variable 1 (affective commitment to change) mediates the relationship between variable 2 (contradictory thinking) and variable 3 (performance change), then the latter association should be reduced after controlling for the former. As shown in Table VI, contradictory thinking was not related to performance change after controlling for affective commitment to change. Thus, affective commitment to change fully mediated the relationship between contradictory thinking and performance change, supporting H6a. As there is no relationship between normative commitment to change and performance change as is discussed previously, H6b was not supported.Finally, Sobel tests were used to assess the significance of the indirect relationship of interest (MacKinnon et al., 2002; Sobel, 1982). The ratio of the indirect relationship over its standard error, referred to as the Sobel statistic, is compared to a z-distribution to determine the statistical significance of the indirect relationship (Carlson et al., 2010). The Sobel tests indicated that the indirect relationship of affective commitment to change with performance change for contradictory thinking was statistically significant (z=-3.48, p=0.00).In summary, among the hypotheses shown in Figure 1, H1a, H3a, H4a, H4b, H4c, H5, and H6a were supported, and H1b, H2a, H2b, H3b, H3c, and H6b were not supported.\nDiscussion: First, only affective commitment was related to performance change among the three forms of commitment to change. This result suggests that employees with high affective commitment are less sensitive to cues potentially restricting their behaviors and focusing their attention on achieving behavioral outcomes (Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001). Although our hypothesis on the relationship between normative commitment to change and performance change was not supported, the results do provide evidence for different behavioral implications of affective and normative commitments to change. This suggests that employees committing to a change out of obligation may not have as strong an inclination to follow through on their commitment as those who are emotionally commited to the change (Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001). The finding that continuance commitment to change did not moderate the relationship between affective commitment to change and performance change could be explained as follows. On one hand, continuance commitment to change, even though involving behavioral constraints, links to behavioral supports to change (Herscovitch and Meyer, 2002) and may not relate to employees' work behavior in a context of transition. On the other hand, those high on affective commitment to change don't reflect concern with other commitment involving behavioral constraints as they are insensitive to behavioral constraints (Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001). This result is consistent with Herscovitch and Meyer's (2002) finding that affective and continuance commitments to change do not interact to explain the variance in discretionary behaviors.Second, as to the relationships among naive dialecticism components and the components of commitment to change, only that between contradictory thinking and normative commitment to change was not supported. This absence of a relationship might have resulted from the difference between affective and normative commitments to change. Specifically, contradictory thinkers' ambivalent experience of change links to their emotional (affective commitment) rather than to their obligation (normative commitment) to change. This is especially true in Chinese SOEs because their traditional life-long hiring policy, though gradually being abolished, continues to influence employees' sense of obligation to the company and to the company' change policy (He et al., 2004). The results also support the mediating role that affective commitment to change plays in the relationship between contradictory thinking and performance change. Judge et al. (1999) found that coping with change mediated the relationship between cognitive styles and performance during a transition, whereas our research suggests that commitment to change also plays a mediating role in the relationship between a Chinese typical cognitive style (naive dialecticism) and a performance outcome during organizational transition.Implications for theory, practice and society\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This research aims to examine the relationships among employee commitment to change, naive dialecticism, and performance change in the context of change in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 287 employee-supervisor matched data were collected by questionnaire from three Chinese SOEs implementing a major change on sector restructuring.\nFindings: - Results showed that affective commitment to change was related to performance change. Change thinking was positively related to all three components of commitment to change, whereas contradictory thinking was negatively related to affective commitment to change. Affective commitment to change fully mediated the association between contradictory thinking and performance change.\nOriginality/value: - This research integrates \"outside in\" and \"inside out\" approaches to contextualize commitment to change studies in China. An \"outside in\" approach was followed to investigate the relationship between commitment to change and performance change, whereas an \"inside out\" approach was followed to add valuable insights to the commitment to change model from the point of view of Chinese naive dialecticism.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Awareness and use of electronic databases as determinants of research productivity of academic staff in Nigerian private universities	[ "Academic libraries", "Academic staff", "Research productivity", "Private universities", "Awareness", "Electronic databases" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research plays a critical role in promoting the prosperity of a nation and well-being of the citizens. In universities, recognition and advancement of individual academic staff members depend largely on the quantity and quality of their research productivity. According to Lertputtarak (2008), research productivity in any university is the totality of research performed by academic staff members within a given period of time in universities. Creswell (1986) stated that research productivity includes research publications in professional journals and conference proceedings, writing a book or chapter, gathering and analysing original evidence, working with postgraduate students on dissertations and class projects, obtaining research grants, carrying out editorial duties, obtaining patents and licences, writing of monographs, developing experimental designs, producing works of an artistic or creative nature and engaging in public debates and commentaries. Okonedo et al. (2015) state that research productivity is expressed by the entirety of research studies conducted by academic librarians in universities in their career over a specified time frame. Oloruntoba and Ajayi (2006) observed that research publication in the university is a major and most significant indicator of academic staff productivity, and that research attainment is determined by the number of published articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings of repute.\nLiterature review: Awareness of the databases among academics in institutions of higher education is important because the ultimate use of the databases is for academics to be aware and use them effectively to contribute to academic achievement in academia. In this vein, Kwafoa et al. (2014) examined the awareness and use of electronic databases among faculty members in University of Cape Coast. The study revealed that 92 per cent of the faculty members were aware of the existence of online databases. Furthermore, the findings of the study revealed that faculty members were familiar with the databases. The least known database was (BIONNE) database. Similarly, Chirra and Madhusudhan (2009) also undertook a survey on the use of electronic databases by doctoral research scholars of Goa University in India. The outcome of the study was that the entire scholars with 100 per cent were aware, familiar and utilise the databases extensively.\nMethodology: The population for this study were lecturers in the 27 private universities in South-West Nigeria. Out of the 27 private universities established and approved between 1999 and 2012 in South-West Nigeria, 21 were purposively covered in the study (Table I).\nConclusion and recommendation: The study concludes that awareness and utilisation of electronic databases individually and collectively influenced research productivity of academic staff in private universities in South-West Nigeria. This (awareness) variable equally made significant contribution towards the utilisation of the electronic databases. Moderate level of awareness and average level of utilisation of electronic databases were found in the study. It was specifically found that there is a significant correlation between awareness and use of electronic databases by academic staff in the surveyed private universities. The observed correlation between awareness and utilisation of electronic databases readily affirms the general perception by the academic staff that awareness and utilisation of electronic databases will have a positive effect on research productivity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The quality of teaching, research and community service of lecturers coupled with their publication in any university system may depend on the quality of the electronic database they use. Electronic database awareness use is very important to the teaching, research and community service activities of lecturers in the Nigerian university system. It has been established that lack of awareness is the main factor militating against effective use of electronic databases. The study aims to investigate awareness and use of electronic databases as determinants of research productivity of academic staff in private universities in South-West Nigeria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The descriptive survey research design of the correlational type was adopted. Out of the 27 private universities established and approved between 1999 and 2012 in South-West Nigeria, 21 were purposively covered in the study. The stratified random sampling technique based on probability proportionate to size method was adopted in selecting 1,656 (60 per cent) academic staff from the population size of 2,760. The main research instrument used to collect data for the study was questionnaire. Data generated were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Spearman's rank was used to test hypothesis at 0.05 level of confidence.\nFindings: There was a significant positive correlation between awareness and utilisation of electronic databases (r = 0.690; p < 0.05).The result of the analysis showed that there was average level of awareness of electronic databases among academic staff in private universities in South-West, Nigeria.\nResearch Limitations/Implications: The study selected 21 out of the 27 private universities established and approved between 1999 and 2012 in South-West, Nigeria.\nOriginality/value: Based on the findings, the paper recommends increased investment in ICT facilities at the surveyed universities in line with the emerging digital trend in universities around the world to raise the level of awareness of electronic databases utilisation by academic staff in research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Performance, emotion and photographic histories: A commentary on Professor Lee D. Parker's paper	[ "Photographs", "Photography", "Oral history", "Qualitative research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Lee D. Parker's paper is as detailed and thorough as one might expect from a management and accounting historian. It presents multiple possibilities for incorporating the photographed visual world into accounting research, covering wide-ranging ground and advocating the usefulness of photography in a variety of research projects with both contemporary and historical time frames. As such, it will serve as a highly useful inspirational resource to scholars interested in developing image-based research projects. Visual research and photo-elicitation as a technique has a long established theoretical heritage as Parker accurately points out and I will not repeat that lineage here suffice to say that anthropologists, sociologists, ethnographers and geographers have amassed a comprehensive literature on the role and function of photographs as modes of communication, documentary evidence, personal memories and so on, often drawing on philosophical critiques of the nature of vision, art and even knowledge itself. So, accounting and management scholars are on well-trodden ground if they choose to incorporate a photographic (or indeed any visual) dimension into their work, albeit necessitating a trip to a different floor of the university library or accessing unfamiliar research article databases!\nBeyond evidence: As Parker rightly comments, following Sontag (1978), Barthes (1981) and others, the photograph brings the absence of its subject into the present - it \"rematerialises\" depicted people, objects, scenes and so on because they no longer exist (at least not as they were at the point in time and space when the photograph was taken). Thus, the photograph is always a fusion of the present-past and for this reason evidently useful in a historical investigation since we can literally \"look back\" on how things were and importantly, different viewers can respond in their own ways to the same image helping to construct a socially and culturally nuanced narrative of the past as Parker suggests. But Crang (1997) and Scarles (2009) would insist we can go further than this, and that we should regard photographs as visualisations of the future too. When a photograph is taken, the photographer and/or those who commissioned it, are constructing the past as they think they (or others) will want to see it in the future. This is clearest in the case of photographs commissioned for annual reports, advertisements or other company documents, where there is often an explicit corporate agenda at stake, but it is also true of the more casual \"company snapshot\" where the actors involved have an interest in how they, and their organization and portrayed - consciously or unconsciously. Paying attention to the production of images, then, may be as instructive as concentrating on their reception in a research setting.This taps into what Rusted (2008) has referred to as the \"non-representational\" aspects of visual research - considering the way photographic and other images are products of particular ideologies, fabricated and retained for particular purposes and stored, displayed and used in different ways throughout their \"lives\" a theme also running through Schroeder's (2005) work on the \"value-creating\" work that images do for firms. Likewise, Thrift and Dewsbury (2000, p. 7) invoke the ideas of Gilles Deleuze in reminding us that images - as with any body or event - are not fixed entities but always in a state of becoming as they shift between differing intersections and configurations of self, other, image, past, present and future depending on the context they are experienced within. Thus, photographic images are performed and in relation to historical research, accepting this notion presents opportunities to go beyond the traditional \"museum\" model of historical photographs as merely evidencing \"how things were\" (Edwards, 2008). Parker's paper certainly flags up the importance of this performative aspect of photography, and it is here that perhaps the most potential for qualitative archival research using photographs might lie.\nEmotional histories: Regarding photographs as circulating, travelling material objects rather than just representations of what they depict, moves us into a different realm of visual research. As Edwards and Hart (2004) note (see also Edwards, 1999), photographs are physical items that are framed and displayed, carried around in wallets, worn as jewellery, and torn into pieces; and even in the digital age where photographs are now commonly display on computer screen savers, online galleries, electronic photo frames, camera phones and the like, decisions are still made as to which ones to keep, discard and even print. Attending to the materiality of photographs as objects adds another shade of interpretive possibility to Parker's already lengthy list of ideas - research suggests that the things people surround themselves with at work are more than surface decoration, instead serving important symbolic, affective and aesthetic purposes (Halford, 2004; Warren, 2006) communicating desired workplace identities and even playing a part in constructing and maintaining a sense of self which may change over time as individual's career trajectories unfold (Tian and Belk, 2005; Warren and Parker, 2009). How do organizational members use photographs as objects in their workspaces, for example? How does this change over time? Where are certain photographs displayed in the physical setting of the building? Why and for what purposes? And what is not chosen for display?The fact that people and organizations may become attached to the photographs they keep and display strongly suggests an affinity with these objects that is emotional rather than rational. As Edwards (2008) remarks, all photographs are imbued with emotion at every stage of their circulation - the fun and affection of the pictures taken at the office party, the pride of the successful sales team captured in the group photo, and perhaps sadness as a snapshot of a soon-to-be-demolished workplace is vacated - are examples of emotional motivations for taking pictures in the workplace. Their display and retention is likely to be similarly motivated, although these affective drivers will certainly be different over time and between individuals and groups.Furthermore, the acts of taking and viewing photographs are not solely visual ones, but instead are \"corporeal encounters\" involving all the senses (Scarles, 2009). Although one cannot argue against the self-evident visuality of a photograph - for example, in the sense that a blind person cannot see the image - to a sighted person, and especially the photographer, its visuality neither captures the sense in which the embodied experience of being in a place is also \"recorded\" through the action of pressing the camera's shutter, nor reflects the often vivid embodied recollection of the event when photographs are later viewed. Thus, the emotional, embodied component of oral history interviewing should not be overlooked by placing too much emphasis on establishing the factual \"plausibility\" of the recounted tale. As Edwards (2001, 2008) notes, despite historical photographs often being the most emotive of museum exhibits, for example, there is still little sign that researchers are taking a \"social biography\" approach to archival photographs - for example, paying attention to paralinguistic moments and emotional bodily registers apparent in the viewing and discussing of photographs - as well as noting that which cannot be said when confronted with images of the past.\nConclusions: Analysing the performative and emotional character of historical research using photographs certainly poses a challenge for the accounting and management scholar, not least because according to many, the very power of images lies in their capacity to elude reduction into language. Barthes' (1981) famous concept of the \"punctum of the image\" Langer's (1957) concept of \"presentational symbolism\" and Ranciere's (2007) articulation of the \"silent speech\" of the image, all point to exactly what is not there, expressed by Ranciere (2007, p. 22) as:[...] the pure enchantment of images - that is, the mythical identity between the identity of the that and the alterity of the was, between the pleasure of pure presence and the bite of the absolute Other.This is likely to mean that researchers need to find new - and perhaps more performative - ways to truly appreciate the wealth of possibilities using photographic materials in historical and archival research can bring in addition to traditional approaches to visual analysis, such as semiotics for example. It is clear that whilst there may be much to be gained by utilising visual approaches in accounting and management history research, we have only just begun to tackle the conceptual and practical complexities of doing so.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on Professor Lee D. Parker's article on photo-elicitation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two exciting possibilities addressed in Parker's paper are discussed: the potential of archival photographs to transcend their status as \"evidence\" of times gone by; and the mobilisation of emotional oral histories through photographs as objects.\nFindings: - The status of photographs as emotional artefacts and issues surrounding their production, curation, storage, circulation and consumption are found to be as important as analysis of what photographs depict.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Analysing the performative and emotional character of historical research using photographs poses a challenge for the accounting and management scholar on account of the non-reductionist nature of images.\nPractical implications: - Addressing these difficulties has great potential advance research methodology in this area.\nOriginality/value: - Literature and ideas from geography and museum studies bring a new perspective on Professor Parker's article. The paper is of interest to researchers interested in the visual dimension of accounting and management, or those wishing to keep abreast of avant-garde developments in accounting research methodology.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing and validating lean manufacturing constructs: an SEM approach	[ "Indonesia", "Lean manufacturing", "Lean manufacturing constructs", "Lean manufacturing practices" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the today's global competitive business, lean manufacturing (LM) has been playing an important role to enhance companies' performance, not only performance at the operations levels but also at the business level. Several studies noted this fact as a consensus that the appropriate implementation of LM would subsequently leverage companies' performance (Jasti and Kodali, 2016; Nawanir et al., 2013; Sharma et al., 2015; Uhrin et al., 2017). Hofer et al. (2012) acknowledged LM as a gold standard of modern operations management. This fact indicates that the waste elimination concept emphasized by an LM system has successfully conveyed the significant impact to various industries. Nowadays, LM has been proven to be a valuable manufacturing strategy far beyond its original industry (i.e. automobile industry); it has recently been applied in a wide variety of industries, not only automobile industry, but also other sectors like textile, machinery equipment, electrical, electronics, and even wood and furniture industries (Furlan, Dal Pont and Vinelli, 2011).\nDefinition and basic concept of LM: Although the concepts of LM were endlessly expanding and evolving as the LM concept is being more globally accepted (Goyal and Deshmukh, 1992; Jasti and Kodali, 2016), there was a consensus that the fundamental objective of LM is to leverage organizational performance through waste elimination. Considering the definitions of LM from several literature (Cheng and Podolsky, 1993; Eswaramoorthi et al., 2011; Nawanir et al., 2010; Shah and Ward, 2007), this study defined LM as \"a comprehensive and holistic approach synergistically addressing to enhance organizational performance through waste elimination.\" Following Womack and Jones (2003), waste was defined as \"all the activities that utilize resources, but create no value.\"\nDeveloping LM constructs: Construct is frequently defined as concepts that are abstract, complex and cannot be directly observed (Hair et al., 2014). It is a variable that is not directly measured, which is frequently called as latent variable. Constructs were categorized into higher-order construct and lower-order construct. The higher-order construct is a statistical method to confirm that the theorized construct in a study loads into a certain number of underlying lower-order constructs. Measurement items (also called as indicators or manifest variables) are used to indicate a construct, which are the direct indicators that contain the raw data. As an example, flexible resource is a construct, which is directly non-measurable. To measure the construct, a set of manifest variables (measureable items) must be used, such as the use of multi-skilled employees, the employment of general-purpose machines, etc. All the manifest variables should sufficiently indicate their underlying construct.\nComplementarity relationships among the LM practices: The complementarity theory was invented by Edgeworth (1881) who defined organizational activities or practices as complementarity as \"if doing (more of) any one of them increases the returns to doing (more of) the others.\" It assumes that separate practices cannot be independently fine-tuned to realize outstanding performance, and thus considering complementarity among the practices is substantial from the perspective of their influence on performance. Furlan, Vinelli and Dal Pont (2011) highlighted that the two practices are complementary when adoption of one will increase marginal returns of another practice and vice versa. Some practices tended to be adopted together because they are complementary or mutually supportive with each other (Milgrom and Roberts, 1990, 1995). Hence, it is suspected that the total impact to ongoing improvement will be marvelously greater than adopting as standalone practice. Even, according to Tanriverdi (2005), implementing a single practice without implementing others may not lead to the desired performance; it may even reduce overall performance.\nMethodology: Measurement development\nEmpirical assessment of the construct: The data were analyzed by using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS 22. Measurement model was assessed simultaneously by using second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for all the latent constructs. LM is the second-order construct, and its practices are first-order constructs. This stage was aimed to assess goodness of fit (GOF) and construct validity. GOF measures and all factor loadings of each measure are presented in Figure 1.\nDiscussion: Generally, the purpose of this study is to develop and validate the measurement instrument of LM. A thorough review on recent literature has been accomplished. Subsequently, a systematic validity process has also been fruitfully completed to ensure the content validity as well as construct validity of the measurement. Subsequently, the authors intend to discuss the findings of the research. First, the key identified practices of LM are discussed. Subsequently, implication, limitation and suggestion for future research are presented.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide valid and reliable constructs for lean manufacturing (LM) for assessing its implementation level in order to target areas of improvement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on an extensive review on LM literature and content validity assessment from practitioners and academicians, nine LM constructs were identified. Measurement items for each construct were developed to become a complete questionnaire. The questionnaire booklets were distributed to large and discrete manufacturing companies in Indonesia. Out of 1,000 survey questionnaires sent, 236 usable responses were returned giving response rate of 23.60 percent. Subsequently, an empirical assessment on the constructs was done by using structural equation modeling approach.\nFindings: The study identified the valid and reliable LM constructs, consisting of nine LM constructs and 64 measurement items. The study found that all the constructs are complementary and mutually supportive with each other. Indeed, it suggests the holistic implementation of all the LM practices.\nResearch limitations/implications: Owing the time and resource constraint, this study only involved large and discrete process manufacturing industries in Indonesia. Hence, the generalization of the result is slightly limited. More studies in several different contexts are required.\nPractical implications: This study provided a valuable tool for researchers for gaining deeper understanding regarding the LM and its implementation. For practitioners, it is useful to evaluate the degree of LM employment in their companies, to target area of improvement, as well as to take possible actions in attempting to enhance the organizational performance. More importantly, practitioners should adopt all the LM practices in a holistic manner.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first attempt to develop LM constructs for evaluating the LM implementation in Indonesia.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Three Georgias in Atlanta: Lessons from business schools about finding your identity	[ "Business schools", "Degrees", "Target audience", "Curricula", "Rural areas", "Urban areas", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Historically, colleges in the USA built graduate level academic programs that served a perceived community, regional, or national need. This was particularly true for professional schools. For example, colleges of education designed certificate programs offered in conjunction with master's degrees to train K-12 principals and higher education programs for student services personnel (MED). And business schools offered the master's of business administration (MBA) to prepare corporate managers. Typically, public institution programs compared favorably to those at private colleges but could be offered at substantial cost savings to in-state residents. Convenience, while important, was not paramount.\nFinding your zone: Differentiation has to do with how universities identify themselves and the audiences they choose to serve. Both of these concepts, identity and audience, play important roles in determining the manner in which the business schools at these three universities have delineated their programs. The program distinctiveness that has resulted helps explain how three academically powerful research universities can offer what, at the on set, appear to be very similar MBA programs without cannibalizing student enrollment across institutions.Organizational identity has to do with perceptions of purpose and place within an overarching schema. In this instance, the University of Georgia is viewed as the flagship university charged with educating the state's elite students. Georgia Tech confronts the specialized task of preparing the state's engineers, and Georgia State's purpose within the state system mandates that it accommodate the education needs of the broader populace, especially within the city of Atlanta. In each instance, focusing entirely on organizational identity, however, could leave programs offered by these schools exposed to unwanted competition for students. Indeed, program sustainability requires that schools limit their focus and concentrate on specific audiences (niches).Niche identity usually signals either a real or perceived need to compete, based on either services and products offered, geographic region served, the audience targeted, or the price charged. Overall, establishing a niche requires that an organization expend concerted effort on a relatively small segment of its total potential audience (Barney, 1997; Grant, 1998; Porter, 1985).In today's funding environment for public institutions, the market segment or audience that a program targets must be large enough to be profitable (or at least not be a financial drain). Potential students within the segment should not be critical to the success of programs at other state universities. The school or college must have the faculty to deliver the program; and it helps if businesses or alumni can advocate for the school and program (Barney, 1997; Grant, 1998; Porter, 1985).When it comes to developing a niche, programs basically have two options. They can seek cost leadership by offering programs comparable to those of their competitors at lower prices, or they can offer something different. In the first instance, state mandates may limit a school or program's ability to differentiate based on price. In the second instance, schools must identify a group of potential students who have distinct requirements or preferences or both, either in terms of program content or delivery (Porter, 1985; Hannan and Freeman, 1977, 1989; Freeman and Hannan, 1982; Peli, 1997).Organizations that engage in niche strategy behavior tend to have limited resources that do not allow them to focus on large markets. They become entrepreneurial in that they establish a sustainable modus operandi within an attractive but well-defined space (determined by physical location or perhaps certain cyberspace parameters) (Dobrev et al., 2003; Land and Jeman, 1992; Peli, 1997). The best-case scenario for niche organizations is to enter a market where they have no rivals, but this rarely happens. In its absence, they avoid direct competition by staking out different territories within the same geographic area (Barney, 1997). The risk of being too successful is that the segment staked out becomes so appealing that it attracts rivals who offer similar services at lower prices or add desirable features to what is being offered (Porter, 1985; Schumpeter, 1934).To stay competitive, organizations already established in a market location repeatedly enhance their ability to take action and create (Senge, 1990). They continually focus their strategies on exploiting their core competencies. These core competencies sustain the organization over time and serve as points of leverage. They are either unique to a particular organization or performed better than by potential rivals (Hannan and Freeman, 1977). In the end, organizations building niche strategies continually examine their offerings with an eye toward increasing their perceived value (Berry and Parasuraman, 1990; Hannan and Freeman, 1977).\nThe Georgia study: The business schools at GSU (McKillips with Mullen, 2004), Georgia Tech (Blum and Bennett, 2004), and UGA (Karr, 2004) volunteered to participate in a national study of 12 top business schools housed at public universities within the USA (Wolverton and Penley, 2004). Because state funded colleges carry a mandate to serve the local population, the common geographic location of these three schools could prove detrimental to the individual programs in terms of enrollment sustainability. Each school wants to attract only the top candidates in the state; by restricting the pool of potential applicants, each runs the risk of enrollments falling below acceptable levels from a state perspective. The unique challenges that program proximity brings was not examined in the national study.The original project was a qualitative, comparative case study designed to find themes and patterns across institutions that remain consistent over time (Miles and Huberman, 1984; Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Yin, 1994). Two dominant themes emerged across the 12 cases - each program established a competitive advantage and then figured out ways to sustain it over time.Heaton (1998, p. 1) suggests that secondary analysis of qualitative data, which were collected for a prior study, is reasonable when the research interest is different from that of the original work (see also Corti and Thompason (1998) and Thorne (1990)). In the original study, the intent was to determine common themes across cases. In this follow up examination of the data, the desire was to examine the differences across the Georgia cases. The reanalysis of the Georgia data followed the procedures for case study analysis prescribed by Yin (1994) and Miles and Huberman (1984).Atlanta: a city on the move\nIdentity across the three Georgias: To the uninformed observer, the business schools at Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Georgia State appear quite similar primarily because each offers a highly ranked MBA program. Yet, appearances can deceive. For instance, because GSU was well positioned in Atlanta, UGA's move back to Atlanta demanded that it strategically build on two basic competitive concepts - do what you do best and do it where it's not currently being done. And, Georgia Tech defined its target audience so narrowly that its offerings appeal to neither GSU nor UGA's target populations.Georgia Tech has a very clear sense of institutional identity. Its master's programs, including its MBA, prepare individuals to manage and lead engineering and technology-related enterprises. Indeed, DePree capitalizes on the Institute's unique fundamental niche (engineering) where few if any rivals exist in the Atlanta area. All of its programs use institutional core competencies (engineering and technology) as points of leverage. Georgia Tech can offer its programs in relatively close proximity to both GSU and UGA because the uniqueness of its programs precludes competition from its two state-sponsored counterparts. In addition to targeting students interested in engineering and technology, Georgia Tech's primary degree program, the MBA, attracts only students prepared to matriculate through a 60-credit course of study full-time. To further solidify the alignment of its offerings with the strategic direction of Georgia Tech, DePree builds programs across colleges (e.g. the masters in management and engineering and the master's in quantitative and computational finance). It pushes faculty and students into collaborative endeavors by the way in which it physically structures its facilities and assigns their use - competitively awarded interdisciplinary research centers, a shared idea laboratory, and an interdisciplinary program on technology innovation. By doing so, it further defines itself in terms of Georgia Tech's institutional identity.The institutional identity of GSU as a metropolitan university plays itself out not so much in the types of programs offered as in the delivery systems employed by the Robinson College of Business. GSU serves the working student. The business school's Flex MBA reflects this tie to institutional identity. Curricular decisions, however, are not driven by one unifying theme, as is the case of Georgia Tech. In contrast to Tech's DePree School of Management, the Robinson College at GSU has a large diverse faculty and the university a broader curricular mission. As a consequence, the college's programs align with not one specialization but three - entrepreneurialism, e-commerce, and ethics, which are infused with a fourth - international business. Each specialization directly reflects the community that Robinson serves. For example, GSU's business school capitalizes on and complements a conducive business environment that the city of Atlanta creates for entrepreneurs and business start-ups. And it responds to corporate concerns in the banking and insurance firms, among others, about ethics and ethical behavior. Interestingly, Robinson has been able to take advantage of the opportunities represented by the city's growing tech industry without directly competing with Georgia Tech for students. To do so, it focuses on e-commerce and e-commerce policy (a niche within a niche, so to speak).The international umbrella under which all of its programs exist adds programmatic characteristics that distinguish them from courses offered by other universities in the area. Its extensive array of international collaborations and partnership programs clearly establish Robinson as a global player in graduate level business education. When Robinson made the decision to expand its reach, the school looked for under served populations before establishing a presence at Alpharetta in Fulton County north of the Buckhead and mid-town business districts but within the outer perimeter. Here, the school specializes in entrepreneurship, a logical match to a location where average business startup costs are lower than in the heart of the city. The school's continued efforts to meet the Atlanta business community's needs have financially rewarded the school in terms of endowments and scholarship funds.UGA, Atlanta's most recent addition to its public business school community, was drawn by the competitive appeal of GSU's dominance over graduate business education in the city. Isolated from the state's primary population center, UGA sought to rekindle interest in its programs by strategically staking out a piece of the Atlanta market. The Terry College did so in several distinct ways. First, to some degree, it shed some of its institutional identity, which traditionally dictated that the school offers full-time programs on the Athens campus. Second, it targeted different audiences and geographic locations than did GSU. Its executive MBA program caters to professionals with 10 to 20 years work experience (GSU's students tend to have less work experience). Its primary executive continuing education efforts focus on the professional development of corporate board members (a group unserved by GSU). Third, it chose locations within the Atlanta greater metropolitan area not directly served by GSU. The Buckhead business district is north of mid-town and Gwinnett is northeast of GSU's main campus and well away from its Alpharetta facility. Fourth, Terry built its programs on the two faculty strengths (leadership and marketing) that distinguish it from GSU. Interestingly, although Terry suspended a part of its institutional identity in order to create programs that serve part-time students, it works hard to keep the UGA greater institutional identity as the flagship institution alive and well. In much of what it does, Terry pulls its students back to Athens. The leadership modules of its executive MBA are held on the Athens campus. Its leadership institute offers executive leadership programs in Athens. Finally, of note is the school's recent foray into the international business education arena. Here, again, Terry avoids direct competition with GSU by focusing on marketing, which is not a primary emphasis of GSU's Robinson College.\nEstablishing identity: common threads: With today's technology, any institution that wants to can compete for students anywhere. Physical location, while common across the three study institutions, is not requisite for establishing a viable presence in a given city, region, state, or country. Graduate-level professional programs seem particularly vulnerable to competition for students, in part, because these students possess set, work-related goals - to earn credentials, in most cases degrees, that further their professional careers. It becomes relatively easy to target individuals in the higher education arena, for instance, who might want to move up the managerial ladder at a community college, in student or business affairs, or in athletic administration and believe that a degree will help them to do so. The same holds true in K-12, health, and public administration and in fields like nursing where advanced degrees signal advanced levels of preparation and knowledge.Although the three Georgias have a physical presence in Atlanta, they adhere to a set of guides that apply across institutional type and location. In essence, each school established its own identity and, in doing so, a competitive advantage. Over time, the business schools at Georgia, Georgia State, and Georgia Tech engaged in the following behaviors. Each:* Recognized what the overall organizational identity was and used it to frame its view of the community to be served.* Determined its strengths and built on them.* Targeted distinct groups of potential students who were not vital to the survival of the programs at one of the other state-supported schools; a move that helped them minimize competition for the same students.* Targeted different, non-overlapping geographic areas to serve, even within the same metropolitan area (Georgia Tech being the exception).* Remained focused. Program expansion stayed tied to the primary areas of emphasis. They did not try to be all things to all people.* Stayed connected to the communities they serve.* Aligned resources around strengths (e.g., in hiring and building facilities). They also looked for ways to generate monies other than those provided by the state.* Planned their moves. They are action-oriented.\nClosing comments: Not every professional school will offer nationally ranked degree programs, but they all can aspire to establish unique, strong programs that are sustainable over time. Gaining a clear understanding of identity and purposefully targeting the audience to be served are important first steps in such an endeavor.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to look into how universities identify themselves and the audiences they choose to serve, taking into account three specific universities in Atlanta, Georgia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper gives brief overviews of the literature on differentiation and sustainability and the study, followed by descriptions of the three subject business schools and the geographic context, Atlanta, within which they operate.\nFindings: - Not every professional school will offer nationally ranked degree programs, but they all can aspire to establish unique, strong programs that are sustainable over time. Gaining a clear understanding of identity and purposefully targeting the audience to be served are important first steps in such an endeavor.\nOriginality/value: - The article holds important lessons for professional schools and colleges that face increasing competition for students within their home arenas.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Examining similarities and differences of citation patterns between monographs and papers: a case in biology and computer science	[ "Academic monograph", "Academic paper", "Characteristic of citation content", "Characteristic of reference", "Citation content analysis", "Citation pattern comparing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Citation analysis includes citation bibliographic analysis and citation content analysis (CCA). Traditionally, scholars use the bibliographic information of academic papers to carry out bibliometric work. Currently, CCA has been paying attention because more and more full-text of academic papers can be accessed from bibliographic database providers including Elsevier, Willey and Springer. It is easy for us to obtain citation content or context of a reference in an academic paper.\n2. Related work: Some related work about citation content was conducted based on small-scale academic papers before 2000 (Cano, 1989; Maricic, 1998; Moravcsik, 1988). Nowadays, because of the accessibility of large-scale academic papers, scholars use more full-text content of papers to explore characteristics of citation content (Bertin and Atanassova, 2016; Boyack et al., 2018; Ding et al., 2014). As for academic monographs, few researches explore the citation content because of the difficulties in extracting massive citation content, existing studies mainly consider the bibliographic information rather than citation content of academic monographs.\n3. Research questions: Previous studies have explored the features of citation content in academic papers and academic monographs. However, none of the existing literature, as far as we know, has considered the similarities or differences among academic documents when studying the citation pattern. Therefore, a comparison of citation pattern between monographs and papers is presented in this paper. The citation pattern means the characteristic of cited references and citation content. More specifically, this paper collects academic papers and monographs from the same disciplines and explores two research questions:\n4. Methodology: To compare the citation pattern of monographs with that of papers, we collect full-text data and then extract citances and relevant information from the full-text content. Thereafter, year, source and frequency of mention of cited references in each citance and location, length of each citance, are annotated, and then a comparison of these five characteristics is performed between monographs and papers. Figure 1 represents the main process of our research.\n5. Comparison results between monographs and papers: According to the analysis of five characteristics in steps ahead, we compare the year, source and frequency of mention of reference and location, length of citation content in monographs with that in papers.\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Does scale of the data affect the citation pattern?\n7. Conclusion and future work: To investigate the similarities and differences of citation pattern between monographs and papers, this article makes a comparative analysis about characteristics of cited references and citation content in 39 academic monographs and 7,756 academic papers. The results indicate that there are differences in citation patterns of academic monographs and academic papers. Academic monographs cite more old references than academic papers. At the same time, the percentage of references from journals cited by monographs is smaller than that cited by papers, but each monograph cites more kinds of references from journals. In addition, citation content in monograph distributes more evenly in the full-text content, and average of citation content in academic papers is longer than citance of academic monographs. However, average frequency of mention of reference in monographs and papers is similar.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Citation content in academic papers and academic monographs promotes the knowledge flow among different publications. However, existing citation content analysis (CCA) focuses on academic papers and monographs have not received much research attention. We want to know if monographs are appropriate objects of CCA and whether existing methods of analyzing citation in papers are suitable for citation in monographs. Therefore, this paper aims to learn more about features of cited references and citation content in monographs and compare the characteristic of citation pattern between monographs and papers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors manually annotate the references and syntactic citation content in academic monographs published by Morgan & Claypool and automatically extracted the references and citation content from academic papers published by Public Library of Science. Five features in two types citation pattern, namely, pattern of cited reference (including year, source and mention frequency of reference) and pattern of citation content (including location, length of citation content) are used to examine similarities and differences between monographs and papers.\nFindings: The results indicate that between monographs and papers, differences are shown in location, length of citation content and year, source of reference, whereas frequency of mention of reference is similar.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies have explored the patter of citation content in academic papers. However, none of the existing literature, as far as the authors know, has considered the citation content in academic monographs and the similarities or differences among academic documents when studying the citation pattern.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Tie me to the mast: artificial intelligence & reputation risk management	[ "Natural language processing", "Artificial intelligence", "Predictive analytics", "Reputation risk management", "Social choice", "Predictive modelling", "Algorithmic game theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The explosion of machine learning in the overall context of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the relationship between humans and machines in ever more pervasive ways (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2017). At the same time, expanding concerns about the use of social media and search to influence the US elections are shining a new light on the algorithms used to deliver targeted content via Facebook and Google and the data about every aspect of human behavior that these platforms are harvesting (Schneider and Portnoy, 2017). This scrutiny has prompted a massive campaign by these and other social media giants to address public concerns about how they are selling personal data and to whom (Solon and Siddiqui, 2017). It is clear that we need a new regulatory regime covering data capture, storage, usage, sale and deletion, as well as machine autonomy. These troubling issues are only the tip of a vast iceberg that covers everything from ethics in autonomous vehicle use to the prospect of autonomous warfare.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Artificial intelligence and machine learning have spread rapidly across every aspect of business and social activity. The purpose of this paper is to examine how this rapidly growing field of analytics might be put to use in the area of reputation risk management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach taken was to examine in detail the primary and emerging applications of artificial intelligence to determine how they could be applied to preventing and mitigating reputation risk by using machine learning to identify early signs of behaviors that could lead to reputation damage.\nFindings: This review confirmed that there were at least two areas in which artificial intelligence could be applied to reputation risk management - the use of machine learning to analyze employee emails in real time to detect early signs of aberrant behavior and the use of algorithmic game theory to stress test business decisions to determine whether they contained perverse incentives leading to potential fraud.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because of the fact that this viewpoint is by its nature a thought experiment, the authors have not yet tested the practicality or feasibility of the uses of artificial intelligence it describes.\nPractical implications: Should the concepts described be viable in real-world application, they would create extraordinarily powerful tools for companies to identify risky behaviors in development long before they had run far enough to create major reputation risk.\nSocial implications: By identifying risky behaviors at an early stage and preventing them from turning into reputation risks, the methods described could help restore and maintain trust in the relationship between companies and their stakeholders.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, artificial intelligence has never been described as a potential tool in reputation risk management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of operational stickiness in impacting new venture survival	[ "Inventory management", "Small and medium sized enterprises", "Manufacturing operations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent operations management literature has grown up around the theme of the relative amount of operating costs. For example, the concept of operational leanness, developed from inventory leanness, focus on the relative reduction in operating costs for the same sales revenue (Eroglu and Hofer, 2011; Bendig et al., 2017). On the opposite side, however, operational slack mainly captures waste of operating costs in production processes, such as surplus capacity, extra time and excess labor (Azadegan et al., 2013; Tatikonda et al., 2013). More recently, Weidenmier and Subramaniam (2003) theoretically confirmed the sticky behavior of cost of goods sold (COGS) and total costs in manufacturing, merchandising and service firms. Subsequently, by reviewing the literature about the causes and occurrences of cost stickiness, Guenther et al. (2014) theoretically believed that labor costs, property, plant and equipment (PPE) costs, and advertising expense all exhibit sticky behavior in a variety of industries and scenarios. Furthermore, utilizing firm panel data over a 25-year time window, Kroes and Manikas (2018) first introduce the concept of sticky management into the empirical study of inventory management and propose the concept and measurement of inventory stickiness. They further prove that there is a negative relationship between inventory stickiness and firm performance, and this relationship is moderated by market instability. According to Anderson et al. (2003), the sticky management cannot only be measured, but also managed. However, by retrieving the related research for the past ten years, we have not found any study about operational stickiness. Following the original idea of Kroes and Manikas (2018), we first extend the concept of sticky management from inventory to operations, involving inventory stickiness, PPE stickiness and labor stickiness, allowing us to better understand the concept of stickiness not just in the line of inventory management but across the operational management.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses development: 2.1 Theoretical background\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data resource\n4. Analyses and results: 4.1 Model specification\n5. Discussion and implication: The purpose of our study is to explore the relationship between operational stickiness and venture survival. Concretely, we first examine the existence of operational stickiness: inventory stickiness, PPE stickiness and labor stickiness. Next, we hypothesize the inverted U-shaped relationship between operational stickiness and the likelihood of survival. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of operational stickiness on survival in different manufacturing industries.\n6. Conclusion and future research: In general, the analyses of this study presented here draw a more complete picture of operational stickiness and its impact on venture survival. This research contributes to the theory of sticky management by first emphasizing and investigating the existence of operational stickiness and the nonlinear relationship between operational stickiness and venture survival. As such, this study underscores the importance of sticky management within the broader realm of operational management.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the existence of operational stickiness, and explores the relationship between operational stickiness and the likelihood of survival. Furthermore, the authors investigate this relationship in different manufacturing industries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a large sample of more than 200,000 new manufacturing small and medium enterprises between 2000 and 2013 in China, the authors use the survival analysis method to investigate the non-linear relationship between operational stickiness and the likelihood of survival.\nFindings: The authors demonstrate the existence of operational stickiness, such as inventory stickiness, property, plant, and equipment (PPE) stickiness, and labor stickiness. Next, the authors find the inverted U-shaped relationship between operational stickiness and the likelihood of survival. Furthermore, the authors document the differential effect of operational stickiness on the likelihood of survival in different industries.\nPractical implications: Managers can improve the firm's likelihood of survival by maintaining a moderate inventory stickiness and PPE stickiness. However, managers should not adopt sticky labor management in manufacturing industries.\nOriginality/value: This paper may be the first study to demonstrate the existence of operational stickiness, and confirm the inverted U-shaped relationship between operational stickiness and the likelihood of survival.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The opportunity and challenge of trust and decision-making uncertainty: Managing co-production in value co-creation	[ "Co-production", "Trust", "Value co-creation", "Decision-making uncertainty", "Service effort", "Service innovativeness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Interest has been generated recently in the search for a new reference framework for value that is centered on the co-creation process (Vega-Vazquez et al., 2013). Co-creation implies cooperative value creation between service firms and customers and requires the building of experiences resolving problems through the combined effort of the parties in a relationship (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). For customers, values are constantly co-created through their participation in services (Gronroos and Ravald, 2011). Customers can ultimately determine the value of the service in use (Lusch et al., 2010). This new approach emphasizes that customers' participation in the service process is considered indispensable to value co-creation (Revilla-Camacho et al., 2015). An important feature of service in the exchange context is co-production, which implies that a certain amount of participation is needed from customers to co-produce a service, thereby co-creating value (Vargo and Lusch, 2008; Wang et al., 2015). Co-production undoubtedly helps customers gain an improved understanding and take charge of their own roles in the service process (Chen et al., 2015). This collaborative approach is becoming a trend and through co-production, a deeper relationship between firms and customers can be developed (Huang and Rust, 2013). Value co-creation in the banking services is a new topic that requires more research (Mainardes et al., 2017). Thus, the current study aims to encourage co-production, thereby facilitating value co-creation that is reflected in customers and service firms.\nLiterature review: Co-production\nMethodology: Data collection and sampling\nResults: Hierarchical regressions\nDiscussion: The present study simultaneously highlights and examines three main arguments summarized as follows: value co-creation is developed through co-production; trust and decision-making uncertainty have positive linear effects and negative quadratic effects on co-production; and service innovativeness and service effort positively increases the effect of co-production on value co-creation. These issues will be discussed in more detail in the following subsections.\nManagerial implications: This study aims to investigate the underlying dynamics of such a phenomenon. On the one hand, the current research analyzes how trust and decision-making uncertainty generates positive motivation (opportunity) that enhances customers' participation in co-production. On the other hand, this study investigates how trust and decision-making uncertainty causes negative incentive (challenge) that inhibits customers' participation in co-production. Managers should be aware of the possibility that linear and straightforward linkages are probably inadequate in describing relationships among trust, decision-making uncertainty and co-production. The findings indicate that the optimal levels of trust and decision-making uncertainty would be required of each customer. Accordingly, banks that seek to develop trust with their customers should recognize that such factors will not consistently yield simple and positive effects on co-production. As trust deepens and passes a threshold point, it will result in ineffective co-production. In addition, extensive decision-making uncertainty may lower the motivation of customers to participate in co-production, thereby hindering value co-creation. Managers should judiciously find customers' optimal level of decision-making uncertainty so that it would not go beyond the threshold point. Managers should also need to find ways to reduce the level of decision-making uncertainty when they discover they are moving into the dark side. To sum up, banking managers should consider asymmetries and find an appropriate balance. These insights will assist banks in the planning and facilitation of co-production practices, thereby possibly reducing the challenge of costly trusting relationship and customers' decision-making uncertainty.\nLimitations and directions for future research: This study should be interpreted with caution in light of several limitations. The most significant of which is the cross-sectional data. Data were obtained over a relatively short period of time with a relatively small sample of customers. This study investigated trust, decision-making uncertainty, co-production and value co-creation in a specific time, and did not explore their variations. Obviously, some of the managerial and research implications would greatly benefit from a longitudinal investigation. As a result, this study cannot draw strong conclusions regarding the true dynamic effects.\nConclusions: This study hypothesizes the curvilinear mechanisms that affect co-production by focusing on two key determinants, namely, trust and decision-making uncertainty. This study confirms that trust and decision-making uncertainty positively affect co-production, yet they can reduce customers' intention to increase co-production behavior if taken to an extreme. In other words, we highlight the theoretical importance of considering the existence of diminishing returns in the context of co-production. This finding is interesting and shows that an optimal level of trust and decision-making uncertainty is best for co-production. Therefore, the main opportunity and challenge for managers are determining these optimum points. In addition, although co-production is an important source of value co-creation for companies, banking services should explore occasions to elicit service innovativeness and service effort, which can enhance value co-creation through co-production.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Value has been conceptualized as the result of co-creation involving service firms and customers. Currently, however, little is known about why and how customers engage in value co-creation with a service firm. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of co-production in value co-creation in the context of banking services from the customers' viewpoint. The literature has consistently examined the linear effects of trust and decision-making uncertainty on co-production. The study extends this research stream by considering the negative quadratic effects of trust and decision-making uncertainty on co-production. Therefore, this study not only examines the linear and negative quadratic effects of trust and decision-making uncertainty on co-production within a single, simultaneous model but also tests the effect of co-production on value co-creation. Moreover, this study includes and explores the moderating effects of service innovativeness and service effort on co-production in determining value co-creation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The hierarchical moderated regression was used to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: The findings support the positive linear effects and negative quadratic effects among trust, decision-making uncertainty and co-production. Meanwhile, the results indicate that co-production positively affect value co-creation. Service innovativeness and service effort enhance the effect of co-production on value co-creation.\nOriginality/value: This study shows the presence of the opportunity of trust and decision-making uncertainty, which confirms the existing literature, and the challenge of trust and decision-making uncertainty, which extends the literature. This study is the first one to shed light on the negative quadratic effects of trust and decision-making uncertainty on co-production. This study also offers insights into value co-creation and thus enhances the current understanding of value phenomena. Academics and practitioners would greatly benefit from a comprehensive understanding of co-production and the associated value co-creation for the parties involved.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Differences between organic and conventional leafy green vegetables perceived by university students: Vegetables attributes or attitudinal aspects?	[ "Brazil", "Sensory evaluation", "Labelling", "Consumer attitudes", "Organic food", "Willingness to buy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organic farming is a crop management system that promotes a natural and harmonious relation between humans, living organisms and the environment. Crop rotation, green fertilization, cultivation of species in accordance to climate and geographic characteristics, and responsible use of resources are some of the key aspects in a well-balanced and successful organic production (Saminez et al., 2008; Dangour et al., 2009).\n2. Methods: The research had a cross-sectional design and was carried out from February 2017 to July 2017 in the city of Limeira, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. The research took place in two stages: the first stage consisted of determining the demographics, as well as the verification of the participants' perceptions and WTB organic leafy green vegetables; and the second stage consisted of the hedonic scaling that was carried out with organic and conventional vegetables. Young adults, from both gender and between 18 and 30 years old, were recruited as participants.\n3. Results and discussion: The average age of the participants was 20.8 years old with 53.2 per cent females and 98.0 per cent were single. As data collection took place at a university, 75.1 per cent were undergraduates and 12.9 per cent postgraduates. The relationship between socioeconomic levels and consumption of organic foods is relatively well known (Aertsens et al., 2009), with information available for certain regions like Europe (Gracia and De Magistris, 2013), Australia (Lockie et al., 2002) and also Brazil (Mooz and Silva, 2014). However, this relationship is still uncertain in some countries. For example, some studies conducted in the USA no relationship was observed (Aertsens et al., 2009). It can be assumed that higher income and education of consumers expose them to information and make them more willing to buy organic food, resulting in the effective purchase of this type of product (Boizot-Szantai et al., 2017). Although this is true, this behaviour may not apply to university students, due to some specific characteristics of this group. Despite higher education, many of them still do not have their own income, which may affect the WTB organic foods, due to higher costs associated with it. Additionally, the purchase and consumption of organic food are influenced by food environment, food availability and product familiarity (Lockie et al., 2002). Because of lower production, in comparison to conventional products, some countries or regions may not have organic products available, mitigating the purchase intent regardless of income or schooling of the consumer.\n4. Conclusion: Answering the title question, differences between organic and conventional leafy green vegetables, perceived by university students, tend to be attitudinal.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate perceived sensory differences of organic and conventional leafy green vegetables through three sensory tests - blind, informed and inverted and the willingness to buy (WTB) them, and associated factors of organic food consumption by these students.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research had a cross-sectional design with university students. First, a questionnaire with 16 statements was presented to 233 consumers with a five-point Likert scale response. The assertions were categorized into five domains: trust in organic production; trust in conventional production; positive attitude to organic; affordable price; and perceived quality. Afterwards, a hedonic scaling was conducted with 150 consumers, 50 in each type of test with conventional and organic leafy green vegetables: lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.); kale (Brassica oleracea L.); common chicory (Cichorium intybus); and endive (Cichorium endivia). Visual aspect, taste, texture, bitterness and overall liking for all samples were evaluated on a nine-point hedonic scale.\nFindings: In general, the participants did not perceive sensory differences during the blind test, but when the information about the vegetables was provided, higher scores were obtained by those products labelled as organic in the informed test and in the inverted test (conventional labelled as organic). This effect was higher for students with stronger attitudes towards organic food. These results indicated that the perceived differences between organic and conventional leafy green by university students tended to be attitudinal and, therefore, can be greatly influenced by the information provided with the product.\nOriginality/value: This research showed that university students were influenced by the organic label, revealing their sensory perception about vegetables. This study had multiple methodological approaches, including hedonic scaling and consumers' WTB. This combination allowed identifying the students' attitudinal tendency in relation to their sensory perceptions of organic green leafy green vegetables.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Management education: reflective learning on human interaction	[ "Relationships", "Journals", "Reflection", "Human nature", "Human traits", "Self awareness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Waddock and Lozano (2012, p. 265) criticised management education stating that \"We face a world in which management education, particularly MBA education, is by many assessments in crisis\". They quoted a number of studies that stressed the low relevance of university education to professional practice. A common criticism of business education is that graduates \"are technologically literate and able to deal with intricate problem-solving models, but are essentially distanced from the human dimensions that must be taken into account\" (Dilworth 1996, p. 49). Waddock and Lozano (2012) stress the need for self-awareness and self-development. They also need to understand those with which they work (Clydesdale, 2009).\n2. Reflection journals and human nature: A key problem in management education is how to teach self-awareness and relationships skills. One common technique is to promote student reflection on their interactions and their responses to daily encounters. Gray (2007) describes a range of tools and processes that promote management reflection. These include storytelling, reflective and reflexive conversations, reflective dialogue, reflective metaphor, reflective journal, critical incident analysis, repertory grids and concept mapping. Holden and Griggs (2011) found that the quality of reflection deepened with more structured approaches. They conducted a study which encompassed a range of different reflective methods and found that more structured techniques encouraged deeper reflection than free form reflection.\n3. Method: The class was taught in 2011, on a \"leadership\" course for a Master of Professional Studies degree, a degree similar to an MBA. The paper was taught as a distance learning course with seminars to be held in Christchurch, where the university is based, and Rotorua in the centre of the North Island.\n4. Findings: First instalment\nImplications: The study reinforced Stewart et al.' (2008) observation that keeping a reflective journals is a skill that requires formative feedback to develop. There was a significant leap in analysis after feedback was received, although changes after the earthquake reduced the number of instalments and opportunities to provide feedback.\nConclusion: This study sought to find a more effective method of teaching self-awareness and relationship skills by combining a model of human characteristics with reflective journaling. The characteristics in the model provided a guide for self-analysis and interpretation of interaction with others. Understanding of the traits, as revealed in the journals, formed the basis of the marking schedule, thereby overcoming a significant concern with reflection-based instruction.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to describe an attempt to develop a more effective technique to teach self-awareness and relationship skills.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A journal is used in combination with a model of human nature. The model lists human characteristics that the management trainee must identify in themselves and others they interact with. Students kept a journal and analysed their interactions in reference to a list of human characteristics.\nFindings: Initial plans were disrupted by an earthquake. Analysis in the first journal instalments was limited and students regularly found negative characteristics in colleagues. Feedback was given and the second instalment showed greater quality of analysis. Students regularly found and showed understanding of the characteristics in themselves and others. They also put more thought in to how to manage those traits. The model provided a solution to the problems of marking reflective journals.\nPractical implications: A key limitation of this approach is the difference in opinion that may exist between academics as to what characteristics managers should look for in themselves and others. There may be substantial divergence on this.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to management education by suggesting a method for enhancing both relationship skills and self-awareness. Problems in assessing reflection essays and journals can be overcome by grading their knowledge and understanding of the human characteristics.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Retrospective: efficiency in service delivery: technological or humanistic approaches?	[ "Process efficiency", "Service delivery", "Humanistic approaches", "Technological approaches" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Efficiency in Service Delivery: Technological or Humanistic Approaches? was published in 1989 in the third volume of The Journal of Services Marketing. This was the first journal article I published and it served as a formal launching point for my research and teaching career in the field of services marketing. For that I am very grateful. As is true with many first publications, the roots of the ideas in this article flowed out of work done for my dissertation. In fact, it is fair to say that the ideas presented in Efficiency in Service Delivery came from one of the \"dead end paths\" most of us experience during the dissertation process. Fortunately, this \"dead end path\" resulted in the publication of this article and was also the foundation of several other subsequent publications in the services marketing literature.\nMotivation: At the time of the publication of Efficiency in Service Delivery, the idea of implementing technological approaches to service delivery had gained significant momentum. Interestingly enough, at this time many, if not most, services marketing articles included discussions of the unique characteristics of services (Zeithaml et al., 1985) to build a case for the necessity of knowledge development specific to the marketing issues associated with services. This was deemed a necessary feature of the identity-building process in the field of services marketing as a unique field of research and practice that merited the attention of researchers in the broader field of marketing. Fortunately, for subsequent researchers, the services marketing scholars from this era were successful in building a case for the importance of a knowledge base unique to the field of services marketing.\nContribution: Three inter-related themes in the services marketing literature influenced the development of Efficiency in Service Delivery. First, within the field of services marketing, researchers were attempting to distinguish services marketing as a unique field of study and practice within the broader field of marketing. Second, services marketing researchers were developing services classification schemes within the relatively new field of services marketing. In general, these services classification schemes were developed to amplify the uniqueness of the services marketing field. At the same time, these services classification schemes identified differences among types of services that allowed researchers and practitioners to recognize unique characteristics across a variety of services organizations within the broader services marketing field that merited the attention of researchers and presented unique challenges and opportunities for services practitioners. Third, researchers were applying manufacturing knowledge and practices to the field of services marketing. When combined, these three themes and practices presented a unique perspective which led to the development of the ideas in Efficiency in Service Delivery.\nResponse from the services marketing research community: One way to examine the response from the services marketing research community to the ideas in Efficiency in Service Delivery is through Google Scholar. The article has been cited 54 times since its publication in Kelley (1989). While this is not a particularly large number in terms of citation, a closer look at the pattern of the timing of the citations reveals some interesting findings. A look at the number of citations for this article in five-year increments since its initial publication is included in Table I.\nTwenty-five years later and beyond: The publication of Efficiency in Service Delivery in 1989 coincided with the invention of the World Wide Web which occurred in the same year. That technological advancement alone led to a myriad of advancements, most of which were unimaginable at the time this article was published. At the same time, services marketing researchers and practitioners have a much better understanding of the human side of services. Advancements in practice and on the research front relative to technological and humanistic approaches to service delivery have resulted in revolutionary changes in how researchers and practitioners view service delivery. Despite the drastic changes in technology and our understanding of the human element of services, the higher level ideas expressed in Efficiency in Service Delivery still seem to hold. It is at the detail level that differences appear to present themselves.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a retrospective evaluation of the findings first put forward in the article Efficiency in Service Delivery: Technological or Humanistic Approaches?, and to offer directions for further research and developments in the research area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Research directions which emanated from the publication of the article have been examined in the light of current service(s) marketing theory and practice. As a result, promising current and future strands of research have been identified.\nFindings: The original article examined technological and humanistic approaches to improving service delivery efficiency. In doing so, it included two services classification schemes which provided context for the managerial implications presented. The original article was published in 1989. Much has changed since then, especially with regard to technological approaches to service delivery. However, the implications included in the original article for the most part hold. Future researchers are offered a variety of possible directions to pursue in light of the changes, especially in technology, that have occurred since the publication of the original article.\nOriginality/value: The original article was highly rated and generated discussion and important further research. It has value as part of the history of service(s) marketing research. The retrospective analysis by the author gives a unique insight into processes and thinking associated with understanding key aspects that contribute to the historical development of service(s) marketing, and provides substantial food for thought for future research directions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Building gender-aware ecosystems for learning, leadership, and growth	[ "Women", "Entrepreneurship", "Growth", "Entrepreneurial learning", "Entrepreneurial leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past two decades, women have dramatically increased their participation in entrepreneurship in Canada and other high-income, innovation-driven economies. Yet, despite their growing presence in startup and established businesses, research suggests that female-led businesses often lag male-led ventures on standard performance measures, such as profitability or growth in revenue or employees (Hughes and Jennings, 2015). This so-called \"performance gap\" has sparked significant debate and important questions about not only the extent of the gender performance gap but also the barriers to and facilitators of growth, and how best to nurture and support women's engagement in growth-oriented business venturing. To date, research has explored various factors that appear to partly explain gender-based outcomes. These include growth aspirations, industrial location and access to financing, to name a few (Jennings and Brush, 2013; for important critiques of the performance gap debate, Marlow and McAdam, 2013; Robb and Watson, 2012).\nLiterature review: Blending insights from gender-aware and entrepreneurial ecosystem frameworks\nStudy details: Our study focuses on the AWE Peer SparkTM program created by Alberta Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), a highly successful women's enterprise center operating in Western Canada since 1995. Launched in 2012, AWE Peer SparkTM focuses on growth-oriented entrepreneurs who are seeking to expand an established business, offering a system of blended learning, leadership development, expert coaching, mentoring, and support [Alberta Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), 2014b, 2019]. The original impetus for Peer SparkTM was to fill gaps in the existing entrepreneurship ecosystem - in particular, an overemphasis on startup vs. scale-up support, and an absence of gender-aware programs where support for business growth did exist.\nEmpirical findings: Philosophy and design of the AWE Peer SparkTM program\nDiscussion and conclusion: Our goal in this paper has been to contribute to current understandings of the processes of ELLD, and questions of how best to support women entrepreneurs in building strong, viable, growth-oriented businesses. Blending insights from gender-aware framework proposed by Brush et al. (2009), and writings on entrepreneurial ecosystems (Isenberg, 2011), we examine women's experiences of participating in a growth accelerator program, Peer SparkTM, run by AWE in Western Canada. Drawing on interview, document, and observational data, our analysis documents the philosophy and design of the Peer SparkTM program, the learning process within the program, and the aspects of the program that participants and program leaders evaluate as being especially helpful for ELLD and business growth.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to examine processes of entrepreneurial learning and leadership development (ELLD) for women involved in growth-oriented businesses. It considers how ELLD can be supported by building gender-aware ecosystems for growth.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data are from a small-scale study of a growth accelerator program in Canada run by Alberta Women Entrepreneurs. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, drawing on interview, document, and observational data.\nFindings: The study finds that three key activities - formal learning, informal learning and peer / community support - are central to women entrepreneurs' learning and leadership development. In line with emerging scholarship, entrepreneurial learning is found to be strongly relational, with social capital playing a central role in the formation of human capital.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the understanding of the micro-foundations of growth, the processes involved in ELLD and the importance of developing gender-aware ecosystems.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Evaluation and prioritization of service quality dimensions based on gap analysis with analytic network process	[ "Evaluation", "Hotel", "Customer satisfaction", "Prioritization", "Analytic network process (ANP)", "Service quality dimensions (SQDs)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The mainstream of research in recent years has witnessed a major shift of attention to hospitality management as a lucrative sector in service industry (Mok et al., 2013). However, this remunerative business is highly competitive and urges organizations to satisfy their customers, or else they fail to survive in the business (Sivabrovornvatana et al., 2005). Crick and Spencer (2011) called the competition as \"cut-throat\" to describe its intensity and hence, the competitors' need to satisfy the customer, which urges hotel management to try to understand the customers and recognize their needs and expectations. This is not easy at all, considering the fact that these expectations and needs change with their age, experiences, preferences, hobbies and personalities (Mobarak et al., 2015).\n2. Literature review: SQ is a hotly debated concept in the service literature (Chen et al., 2011). However, despite the fact that the literature on SQ is quite abundant, the topic is controversial in terms of the tools as well as techniques used to explore SQ, and also the findings of the studies and interpretation of results (Wang et al., 2012). Yang and Coates (2010) believe this wide dispersion of measuring techniques deployed to evaluate SQ may be due to its subjective nature. Similarly, scholars postulate that the reason why there is no single definition of SQ, and the findings are not uniform, is the high level of subjectivity attributed to SQ (Mok et al., 2013). Therefore, to make this chaotic topic more manageable, we begin the literature with the major schools of thought in SQ. Afterwards, empirical studies of SQ in hotel industry are presented. We then continue the literature with a review on the applications of SQ in other service areas. The literature proceeds with a more detailed explanation of the approach we take and technique we utilize in this study. Eventually, an elaboration of the model we propose in current research is presented.\n3. SQDs and SQ gaps: As mentioned earlier, SQ is a construct with highly abstract, subjective nature. Therefore, scholars attempt to measure SQ through a number of variables they believe characterize it. For instance, Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) introduced three qualities, namely, physical quality, corporate quality and interactive quality as SQ dimensions. In a study conducted by Garvin (1987), eight dimensions including performance, features, \"reliability,\" \"conformance,\" \"durability,\" \"serviceability\" and \"aesthetics\" were proposed. In this study, it was believed that SQ is the comparison of customers' expectations and perceptions. Parasuraman et al. (1988) accounted ten variables, namely, \"reliability,\" \"responsiveness,\" \"competence,\" \"access,\" \"courtesy,\" \"communication,\" \"credibility,\" \"security,\" \"understanding the customer\" and \"tangibles,\" as the indicators of SQ, and then assigned them into five categories, namely, tangibles, \"reliability,\" \"responsiveness,\" \"assurance\" and \"empathy.\" Elsewhere, he called these categories as SERVQUAL and defined SERVQUAL as \"a concise, multiple-item scale that organizations can use to better understand the service expectations and perceptions of consumers, and as a result, improve service\" (Parasuraman et al., 1988, p. 30). SERVQUAL measures SQ based on the gap concept. Gap concept asserts that SQ is defined as the distance between customers' expectations and perceptions (Bloemer et al., 1999). In other words, SQ can be defined as the gap customers feel between what they expect and what they are actually provided with. In another definition, Abdullah and Rozario (2009) assert that factors such as customer expectation, process quality and output quality affect SQ.\n4. ANP: ANP was first devised by Saaty (1996), who argued that it provides the most exhaustive model to analyze corporate decisions, for it is capable of taking into account interaction as well as feedback, within and between clusters. He also states that ANP primarily targets at identifying the overall effect of all of the components which, in turn, lead to outer and inner dependence. The primary intention in this method is to determine the overall effect of all of the elements on one another and the whole system. The system follows the step-wise manner discussed below.\n5. New methodology: This study utilizes a comprehensive list of SQDs in which a number of service dimensions are considered. The main aim of this research is to address the most indispensable SQDs in order to help managers to improve their customers' satisfaction. There are a lot of factors which may influence the importance of SQ factors. In the traditional perspective, gap analysis which is the subtraction of customers' expectations from perceptions is considered as the index of dissatisfaction. The most critical dimension in gap analysis is the one with the highest positive value of dissatisfaction since that dimension has perceived value higher than expected value. In other words, when the dissatisfaction index gets a positive value, it means the customer expects a better service than what he/she has received. Therefore, the higher the dissatisfaction index, the more probable it is to lead to customer dissatisfaction.\n6. Case study and findings: Hospitality industry highly relies on the customers' perception from delivered services. Therefore, SQ, as a critical issue, can play a vital role in this industry. In this study, the questionnaires were designed based on the 30 sub-dimensions of SQ (Column 2 in Tables II and III) and were distributed in three four-star hotels in Isfahan. There are just four four-star hotels in Isfahan city and only three of them accepted to cooperate in this study. In these questionnaires, participants were asked to reflect on their expectations and perceptions for each sub-dimension of SQ. The sample in each hotel includes 198 Iranian customers.\n7. Data analysis: The obtained data passed through the four steps mentioned in Section 5. The results are as follows.\n8. Discussion and conclusions: With increased competition and the challenging environment, the role of SQ in improving customer satisfaction has become more critical. Although customer satisfaction concept is a general issue, improvement of this concept requires a thorough analysis. Specifically, in this study gap analysis, correlation test between SQDs and ANP modeling were undertaken to evaluate quality of hotels' services and to prioritize SQDs. The gap analysis seems to provide managers of hotels with a better understanding of their shortcomings in services, and hence improve their customer satisfaction. Besides, the customers' expectations and perceptions may provide suitable opportunities to understand their customers' requirement and their own performance. In this research a comprehensive list of SQDs was used to involve all customers' requirements thoroughly. This list included 12 major factors and 30 sub factors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify customers' critical demands through evaluating and prioritizing service quality dimensions (SQDs) based on service quality (SQ) gaps.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The customers of four-star hotels were asked to report on their expectations and perceptions about the service they were receiving. Afterwards, the gap between the customers' expectations and perceptions was calculated. Eventually, the three sets of data were exploited to prioritize SQDs through analytic network process (ANP).\nFindings: Findings suggest that security and confidentiality, price, and tangibles are the most crucial factors.\nPractical implications: The results can provide hotel managers with insightful hints about those aspects of service that form their customers' perception of SQ in order to assign their invaluable, but restricted, resources appropriately to offer a more competitive service to the customers through paying attention to those dimensions.\nOriginality/value: The innovativeness of the methodology was in that the authors proposed a noble method in filling out the difficult-to-complete ANP matrix. The authors also managed to consider the mutual relationship between SQD criteria, which is difficult to do in ordinary methods.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Emotion as signal of product quality: Its effect on purchase decision based on online customer reviews	[ "Information asymmetry", "Perceived product quality", "Emotional content", "Perceived cognitive effort", "Perceived empathy", "Signaling theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Information asymmetry is an inevitable issue in the e-commerce environment because customers cannot physically evaluate the quality of products (Mavlanova et al., 2012). E-sellers have introduced online customer reviews, namely, product evaluations provided by other customers, to provide additional information to customers for overcoming the above-mentioned deficiency (Mudambi and Schuff, 2010). According to eMarketer, over half of respondents used online reviews consistently to inform their purchase decisions and only 11 percent of respondents rarely used online reviews for purchase decisions in 2017 (TeMarketer, 2017).\n2. Theoretical background: Signaling theory was originally proposed to reduce the information asymmetry between two parties (Spence, 2002) and has recently been applied extensively in broad contexts, such as management (Connelly et al., 2011) and marketing (Dunham, 2011). Signaling theory provides a framework for understanding how customers assess product quality using complementary information from sellers and other customers in their purchase decisions in the technology-mediated e-commerce environment, where distance gaps prevent customers from directly evaluating products (Kirmani and Rao, 2000). A type of complementary information that is observable and has costs for its production can be regarded as a signal (Spence, 1978). Accordingly, two necessary and sufficient components, namely, signal cost and observability, ensure the efficiency of a signal (Connelly et al., 2011). Signal cost indicates the cost to senders to transmit the signal (Connelly et al., 2011), and signal observability refers to the degree to which the recipients of a signal are able to notice the signal (Connelly et al., 2011).\n3. Research model and hypothesis development: 3.1 Effects of emotional content on perceived product quality\n4. Research method: 4.1 Experimental design\n5. Data analysis: We used ANOVA, linear regression and binary logistic regression to examine the research model. Manipulation check was conducted using the independent sample t-test in SPSS 20. H1 was tested with ANOVA, H2 and H3 with linear regression and H4 with binary logistic regression in SPSS 20.\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Discussion on findings\n7. Conclusions: Online customer reviews are becoming an important information source for reducing the information asymmetry in e-commerce to assist customers in making purchase decisions. This study demonstrates the positive impact of the emotional content of reviews on perceived product quality and subsequent positive influence on purchase decisions by considering the emotional content of online customer reviews as a signal of product quality. The moderating effect of perceived empathy and cognitive effort on the relationship between emotional content and perceived product quality is also confirmed. This study indicates the positive signal of the emotional content of online customer reviews and helps sellers and customers realize the importance of such emotional content.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Information asymmetry is an inevitable issue in e-commerce and largely hampers the development of online shopping. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to investigate the emotional content of online customer reviews, which are considered an efficient way to reduce information asymmetry, as a potential signal of product quality. The moderating effects of perceived empathy and cognitive effort are also explored on the basis of signaling theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A laboratory experiment with 120 subjects was used to empirically test the proposed research hypotheses. The subjects were randomly assigned to two treatment groups, with 60 subjects in each group. ANOVA, linear regression and binary logistic regression were used.\nFindings: The emotional content of online customer reviews positively influences perceived product quality, which subsequently and positively affects purchase decisions. The emotional content of online customer reviews greatly influences perceived product quality when perceived empathy or cognitive effort is high.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to extend extrinsic cues to emotional content on the basis of signaling theory and reveals the important role of emotional content of reviews. Moreover, the mediating effect of perceived product quality and the moderating effect of perceived empathy and cognitive effort illustrate the mechanism of the influence of emotional content on purchase decision. Findings demonstrate the positive signal of emotional content and provide important practical implications for sellers and customers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Do patients really perceive better quality of service in private hospitals than public hospitals in India?	[ "Patients", "Hospital", "Perceived service quality", "Functional quality", "Public and private", "Technical quality" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Indian healthcare sector is poised to grow at a very fast pace to reach a market size of $280bn by 2020 and $372bn by 2022 (India Brand Equity Foundation, 2017). Indian healthcare delivery system comprises participation of both public and private health service providers. Primary, secondary and tertiary level healthcare facilities run by the state governments deliver medical services at very low cost or free whereas, private healthcare facilities including general and super specialty hospitals are expensive (Planning Commission, 2013). Despite high public and private expenditure, the Indian healthcare system is suffering from major weaknesses with respect to availability or accessibility, affordability and wide variations in quality of public and private sectors (Planning Commission, 2013).\nLiterature review: Dimensions of hospital service quality\nData analysis and findings: Dimensions of hospital service quality (result of factor analysis)\nConclusion and managerial implications: The present study has made contributions to the existing knowledge in the area of hospital service quality that can be of great value to practicing healthcare professionals and managers or administrators in the following ways.\nLimitations of the study and direction for further research: The present study is conducted in medical college hospitals situated in the state of Odisha. Thus, research can be conducted in other geographical regions. Research sample includes inpatients only in the general medicine, general surgery and gynecology departments leaving a scope to conduct similar research in super specialty departments like cardiology, orthopedics, neurology, neurosurgery, etc. This study involves a cross-sectional research design, leaving a scope for longitudinal research to observe any possible change in patients' perception of service quality over time.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare perceived service quality of public/government and private medical college hospitals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study adopts a descriptive, cross-sectional and research design. The research sample includes 340 in patients from six medical college hospitals located in the state of Odisha, India. Primary data are collected through a structured closed ended questionnaire containing 66 items on 1-7 point Likert scale. Statistical tools like factor analysis and ANOVA are performed with the help of SPSS-17 software to analyze the collected data.\nFindings: This study identifies 13 dimensions of perceived hospital service quality. The comparative study indicates better performance of public/government hospitals across the technical dimensions of perceived service quality, whereas private hospitals report better performance across majority of the functional dimensions.\nOriginality/value: In the Indian healthcare system, public hospitals provide low-cost healthcare targeted toward low to middle socio-economic population whereas, large corporate private hospitals provide high-cost healthcare targeted toward high-income group. So the comparison between them produces an obvious result indicating better service quality in private hospitals. Present study minimizes this gap by comparing the service quality of public and private medical college hospitals. Medical colleges ensure access to health services for a larger group of people. Thus, similarity in the segment of population receiving medical services in public and private medical colleges is higher, making the comparison of perceived service quality fairer.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A clustered-based segmentation of beer consumers: from "beer lovers" to "beer to fuddle"	[ "Consumer", "Cluster analysis", "Beer", "Brewery sector", "Market segments" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The consumption of alcohol has been the focus of numerous studies, like sensory analysis (Lelievre et al., 2008), psychology (Valentin et al., 2007) and marketing (Choi and Stack, 2005), highlighting the importance of alcoholic beverage consumption.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Beer consumers' segmentation\n3. Research questions: The present study aims to examine the potential beer consumer segments and to develop beer consumer typologies. Accordingly, this research addresses the following questions:\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Sampling and fieldwork\n5. Discussion of results: In the first stage of the research, the authors developed a confirmatory factor analysis to establish meaningful factors, and seven factors were identified, namely, loyalty, image, perceived quality, familiarity, premium price, purchase intention and value for money. Then, these variables were included in the cluster analysis, obtaining a five-cluster solution. Our findings report different groups of beer consumers, comprising 96 individuals in Cluster 1; 80 individuals in Cluster 2; 178 individuals in Cluster 3, 102 consumers in Cluster 4, and 136 consumers in Cluster 5. A clustered-based typology of beer consumers is now presented, offering an overall characterisation of beer consumers.\n6. Conclusions: The present research provides a comprehensive clustered-based categorisation of beer consumers. As a result, five consumer segments are obtained, which are then profiled on consumer-based, product-based and purchase/situational variables.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: New trends are emerging in the brewery sector; but to date beer consumer segmentations are scarce. In this context, the present study addresses the following questions: \"Are beer consumers monolithic or are there different segments in the beer market?; and \"What are the main characteristics of the beer consumer segments?\". The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential beer consumer segments and to profile them regarding their consumption behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data from a sample of 592 consumers were analysed through hierarchical cluster analysis; and the validity of the cluster solutions was then examined through a MANOVA analysis.\nFindings: A five-cluster solution emerged, revealing different beer consumption patterns and preferences. These segments are identified as \"beer lovers\", \"circumspect seniors\", \"social drinkers\", \"homelike women\" and \"beer to fuddle consumers\".\nOriginality/value: The findings suggest that beer consumers cannot be seen as a homogenous consumer group; and managers and brewers could manage beer as five different products, instead of considering beer as a single item.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumer animosity: a literature review and a reconsideration of its measurement	[ "Consumer behaviour", "Market research", "International business" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Tensions among countries are present throughout the world. These tensions may stem from territory disputes (e.g. India and Pakistan both demanding the Kashmir region; Israel and Palestine combating for the Gaza region), economic arguments (e.g. the European Union's recent introduction of import limits for China-made clothing), diplomatic disagreements (e.g. France's and Germany's disagreement with the USA on the issue of the US intervention in Iraq), or religious conflicts (e.g. as recently experienced in the case of Arab countries' outrage against Denmark following the publication of Mohammed caricatures in a Danish newspaper) leading to cool relations between countries or even armed conflicts (as, for example, repeatedly in the Gaza strip or the Kashmir region). The investigation of the impact of such bilateral disputes on consumers' behaviour towards products of companies from the offending nation has gained research attention in recent years (Klein et al., 1998; Klein, 2002; Nijssen and Douglas, 2004; Ang et al., 2004). As the following literature review will demonstrate, companies' sales tend to be severely jeopardised by consumers' anger towards the firms' home country.Klein et al. (1998) were the first to relate tensions between nations to consumers' buying behaviour, i.e. to the willingness of consumers to buy products stemming from companies based in or associated with a country engaging in disapproved actions or behaviour[1]. In this context, Klein et al. (1998, p. 90) introduced the concept of consumer animosity which they conceptually defined as \"remnants of antipathy related to previous or ongoing military, political or economic events\". Using the Nanjing massacre by the Japanese in 1937 (in which 300.000 Chinese civilians died) as a historical background for the Chinese's still persisting anger against Japan, they empirically showed that animosity had a negative impact on Chinese consumers' willingness to buy Japanese products. At the same time, however, they showed that the negative feelings did not distort the same consumers' quality evaluations of the concerned products. In other words, consumers harbouring feelings of animosity acknowledged the quality of products stemming from the disliked nation, but tended to refuse to buy them.Klein et al.'s (1998) study was the first to show a direct effect of products' country-of-origin on buying decisions, independent of product judgments. This challenged the conventional wisdom in the country-of-origin literature, according to which \"made in\" influences on consumers' willingness to buy foreign products were assumed to impact on buying decisions indirectly via product judgments (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Liefeld, 1993; Papadopoulos and Heslop, 2003; Peterson and Jolibert, 1995; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). Importantly, consumer animosity was shown to have independent effects on the willingness to buy from consumer ethnocentrism which describes \"the beliefs held by [...] consumers about the appropriateness, indeed morality, of purchasing foreign-made products\" (Shimp and Sharma, 1987, p. 280); indeed, animosity and ethnocentrism were shown to be distinct constructs (Klein and Ettenson, 1999; Witkowski, 2000; Hinck, 2004), having distinguishable effects on foreign product preferences. Thus, while ethnocentric consumers tend to avoid buying products from any foreign country, consumers possessing feelings of animosity may find it well acceptable to buy products from a variety of foreign countries but refuse to purchase products coming from one specific foreign country which is the target of animosity feelings.Following Klein et al.'s (1998) investigation, a number of subsequent studies on consumer animosity have been published in recent years. While some of them seek to replicate results in different, mostly less extreme, contexts (Shin, 2001; Klein, 2002; Nijssen and Douglas, 2004), others attempt to broaden the applicability of the construct (Shimp et al., 2004; Hinck, 2004) or refine its conceptualization (Jung et al., 2002; Ang et al., 2004). A brief review of consumer animosity has also recently appeared (Amine et al., 2005) focusing, however, on the managerial implications of animosity rather than the operationalization and measurement of the construct. However, the latter is an important issue and, as will be demonstrated in this paper, there is evidence to suggest that extant measurement models applied to operationalize consumer animosity are neither sufficiently comprehensive nor consistent with the conceptual nature of the construct. In this context, and despite the relevance of animosity as an explanatory variable in theoretical models of foreign product purchase, there has been no attempt to review current measurement approaches, identify potential shortcomings, and propose ways for overcoming them.In this paper, we:* critically review existing research on consumer animosity;* highlight potentially problematic measurement issues;* report on an empirical study using unprompted questioning to identify both countries toward which animosity feeling may exist as well as underlying reasons for the stated animosity;* propose an alternative perspective for operationalizing the animosity construct; and* identify several areas for further study.The aim is to:* provide a succinct state-of-the-art picture of animosity research in international marketing;* contribute to a better measurement of the animosity construct; and* develop an agenda for future research.\nLiterature review: By the time of writing, a total of 15 empirical studies on animosity could be identified, which are summarized in Table I[2]; in what follows, the characteristics and key findings of these studies are examined and areas of concern identified.Study Focus\nThe measurement of consumer animosity: Sound measurement of the animosity construct is a prerequisite for the valid estimation of the behavioural impact of consumer animosity on outcome variables. In this section, first, the underlying measurement models and, second, the item generation processes applied by animosity researchers will be discussed and problematic issues identified.Measurement models\nAnimosity targets and animosity reasons: evidence from Austria: As already noted, in prior studies, it was the researchers who chose the country that was assumed to be a target of consumer animosity. Moreover, most studies did not engage in exploratory research with potential respondents to reveal relevant reasons for such animosity; the latter were also typically pre-specified by the researchers.In the present study, we take a different approach and report the results of an exploratory survey specifically designed to reveal:* countries towards which Austrian consumers may harbour feelings of animosity; and* the reasons underlying such feelings.Data was collected by means of a short questionnaire designed in the German language, which was subsequently personally administered to a convenience sample of 89 Austrian consumers in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Respondents ranged from 14 to 70 years of age and 63 per cent of the respondents were female. The questionnaire comprised three main parts, indicating the target country of animosity, the underlying reasons for the animosity feelings, and their relative importance:1. Countries. A \"top-of-mind\" approach was used to reveal the countries towards which Austrian citizens may feel animosity. Specifically, respondents were asked to spontaneously name the foreign country towards which they felt their strongest dislike (for whatever reason).2. Reasons. After having named a country, respondents were asked to freely list the reason(s) on which they based their negative feeling; no attempt was made on the part of the interviewers to either limit the number of reasons stated or to \"suggest\" additional reasons to the respondents.3. Importance of reasons. After having listed various reasons, respondents were asked to allocate a total of 100 points to the given reasons according to their perceived relative importance; this allowed a weighting of (common) reasons across those respondents choosing the same country as their animosity target.Findings: animosity countries\nA respecification of the animosity construct: Our review of the animosity literature coupled with the results of our empirical study highlight several issues relevant to the conceptualization and operationalization of the animosity construct; these are summarized below.First, citizens of a given country may feel animosity towards several other countries rather than just one. Rather than assuming animosity towards country X, researchers would do well to ask consumers to \"volunteer\" animosity targets; for this purpose, unprompted questioning as carried out for our exploratory study in Austria might be a reasonable approach. At the very least this would confirm the researchers' own assumptions; at best, it could reveal animosity targets not thought of as such beforehand.Second, both the reasons for the expressed animosity and their relative importance can vary depending upon the animosity \"target\" under consideration. This implies that adopting animosity scales from prior research without tailoring them to the specific context under consideration is likely to impact negatively on the study's validity.Third, and related to the previous point, the roots of animosity are not only war- and economy-related but can include other causes (e.g. mentality and/or religious differences). Moreover, such causes can be both situational and stable as well as both of a macro- and a micro-level nature (Jung et al., 2002; Ang et al., 2004). Hence, care needs to be exercised when specifying the reasons for animosity to ensure that a comprehensive set is obtained and incorporated in operational measures.Fourth, to the extent that reasons/causes/roots of animosity need to be represented in the measurement of the construct, context-specific measures are needed; this implies that a direct comparison of animosity measures based on their causes may not be possible across countries. Only the intensity of animosity feelings based on generic affective scales (e.g. \"I dislike country X\" \"I feel anger toward country X\") is comparable on a cross-national basis.Fifth, as already noted, construction of animosity measures based on the reasons/causes underlying animosity has to follow a formative rather than a reflective measurement perspective. Otherwise, estimation of relationships between animosity and important outcome variables (e.g. willingness to buy) may well result in biased parameters (Jarvis et al., 2003; Law and Wong, 1999).Finally, a clear distinction needs to be drawn between the intensity of animosity feelings and the importance of different reasons underlying such feelings. Previous research has failed to draw this distinction, with the result that animosity feelings per se and the reasons responsible for such feelings have often been confounded in operational measures (Table I).Taken together, the six points considered above suggest that a respecification of the animosity construct may be in order. Figure 7 shows such a respecification based on the multiple indicators - multiple causes (MIMIC) model originally proposed by Joreskog and Goldberger (1975); the formal specification of the model can be found in the Appendix.In the MIMIC model[9], the animosity construct is represented as a latent variable (e), which is determined by a set of antecedent variables (x1-xz) capturing the reasons for animosity. The latter can vary across target countries (i.e. are country-specific), and may be related to warlike events, to political disputes, to economic issues, personal experiences, or any other sources of animosity. On the other hand, animosity feelings are measured by reflective indicators (y1-y2); the latter are general in nature and can be applied irrespective of the specific country that is the target of animosity.One advantage of modelling the animosity construct along the lines of Figure 7 is that reasons for animosity (i.e. the x's) can be tailored to the specific country under consideration and kept separate from the animosity feelings per se (captured by the y's). A second advantage is that the relative importance of different reasons underlying the feelings of animosity can be empirically determined by estimating the gamma (g) parameters. A third advantage is that the overall explanatory power of the x-variables in explaining animosity feelings (as reflected in the y-variables) can be formally assessed by examining the magnitude of the disturbance term z (which captures residual variance in the animosity construct). Finally, all sorts of hypotheses regarding the impact of different (e.g. war-related vs economy-related) drivers of animosity can be formally tested by setting equality constraints among different g-parameters and comparing the fit of the restricted model to one in which all parameters are free to vary. In short, the MIMIC approach to operationalizing the animosity construct goes a long way towards overcoming the measurement problems of extant research identified earlier.\nFurther research: Despite the number of animosity studies conducted in recent years and the important insights provided by prior research, our literature review and exploratory study have revealed a number of issues that could be fruitfully investigated by further research. These are summarized below:* Paying tribute to the context-specific nature of the animosity construct, tailored measures should be developed based on the reasons revealed by consumers instead of unquestionably adopting the Klein et al. (1998) scale as a generally-applicable measure. For this purpose, the underlying reasons of animosity feelings should be revealed by exploratory consumer surveys, focus groups and/or depth interviews to ensure comprehensiveness and relevance of reasons, thus contributing to content validity of subsequent measures.* The appropriateness of a formative measurement model for consumer animosity (as shown in Figure 2 above) should be empirically tested. This can either be done by re-specifying and re-estimating one of the animosity models in existing studies (Klein, 2002; Shin, 2001), or by conducting a new study. The advantage of the former approach is that a direct comparison of parameter estimates yielded by the two measurement perspectives (i.e. reflective vs formative) would be possible. Unfortunately, none of the studies listed in Table I included the covariance matrix of the observed variables in the relevant publications to enable us to undertake this comparison ourselves.* The MIMIC model shown in Figure 7 should be estimated and tested. This should take the form of a consumer survey to reveal both the target of animosity and a comprehensive set of reasons (economic, political, religious, personal, etc.) fuelling this animosity. In addition, affective statements capturing the intensity of animosity feelings should be generated and also entered in the model. Finally, the signs, magnitude and significance of the various parameter estimates of the MIMIC model should be examined and conclusions drawn regarding its overall empirical validity.Research along the lines indicated above would go on a long way towards further improving our understanding of the animosity construct and its behaviour in empirical models of foreign product purchase.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Consumer animosity has gained considerable attention in international marketing literature as a determinant of foreign product purchase behaviour. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, a state-of-the-art review of consumer animosity research is presented and specific issues for future research on consumer animosity are raised. Second, potential problems associated with the measurement of consumer animosity are highlighted and an alternative perspective for operationalizing the construct is proposed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First, a critical literature review on empirical consumer animosity studies is undertaken. Second, exploratory empirical results are presented, based on unprompted questioning, to identify both targets of animosity by Austrian consumers and underlying reasons for such animosity. Third, a MIMIC model overcoming the shortcomings of the current operationalizations of the consumer animosity construct is proposed.\nFindings: - The exploratory study on Austrian consumers demonstrates that animosity targets of consumers cannot be considered as being given, i.e. consumers differ in their animosity targets, and there may be a number of (different) reasons causing animosity feelings such as economic, political, religious or personal.\nOriginality/value: - This paper reveals a set of problematic issues in current consumer animosity research and offers concrete approaches to overcome the latter. In particular, a formative measurement approach consistent with the conceptual definition of the construct is suggested and described.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Jazz fake-books as a resource in the general library	[ "Bibliography", "Jazz", "Music", "Scores" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: jazz and the library: Library support for working and aspiring jazz musicians and for jazz aficionados is a recent phenomenon. The earliest mentions of jazz that the present author has found in librarians' professional literature treat it in passing as something with which the library need not concern itself (Ridington, 1920; American Library Association, 1931; Winslow, 1932; Melcher et al., 1932). To be sure, one librarian reported that \"the best place on the radio program for the Des Moines Public Library is directly after a jazz orchestra\" (Weston, 1929, p. 343), since this ensured an audience for the Library's broadcast.\nBackground: what is a fake-book?: A fake-book is a bound collection of lead sheets. A lead sheet is a musical score that shows only the melody of a work, usually written in treble clef, and its essential harmonic structure, usually indicated by alphanumeric symbols or tablature, or both, placed immediately above or below a single staff (Wittmer and Finlay, 2002, p. 168). Lyrics, if any, may also be included, although they are of course superfluous to an instrumental performance. (For an example, see www.shermusic.com/new/sample_pages/REB3_p7.gif)[3] A lead sheet typically consists of a single piece of paper. Collecting these may be impractical for libraries. Fake-books offer a more fertile field for collection development, but the selector will need to take into consideration issues of quality and ethics when making decisions.\nCollecting fake-books: selection: The accuracy of fake-books remains a concern, to the point that at least one jazz educator has stated that having students learn music from recordings is preferable (Hinz, 1995). There is unquestionably an argument to be made that jazz is essentially aural. A musician who relies solely on recordings for transmission of repertoire, however, runs the risk of absorbing other artists' interpretations of a work, rather than the work as its creator conceived it. An accurate lead sheet will ameliorate this problem.\nRecommended fake-books: an annotated bibliography: The following is offered not as an essential library of fake-books, but rather as a list of those that are, in the author's experience, easily obtainable and reliable in terms of both copyright compliance and accurate, complete presentation of the compositions they contain. The selector can choose those that best serve the needs of the library's patrons. Because some of the publications listed here lack a named editor, arranger, or transcriber, this bibliography is organized by title. Except as noted below, Mel Bay Publications, Hal Leonard Corporation, and Sher Music Co. distribute their own products; many can also be purchased from J.W. Pepper (see www.jwpepper.com), Ejazzlines.com, or Amazon.com. Because many fake-books have similar titles, international standard book numbers (ISBNs) have been provided where available as an aid to ordering.\nConclusion: why collect fake-books?: In addition to the digitized fake-books described above, a number of open-access websites offering lead sheets and other scores have appeared in recent years (JazzLeadSheets.com and SheetMusicDigital.com are good examples). However, the obstacles presented by copyright law, particularly in the USA, mean that most open-access sources of digitized scores emphasize public-domain music (thus excluding most of the jazz repertoire), and have so far prevented the development of a licensed database of jazz scores. For the foreseeable future, print media will remain the principal method of transmitting jazz via notation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This article aims to introduces generalist librarians who have music among their subject responsibilities to jazz fake-books as a library resource.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The article begins with a review of jazz as a subject in the professional literature of both librarianship and music education. The second section discusses the origin and history of fake-books, while the third offers suggested selection criteria. This is followed by a bibliography of recommended fake-books, all of which were in print at the time of writing, along with information to facilitate the acquisition process.\nFindings: Although fake-books in electronic form have become available in recent years, they require an investment in both hardware and software on the purchaser's part. They also carry end-user licensing agreements that make them impractical as library purchases. Print fake-books remain a worthwhile area of study for collection development librarians.\nOriginality/value: In preparing this article the author discovered that jazz as printed music has been largely ignored in library literature, and has been treated only occasionally in scholarly literature in general.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The influence of the need for closure on managerial third-party dispute intervention	[ "Dispute resolutions", "Conflict management", "Motivation (psychology)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: After repeated attempts to resolve a scheduling conflict, two employees are deadlocked. Tempers flare and the conflict escalates. Angry, both employees turn to their manager for help. What will the manager do? Will he/she try to craft a mutually acceptable solution with the help of both employees? Tell the employees to resolve the conflict themselves? Or, simply impose a solution that he/she thinks is best? The answer to this question is likely to have consequences for the satisfaction of the employees, their future relationship, and the well-being of the organization (Bingham, 2004; Brett et al., 1996).\nManagerial dispute intervention: When choosing to intervene in a conflict, managers have a host of intervention strategies from which to choose (see Pinkley et al., 1995, for a review). One of the most well known discussions of these strategies was provided by Sheppard (1983). Drawing on the work of Thibaut and Walker (1975), Sheppard described four common managerial intervention strategies, according to the amount of decision (outcome) control and process (means) control used by the third-party manager. These procedures were inquisitorial intervention (high outcome and high process control), adversarial intervention (high outcome and low process control), mediation (low outcome and high process control), and providing impetus (low outcome and low process control). More recently, Elangovan (1995) formulated a five category system which is similar to Sheppard (see also Nugent, 2002). In order to avoid the confusion associated with the many labels used to describe the strategies (e.g. inquisitorial intervention, mediation), Elangovan described them in terms of the control afforded to the manager (means control, ends control, full control strategy, low control strategy). Elangovan also included a fifth strategy, a part control strategy, in which managers demonstrate moderate means and ends control.Results of survey research show that when managers actually intervene in conflict they use inquisitorial intervention and adversarial intervention more than other strategies, such as mediation (Sheppard, 1983). In mediation, managers try to assist disputants in resolving conflict themselves, but they do not impose an outcome (Kressel and Pruitt, 1989). Managers appear to like the idea of mediation (Lewicki and Sheppard, 1985), but actually choose procedures that allow them to maintain a high degree of control (Lewicki et al., 2003; Sheppard et al., 1989). Choosing autocratic strategies, however, sometimes carries negative consequences. Studies show that when third parties use more autocratic strategies, impasses are more likely. And when outcomes can be reached, these are often lopsided (Karambayya et al., 1992). Contrast this with procedures that afford disputants process control. In these cases, disputants view the process and outcomes as more fair (Karambayya and Brett, 1989). Disputants' reactions to conflict intervention tactics, however, can vary as a function of culture (see Cropanzano et al., 1999). Although there certainly are times for which the use of autocratic procedures is optimal (Elangovan, 1995, 1998; Nugent, 2002), mediation is often preferred (Bingham, 2004; Brett and Rognes, 1986).Circumstances have a hand in shaping whether managers prefer more autocratic strategies (see Sheppard, 1984, for a discussion). For instance, when the conflict is intense and the consequences of the dispute are serious, managers are likely to choose procedures with high outcome control (Carnevale and Conlon, 1988; Lewicki and Sheppard, 1985). Managers are also more likely to adopt procedures high in outcome control when there is time pressure and they are accountable for the decision (Carnevale and Conlon, 1988; Lewicki and Sheppard, 1985; Sheppard et al., 1989). The relationship between the disputants also bears on managers' decisions for how to resolve their dispute. The lower the likelihood that parties will have to interact again in the future, the more likely managers are to choose autocratic strategies (Lewicki and Sheppard, 1985).A small number of studies put the manager at the heart of understanding whether and when managers will use more or less forceful strategies. A study of power showed that as the relative power of the third party grows, so too, did the likelihood that they would choose more autocratic strategies, bypassing mediation (Karambayya and Brett, 1989). When managerial third-parties have the opportunity to impose an outcome, they often do (see Conlon et al., 1994). Supervisorial experience appears to matter as well. Supervisors with a lot of experience are less likely to choose more autocratic approaches and more likely to choose mediational approaches (Karambayya et al., 1992).Despite these initial efforts to unpack the factors that affect managers' decisions for how to intervene in employee conflicts, more work needs to be done. In recent years, scholars have paid greater attention to how negotiators' attributes affect their negotiation tactics and strategies. For instance, studies of negotiators show that individual difference factors, such the big five personality factors (Barry and Friedman, 1998), the need for closure (de Dreu et al., 1999; De Grada et al., 1999; Van Kleef et al., 2004), self-efficacy (O'Connor and Arnold, 2001), and others influence how disputants negotiate (see Lewicki et al., 2003 for a review). Of these factors, the cognitive need for closure may be particularly important for managerial third-party intervention.\nThe cognitive need for closure: The cognitive need for closure refers to an individuals' need for a firm answer to a question and a dislike of ambiguity (Kruglanski and Webster, 1996). Rather than a biological deprivation, the need for closure refers to a general motivational tendency (Webster and Kruglanski, 1994). The need for closure is assumed to be a relatively stable individual difference factor as well as a situationally inducible state. Individuals with a high need for closure often are impatient, likely to leap to judgment on the basis of inconclusive evidence, and reluctant to consider views different from their own. These individuals would rather have an answer to a question sooner than later. Individuals with a low need for closure, on the other hand, are just the opposite. These individuals are likely to suspend judgment, consider views and alternatives different from their own, and savor uncertainty (Kruglanski and Webster, 1996).An individual's need for closure has been found to influence how he/she thinks about and manages dyadic conflict. de Dreu et al. (1999) found that the need for closure was positively associated with the use of heuristics (i.e. focal points and stereotypes) and also positively associated with concessionary behavior in negotiation. Experimental evidence showed the motivation to process information systematically, via time pressure, influenced whether individuals saw negotiation as win-lose and the quality of deals they reached (de Dreu, 2003). More recently, Van Kleef et al. (2004) found that the need for closure influenced how attentive individuals were to the feelings of others in negotiation. Negotiators with a high need for closure were less influenced by the feelings of their partners during negotiation than negotiators with a low need for closure.The need for closure also influences how individuals manage conflict in groups. Consistent with research on dyadic negotiation, individuals with a high need for closure were less likely to attend to social-emotional issues in-group negotiation than individuals with a low need for closure. In-group discussions, they were more likely to prefer an autocratic style of leadership and decision making than their low need for closure counterparts (De Grada et al., 1999).Based on the research cited above, I expect that managers with a high need for closure will prefer autocratic approaches over egalitarian approaches for managing conflict. More specifically, I expect that managers with a high need for closure will prefer procedures high in outcome and process control, such as inquisitorial intervention, than managers with a low need for closure. This leads to the first hypothesis:H1. Managers with a high need for closure will be more likely to choose inquisitorial intervention than managers with a low need for closure.In mediation, control over how the dispute is resolved is passed on to disputants (see Kressel and Pruitt, 1989). Because managers relinquish outcome control when they opt to mediate conflicts, choosing this course is relatively time consuming (Elangovan, 1995). It is also true that mediation can be a quite complex task. Formulating recommendations that take into account the underlying interests of the parties involved is demanding and requires third party mediators to be attentive to the needs, interests, and emotions of others (Herrman et al., 2001). Studies of negotiators show that attending to the needs of others is not a particularly strong suit for those with a high need for closure (De Grada et al., 1999; Van Kleef et al., 2004). Given the time and efforts mediation takes, mediation is likely to be an unattractive option for managers with a high need for closure.H2. Managers with a high need for closure will be less likely to choose mediation than managers with a low need for closure.When encountering conflict, managers also have the option to stay out of the conflict, and rely on disputants to handle the conflict themselves. Theory suggests and empirical evidence shows that managers are likely to avoid intervening when they see the dispute as unimportant or if they perceive little time pressure to resolve the dispute (Elangovan, 1995; Nugent, 2002; Pinkley et al., 1995). Given their aversion toward ambiguity, managers who are high in the need for closure may be less likely to choose procedures that give both decision and process control to others, such as inaction and providing impetus, than managers who are low in the need for closure.H3. Managers with a low need for closure will be more likely to choose inaction/providing impetus than managers with a high need for closure.\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Table I contains the descriptive statistics and intercorrelations among the variables.Hypotheses\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to investigate how the cognitive need for closure influences managerial dispute intervention. Consistent with expectations, participants' need for closure was associated with their decisions for how they would choose to handle conflicts between their subordinates. I describe the results of the study and implications in greater detail below.The need for closure and managerial dispute intervention\nConclusion: Just as managers need to know how their personality influences their work performance (Dudley et al., 2006) and how they negotiate (de Dreu et al., 1999), so, too, do they need to understand how it influences how they choose to resolve conflicts between employees. Managers need to be sure that their choice of conflict intervention strategies is driven by what is best for the situation, rather than what is most comfortable.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to investigate how third-party managers' cognitive need (motivational tendency) for closure influences their decisions on how to intervene in conflict.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data were collected from 61 undergraduate business students. All participants had managerial experience and may represent future managers. Participants read a scenario describing a hypothetical conflict between members of a project team and evaluated the likelihood of choosing different strategies to intervene in the conflict.\nFindings: - Results showed that individuals with a high need for closure were more likely to choose an autocratic procedure and less likely to choose mediation than individuals with a low need for closure. The option of letting disputants resolve the conflict themselves was somewhat unattractive to those with a high need for closure.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The use of a scenario approach may limit the generalizability of the results. Future studies should examine the need for closure in field settings. The results of this study extend the theory of managerial dispute resolution by showing how individual difference factors influence the choice of conflict intervention strategies.\nPractical implications: - The ability to manage conflict effectively is critical for third-party managers. Managers need to understand how their need (or motivation) for closure influences how they choose to intervene in conflict. These choices influence managerial effectiveness.\nOriginality/value: - This is one of the first papers to examine the influence of individual difference factors, such as the cognitive need for closure, on the choice of managerial conflict intervention strategies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Training for results: innovative synergy between learning and business performance	[ "Operations management", "Lean production", "Financial services", "Performance management", "The Netherlands" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Training is often seen as a side step that can somehow improve business results, but we seldom know how and how much. In this article we report on a large management development project that led to tangible business results, using a daring method of learning. It contains innovative and useable tools for human resource development (HRD) professionals that want to make business cases for training and development to their management clientele. It narrows the gap between the traditional paradigms of business- and people orientation. The case is a development project for ING Bank in The Netherlands for about 170 team leaders in an office environment. The project was designed and executed by ING's HRD department and Vergouwen Overduin, a Dutch training and consultancy firm.\nHow it all started ...: The previous situation\nResults: Business level\nConclusions: This is a description of a learning project that ended in satisfactory business results. It is not a scientific research but from this case we can draw some hopeful hypotheses, such as:1. In a development project, measuring operational business goals and making participants accountable for it can strongly lever results.2. An open and direct culture seems to increase performance levels.3. In this case they were fortified by conditions such as:* a high sense of urgency in the company (\"We really have to change things here\");* a learning method of \"free formatted\" peer to peer and expert coaching, not just standardised training programmes; and* a more than average level of management involvement.These hypotheses are hopeful, because as human resource developers, we are always challenged to prove our services to bear at least ample added business value. Concepts such as human performance improvement are helpful in a way, but not always practically applicable. Training demand is usually presented in a fairly straightforward manner. In that case, to prove added value afterwards, is usually a pretty hard job. The method described bears a lower threshold for leveraging (business) results.\nCompany: Vegouwen Overduin is a training and consultancy firm in The Netherlands with the motto \"Further in results ... \". It can be contacted at: Postbus 92, 1170 AB Badhoevedorp. Tel: 00 31 20 659 57 51; Fax: 00 31 20 659 36 71; URL: www.vergouwenoverduin.nl\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to reveal a very result-oriented and successful method of management training.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The objectives of the paper are achieved by using tangible goals, a high degree of accountability for participants and engagement of staff and management. Theoretical concepts used are the evaluation levels of Kirkpatrick and research of Buckingham.\nFindings: - The paper reveals that measuring results in a management development programme is feasible and productive.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Research is done in only one company. Further research in other branches is necessary to draw firmer conclusions.\nPractical implications: - Using business targets in training (management should collaborate) Buckingham's six questions form an adequate tool to measure engagement.\nOriginality/value: - The number of elements measured and used in a training programme is original. It is valuable for HRD professionals that want to make stronger business cases to their (internal) management clientele.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A comprehensive security control selection model for inter-dependent organizational assets structure	[ "Risk analysis", "Risk management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the years, potential information security attacks have threatened businesses and their reputation. While emerging information systems and computer networks have been used to facilitate businesses, they remained vulnerable to hackers. Security managers have been trying to block the attacks, as much as they can, following the risk management (RM) process. RM is composed of two distinct procedures including risk assessment and risk mitigation. In the first procedure, risk of exploitations of asset vulnerabilities is assessed based on related threats' occurrence likelihood and severity. Afterwards, security control selection is followed in the risk mitigation procedure. Despite RM's seemingly obvious procedure, in organizations with huge amount of interdependent information assets, it is a sophisticated process which not only demands high level of labor and budget but also does not often result in optimal solutions.\n2. Related works: More than 200 qualitative and quantitative methods have been proposed to simplify RM (Paintsil, 2012), such as CRAMM (Yazar, 2002), OCTAVE (Albert and Dorofee, 2003), CORAS (Soldal et al., 2011) and MAGERIT (MFPA, 2012). Most of these methods imply the importance of considering the asset interdependencies in risk assessment and cost-benefit control selection, but only a few of them have formulated these objectives in a well-defined model. MAGERIT, for example, defined asset dependencies in two higher and lower asset levels. However, in this method, general threat impact diffusion among interrelated assets is defined without in-depth analysis of security criteria (CIA). Furthermore, MAGERIT utilizes ROI[2] for cost-benefit control selection analysis, which does not provide security analyzers with solution comparison capability when they are faced with limited budget (Demetz and Bachlechner, 2013). CRAMM also claimed that its asset model implies the risk propagation among interrelated assets. However, due to the lack of dependency weights and types, all the related assets affect the dependent asset equally, which results in inaccurate risk amounts. To mitigate the risk, a comprehensive list of security controls with their priority factor is proposed to security analyzers by CRAMM. Although priority factor is used to sort the controls based on their importance, cost-benefit control selection and budget limitation have not been taken into account in this method.\n3. Problem definition: As discussed, the optimal subset out of all the recommended security controls is desired. In this regard, a measurement method for control comparison is needed. As the security control objective is to mitigate the risk of security threats, control effectiveness is defined as the amount of risk that is supposed to be mitigated by this control. But, at the first step, the risk level on each asset must be assessed. Regarding these issues, the focus of this paper is the answers to the following questions:\n4. Control selection model: Questions previously discussed are answered through the proposed comprehensive model. As the main contribution of this paper, control features (effectiveness and cost) are added to a graph-based model of organizational assets and their related risks with the objective of finding cost-benefit control portfolio. The significant outcome is the ability to capture the mitigated risk on interdependent asset structure. By using the algorithm in the following sections, security managers would be able to assess the effectiveness of each security control portfolio, based on accurate risk assessment results.\n5. An application example and a real-scale evaluation: In this section, the application of the proposed model is discussed through an example. A small set of interdependent assets and security controls illustrates the model steps in practice. Furthermore, results for a real-scale implementation of the model are discussed.\n6. Conclusion: Despite many frameworks and methodologies existing in information security management, decision making still remains confusing and complicated in this area. Security managers are faced with control selection obstacles in complex and dense organizational structures with many units and business processes. In this paper, using a graph-based risk assessment model, the decision making about information security control selection in the risk mitigation phase is improved. At first, features for security controls were defined; then, considering security implementation budget as a limit, and following a knapsack-based model for control selection, the optimal action plan portfolio for risk mitigation was resulted. The proposed model covers risk assessment and risk mitigation as main RM procedures. It also ensures security managers that if a control is chosen for implementation, its effectiveness is not only about its prevention power on the host asset, it is also about its effectiveness for securing other dependent assets to that host asset. To make a better illustration, a comprehensive example was presented to show the application of the proposed approach. Moreover, results for a real-scale application were discussed with the objective of proposed model validation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to propose a comprehensive model to find out the most preventive subset of security controls against potential security attacks inside the limited budget. Deploying the appropriate collection of information security controls, especially in information system-dependent organizations, ensures their businesses' continuity alongside with their effectiveness and efficiency.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Impacts of security attacks are measured based on interdependent asset structure. Regarding this objective, the asset operational dependency graph is mapped to the security attack graph to assess the risks of attacks. This mapping enables us to measure the effectiveness of security controls against attacks. The most effective subset is found by mapping its features (cost and effectiveness) to items' features in a binary knapsack problem, and then solving the problem by a modified version of the classic dynamic programming algorithm.\nFindings: Exact solutions are achieved using the dynamic programming algorithm approach in the proposed model. Optimal security control subset is selected based on its implementation cost, its effectiveness and the limited budget.\nResearch limitations/implications: Estimation of control effectiveness is the most significant limitation of the proposed model utilization. This is caused by lack of experience in risk management in organizations, which forces them to rely on reports and simulation results.\nOriginality/value: So far, cost-benefit approaches in security investments are followed only based on vulnerability assessment results. Moreover, dependency weights and types in interdependent structure of assets have been taken into account by a limited number of models. In the proposed model, a three-dimensional graph is used to capture the dependencies in risk assessment and optimal control subset selection, through a holistic approach.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Improving shared service implementation: adopting lessons from the BPR movement	[ "Business process re‐engineering", "Organizational processes", "Organizational change" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the late-1990s, the fast-spreading shared service concept has increasingly become popular as an organizational change approach, focusing on the theoretical potential for extensive improvements in support processes (Kagelmann, 2000; Schulman et al., 1999). Managers who are presently dissatisfied with an organization's current performance often consider shared services as one of their first-choice change alternatives. Heretofore the concept has been extensively praised in the business press, promising, among other benefits cost reduction, the accumulation of intellectual and capital assets, providing services with customer and process focus, and deploying new technology (Cassell, 1997; Jackson, 1997; Lester, 2001; Shah, 1998).The shared service approach is characterized by a process orientation which is known from business process reengineering (BPR) as both concepts have a common focus on processes in their change activities. They also have a common focus on putting the customer first, which means that they advocate a customer-oriented way of conducting business. Other common features are shown later in this paper, but already some similarities between the ideas and accomplishments of BPR and the contemporary shared service phenomenon can be recognized. Therefore, lessons from BPR projects, which have already been subject to wide-ranging academic evaluation, may contribute towards a better understanding of the shared service phenomenon - and especially - implementation issues. Consequently, the central question to be examined in this paper is to reveal similarities between the BPR and shared service approaches, in order to improve outcomes of shared service implementation processes through lessons-learnt from previous BPR projects.While suggesting normative guidelines to be considered in shared service projects, this paper addresses practitioners first hand. However, academics might take notice of the comparison of the BPR and shared service concepts.As the focus of this paper is primarily theoretical, the paper starts out with a general literature review of developments in the BPR and shared service movements, where similarities between the two change alternatives are discussed. The paper concludes by identifying which previously-learnt lessons the emerging shared service movement should take into account from the BPR era when implementing shared services.\nInsights into business process reengineering: From the late-1980s to mid-1990s, BPR - as a new management style - took over from the previously popular management trend of quality or continuous process improvement (Davenport and Stoddard, 1994). Focusing on radically changing an organization's core processes, BPR rapidly reached its peak in the USA in the mid-1990s and, some years later, in those other countries that followed the management fad (Davenport and Stoddard, 1994). By then, BPR's most distinguishing feature was process thinking and, with its primary focus on business processes, it became BPR's unique contribution that distinguished it from past organizational change approaches (Kettinger et al., 1997). According to Davenport and Short (1990, pp. 12-13) processes have two important characteristics:1. They have customers; i.e. processes have defined business outcomes, and there are recipients of the outcomes. Customers may be either internal or external to the firm.2. They cross organizational boundaries; i.e. they normally occur across or between organizational subunits. Processes are generally independent of formal organizational structure.The customer's exceptional position in BPR is emphasized by Hammer and Champy (1993, p. 18), stating that:... there is no longer any such notion as the customer; there is only this customer, the one with whom a seller is dealing at the moment and who now has the capacity to indulge his or her own personal tastes.Derived from Davenport and Short's definition, it is also the customer that triggers a business process - which is the earliest business event that the activity can be traced back to (Nellborn and Tolis, 1999, p. 56; Sharp, 2002, p. 20). In response to such a triggering event, a business process - defined as a sequence of steps and decisions - is initiated to produce a specific, identifiable result or output (Nellborn and Tolis, 1999, p. 56; Sharp, 2002, pp. 20-1).Over the past years, existing definitions of business processes have not significantly changed. Often, they also imply process hierarchies (Earl et al., 1995, p. 33). Davenport (1993), for example, separates operational from management processes; whereas, Kaplan and Murdock (1991) define core and supporting processes - using ideas borrowed from value chain analysis.Redesigning such core processes is the primary aim of any BPR project. Hereby, BPR is meant to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed (Hammer and Champy, 1993, p. 32). Using the radical redesign of core processes, BPR is characterised by four key words. Apart from processes, which already have been discussed above - the other key words are fundamental, radical, and dramatic (Hammer and Champy, 1993, pp. 32-6). Fundamental refers to questions such as: \"Why do we do what we do? And why do we do it the way we do?\" (Hammer and Champy, 1993, p. 32).Radical redesign means getting to the root of things: not making superficial changes or fiddling with what is already in place, but throwing away the old. In reengineering, radical redesign means disregarding all existing structures and procedures and inventing completely new ways of accomplishing work. Reengineering is about business reinvention - not business improvement, business enhancement, or business modification (Hammer and Champy, 1993, p. 33, emphasis on \"radical\" added).Finally, dramatic means that \"reengineering is not about making marginal or incremental improvements but about achieving quantum leaps in performance\" (Hammer and Champy, 1993, p. 33). Davenport (1993), for example, calls this the difference between regular process improvement and process innovation. He declares that process innovation is part of BPR projects and emphasizes also that dramatic changes are needed.BPR as an organizational change approach\nInsights into shared services: Nowadays - after years of work with, and experience of, core process - support processes have come into the spotlight of many contemporary change projects. One reason is that support processes - that often have been neglected by managers at an earlier stage - have potential for extensive improvements (Kagelmann, 2000; Schulman et al., 1999). By cutting out duplicate support processes and non-strategic activities, and organizing them as so-called shared services, a tremendous theoretical potential exists for optimization and extensive economies. Hence, shared services have been acclaimed by the business press (Cassell, 1997; Jackson, 1997; Lester, 2001) as the alternative for larger organizations.As a consequence of a legal orientation towards corporations in the USA in the 1980s, projects to implement shared services already started in the late-1980s at companies such as General Electrics, Baxter Healthcare and A.T. Kearney (Moller, 1997; Quinn et al., 2000). At that time, shared services were usually established within accounting/finance (Moller, 1997; Hammer, 2001), but could also include other core staff functions, such as corporate affairs, facilities, human resources, information technology, and legal services (Gotthilf, 2001, p. 663). As much as 80 percent of the top 20 Fortune 500 used shared service by the year 2000; and many other top Fortune 500 companies in the USA had implemented some form of shared service (Cecil, 2000; Funk, 2000; Triplett and Scheumann, 2000).From the USA, the concept was rapidly exported to other parts in the world. Among these was Europe, which was a couple of years behind the USA in adopting this new way of providing internal support services. But Europe is currently catching up (Moller, 1997) and, for example, in Sweden, the concept is already implemented or under implementation in many large organizations (Ulbrich and Nilsson, 2002).Looking closer at the shared service concept raises the question of how shared services are defined. Still being a relatively new concept, definitions in management literature differ slightly, but there is a common understanding that shared services focus on optimizing corporate resources and processes in a new organizational entity. For example, Schulman et al. (1999, p. 9) define shared services as:... the concentration of company resources performing like activities, typically spread across the organization, in order to service multiple internal partners at lower cost and with higher service levels, with the common goal of delighting external customers and enhancing corporate value.In Bergeron (2003, p. 3), it can be found that:... shared services is a collaborative strategy in which a subset of existing business functions are concentrated into a new, semi-autonomous business unit that has a management structure designed to promote efficiency, value generation, cost savings, and improved service for the internal customers of the parent corporation, like a business competing in the open market.Moller (1997) further identifies the following characteristics:... a shared service centre (SSC) is an independent organisational entity which provides well defined services for more than one unit (which may be a division or business unit) within an organisation. The SSC is responsible for managing its costs and the quality and timeliness of the services it provides to its internal customers. It has its own dedicated resources and typically will have informal or formal contractual arrangements, often called service level agreements, with its customers.Finally, Quinn et al. (2000, p. 7) give a short description that:... shared services at a simple level refers to the practice of business units, operating companies and organizations deciding to share a common set of services rather than have a series of duplicate staff functions.In conclusion, shared services gather a selection of common and well-defined services to provide these services to an organization's units, acting independently. This is somewhat similar to outsourcing, where the provider of such services is contracted. Usually, an independent third party without direct connection to the outsourcing organization takes over support processes. The shared service alternative, however, is built on the idea of taking advantage of the existing knowledge of an organization and its culture. Therefore, services are located within the corporation, often in independent business unit. The remarkable similarity to external outsourcing, i.e. to a third party, has carries along that shared services sometimes are called for internal outsourcing, pointing out that the main difference is where the service provider is located organizationally and that internal resources are used rather than those of a contractual partner.Common goals with shared services\nDiscussion and conclusions: In the foregoing sections, two different approaches for organizational change were described. BPR has been pointed out as a more methodological change approach, giving recommendations on how to conduct change projects by focusing on business processes. It could be observed that many BPR projects focus on core process and how to achieve fundamental, radical, and dramatic changes by redesigning these core processes.Shared services, on the other hand, is more characterized to be a practical change approach focusing on one specific organizational form. It gives rather directions on how the organizational form can be implemented than, for example, questioning which services to provide and how. Shared services have, however, become an accepted alternative organizational form to organize support processes, promising to accomplish efficiencies of centralization with the entrepreneurialism of a small organization.Remarkable for both approaches is their common focus on processes - whether they are core or support processes. Thus, a number of problems that we know from the BPR movement are likely to appear also when implementing shared services. From previous research projects, we already know how to handle such problems in BPR projects. However, due to the similarity of the two discussed approaches, solutions from the BPR area are likely to fit also into the shared service area. Therefore, many experiences and findings can be adopted when working with shared services. Consequently, the following lessons from the BPR movement, can be considerable helpful when implementing shared services, and shall, therefore, be seen as normative guidelines for practitioners.First, assure that management is committed to the suggested change project. It is known from BPR projects that they tend to be larger, longer, and more demanding, than initially anticipated. Therefore, it is inevitable that there will be a number of different stakeholders behind the project and it is important that they do not lose their patience. Also, make sure that the promised use of resources agreed on, will be fulfilled. Otherwise, a project will run the risk of remaining a mere design activity that never becomes implemented, exactly as happened with many BPR projects.Second, assure that you do not only focus solely on performance but also on relevance. Many BPR projects ended up as improvement projects, automating existing processes, rather than questioning a process' activities. Bear in mind that the organization's goal that triggered the change project, is probably not pure automation. Working intensively with processes provides a platform for questioning an organization's activities and the identification of hard-to-detect interfaces between different processes. Interfaces, which are not detected during the design phase, will most likely lead to an expensive experience in the implementation phase.Third, assure a realistic scope and realistic expectations for the change project. It is not beneficial to assume that a future situation will be extraordinarily better per se. Goals, visions, concepts, and so forth, are attractive in the light of something new, but questionable if they are not properly selected. Therefore, it is important to focus on clear and realistic goals, that can be both measured and achieved in a reasonable amount of time.Fourth, make sure to anchor the project in the organization. Many BPR projects failed due to resistance to change. Therefore, it is important to motivate and include employees in the change process. Let employees participate in the change work and explain why changes are necessary and how they affect specific employees and the organization as a whole. As it usually takes some time to adjust to changes, also provide early education to prepare employees for new roles and work tasks, if necessary.Fifth, ensure that you do not overestimate technology. Information and communication technology is there to support an organization, but technology accounts only for a small part of the change project. As in BPR projects, IT has to be seen in its organizational context.Sixth, ensure that you adopt the management concept to your organization's pre-requisites. Do not blindly follow management literature or external advice. Question everything and focus on what is best for your organization. Recall Davenport (1995) who says: \"don't listen to the new approach's most charismatic advocates, but only to the most reasoned.\"Concluding, consider business, employees, and information and communication technology, as an integrated whole. The emphasis of a change project should not be put on one area only, but on all at the same time to seek broad contextual understanding and solutions that fit an organization's demands. Finally, do not forget that only some problems connected to process-thinking have been discussed in this paper; there are plenty of other additional problems to be handled when implementing shared services.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To reveal similarities between the business process reengineering (BPR) and shared service approaches, in order to improve outcomes of shared service implementation processes through lessons learnt from previous BPR projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - As the focus of this paper is primarily theoretical, the paper starts out with a literature review of developments in the BPR and shared service movements. Similarities between the two change alternatives are discussed and drawn up.\nFindings: - The paper concludes by identifying which previously learnt lessons the emerging shared service movement should take into account from the BPR era when implementing shared services.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper is primarily based on previous findings from a literature review. To increase insights into the contemporary shared service phenomenon, complementary research in the form of in-depth case studies are recommended.\nPractical implications: - Based on the similarities between BPR and shared service approaches, some normative guidelines for the implementation of shared service are given to practitioners.\nOriginality/value: - This paper fills a gap in process-oriented research by comparing BPR and shared service approaches in order to reveal similarities, which in turn enables practitioners to draw on pre-existing research findings in their present shared service projects.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Testing for bubbles in the BRICS stock markets	[ "BRICS stock markets", "GSADF test", "Multiple bubbles", "C12", "C15", "G12", "G15" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: This paper examines whether multiple bubbles exist in the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) stock markets during the 1990-2013 period using a new test proposed by Phillips et al. (2015). Bubbles are observable economic phenomena. The term asset price bubble or speculative bubble is often used to describe persistent market overvaluation followed by market collapse (Reza, 2010). Bubbles arise when assets consistently sell at prices in excess of their fundamental value where the fundamental value is the amount of discounted future dividends and the price of the asset when it is sold in infinite future. Therefore, a bubble is the difference between an asset's fundamental value and its market price (Reza, 2010). Larsen (1997) noted that a bubble on an asset may arise when the market values an asset more because it has increased in value previously. Hence, the traders believe that since the value of the asset has increased before, it will pay off to hold it for a limited period of time. This would in general lead to a further increase in the asset price as the demand for it increases. This explanation emphasizes the self-fulfilling nature of expected future price changes based on the concept of \"resale optionality\" (Jones, 2014). According to Noussair and Powell (2010) accurate information about the value of the assets is provided to investors when market prices of assets reflect their underlying fundamentals. This price information aligns investors' incentives to allocate their capital profitably with those decisions that increase overall efficiency in the allocation of capital. Therefore, the efficiency of an economy's allocation of resources can be affected by the extent of prices deviation from fundamentals.\nII. Theoretical framework and econometric methodology: Based on the Campbell et al. (1997), Cunado et al. (2005), and Koustas and Serletis (2005), our model of the net simple return on a stock is defined as follows:\nIII. Data: In this paper, we use the monthly stock price and dividend for the BRICS for our empirical study. The data is obtained from Global Financial Database (GFD). Due to data availability, we have different starting periods for each country. Brazil starts from 1990: January; Russia starts from 1997.: September; India starts from 1990: July; China starts from 1995: January; and South Africa starts from 1995: June. All the countries end at 2013: February. We use an initial window size of 36 to start off the recursive estimation. Following the study of Phillips et al. (2015), we also use stock price-dividend ratio for our analysis. If we look at the top panel of Figures 1-5, we can see the plots of stock price-dividend ratio for the BRICS stock markets and there might be evidence of multiple bubbles in all five data series. These results motive us to empirically investigate whether there are multiple bubbles in the BRICS stock markets using the SADF and GSADF tests proposed by Phillips et al. (2011) and Phillips et al. (2015), respectively.\nIV. Empirical results and policy implications: Tables I-V report the empirical results for both SADF and GSADF tests. We find that based on the GSADF test, the null hypothesis of no bubble is rejected for all the BRICS countries, while it is rejected for Brazil and South Africa only based on the SADF test[3]. Phillips et al. (2015) demonstrate that the moving sample GSADF diagnostic outperforms the SADF test based on an expanding sample size in detecting explosive behavior in multiple bubble episodes and seldom gives false alarms, even in relatively modest sample sizes. The reason is that the GSADF test covers more subsamples of the data. Based on this argument, we can conclude that there is evidence of multiple bubbles in the BRICS stock markets.\nV. Conclusions: This study investigates whether there exist multiple bubbles in the BRICS stock markets using a new test, GSADF proposed by Phillips et al. (2015). Our empirical results based on the GSADF test statistic indicate that there exist multiple bubbles in the BRICS countries, which is not shown in previous studies. However, based on the SADF test which is considered to have lower power than the GSADF test, the null hypothesis of no bubbles is rejected for Brazil and South Africa only. Using the graphical evidence, the study was able to date stamped the periods in which bubbles appear in the different stock markets though the strength of these bubbles differ across markets and seem to be stronger for Brazil, Russia, and South Africa.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there exist multiple bubbles in the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) stock markets.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, the authors apply the generalized sup Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, a new recursive test proposed by Phillips et al. (2015) and use monthly data on stock price-dividend ratio.\nFindings: The empirical results indicate that there exist multiple bubbles in the stock markets of the BRICS. Further, the dates of the bubbles also correspond to specific events in the stock markets of these economies. This finding has important economic and policy implications.\nOriginality/value: The authors declare that this paper is original and has not been published by another journal previously.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Quality measures for skos: ExactMatch linksets: an application to the thesaurus framework LusTRE	[ "Quality", "SKOS", "Linked data", "Cross-walking", "Environmental thesauri", "Linkset" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the paper \"Linked Data - The Story So Far\", Bizer et al. (2009) were among the first to take a picture of the enormous transformation of the Web of Document into the Web of Data. Since then, the Linked Data popularity has never ceased to grow. Linked Data aims at disclosing the potential of independently served data dealing with access and integration issues. It not only publishes documents encoded using the Resource Description Framework (RDF), but also \"uses RDF to make typed statements that link arbitrary things in the world. The result, which we will refer to as the Web of Data, may more accurately be described as a web of things in the world, described by data on the Web\" (Bizer et al., 2009). Linked Data allows RDF data to be published, shared, retrieved, reused and analysed unlocking the existing data silos to a broader community of consumers. RDF provides a graph-based data model based on triples in the form of subject, predicate, and object (Schreiber and Raimond, 2014). Both data and links among data are expressed with triples. Linked Data relies on two fundamental web technologies: the Internationalised Resource Identifiers (IRIs[1]) and the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which are, respectively, deployed as the global identifiers and as the protocol to dereference the information that is associated with each identifier. Following Linked Data principles[2], several billions of facts encoded in RDF triples have been published in the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud[3].\n2. Related work: Data quality assessment is a multidimensional issue affecting data integration, sharing, retrieval and analysis, in fact, as mentioned by Pipino et al. (2002), \"if stakeholders assess the quality of data as poor, their behaviour will be influenced by this assessment\". Al-Hakim (2006) presented the common notion of data quality as the \"fitness for intended use in operations, decision-making, and planning\". It highlights that the quality assessment depends on general factors, namely, dimensions, e.g., accessibility, security, timeliness, consistency, and, on task-dependent factors related to the consumers' satisfaction.\n3. Linkset quality measures: This section formalises the linkset quality measures deployed in the rest of this paper. It recalls the literature definitions for cardinality-based measures: linkset coverage and linkset cardinality. It introduces four cross-walking measures: the average importing and the average reachability presented in our recent work (Albertoni et al., 2016), and the lexical enrichment and the browsing space enrichment which are two novel measures complementing the previous.\n4. LusTRE: a case of study: The LusTRE (Albertoni et al., 2018) is an interesting case study for the exploitation of Linked Data to support metadata compilation and information discovery. The framework is implemented in compliance with the Linked Data principles . It provides a knowledge infrastructure of interlinked thesauri for the Environment. The following components characterise LusTRE: first, LusTRE Knowledge Infrastructure contains different environmental SKOS vocabularies and the linksets among them, enabling the access as one virtual integrated Linked Data source. It is deployed on a Virtuoso server and accessible by SPARQL endpoint. Second, LusTRE Exploitation Services is a set of end-user oriented web services with a REST interface. These services allow exploiting the knowledge contained in the LusTRE knowledge infrastructure for improving client applications such as a metadata editor or a geodata portal. For example, EUOSME[14], QSPHERE[15] and the under development version of the INSPIRE Geoportal[16] integrate the LusTRE web services. Third, LusTRE Web Interface provides a human-accessible interface to manually search and navigate the interlinked knowledge infrastructure using textual or visual browsing. In particular, LusTRE Exploitation Services and Web Interface support the cross-walking among vocabularies. The cross-walking allows automatically to navigate among matching concepts belonging to different linked thesauri. It works beyond the scope and limitations of a single thesaurus, possibly enriching data at hand, and, thus, improving user satisfaction in data consuming process. LusTRE includes the following SKOS thesauri: ThIST (34,150 concepts, 2 languages), AGROVOC (32,310 concepts, 24 languages), EARTh (14,350 concepts, 2 languages), EUROVOC (6,883 concepts, 23 languages), and GEMET (5,223 concepts, 32 languages). Concerning linksets, it provides the 20 skos:exactMatch linksets presented in Table II. The table describes the pairs of thesauri involved and the cardinality of each linkset. Linksets are created by working out the transitive closure on existing skos:exactMatch and applying specific linkset discovery tasks to ensure linkset correctness. Every linkset discovery task follows a two-step process: firstly, SILK discovers new links, and then the link correctness is validated by domain experts. In particular, for the linksets between ThIST and AGROVOC, ThIST and EUROVOC, ThIST and GEMET, the experts have accepted in average the 99 per cent of links discovered by SILK. Linkset completeness is reasonably ensured by having applied different and not very restrictive matching functions during the discovery task. SKOS entailments have been materialised to support clients with limited processing power. As a consequence of such materialisation and the skos:exactMatch symmetry, reciprocal linksets (e.g. EARThTOGEMET and GEMETTOEARTh or EUROVOCTOAGROVOC and AGROVOCTOEUROVOC in Table II) have the same links but inverted. Concerning the quality of the subject and object thesauri, LusTRE directly involved the developer of two thesauri (ThIST and EARTh), and it trusted in the producers of other thesauri (e.g. AGROVOC, EUROVOC, and GEMET). This choice has also been made considering that the focus of this paper is not the quality of data sets but the quality of linksets. Moreover, in other contexts such as the LOD Cloud where the trust to producers cannot be granted, the existing tools (e.g. qSKOS) can evaluate the quality of data sets.\n5. Application and discussion: The measures described in Section 3 were applied to assess the quality of skos:exactMatch linksets in LusTRE. The average linkset importing and lexical enrichment were applied considering skos:prefLabel and skos:altLabel in different languages. On the other hand, the average linkset reachability and the browsing space enrichment were applied navigating at most 4 hops traversing the SKOS relations skos:narrower, skos:broader and skos:related. The application considered 4 hops (i.e. k=4) since it was indicated by the eENVplus stakeholders as a reasonable number of steps to search for the specialisation/generalisation of a particular SKOS term in a thesaurus.\n6. Conclusions and future work: The paper presents an approach for evaluating the quality of skos:exactMatch linksets among SKOS thesauri. It defines two new measures: the lexical term enrichment and the browsing space enrichment. These measures together with our previously defined average linkset importing and average linkset reachability evaluate the kind and the quantity of information accessed cross-walking the linkset. The paper compares these measures with the cardinality-based measures (linkset coverage and cardinality). All the considered measures are applied to the skos:exactMatch linksets available in LusTRE. The results show the measures complementarity: each measure evaluates a particular aspect of the linkset quality. The cross-walking measures can evaluate the improvements brought by the skos:exactMatch linksets on multilingualism and concept browsing space. The results show that the efforts spent in the creation of LusTRE linksets are paid off: the joint use of linked thesauri provides a richer multilingualism and browsing space than using the thesauri alone. Future works will extend the measures considering other kinds of linksets (e.g. skos:relatedMatch and skos:broaderMatch linksets); they will encode the quality results according to the DQV, and they will apply the proposed measures \"into the wild\" considering the whole set of SKOS linksets exposed in the LOD Cloud.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the quality of the connections (linkset) among thesauri published as Linked Data on the Web. It extends the cross-walking measures with two new measures able to evaluate the enrichment brought by the information reached through the linkset (lexical enrichment, browsing space enrichment). It fosters the adoption of cross-walking linkset quality measures besides the well-known and deployed cardinality-based measures (linkset cardinality and linkset coverage).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper applies the linkset measures to the Linked Thesaurus fRamework for Environment (LusTRE). LusTRE is selected as testbed as it is encoded using a Simple Knowledge Organisation System (SKOS) published as Linked Data, and it explicitly exploits the cross-walking measures on its validated linksets.\nFindings: The application on LusTRE offers an insight of the complementarities among the considered linkset measures. In particular, it shows that the cross-walking measures deepen the cardinality-based measures analysing quality facets that were not previously considered. The actual value of LusTRE's linksets regarding the improvement of multilingualism and concept spaces is assessed.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper considers skos:exactMatch linksets, which belong to a rather specific but a quite common kind of linkset. The cross-walking measures explicitly assume correctness and completeness of linksets. Third party approaches and tools can help to meet the above assumptions.\nOriginality/value: This paper fulfils an identified need to study the quality of linksets. Several approaches formalise and evaluate Linked Data quality focusing on data set quality but disregarding the other essential component: the connection among data.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Corporate governance attributes and listed SMES' debt maturity	[ "Corporate governance", "SMEs", "Financial management", "OECD country and non-OECD country" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A growing body of research has begun to analyse the impact of applying corporate governance (CG) recommendations to SMEs. The recent financial crisis has forced SMEs to look for new forms of finance as an alternative to bank financing, which is the main reason why alternative equity and fixed income markets are growing in many developed and developing economies (Young et al., 2008). The OECD Principles of Corporate Governance (PCG-1999-2004-2015) try to respond to CG developments to reflect the experiences of OECD and non-OECD countries. A cross-country analysis of similarities and differences in the debt maturity structure (DMS) of listed SMEs from the point of view of the CG of two economic environments is a topic that still has not been analysed. This comparison is of special interest given Argentina's interest and prospects of joining the OECD nearly in the future. The conclusions of this work are useful for this country and others that wish to follow this path.\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: 2.1 Ownership concentration and the short-term liabilities ratio\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data\n4. Main results and discussion: 4.1 Corporate governance attributes\n5. Conclusions: The firm's capital structure is one of the topics of corporate finance that continues to concern researchers, basically the study of the determinants of firms' capital structure. Several studies have been carried out to analyse the determinants of capital structure. In the particular case of the SME, the objective of this paper is to analyse which aspects of CG policy influence on the DMS. The empirical literature on CG and financial decisions mainly refers to large firms and unlisted SMEs. We analysed the following attributes of the CG mechanism: property structure (ownership concentration and corporations as main shareholders); the participation of women on the board, and the intervention of a Big4 in external audit functions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to develop a cross-country analysis of the similarities and differences in the debt maturity structure of listed SMEs from the point of view of corporate governance (CG) attributes in two different economic environments: an OECD (Spain) country and a non-OECD (Argentina) country.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using data from listed SMEs in the Argentinian SME segment (pooled data from 2012 to 2015) and 31 listed SMEs in the Spanish Mercado Alternativo Bursatil for growing firms (MAB_GE)(2014), bivariate and multivariate analyses are performed.\nFindings: Spanish firms with a higher ownership concentration and a large controlling shareholder have higher short-term liabilities (STL) ratios. Participation of women on the board has a negative relation with the STL ratio only for Spain. The participation of corporations in ownership and a Big4 auditor have a negative relation with the STL ratio for both countries.\nPractical implications: These results will help SME managers understand the effects of the application of good governance policies. The study also gives regulators a guideline to develop standards to assist in efficient borrowing in terms of seeking funding in alternative capital markets.\nOriginality/value: First, the results provide evidence about the financial impact on the STL ratio of CG attributes in listed SME. Second, as far as the authors know, this is the first paper to analyse the CG attributes of listed SMEs in an OECD country and a non-OECD country. Third, the paper presents CG data derived from an ad hoc basis elaborated from different websites and databases.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Informal learning of women small business owners	[ "Training", "Small business", "Informal learning", "Women small business owners" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Launching and running a business is a significant undertaking, but women small business owners face additional obstacles, such as lack of resources, family responsibilities, and stereotyping (Sullivan and Meek, 2012). Heilman and Chen (2003) proposed that the same stereotype conceptions that plague women within the corporate workforce exist outside as well. Gender stereotypes commonly describe men along lines of agency (traits such as aggressive, ambitious, dominant, forceful, independent, self-sufficient, and self-confident); and women along lines of communality (traits such as affectionate, helpful, kind, nurturing, and gentle) (Bakan, 1966; Heilman, 2012). For instance, agentic attributes such as competitiveness, self-confidence, objectiveness, aggressiveness, and ambition are often seen as characteristics of a successful business owner, and women are often viewed as deficient in requisite attributes for business success (Heilman and Chen, 2003). Hence, many women small business owners experience legitimacy problems and often need to prove their competence before receiving respect from various stakeholders (Hadary, 2010; Rudman and Phelan, 2008). To overcome this lack of recognition from other stakeholders and to build their legitimacy, it has been proposed that women business owners must use different business contacts within their networks to help them with their business and undertake diverse training courses (Davis, 2012; Stam, 2010; Weber, 2007).\nInformal learning: The literature separates learning into two categories: formal learning or learning as acquisition, and informal learning (non-formal learning) or learning as participation. Both these categories of learning can be discussed at either an individual level (employee's agency and identity), a collective level (practical organisational work and social interaction) or as a combination of these two (Ashton, 2004; Johnsson and Boud, 2010; Li et al., 2011).\nSmall business owner's learning process: The literature shows that learning and self-development in a small business tends to be accidental and highly interpersonal (Murphy and Young, 1995). It is often informal and occurs through a process of interactions with contacts within the small business owner's social and business networks (Fernandez-Mesa et al., 2013; Smith and Barrett, 2014). Hence, the business owner is not only the creator of a business, but also the creator of his or her learning environment (Lans et al., 2008).\nRole of networks and mentors in informal learning: As previously noted, informal learning is often social and can occur through interactions with individuals within the small business owners' networks. It can include activities such as mentoring, coaching and seeking information from business associates or consultants (Cotter and Cullen, 2012; Doornbos et al., 2004; Haan and Caputo, 2012; Hardless et al., 2005; Illeris, 2007; McGuire and Gubbins, 2010; Smith, 2001; Smith and Barrett, 2014; Woolfolk and Margetts, 2010). Hence, an effective informal learning process requires small business owners to have the right kind of contacts within their networks who can help them with their business.\nMethodology: Research design\nFindings: Participants were representative of a wide range of industries and backgrounds. Using pseudonyms to protect their anonymity, a profile of participants is presented in Table I.\nDiscussion: This study responded to a call for research that develops a more nuanced understanding of small business owners' learning process. There is limited qualitative research that particularly examines women small business owners' learning process and how women obtain the knowledge and skills they need to manage their businesses. This study aimed to address this gap by introducing an added dimension to women small business owners learning in complex networks of associations. Specifically, using the four themes that emerged from the participants' interview data, this study addressed the questions:\nConclusions and future study: This research strived to serve as a first step in addressing the lack of knowledge about women small business owners' informal learning behaviour. The study makes a contribution to the small business learning literature by promoting a deeper understanding of women small business owners' learning behaviour and investigating the informal learning process from a woman small business owner's perspective. The research has provided further insights into the underlying reasons why these women prefer informal learning.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate women small business owners' informal learning behaviour. There is limited qualitative research that examines women small business owners' learning process and this study aims to address this gap. The study was driven by the following research questions: \"Do women small business owners prefer informal learning to formal training?\" and if so, \"Why do women small business owners prefer informal learning to formal training?\" and \"If informal learning is preferred, what role do networking and mentoring play in this learning process?\"\nDesign/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 Western Australian women small business owners who were recruited through purposive sampling methods.\nFindings: The small business owners had a strong preference for informal learning. Participants used their own work experience and knowledge to start-up their businesses. A low uptake of formal training was found due to time and resource constraints and personal preferences. Participants relied on contacts within their networks to acquire knowledge or they hired others who possessed the requisite knowledge or skill. Only a small portion of participants had mentors or acted as a mentor.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has limitations that tend to be commonly found in exploratory studies, such as a small sample size.\nPractical implications: The research has implications for recognised training institutions that are engaged in entrepreneurship education. By gaining greater understanding of the nature of learning in small business, they may be able to offer more affordable and flexible informal courses that specifically target women small business owners, incorporate mentorship programs within their business courses by engaging with industry partners, or appoint instructors with industry contacts and experience, to provide mentoring support for these business owners.\nOriginality/value: This research responds to calls for studies aimed at developing a more nuanced understanding of the learning behaviour of women small business owners.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Toward a political economy of corporate governance change and stability in family business groups: A morphogenetic approach	[ "Bangladesh", "Political economy", "Corporate governance", "Critical realism", "Family business groups", "Morphogenetic approach" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper contributes to the corporate governance (CG) debate around vicious cycles of reform and scandal in a range of national contexts (Yonekura et al., 2012; Ahrens et al., 2011). Most previous studies have tended to address this debate by predicting how particular CG inputs may lead to certain outcomes, but have left practice in a \"black box\" (Brennan and Solomon, 2008). CG recommendations are often based on such predictions, taking for granted that \"change\" in practice will have far-reaching benefits. Researchers have called for direct engagement with CG practices in various contexts to gain a broader understanding of CG reforms, scandals and practices (Aguilera and Crespi-Cladera, 2016; Brennan and Kirwan, 2015).\n2. CG reforms and change in family BGs: The ongoing CG reform agenda, rooted in shareholder value, agency theory and rational choice models, has led accounting and finance researchers to study numerous CG mechanisms to address conflicting interests between owners and managers (type I agency conflict) and within owner groups (type II agency conflict; see Brennan and Solomon, 2008 for a detailed review). Nevertheless, critical accounting scholars have questioned the supremacy of shareholder value logic and its ideological roots (Sikka and Stittle, in press; Merino et al., 2010; Stein, 2008; Marnet, 2007). This is lucidly observed by Pesqueux (2005, p. 798): \"Mixed with the illusion of accounting systems built to inform shareholders seen as 'rational', CG produces the mask of dominant interests by focussing the attention on the importance of a so called 'conflict of interests' between shareholders and managers\". Researchers have also questioned the fundamentals of Anglo-American models in various institutional and organisational settings (see Yonekura et al., 2012; Merino et al., 2010; Siddiqui, 2010). Emerging from these studies is the notion that reforms often fail in their aim to institutionalise certain CG practices (see Yonekura et al., 2012).\n3. Theoretical approaches and morphogenetic approach to CG: Our adoption of a morphogenetic approach is consistent with an urgent call by critical scholars to move beyond agency theory (Parker and Northcott, 2016; Guthrie and Parker, 2012; Gendron, 2009). A battery of theoretical perspectives[1] has previously been used to explain various CG mechanisms and processes (Christopher, 2010). Fully embracing the spirit of the emancipatory rationale of interdisciplinarity in accounting research (Gallhofer and Haslam, in press), we draw on sociological theorisation to address the political economy of CG practices, change and stability.\n4. Research methodology: Family dominance in listed PLCs and ongoing CG reforms in Bangladesh (ADB, 2016; World Bank, 2009), mainly under pressure from its development partners, make it an interesting empirical setting in which to conduct a study. This paper focusses on the three largest family BGs, in terms of both value of assets and number of listed PLCs. The parent/holding companies of the three groups studied in this paper are private limited companies owned by the founders' families. The ownership stake of the founder families is intensified, both directly by their share ownership, and also indirectly through their parent companies' investment in the individual companies held by the BG, some of which are listed on the stock exchange. The three BGs studied have eleven PLCs listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange.\n5. Results: 5.1 Structural conditions and CG practices at T1\n6. Discussion: This paper aims to elaborate a political economy of the change and stability of CG practices to assist in explaining why certain CG reforms fail in one context but work in others. The morphogenetic approach provides a meta-theoretical (methodological) guideline to develop a suitable theory, or what Archer (1995, p. 328) calls \"practical social theory\" (PST), of social change and stability. Following this approach, our inquiry centres around the underlying material and cultural conditions necessary to sustain certain types of CG practice, and how actors enabled and/or constrained by those conditions ultimately shape CG practices. In answering these questions, drawing on the morphogenetic approach, we provide a three-stage, practical, social-theoretical model of CG change and stability, as depicted in Figure 2.\n7. Conclusions: This paper has provided an account of why CG reforms have failed to generate the expected change in CG practices in Bangladeshi BGs. Based on the analysis of interviews with family directors, independent directors, managers, regulators and shareholders of three large BGs, combined with documentary evidence and observation, our paper unpacks organisational CG practices. Inspired by the morphogenetic approach, we have examined structural conditioning and social interactions to understand the outcomes of reforms. We have identified some key structural conditioning that shapes social interactions and, in turn, CG practices. The role of donor agencies and the state was important in pushing through Anglo-American-inspired CG reforms in Bangladeshi companies dominated by family BGs. The new CG Guideline sought to institutionalise the shareholder value logic and enhance accountability to general shareholders by strengthening boards and committees, internal controls and the integrity of financial reporting. We find that cultural conditioning, such as the dominance of family logics, is a key factor in PLCs, partly arising out of the historical capitalist legacy, political connections and social relations. These, in turn, shape relations between the positions of family directors, general shareholders and managers, and give rise to family control in BGs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to elaborate a political economy of corporate governance (CG) change and stability in family business groups (BGs) and assist in explaining why certain CG reforms fail in one context but work in others.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three BGs in Bangladesh are studied. A mixture of data sources is used, namely interviews, observations of practices, historical documentation, company reports and research papers and theses. The results are analysed by applying Archer's morphogenetic approach, focussing on both macro- and micro-processes of change.\nFindings: A newly-adopted CG framework, which created incentives and pressures for family directors to act in the best interests of general shareholders, did not seem to alter apparently simple but complex internal structural set-ups. Thus, regulatory efforts to empower general shareholders did not produce the expected results. Following Archer's morphogenetic approach, the authors identify key structural conditioning or emergent properties and agential strategies to explain why and how BGs opted for symbolic compliance and achieved lax regulation and enforcement.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper opens up a new methodological and theoretical space for future CG research, especially by applying a meta-theoretical guideline such as the morphogenetic approach, for nuanced explanation and a more inclusive understanding of CG practices, reform and change in different organisational and institutional settings.\nOriginality/value: The morphogenetic approach aids in developing a political economy of CG change and stability and provides a nuanced explanation of CG practices. This is illustrated through an exploration of CG change initiatives in Bangladeshi BGs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Feedback in incident reporting - more needed	[ "Clinical medicine", "Risk management", "Feedback", "Obstetrics", "Gynaecology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Clinical incident reporting is an essential component of risk management integral to every UK NHS hospital. Approximately 10 per cent of patients admitted to UK hospitals are involved in some kind of patient safety incident (Meadows et al., 2005). Incident reporting is generated by trigger lists before root cause or systems analysis and further action. However, some incidents are not captured since an exhaustive list cannot be generated.Lack of feedback also accounts for poor incident reporting. Feedback intervention, which provides people with information regarding their performance, is a psychological intervention (Kluger and DeNisi, 1998) that encourages learning in adults. Feedback also educates and informs about the lessons learnt to reflect and ultimately improve performance. Others recommend that staff should be aware of incident reporting process coupled with an effective feedback system to optimise incident reporting (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 2005).Obstetrics and gynaecology is a high risk specialty. Argent (2001) argues that gynaecology is second only to obstetrics in being associated with a high risk of medico-legal activity. Specialist Registrar (SpR) trainee doctors who form the bulk of the middle grade cadre, are extremely likely to be involved in many of these incidents. Subsequently, an incident form and/or a personal account (statement) are submitted. Against this background an obstetrics and gynaecology SpR is expected to submit multiple incident forms and statements while in training.It is felt that once the form is filled in or a statement has been submitted, the process of incident reporting ends abruptly. The common belief is lack of feedback to the concerned individual about the outcome of incident reporting. SpR training promotes self-directed learning, which may be encouraged by feedback. It is also argued that most of the reporting is done by the nursing staff while doctors are particularly poor at reporting incidents (Edozien, 2007).This study was done to determine the involvement of obstetrics and gynaecology SpRs within the Northwestern Deanery of England in incident reporting and the availability of subsequent feedback.\nMethodology: The SpRs in Obstetrics and Gynaecology within the Northwest Deanery of England were requested to fill in an anonymous questionnaire distributed at regional teaching sessions for the junior (training years 3-5) and the senior (training years 6-7) trainees which were analysed. The researchers were excluded from the study.\nResults: There were 50 respondents with an even spread between the trainees from each year (Figure 1) out of 123. This was due to out of training programmes, shift work, maternity, professional and annual leaves.Of the respondents, 47 (94 per cent) had filled in an incident form; 45 (90 per cent) had been involved in an adverse incident at least once; 44 (97 per cent) of them filled incident forms, 32 (72 per cent) of these 44 submitted a statement. Three of the five not involved in adverse incidents also filled in incident forms.Twenty-three (51 per cent) of the 45 involved in adverse incidents received feedback. Also one respondent received feedback even though not involved in an incident. All 47 had filled in incident forms and 21 had prepared statements too. Feedback was not available to 22 respondents involved in adverse incidents. Of these SpRs, 21 had filled in incident forms and 19 (86 per cent) had prepared statements regarding the adverse incident. More (68 per cent) senior trainees received feedback than the juniors (35 per cent).Of the respondents, 35 (70 per cent) had received a formal talk on adverse incident reporting at the hospital induction programme of their most recent placement. Feedback was available to only half (17) of this cohort.\nDiscussion: The findings highlight several important issues. Though the literature suggests that the doctors are poor at reporting adverse incidents (Edozien, 2007), it is possible that this trend is changing. It is also probable that though incident reporting is suboptimal among doctors as a whole, obstetrics and gynaecology being a high risk specialty, it encourages a greater awareness among this particular cohort of doctors. The fact that three of the respondents had filled in incident forms in situations where they were not involved is very encouraging.The overall feedback rate was suboptimal (51 per cent). Senior trainees received feedback more often than the junior ones. This is of some concern as an absence of the feedback loop could fail the trainees.Only 70 per cent of the respondents had a lecture on incident reporting during the induction day programme at their latest placement. O'Donovan (1997) argues that the induction day programme is to make the trainees aware of the procedures to ensure a safe environment for patients, visitors and staff most important of which is incident reporting. It is therefore important that all trusts include a session towards clinical incident reporting on junior doctors' induction day.\nConclusion: Incident reporting is integral to risk management. Feedback following systems analysis of an incident completes the reporting loop by raising awareness among the staff about the outcome and lessons learnt. It is alleged that most of the incident reporting in the UK hospitals is done by the nursing staff and not doctors. Trainee doctors in obstetrics and gynaecology are exposed to a high number of adverse clinical incidents because of the high risk nature of the specialty. However this small study demonstrates that contrary to popular belief, clinical incident reporting was good among obstetrics and gynaecology trainees.Feedback was suboptimal following incident reporting. Nearly one-third of the trainees did not have a talk on clinical incident reporting on the induction day at their latest hospital placement. We conclude that more effort is required towards provision of feedback. We propose a quarterly departmental meeting to disseminate the lessons learnt from the incidents and to foster a culture of a learning organization. In conjunction we recommend that a lecture on incident reporting be included on the induction day for junior doctors at the beginning of their placements.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to determine the prevalence of feedback following adverse clinical incident reporting among trainee doctors in obstetrics and gynaecology within the Northwestern Deanery of England.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An anonymous questionnaire was circulated among the Specialist Registrar trainees within the specialty attending a regional teaching session. The questionnaire was analysed.\nFindings: - There were 50 responses, of those 45 (90 per cent) had been involved in an adverse clinical incident; 44 had submitted an incident form related to the incident. Three had submitted incident forms without being involved in an adverse incident. Most (80 per cent) had submitted an incident form as well as a related statement. Feedback was available to 23 (51 per cent) of those involved in adverse incidents. More of the senior trainees received feedback than the junior ones. A lecture on clinical incident reporting was available to only 35(70 per cent) of the respondents on the hospital induction day at their latest clinical placement.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study is limited to adverse clinical incident reporting among the trainees in a single specialty within one deanery in UK; hence the small numbers.\nPractical implications: - This study demonstrates the presence of awareness regarding adverse incident reporting among the trainees in a high-risk specialty. It also shows the suboptimal rate of feedback following adverse incident reporting, which does not encourage a learning environment. It is suggested that a lecture should be dedicated to incident reporting at the junior doctors' induction day programme in every hospital.\nOriginality/value: - This paper highlights the lack of adequate feedback following adverse clinical incident reporting.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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