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Leaders should be first among equals: Center stage belongs to middle managers	[ "Empowerment", "Leadership", "Authority", "Mentors", "Career development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nAmbition and talent: Anyone who has been an employee for many years, and has worked for several different companies during that time, will know that it's extremely difficult to make sweeping statements about bosses.In a few cases they might have got there through ambition as much as talent, although a judicious combination of the two is more likely, and they are not always people with whom you would want to spend an evening in a bar. But once in situ, leaders' approaches to their role differ too much to make generalizations possible. This all provides fertile ground for experts examining leadership development.Leadership consultant John Baldoni contends that the twenty-first century boss is a different beast than that of previous generations. Far from being entitled to get whatever he wants, Baldoni says: \"Today's CEO is not an absolute monarch; more often, he is an executive who must learn to lead as a first among equals rather than one without equal.\"For Baldoni, that means empowering middle-management, a process which will strengthen rather than weaken the head's authority by encouraging \"greater levels of commitment\" among middle managers. Strategic planning and smart thinking are both paramount for leaders, as is the ability to get middle management to think and act strategically. Baldoni has some sound advice on the way middle managers must act, many of which - such as thinking big, influencing others, and encouraging job rotation so that individuals are challenged to learn new skills - are familiar enough.\n\"Be prepared\": However, he is also happy to learn from the example of some surprising sources. Among them is Frances Hesselbein, CEO of the Girl Scouts of America and the woman who coined the term circular management to mean placing herself, as CEO, at the nexus of a circular organizational chart; this provides the opportunity to be, quite literally, at \"the center of the action\" in order to share power. Such practices can prepare emerging leaders for more senior positions, but the spin-offs can also be good, not least in creating more confident middle managers from among those who are not destined or cut out for higher office.Miki Saxon argues that there are considerable dangers inherent in the notion that managers and leaders are different beasts, with different skill sets. Saxon argues that a notion of leaders as \"better\" than managers has spread perniciously through the business world; however, any examination of what it takes to be a leader or manager would suggest that either party would be incomplete without being able to call on both skills sets. It might well be the case, for example, that managers focus on systems and structure and leaders on people, but that's no excuse for not having skills that run across the board. A manager might well rise from mediocre to good in the eyes of colleagues because he can embrace numerous leadership traits.There is also a strong case to be made for the argument that a need for different circumstances will call for different leadership styles. A struggling organization might well need a \"tough guy\" when times are hard, and tough decisions have to be taken. However, a more people-oriented chief might be what is needed when a corner has been turned and \"softer\" qualities are needed, for example to build relationships with stakeholders. Freek Vermeulen cites English model train maker Hornby as an example of this approach in action, with Peter Newey cast in the role of the hard man when things got tough a decade ago, and Frank Martin the \"people guy\" who later built on what had been, effectively, the ultimate achievement by Newey of preventing the company from going to the wall.On the other hand, certain styles of leadership can feel \"right\" because of the prevailing mood or circumstances, then be proved to have been less than solid. Many people would find it hard now to recall that President George W. Bush was actually praised in many quarters following the terrorist attack on New York's twin towers.\nBush pruned: One political observer described \"Dubya\" as having a \"very top command and control approach\" which went down well in the aftermath of 9/11. In a crisis, authorities can behave in ways that would not be deemed acceptable in more usual circumstances. Bush was able to convince people that there was a \"war on terror\" to be won. As the real nature and dubious legality of that war on terror became clear, to Americans as well as the rest of the world, Bush's high approval rating slumped catastrophically.Bush was practicing leadership as taught at Harvard Business School, where he had been a student; the sort of leadership described by Turbitt in his article as one which has \"a clear (but narrow) vision and then focuses ruthlessly on its accomplishment.\" Jack Welch is sometimes cited as coming out of the same mold, although the legendary General Electric CEO's collection of aphorisms, such as \"I see myself as a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people\" and his belief in building self-confidence in employees does suggest a broader vision.Different situations and issues require different types of management approach. Turbitt quotes one management expert, Keith Grint, who has identified problem situations which might be deemed \"tame\", \"crisis\" or \"wicked\" and for which, respectively, management, leadership or command executive activity might be considered appropriate. The most extreme situations might seem to justify, as they did for George W Bush, a default position of command, but, for Turbitt, the real challenge is to rise above this and take an \"adaptive approach\" one which selects the style of leadership according to the situation, rather than according to the head figure's default preference of choice. This involves, as he puts its, getting \"on the balcony\" as an omniscient observer who can look at situations from every angle and find ways to tackle issues using existing knowledge and processes.Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff for Barrack Obama, said: \"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before.\" As Turbitt sees it, the challenge is to ensure that from the \"balcony\" the type of work chosen creates the most value, rather than being a \"Dubya\"-style justification for that default command position.\nTime for mentors: Baldoni made the point that good senior leaders need to provide inspiration for the next generation and those below them in the organization and this is precisely the issue with which Zachary and Fischler involve themselves when talking about company mentoring projects. They argue that strong leaders are the sort of people who should be involved in mentoring because the set of skills which got them where they are can be nurtured in the brightest young talents working their way up through an organization.Several \"exemplary practices\", enabling leaders to become high achievers, are outlined. The secret, then, is to pass them on to mentees. One of these, modeling the way, comes with a cautionary tale of a senior leader who failed to align actions and values in his treatment of a \"mentee\", making the latter feel that what took place was \"more like a transaction\".Leaders acting as mentors also need to be able to \"inspire a shared vision\" - in other words to \"hold up a mirror\" which enables mentees to look at themselves and see what they could be, and what they might achieve, in the future. With this, of course, come the leadership opportunities that mentors can offer their proteges. One recipient of this help described the way her mentor enabled her to see \"how I might leverage them [qualities revealed in previous position] in my new leadership role. He inspired me and helped me to see new possibilities for myself.\"\nHeart to heart: \"Encouraging the heart\" might sound an unusual concept to introduce into business practice, but as explained by Zachary and Fischler it involves the mentee knowing that the mentor really cares about the progress made, providing continual feedback and celebrating the positive steps taken by the junior partner. Related to this point, the writers also suggest that leading \"through\" others lies at the very heart of mentoring. By this they mean the formation of strong, collaborative relationships, which involve mutual respect. The mentor must be willing to listen, in order to enable others to act. One real life case involved a mentee who was a survivor of a severe downsizing exercise that had seen a department reduced from ten to three. Brainstorming strategies and suggested areas of research for the mentee, together with an agreed timetable for further talks, helped get the process off to a promising start.Great leaders, it has been suggested, are made not born. The same might well be true of mentors. That's not of course to say that a great leader will make automatically a good mentor. The qualities that create leaders include determination, single-mindedness and a streak of ruthlessness. It doesn't follow that people exhibiting those traits will even want to mentor. As to whether a mentee will enjoy the process, perhaps the \"evening in a bar\" test might be a good indicator.But for those wanting to learn, great leaders should have plenty of inspirational ideas and insights to pass on.\nComment: This review is based on \"Who executes (leadership),\" by Baldoni, Saxon, Vermeulen, Stroup (2009), \"Crisis? What crisis?: how best to analyse critical, tame and wicked problems and to approach them exercising command, management or leadership by providing answers, processes or questions\" by Turbitt (2010), and \"Those who lead, mentor,\" by Zachary and Fischler (2010).The Baldoni et al. piece covers a significant amount of ground in examining the role of leadership, which makes it possible to forgive some occasional gnomic observations, such as \"The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing\".Turbitt's piece is complementary, especially in its acknowledgment that there is a \"horses for courses\" element to leadership, and there are some subtle observations here about life at the top.Zachary and Fischler emphasize the qualities that can make good leaders into good mentors, and the descriptions of good and bad practices are useful. Can is, of course, the operative word as leaders won't always have the empathy skills required to involve themselves with mentees.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - Anyone who has been an employee for many years, and has worked for several different companies during that time, will know that it's extremely difficult to make sweeping statements about bosses. In a few cases they might have got there through ambition as much as talent, although a judicious combination of the two is more likely, and they are not always people with whom you would want to spend an evening in a bar. But once in situ, leaders' approaches to their role differ too much to make generalizations possible. This all provides fertile ground for experts examining leadership development.\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nSocial implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that can have a broader social impact.\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" } ]
Entering the base of the pyramid market in India: A corporate social entrepreneurship perspective	[ "International marketing", "India", "Corporate social responsibility", "Corporate social entrepreneurship", "Base of the pyramid (BoP)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in how multinational corporations (MNCs) can enter the base of the pyramid (BoP) market (London and Hart, 2004; Schuster and Holtbrugge, 2012; Tasavori et al., 2014; Dey et al., 2013). The BoP is composed of 1.4 billion people who earn between $2 and $8 a day, and 2.6 billion people whose daily income is below $2 (Hammond et al., 2007; UNDP, 2008). Because of the dominant poverty in this market, it has traditionally been ignored by MNCs.\n2. Context of the BoP market in India: BoP markets generally refer to the three to four billion poor globally who have traditionally been ignored by the private sector (Prahalad, 2010). In India, 469 million of the population earn less than $1.25 per day and 850 million people have a daily income of less than $2 (The World Bank, 2014) leading to an aggregated purchasing power of more than $1 trillion (Hammond et al., 2007).\n3. Marketing, CSR and CSE: The importance of CSR and its contribution to the marketing endeavours of the firm has been supported by several studies. For example, scholars have examined consumer responses to CSR initiatives (Marquina and Morales, 2012; Carrigan and De Pelsmacker, 2009), the role of CSR in branding (Polonsky and Jevons, 2009) and the marketing benefits resulting from corporate actions with a social dimension (Maignan et al., 1999; Smith et al., 2010).\n4. Theoretical background: Since there is not much literature on the antecedents and outcomes of CSE, we have tried to develop a conceptual framework based on the antecedents and outcomes of CSR, corporate entrepreneurship, and their underlying theories: stakeholder theory and contingency theory.\n5. Methodology: A qualitative exploratory approach has been adopted here as it is suitable for gaining a deeper understanding of an issue (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2010). Specifically, we employed the qualitative case study approach, as it is recommended when the area of research is novel or in its early stages; it allows the researcher to examine the setting and understand the inherent dynamics of the case in question (Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). The case study approach also benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide the study (Yin, 2009).\n6. Findings: In this section, first, we describe the BoP market entry of the MNCs based on their CSE activities in which they view social problems as market opportunities, and develop entrepreneurial and marketing processes to seize them. Then, based on the conceptual framework, we explain the environmental and organisational factors that facilitate engagement in CSE and BoP market entry, as well as the outcomes of CSE.\n7. Discussion: The corporate entrepreneurship literature (e.g. Morris et al., 2008; Covin and Miles, 1999) contributes to the explanation of CSE initiatives as it suggests that corporations engage in entrepreneurial practices to redefine their markets and create new marketing strategies so as to achieve competitive advantage. Despite the low incomes of the BoP population, the MNCs studied here have switched their attention to this market, viewing social problems as opportunities (Wood, 2008) and attempting to offer products, services and/or processes that suit the needs of poor people. These MNCs have had to adapt their marketing strategies by changing their products (e.g. size, features, etc.), reducing their prices, adapting their advertising and promotion strategies to tackle illiteracy and a lack of access to TVs, and developing new distribution channels to gain access to consumers in widespread rural areas. These changes in the marketing initiatives of these MNCs are consistent with the findings of prior studies suggesting that corporations should re-invent their strategies at the BoP (London and Hart, 2004; Prahalad, 2010), and develop strategies to build awareness and ensure the affordability, availability and acceptability of their products (Anderson and Billou, 2007).\n8. Conclusions: In this research, we have endeavoured to illuminate how a CSE approach can enable MNCs to enter the BoP market. We have specifically shed light on the environmental factors that may pull/push organisations, the organisational factors required and the outcomes that organisations can expect from entry into this market. The findings of this research have revealed that, by viewing social problems as opportunities, adapting marketing strategies and implementing social responsibility by improving the quality of life of the poor, MNCs can achieve this goal. However, the pursuit of CSE and the implementation of these strategies require a better understanding of environmental factors. The key environmental factors that influence the CSE initiatives of MNCs were identified as demand conditions and socio-political actors' expectations. Specific organisational characteristics to match the environment and support for engagement in CSE also proved to be critical, namely, management support, network orientation towards NGOs and availability of financial resources. The alignment of entrepreneurial initiatives and international marketing with social responsibility at the BoP can provide a firm with legitimacy and long-term profitability. A summary of the findings of this research is presented in Figure 2.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the international market expansion of multinational corporations (MNCs) to the base of the pyramid (BoP). The authors employ the corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE) perspective to reveal how MNCs can enter this market, the key enabling factors and the benefits they can gain. CSE is related to entrepreneurial and marketing strategies that are inspired by social responsibility.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory, qualitative multiple-case study has been employed. In-depth interviews were conducted with managers from three MNCs that have entered the BoP market in India.\nFindings: The findings of this research confirm that successful entry into the BoP requires the pursuit of social responsibility and the adaptation of marketing strategies. In addition, MNCs should identify the key environmental factors (demand conditions and socio-political actors' expectations) and develop organisational characteristics (management support, network orientation towards non-governmental organisations and availability of financial resources) to match. The findings of this research show that engagement in CSE in countries with considerable BoP populations can bring firms legitimacy and sustainable profitability.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is based on interviews with a limited number of MNCs in India. Future studies could generalise the findings of this research to a larger number of corporations in other countries.\nOriginality/value: This research brings new insights to the field of international marketing by integrating the corporate social responsibility, marketing and entrepreneurship disciplines. The findings of this research offer empirical support for CSE and its role in international marketing strategies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Are head injury guidelines being met?	[ "Injuries", "Clinical audit", "Standards", "Hospitals", "United Kingdom" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Significant concerns have been raised over the last few years about the care of head injured patients in the UK (Bartlett et al., 1998). NICE guidelines for head injury care were finalised in June 2003 (National Collaborating Centre for Acute Care, 2003), and allow us to examine how far short we are now from the ideal. We tried to answer this question recently at a large three-star district general hospital by conducting a six-month audit.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To assess how the 2003 NICE guidelines about head-injured patients are implemented at a large district general hospital, and how the existing shortfalls might be improved.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A six-month audit was performed and the care of all head-injured patients discharged or dying over a six-month period was assessed in the following fields: admission criteria, number of responsible consultants, number of wards receiving patients, timing of transfer to specialist centres and CT scanning and skull X-rays (SIGN guidelines were used for the latter as NICE currently recommends CT for all patients needing imaging), quality of neurological observations, criteria for re-scanning, transfer for rehabilitation, advice and arrangements for follow-up, and assignment of case managers.\nFindings: - Imaging rates were poor, observation timing was inadequate and discharge information or follow-up arrangements were unsatisfactory. Care could be much improved by allowing one unit/ward and one firm to be in sole charge of head-injured patients.\nOriginality/value: - This case study provides practical advice for any busy hospital striving to maintain national standards in the care of head-injured patients.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Corporations and development: The barriers to effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a neoliberal age	[ "Corporate governance", "Development", "Corporations", "Neoliberalism", "Shareholder value", "Corporate social responsibility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Corporations possess a considerable amount of influence and power in international finance. They undertake the provision of a wide range of products and services, catering to an \"emerging\" international market (Wheeler and SillanPaa, 1997). The growing power of modern corporations is exemplified in the fact that out of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 of them are corporate entities. As a further illustration of this point, Odeleye (2005) reports that the economy of Toyota is bigger than that of Norway, while the assets of General Motors are more than those of Denmark. Commenting further, Utting (2000) submits that the joint assets of five corporate entities in 2000 were more than double that of the aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) of the world's 100 poorest nations.\nCSR, neoliberalism and sustainable development: The term CSR means different things to different people and has become a broad and all-encompassing concept which embraces everything from corporate philanthropy to corporate citizenship to corporate social performance (Feil, 2012). As Carroll (1999, p. 268) submits:\nThe barriers to effective CSR: The following sections will identify and separate for analytical purposes, a number of inter-connected but distinguishable barriers that render the CSR practices of corporations ineffective and incapable of leading to sustainable development. The existence of these barriers - which are all rooted in the \"neoliberal\" shareholder value model of corporate governance - pressurizes (or incentivizes as the case may be) corporate managers into adopting the CSR model which will shore-up the bottom line of profit accumulation, while neglecting the more onerous (and more expensive) CSR practices which will contribute to meaningful development.\nMain ideological barriers: neoliberalism and shareholder value: In the past 30 years, the ideology of shareholder value has become a well-established code of corporate governance in many parts of the world. This governance \"rhetoric\" has become the prevalent corporate philosophy in both the USA and UK. Even in Japan and Germany, the emphasis on shareholder value seems to have triumphed, and the principle is supported by many international organizations including the OECD (Soederberg, 2004), the IMF and the World Bank (Lazonick and O'Sullivan, 2001).\nPractical barriers: contemporary corporate governance mechanisms: The barriers to effective CSR are not only - or largely - ideological. If it were to be, there would clearly be hope for effective CSR: all its supporters would have to do is to persuade corporations and their executives that they should consider the wider social interests in their decision-making - either because it is worthwhile in itself or because (as many supporters of \"stake-holding\" have tried to argue) acting in a socially responsible manner is in the long-term interests of shareholders (an idea captured in the notion of enlightened shareholder value).\nPolitical barrier: the power of resurgent finance: In this section, my aim is to identify another barrier to the realization of effective CSR categorized as the re-asserted power of finance (Ireland, 2009)[2]. It represents the ability of a powerful group of financial interests - in their quest for personal wealth accumulation - to politically stifle any intended policy decision towards \"the collective good\", including effective CSR (Erturk et al., 2012). In this context, therefore, this section is concerned with neoliberalism not as an ideology, but as a political project aimed at furthering the interests of a class.\nConclusion: From the discussions above, it appears that there are good reasons for thinking that the contemporary CSR practices of corporations are not capable of bringing sustainable development to host-communities, despite what these corporations may claim. In this paper, I have argued that given the current dominance of the \"maximizing shareholder value\" model of corporate governance and the existence of the various barriers identified and analysed in the course of the paper, it seems unreasonable to believe that contemporary CSR can be used for the sustainable development of host-communities. Neither the culture of corporations nor the pressures to which they are currently subjected encourage socially responsible behaviour.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the nature and role of contemporary CSR in the current neoliberal age. It offers an insight into the tension that exists between the ideologies of \"neoliberal\" shareholder value and that of \"effective\" CSR, and argues that both ideologies are fundamentally antithetical. It aims to identify and analyse the inter-connected but distinguishable barriers (ideological, practical and political) that militate against the realization of effective CSR.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The method applied is a critical evaluation of concepts and a thorough review of existing literature on neoliberalism, shareholder value and contemporary CSR. It uses existing literature to highlight the inability of contemporary CSR to transform into an effective mechanism for development.\nFindings: The paper emphasizes the failure of contemporary CSR to equate to a successful mechanism for development. It concludes that the existence and operations of these barriers militate against the realization of an effective CSR regime capable of leading to development.\nPractical implications: Given the current dominance of the \"maximizing shareholder value\" model of corporate governance internationally, it appears unreasonable to pin too much hope on contemporary CSR as a mechanism for development, especially in emerging economies. Neither the culture of corporations nor the pressures to which they are currently subjected encourage socially responsible behaviour.\nOriginality/value: The paper extends the body of knowledge in the area of contemporary CSR, by identifying and analysing the inter-connected but distinguishable barriers that render the CSR practices of corporations ineffective.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Promoting resource sharing through consortia: a case study of Shanghai Library	[ "Library consortia", "Resource sharing", "Document supply", "Interlibrary loan", "China", "Shanghai" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Chinese library consortia were first established in the late 1990s and have developed rapidly since 2002. A few of the most successful library consortia are:* the State Science and Technology Library (NSTL) and the science library system;* CALIS the university library system at the national level;* the regional SHELIB in Shanghai;* JALIS in Jiangsu Province;* TJDL in Tianjin; and* the Hong Kong Academic Library Link.The Shanghai Information Resources Network, established in Shanghai in 1994, was the prototype for a library consortium and its main activities were interlibrary loan and resource sharing between member libraries, and the annual development of a serial union catalog for the coordination of acquisitions. This network has played a certain role in the sharing of resources and coordination of acquisitions, but since it is confined to the Shanghai area, the range of benefit is small, its influence is narrow, and the service promotion is limited.\nExpanding global influence through international library consortia: The Shanghai Library joined the interlibrary loan services of OCLC (Online Computer the Library Center) in 1998, and was the first library in mainland China to become an OCLC ILL supplier, which marked the beginning of the Shanghai Library's interlibrary loan services to the world. In 2003, the number of books the Shanghai Library requested from OCLC member libraries exceeded the number of books lent to OCLC libraries, but in 2004, the situation was reversed and the Library became a net lender. As shown in Table I, the ratio between borrowing and lending was 9:7, in 2004 1:2, and in the following years, there was a steady increase in lending every year. In 2008, the ratio reached 1:7, and in recent years there has been a stable ratio between 1:6 and 1:7. It is obvious that the Shanghai Library's collection and services are gradually recognized by colleagues around the world and that it has become one of the important ILL suppliers in mainland China, thus establishing the brand. To further enhance the Library's brand, I attended the 12th Interlending & Document Supply Conference held 19-21 September 2011 in Chicago. The 220 librarians attending the conference were introduced to the Shanghai Library and its resources and services SLY. Currently, only a small number of the Shanghai Library's monographic holdings of Western language books are listed in the OCLC WorldCat database. However, OCLC and the Shanghai Library have been actively discussing the possibility of a batch upload of Chinese language bibliographic records to the WorldCat database. If this project is successful, many more international library colleagues will discover the Shanghai Library resources and services, and our influence will be self-evident.Subito is an international document delivery service established by the German Ministry of Education and Research in order to speed up the provision of documents. There are now 45 libraries from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other countries included in the service system, forming an important base for document and information supply in the scientific, social science, and economic fields. It can also be said that Subito is a library consortium. In 2007, the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing University Library, and Shanghai Library joined efforts with Subito to launch a Chinese-German document delivery service known as China Direct. By November 2009, China Direct was fully embedded with Subito and providing direct retrieval and delivery of Chinese documents, thus becoming the first case of Sino-German resource sharing services. Through their participation in Subito, the Chinese libraries have gained greater visibility in Germany and other regions (Chen and Lei, 2012). As a result of this increased visibility, the demand for document delivery services from China Direct is increasing year by year (as shown by Figure 1), which is in stark contrast with the yearly decrease in document delivery demand experienced by Subito in recent years. As of the end of July 2012, China had delivered about 2,000 documents to Subito, of which the Shanghai Library supplied 1,200, or 60 percent. The requests originated from libraries in dozens of countries and regions, including Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Austria, etc. Before carrying out this service, with the exception of the British Library, the Shanghai Library seldom had document delivery transactions with libraries in other European countries. It is obvious that the cooperation with library consortia has expanded the Shanghai Library's services and influence in Europe.\nExpanding document services through domestic library consortia: One important role of any library consortium is service marketing. When the Shanghai Library began lending books through interlibrary loan in September 2010, it tried to market the service through the library website, holding meetings to exchange ideas on interlibrary loan and document supply services, and issuing promotional brochures, but with little success. In the year between September 2010 and August 2011, the number of books requested through the interlibrary loan service was only 1,570 from 20 libraries. In order to attract more readers and encourage them to use this service and the library resources, the Shanghai Library signed an agreement with CALIS,the China Academic Library and Information System, in November 2011 to carry out interlibrary loan and document delivery services, becoming the first public library to cooperate with CALIS. We hope this cooperation can truly allow the collection of the Shanghai Library to be available to all universities in the country, and at the same time, the readers of the Shanghai Library will be able to share the resources of university libraries, which will have a profound impact on library communities at home and abroad. The CALIS management center widely publicized this service through its sub-centers across the country, and conducted promotional activities for the interlibrary loan of book services in November - December 2011 and again in May 2012. During the event, CALIS fully subsidized all service fees. In the promotional period November to December 2011, the total number of interlibrary loans reached 2,286 - more than the total of the previous year. The effect of the promotional activities in May 2012 was even more obvious, and in one month the interlibrary loans reached 2,612, and the number of requesting libraries increased from 76 to 102. All this shows that with more and more libraries aware of the service, more and more readers can have fast and easy access to the Shanghai Library collection without coming to the library. This service not only allows the reader to enjoy the convenience of resource sharing, but puts the Shanghai Library's resources to maximum use (Table II).Among the books lent through the interlibrary loan services, books circulating for the first time amounted to a third of the total, which shows the Shanghai Library resources are truly valued and are really used by scholars.The above examples demonstrate that through cooperation with library consortia and a variety of publicity efforts, good services can be quickly promoted and accepted.\nEnhanced professional knowledge through library cooperation: Each ILL and document delivery transaction is an opportunity for the library to market its services. Therefore, ILL librarians are both practitioners and promoters of this service. In order to provide good service, librarians must have a thorough knowledge of resource sharing practices and the ability to promote their services to readers, expand the pool of resources available for sharing, analyze library collections and user needs, establish strong resource sharing networks, communicate well with colleagues and coordinate well with lending partners.These skills are not acquired overnight, but a consortium can provide the means for acquiring such skills by conducting various forms of training and instruction. The Shanghai Library and CALIS jointly organized two ILL conferences, and librarians gathered together from all over the country. At the conference, librarians from the Shanghai Library, CALIS and other university libraries gave presentations and freely shared their expertise. The conference participants not only gained knowledge, but also met their colleagues. People joked that they finally met the \"live librarians\". As ILL librarians who deal with books and requests every day, mostly by telephone or through the Internet, naturally they will seize the opportunity to meet and interact with each other. The Shanghai Library Document Supply team made its debut at the conference, and everyone was impressed by the team's dedication and spirit of collaboration. After the meeting, librarians got together again to continue in-depth communications. Such meetings have not only helped to promote library services, but also allowed librarians to make more friends.After librarians went back to their own work, the previous sense of isolation on the ILL QQ1 discussion group disappeared. When a library encounters difficulties, all it needs is to ask for assistance and other libraries will help solve the problem. When a library introduces a new initiative, it publicizes the new techniques on the ILL QQ.It is clear that the spirit of cooperation established within Chinese library consortia has brought librarians together and truly enhanced their professional knowledge and abilities. The sense of trust between colleagues has been truly strengthened; the understanding of resource sharing services increased through mutual collaboration; and the flowers of friendship are blooming - all because of the increasingly active and visible roles that library consortia are playing in mainland China.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to review the relationship between Shanghai Library and consortia in China and around the world, and examine the effect those relationships have had upon the library's resource sharing services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper uses a case study approach.\nFindings: - Library consortia can improve and enhance interlibrary loan and document delivery services by introducing those services to new users, broadening the pool of materials available for resource sharing, and increasing the requisite skill sets of ILL practitioners.\nOriginality/value: - Library consortia are a relatively recent phenomenon in China. This paper examines the experiences of the first Chinese library to loan its collections internationally through OCLC WorldCat or enter into the first Sino-German document delivery agreement.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Non-enforceable implementation of enterprise mobilization: An exploratory study of the critical success factors	[ "Critical success factors", "Learning", "Telecommunications" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 1997, at a time when the mobilization trend was not yet apparent, Chander (1997) suggested that the mobility afforded by wireless communications could greatly increase the applicability and value of enterprise information access. Today, the types of information technology (IT) system required by enterprises are those who will allow the acquisition of information at any time, from anywhere and on any device. Such systems arrived with the appearance of mobile devices, which provided users with the ability to acquire information instantly from any location (Clarke, 2001); and as Robinson (2001) argued, the application of wireless communications is set to become the mainstream of the next wave of enterprise \"electronization\". Indeed, according to data released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), by the year 2006, the number of people using mobile equipment will have reached 715 million (Drake, 2002). Through the use of such equipment, enterprises can achieve total implementation of mobilization and subsequently increase their efficiency, effectiveness and integration capabilities (Kalakota and Robinson, 2001). Thus, it is clear that the era of enterprise mobilization has now arrived.There are currently two methods by which mobilization is implemented within the business world, namely, enforceable and non-enforceable implementation. Enforceable implementation refers to the adoption by an enterprise of compulsory means of ensuring the usage of the system by employees, as seen in the methods adopted by many material distribution industries and convenience stores. Non-enforceable implementation refers to the adoption by enterprises of means of encouraging employees to self initiate the use of mobilization, as seen in the majority of companies in the insurance industry and in real estate agencies. In comparison with the relative ease of enforceable implementation, non-enforceable implementation faces many questions of transitional uncertainty, such as ways of selecting appropriate people and ways in which employees can be encouraged to adopt the use of such systems. These questions, which can create enormous obstacles to the successful implementation of mobilization, serve as the inspiration for this study.The implementation of enterprise mobilization is a relatively new topic, which explains why there is currently a distinct lack of specific research into this field. This study therefore employs exploratory methods, integrating both qualitative and quantitative research data. The article begins with relevant literature review, followed by a description of in-depth interviews with professional employees of the case corporation. Information gathered from the interviews was analyzed and then used as a basis for developing the research questionnaire. Finally, factor analysis was used in an attempt to discover the critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of enterprise mobilization.\nLiterature review: Enterprise mobilization defined\nResearch design: Given the sparse nature of the current literature on mobilization, research of a truly exploratory nature is necessary in order to determine those CSFs that have a direct influence on mobilization. It was noted by Bryman (1992) that if the information gained from both a qualitative and quantitative investigation is mutually affirmative and supportive, then this will enhance the reliability of a researcher's assertions. Accordingly, this study adopts an approach generally referred to as the triangulation method (Burgess, 1993), involving the integration of both qualitative and quantitative surveys.Pilot interview\nReliability and validity: Reliability\nData analysis: Data gathering and analysis\nThe relationship between CSFs and actual success: In order to determine what constitutes the CSFs for the successful implementation of mobilization, this study uses six factors to serve as independent variables, and the \"success of mobilization\" as the dependent variable, in order to determine the size of the factor score that has a marked variation on successful mobilization. Following the calculation and standardization of the factor scores with a mean of 0, and a standard deviation of 1, the 126 cases were divided into two groups, the \"upper-half\" and the \"lower-half\". A t-test was then used to examine the means of the two groups, in terms of the existence of any significant differences in the mean score of the mobilization success. As Table V reveals, in all of the essential factors, the mean scores of the \"upper-half\" were higher than those in the \"lower-half\", with five of the six factors having a significant discrepancy of less than 5 per cent.These results support the existence of CSFs for mobilization. The insignificance of Factor 4 may be attributable to the following:* this factor may not be of importance to the success of mobilization;* this factor perhaps has comparatively less importance than other factors;* perhaps the questions that were used to describe this factor was not sufficiently refined and was therefore unable to thoroughly research the content of this factor; thus its role in mobilization implementation could not be effectively demonstrated; and* perhaps, as a result of a research error, their relative importance was prevented from being revealed.Nevertheless, since all of the interviewees agreed that this factor was of importance, even though it showed no significant discrepancy in the testing methods, it is still discussed in this paper.Correlation analysis between CSFs and assessment of success constructs\nConclusions and suggestions: Conclusions and implications for management\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Enterprise mobilization refers to the provision by an enterprise of the means for its employees to update information at any time and any place through the use of a wireless network system and related equipment. The implementation of enterprise mobilization can be separated into two main methods, non-enforceable and enforceable. Non-enforceable implementation refers to those situations where, although an enterprise encourages its employees to use a mobilized system, it does not enforce such use, whereas the reverse is true in the case of enforceable methods. Aims to examine this situation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Since this is a relatively new research topic with very little previous research having been undertaken in this area, this paper employs a triangulation. This method enables integration of both quantitative and qualitative data, to investigate the critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of non-enforceable mobilization by enterprises. The data were collected by means of in-depth interviews with corporate managers and specialists from 29 enterprises and comprise 126 samples of employees currently using mobilization systems.\nFindings: - The study reveals a total of six CSFs for the implementation of non-enforceable mobilization by enterprises, comprising: cooperation with a good solution \"value added reseller\"; appropriate planning and the support of senior management; user participation and minimization of any resistance to the installation of the system; open communication channels; enhancement of the understanding of mobilization itself and of employee requirements; and effective mobilization equipment.\nOriginality/value: - This paper will be of interest to organizations looking to implement a wireless network system. The results provided can be used as references for industry and businesses in general, to support their decision-making processes concerning the introduction of mobilization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
What factors explain the price of top quality wines?	[ "Economics", "Pricing", "Quality assessment", "Econometric model", "Economic sectors", "Hedonic model", "Quality ratings", "Wine prices" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Given the growing supply of wines and the large number of new consumers with purchasing power but lacking knowledge of the subtleties of high-quality wines, expert opinions are used for consumers as proxies for quality.\n2. Literature: Our work rests on the literature of hedonic prices and recent empirical research on wine economics. We discuss the wine economics literature related to our paper in this section.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Hedonic price theory\n4. Database: In 1988, the publication Wine Spectator - the source of the database we built - began to publish its annual \"Top 100 list\" of best wines, whose latest rankings were selected from thousands of candidates. The ranking encompasses wines with scores between 90 and 100 points and enables us to build a database starting from 2003 and ending in 2016 (14 years), with data on price, production, quality (as proxied by the score), vintage, minimum years to release, maximum years to storage, country and region, grape (identifying varietals or blends) and winery.\n5. Results: Table IV, presents the final estimated model of Stage D. The preferable functional form is called \"mixed\", in the sense that it is a mix between log-log and log-lin. The four Box-Cox specifications did not accept any null hypothesis related to specification; they could not provide any information. So, we used a Ramsey Regression Equation Specification Error Test (RESET) as a guide to determine the best functional form, which we called \"mixed\". The RESET tests whether non-linear combinations of the fitted values help explain the dependent variable. If non-linear combinations of the explanatory variables have any power to explain the dependent, the model is mis-specified. In a well-specified model, the null-hypothesis (whereby all coefficients in the non-linear combination are zero) cannot be rejected.\n6. Conclusions: In hedonic price models, a specific (differentiated) good has a bundle of characteristics. From the wines in our sample, we know price and quantity produced; the points in a quality ranking; the grape (e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon) and its association with one broad classification of wines (e.g. \"Big Reds\"); the winery with a name and reputation in the industry; the production year, its date of release (time to begin drinking), its aging potential (if any); the producer region where the grapes were grown, a country with an old or new history as producer. Points as proxy for quality are elements consumers value because quantity, grapes and storage potential are aspects that are strongly related to costs, and thus to producers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Given the growing supply of wines and the large number of new consumers with purchasing power but lacking knowledge of the subtleties of high-quality wines, expert opinions are used for consumers as proxies for quality. This study aims to determine the determinants of prices in top-quality wine market. The authors also seek to estimate the role for country of origin, grape, producing region and winery in prices. And, finally, the authors try to show how countries, regions and wineries can help increase their position in international rankings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors try to answer: What factors explain the price of top-quality wines (defined as best rated in a standardized ranking)? To some extent, in the hands of producers influence prices, which imply long-term decisions or large investments in land and marketing. Other variables that consumer value does affect prices. The authors try also to detect undervalued or overvalued wines, grapes, regions, wineries or producer countries. The authors estimate an econometric model of hedonic prices using a 14-year sample of the Wine Spectator's 100 top-rated wines for the American market between 2003 and 2016, totaling 1,400 observations. The sample is a great cross-section because each wine is unique.\nFindings: The authors' contribution is twofold: the determination of the price explanatory values and the identification and attribution of price differences by country, grape, region and winery. Also, the authors detected grapes, countries, regions and wineries which are overvalued or undervalued with respect to the average prediction of the model.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings are useful to understand the role of price explanatory variables, as well as for making policy and managerial decisions. From the model, collective or managerial actions can be derived to increase particular wines' positions in international rankings. The proxy for \"quality\" in the study is not the only possible definition.\nPractical implications: In some cases, managerial choices could be conditioned by the policies or history. There is some room for collective action and public policies to improve regions' and countries' reputation.\nSocial implications: There are clear synergies for policies that can raise the prestige of countries and regions and their spillovers on the brand name reputation of individual wineries.\nOriginality/value: The results, policy and managerial implications are of interest for business, countries interested in improving their position in international rankings and for consumers to make more informed decisions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing a consumer relationship model of corporate social performance	[ "Trust", "Corporate social performance", "Corporate social responsibility", "Relationship marketing", "Shared values", "Behavioural loyalty (Retention", "Referral", "Ease of voice)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: With tightening reporting standards, increases in competition, and widely held mistrust of corporations, there is great pressure on businesses to be socially responsible. This pressure has resulted in an enhanced focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Expansive lists of CSR activities, reports, codes of conduct and anecdotal stories of best practices have been developed to help organizations plan their CSR efforts. Government regulations and globally recognized international standards (ISO 26000, for example) provide guidelines for formally reporting CSR activities with emphasis on measurable outcomes (Hamilton and Tschopp, 2012). Additionally, most large organizations routinely provide some corporate social performance (CSP) data. According to KPMG's Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting, 92 per cent of G250 firms report corporate responsibility data. The primary driver behind this high rate of reporting is current or anticipated regulation (KPMG, 2015).\nThe consumer relationship model of corporate social performance: Perceived corporate performance: functional and social dimensions\nMethod: Research design\nResults: To determine the quality of measures, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted. Based on the initial CFA, several items were removed due to low factor loadings. After the initial cleaning, each latent variable was measured by two to four items thereby satisfying the two indicator rule. All the parameter estimates but one had factor loadings (l) above the minimum of l > 0.707 and were significant at p < 0.001 with desired average variance extracted for the construct (AVE) above 0.5 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The only one loading below 0.707 was 0.705. All scales had Cronbach's alpha above desired 0.7 (0.797) and 0.8 (George and Mallery, 2003; Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). See Table I for summary of values associated with factor loadings, standard errors, Cronbach's alphas, average variance extracted, means and standard deviations for factors under investigation.\nDiscussion: The findings suggest that the proposed model does provide a strong explanation for the role of CSP and shared values in building organization-consumer relationships (at least for the product category studied). For academics, this model can serve as a basis for additional research incorporating CSP into the overall value proposition offered to customers. It also suggests that the influence of trust and shared values on customer-brand/organization relationships be explored to determine if their overall importance in customer relationship building changes with product category or level of involvement. Previous academic research seems to be focused on definition, scope and measurement of CSR, but provides little guidance for strategy, execution and market relevancy (Meehan et al., 2006). This model is a first step in developing comprehensive marketing theory for incorporating CSP into an overall marketing strategy to build long-term customer relationships. The model has potential to help firms form a deeper understanding of how consumers develop relationships with an organization or brand. It could also suggest new approaches for segmenting, targeting and positioning as well as provide additional insights into serving customers more effectively.\nLimitations: Although this paper offers numerous benefits to academia and practice, like every study, this particular study also comes with limitations. First, the study relied on a sample of students. Student samples are typically considered unfavorable because of their homogeneity and lack of representativeness. To mitigate this problem, the sample was collected from students from different universities and different majors ensuring relative heterogeneity. In addition, the study specifically targeted members of the Millennial Generation because of its size and influence on consumer markets. Using traditional college campus classes as a sampling frame helped ensure that the appropriate generational group was reached. Finally, subjects answered questions regarding a product category that is relevant and appropriate to them (ice cream brands sold through ice cream shops) which substantiates the use of this sample.\nNext steps and considerations for future research: Social performance research should shift to how organizations develop meaningful value propositions for their customers and stakeholders that achieve both social and profit objectives. This will encourage the development of mutually beneficial long-term relationships. This study's model is a solid start toward bringing CSP into the marketing framework of the brand/company. The next step is to test the model across other product categories, populations and involvement levels.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to address the complex nature of social performance (CSP/CSR) in building a trust-based consumer relationship. The relative and aggregate influence of corporate functional performance, corporate social performance (CSP) and shared values within a trust-based customer-brand relationship and their impact on behavioral loyalty in the forms of retention, referral and ease of voice are empirically tested.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Respondents were recruited to participate in a study on ice cream shop preferences. Structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously test the effects of independent variables on dependent variables.\nFindings: Shared values mediate the effect that CSP has on trust and all loyalty behaviors. Trust has a significant influence on one behavior:retention.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings may be specific by industry, product type or consumer involvement. Further tests should be performed with varying levels of each.\nPractical implications: Millennial consumers expect organizations/brands to engage in CSR activities, and, because of increased CSP reporting, are aware of an organization's CSR efforts. If the CSP does not reflect the customer's value system (shared values), the long-term relationship can be impacted negatively. Firms must strategically consider the values communicated by their CSR activities to build and care for long-term relationships with their target consumer.\nOriginality/value: This research is the first to integrate and test a comprehensive consumer relationship model of CSP.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Civil Service resiliency and coping	[ "Stress", "Civil Service", "Employee productivity", "Personal health" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: It is not what happens to you that matters, but how you take it (Selye, 1936, p. 32).Hans Selye's quote serves as a central theme for this article on occupational stress, resiliency and coping. Regardless of the work and/or life events, individuals' perspectives on the given situation will influence how they feel and react to the experience. According to one school of thought, differences in individual characteristics such as personality style are considered most important in predicting whether certain job conditions will result in stress (Kobasa, 1979; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). In other words, what is stressful for one person may not be a problem for someone else (Kobasa, 1979).\nCivil Service realities: Unique issues and challenges face Civil Service work environments. Over the last 10-12 years, Civil Service jurisdictions in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have seen various change initiatives flourish and flounder as Civil Service organizations respond to the need for change. Strong forces including debt and deficit pressures, increased global competition, budget-balancing requirements, telecommunications and computing technology, are some of the key factors driving changes related to service delivery (Auditor General of Canada, 2000; Bandera and Chin, 1998; Department of Public Service and Administration, 1997; Government of Alberta, 2000; Ontario Public Service Restructuring Secretariat, 1999). In general, some of these Civil Service organizational change initiatives are fuelled by internal and/or external pressures, which are forcing some Civil Service organizations to respond to corporate situations (i.e. improved service delivery) at an accelerated rate. Some of these pressures include fiscal pressures and expectations of clients/customers.Governments all over the globe have experienced fiscal challenges and have had to institute radical restructuring measures to put their fiscal houses in order. This means that some governments can no longer afford to do things the way they have always been done, and fiscal constraints have played a role in galvanizing Civil Service transformation. At the same time, many of the forces driving change have created pressures for governments to take on new, more strategic functions, even though their resources were already fully absorbed and thinly stretched. These pressures have driven governments to re-examine their roles (Bent et al., 1999; DeJong, 1995; Ford and Zussman, 1997).Many governments are refocusing on more strategic roles and shedding or shifting/delegating functions to regional or local levels of government, not only to reduce overlap, but also to achieve more responsive services by placing delivery closer to clients. These pressures are making life challenging for employees at all levels of government. Added to these pressures is the growing demand from Civil Service constituencies for reduced costs and improved quality and delivery of services (Lowe, 2002a; Nutt and Backoff, 1993; Sorensen and Sorensen, 1974).Although pressures for change may not be a phenomenon exclusive to managers in Civil Service organizations, this issue may be especially important for Civil Service employees given the multitude of unique demands and constraints already placed on public agencies (Rush et al., 1995). Limits in flexibility and autonomy, often vague and disputed goals, continually shifting performance expectations, media scrutiny, and political interference are just a few of the features common to Civil Service organizations which make coping with change a difficult endeavour (Nutt and Backoff, 1993; Rush et al., 1995; Sorensen and Sorensen, 1974). Based on these challenges, it is important for managers, executives and human resource management specialists to better understand the impact of workplace stress on employee health and productivity within Civil Service work settings.\nHuman stress response: In general, stress is defined as \"an adaptive response, moderated by individual differences, that is a consequence of any action, situation or event, that places special demands on a person\" (DeFrank and Ivancevich, 1998, p. 56). It refers to a reaction to a situation, not the situation itself. People have certain unique responses to the pressures (or \"stressors\") they experience either in their work or personal life. These stressors can be literally anything a person experiences which evokes some type of physical or emotional response. Although stress can be generated by positive as well as negative events, it is generally experienced by individuals as discomfort, tension or negative affect. In the human body, feelings like anger, frustration, and irritation are now proven to weaken individuals' immune systems and drain their vitality, leaving them more susceptible to colds, flu and more serious illnesses (Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, 1998; Cryer, 1996). Conversely, attitudes like appreciation, care and compassion significantly boost immune system strength and give individuals more resilience and strength to withstand sickness (Cohen and Wills, 1985; Cryer, 1996). With these positive feelings operating in their system, even if individuals do get sick, they recover more quickly (Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, 1998; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1999).The ability of employees to handle organizational stressors in a manner that is deemed proactive and healthy can be a constant challenge for some individuals. For those individuals who struggle in coping with workplace stress, the overall workplace impacts tend to manifest themselves in higher rates of absenteeism, job turnover, tardiness, job dissatisfaction and poor job performance (Williams, 2003; Wright et al., 2002). Turnover and absenteeism represent convenient forms of withdrawal from a highly stressed job. Results of studies from Baruch-Feldman et al. (2002) and Corrigan et al. (1994) have indicated a fairly consistent, if modest, relationship between stress and subsequent turnover and absenteeism. In addition to work-related stressful incidents, employees may be facing stressful personal life situations which also impact on their health and productivity in the workplace. For some individuals, how they perceive and respond to stressful situations may be attributed to personality characteristics that they possess.\nResiliency and coping conceptual framework: Figure 1 outlines a conceptual framework to aid in my discussion of stress, resiliency and coping. The framework specifies that the \"presenting profile\" of employees (i.e. work stress experienced and life stress experienced) are interrelated with their \"response profile\" to stressful situations (i.e. employees' resiliency characteristics and coping strategies). It is the interrelationship between employees' \"presenting profile\" and \"response profile\" which influences their \"health and productivity profile\" - their general health and productivity. The relationship between the physiological and psychosocial elements associated with the human stress response have huge implications for workplaces, where there is an increasing need for managers with highly developed people management skills to foster attitudes like appreciation, care, and compassion within their staff as a means of creating a healthy and productive work environment.Presenting profile\nPractical implications: From a practitioner's vantage point, this article assists Civil Service managers, executives and human resource management specialists in understanding the interrelationship between stress and the individual - how individuals perceive and respond to stressful situations. The following set of proposed strategies are intended for Civil Service managers, executives and human resource management specialists who are interested in examining and building resiliency within their organizations:* Research/assessment - Prior to launching into the design and delivery of workplace health strategies and interventions, managers, executives and human resource management specialists need to assess what types of stressors (workplace and/or personal life events) are contributing to employee health and productivity problems. Potential stressors may be lack of control over one's work, increased workloads, organizational change, and unclear work goals and expectations. Through the establishment of on-going research partnerships between one's organization and either academic institutions or health research firms, managers, executives and human resource management specialists have the opportunity to connect with organizational health researchers in conducting studies on various employee health and productivity issues in the workplace. Civil Service organizations would have an opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses within their departments/ministries in terms of health, productivity and well-being on a regular basis in order to guide future human resource strategies, health-related program/policy development.* Business case development and executive leadership - The development and implementation of a health and productivity management business case for one's Civil Service organization allows managers, executives and human resource management specialists to map out a framework for successfully implementing various key strategies and initiatives which relate to building a healthier and more productive workforce. In addition, endorsement and support by the organization's executive team is necessary to effectively design and implement strategic plans and strategies/interventions that support building a healthy and productive workplace. By establishing management/executive champions, this demonstrates leadership and recognition that employees' health, productivity and wellbeing are valued and an important component of providing quality services and programs to citizens.* Strategies and interventions - Once managers, executives and human resource management specialists have addressed some of the salient points mentioned above, they can work towards launching strategies and interventions which can build resiliency in the workplace, for example the implementation of \"resilient\"-based competencies into existing human resource management processes such as recruitment/selection, training and development. In addition to possessing academic/technical knowledge and skill sets, it appears that resiliency-based characteristics are just as important for employees to have in dealing with various aspects of their work and personal lives (Goleman, 1995; Mayer and Salovey, 1995). It appears that Civil Service employees need to possess competencies that allow them to cope with massive, rapid changes, design innovative policies and deliver programs and services for citizens. Key resiliency competencies may include self-awareness, conflict management, empathy, organizational awareness, communication, and initiative.\nConclusion: This general review provides Civil Service managers, executives and human resource management professionals with an understanding of the role that personality characteristics and coping strategies play in impacting employee health and productivity, particularly within a Civil Service work environment. Theories such as Lazarus's Transactional Model and Garmezy's notion of resiliency are just a few of the theories that examine the complex fields of stress, resiliency and coping. The Resiliency and Coping Conceptual Framework presented a model for investigating how various environmental, social and personal characteristics interrelate and influence employee health and productivity. Finally, the implications for practitioners served as a proactive step towards assisting Civil Service organizations in developing health and productivity strategies by recognizing the joint responsibility that employees and employers have in building resilient workforces.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to explore the interrelationship between workplace stress, coping and resiliency and their influence on employee health and productivity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This general review includes an examination of selected theoretical models within the areas of stress, coping and resiliency. In addition, a conceptual framework is presented which emphasizes the role that personality characteristics and coping strategies play in impacting employees' overall health and productivity within the workplace.\nFindings: - Through this general review, there is a recognition of the importance of both personality characteristics and coping strategies and their associated influence on employee health and productivity - specifically within Civil Service work settings.\nPractical implications: - Managers, executives and human resource management practitioners are presented with proposed strategies as a means of examining coping, resiliency and workplace stress within Civil Service work environments.\nOriginality/value: - This article offers readers further insights into understanding why some employees are more or less resilient, given the same stressful situation. In today's Civil Service work environment, continually shifting performance expectations and media/public scrutiny are just two of the features common to working for government agencies. Therefore, the issue of understanding and building resilient Civil Service workforces that are able to handle the multitude of unique demands and constraints placed on them seems not only intriguing, but necessary.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Changing facets of higher education in management: a students' perspective	[ "Students", "Management education", "Structural equation modelling", "Placements", "B-school", "Effective teaching–learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There are many ways in which students can learn. All of these methods are wholly or partially managed and facilitated by faculty members and thus bring out the best ways of teaching and learning (Tootoonchi et al., 2002; Villardi and Vergara, 2013). Teaching methods differ according to the skillsets of the faculty members. However, how much the student understands and applies in the real world depends upon the compatibility of the student's style of learning (Felder and Soloman, 2000; Pashler et al., 2008) with the faculty member's style of teaching (Tootoonchi et al., 2002).\n2. Determinants of effective teaching-learning (ETL): The existing literature on the determinants of ETL discusses many aspects, the most important ones being teaching style, learning style, accreditation, publication, the concept of \"students as customers,\" work-experience, e-learning, recruiters, student feedback and leadership styles. This paper explores the determinants of ETL only from the student perspective. \"Students\" have been specified as those currently enrolled in two-year, full-time postgraduate programs in management (MBA students).\n3. Data and research methodology: This study employs descriptive research design. Cross-sectional data have been collected. Sources of information are current students of business schools (MBA students). The following information is required for the study: a source of motivation for ETL, the importance of teaching in ETL, the role of assessment and grading in ETL, opinion about the environment in ETL and the importance of project work and industry exposure in ETL. The primary survey tool is applied for data collection through the electronic interview method.\n4. Empirical results: The results are reported in three steps.\n5. Discussion: As discussed in the previous section, H2 and H3 have not been confirmed in the empirical testing, in spite of the fact that the proposed model (Figure 1) is a suitable model (Table IV) and the entire constructs have strong reliability and validity (Table III). The literature also strongly supports both of the hypotheses. Therefore, it can be postulated that the insignificance is due to sampling and that it may turn out to be significant for a different and broader sample.\n6. Conclusion: This study provides a new perspective on the concept of ETL in MBA programs in business schools. The current paper shows PWPE, CE and ECA as determinants of ETL. SEM verifies the proposed model of achieving effectiveness in teaching-learning through the three identified determinants (namely by PWPE, CE and ECA).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of effective teaching-learning (ETL) from students' perspective in B-schools and build a model for the satisfaction of students of B-schools from teaching-learning processes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employs the descriptive research design, and the cross-sectional data are collected through a structured questionnaire. Out of 320, 302 accurately filled questionnaires were used for the empirical analysis. The data are collected from the masters of business management (MBA) students. An exploratory factor analysis is applied to appraise factors appropriate for ETL. A confirmatory factor analysis is used to establish reliability and validity of the identified factors. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to empirically test the proposed model for ETL.\nFindings: The major findings of the current study are as follows: this paper identifies extracurricular activities (ECA), conducive environment (CE) and project work and practical exposure (PWPE) as the determinants of ETL in MBA Programs. These determinants have been identified individually; however, collectively authors do not find any other study that discusses them. This paper explores a suitable and apt model of ETL through the identified determinants of ETL (ECA, CE and PWPE). This is also a contribution of the paper, which has not been observed by the authors, in the literature.\nResearch limitations/implications: The scope of the research can be enhanced to the all level of management students and colleges of all sorts can be taken.\nPractical implications: Findings of this paper are a long-term plan with a futuristic vision. Determinants affecting ETL will help the administrators and faculty members at the MBA programs to realign their focus for the future.\nOriginality/value: This study determines three determinants (from the students' points of view) for the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process in the management (MBA) programs. The determinants in this study are ECA, CE and PWPE. SEM is applied to test the model of ETL and to specify these three determinants (constructs). Decision makers for MBA programs can prudently use the model to bring about transformation in teaching-learning processes in business schools.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Poets House Showcase: selected titles 2011	[ "Poetry", "Special collections", "Collection development", "United States of America", "Collections management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The Showcase is Poets House's annual, all-inclusive exhibition of more than 2,000 poetry books, chapbooks, broadsides, and multimedia works published in the USA. Poets House, a nonprofit literary organization founded by Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz and arts administrator Elizabeth Kray as a space for poetry in New York City, introduced the Showcase as a combination collection-development approach to building our library and a celebration of poetry publishing. We invite publishers to participate by donating copies of their new poetry titles, and in this way we continually add to our library all of the latest books, building one of the most comprehensive collections of poetry available to the public.\nIndividual collections: Ali, Kazim (2009), Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities, Wesleyan University Press (HB $22.95, ISBN: 9780819569165)\nProse: Hoffman, Adina (2010), My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet's Life in the Palestinian Century, Yale University Press (PB $20.00, ISBN: 9780300164275)\nAnthologies: Banerjee, Neelanjana, Summi Kaipa, and Pireeni Sundaralingam (Eds) (2010), Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry, University of Arkansas Press (PB $24.95, ISBN: 9781557289315)\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Poets House, a poetry special collection in New York, hosts an annual exhibit of the preceding year's poetry publications in the USA. This paper aims to offer a selection of recommended titles that reflect the range of poetry titles including single-author works, anthologies, and prose about poetry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper researched and requested donations of 2010-2011 poetry titles from US poetry publishers to assemble and display a comprehensive collection of poetry publications, from which a selection of 50 titles was made. The selections should appeal to a range of poetry readers, from novices and students to poets looking to access the latest work from their peers.\nFindings: - Over 2,500 poetry titles were published and/or available to readers in the USA between June 2010 and June 2011. These titles range from mainstream publishers to independent presses to artists' collectives publishing works from established poets as well as emerging and international poets.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Without a budget for collection development, the exhibit and resulting titles represent those which publishers have opted to donate to the library. Every effort is made to be all-inclusive, with the understanding that publishers may send only a selection of their list. The selected titles herein are based on the titles received for the exhibition.\nPractical implications: - For 19 years Poets House's annual Showcase has been the main collection-development tool. Publishers donate copies of their titles, which are arranged by publisher for a month-long exhibition. This approach enriches the poetry special collection, a unique poetry library built on community participation. The all-inclusive collection-development approach results in a full representation of poetry publishing.\nOriginality/value: - A selection made from a comprehensive collection of the year's poetry titles offers a sample of poetry publishing from large to small presses and the self-published in the USA.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How and why medically-trained managers undertake postgraduate management training: A qualitative study from Victoria, Australia	[ "Clinical leadership", "Clinician manager", "Health administration", "Management training", "Medical administration", "Medical management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Hospitals are large complex organisations. Doctors are expected to be clinical leaders and are moving into senior management roles in hospitals (Edmonstone, 2009; Empey et al., 2002; Ham et al., 2010). However, specific management competencies are not usually taught in medical schools (Kim, 2012). Postgraduate medical training can be defined as medical training that occurs when a doctor has graduated from medical school (Wentz and Paulos, 2000). There is literature on how attaining leadership competencies can lead to improved clinical practice by doctors (Clark and Armit, 2010) but some of the outcomes of these competencies remain ill-defined (Dwyer, 2010). Management competencies are not part of the usual postgraduate medical education curriculum, and this gap becomes evident when doctors move into management roles. As such, opportunities for postgraduate management training are variable and limited (Ham, 2008). More than half of doctors say they need increased training in management (Medina-Walpole et al., 2004). In addition, despite increased efforts to provide additional management training to doctors (Mahmood and Chisnell, 1993), such training lacks coordination and relevance (Walker and Morgan, 1996). However, there is a gap in the evidence base relating to the motivations of doctors in management roles wanting to undertake further training in management. There is a need to understand how and why medically trained managers choose to undertake postgraduate management training.\nDesign: Qualitative methods\nAnalysis: The data analysis revealed three themes relating to how medically trained managers choose to do their postgraduate management training and two themes regarding why they do so. The first theme that emerged was that doctors move into management positions without first undertaking postgraduate management training. There was uniform support (100 per cent) across all cases for this theme. In every case, the doctor had moved into a management position prior to undertaking any postgraduate management training.\nDiscussion: This research has come up with five findings, synthesised from the data analysis and the literature review, as summarised in Table V. These findings will now be discussed in turn.\nImplications: This research has policy implications for postgraduate management providers. Postgraduate medical education is a complex system with multiple stakeholders (Dahlenburg, 2006; Paltridge, 2006), different providers (Healy et al., 2006) and complicated funding (Block et al., 2007). There are two policy implications out of this research for postgraduate management training providers - recruitment of students and effective postgraduate management training programme development. First, this research confirms existing literature findings that not all doctors in management roles have undertaken postgraduate management training (Vera and Hucke, 2009), and indirectly supports the literature that indicates the lack of coordination of postgraduate medical training (Dahlenburg, 2006; Paltridge, 2006) and postgraduate management training (Walker and Morgan, 1996). As such, postgraduate management training providers should consider policies to identify potential doctors who are either considering, or have just entered, a management career, so that appropriate training can be provided as early as possible.\nConclusion: In summary, this research investigated the relationship between medically trained managers and postgraduate management training. As more doctors transition from clinical practice into health management, it becomes important to examine how and why they undertake postgraduate management training. Such research may assist policy makers and postgraduate management training providers in the development of training programs tailored to the needs of doctors. This research has provided insights into the importance of understanding how and why doctors undertake postgraduate management training.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the research question using qualitative research methods: how and why medically trained managers choose to undertake postgraduate management training?\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research used two qualitative methods to gather data. Both methods used purposeful sampling to select interviewees with appropriate management expertise, qualifications and experience. The first stage utilised convergent interviews and was exploratory. The five interviewees were managers and academics. The second stage used case research methodology and was confirmatory. The fifteen interviewees were medically qualified chief executives and chief medical officers. In total, 20 in-depth interviews were carried. Rigorous content analysis of data collected showed emergent themes.\nFindings: The first theme that emerged was that doctors move into management positions without first undertaking training. The second theme was that doctors undertake such training in the form of a masters-level degree and/or a specialist fellowship. The third theme was that effective postgraduate management training for doctors requires a combination of theory and practice. The fourth theme was that clinical experience alone does not lead to required management competencies. The fifth theme was that doctors choose to undertake training to gain credibility.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research was exploratory and descriptive in nature and limited to analytical rather than statistical generalisation.\nOriginality/value: This research has provided insights into the importance of understanding how and why doctors undertake postgraduate management training, and may assist policy makers and training providers in the development of such training for doctors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Taking patients' voices into account within quality systems: a comparative study	[ "Quality systems", "Patients", "Hospital management", "United Kingdom", "Taiwan" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Quality has become one of the more pressing issues as diverse reform measures are adopted (Friedenberg, 1997). Walshe et al. (1991) argue that quality assurance in healthcare consists of two interconnected activities. One is \"quality measurement\", in which a variety of tools and techniques are used to measure the quality of healthcare, such as clinical audit, evidence-based practice, and evaluation with standards to support the quality management system. The other one is \"quality improvement\", in which information about the quality of healthcare and about the workings of the healthcare system is used to make changes to individual or organisational practices designed to improve the quality of healthcare. Quality must be viewed as a consumer determination (McLaughlin and Kaluzny, 1999; Mostafa, 2005). Quality is based on the consumer's actual experience with the service, measured against their requirements - stated or unstated, conscious or sensed, technically operational or entirely subjective (Stauss, 2002; Sajid and Baig, 2007; Zineldin, 2006).Over the past few years, hospitals have been expected to provide patient-focused care to meet patient needs (Mycek, 1996). This article argues that the heralding of patients' voices can be viewed as an outcome of their interaction with healthcare organisations and ought to be one of concerns of continuous quality improvement programs. Data-driven quality improvement and management can be investigated either proactively through focus groups (Kelson, 1996) or reactively through patient complaints to understand patients' views and thoughts (Allsop and Mulcahy, 1996; Cornwall and Newby, 2003; Walton, 2004). Patient complaints can be regarded as an important element of \"the patient voice\". In this study, in terms of quality systems, it compares and contrasts the two hospitals on the managerial, operational, and technical levels in line with the managerial-operational-technical (MOT) model. Secondly, mechanisms to take patients' voices into account will be examined, particularly patient complaints.\nMethods: In comparative research, researchers probe patterns of similarities and differences across cases or countries. The emphases of the comparative research on diversity and familiarity in each case make this approach especially well suited for the goals of exploring diversity and interpreting the unique culture of a bounded organisation (Ragin, 1994). Smaller-scale qualitative research tends to take a case study approach to local areas within two or more countries (Tester, 1999). Therefore, two hospitals (i.e. Hospital A in Britain and Hospital B in Taiwan) were purposefully chosen for comparison.By comparing a variety of quality management models including Donabedian (1980), Gronroos (1990), Ovretveit (1992), Develin and Hand (1993), Bell et al. (1994), and O'Brien et al. (1995) as well as organisational performance models including the McKinsey 7-S model (Waterman et al., 1980) and the Burke-Litwin model (Burke and Litwin, 1992), the Managerial-Operational-Technical model has been developed as a conceptual framework to explore and compare the quality systems between Hospital A in Britain and Hospital B in Taiwan. Its answers were drawn from various data sources (collected between April and September 1999) as follows.For the study, a semi-structured questionnaire was designed with a list of questions to investigate some issues related to the managerial level, the operational level, and the technical level of quality management systems in an acute care setting. This type of questionnaire \"is more free to probe beyond the answer in a manner which would appear prejudicial to the aims of standardisation and comparability\" (Phillips et al., 1994; May, 1997). A semi-structured questionnaire was sent to a key person, i.e. a senior manager responsible for co-coordinating the quality programs and activities of each hospital. The completed questionnaire was used to examine the managerial level, the operational level, and the technical level of quality management at each hospital. Also, semi-structured interviews were conducted with two quality managers/ coordinators to supplement the findings of the study.Relevant documents were then collected to supplement the understanding of the quality management system within each hospital. A documentary analysis of existing data is likely to remain by far the most common approach in carrying out international comparative studies (Hakim, 1987) and, therefore, it was chosen as one of research approaches of this study. An objective of the documentary analysis is to identify a number of dimensions of the subject at hand (Sharp and Howard, 1996). Also, administrative records can provide an important source of data for studies of organisational policy and decision-making processes. Despite international variations in record-keeping systems, it is still possible to carry out comparative studies on certain subjects or topics (Hakim, 1987). Therefore, in this study, documents were collected to examine quality improvement projects, minutes of meetings, training materials, reports, and the job description of quality managers at the chosen hospitals (Hall and Hall, 1996), in accordance with managerial, operational, and technical dimensions.\nFindings: Comparison between quality systems\nDiscussion: A number of strategies were developed by both Hospital A and Hospital B to take patients' voice into account within quality systems. In an attempt to improve quality standards of services, both hospitals used patient satisfaction surveys relating to specific services to understand patients' opinions about care in outpatient services, inpatient services, or emergency services. They also set up patient suggestion boxes and managed complaints data to understand what patients needed and wanted. Their aim was to provide more accessible, appropriate, comprehensive, and effective services in relation to patients' needs and wants in acute care settings.In contrast to Hospital B, Hospital A had established a range of methods for eliciting feedback from users of the service. These included both formal and informal meetings with voluntary organisations, and working with the Community Health Council, which receives complaints from the public. Another important source of feedback were complaints made by patients/relatives, either verbally or in writing. These were then processed and analysed by the quality development manager. The hospital conducted focus groups and interviews on specific services, for instance, palliative care and discharge planning, to gather qualitative data from individual patients and carers. Patients and carers were involved in providing feedback as part of quality improvement projects. Theoretically, the results of the feedback from its users could help inform improvements in the corporate and directorate clinical governance program.For its part, Hospital B established complaints hotlines to collect patients' and carers' opinions about healthcare services provided. A hospital-wide business processes management program was implemented to devise a more integrated care delivery system for patients (i.e. a patient-focused delivery of care) and to improve the appropriateness and effectiveness of patient services. However, the hospital did not evaluate the effectiveness of this program because senior managers thought it was unnecessary. In this regard, this difference might reflect the diverse organisational culture within hospitals.Overall, both hospitals took patients' voices into account within quality systems in various ways. Both conducted patient satisfaction surveys and complaints management. Patient satisfaction surveys were carried out by hospital organisations to understand how satisfied patients were with the services provided. The study also showed that both hospitals had managerial mechanisms in place to manage complaints. Hospital A established the Clinical Audit Department with five full-time managers. One of these quality managers was in charge of user feedback, which comprised organisation-wide patient complaints management. On the other hand, Hospital B did not have this sort of designated personnel and instead, social workers were responsible for complaints handling.\nConclusions: The main approach to quality management in the selected hospitals was to implement a total quality management model with a patient-focus. When implementing quality programs, both hospitals encountered barriers, including the resistance of doctors to change, the lack of time, and the power base of different professional groups. Importantly, the influence of culture has been observable in this study. For instance, concern was expressed about doctors' unwillingness to participate quality programs. The dimension of culture has extensive influences on the implementation of quality improvement activities in two hospitals, for example, using patient complaints to improve quality.The most important distinction between the two hospitals was that in Hospital A, complaints were managed by a quality manager, while in Hospital B the Social Work Department (SWD) was responsible for dealing with patient complaints. In practice, it is more effective for quality officers to take care of complaints management than social workers, in terms of using complaints to improve quality. Complaints need to be handled by people whose training and specialisation is on quality, in order to use complaints to improve quality in a more constructive way. Social workers are usually more concerned about the social problems of individual patients than systemic quality issues of services and the overall quality standards of the hospital compared with the quality officers.It is suggested that how patients' voices or patient complaints can be used to improve quality of care in an acute care setting could be a subject of the future study. The mechanism of using patient complaints to trigger quality improvement is a vital issue. The two hospitals chosen in this current study demonstrate different approaches of treating patient complaints. Different approaches might affect the effectiveness of using complaints to improve quality.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study aims to explore whether and how patient voices had been taken into account within quality management systems in Hospital A in Britain and Hospital B in Taiwan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The two hospitals were purposefully selected and the data were collected over six months, via documents, interviews, and a semi-structured questionnaire. A mixed method strategy within an overall qualitative framework (i.e. managerial-operational-technical) was used to make comparisons between them.\nFindings: - A number of strategies were developed by both Hospital A and Hospital B to take patients' voice into account within quality systems. In an attempt to improve quality standards of services, both hospitals used patient satisfaction surveys relating to specific services to understand patients' opinions about care in outpatient services, inpatient services, or emergency services. They also set up patient suggestion boxes and managed complaints data to understand what patients needed and wanted.\nOriginality/value: - There is very limited literature related to the comparison of quality systems. In particular, this study explores the mechanisms to take patients' voices into account within quality systems. The most important distinction between the two hospitals is that in Hospital A, complaints are managed by a quality manager, while in Hospital B the Social Work Department (SWD) is responsible for dealing with patient complaints. In practice, it is more effective for quality officers to take care of complaints management than social workers, in terms of using complaints to improve quality.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Survey research in finance: views from journal editors	[ "Surveys", "Finance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to Rea and Parker (1997), surveys have become a widely used research technique in many disciplines. However, the acceptance and credibility of survey-based research appear greater in some business disciplines than in others. For example, casual observation suggests that researchers in the management and marketing fields appear to embrace the use of surveys to a greater extent than those in finance. If this observation is correct, finance researchers using this technique follow a less-well trodden path than researchers in other areas of business.Although various approaches can be useful in gathering information and understanding research issues, Graham (2004, p. 40) makes the following observation about the survey method:Survey research is by no means the standard academic approach these days; in fact it's sometimes looked down on in academic circles as \"unscientific\". The common attitude is that managers and investors can do very different things than what they say they do - and even if they do what they say, their real reasons for doing things can be different from the ones they cite.In conducting empirical research into mergers and acquisitions, Bruner (2002, p. 50) notes, \"The task must be to look for patterns of confirmation across approaches and studies much like one sees an image in a mosaic of stones.\" What Bruner suggests in reference to mergers and acquisitions equally applies to other research issues in finance. Because each type of data collection has its strengths and weaknesses, the combination of survey and non-survey research can provide a potentially richer and more complete view of an issue than using a single data source. Survey and non-survey research are both important in their own way and can complement one another.According to Pinsonneault and Kraemer (1993), survey research has three distinct characteristics. First, the purpose of the survey is to produce quantitative descriptions of some aspects of the studied population. Second, the main approach used to collect data is to ask subjects structured and predefined questions. Third, researchers typically collect data about a fraction of the studied population in such a way as to be able to generalize the findings to the population. Thus, survey research is the most appropriate method if researchers need information that is unavailable elsewhere and want to generalize about a large population by studying a small portion of that population.As Weaver (1993) points out, survey research serves as a way of bridging the gap between financial theory and practice. Thus, he recommends that academics use practitioner surveys, that practitioners participate in such surveys, and that journal editors publish the results of these surveys. Following this recommendation offers several potential benefits. For example, the evidence from properly designed surveys could be useful in empirically validating conceptual hypotheses and the relative usefulness of various theories. In addition, the continuing dialogue between academics and practitioners could be helpful in designing research agendas, courses, and programs. In short, finance practice can contribute to finance theory and vice versa.Alternatively, Aggarwal (1993) acknowledges the value of assessing the state of practice in finance by surveying or asking practicing executives but he also argues that over-reliance on information received from financial practice has limitations. He presents five reasons why researchers interested in understanding the forces underlying financial practice should remain skeptical of information obtained through surveys. First, financial executives may be reluctant to divulge their reasons and other details about their strategies and actions. Second, financial executives may not be fully aware of all the reasons for their firm's strategies and actions. Third, researchers may be unable to gain access to a representative number of executives to obtain reliable and representative information on financial practices. Fourth, the changing nature of financial systems and techniques requires frequent updating of surveys to understand current practice. Finally, suitable interpretation of empirical evidence requires the application of an appropriate theoretical or conceptual framework.The major focus of this study is on gaining information, comments, and opinions from finance journal editors about various issues involving survey research. Using an email survey, we inquired as to whether these journals have an established policy for publishing survey research. In addition, we asked them about the role that survey research should play in finance, its strengths and weaknesses, and areas where the application of survey methods would be most beneficial. In addition to surveying finance editors, we reviewed 49 finance journals over the period 1985-2005 to identify and classify published survey research. The purpose of this inquiry was to determine whether research based on survey data is likely to be published and to identify the most common areas studied in such research. Overall, we analyzed both survey and non-survey data to draw conclusions about the status of survey-based research in finance.To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the use of survey research in finance by asking journal editors their opinions and by inspecting finance journals' record of publication. The paper should be especially relevant to those using, or contemplating using, survey research because it presents insights about how editors view this approach as well as data on the record of each journal in publishing survey-based articles. In addition, observations made by finance editors on finance issues that would benefit most from survey research may suggest avenues for future research.The remainder of the paper has the following organization. In the next section, we discuss our sample and research methods. In section 3, we present the findings of our survey of journal editors and our examination of finance journals. In the final section, we give a summary and conclusions.\nSample and research methods: To determine which journals to examine and which editors to contact, we started with a list of 72 finance journals identified by Cooley and Heck (2005). This list excluded journals in real estate, insurance, economics, and accounting because of the subjectivity involved in attempting to distinguish between finance and non-finance articles. Our aim was to focus on finance journals currently accepting manuscripts and publishing more than once a year. Therefore, we excluded a total of 23 journals: 15 journals that were book-type journals that typically publish annually, three defunct journals (Journal of Bank Research, Journal of Financial Engineering, and Financial Practice and Education), one journal ceasing publication (Journal of Business), and four journals with no current editor or editors in transition. We added the International Journal of Managerial Finance, which started publication in 2005.Our final sample consists of 50 journals. As Appendix 1 (Table AI) shows, only six of the journals were publishing finance articles before 1970; nine started publication in the 1980s, seven stated in the 1980s, 26 started in the 1990s, and two started in 2000 or later. We identified the editor of each journal by reviewing either the most recent issue of the journal or its website.One distinguishing characteristic of a core journal is its perceived quality. Compared with non-core journals, core journals typically have been publishing longer and have a greater citation-impact factor. Although the classification of a finance journal as core or non-core is debatable, some support exists for this dichotomy (Borokhovich et al., 1995; Chan et al., 2000; Zivney and Reichenstein, 1994). Therefore, we divided the 50 finance journals into two groups: 15 core journals and 35 non-core journals, based on the classification of Cooley and Heck (2005). As Appendix 1 (Table AI) shows, the inaugural year of the core journals ranges from 1945 to 1988 compared with 1962 to 2005 for the non-core journals. All core journals were founded in 1988 or earlier while 82.9 percent (29 of 35) of the non-core journals started publication after 1988.During November 2005, we sent surveys to the editors of 50 finance journals to gain their views about various issues involving survey research. As Appendix 2 (Figure A1) shows, the email questionnaire consisted of nine questions (hereafter referred to as Q#). Although most questions were closed-ended, we asked two open-ended questions. One open-ended question asked the editors to indicate what finance issues would benefit most from survey research (Q7). The other question allowed the editors to add comments about survey research (Q8). In presenting the results, we do not conduct tests to determine whether statistically significant differences exist between the responses of the core versus non-core journal editors because of small sample sizes. However, we provide summary data that permits comparing the responses of editors from core and non-core journals.Table I shows the response rate from editors of the core and non-core finance journals. Overall, 25 of 50 editors (50.0 percent) responded to the survey with a marginally greater proportion of editors responding from core journals (53.3 percent) than non-core journals (48.6 percent). Despite the high response rate by survey standards, potential non-response bias may still exist. Of the 15 editors of non-core journals that did not publish a single survey article, 13 (86.7 percent) did not respond. In contrast, only 5 of the 19 editors (26.3 percent) of non-core journals that published at least one survey did not respond. For the core journals, however, the response rate was the same (33.3 percent) for the three journals that published no survey articles as it was for the three journals that published the greatest number of survey articles. Thus, the sample responses may not be fully representative of the population for some questions. Overall, however, we believe that our findings are at least suggestive of the beliefs of finance journal editors in general.To gain a sense of the number and types of survey-based articles in finance, we reviewed all but one[1] of the 50 finance journals from 1985 or their inaugural year, whichever was later, through 2005. Only 17 of these 49 journals published over the full 1985-2005 period. Of these 17 journals, 13 were core journals. In a few instances, we could not gain access to the journals over the full period. Where electronic databases such as JSTOR were available, we conducted a keyword search of the title, abstract, and full-text (where possible) using terms such as \"survey,\" \"survey research,\" \"survey method\", and \"questionnaire\" to identify articles. We reviewed each article to determine whether it was a survey article. In addition, we used the journal websites to examine abstracts and/or articles on an issue-by-issue basis. When electronic copies were unavailable, we examined hard copies of the journals.We included only articles by researchers who collected data directly from the subjects under study. These researchers used methods such as mail-out, telephone, or in-person surveys to collect primary data. We excluded studies based on secondary research even though the data was initially gathered through surveys. These sources of secondary information included government agencies such as the Federal Reserve, Census Bureau, and Small Business Administration and other organizations such as Value Line, the American Association of Individual Investors, and the National Federation of Independent Businesses.After identifying the articles that used survey research methods, we classified them by subject area. Although the task of identifying the subject area of each article involved some subjectivity, we believe that the results are at least suggestive of the topics represented in survey-based finance research.\nEmpirical findings: The findings consist of two parts:1. the views of finance journal editors based on survey responses; and2. the results on the number of survey articles published in finance journals based on our empirical research.Views of finance journal editors\nSummary and conclusions: In finance, surveys provide a means of collecting information directly from executives and other decision makers. In this study, we survey editors of 50 finance journals about their views on various issues involving survey research. In addition, we identify the approximate number of survey-based articles published in 49 of these finance journals over 1985-2005 and classify these articles by general topic area.Responses received from 25 finance editors reveal that none of the journals has an established policy on the publication of survey-based research. Most responding editors report that survey-based manuscripts go through the same review process as other manuscripts. These editors appear to have mixed views about the primary role that survey research should play in the finance literature. Overall, they are about evenly split in their views on whether survey-based research should be considered equal to or play a complementary role to other types of original research.The responding editors recognize that survey research has both strengths and weaknesses. The most often-cited strengths are that surveys produce data unavailable from other sources and survey responses can suggest new avenues for future research. For example, the editors indicate that survey research could be a useful approach for examining issues about investment decisions and practices and behavioral finance among others. The most often-cited weaknesses are the difficulty of generalizing results from survey research and non-response bias. However, as already noted, researchers can in many cases mitigate these drawbacks by using proper sampling methods and testing for non-response bias.An examination revealed that the 50 finance journals published only 180 survey-based articles during the 21-year study period. Although these survey-based articles covered a variety of topics, the most common topic area was financial management. Based on historical averages, core journal editors seem somewhat more inclined to publish survey-based research than non-core journal editors.What implications can we draw from our analysis of survey and non-survey data? First, publication outlets are available for survey-based research in both core and non-core finance journals if such research meets the same standards as non-survey research. Some finance journals, however, publish survey-based articles rarely, if ever. The reason for the infrequent publication of survey papers may have more to with the quality of the research than to any bias against the survey method. In addition, the nature of some journals may make them less well-suited for survey-based articles.Second, survey research is sometimes the only technique for gathering information and thus can offer unique insights about certain research issues. The results of our survey of finance editors illustrate this point. Some information, such as the review process for survey-based manuscripts and the role that survey-based research should play in the finance literature, could not have been obtained in any other way.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to analyze both survey and non-survey data to draw conclusions about the status of survey-based research in finance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper surveys editors from 15 core and 35 non-core finance journals to learn their views about specific issues involving survey research and reviews 49 finance journals over the period 1985-2005 to identify and classify published survey research.\nFindings: - Editors indicate that survey-based manuscripts typically go through the same review process as other manuscripts. They view the chief strengths of surveys as producing data unavailable from other sources and suggesting new avenues for future research. The major weaknesses of surveys are the difficulty of generalizing the results and non-response bias. A review of 49 finance journals shows that 63.3 percent published at least one survey article during this period. The most common topic area for published surveys was financial management.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper contains the normal limitations associated with the survey method including potential non-response bias.\nPractical implications: - Survey-based research has a definite place in financial research if such research is done to the same standards as other types of research.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study to examine the use of survey research in finance by asking journal editors their opinions and by inspecting finance journals' record of publication.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Transformational change by a post-conventional leader	[ "Transformational change", "Adult development", "Action logics", "Leadership agility", "Post-conventional leadership", "Retrospective study" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Transformational change is particularly challenging to achieve in organizations, and the failure rate for change initiatives is high (Burnes, 2009; Greenwood and Hinings, 1993; Lee et al., 2012). Nevertheless, research in the field of adult development indicates that post-conventional leaders with more complex ways of meaning making are more successful in driving change, in particular transformational change (Fisher and Torbert, 1991; Joiner and Josephs, 2007; Kjellstrom and Stalne, 2017; McCauley et al., 2006; Rooke and Torbert, 1998; Torbert et al., 2004; Vincent et al., 2015). There is a need for more studies describing these types of cases. This study provides an empirical example of a cultural transformational change process. The data were collected retrospectively to see if and how post-conventional principles were used in a 10-year-long change process.\nAim: The aim of this paper is to examine people's experiences of a change process and if and how post-conventional leadership principles were expressed in this change process. The study covers a time span of 10 years when the leader in focus held the role of head of quality (2005-2010) and managing director (2010-2014). There are relatively few studies on how post-conventional principles are used in change work (McCauley et al., 2006), which made it interesting to understand how they were enacted.\nThe case: The organization in this study is an international biotech plant, located in a small town in Sweden. The plant has a long history as a manufacturer within the biotech industry. Over the years, they have been awarded various prizes, such as Energy and Climate Change Certificate (2010), Operational Excellence Award (2011) and Change Management Awards and Leader Profile of the Year (2013). The plant has conducted quality improvement work for many years and has focused on innovation and flow-based production, i.e., focusing on cross-functional teams instead of functional organization with separate departments. The strong focus on improvement and involvement of employees has been successful regarding employee satisfaction and productivity (Sandell et al., 2013). The plant has been affected by demanding market conditions for many years. In 2011, the managing director stated that productivity had to increase by 50 percent within five years due to market conditions. The plant had 219 employees (2015), 23 managers and 7 members of the Site Leader Team (in total 30 leaders). An innovation project called the Future Trip was launched, allowing 22 employees to work part time in innovation groups. The intention was to come up with novel solutions to organizational challenges. The change journey, further described in the study of Norrman-Brandt et al. (submitted), comprised three periods of different change situations starting with small adjustments and improvements within current structures (2005-2009), proceeding to an adaptation to larger production volumes in a new plant requiring new solutions and ways of working (2009-2011). The third period (2011-2014) was transformational, deeply affecting the culture and assumptions about ways of leading, organizing and prioritizing.\nMethod: The study used an exploratory qualitative design and qualitative methods through interviews with leaders and employees and observations from meetings with leaders from the organization. The study adopted an interactive research design involving the organization in the research process (Svensson et al., 2002).\nResults: Participants expressed ideas about two main themes (Figure 1). Explorative work methods theme refers to the new way of working that was not previously seen in the organization, and the leadership footprints theme refers to the style and actions of the leader within the organization.\nDiscussion: The aim of this paper was to examine if and how post-conventional leadership principles were expressed in a change process and how people experienced that leadership. The findings show changes in work methods, altered assumptions about power and mandates, and somewhat challenging hierarchies by giving a mandate to employees to come up with solutions on strategically important issues for the plant's future. The leader demonstrated post-conventional action logics in several ways: adopting a visionary and facilitative leadership style, bringing the right people together (Joiner and Josephs, 2007); looking five years ahead to create readiness for change; facilitating co-creation; challenging current power structures; and relying on principles rather than rules (Torbert et al., 2004). In the innovation project and workshops with all employees, there was a balance between the leader's own ideas and the views and perspectives of others when discussing strategic issues. A culture promoting teamwork was established including the design of arenas where others outside the management team could be the origin of causation (Torbert et al., 2004). The leader had the capacity to engage, empower and trust employees. This enabled the organization to rethink and reframe the organizational design. The managing director's willingness to openly admit her own anxiety and vulnerability by talking about emotional aspects of change encouraged others to be open about stress and anxiety. Employees and leaders seemed confident when stepping out of their own comfort zone, trying out new things. This means that the participants experienced and described a leadership adopting post-conventional action logics.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine people's experience of a change process and if and how post-conventional leadership principles are expressed in the change process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study used a retrospective exploratory qualitative design. In total, 19 semi-structured interviews and 4 workshops were conducted and analyzed in accordance with a thematic qualitative analysis.\nFindings: The post-conventional leadership appears to have facilitated an organizational transformation where explorative work methods aimed at innovation and improvement as well as holistic understanding was used. Dispersed power and mandate to employees, within set frames and with clear goals, created new ways of organizing and working. The leader showed personal consideration, acknowledged the importance of the emotionally demanding aspects of change and admitted the leader's own vulnerability. Balance between challenge and support created courage to take on new roles and responsibilities. Most employees thrived and grew with the possibilities given, but some felt lack of support and clear directions.\nPractical implications: Inspiration from this case on work methods and involvement of employees can be used on other change efforts.\nSocial implications: This study provides knowledge on leadership capabilities needed for facilitation of transformational change.\nOriginality/value: Few transformational change processes by post-conventional leaders are thoroughly described, and this study provides in-depth descriptions of post-conventional leadership in transformational change.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Balanced scorecard metrics and specific supply chain roles	[ "Performance", "Supply chain", "Balanced scorecard", "Food industry" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: An agri-food supply chain (ASC) is a network of individual companies that delivers agricultural products to end consumers (Christopher, 2005). However, within an ASC there is a greater tendency for companies to keep their own identity or autonomy than in other supply chain (SC) configurations (van der Vorst, 2006). The structure of an ASC can be complex and include many entities performing numerous interactions (Matopoulos et al., 2004). For example, intermediary companies have one-to-many relationships with retailers downstream and separate one-to-many relationships upstream. The relationships can dissolve and re-form frequently because, although they typically want the quality and delivery that comes from long-term relationships, retailers and processors also want the prices that come from trading (Jack et al., 2012). Therefore, ASCs provide an interesting environment in which to explore the use of performance metrics to manage relationships between SC partners. It is argued that the balanced scorecard (BSC) approach can provide a suitable basis for performance measurement in the SC context (Brewer and Speh, 2000).\n2. Literature review: The BSC was designed as a managerial tool to help individual companies that have overemphasized short-term financial performance (Brewer and Speh, 2000). This managerial tool enables the companies to develop a more comprehensive view of their operations and provides a clear prescription of that which companies should measure to evaluate the implications arising out of the strategic intent (Chavan, 2009).\n3. Methodology: A survey was undertaken to identify whether particular metrics used in BSCs can be related to specific SC roles. To develop a sufficient database, individual companies were asked to participate in this survey and 121 Brazilian agribusiness companies accepted. According to Gil (1996), to obtain significant and relevant data the sample must be composed by an adequate amount of elements. Silver (2000) goes even further stating that samples with at least 30 elements should be used to assure proper statistical testing that is designed to investigate any given characteristic.\n4. Results: Initially, descriptive statistics were used to identify the frequency distribution of individual companies from the sample among the four SC roles considered. The results are presented in Table I.\n5. Discussion: It is accepted in the literature (van Veen-Dirks and Wyn, 2002; Angerhofer and Angelides, 2006; Chavan, 2009) that SCs are increasingly customer driven, that is managers pay most attention to their immediate customers and the performance measures demanded by their customers. The results presented conform to this expectation. Customer satisfaction is the only indicator that presents a high percentage of usage in all SC roles. This result is particularly relevant because non-integrated SC participants do not address attention to the end customers of the SC (Fawcett and Magnan, 2002).\n6. Conclusions: The objective of this research note is to identify whether particular metrics used in BSCs are related to specific SC roles. A sample composed by 121 individual Brazilian agribusiness companies was analysed through the use of descriptive statistics.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The overarching question here is whether common balanced scorecards (BSCs) are possible between partners in supply networks. The purpose of this paper is to form four independent samples of Brazilian input suppliers, producers, distributors and retailers from the agri-food industry to identify how many of the metrics used in BSCs can be related to specific supply chain (SC) roles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of 121 agribusiness companies was undertaken. Usage of indicators was identified through percentages, while the groups of performance indicators for the SC roles considered were identified through two reference values.\nFindings: Customer satisfaction was the single metric present within the BSC framework for all SC roles. Different SC roles showed different compositions of indicators used.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research findings are descriptive and based on responses provided by senior managers. A new perspective of the use of specific performance metrics by different SC participants is seen.\nPractical implications: Performance measurement within SCs needs to consider the specific measures used by different roles within the SC. The data suggest that any implementation of performance measurement systems for supply networks should consider performance indicators that are common to the role-type and specific to the constituent companies.\nOriginality/value: The findings contribute to the debate on whether a common set of measures in a scorecard can be used between SC partners. The findings suggest that it may be very difficult to achieve a BSC framework that is common and practical for all SC participants and that other alternatives should be investigated.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How food regulators communicate with consumers about food safety	[ "Food safety", "Risk communication", "Consumers", "Food regulation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Food regulation is an important part of public health; specifically it reduces morbidity and mortality associated with consuming food that could be contaminated with microbial pathogens and other hazards (Antle, 1999). Food regulation is effective in protecting the health of the public because it works to manage and control food risks through the use of appropriate measures (FAO/WHO, 1997). However, there are challenges associated with food regulation, for example, food safety itself is difficult to measure, and the costs of the food regulatory system are borne by the food industry, consumers and governments (Antle, 1999). This paper identifies how food regulators communicate food risks to consumers, and how they believe consumers understand food regulation, and in particular the role of food regulators. Previous research suggests that food regulators view the public as underestimating the risks associated with food and as having limited understanding of scientific information about food safety (De Boer et al., 2005). This paper presents strategies used by food regulators to improve communication of food risks. Participants in this study identify the use of both reactive and proactive communication strategies. The success of these strategies depends upon consumer knowledge of food regulation, with consumers more likely to seek information if they are aware of the role of food regulatory agencies. For the purposes of this paper food regulation is defined as the system which develops, implements and enforces regulatory and non-regulatory measures designed to manage food safety risks. This occurs across a variety of settings and locations. In this context we refer to \"food regulators\" and \"food regulatory actors\" interchangeably as the individuals who work within this system.\nMethods: Study\nResults: In total, 42 food regulatory actors participated in an interview (26 from Australia, five from NZ and 11 from the UK). Of all, three main themes are presented here including: consumers and regulators have an important relationship, communicating with consumers about food safety (including proactive and reactive communication) and how regulators believe that consumers understand their role.\nDiscussion: This paper identifies strategies used by food regulators to communicate with consumers about food safety and food incidents. Regulators were found to use a reactive communication style, whereby regulators communicate with consumers about food safety primarily in times of crises, and/or a proactive communication style, whereby they communicate with consumers outside times of crisis, with the view to form relationships to facilitate easier reporting when reactive communication is necessary. The majority of regulators interviewed in this study thought that consumers do not have a good understanding of what food regulation involves. Some regulators said that there is only a limited need for consumers to know what regulators do, for example during a food incident, so that they listen to and act on the messages communicated by regulators. Other regulators said that there are benefits of consumers knowing what regulators do on a day-to-day basis. Benefits include consumers being more likely to take food safety seriously and having an understanding of the appropriate risk. Further, consumers can assist regulators to do their jobs. This knowledge appeared to be especially important for consumers with special dietary needs who may need to be more aware of food regulator messages, such as allergies.\nConclusion: This study presents regulators' views on how to communicate with consumers about food safety and consumer understandings of the roles of food regulators. It provides insight into how regulators can most effectively communicate food safety messages to consumers with the view of reducing food safety related morbidity and mortality. In future research, it is vital to interview consumers about their ideas, because previous research has identified differences in consumer and regulator perceptions (Cope et al., 2010). The optimal approach to consumer risk communication has been shown to vary by country, and therefore it is important to take cultural differences into account when communicating with consumers about food safety (van Dijk et al., 2008). In this study, we did not find any differences between the perceptions of regulators from Australia, NZ and the UK. This study tells us that regulators have well-developed ideas about how they communicate with consumers about food, and whether or not they think consumers understand their roles. This research adds to knowledge exploring regulatory actors' perceptions of what consumers think, which clearly influences their work. However, future research is needed to clearly identify whether the perceptions regulators' have about consumers presented in this paper match what consumers actually think and do.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report how food regulators communicate with consumers about food safety and how they believe consumers understand their role in relation to food safety. The implications of this on the role of food regulators are considered.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 42 food regulators from Australia, New Zealand and the UK participated in a semi-structured interview about their response to food incidents and issues of food regulation more generally. Data were analysed thematically.\nFindings: Food regulators have a key role in communicating information to consumers about food safety and food incidents. This is done in two main ways: proactive and reactive communication. The majority of regulators said that consumers do not have a good understanding of what food regulation involves and there were varied views on whether or not this is important.\nPractical implications: Both reactive and proactive communication with consumers are important, however there are clear benefits in food regulators communicating proactively with consumers, including a greater understanding of the regulators' role. Regulators should be supported to communicate proactively where possible.\nOriginality/value: There is a lack of information about how food regulators communicate with consumers about food safety and how food regulators perceive consumers to understand food regulation. It is this gap that forms the basis of this paper.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Impacts of Lean Six Sigma on improving a higher education system: a case study	[ "Quality improvement", "Lean Six Sigma", "Case study", "Process management", "Higher education institutions", "Education systems" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The ability for an organization to adapt quickly to changing market conditions while simultaneously delivering high levels of customer service at superior quality and low cost are no longer differentiators in the competitive marketplace. They have become minimum requirements to survive in a global business environment. Thomas L. Friedman (2007), author of the book The World is Flat, pioneered discussions regarding the challenges and opportunities related to the merging of world economies and the need for organizations to adapt; as a result of advances in information technology and logistics, the playing field is leveling.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Lean Six Sigma (LSS)\n3. Method: A case study is used to express the views and application of LSS in a university. We believe that the case study helps the readers to understand the LSS DMAIC methodology and its usage in HEIs. According to Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007), reflection and comparison with existing theory in real-time settings can help in bringing the objectivity to the research process. This approach encourages reflective, practitioner-based insights and inputs which could reveal both the challenges and outcomes of the investigation. According to Yin (2003), the case study method is used to lighten a particular situation by means of gaining an in-depth understanding of it. In a single-case study methodology, the case involves detailed and intensive analysis of one case - a single organization, a single location or a single event (Bryman and Bell, 2006). The extent to which generality can be claimed from a single case study is limited, but by documenting case experiences in the light of existing literature, each case adds to the sum of knowledge available for future practitioners and researchers (Sunder and Antony, 2015).\n4. Case study: 4.1 Background\n5. Implications and lessons learned: The case study presented here provides several implications to HEIs to embark on the quality excellence journey. First, the literature and the field networking helped to learn that LSS, a contemporary quality excellence practice provides structured problem-solving approach to HEIs, which is in fact a relatively unorganized services sector. Second, a framework or roadmap is required to embark on the LSS journey and the conceptual model proposed by Sunder and Antony (2018) was applied empirically in this study to validate the same. Another important implication from the case study is the real-time importance on the management commitment, readiness and LSS' strategy alignment with the HEIs priorities. In fact, this was observed as a critical success factor in our study. Further, LSS pilot presented here is merely a starting point of the future LSS deployment which the University management was committed to embark upon. Alongside the mentoring support provided by the faculty advisors who were assigned to the initiative, there were other teachers who participated in the project, triggering a stimulus for a cultural change. The pilot helped the team to win the conference to the University management to seek their sponsorship for the full-blown deployment as a next step. Future research should focus on studying the journey ahead for LSS in the HEIs. Finally, the case study presented here is merely a sample to understand the applicability of LSS deployment in HEIs to improve the education system. Hence strong generalizations are not advised from a single case and require further investigation.\n6. Conclusion: Although Lean has been a great quality excellence methodology for success in education system, the shortcomings of Lean are addressed effectively by LSS. Lean thinking and Six Sigma are considered as separate approaches available to process innovation, with complementary strengths. When combined as LSS, this approach provides a unified framework for systematically developing incremental innovations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the applicability and impact of Lean Six Sigma (LSS), a contemporary quality excellence methodology, for improving education system in a reputed University in Iran.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper follows a case study approach illustrating how theory has been put into practice, explaining how to implement the LSS define-measure-analyze-improve-control framework in a field-setting in a higher education institution (HEI), and to highlight the subsequent challenges occurred and lessons learned during the implementation.\nFindings: The key finding from the study is the confirmation of LSS applicability in education systems. The goals of the LSS team were to baseline student satisfaction levels and improve the overall rating by 10 percent; to decrease student advising wait times by 15 percent; and increase enrollment by 5 percent. The application of the LSS methodology has delivered promising results to improve the education system of the University by achieving the set goals. Further, the implementation of LSS has demonstrated student-facing benefits of improved quality on the education system.\nResearch limitations/implications: LSS implementation in HEIs is relatively a new topic for research. Hence, this case study adds to the body of knowledge with directions to progress future research in this area.\nPractical implications: The outputs of the case study have provided greater stimulus within the facilities for wider full-blown deployment of LSS as a strategic resource for problem solving. Additionally, this case study sets the foundation for many other future projects, and to trigger interest among the HEIs in their journeys for quality excellence.\nSocial implications: Higher education sector being a socially responsible field of service, LSS offers continuous improvement benefits, highlighted as part of this paper.\nOriginality/value: The applicability of LSS in HEIs is relatively an upcoming research area with immense potential and value. This paper would serve as a valuable means for both researchers and practitioners working in HEIs, in terms of understanding the systematic application of the LSS methodology, and implications in a real-world situation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Big talk, small talk: the perils of a networked world	[ "Networking", "Learning", "National cultures", "Self managed learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: First a joke from a Finn about their desire for silence and their lack of small talk:There is a story about two Finns traveling together along a track, going to a town market for the day. They progress in silence, but as they reach a point in the track one says to the other: \"This is where I lost my knife\". They carry on in silence, spend their day at the market and then head home. When they reach the same point in the track the first man says: \"You remember this is where I lost my knife\". His companion angrily retorts: \"I wish you wouldn't keep going on about your bloody knife\".\nNetworking: This trend is no more apparent than the mania for networking. Advice articles abound in Anglo-American magazines about the importance of networking. Most of these articles promote a superficial notion of connection to other human beings. Networking is seen as highly instrumental. You go to meetings and conferences to get business cards and to distribute your own. If a person is not of potential business use you are advised to move on quickly to find someone who is.Networking can be contrasted with dialogue. In the latter process you have a genuine interest in the other person and engage with them because they are a worthwhile person. You want to know about them and to share information about yourself in an open and honest way. There is evidence that lasting business success is about getting beyond the superficial. Organizational life is crucially about interactions with others. The nature of these interactions dictates organizational activity.\nSelf-managed learning experience: In learning groups in self-managed learning programs we start by asking people to do an activity called lifelines. Each person shares their life history from when they can remember (or from when they feel comfortable talking about) showing graphically the ups and downs of their career and life experiences. I have worked with people who have been close colleagues, who have been shocked to find out things in ten minutes that they had not learned in ten years of working in the same office as a person. I always ask at the end of the process if people have more or less respect for their colleagues by knowing more about them; 100 per cent of the time people say more respect. In some cases people say to a colleague: \"Now I know more about your past I can see why you behave as you do - and why I've never, until now, understood your behaviour\". Big talk is more likely to lead to better relationships.In one organization we had a presentation by learning groups at the end of a self-managed learning program. The groups demonstrated to the board and other senior managers present the value of the program to them and to the business. One group said that, as a result of the program, they had all become real friends and that they saw this as one of the merits of the process. At this the IT director piped up and complained that business was not about making friends, but getting on with the work. Sad.The current fad for work/life balance will not produce meaningful outcomes if this IT director is representative of business. Work is part of life and therefore work/life balance is a nonsense idea (it is really life/life balance) - unless you believe that you work in order to live. Work, for many, is a necessary evil in order to do enjoyable things outside work.Yet we know that humans are social animals. We need to be close to other humans. And not just in an instrumental networking way. I am hopeless at networking because when I meet people I do not know, I want to find out about them - their values and their beliefs. Ace networkers who, once they realize I am not into their games, quickly move on.Trust in others is now recognized as correlating with economic success. If we keep relationships at the small talk and networking level we cannot easily develop trust. Learning to trust others is possible - but we have to get into big talk to really develop it. Big talk is about fundamentals - values (what we care about) and beliefs (what we hold to be true). If we do not share these in dialogue with others, how can we develop real trust?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to show how interactions in organizations need to move beyond the superficial.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a think piece based on experience.\nFindings: - The paper finds that the need is to get beyond small talk into big talk.\nPractical implications: - The practical implications of the paper are that managers and developers need to consider the ways in which they develop trust in organiszations, and the need is for people to engage in dialogue around things that really matter.\nOriginality/value: - The critique of networking in this paper is new and original.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sustainable supply chain management in the oil and gas industry: A review of corporate sustainability reporting practices	[ "Sustainability reporting", "Oil and gas", "Sustainable supply chain management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The number of oil and gas (O\n2. Overview of sustainability reporting studies of O&G industry: The O\n3. Methodology: Company selection\n4. Results: This section presents the results of the content analysis conducted using the sustainability reports of 30 O\n5. Discussion: The main insights identified through the content analysis are as follows:\n6. Conclusion: Based on a systematic analysis of sustainability reports of companies in the O\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the sustainability reporting practices of oil and gas (O\nDesign/methodology/approach: A content analysis of sustainability report of 30 companies was conducted based on the Pacific Sustainability Index that contains 21 topics on social and environmental reporting. An analysis was also conducted on supply chain management (SCM) topics related to supplier management, product stewardship and logistics management.\nFindings: There is inconsistency in the sustainability reporting practices among the O\nPractical implications: The findings of this study can be used as a guideline to improve the sustainability reporting practices and to identify relevant supply chain indicators that can be incorporated in a sustainability reporting index.\nOriginality/value: There is a lack of research on sustainability reporting practices in the O\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Where gender equality remains a myth, minority representation of women in architecture	[ "Gender equality", "Architecture", "EU", "Diversity", "Minority representation", "Male-dominated" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nEquality objectives in the EU: Achieving equal opportunity for all was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the European Union (EU) in the mid-twentieth century. In its different guises since then, the constitution has issued various directives pertaining to the issue. Member nations are thus expected to comply with the principles outlined in them. Key to this arrangement is that countries are empowered to choose their own way of meeting equality objectives.\nWhy industry bodies and gender equality initiatives are failing: The existence of professional bodies in each country gives rise for optimism. These respective bodies tick the boxes where ensuring that members uphold standards and codes of conduct are concerned. Nonetheless, it would appear that they do not consider gender equality issues as part of their remit. So instead of driving change, token support for external initiatives is the best they can muster. Rather significantly, women in each country feel that the professional bodies are most effective in providing support for issues unrelated to gender.\nFemale architects: some negative experiences: Survey findings reveal various concerns of female architects. In Spain, this included:\nComment: The review is based on an article by Caven et al. (2016).\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: Achieving equal opportunity for all was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the European Union (EU) in the mid-twentieth century. In its different guises since then, the constitution has issued various directives pertaining to the issue. Member nations are thus expected to comply with the principles outlined in them. Key to this arrangement is that countries are empowered to choose their own way of meeting equality objectives. Where gender equality in the context of work is concerned, it appears that progress has been minimal at best. One might argue that paying lip service to EU Directives is as good as it gets in many cases. The number of professions which are still firmly male-dominated is ample testimony to such notions.\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" } ]
Understanding intention to continuously share information on weblogs	[ "Worldwide web", "Social theories", "Information transfer", "Expectation", "Communication technologies" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Weblogs (or blogs) are a new type of media that have recently become popular among differing groups and users on the World Wide Web. Millions of people use blogs in varying ways, including publishing information, transferring knowledge, and building relationships with other bloggers (users of blogs). Accenture (2004), a global management consulting firm, has said that blogs are interactive websites that allowed bloggers to publish ideas and information. Blogs are web pages that are dynamically created from a database, and can be customized from an end users perspective. This end user flexibility exponentially increases the potential to share ideas in a virtually cost-free environment. In addition, blogs were recently recognized as among the top ten tech trends to watch in 2005 by Fortune Magazine (Vogelstein et al., 2005). Mega-corporations such as IBM and Microsoft have recently begun to accept the value of blogging, and have encouraged their employees to actively embrace this medium. Several portals (i.e. Yahoo, MSN, etc.) have recently begun providing personalized weblog services in hopes to attract more members.Du and Wagner (2006) argued that weblog success mainly depends on the content value that a weblog has to provide to its users and/or readers. Posting volume would be a key determinant of content value. Moreover, businesses (portals, and blog service providers) hope that bloggers will not only provide useful information to the virtual community, but will also prove to be a potential for future profit. According to the Long Tail Theory (Anderson, 2006), continuous sharing of less-popular blogs may collectively attract more readers or make more profit than the popular blogs do. In other words, both continuous sharing of less-popular blogs and popular blogs are necessary. Therefore, continued usage decisions or user usage intent becomes an important issue. Currently, existing studies tend to focus only on the adoption of blogging technology. There is little research investigating individual motives behind continued usage. It is premature to recognize an IT adoption as a success until the continuing usage of the IT can be confirmed.Recently, researchers have attempted to develop and empirically test models to understand the reason why people want to share information/knowledge (Wasko and Faraj, 2005; Bock et al., 2005; Kankanhalli et al., 2005). Through social cognitive theory, user intentions to share information and knowledge can be determined by several factors such as user expectations, social factors (subjective norms), and belief. One goal of this research is to develop and empirically test a model to analyze what factors affect the users' intention of updating blogs. In addition, knowledge self-efficacy has been shown to significantly influence the degree of sharing information/knowledge (Kankanhalli et al., 2005), however, there is little literature discussing the determinants of knowledge self-efficacy. Thus, in order to enhance understanding of the intention to share information/knowledge, this research also attempts to examine the antecedents of knowledge self-efficacy.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents an overview of social cognitive theory and self-efficacy. Section 3 develops the model and proposes the constructs of interest in the study and the hypotheses, as well as discussing the research context and method. After this, section 5 discusses the results of the model testing using partial least squares. section 6 discusses both theoretical and practical implications from this study. Finally, Section 7 concludes the research, and identifies potential limitations and possible further research.\n2. Social cognitive theory and self-efficacy: Social cognitive theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1977, 1986) is a widely accepted and empirically validated model of individual behavior, and has been used as the bases of many different types of research models (Compeau and Higgins, 1995b, 1999; Huang and Liaw, 2005; Shih, 2006). According to SCT, three major factors (behavior, environmental situations, cognitive and other personal factors), are affected by each other. Bandura refers to this relationship as a model of triadic reciprocality. SCT incorporates two sets of expectations and advances them as the major cognitive force leading behavior:1. outcome expectations; and2. expectation related to self-efficacy.SCT advocates that both expectations basically determine user behavior. Individuals tend to undertake behaviors that they believe will result in a \"better\" outcome. Additionally, Bandura (1986, p. 391) defines self-efficacy as \"People's judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances. It is concerned not with the skills one has but with judgments of what one can do with whatever skills one possesses\". Perceived self-efficacy is a very important factor affecting motivation and behavior (Bandura, 1977, 1986).Bandura (1986) proposed that there are four key sources of self-efficacy, which include: performance accomplishments; vicarious experiences; verbal persuasion; and psychological states. First, performance accomplishment refers to personal judgment based on an individual's mastery experiences. Past successes raise efficacy assessments, while repeated failures lower overall efficacy assessments (Gist and Mitchell, 1992; Silver et al., 1995). Second, vicarious experience is obtained by seeing or visualizing others successfully performing activities. By learning from what they have observed, people can improve their own performance and generate expectations (Gist and Mitchell, 1992). Third, verbal persuasion refers to activities where people are talked into believing that they will deal with specific tasks successfully. For instance, coaching, counseling, and feedback on performance are general types of social persuasion. Finally, the individual's physiological state also influences self-efficacy appraisals with regard to a specific task. Emotional reactions, such as anxiety and the affect of high stress situations can result in positive or negative judgments of one's ability to complete the tasks (Bandura, 1986).Further, knowledge self-efficacy is the confidence in one's ability to provide valuable information/knowledge. Researchers have found that people with higher levels of expertise are more likely to provide useful advice on computer networks (Constant et al., 1996). Conversely, individual are less likely to contribute if they feel that they lack information/knowledge that is useful to others (Lee et al., 2006). Additionally, Kankanhalli et al. (2005) also found that knowledge self-efficacy significantly affects the degree of sharing information/knowledge. In summary, according to literature, both outcome expectations and knowledge self-efficacy basically determine user intention to share information/knowledge. Thus, we considered them as important factors in the research model.\n3. Conceptual model and research hypotheses: The research model tested in this study is shown in Figure 1. This model is based on social cognitive theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986) as well as related knowledge sharing and IT adoption literature. The proposed constructs and hypotheses are supported by past research in information systems literature.3.1 Perceived information creation ability\n4. Research method: 4.1 Subjects and data collection\n5. Discussion: The goal of the present study was to examine the role of SCT in intention of continuing to update blogs. The results revealed that knowledge self-efficacy and personal outcome expectations significantly and directly affected bloggers' intention to update blogs. Different from the findings of previous studies (Lucas and Spitler, 2000; Taylor and Todd, 1995), the results indicate that perceived subjective norms and feedback do not motivate bloggers to update their blogs directly. One of possible reasons may be that the direct effect of social persuasion (subjective norms and feedback) becomes insignificant after bloggers have used for a period of time (Venkatesh and Morris, 2000). According to the path diagram of Figure 2, the bivariate relations between social persuasion and intention may be come from the paths SP (Social Persuasion)-POE-Intention and SP-KSE-Intention. Hence, we infer that most bloggers who intend to share information on blogs were influenced indirectly by social persuasion.Knowledge self-efficacy was validated to be an important determinant to predict intentions of users, as mentioned in past research (Nahl, 1996, 1997; Vijayasarathy, 2004; Hasan, 2006). In this research, performance accomplishment, including perceived information creation ability and knowledge-sharing experience, significantly and directly affected knowledge self-efficacy. Our findings indicated that feedback does not dominate users' knowledge self-efficacy. Similar to Bandura (1986), performance accomplishments provide the most influential source of knowledge self-efficacy and explained about 43 percent of the variance in intention of continuing to update blogs.Personal outcome expectation is another important predictor of intention to update blogs. The results showed that personal outcome expectations had stronger effects on behavioral intention. People may continue to use blogs while they expect rewards or change in image. These results are consistent with findings reported in other studies (Compeau and Higgins, 1995a, b; Compeau et al., 1999; Shih, 2006). Additionally, feedback played a critical role in determining personal outcome expectations and explained about 15 percent of the variance in it. Conversely, knowledge self-efficacy did not have significant influence on personal outcome expectations.\n6. Implications: 6.1 Implications for academic researchers\n7. Conclusions, limitations and further research: The purpose of this study was to develop and empirically test a model to analyze what factors influence users' intention to update blogs. The proposed model enhances the understanding of continued blog usage. We verified the effect of knowledge self-efficacy, personal outcome expectations, and social persuasion on the behavior of blog users. The research found that knowledge self-efficacy and personal outcome expectations are important determinants of the intention to update blogs. In addition, while most past studies found that subjective norms and feedback affect behavioral intention to use directly, we found that those two factors influence the intention indirectly. Furthermore, we verified the determinants of knowledge self-efficacy.A number of possible limitations of this study should be considered. First, the model was not meant to include all possible factors affecting the continuous usage of blogs. Some intrinsic motivation, such as affect or anxiety, can be examined in future research. Second, the samples of this study are mostly personal users of blogs. It is not appropriate to infer similar findings for organizational use of blogs. For instance, the motivation of using organizational blogs may be different. More studies are needed to explore the differences in the future. Third, this study was cross-sectional, so we cannot measure user reactions over time. Our findings need additional research efforts to evaluate the validity of the model. Longitudinal evidence would help predict behavior over time and enhance our understanding of the causality and interrelationships between variables. Fourth, the investigation of continuing to use blogs is relatively new to IS researchers. The discussed findings and their implications were acquired from one single study that targeted a specific user group, the users of the WRETCH blog. Therefore, further research is needed to generalize our findings. Fifth, non-response bias may exist because most those who responded are active members. Inactive members are less likely to fill out questionnaires due to less frequency of use. Finally, knowledge-sharing experience was measured by a two-item scale, and required users to self-estimate and fill out questionnaires regarding their previous internet experience. Though the objectivity of the questionnaire may be questioned, the numerous methods of knowledge sharing in this situation create an impossible task of finding a truly objective methodology.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Weblogs, or blogs, have been a significant new development in recent years. Many businesses have begun using blogs to stimulate discussions, garner ideas, and provide further visibility. Thus, blog usage as well as individual motives behind continued usage is an important area of research. This research aims to examine behavioral motivations underlying individual intention to keep using blogs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on social cognitive theory and related technology adoption literature, this study considered knowledge self-efficacy, subjective norms, feedback, and personal outcome expectations as the determinants of continuing to share information on blogs. The proposed model was empirically evaluated using randomized survey data collected from 155 users of a popular web site in Taiwan (WRETCH blog).\nFindings: - The results revealed that although both self-efficacy and personal outcome expectations affected directly the intention of sharing information on blogs, personal outcome expectations had stronger impacts on behavioral intention. In addition, social persuasion has no direct but indirect impact via self-efficacy and personal outcome expectations on the intention of sharing information.\nPractical implications: - This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of the factors that promote the usage of weblogs. For web log service providers, the results help them better develop tools to enhance people's intention to share information.\nOriginality/value: - The paper verifies the effect of knowledge self-efficacy, personal outcome expectations, and social persuasion on the behavior of blog users. Furthermore, verifies the determinants of knowledge self-efficacy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Life-cycle information management using open-standard BIM	[ "BIM", "Information delivery", "COINS", "Life-cycle", "Object types", "Systems engineering" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the life-cycle of construction projects, there are many actors that are involved who need to share information. The management of this information in the life-cycle is often inefficient and error prone. Through the different phases, information gets lost, is misinterpreted, copied to other formats and structures, stored in different locations and comes with an implicit structure or no structure at all.\n2. Fragmented information: The construction industry is fragmented in three ways (Adriaanse, 2014). The first is the fragmentation in phases in the life-cycle of construction projects, generally recognized phases are: initiation, design, construction and the operation and maintenance phase. Typically there is a clear separation between the phases with formal information deliveries after each phase. As a result information and knowledge is lost in the delivery to the next phase.\n3. Life-cycle information management with BIM: There is extensive research available on life-cycle management of construction projects, but little attention has been paid to information management over the life-cycle (Xu et al., 2014). The fragmented nature of construction projects has led to the separated application of BIM in different stages of the project life-cycle. As a technique, BIM has been used by different participants in the different life-cycle phases. Many examples are available on the use of 4D techniques for visualization and construction analysis in different project stages (Scholtenhuis et al., 2016; Trebbe et al., 2015; Zanen et al., 2013). And examples are available of BIM applications in specific life-cycle phases including early project phases like pre-tender (Baldwin et al., 2009), project-brief (Khosrowshahi, 2015) or even the facility management and operation phase, for example in the study by Wetzel and Thabet (2015).\n4. The suggested BIM approach: The suggested BIM-based life-cycle approach that is current best practice in the Netherlands is based on a few basic principles. The first is collaboration with systems engineering between asset management and project management during the life-cycle of systems (assets). This is essential to prevent rework and significant cost and time overruns. Project requirements should be validated and approved by the asset managers before design, during the system design and system development and at completion. Therefore a continuous collaboration between asset managers and project managers is critical from the start of the project. This is one of the main principles of the systems engineering approach as explained in Section 4.2. Next, standardization is an important principle. This implies the use of (open-source) available exchange standards, data libraries and object type libraries (OTLs) to assure life-cycle actors use the same standardized identifications and specifications of assets and to assure information can be efficiently shared between life-cycle actors. The OTL is described in Section 4.2 and the information exchange format (COINS) used in this best practice in 4.3. The last principle is a formal information exchange process defining the required timing, frequency, content and format of information exchange. An Information Delivery Manual (IDM) is used in this approach as part of the contracts between actors. It is necessary to have a continuous building information exchange between the asset manager/owner and contractor during the realization phase so as to involve the asset manager from the development of the system to its completion.\n5. Research methodology: The authors were involved in the case project as a consultant to the client for creation of a pre-design of the infrastructure works, preparation of the tender documents and for the implementation of systems engineering and BIM in the project and the project team. As a consultant for systems engineering and BIM the current best practice known in the Netherlands, as described in the suggested approach was adopted in liaison with the client. The data presented in this paper comes from the involvement in the case study project in practice for a period of 18 months. The project was not intended to be used as a case study for a research purpose and therefore no specific research methodology or framework was used. The authors have no intention to draw conclusions on benefits in terms of failure cost reduction or efficiency. The case is described as an example of how the suggested approach using best practice available was applied in practice providing a state-of-the-art example from Dutch practice. The data on the information exchange that is now taking place between the client and the contractor was gathered via an interview of the contractor. The gathered data only shows the information exchange that is taking place in practice and no conclusions can be drawn on the success on the intended purpose of the approach to solve the current issues in life-cycle information management with BIM.\n6. CASE \"Traverse Dieren\" asset information using BIM: 6.1 Case project description\n7. Discussion and recommendations: Several specific benefits of the suggested approach for life-cycle information management are recognized. These are:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a way of working with open-standard building information modeling (BIM), object type libraries, systems engineering and an Information Delivery Manual for the management of information over the life-cycle of infrastructure assets. The concept is presented as a source of inspiration, proof of concept and to underpin the value of different parts of the concept leading to an integrated approach to life-cycle information management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper presents a concept for a way of working. A proof of concept is provided in the form of a case study in which this concept is operational. It shows that this way of working using open-standard BIM can be applied to manage information in the life-cycle. It does not provide, nor suggest to provide, empirical evidence for specific benefits in terms of efficiency.\nFindings: The paper shows that open-standard BIM can be applied for information management in the life-cycle of (construction) assets. The specific approach that is applied in practice in a Dutch Infrastructure Project is explained including a case project.\nResearch limitations/implications: The example of Traverse Dieren attests to a implementation of the approach in practice. From this case it can be concluded that the suggested approach is feasible in the initiation and design phase and applicable during realization. Based on the example as described in this paper it cannot be concluded to what extent the known information management problems in the life-cycle are solved. Therefore a detailed evaluation on the information exchange would be required which is beyond the scope of this paper.\nPractical implications: This paper shows how different (theoretical) concepts are successfully combined and implemented in practice to attain the defined BIM goals.\nOriginality/value: This paper shows a practical case implementation of open-standard BIM (using COINS). It provides a way of working that combines BIM, systems engineering, libraries and contractual arrangements for the management of information over the life-cycle of infrastructure assets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Student real-time visualization system in classroom using RFID based on UTAUT model	[ "Computer software", "Educational innovation", "Computer applications", "Interactive devices", "Teaching aids" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Teachers play a major role in enhancing the learning experience of the student. In this era of technological advancements, teacher-student relationship has been hugely facilitated by the usage of online teacher-student communication, student monitoring systems and student performance visualization tools. This technological dependency is helping the learning system to evolve rapidly. Effective teacher-student interaction plays an important role in promoting academic motivation and enhances student involvement in class (Roorda et al., 2011).\n2. Background: 2.1 Teacher-student interaction\n3. Research method: 3.1 Participants\n4. Results and discussion: In this study, the partial least squares approach was used to analyze the questionnaire data, because our sample size was small and the partial least squares approach is a well-suited approach for small samples, e.g. N=20. In this paper, SmartPLS 2.0 was used to assess the measurement and structural models (Ringle et al., 2005).\n5. Conclusion: To explore the in-class activities and performance of students, RFID-based real-time student visualization was proposed in this paper. The UTAUT model was applied to construct the research model, and partial least squares was used to assess the model. The results revealed that the SRTVS system was well-received among the teachers and the administration staff in determining the students' activities and performance in the classroom. The results further showed that the teacher category participants were more concerned about the PE and EE in determining their usage expectancy of the proposed system. However, both of the participant categories considered that support material, attractiveness and ease of use were equally important in determining their usability and satisfaction.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to monitor in-class activities and the performance of the students.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the proposed system using a questionnaire with 132 participants (teachers and non-teachers) in a presentation style to record the participant's perception about performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), facilitating conditions (FC), usability expectancy (UE) and user's satisfaction (S) based on unified theory of acceptance use of technology (UTAUT) model.\nFindings: The results show that PE, EE, FC had positive and significant influence on the UE of the proposed system. The effect of EE and FC on UE was seen to be more in female compared to male participants. The teacher category considered the PE and EE as important factors in determining their decision to use the proposed system.\nOriginality/value: A real-time student(s) visualization system based on the concept of real-time student locating system using radio frequency identification technology is proposed. Concepts can be categorized within the Internet of Things in the education domain.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Pied piper to the Y generation: What type of leadership meets the needs of a twenty-first century workforce?	[ "Leadership", "Baby boomers generation", "Creative thinking", "Innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nLeadership is the key to success: Good leadership is one of the keys to success in any organization, and some would argue that it is the master key. However, defining \"good\" leadership is a much more difficult task today than it was a quarter of a century ago. We used to know what leaders looked like. They were usually white men of mature years wearing conservative suits. Leaders who looked like this operated a top-down style of leadership and demanded respect from their subordinates due to their position and the authority accompanying their corporate rank. Leaders did not discuss company business with employees who were lower down on the organizational stepladder. Leaders led and followers followed without question. This type of traditional leadership continues to exist in some places; however organizations where traditional leadership still holds sway are likely to have employees who suffer from a lack of motivation and engagement. This is because traditional leadership no longer meets the needs of twenty-first century employees.\nChanging world of the Baby Boomers: Change began when the \"Baby Boomers\" started their careers. This generation was born in the mid twentieth century years from about 1945-1964. Baby Boomers' ideals were shaped by women's liberation, the Civil Rights movement, rock n roll music, hippie values and freer sexual mores brought about by the \"pill\". Baby Boomers wanted a better life-work balance and values mattered to them as much as secure employment. They began to adopt leadership styles reflecting these criteria. The next generation, known as generation X includes people born from the mid sixties to the early 1980s.\nFrom X to Y: Generation Xers grew up in a world where many of the Baby Boomers' values had been shattered. They were born between 1964 and about 1981. The cold war ended in their era but its end did not lead to a cessation of international hostilities. The world became a more dangerous place and young people became more independent and increasingly cynical. Money and financial security became more important them as society became increasingly materialistic and pleasure-orientated. Generation X promoted a more collaborative leadership style that decentralized power and gave a voice to employees at different organizational levels.Today's youngest employees belong to Generation Y. This generation is also known as the Millennium generation or the Net generation. They have been raised to be full of self-confidence. Generation Y employees embrace technology and are just as comfortable communicating with a friend in Japan on Facebook as they are sending video images via their mobile phones. This confident, technology-savvy attitude does not adapt well to traditional leadership styles. Generation Y are spontaneous, interactive and want to be heard and therefore value highly collaborative management styles that are non-hierarchical.\nThe value of transparency: The most effective leadership today is collaborative, non-hierarchical and transparent. Transparency is an important concept as it helps to build and maintain good relationships between management and employees, especially in times of uncertainty. An example might be a. firm that needed to institute a round of redundancies. In this situation traditional leaders might choose to keep employees in the dark about what was being planned. Transparent leaders share knowledge, help employees with future planning and thus create a reassuring environment even in difficult situations. Current research in the field of business sociology supports the value of transparent leadership, suggesting that transparent leadership helps to increase employees' feelings of safety as well as their job satisfaction. Transparency may foster loyalty to such an extent that employees will leave an existing job and follow their leader to a new position. This pattern of leaders taking their teams with them is becoming increasingly common in North America. Alternately, leaders who do not exhibit transparency often find their employees have little trust in their leadership or personal loyalty to them resulting in behaviors such as excessive absenteeism.\nInnovative leadership: Transparency isn't the only thing that makes a leader effective. Today many firms are seeking innovative leaders. Famously, a senior Japanese executive once commented that his well-known firm did not want \"potatoes\" (leaders with a lot of breadth but no depth) or \"carrots\" (leaders who have a lot of knowledge but only in a very narrow field), but wanted \"mushrooms\"! Mushrooms have depth and breadth and seem to sprout new stems (ideas) overnight.Bel (2010) suggests that several attributes are common to all innovative leaders. These include: excellent communication skills; the ability to motivate others and to create a motivating working environment; the ability to collaborate with others, and a real interest in involving, supporting, coaching and developing other members of the team. Innovative leaders are able to combine creativity with discipline. Creativity supports new ideas and new ways of working and discipline provides the structure and the determination to see that changes are realized. However, innovation can't depend on an individual leadership. To be effective, innovative leadership needs to be embedded in the culture of an organization.\nChanging our mental maps: New patterns of leadership may be difficult for leaders more comfortable with traditional leadership styles to assimilate. However, behavioral scientists would say that patterns of behavior are congruent with the mental map each of us carries around in our heads. Some of these patterns may have been set in childhood when Danny was always \"the high achiever\" or Sarah was always \"the brainy one\". However, with appropriate effort, mental maps can be changed and leaders from all generations can learn new ways of being a leader. One way of helping leaders to create new mental maps and change their styles of leadership is through the use of 360-degree evaluation. This is becoming quite common in business settings because it is such a powerful tool. Only senior managers conducted traditional appraisals. This provided a limited top-down view of an employee. The 360 degree appraisal solicits feedback on an employee's performance from peers, supervisors, clients and subordinates. This can be a wake-up call to a leader as it forces a reflective self-evaluation based on the perceptions of others.\nValuing diversity: A further characteristic of good leadership is an acceptance of the diversity of the modern workforce. People with different cultures, ethnic and religious backgrounds, social classes and educational achievements will all find themselves working together in today's multi-cultural world. Leaders need to value the diversity of their employees and to foster an atmosphere of mutual respect in the workplace. Bel (2010) calls these leaders \"whole\" leaders because they are skilled at meeting the diverse needs of a diverse workforce.\nConclusion: Leadership is part of our evolutionary heritage. Van Vugt et al. (2008) point out that human society has always organized itself into leaders and followers and this model of social interaction seems to be hard-wired into our brains. We feel comfortable being leaders or followers and need leaders to provide us with direction, support and a feeling of psychological safety. However, the modern leader leads by example not by force and has many complex issues with which to contend such as the need to understand a very diverse workforce discussed above. Vogelgesang and Lester (2009) warn that the leader of today should not spend too much time trying to be the \"perfect leader\". Instead they suggest that leaders should focus on developing transparency. Many of the traits of the good leader discussed in this review will arise naturally from developing transparency.\nComment: This review is based on the three articles in the reference list. They all provided information about what constitutes good leadership in today's uncertain and challenging business environment. Deegan's (2009) article was light reading appropriate for an in-service training course. The other two articles were more academic and explained some of the theory underpinning the science of leadership.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - Good leadership is one of the keys to success in any organization, and some would argue that it is the master key. However, defining \"good\" leadership is a much more difficult task today than it was a quarter of a century ago. We used to know what leaders looked like. They were usually white men of mature years wearing conservative suits. Leaders who looked like this operated a top-down style of leadership and demanded respect from their subordinates due to their position and the authority accompanying their corporate rank. Leaders did not discuss company business with employees who were lower down on the organizational stepladder. Leaders led and followers followed without question. This type of traditional leadership continues to exist in some places; however organizations where traditional leadership still holds sway are likely to have employees who suffer from a lack of motivation and engagement. This is because traditional leadership no longer meets the needs of twenty-first century employees\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations\nSocial implications: - This review discusses the pitfalls associated with traditional models of leadership and proposes more relevant models for the needs of twenty-first century 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" } ]
Innovation and metamorphosis towards strategic resilience	[ "Innovation", "Organizational metamorphosis", "Strategic resilience", "Problem formulation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Great strides have been made towards the understanding of the importance of resilience to organizational renewal and survival (Linnenluecke, 2015; Vogus and Sutcliffe, 2007). Many studies describe what a resilient organization is or what a resilient organization does in the face of crisis (Burnard and Bhamra, 2011; Gilly et al., 2014). By virtue of example, these descriptions implicitly outline what organizations should do in order to be resilient (Mamouni Limnios et al., 2014; Carmeli and Markman, 2011). Lacking in the literature, however, is theorizing about how organizations become resilient, and how resilience can be built and nurtured (Sutcliffe and Vogus, 2003). The reason for this is that boundary conditions are underdeveloped that could help define contingent models suited to specific circumstances (Busse et al., 2017).\nCore assumptions: Within management strategy, the assumption that competitive advantage can be sustained (Barney, 1991), and that it is the environment that dictates reaction and adaptation by firms (Burnard and Bhamra, 2011; Bhamra et al., 2011) persists. In this view, organizations are in a state of constant duress because they are unable to accurately predict the ebb-and-flow of their external environments. Within the mainstream management strategy literature, it is also largely assumed that survival is the desired outcome (Greenwood and Suddaby, 2006) and that it is synonymous with resilience (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010; Sutcliffe and Vogus, 2003). This paper suggests two counterarguments to these assumptions that serve as starting premises for the conceptualization of strategic resilience.\nConceptual background: In light of the increasing turbulence in the natural environment, complexity in technology, and uncertainty in financial systems, it is no wonder that the topic of resilience is increasingly prevalent (van der Vegt et al., 2015). Echoing the concept of biological resilience, organizational resilience is often referred to as the ability to return to a stable state after a disturbance (Bhamra et al., 2011; Burnard and Bhamra, 2011), the capacity to endure and bounce back from a setback (Carmeli and Markman, 2011; Sutcliffe and Vogus, 2003), or the \"differential ability\" to \"react and respond to uncertain, volatile and rapid change\" (Gilly et al., 2014, p. 596). Although resilience has been conceptualized in a variety of ways within the management research literature (Linnenluecke, 2015), it is nevertheless primarily defined as a response to some disruption, and the organizational behavior after the disruption has subsided. The majority of the resilience literature thus would seem to address crisis scenarios (Fowler et al., 2007; Spillan and Hough, 2003) that involve swift response and a speedy return to normality.\nA model of strategic resilience: Having established the definition and boundary conditions with which strategic resilience pertains, the question that follows is: how might organizations achieve strategic resilience (RQ2)? Given the importance of continuous innovation in this paper's conceptualization of strategic resilience, constructs within the management strategy literatures that relate to gaining competitive advantage are useful. In what follows it is proposed that strategic resilience depends on a deliberate process of problem formulation, the future orientation of the top management team, and the company's organizational legacy. Each of these concepts is defined, propositions regarding their relationship to one another are developed, and their role in strategic resilience is discussed.\nLimitations and suggestions for future research: It has been shown that the insistence on seeking perpetual stability and sustained competitive advantage (Barney, 1991) is incongruent with reality (McGrath, 2013a). The age-old adage that \"change is the only constant\" (Crossan et al., 2005, p. 135) is therefore precisely on point. By asserting that the environment is complex, turbulent, and uncertain, and that survival is but a cursory outcome, this paper opens up new possibilities for the study of strategic resilience that is useful in the current reality whereby competitiveness is transient (McGrath, 2013b). The conceptual nature of this work can be seen as both a strength and limitation of the study. On the one hand, the conceptual inquiry of the concept offers clarity on a complex phenomenon, but on the other hand, empirical evidence is needed to provide a more thorough test of the concepts and their relations. Future research should focus on the factors or variables that promote strategic resilience. Although the propositions posited in this paper provide a first step in that endeavor, this study offers a limited investigation of potential factors. Further research is needed to investigate them empirically, and to suggest others that could be relevant to strategic resilience.\nManagerial implications: To start, it should be noted that although the focus of this study is not on resilience in the context of crisis management, the importance of having an organizational contingency and action plan for a variety of potential crises is certainly important. The context that pertains to strategic resilience as outlined in this paper, suggests that organizations should not take the environment as given and respond reactively but instead proactively reinvent themselves. In other words, even organizations that are very successful today need to change.\nConclusion: The importance of resilience to organizational renewal and survival is indisputable, but although we know what resilience looks like when we see it, we know little about how to develop and nurture it. This study contributes to this understanding by outlining boundary conditions and laying bare the core assumptions upon which the conceptualization of strategic resilience rests. In addition, by conceptualizing strategic resilience as something that can be developed and nurtured, this paper suggests factors that can promote it. Doing so gives the construct practical relevance in a context of turbulence, complexity, and uncertainty where innovation and effective change are what makes it possible for organizations to thrive and persist.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine what it means to be resilient in the context of environmental turbulence, complexity, and uncertainty, and to suggest how organizations might develop strategic resilience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Sampling from the theoretical and empirical contributions to the understanding of resilience within the management and organizational literatures, this conceptual paper presents a model of strategic resilience and theoretical propositions are developed that suggest directions for future research.\nFindings: It is proposed that strategic resilience is an emergent and dynamic characteristic of organizations whereby organizational legacy is a defining antecedent, top management team future orientation is a fundamental belief system, and problem formulation is a key deliberate process.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the conceptual inquiry of strategic resilience offers clarity on a complex phenomenon, empirical evidence is needed to provide a test of the concepts and their relations.\nPractical implications: By asserting that the environment is turbulent, complex, and uncertain, this paper opens up new possibilities for the understanding and study of strategic resilience, whereby metamorphosis and innovation are requisites, and entrepreneurship is part and parcel of strategy. As such it highlights the importance of managerial beliefs and behaviors that facilitate proactively and deliberately challenging of the status quo.\nOriginality/value: The proposed conceptualization of strategic resilience in this paper connotes action rather than just reaction, and in so doing highlights the importance of the synergy between strategic management and entrepreneurship. As such, it proposes factors that may help organizations persist and create value within a context and future that they themselves also shape.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effects of intelligible irrelevant background speech in offices - cognitive disturbance, annoyance, and solutions	[ "Well-being", "Background speech", "Cognitive performance", "Noise abatement", "Open-plan offices", "Speech intelligibility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Telephones left ringing and people talking to each other or on the phone have repeatedly been shown to be the most disturbing noise sources in offices (Ayr et al., 2003; Banbury and Berry, 2005; Haapakangas et al., 2008; Sundstrom et al., 1994). These disturbances result in annoyance and costs, in particular, because of performance effects, as it has been shown that background speech impairs cognitive performance (Banbury and Berry, 1998; Hellbruck and Liebl, 2008; Schlittmeier et al., 2008; Liebl et al., 2012; Jahncke et al., 2013). Additionally, office noise correlates with an increase in doctor's notes (Fried et al., 2002) and reduced job satisfaction (Klitzman and Stellman, 1989; Leather et al., 2003) and affects physical and mental well-being (Knez and Hygge, 2002). This knowledge has led to a revision of the acoustic parameters, which are used to quantify the acoustic quality of open-plan offices (ISO 3382-3:2012-2105, 2012). The intelligibility of the speech produced by colleagues at distant workstations in an open-plan office is now considered to cause \"negative acoustics\", with countermeasures targeted on reducing speech intelligibility.\n2. Talking colleagues are perceived as being disturbing: As confirmed by a recent survey among employees in a large company (Liebl et al., 2011, 2011b), the acoustic conditions at their workstations are very important for office employees. Among other questions in the survey, employees were asked to individually rank different aspects of the work environment according to the perceived importance and the necessary need for action. A total of 659 employees participated in this survey and ranked acoustics of primary importance (Figure 1). This result was surprising, as the office workplaces in this company are high-quality designs, achieving the relevant standards with regard to acoustics.\n3. How can the negative effects of background speech be eliminated - or at least be reduced?: The sum of the time periods when ambient speech is heard at a workstation can be reduced by spatial-organizational measures - the extreme of which is by seating each employee in a well-insulated individual office, while keeping the doors shut. In open-plan offices, temporary \"zoning\" can be achieved for employees, i.e. to enable individuals to select \"think tanks\" or \"silent rooms\" for silent, concentrated work or to use communication rooms (\"telephone cabins\", meeting and conference rooms). Social conventions can also help to limit the amount of background speech, like defined silent times and phone times. All of these measures are associated with a high initial effort, require investments and are to be regularly evaluated with regard to appropriateness, as basic conditions can change. Furthermore, office workers have to be continuously disciplined (e.g. to have longer-lasting conversations on the phone in \"telephone cabins\" only). Last but not the least, it is important to note that neither spatial-organizational measures entirely eliminate ambient speech in open-plan offices nor the remaining speech becomes less detrimental by such measures.\n4. Evaluating the relationship between speech intelligibility, cognitive performance and subjective ratings: The intelligibility of background speech significantly determines its disturbance potential. Speech intelligibility can be measured by means of hearing tests. In this case, a trained speaker speaks individual syllables, words or sentences, and the test participants are instructed to repeat them or write them down. The proportion of correctly recognized material in relation to the overall presented material then indicates the speech intelligibility; however, this is a very time- and cost-intensive procedure. Accordingly, speech intelligibility is preferably estimated on the basis of the physical parameter of the transmission path from the speaker to the hearer, e.g. by means of the so-called speech transmission index (STI) (Steeneken and Houtgast, 1980)[3]. This measurement of speech intelligibility can vary between 0 and 1, where 0 is \"absolutely unintelligible\" and 1 is \"perfectly intelligible\". Based on a review of empirical studies of background speech on cognitive performance, Hongisto (2005) developed a model for the prediction of the disturbance impact of background speech as a function of the STI. It is assumed that with increasing STI - and thus, increasing intelligibility of the background speech - the disturbance impact increases (Figure 5).\n5. Conclusions: the acoustic optimization of open-plan offices requires a combination of different measures: Irrelevant background speech from distant workstations is the dominant noise problem for employees in open-plan offices. It is subjectively perceived as disturbing (Liebl et al., 2011, 2011b; Ayr et al., 2003; Banbury and Berry, 2005; Haapakangas et al., 2008; Sundstrom et al., 1994) and demonstrably reduces cognitive performance (Banbury and Berry, 1998; Haka et al., 2009; Hellbruck and Liebl, 2008; Jahncke et al., 2013; Liebl et al., 2012; Schlittmeier et al., 2008; Schlittmeier and Hellbruck, 2009;). As silence cannot be realistically achieved in open-plan offices, the challenge is to create acoustic conditions, which impair both performance and subjective well-being to the lowest possible extent. However, a challenge for acoustic optimization is that the effects of acoustic treatments on performance and subjective evaluations can differ critically (Schlittmeier et al., 2008; Schlittmeier and Hellbruck, 2009; cf. also Haka et al., 2009). With regard to cognitive performance (\"being disturbed\"), extant studies verify that reducing the adverse effects of background speech necessitates the minimization of its intelligibility (Haka et al., 2009; Jahncke et al., 2013; Schlittmeier et al., 2008; Venetjoki et al., 2006). On the contrary, an exclusive reduction of its overall level does not suffice (Schlittmeier et al., 2008). Subjectively perceived disturbance (\"feeling disturbed\") and annoyance (\"feeling annoyed\") are also reduced if background speech intelligibility is diminished (Haka et al., 2009; Haapakangas et al., 2011; Schlittmeier et al., 2008; Venetjoki et al., 2006), although subjective evaluations are known to depend heavily on the overall level of the acoustic background (Schlittmeier et al., 2008). With this, both background speech intelligibility and overall noise levels are the key determinants for a successful acoustic optimization which disregards neither cognitive performance nor subjective well-being.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to give an overview on four empirical studies which explored the impact of background speech on cognitive performance and subjectively perceived disturbance. Background speech is the most serious noise problem in shared-room and open-plan offices for employees who are supposed to do silent, concentrated work. Different measures of acoustic office optimization, as well as the outstanding role of the intelligibility of background speech for its disturbance impact, are empirically evaluated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The article provides a synopsis describing the core empirical results of four of our empirical studies. A survey study among office employees (n = 659) explored the subjective importance of office acoustics. Three experimental studies (n1 = 20; n2 = 30; n3 = 24) evaluated the effects of reduced background speech level, play-back of partial maskers and reduced speech intelligibility on cognitive performance and subjective ratings.\nFindings: Background speech is subjectively perceived as a severe problem, and the different noise abatement measures affect objective performance and subjective ratings differently. Speech intelligibility is - besides level - a key determinant for the acoustic optimization regarding these two dimensions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Practitioners are encouraged to apply the findings and described measures when planning and/or evaluating open-plan offices.\nPractical implications: It is concluded that different acoustically efficient measures need to be combined to minimize the negative effects of background speech on cognitive performance and subjectively perceived disturbance. The aspired set value for open-office concepts is the lowest possible sound level with a bad intelligibility of the background speech at the same time.\nOriginality/value: The synopsis of several empirical studies allows deriving comprehensive and well-founded information for practitioners involved in the evaluation and/or design of offices environments.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sustainable business models: a literature review	[ "Sustainable business models", "Practices of sustainable models", "Systematic review of the literature" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: World population growth accelerated economic development, requiring a greater demand for the resources needed for economic and industrial activities, and generating environmental impacts (Bocken et al., 2014). This demand has also increased corporate pressures for sustainability. Companies adopting this business practice have faced major challenges in the way they do business, having to rethink their strategic activities, adopting incremental responsibility and sustainability (Kolk, 2016). Of course, with increasing concern about sustainability issues, companies need to demonstrate their rational positioning on sustainability (Tseng et al., 2015), which includes, in addition to traditional economic objectives, environmental, social and economic objectives (Gimenez et al., 2012).\n2. Sustainable business models: The traditional concept of the business model is generally described as a tool for companies or organizations to create and add value to their products and services, before delivering them to their customers (Zott et al., 2011).Business models articulate value propositions, by identifying a market, by recognizing the value chain, by positioning the firm, by combining assets to produce supply, and by detailing revenue mechanisms and cost structures (Chesbrough, 2010).\n3. Research methodology: In the SLR process, data collection can be done in different ways by researchers: employing the expertise of experts to identify relevant studies; using the knowledge of the existing literature to select the studies; and searching for key terms in different databases (Crossan and Apaydin, 2010). We systematically identify scientific articles from databases such as Scopus, Web of Science and Science Direct, and the justification for this selection is briefly given below.\n4. Analysis discussion: The literature review of the selected studies is presented in the following subsections.\n5. Final remarks: The present research analyzed sustainable business models and practices for their operationalization through a systematic review of the literature. The study's contributions provide a more detailed understanding of sustainable business models and what practices can be adopted by companies to make the business truly sustainable. It should be emphasized that the purpose of the research is not to exhaust the understanding of the subject but rather to add a small contribution to the theory about sustainable business models, identifying possibilities, instruments and practices that contribute to better business management. Above all, it offers evidence on the profiles of sustainable business models, their specificities and nuances. These models encourage the sufficiency, reuse and development of scaled-up solutions. This promotes business models that aim for better environmental performance, even without explicitly mentioning the term \"circular economy.\" These models also focus on eco-efficient solutions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The demand for resources for development also increased corporate pressures for sustainability. Consequently, it is necessary for organizations to adopt measures addressing the need to implement a new business model, which allows a management team concerned about the economy and the optimization of resources to make sustainable business models a strategic interest of the organization. The purpose of this paper is to analyze sustainable business models and the applied practices to operationalize them.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study was conducted through a systematic review of the literature to identify the sustainable business models addressed in the literature, and what practices are applied to operationalize these models.\nFindings: The data show that sustainable business models have an approach centered on the direct participation of stakeholders, especially the user, in the process of creating sustainable value. Overall, they offer a high level of technology-based business models that prioritize the use of clean energy, material maximization and energy efficiency, with an emphasis on repair and maintenance rather than on disposal and scheduled obsolescence, as well as an emphasis on natural and renewable processes, the reuse of waste, environmental stewardship, product transformation into technological artefacts for users, and products for services and results.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study's contributions provide a more detailed understanding of sustainable business models and what practices can be adopted by companies to make the business truly sustainable. This paper contributed to the discussion of the research on sustainable business models and their operational practices.\nOriginality/value: The analysis promotes insights into new opportunities for companies to integrate their traditional business models with sustainability, contributing to the application of sustainable practices within the managerial scope. Companies that operate sustainable business models need to be aware that collaborative, sharing and networking models can deliver positive results for sustainable business models.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A quality function deployment strategy for improving mobile-government service quality in the Gulf cooperation council countries	[ "Service quality", "Quality function deployment", "House of quality", "Business process management", "Mobile government" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent rapid developments in information and communications technology have led governments to adopt various initiatives to improve the quality of the services they deliver to enhance the relationship between the citizens and governments and to meet the citizens' expectations (Al-Hubaishi et al., 2017). One of these initiatives is mobile-government (m-government). M-government is the ability of governments to deliver services through the mobile devices (Abaza and Saif, 2015; Abdelghaffar and Magdy, 2012; Al-Hubaishi et al., 2017). The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain) are among those countries to have already adopted m-government initiatives, having begun in 2013 to provide services, anytime and anywhere, through mobile devices (Emirates Newswire, 2014). This decision was made to meet the challenges faced by citizens regarding difficulties in using and applying for the governments' public services (Al-Rajehi, 2007). Citizens had previously been forced to deal with several customer-service agencies to complete one service, increasing the time to complete these services and decreasing customer satisfaction (Khaleej Times, 2015). The main challenge for m-government services, however, is to provide a high quality of services that meet citizens' expectations (Alrabghi, 2013; Saadi et al., 2017).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 M-government\n3. Research methodology: The study uses a quantitative approach by applying QFD, using the HOQ matrix. HOQ is the most utilized QFD tool in the literature and is considered the main matrix for QFD (Pulli et al., 2007). Figure 1 shows the HOQ, presenting the \"whats,\" which are the customer requirements, and \"hows,\" which are the technical requirements for the \"whats.\"\n4. Discussion and conclusions: In this study, a systematic procedure has been applied to explore the factors involved in improving m-government service quality. Citizens' requirements were identified through a focus group of ten users of the UAE's MOI app and the collected data were refined, using an affinity diagram, to correctly categorize the factors and remove any redundancy from the collected data. The study categorized the data into the following five categories: service environment; service interaction; information control; service effect; and outcome quality. After identifying the users' requirements, technical requirements were developed to meet them, which meant translating users' requirements into technical requirements that were easy for the software developers to understand, with the overall aim of improving the quality of m-government services according to citizens' specifications. Citizens' priority for each requirement has been determined using a five-point Likert scale. A correlation matrix of technical requirements and the interrelationships between technical requirements and citizens' requirements was created. Finally, technical benchmarking of the UAE's MOI app against those of the KSA and Oman was completed to develop the strategic plan for future development.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to derive mobile-government (m-government) service-quality factors in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and develop an integrated strategic plan for improving the quality of m-government services from a customer perspective in the GCC.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach was used in this case study of m-government services in the GCC. Data were collected using focus groups and questionnaires for three similar m-government applications (one from the United Arab Emirates, one from the Saudi Arabia and one from Oman). The house of quality tool, including technical benchmarking, was applied as part of the quality function deployment (QFD) approach to identify customer requirements, translate them to technical requirements and develop a strategic plan for improving the quality of m-government services.\nFindings: The results revealed that \"real time\" had the highest priority for deployment, while \"tangible service,\" contrary to expectations, had the lowest priority for deployment.\nResearch limitations/implications: Study findings are limited to the m-government services delivered to citizens. There is scope for further study into m-government services delivered both to businesses and other governments.\nPractical implications: The findings imply that the m-government decision makers must involve citizens in all service-development processes to ensure that service delivery meets citizens' expectations.\nOriginality/value: Most previous studies regarding m-government service-quality dimensions have used information system service-quality dimensions. This study is one of the pioneering studies to have successfully derived m-government service-quality factors using the QFD matrix.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Innovation by harmonizing continuity and change	[ "Innovation", "Change management", "Company performance", "Management strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Managing innovation in a competitive environment requires honing existing capabilities for retention of stability and generating new capabilities in keeping with discontinuous change requirements (Utterback, 1994). There is a need to evolve a suitable strategy to handle this apparent paradox in a firm's context. That the former concern relating to management of continuity is important for business continuity has been underscored for three reasons:1. from the knowledge management and organizational culture perspective (Collins, 2001);2. for stability-restoring and effective recovery management from crisis-laden situations (Ferris, 2002); and3. in relation to the impact on organizational inertia (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005).The latter concern, focusing on management of change, has resulted in several important theories for effective organizational change management processes (Bhat, 2005). In actual practice, both continuity and change dimensions need be tackled and balanced by firms to manage innovation so that the firm's overall performance benefits, apart from its innovation performance.The objective of this paper is to analyze the complex dynamics of innovation in a manufacturing firm. The impact of continuity and change dimensions of the firm's innovation approach on its innovation performance (National Knowledge Commission, 2007) and the overall impact on firm performance are analyzed. A review of past studies led to the assumption that a firm's technology (Tushman and Anderson, 1986), organization (Barney, 1995), learning (Leonard-Barton, 1995), managerial (Hamel, 2007) and networking (Teece, 2007) processes largely encompass its innovation management strategic approach.\n2. Approach: We analyze Moser Baer Industries Limited (MBIL), an Indian firm and one of the world's largest manufacturers of optical storage media. Sushil's (2005) flowing stream strategy framework is adapted to analyze the continuity and change aspects of MBIL's innovation management strategy. The significant strategic choices relate to the choice of strategic channels the firm selects, varying from \"divert\" for utilizing existing continuity strengths and diverting them gently towards change; \"shift\" for extending the burden of continuity and providing for amenability to strategic change; \"partition\" for separation of the continuity and change concerns; and \"integrate\", aimed towards the greatest strategic flexibility.The broad framework used is depicted in Figure 1. The ten input innovation management related processes (referred to as forces) of the firm - covering technology, organization, learning, managerial and networking perspectives in the continuity and change modes, respectively - impact the output factors comprised in innovation performance and firm performance, as depicted in Figure 1.The case analysis uses both primary data, based on the responses of MBIL's top management to a structured questionnaire (covering present and future aspirations), as well as secondary data (based on a survey of secondary sources and reports of independent analysts and consultants, databases, expert opinions and research, apart from the company's website). Section 4 presents an extract of the primary data highlighting MBIL's innovation management strategic approach. Section 5 presents the main findings of the analysis of these responses (using the secondary data, inter alia, to authenticate facts) and section 6 derives the most important continuity and change aspects amongst these forces and the key innovation and firm performance factors that have guided the firm's strategy formulation. Section 7 is devoted to the landscaping of the strategic factors leading to strategy diagrams for enhanced firm and innovation performance. This is followed by an explanation on the selection of key strategy channels in section 8.Single case studies generate large amounts of rich context-bound data. Rather than focusing on theoretical advancement and refinement, we use the data more to provide a practical tool for practitioners.\n3. Background of company: MBIL, as a manufacturer of optical storage media, has transformed itself from a single business entity into a multi-technology organization.It was initially founded in New Delhi, India in 1983 as a Time Recorder unit, in technical collaboration with Maruzen Corporation, Japan and Moser Baer Sumiswald, Switzerland. Later, in 1988, it entered the data storage industry by starting manufacture of 5.25-inch floppy diskettes. Later, it expanded its capabilities to include manufacture of 3.5-inch micro floppy diskettes, recordable and rewritable compact disks, digital versatile disks and blue laser discs. In 2006, MBIL entered the photovoltaic and home entertainment businesses, and in 2007 the IT Peripherals and Consumer Electronics division was formed. With over 7,500 employees, MBIL has operations in several countries around the globe and is a preferred supplier to several global original equipment manufacturers.\n4. Survey results: Table I summarizes the information provided by the questionnaire responses on the firm's innovation management approach, covering continuity and change aspects. Figure 2 shows the results.The various measures used have been identified through extensive literature references. The questionnaire was structured in sufficient detail to enable in-depth analysis of these measures. Table I indicates how each of the ten input forces are measured in respect to four aspects. At times, both the forces may refer to a similar aspect (e.g. \"external interactions\", a continuity force; and \"linkages\" a change force). However, as a continuity force the reference is to an existing approach as against a more proactive stance when referred to as a change force. Similarly, while classifying the forces (e.g. 'supportive organization culture' as a continuity force and 'dynamic customer interface' as a change force), due attention had been paid to the most important aspects concerning a measure.Firm performance is linked to four factors:1. stakeholder (shareholder, government, employee, management, local community, government, supplier and collaborator) satisfaction;2. resource (financial and human) generation capabilities;3. reliability (quality and timeliness) of internal processes; and4. the manner in which the innovation goals and the business goals of the company are dovetailed (specificity, relevance and measurability).MBIL's above average financial performance (return on total assets and average market capitalization during 2007-2008) was among the criteria used for its selection for this study. Innovation performance was measured using four factors:1. firm innovativeness;2. new product development (NPD) capabilities;3. product/operational process improvement capabilities (lowering cost/improving features/better delivery); and4. managerial process improvement capabilities.It is evident from Figure 1 that MBIL's management devotes attention to both continuity and change forces. There is less focus on change in the case of all the forces, except networking. Thus, the importance of the forces identified has been corroborated.\n5. MBIL's responses to continuity and change forces: The company's strong, medium and weak response-related strategic actions are termed as vital, desirable and burden, respectively, as Table II shows.The strategic approaches to change forces are classified as high, medium or low impact on the basis of strong, less strong and weak responses, as Table III shows.\n6. Key strategic factors in MBIL: MBIL has a balanced focus and handles its internal processes quite adequately.All the innovation performance factors are given due attention. The company paid special attention to improving its production/operational and managerial processes. It has been innovative and improved the features of its products in terms of cost, quality and reliability as well as delivery/reach, as demonstrated by the time-to-time launch of new products and continuing demand for these across the globe. Yet MBIL aspires to further improvement in its new product development arena.Its financial performance has been impressive, with revenues of $US100 million during 2008-2009. The firm refined its innovation goals in line with business goals in terms of specificity and relevance. However, it wants to include more quantifiable aspects for better measurement of innovation targets. It has not been able to attract adequate talent for its innovation needs, but has been able to raise funds easily when required. While the quality of its internal processes is satisfactory, MBIL is concerned about the timeliness of its response and wants to further gratify its shareholders. The local community is the most satisfied. Other stakeholders, including suppliers, collaborators, customers, employees, management and the government are reasonably satisfied.The technology continuity force responses are strong. Particularly, those relating to company-wide innovation and flexible operations are the strongest. While idea sourcing and selection forces receive reasonable attention, MBIL needs to strengthen its customer-oriented NPD forces to hone its project management system and minimize cost and time overruns.MBIL's responses to organization continuity forces are very strong. Its employee involvement in innovation is very high and it is confident about its organizational culture supportive of innovation, both of which are vital forces. It focuses reasonably well on organizational procedures and routines and effective leadership forces.On analyzing the learning continuity responses, we see that the firm has expended moderate efforts towards training, learning from external sources and intra-firm knowledge-sharing. However, it needs to improve benchmarking and peer-learning exercises.The managerial continuity interactions are strong. Top management commitment and attention on structured trajectory are of the highest order and focus on business-technology strategy links and external environment trend-tracking.Ultimately, examining the networking continuity perspective, MBIL is moderately satisfied with its use of lead users, external interactions, collaborations with other firms and use of external expertise.In change forces, there is ample scope for improvement. For technology change forces, MBIL provides for options, strategic partnerships and technology alert mechanisms to a moderate extent. However, its technology acquisition and transfer mechanisms forces need more attention.Considering organization change force responses, innovation rewards and entrepreneurship/peer-pressure get average focus. However, the company does a poor job in nurturing a tolerant attitude and creativity inculcation.The learning change force responses are more or less low impact ones, except for use of learning tools, which evokes moderate response. The other interactions - quick recovery from crises, enhance learning capabilities and sustained efforts - could use more attention.All the managerial change responses receive average attention. Thus, flexible strategy, use of effective management tools, resources and planning and communication evoke a uniform moderate response.Finally, the networking change force reactions are analyzed. Response to new supplier use is very high and responses to external linkages and dynamic customer interfaces are moderate. However, attention towards ideation could be improved.Specific relationships among the forces and the factors can be further drawn out (see the Appendix) if required.\n7. Landscaping strategic factors: The innovation performance factors based on the actual situation compared to the aspirations of the company are illustrated in Figure 3.MBIL must improve its benchmarking efforts. As it continues to bring out new products and newer versions of existing products, it must not slacken its efforts to lower product costs, improve managerial process capabilities and bring about production process improvements, as depicted in Figure 4.Concurrently, MBIL must maintain firm performance. Figure 5 shows performance.MBIL needs to sustain its financial performance by sharpening its innovation goals in alignment with its overall business goals. While it has been able to successfully source talent, it has not always been able to raise adequate funds for its innovation needs. It must continue to satisfy its stakeholders by bettering its internal process capabilities and improving the speed of its response to external levers. This is illustrated in Figure 6.\n8. Selecting key strategy channels: Use of the four key strategic channels - i.e. shift, divert, partition and integrate - by MBIL is analyzed by applying the flowing stream strategy. The strategic channel selection matrix in Figure 7 is based on its responses to continuity and change forces.MBIL used the \"shift\" channel heavily during its early growth phase when it sharpened its NPD capabilities through company-wide innovation efforts. Subsequently, it became more ambitious and used the \"divert\" channel to diversify into new areas such as home entertainment, as well as the \"partition\" channel to enter Blu-Ray discs from the \"shift\" channel. Then, it entered IT peripherals, using the \"partition\" channel from the \"divert\" channel. Lately, with its move to launch LCD television sets, it has broadened its business scope by making use of the \"divert\" channel, from the \"partition\" channel.Figure 8 depicts a modified matrix intended to enhance MBIL's strategic suppleness. It integrated change forces successfully through new supplier use. Its innovation performance responded to steadfast enhancement of managerial capabilities and organization growth, ably supported by leadership vision and top management support.Innovation in MBIL flourished initially along the shift channel. While responding to technology-change forces and the confluence of managerial-change and managerial-continuity forces taking place, effectively leading to a combined change-continuity organization capability, the company gradually diversified into newer areas. Later it branched off a portion of its successful businesses into newer ventures. Thus, it did adopt A, B, M and N channels. MBIL must now adopt the integrate channels X and Y in addition. It needs to improve its learning and networking capabilities for overall innovation capability enhancement.\n9. Suggested strategic framework: Putting together the results of the above analysis with the projected expectations of the company in the next few years we offer the following strategy suggestions to enable a strategic shift towards an integrated path for optimum innovation and financial performance.* MBIL views its top management as being committed to innovation. This may be made more explicit by communicating targeted quantifiable innovation goals to all stakeholders, giving due justification of alignment with business goals, and revisiting these periodically in step with the pace of change of the specific business.* Managerial systems may be tweaked for greater efficiency. For instance, the firm may ensure that aspects such as intellectual property protection (the firm owns proprietary technology and has patent licensing agreements with different organizations as well) and knowledge caching are appropriately dealt with.* Since the technology areas dealt with are frontier areas, MBIL should keep a close watch on related external developments. Also, higher technological thresholds may be set by the firm to enable it to surpass its current performance.* Project management capabilities are adequate for current operations. However, as the firm aspires to expand its scope, it may need to ensure that projects are completed in time with no cost overruns. New project selection techniques need be perfected and greater emphasis must be placed on ensuring well-rounded participation in ideation exercises complemented by efficient research, screening and analysis. The firm may also fine tune its innovation appraisal practices and ensure greater efficiency in its innovation leadership.* Lead users may be more significantly involved in product development. The firm may also make greater use of external expertise and expand its partnerships to leverage its innovation exercises.* Care should be taken to preserve the internal culture that is innovation-supportive. The firm may also ensure greater flexibility in its innovation operations.\n10. Concluding remarks: The case of Moser Baer India Limited has been analyzed using a flowing stream strategy framework. We have tried to capture innovative management-related processes and to analyze how they impact performance. Finally, we offered a set of strategy suggestions for further enhancing the firm's capabilities. More of the positive attributes of the firm have been analyzed in depth since these could be authenticated, a possible limitation.This paper illustrates application of an innovation management framework in the context of a manufacturing firm. While only an incremental contribution is acknowledged, the single case study reveals the factors that have been particularly important to the performance of the case company (flexible operations, top management commitment and new supplier use), which corroborates previous research that has indicated the importance of these factors for innovation. These findings need to be investigated within alternate contexts. The framework can be applied with suitable modifications in different kinds of organizations to further understand and enhance the impact of innovation management processes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The objective of this paper is to present a broad-based tool primarily for the use of practitioners at the senior and middle management levels, to analyze the innovation management processes within their organizations and assess their impact on innovation and firm performance. It is contended that these processes are dichotomous because of the invariable tension between continuity and change-related aspects to be coped with.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A single case (Moser Baer India Limited, an Indian firm and one of the world's large manufacturers of optical storage media) illustrating the use of a flowing stream strategy framework is presented. The theory that is the basis of the approach is not expounded at length in the interests of the basic target audience.\nFindings: - The paper is an attempt to present a structured approach to strategy making. Realizing the hazards of organizational impediments in the implementation of strategy, only an illustrative approach is been indicated, paving the way for further investigation.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitations associated with a single case methodology may prevail to some extent. The data are context-bound; however, no attempt to draw general implications has been made. The purpose is more to present the use of a practical tool rather than to advance theoretical knowledge.\nPractical implications: - The tool presented may be useful across a range of organizations, with minor adaptations.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is original and adds value in terms of the above.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Game on for virtual work and play: Engaging learners' interest with online role-play	[ "Design", "Games", "Massively multiplayer online role‐playing games", "Performance", "Training", "Training methods", "Transformational leadership", "Virtual worlds", "Computer games" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThey call it \"gamification\" but will it work for you?: The lifestyle of people who spend more time at work than they should at the expense of a fulfilling social and family life is aptly described in the proverb \"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy\". Of course the saying has its origins in a time when work and play were two distinct activities. Many employers still feel that the separation should be set in stone, especially with the arrival of that multitude of distractions the internet offers to people who are supposed to be working.Having fun with a computer game after a hard day at the workplace is a good way of relieving work-related stress, an assumption of that observation being that you have already done a day's work before you fire up Grand Theft Auto. But there is a growing body of evidence that supports the view that having a bit of a break online during working hours can actually improve working performance. Those employees who prefer to be on Facebook or getting to the next level of a computer game than actually doing what their employer is paying them for would say that, wouldn't they?People who play online games when they are supposed to be working should not be surprised if they attract the opprobrium of their employer. If you are fully engrossed in Fruit Ninja, Resident Evil or Call of Duty: Black Ops, whatever you are supposed to be doing at work is not being done.However, there is some merit in the view that for employees who need communications skills, creativity and quick reactions, computer games can sharpen them up mentally and allow them to focus without distractions. It is a concept being pursued by trainers who have long understood the effectiveness of turning training into a game rather than a boring lecture. There is even a word for it - gamification - but the jury's still out on who invented the word and when, and exactly what it means.\nGrafted solution that serves the system rather than the player?: Like all relatively new concepts which have a whacky buzzword, the name gets used for a whole range of ideas which link games and learning, some of which may be cutting-edge and desirable and some which are not worth serious discussion by learning professionals. Developing and adapting the essence of online games to provide attention-grabbing and entertaining instruction for businesses might not be the silver bullet some claim it to be, but it is certainly better than an employee attending a boring e-learning course in which the only stimulus for thought is knowing when to click the \"next\" button.A skeptical note is sounded by Matthew Jensen who says some people see gamification as \"the next great hope\" for deep user engagement. He says:Sure, gamification does feedback really well and insight into personal use of a system, site, or service is invaluable for understanding progress towards goals. But too often gamification is a grafted solution that ultimately serves the system rather than the player. Gamification introduces points, badges, and achievements as intended objects of desire without meaning. It also neglects the power of story and disregards the insights of latent gameplay. To be clear, though, gamification isn't fundamentally wrong; it just needs to evolve past the hype.He says gamification proponents must think like game designers and put the player experience first, not the required use of a system - emphasizing the point by saying the creator of Monopoly never asked \"How are we going to get people to play with all of these little green houses?\" Good games provide meaningful feedback, which should be immediate. More meaningful games, by and large, are those that organize play around common goals, stoking leadership qualities in players who might otherwise be relentlessly competitive. Jensen also maintains that games are rituals within rituals:By anticipating, sculpting, and respecting these rituals, game designers can manufacture the sort of engagement that teachers, employers, and marketers seek.\nAnswering a question wrong \"to see what happens\" is frowned on: A supportive note comes from Karl M. Kapp. In his book The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Education the professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, recognizes that effective learning professionals already use real-world environments and real-time feedback. Nevertheless, he advocates the leverage of the unique elements of games - curiosity, permission to fail, engagement with others - and presenting learning content through stories and contextual challenges, giving learners a sense of control and power to make decisions. He maintains that game-based learning can turn disconnected, bored learners into engaged participants.It is feedback and freedom to fail which is so alluring about using a games standpoint for learning. Employees are traditionally taught the correct way of approaching a situation and expected to learn how to do it. End of story. Having the right and wrong scenarios in a games setting, however, encourages experiment. Ok, do it the right way but then see what happens if you deliberately do not. You cannot experiment like that when you are at work, but game methodology allows you to.Noting that in most instructional environments, failure is not a valid option and learners either get it right the first time or fail, Professor Kapp says:Most learning environments do not encourage exploration or trial-and-error learning. Learners have little insight into the real consequences of wrong answers or incorrect decisions other than being told they are not correct. Answering a question wrong to \"see what happens\" is frowned upon in most learning situations. Games, however, encourage failure. Players will purposely fail to see what happens or to get a sense of the gamespace in which they are working. Failing is allowed, it's acceptable, and it's part of the game.And if it is fun, all the better. Having fun playing games does not have to be an end in itself. It can stimulate the brain, and that cannot be a bad outcome of a training course.\nCompetitive and faster-paced work environments: Remember the children's party game of looking at a tray full of items, then covering them up and having the children tell you what is hidden on the tray? Suppose there is a glove, a toy dog, a football, a fork and half a dozen other random objects. Merely asking the children to look, then remember, is likely to lead to poor results. But get the children to make up stories in their minds about a glove which is stolen by a dog which plays with a football until the ball is punctured by a fork - you get the idea - and the scores are likely to be high. It is a game. Not online, but a game nevertheless.Rather more complicated than this simple party game are the massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) which thousands of people around the world play on the internet. Despoina Xanthopoulou and Savvas Papagiannidis note that their activities have many common qualities with work in real organizations - such as players interacting with each other, joining groups to achieve common goals, and carrying out complex missions.They say:Ongoing developments in the business world suggest that in future organizations' work teams will function globally, decision-making will be distributed, and collaboration will occur mainly through digital interaction. These increasingly competitive and faster-paced work environments resemble virtual environments such as those of MMORPGs more and more. Therefore, the central question is whether virtual games may offer useful insights for better organizational functioning.For employers, the challenge is to embrace the opportunities for staff training offered by role-playing in online games. The difficulties facing them are telling the difference between which offerings are useful and cost-effective and those which are not much better than giving the staff time off to have fun down at the video arcade.\nComment: This review is based on \"Engaging the learner: gamification strives to keep the user's interest\" by Matthew Jensen, \"Games, gamification, and the quest for learner engagement\" by Karl M. Kapp, and \"Play online, work better? Examining the spillover of active learning and transformational leadership\" by Desponia Xanthopoulou and Savvas Papagiannidis. Matthew Jensen discusses how games can be used to engage learners' interest in training and learning. Karl M. Kapp argues that games are a good training method because they provide an environment in which learners get direct feedback and can test their knowledge in a realistic context. Desponia Xanthopoulou and Savvas Pagagiannidis study how participating in massively multiplayer online role-playing games affects users' real-life employment.\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: - The lifestyle of people who spend more time at work than they should at the expense of a fulfilling social and family life is aptly described in the proverb \"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy\". Of course the saying has its origins in a time when work and play were two distinct activities. Many employers still feel that the separation should be set in stone, especially with the arrival of that multitude of distractions the internet offers to people who are supposed to be working.\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" } ]
Visual management in production management: a literature synthesis	[ "Lean production", "Literature", "Production management", "Kanban" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Contemporary society has experienced an explosion of the visual (Baudrillard, 1994; Lester, 2013), which permeate our everyday lives through photos, videos, television, mobile devices, web pages, signs, electronic boards and many others. Acknowledged to be powerful in cognition and memory when compared to the textual and verbal, the visual have also taken prevalence in our modes of communication and management (Bell and Davison, 2013). With the fast developing technologies, the problem of conveying information over long distances has been largely solved. Instead, one of the current challenges confronted by organisations is how to improve the ineffective delivery of information to their workforces in close-range communication (Bilalis et al., 2002). Complex and heavily textual work instructions, or safety information located in a drawer, out of sight, rarely avail the overall operational performance.\n2. Emergence of VM in the literature: The existing literature can be divided into five distinct categories, i.e.: descriptions of the Japanese originators and interpreters of the Toyota Production System (lean production); books by Western and Japanese consultants; few scholarly papers on VM; scholarly literature in ergonomics and human factors that touches similar phenomena, but with different vocabulary; and diverse approaches discussing VM beyond production management. These are briefly presented as follows.\n3. Research method: It should be highlighted here that the research method for this paper is a synthetic literature review that endeavours to create new knowledge, rather than a systematic review (Jesson et al., 2011; Lightfoot et al., 2013) aiming to document the state-of-the-art with a specific research question in mind.\n4. Visual tools: VM is realised through using a multitude of visual tools and it is important to understand their role in VM. Some are very distinctive and, therefore, cited so much that sometimes the tools overshadow the managerial strategy. In addition, it is not difficult for an employee to create a visual tool for his day-to-day information needs (Kattman et al., 2012). Visual tools are integrated and openly exposed in the work environment for being easy-to-reach and easy-to-see (Greif, 1991; Suzaki, 1993). There are four common characteristics of those VM tools (Greif, 1991; Berkley, 1992; Suzaki, 1993; Galsworth, 2005; Harris and Harris, 2008): first, the information in VM tools is presented to create information fields in the workplace, from which people can freely pull information in a self-service fashion; second the information need is determined ahead of time to prevent information deficiencies (pre-emptive approach): third, the information display is integrated into process elements (space, machinery, equipment, components, materials, tools, gadgets, etc.), in the direct interface between the operator and the process element (not in a file or server far from the production field); and fourth, the communication is simple and relies little or not at all on verbal or textual information.\n5. The functions of VM: Various visual tools are applied in a work setting under the VM strategy to obtain some conceptual benefits for an organisation. This section is aimed at conceptually discussing why VM and its tools are employed in a work environment. It is important to understand the underlying implementation functions of different (visual) tools, instead of directly copying them (Spear and Bowen, 1999). Different organisational realities may need specific, out-of-template VM solutions that cannot be found in the literature. This evokes the necessity for a clarification of what the VM strategy can render at a workplace. In other words, it is important to explain the possible functions of VM, as those should enable an organisation to tailor its own VM strategy.\n6. Discussion: Various VM tools supporting different managerial efforts have been presented in the literature with many practical implications (see Table I). Those implications can sometimes directly address motion economy and ergonomics by simple visual indicators or reminders (from way-finding to operator led machine set-up guides). At times they can be used to impose a limit or a strong guidance to employees' actions through visual controls (i.e. kanbans, poka-yokes or min/max inventory levels in the 5S). Another interesting aspect to their manifestation is their extensive use in training and orientating new and existing employees, such that even a new employee can easily understand the work setting with its layout, process elements, requirements/standards and operations. Their important contributions to internal and external marketing efforts seem to have been overlooked. VM tools also play a role both in identifying workplace problems (i.e. andon), and communicating the problem solving process itself (i.e. A3s). The improved condition after the problem solving process is also disseminated, taught and standardised by using specific VM tools (i.e. SOSs and OPLs). VM tools are also effective group coordination and discussion agents (i.e. Obeya rooms, VMS). Similar to a nervous system, the VM strategy enables the flow of required information through a work setting with its specific tools that are often used in connection with each other.\n7. Future research: It is obvious from the current literature that the VM strategy should be analysed from a more theoretical standpoint. A deeper theoretical understanding of the matter will not only contribute to clarifying different yet related terms but it will also facilitate a systematic application of the strategy with its various functions. In doing so, one should not overemphasise the distinct VM systems or tools such as kanban cards, heijunka boards or andon panels but rather strive to understand their functions or purposes; as the means are always open to change and modifications when their expected functions or the overall process goals change. It should be highlighted that there is no empirical and generic VM application framework found in the literature and more research is needed in this sense.\n8. Conclusion and recommendations: VM has been generally discussed in the production management literature through its tools or one of its functions (see Table I). Such a narrow focus has limited its understanding as a managerial strategy. The abundance of related terms and the fragmented nature of the literature in the area are baffling.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to holistically discuss, explore and synthesise the key literature on visual management (VM), an important, yet highly fragmented subject that is frequently referred in lean production accounts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An extensive literature review was conducted to classify the current literature, to explore the different aspects and limitations of the current discussions on the subject, to clarify in what ways VM benefits manifest themselves in a workplace and to identify the future research focus.\nFindings: VM is an important close-range communication strategy based on cognitively effective information conveyance. This strategy has been frequently discussed in the production management literature. However, the literature is fragmented as to the roles of VM in a production setting; the body of literature lacks integrated focus and cohesion with an abundance of related terminology from scholarly works and consultant books; a practical VM tools taxonomy and a visual workplace implementation framework were presented; there is poor clarity with regards to the functions (benefits) that VM may provide within organisations, nine conceptual VM functions were proposed; a wide array of future research directions related to VM was identified.\nOriginality/value: This paper synthesises the key literature related to VM, providing a conceptual picture of the current knowledge.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Car crisis and renewal: how Mercedes succeeded with the A-Class	[ "Dynamic capabilities", "Automobile industry", "A-Class", "Brand humility talk scheme", "Downward vertical line extension", "Mercedes-Benz", "Organizational/product/process/marketing innovation", "Premium brand" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In mature industries, downward vertical (line) extension has become an increasingly popular strategy, particularly in consumer goods markets, and automobile industry players are no exception. This phenomenon originated two decades ago when carmakers made several very significant strategic decisions regarding whether to expand their consumer bases and/or avoid competition in higher market segments. These down-market[1] moves engendered several product line innovations, such as the Mercedes -Benz (MB) A-Class (W168 model), which was launched in 15 Western European countries in 1997. It was the first and most symbolic move made by a premium[2] brand in the automobile industry.\nBrief overview of the downward vertical extensions domain: Existing literature reveals many terms characterize the vertical downward extension movement such as sub-branding (Farquhar et al., 1992), step-down extension or stretching a portfolio (Kim and Lavack, 1996), downscale (Kirmani et al., 1999) or downward extensions (Aaker, 1997). Broadly speaking, economists and marketing scholars call it vertical differentiation, which is a variation in quality levels, whether upward or downward, of products within a category (Randall et al., 1998), which helps clarify the aim of this type of strategy.\nCombining organizational, product, process and marketing innovations with the support of dynamic capabilities: For a company commercializing premium branded products, stretching down its product lines means moving out of its comfort zone. From an evolutionary perspective, as the business changes, the company should redefine its business routines, production processes, external (brand) relations and (product) marketing/customer orientation. In this regard, scholars recommended integrating organizational, process and product innovations so companies can successfully convert new ideas and new business opportunities into market success (Cozzarin and Percival, 2006). Moreover, as the company enters a new market, marketing innovation is fundamental. According to the OECD (2005), this means implementing marketing methods not previously used by the firm by \"involving significant changes in product design or packaging, product placement, product promotion or pricing\" (paragraph 169).\nManage contradictions in terms of product development: The demand-side: keep the brand's standards in the reduced cost/price envelope\nTarget the high end of a lower consumer segment: The A-Class aimed to be a radically new concept and was developed to answer various expressed and unmet consumer needs. Consequently, the target audience, while diverse, possessed a superior purchasing power and therefore belonged to the higher end of the initial consumer group:\nBrand strength is not sufficient when moving downwards: Although the MB A-Class received several prizes, such as the Grand Austrian Automobile Prize and the Golden Steering Wheel (Mercedes 500SEC.com, 2017), perception asymmetry likely occurred. First, target customers were not able to refer to any other previous model from MB to reduce uncertainty about the A-Class's ability to uphold the brand's high standards. Therefore, it could not be assumed the parent brand associations would be automatically transferred to the extension. Second, versatility does not necessarily equal excellence, MB's core value, and according to several tests, regarding two attributes that should generate value - security and comfort - the A-Class did not dominate its rivals. Therefore, organizational, process and product innovations needed to be accompanied by a marketing innovation in the sense of a new way the brand should have a dialogue with not only its potential prospects but also the general public and journalists to create familiarity with the new product to reduce consumer concerns and thus accelerate its adoption.\nA humble brand talk scheme is necessary: The lesson learnt by MB could be that stretching product lines downward means acquiring new capabilities on all facets of marketing, from inception to commercialization to dialogue to gain the widest support for a \"new cause\" for the premium manufacturer. The stretched product line \"rocked\" the codes of MB and entered a new category with its own codes and history; therefore, the brand had to prove what it claimed, particularly because it is a premium brand. It was forced to establish a new legitimacy despite its high brand strength level.\nPerformance outcomes: what did the launch of the A-Class add to Mercedes-Benz?: In front of the A-Class's issue, MB adopted an elegant strategy, which is expected from a premium brand when learning the codes of a new (downward) market: the brand did not blame anyone, neither the manufacturer who produced the tire incriminated in the \"accident\" nor the Scandinavian press and their practices. MB reinforced the safety equipment of its new model, which was irreproachable.\nDiscussion and conclusions: A vertical stepdown extension is an important strategic decision for companies aiming to maintain or even grow their revenues by targeting a larger consumer group with lower-priced products or companies focusing on smaller segments with a high willingness to pay for more expensive products (Goetz et al., 2014). However, this strategy is generally considered risky because it may directly harm the perceived quality of the parent brand while, at the same time, generate minimal profits.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In mature industries, downward vertical (line) extension has become an increasingly popular strategy, particularly for automobile manufacturers aiming at expanding their consumer bases and/or avoiding competition in higher market segment. This paper aims to examine how Mercedes-Benz (MB) practiced a downward vertical line extension within the same product category. When commercialized as a product line innovation, the MB A-Class was the first and most symbolic move made by a premium brand in the automobile industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper investigates the microfoundations of a vertical downward extension strategy. To do so, the authors adopt a narrative style to analyze the story of the MB A-Class from its inception to its commercialization. Secondary data sources, such as company websites, annual reports, internal documents, books, public relations and press releases, were used. Qualitative as well as quantitative performance outcomes were assessed using market and product sales in Western Europe (1997-2016) and the results of an MB brand image survey conducted in 1998 following the accident faced by the A-Class.\nFindings: The case illustrates that contrary to initial assumptions, lower-quality extensions may be relevant for prestige brands under certain conditions and identifies four strategy components that may drive a successful downward stretch: combine organizational, product, process and marketing innovation with the support of dynamic capabilities; manage paradoxes/contradictions in terms of product development; target the high-end of a lower consumer segment; and adopt a \"brand humility talk scheme\".\nResearch limitations/implications: Existing studies primarily focus on consumers' evaluations of vertical step-down extensions. Rare are the articles that adopt the company's perspective. Moreover, additional research is needed to assess the short- and long-term impacts of vertical downward extension on performance outcomes.\nPractical implications: The case of the MB A-Class encourages top executives to consider the trade-offs inherent to a down-market strategic move: keeping the (premium) brand's standards high within a reduced cost/price envelope while learning the codes of the new/bottom of the market. In addition, the A-Class may serve as a fundamental school case for marketing managers and creative advertising agencies on what should and should not be done, whether at the product or at the advertising level.\nOriginality/value: This paper demonstrates that a premium brand that practiced a vertical downward line extension can expand its sales in a mass market, by targeting a small but growing segment with a high willingness to pay for more expensive products. This adds to the contention that it is not the downscale extension product price per se that negatively affects the parent brand but rather where it stands in the hierarchy of the market segment considered and the ability of the premium brand to integrate the downscale extension to its own history (i.e. combining its original values with tangible product benefits while backing the cause of the new market). Finally, the story of the A-Class strongly suggests that any company needs to upgrade its capabilities as part of the learning process of a new market to convert a business opportunity into a market success.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Do extra ingredients on the package lead to extra calorie estimates?	[ "Packaging", "Heuristics", "Added food ingredients", "Calorie estimation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: People love to mix food up, for instance, coffee with milk, cake with fruit or vegetables with mayonnaise, as the added ingredients can bring better taste. A food blogger listed 72 food pairings that he considered as most delicious ones: oatmeal with marmalade, egg roll with seaweed [...][1], and to meet market demands, many food companies launch new foods by adding extra ingredients to their base products. These included, for instance, Oreo's mixed-fruit-and-ice-cream biscuits, Kraft Foods' vegetable-and-seaweed Pacific Soda crackers and Yoplait's cherry-and-strawberry yogurt. How added food ingredients presented on the packaging of the new augmented food affect consumer calorie estimation is, however, still unclear.\nTheoretical background: Presence of AFIs and consumer calorie estimation\nStudies and method: Study 1 (A and B)\nStudy 2: This study examines the underlying justification-related mechanism for underestimation effect occurring when adding a healthy AFI to an unhealthy base food (H2). In all, 108 students (55 male, age ranging from 17 to 27, M = 20.44, SD = 1.99) were randomly assigned to a 2 (external justification: present vs absent) x 2 (AFI: no AFI vs healthy AFI) between-subjects design. Like in Study 1, \"Cuello\" crisps were chosen as the stimuli and cucumber as the AFI. Participants were first informed of a cover story similar to that in Study 1, i.e. we would like to learn their opinions regarding the packaging design of a new product concerning the given brand. Then, the participants were shown the front pack of the original flavored \"Cuello\" crisps (see Appendix 3 for Study 2 stimuli) and were asked to complete the same questionnaire as in Study 1 and engaged with the referencing of the original crisps calories (1300 KJ). Then, participants in the external justification present group were asked to vividly imagine the following three scenarios:\nStudy 3: This study tests whether the calorie underestimation effect when adding a healthy AFI on an unhealthy base food (H1c) intensifies along increasing AFIs' perceived healthiness. Based on results of a pretest[2] we identified that AFI stimuli with multiple different vegetables were perceived as healthier than a cucumber-alone AFI stimulus. Multiple different vegetables were also seen as a different condition but in essence multiplicative regarding perceived healthiness compared with multiple pieces of a single vegetable. Next, 87 students (45 male), age ranging from 20 to 35 (M = 24.56, SD = 2.47), attended a marketing survey involving a new packaged snack before launching, with two tasks: estimating snack's calorie content and perceived healthiness when one healthy AFI (first manipulation) and when multiple different healthy AFIs were added (second manipulation) to the packaging of an unhealthy packaged base food (control condition). To maintain correspondence with Study 1, the control condition (i.e. crisps as unhealthy base food) stimuli and the first manipulation (i.e. crisps with cucumber-alone) stimuli remained the same. The second manipulation used an AFI with five mixed vegetables (cucumber, tomato, eggplant, lettuce and broccoli). The rationale is that compared with the use of one healthy ingredient as AFI (first manipulation), the use of a combined-mix/multiple healthy ingredients as AFIs (second manipulation) strengthens healthiness perceptions (i.e. the latter is healthier; see Appendix 4 for the stimuli of Study 3).\nStudy 4: This study tests the boundary effect of AFI forms (visual vs verbal) on unhealthy food calorie estimates and considers explicitly if the verbal effects mitigate the underestimation effect evident in the former studies. In total, 127 students (65 male; age: M = 24.97, SD = 2.58) attended a marketing survey involving a new packaged snack before launching, with two of the tasks designed as estimating the snack's calorie content and perceived healthiness. To generalize and expand on the previous results, the pictorial representation of Maryla (a made-up brand which differs from that of the previous studies) cookies was introduced as the stimulus. Cookies without an AFI reflect the control condition (unhealthy base food alone). Cookies with strawberry reflect an unhealthy base food + healthy AFI and two manipulations were developed: the first has the picture of a strawberry (i.e. a visual condition) as the AFI and the second has the text \"strawberry\" on the packaging (a verbal condition) as the AFI (with approximately similar size as the picture) to note that the small chips on the cookies are strawberry chips. Participants were randomly assigned to one of these three conditions. Study 1's procedure was replicated here except changing the brand name in the cover story as \"Maryla.\" After reading the cover story, participants were shown the picture of a plate of referenced cookies. They were next asked to complete five filler questions, including \"100 g of the handmade cookies contains 2200 KJ calories, where would you think is most proper to present the calorie information 2200 KJ/100 g on the packaging?\" to provide them with referencing calorie information. The participants were later shown the front pack of packaged cookies (containing six grab bags), either of the original flavor or strawberry flavor. Each one of the conditions was shown separately, and no participant compared any two conditions together. They were then asked to answer two questions relating to attention, including \"the flavor of the cookies\" and \"how clear do you think the packaging informed the product it contains.\" Then, four more filler questions as well to estimate the calorie content and perceived healthiness of the new product. The filler questions included the food attractiveness (three items, Cronbach's a = 0.88), the clarity of the pictures, the harmony of the package design and the overall evaluation of the design of the packaging. As a check on the effect of the AFI on consumers' purchase behavior, participants were also asked to report \"to what extent are you tempted to purchase this cookie.\"\nGeneral discussion: Overview of the findings\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to address how adding food ingredients to a packaged base food affects consumers' calorie estimation of the new augmented product.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The four performed experiments and analyses of variance demonstrate an underlying psychological mechanism, explained below.\nFindings: Results show that the healthiness of the added food ingredient (AFI) does not matter if the base food is healthy, and consumers' calorie estimates of the augmented packaged food product are accurate. When, however, the food base is unhealthy, and the AFI is healthy, consumers underestimate the new product calories. This underestimation effect increases further when the healthy ingredients multiply. This underestimation effect endures when these ingredients are presented in a visual form, but it becomes smaller when these ingredients are presented in a verbal form. A justification mechanism is relevant.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research should test across the broader range of the food product matrix. There is a great diversity of AFI presentations, and further research may deal with the impact of AFIs of these different forms on consumers' calorie estimation and healthiness perceptions. Research may also test sensory-arousing mechanisms that can help understand how consumers perceive the calories of the augmented food.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that consumers should be cautious of the judgment bias caused by the presence of an AFI on food packages and raise their awareness regarding nutrition implications and dietary effects. From the perspective of food manufacturers, although adding healthy AFIs to unhealthy base foods may increase consumers' purchase intention and bring higher profits, it may not be sustainable as a marketing strategy in the long term and has immediate ethical implications.\nSocial implications: Policymakers should introduce voluntary schemes to monitor and restrict the improper presentation of AFIs, aiming to rule out the abuse of healthy AFIs on unhealthy packaged food.\nOriginality/value: This work offers three major original and valuable contributions. It explains the effects of AFIs on calorie estimation and consumer healthiness perceptions in a context not studied before, namely, packaged food products. Next, it advances the literature on consumer judgment error and heuristics concerning product package attributes. As adding ingredients is integral to product line extension decisions, the results also clarify how marketing can safeguard firm social responsibility in combating obesity.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Motivations and obstacles for fashion renting: a cross-cultural comparison	[ "Perceived enjoyment", "Attitudes", "Perceived risks", "Collaborative fashion consumption", "Cross culture", "Fashion renting" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Negative environmental influences of the textile and apparel industry have been increasing worldwide over the years. This situation is more prominent in the two major apparel consumption countries, the USA and China. Approximately 16mtons of textiles were generated in 2015 in the US, compared to 2.5m in 1980 and 5.8m in 1990 (US EPA, 2015). Similarly, each year around 26m tons of textile waste is dumped in China, accounting for 3.5 to 4 percent of waste materials globally (Xue et al., 2014). Recently, collaborative fashion consumption (CFC) has gained an increasing amount of attention from consumers, society and academia. The idea of sharing-use of underutilized apparel products is the foundation for CFC, which encourages people to focus on product usage rather than ownership (Botsman and Rogers, 2010). It is estimated that collaborative consumption yields a 20 percent reduction in waste (Demailly and Novel, 2014). Renting, one form of collaborative consumption (Botsman and Rogers, 2010), has been advocated as an alternative way to extend the life of existing products while also generating revenue for the industry (WRAP, 2011).\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Collaborative fashion consumption and fashion renting\n3. Research methods: 3.1 Sampling and data collection\n4. Data analysis and results: 4.1 Sample profile\n5. Discussion and implications: 5.1 Influences of attitude, perceived enjoyment and perceived risks in fashion renting\n6. Conclusions and limitations: The study confirmed the positive influences of perceived enjoyment and attitude on fashion renting intention. In addition, the negative influences of perceived financial risk and social risk on attitude were also affirmed. Moreover, the results indicated that significant differences exist between American and Chinese consumers in terms of perceived risks and enjoyment of fashion renting, as well as attitude toward CFC through renting. Further, group comparison testing results discovered that differences existed in the factors influencing the intention to rent fashion products between American and Chinese consumers. This is the first attempt to compare the two cultures concerning fashion renting as an emerging business model. This research contributes to the current literature by identifying the motivations and obstacles in the adoption of fashion renting among consumers from both China and the USA, the two major players in the textile and apparel industry.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the influences of perceived enjoyment, perceived risks and attitude on the intention to rent fashion products for both Chinese and American consumers. Furthermore, this study is expected to empirically identify the differences between American and Chinese consumers in terms of motivations for and barriers to fashion renting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected through online surveys in both the USA and China. Data cleaning generated 412 usable samples in the USA and 301 usable responses in China. A series of t-test analyses and structural equation modeling were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses.\nFindings: Statistical results confirmed the positive influences of perceived enjoyment and attitude on fashion renting intention. In addition, the negative influences of perceived performance risk and social risk on attitude were also affirmed. Moreover, the results indicated that significant differences exist between American and Chinese consumers in terms of perceived risks and enjoyment of fashion renting, as well as attitude toward renting. Further, group comparison testing results discovered that differences existed in the factors influencing the intention to rent fashion products between American and Chinese consumers.\nOriginality/value: This study initiates the attempt to investigate the motivations and obstacles for fashion renting intention for both American and Chinese consumers. The cultural comparison between Chinese and American consumers also delivers a comprehensive understanding of the motivations and obstacles behind the intention of fashion renting.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Performance improvement CME for quality: challenges inherent to the process	[ "Learners", "Challenges", "Continuing professional development", "Performance improvement", "Providers", "CME" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In most cases Continuing Medical Education (CME) providers are partially adhering to the American Medical Association (AMA) CME definition. They are certainly providing adequate traditional continuing education; i.e., maintaining, increasing and developing knowledge and skills, but are striving to offer performance improvement method into their CME designs. Traditional CME, such as live events or asynchronous online, and journal-based enduring materials can definitely produce measurable improvements in professional knowledge and skills (Vakani and Sheerani, 2011), but not necessarily performance improvement. Moreover, it was not an error by providers that caused them to focus more on traditional CME for recording attendance than to enhance behavioral change and/or better clinical outcomes (Brown et al., 2011). A key question raised by the authors is to address real-time challenges faced by CME providers and physician learners upon adopting Performance Improvement Continuing Medical Education (PI-CME), as a learning method. CME providers recognize quality movements by various groups (e.g. Institute of Medicine (IOM), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), Federation of State Medical Board (FSMB), American Medical Association (AMA), American Osteopathic Association (AOA), Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS) and The Affordable Care Act) for promoting and including performance and quality measures in one way or the other in their profile (Bird et al., 2013; Brown et al., 2011). Also, the US healthcare system is interested in a model with the potential to promote lasting changes in physician practice (Bird et al., 2013). Thus, the authors appreciate the AMA three-stage structured PI-CME (performance improvement) method that enables physicians to improve a defined clinical care aspect during a specific time frame. However, there is little evidence that the PI-CME method is followed in designing CME activities (Bird et al., 2013):\nStage A: learning from current practice performance assessment (baseline): This is the first step in the PI-CME process where physicians assess practice gaps.\nStage B: learning from the application of performance improvement interventions to patient care: Stage B arrives once the physician identifies the practice gaps in stage A and hence plans an intervention to improve.\nStage C: learning from performance improvement results (follow-up): This is the final step in the PI-CME process where physicians reassess their practice and compare results with stage A.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the perspective debates upon the real-time challenges for a three-staged Performance Improvement Continuing Medical Education (PI-CME) model, an innovative and potential approach for future CME, to inform providers to think, prepare and to act proactively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this discussion, the challenges associated for adopting the American Medical Association's three-staged PI-CME model are reported.\nFindings: Not many institutions in USA are using a three-staged performance improvement model and then customizing it to their own healthcare context for the specific targeted audience. They integrate traditional CME methods with performance and quality initiatives, and linking with CME credits.\nPractical implications: Overall the US health system is interested in a structured PI-CME model with the potential to improve physicians practicing behaviors.\nOriginality/value: Knowing the dearth of evidence for applying this structured performance improvement methodology into the design of CME activities, and the lack of clarity on challenges inherent to the process that learners and providers encounter. This paper establishes all-important first step to render the set of challenges for a three-staged PI-CME model.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of the chief information security officer in the management of IT security	[ "IT strategy", "Chief information security officer", "CISO", "IT security governance", "Reporting structure", "Security breaches" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The past couple of years have witnessed a proliferation and ubiquitous use of Information Technology (IT) resources in many organizations' business processes. This is evidenced by, in addition to the traditional IT resources, the use of social networking and web 2.0 tools and services, Bring Your Own Device strategies and the evolving mobile and cloud computing resources. The dependence on IT (IT is hereafter used to refer to both information technology and information systems) resources in many business processes has been driven partly by the findings in the academic research and practitioner literature that have pointed to the positive benefits accruing from investments in IT resources (Mithas and Rust, 2016; Schryen, 2013) as well as the advancement and adoption of electronic/mobile commerce (Gangwar et al., 2015; Zhu, 2004). However, the use of all these IT resources presents organizations with significant security challenges because of the interconnectivity of the business processes, the many entities who interact with IT resources and the growing complexity and dynamic nature of IT security threats.\n2. Literature review/background: In many organizations, the reporting relationship(s), usually depicted by a hierarchical organizational structure, is one of the salient indicators of how decisions are made and the way resources are controlled (Blenko et al., 2010). Although a number of researchers have addressed the question of CIO reporting relationships (Banker et al., 2011; Karanja and Zaveri, 2012), there is a dearth of research studies addressing issues of CISOs, who the CISOs report to and the impact CISOs have on organizational change (Ashenden and Sasse, 2013). In many firms, CEOs are typically at the helm of the organizational reporting structure. CEOs are also in charge of corporate governance which encompasses the decision-making processes, structures and systems through which organizations are directed, managed and controlled for the purpose of generating value to the stakeholders (Denis, 2001; Mithas and Rust, 2016). In the management of IT resources, CIOs have usually taken a leading role and are in charge of IT governance. IT Governance (ITG) is an integral part of corporate governance, as espoused in its definition by the ITGI (2006, p. 10), which notes that ITG \"consists of the leadership and organizational structures and processes that ensure that the organization's IT sustains and extends the organization's strategies and objectives\". ITG \"is about who is entitled to make major decisions, who has input, and who is accountable for implementing those decisions\" (Broadbent and Weill, 2003, p. 1). Also, ITG is defined as \"the decision rights and accountability framework for encouraging desirable behaviors in the use of IT\" (Weill and Ross, 2004, p. 4).\n3. Theoretical framework: Although employees play a critical role in the security of IT resources (Siponen, 2000; Spears and Barki, 2010), they are nevertheless the leading cause of IT security failures and lack of compliance because of their propensity to resist change that usually accompanies new security policies and practices (Kolkowska and Dhillon, 2013). From an organizational perspective, employees' resistance is attributable to organizational power (McFarland, 2004). Power, defined in neutral terms, is a force that allows a team/group to realize outcomes which are untenable individually (Hardy, 1996), and the outcomes yield a win-win situation for all the involved parties. Organizational power can be conceptualized under four main dimensions, namely, resources, processes, meanings and systems (Hardy, 1996). Resource-based power relates to the control that an individual, role or group has on a range of organizational resources (Burnes and By, 2012). The accumulation of this kind of power may lead to sanctions, punishment or rewards that are used to induce certain required behaviors or outcomes (Kolkowska and Dhillon, 2013). This study adopts the resource-based power concept and links it to the agency theory to explain the interplay between the top managers in an organization in the security of IT resources.\n4. Research method and data collection: In quantitative studies researchers aim for random sampling, whereas in qualitative studies the researcher's goal is to strive for a purposeful or a criterion-based sampling technique. Purposeful or criterion-based sampling yields a sample that has the characteristics relevant to the research question(s) (Nastasi, 1998). Whereas the goal of quantitative research is inference (empirical generalization from a sample to a population), the goal of qualitative research is in-depth understanding of the phenomenon. The current study adopts a qualitative approach and implements a combination or mixed purposeful sampling strategy (Patton, 2001), namely criterion and purposeful sampling. Usually, criterion sampling is used to choose cases that are information-rich while purposeful sampling is used to add credibility by reducing the sample size to a reasonable size that can be intensely analyzed (Nastasi, 1998).\n5. Results and analysis: The results are summarized and presented in Figure 4. As shown in Figure 4, six of the firms created a new CISO position following the IT security breaches (represented by the vertical dark shades on the time lines) while others re-organized their IT units by hiring new IT officers or changing the reporting structure. The following section highlights some of firms and details the status of their IT security management before and after the IT security breaches as well as the role and responsibilities of the CISOs. One of the key characteristic of the qualitative content analysis research is the richness of the collected data (Moretti et al., 2011). Content analysis researchers have advocated the use of quotations from transcribed text to indicate the trustworthiness of the results (Polit and Beck, 2012) as well as conformability (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). Dependability, stability, and transferability are key elements in establishing credibility in qualitative content analysis research (Graneheim and Lundman, 2004).\n6. Findings and discussion: Table II shows the 13 unique firms that were the main focus of this study and experienced significant IT security breaches. Of these 13 firms, six (HPS, Epsilon email Marketing, Michael's, Sony, Neiman Marcus, Target and Home Depot) did not have a CISO when the IT security breach occurred while three had neither a CISO nor a CIO as shown in Figure 4. Of the six firms that experienced IT security breaches and did not have a CISO, five hired a CISO within a year, while Michael's (IT security breach occurred in May 2010) hired a CISO in 2014. The six CISO hires were all new positions for the companies and had not existed before. For the other companies, there were changes in the CISO leadership where the incumbents were re-assigned to other positions or they left the firm and were replaced with other CISOs. Also, there were firms that either hired CIOs following the IT security breaches (HPS, Epsilon email Marketing) or re-organized their IT units by hiring new officers (Sony, Michael's, Target, USPS). Four of those firms that hired a CISO for the first time had their CISOs reporting to the CIO while the other two had the CISO reporting to either the general counsel or the CEO. For those firms with clearly designated CISO, CIO and CEO reporting data, the CISOs who reported to the CIO had those CIOs reporting to the CEOs.\n7. Conclusion: Despite the growing number and sophistication of IT security breaches and hence the importance of better IT security management strategies, there is still a dearth of research literature that articulates the optimal organizational strategies for managing IT security. This study reveals that IT security governance has not been fully embraced as there were a number of large firms that did not have CISOs before their IT security breaches. Additionally, the organizational structures that facilitate the management of IT security are also very diverse, as demonstrated by the different reporting structures, despite the evidence of the strategic role of IT security in creating business value. The security of IT resources is a core competence and differentiator as many business processes are now embedded or are dependent on IT resources. Organizations are formed to generate value for the stakeholders. For the publicly traded firms, the Board is responsible and accountable to the shareholders and must ensure that the firm creates business value for the stakeholders. The effective and efficient management of IT security contributes significantly to the creation of this value. As such, it is in the best interest of the CEO, as an agent of the Board and the stakeholders, to ensure that the IT resources are secure because IT security breaches could result in various negative consequences. Thus, the CEO designates an agent, the CISO, to oversee IT security management with a direct line of reporting/communication.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The aim of this study is to advance research on the position of the CISO by investigating the role that CISOs play before and after an IT security breach. There is a dearth of academic research literature on the role of a chief information security officer (CISO) in the management of Information Technology (IT) security. The limited research literature exists despite the increasing number and complexity of IT security breaches that lead to significant erosions in business value.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study makes use of content analysis and agency theory to explore a sample of US firms that experienced IT security breaches between 2009 and 2015 and how these firms reacted to the IT security breaches.\nFindings: The results indicate that following the IT security breaches, a number of the impacted firms adopted a reactive plan that entailed a re-organization of the existing IT security strategy and the hiring of a CISO. Also, there is no consensus on the CISO reporting structure since most of the firms that hired a CISO for the first time had the CISO report either to the Chief Executive Officer or Chief Information Officer.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings will inform researchers, IT educators and industry practitioners on the roles of CISOs as well as advance research on how to mitigate IT security vulnerabilities.\nOriginality/value: The need for research that advances an understanding of how to effectively manage the security of IT resources is timely and is driven by the growing frequency and sophistication of the IT security breaches as well as the significant direct and indirect costs incurred by both the affected firms and their stakeholders.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Management by values (MBV): a new philosophy for a new economic order	[ "Change management", "Strategic management", "Leadership", "Organizational culture" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Whereas values were once considered by managers as \"too soft\" to be included in any serious approach to management, they have now become a central part of mainstream management (Dolan and Garcia, 2002; Dolan et al., 2003). In emerging world economies such as Spain or Brazil, the concept of management by values (MBV) is catching rapidly and has become the principal driver for reeingeneering new sustainable and competitive culture.\nManage by instruction (MBI) became management by objectives (MBO) by the 1960s: In the early twentieth century, according to many scholars and also proposed by Dolan and Garcia (2002) and Garcia and Dolan (1997, 2003) it was sufficient to MBI as change was not rapid and the way things were done in the past worked well enough to pass on to others. By the 1960s, change was accelerating to the point where managers required more flexibility of action. Thus, the introduction of MBO enabled managers to agree on direction and to choose their own strategy. Yet, the level of complexity keeps on increasing at a geometrical pace bordering chaos, and as a result MBO failed.More and more organizations still applying MBO find out very often that their managers end up frustrated by not achieving objectives and attempting to find the reasons for goals not accomplishments. Not that the goals were lofty or unrealistic, simply, many unforeseen changes occurs during the goal attainments and actions and reactions were not and could not be predicted.Scholars studying complex systems, (and a firm is in fact a complex system) pointed out that the key to understanding the behavior of the latter focuses on understanding the corresponding values of these living entities. Years of research has confirmed that value systems are indeed the key to understanding the behavior of individuals, organizations and society, leading today to the emergence of MBV (Dolan and Garcia, 2002).\nMBO is replaced by MBV: In simple non-living human-made linear entities such as machines, bridges, buildings, etc. their motion (behavior) can be understood through forces and simple attractors such as gravity. One can, through using a few mathematical equations, predict with a fair degree of accuracy, the behavior of these entities in a whole range of possible environments. Not so with complex living entities. In this later case, a strange attractor, in lieu of a simple attractor, can be used to understand the general form of behavior - to predict with a high level of certainty what the entity will do at any moment is simply impossible (Dolan et al., 2003).For individuals, groups, organizations and society, value systems are the strange attractor that determines the general form of their behavior. Scholars have attempted over the years to develop a parsimonious taxonomy to classify values. One effective way of using this strange attractor to analyze the likely general form of human behavior, according to Dolan et al. (2002, 2003, 2004b), is to separate the value system into three dimensions: economic and control values; ethical values; and emotional-developmental.The instrumentality of such classifications had been demonstrated in understanding the tendencies of values (and behavior) of future top executives as revealed by a recent study of mature MBA students in 28 leading school of business throughout the globe (Dolan et al., 2004b).The taxonomy of values, thus, can be observed and applied to most organizations, and can be described as follows:* Control values are necessary to maintain and bring together various organizational sub-systems. They include values relating to efficiency, discipline, and performance standards. These values guide such activities as planning, quality assurance and accounting.* The way people behave in a group setting is guided by the ethical values the group's members share. Ethical values emerge from beliefs held about how people should conduct themselves in public, at work and in relationships. They are associated with social values such as honesty, congruence, respect, and loyalty. A person's ethical values will influence how they behave when living their personal control and developmental values.* Developmental and emotional values are essential to create new opportunities for action. They are values related to trust, creativity, freedom and having fun in the workplace. Examples of such values are creativity/ideation, life/self-actualization, self-assertion/directedness, and adaptability/flexibility.\nInterpreting the world-view shift: According to numerous scholars in many parts of the western world, the value system of people in the workforce as of the 1970s through the end of the twentieth century, was expressed in a rather traditional light:* Effective management was most important.* You get things done through delegation.* Productivity, making decisions and acting on them, taking responsibility for actions, treating each other with respect, and having the competence and confidence to undertake one's allocated role - were all key components.However, recent writings by value scholars suggest that the majority of people in the twenty-first century workplace no longer view the world of work as was in the late twentieth century or before. There has been a paradigm shift.The amount of energy devoted to control values is approximately half today than that of 1990s, indicating people feel more able to engage in \"whatever they want\" and \"however they want\". The energy devoted to ethical values has also risen significantly since 1990s. This reinforces the conclusion that the trend over the decade from 1990 to 2000 was increasingly for people to feel they could, within reason, behave more or less as they choose toward each other and also toward the explicit goals of the organization.Moreover, among professional workers, and especially in the growing service economy, a priority has been placed on emotional-developmental values, where these individuals will refuse to work for organizations where they feel autonomy and creativity are not practiced and a feeling of mistrust prevails. This paradigm shift can be summarized in the following phrase:* Before people said: trust is good, but control is better.* Today people say: control is good, but trust is much better.Managers who may react sarcastically to the above phrase should ask themselves: what kind of values would they rather have vis a vis their spouses: will they prefer to control or trust the spouse? Think of your family as another organization (i.e. a complex living system). Why would the values that may apply effectively to the management within the family be different from the one applied to work settings?The events of September 11, 2001 (in the USA) or March 11 (in Spain) and subsequent terrorist events that become part of daily life have had a profound impact on people's world-view. This is reflected in the strange attractor for 2004.\nShift of priorities and time horizons: Until September 11, many US managers placed little or no priority to territory/security as a value. After September 11, it became the most prominent value in the control dimension. As to the emotional and development dimension, people have shifted their time horizon and are no more willing to delay satisfying their basic needs for passion at work to some distant future.Employees today are better educated, more mobile in a global economy and demand an immediate short-term, \"here and now\", satisfaction. The burden is on managers and the organizations to develop a culture that may satisfy these growing needs. Otherwise, the best and most motivated employees will go elsewhere.Entire sectors of the economies, and many countries failed to deliver on this dimension and it resulted in brain drain. The higher a firm scores on emotional-developmental values, the higher the likelihood that people will be committed and devote significant energy to creatively build a new future for themselves - they are not prepared to sit back and let the future unfold around them. More than ever, people want to be part of creating their own future.At the same time, and especially after the recent financial scandals such as Enron and Worldcom in the USA, Nortel in Canada, Parmalat in Italy, Shell in Holland, and many more that will hit the newspapers and tabloids soon, firms find themselves under pressure from all stakeholders (government, unions, employees, customers and shareholders) to manifest and exercise an ethical and financial responsibility.\nSeeking a new culture in organizations: Corporate governance is becoming a hot topic, and firms are struggling to find a winning formula to satisfy their stakeholders. If such formula will not be found soon and used across the board, the basic foundations of the world economic order, is at stake. All stakeholders are seeking desperately a new culture in organizations that will provide incentives to all members of the firm to behave ethically and with utmost responsibility. The fact that human dignity has become the most important value in the ethical values dimension indicates that we now have a priority concern for how humanity in general are treating each other.\nA note to twenty-first century managers: Values are people's motivators. For most people they are unconscious motivators. However, in highly successful organizations, each person in the organization is aware of their personal values and how they relate to the organization's value system - in the successful organization values are conscious motivators. And the people values are congruent with the organizations values (Garcia and Dolan, 2003, Dolan et al., 2004b). Thus, today, effective managers should tap into people's values as a way of motivating them.Managers who are still operating from the belief that people hold the same values they held in the twentieth century (or simply prior to September 11), however, will not be effective in motivating their people. Several studies show that many Anglo-Saxon managers have great difficulty in \"de-learning\" and \"re-learning\" the competencies associated with the new values. It is for this reason that the concept of \"MBVs\" is catching faster amongst developing economies than the already developed ones.The world is in a state of flux and worldviews can change overnight. To function effectively in this turbulent world, today's managers must be able to identify the strange attractor (value system) of their organization. They must be able to communicate to all in the organization the key role that values play in organizational success, and they must be able to match their organizational structure and processes to the emergent value system. It is the era of MBV.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper is aimed at presenting a conceptual model of managing by values (MBV) as an important philosophical and practical framework for leaders and managers of organizations use in today's work environment. We briefly discuss the evolution of management from that of management by instruction (MBI) to management by objectives (MBO) and finally management by values (MBV). We outline the trends and examples of two influential organizations focusing on values and finally provide a MBV as critical and needed method that has been used in Spain and extensively in Cuba.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Although this is a conceptual article, we have included some practical examples where MBV has been used and also some research that has been conducted using this model on MBA students across business schools across the globe.\nFindings: - We present the three major dimensions of MBV (economical-pragmatic, ethical, and emotional-developmental). These dimensions were derived from research and practice using MBV in organizations and business schools.\nOriginality/value: - In this article, we present a new management philosophy and practice that is pertinent to organizational leaders and managers in the twenty-first century. We believe that MBA is not only an important method but also one that is very needed for organizations today. We believe this system of values is core to organizational success and development as it is critical to both practitioners and researchers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Influence of event characteristics on assessing credibility and advice-taking	[ "Decision-making", "Credibility", "Advice-taking", "Event characteristics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Managers face decisions at work every day and the extent to which these decisions are accurate is critical to the effective functioning of organizations (Nutt, 1993). These decisions often require considering the perspectives of advisors, and decision-making is enhanced when good advice is heeded (Sniezek et al., 2004; Yaniv, 2004). For example, when deciding whether to launch a new product, managers consider advice from finance, manufacturing and supply chain advisors. To determine whether to accept advice, managers must evaluate the credibility of advisors but this decision may be swayed by external factors. To continue the previous example, if a rival company has recently launched a competitive product or the new product is essential to the livelihood of the organization, will the manager assess credibility in a different manner? The reality of business is that the decisions managers face may be under very different environmental conditions (Morgeson and DeRue, 2006; Morgeson et al., 2015). We suggest that the likelihood of managers accepting advice depends on the criticality and urgency of the decision.\nInfluence of credibility on advice-taking: Advice perceived to be from an expert source is more likely to be heeded (Jungermann and Fischer, 2005), but this perception relies on cues to assess the advisor's credibility. Credibility is defined loosely as \"believability\" and includes the perception of how accurate advisors' information is (Birnbaum and Stegner, 1979). Advisor confidence is a cue to the expertise of the advisor and is related to decision-makers perceiving the advisor as trustworthy (Sniezek and Van Swol, 2001). Trust is related to credibility in that trust refers to an expectation of competence and reliability (Barber, 1983). Decision-makers who perceive their advisor as competent and reliable are more likely to believe in the accuracy of the advisor, essentially perceiving an increased level of credibility. For advisors to have a positive effect on the likelihood of decision-makers taking their advice, the advisors' expertise and confidence must be transparent to the decision-maker (Harvey and Fischer, 1997; Sniezek and Van Swol, 2001; Van Swol and Sniezek, 2005). When information is missing about the advisors' expertise and intentions, decision-makers' evaluations of the advisor worsen (Bonaccio and Dalal, 2010). Within business settings, decision-makers must often rely on limited information to assess advisors' credibility.\nEvent characteristics' impact on ability to assess credibility: Although decision-makers are influenced by advisors' credibility in deciding whether to heed advice, they are also affected by the environment surrounding the decision-making event. Decision-making events vary in terms of how critical or urgent they are (Morgeson and Derue, 2006). Critical events are those that are a priority for an organization and can have significant consequences for the organization. Events that are highly critical present high stakes for organizations and can affect how decision-makers process information. Under these types of conditions, decision-makers can be expected to expend additional effort toward making the correct decision (Morgeson et al., 2015). Therefore, when deciding whether to consider information provided by advisors toward a high-priority decision, decision-makers are likely to spend extra time in assessing the levels of credibility of their advisors and in deciding whether following their advice will lead to the optimal decision. This increased effort toward processing the credibility cues should result in decision-makers following advice from highly credible advisors more often than under less critical conditions:\nOverview of studies: We conducted two studies which simulated an advice-taking situation within a business context. In Study 1, advisors exhibited credibility cues based on education and work experience, and we examined the interactions of credibility and event criticality, and credibility and event urgency on advice-taking (H1 and H3). In Study 2, we manipulated credibility using physical characteristics of the advisor and measured the decision-maker's information consideration to determine whether it explains the effect of the relationship between credibility and event characteristics on advice-taking (H2 and H4).\nStudy 1: Participants and study design\nStudy 2: In Study 2, we sought to replicate the effect found in Study 1 and test whether decision-makers' consideration of information mediated these effects. Additionally, we tested whether we could replicate the influence of credibility with a different type of cue: a video of the advisor.\nGeneral discussion: Our two studies provide support for our overall argument that event characteristics influence decision-makers' assessments of credibility and their subsequent ability to make effective decisions. Study 1 demonstrates that low-event criticality (Morgeson and Derue, 2006; Morgeson et al., 2015) can interfere with decision-makers' ability to accept advice from high-credibility advisors. Study 2 replicates this finding and also provides support for an additional event characteristic: event urgency. When events are highly urgent, decision-makers ignore advice from credible advisors and rely on their initially wrong decisions (Staw et al., 1981). Study 2 also provides explanation for why event characteristics influence decision-makers' ability to make effective decisions. Decision-makers were able to make more effective decisions because they more fully considered the information provided by high-credibility advisors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how the environment surrounding a decision-making event affects whether decision-makers consider the credibility of their advisors and take their advice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In two experiments, the characteristics of the event and credibility of the advisor were manipulated, the extent to which participants considered the information from the advisor was measured, and whether participants took advice was determined.\nFindings: Decision-makers are more likely to take advice from advisors when the decision-making event is of low urgency or high criticality because they are more likely to consider information provided by high-credibility advisors.\nPractical implications: Within organizations, decision-makers may be making suboptimal decisions when faced with highly urgent decisions or decisions with low criticality. This study suggests that under these conditions, decision-makers are less likely to consider the information provided by high-credibility advisors. Organizations may consider encouraging decision-makers to override their tendency to disregard advice from credible advisors.\nOriginality/value: This study introduces a contextual factor relevant to managers, event characteristics, which has an effect on whether decision-makers take advice. A unique experimental design was utilized in which credibility was manipulated across two studies with an explicit (Study 1: resume) vs implicit (Study 2: video) method, and advice-taking was measured with a decision that was clearly right or wrong.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Learning paths of customer-facing professionals in the digital age	[ "Informal learning", "Learning network theory", "Work environment", "Digital competencies", "Learning motives", "Learning paths", "Learning themes", "Learning activities" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The world is digitizing (Bilbao-Osorio et al., 2013; Dobbs et al., 2015; OECD, 2013). Digital technologies generate, store and process data in binary format (0, 1) (Rouse, 2017). Companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google have revolutionized their industries. Digital technologies have also changed the nature of the service experience (Bitner et al., 1990). Customers using digital technologies want convenience, immediacy and a personal relationship with companies with which they interact (E and Y Research, 2011). As a result, organizations and employees - especially those who interact with customers frequently - must adapt to digitally savvy customers and their changing needs and adopt digital technologies to enhance their business processes (Wright et al., 2001). Customer-facing professionals (CFPs) were chosen to study how digital technologies impact their learning.\nTheoretical background: Informal learning\nMethod of original study and secondary analysis: Data for this secondary analysis were taken from a single-case study conducted by the primary author (Hendriks, 2017). The initial study was situated in an organization that offers integrated human capital management solutions of payroll, human resources, retirement and insurance services, representing a natural setting for studying CFPs. The research method of the original study included 20 semi-structured interviews to explore how CFPs adapted to changing customer needs in a digital environment. For a detailed description of the findings of the original study, refer to Hendriks (2017).\nFindings: Table IV presents the findings by group and by element of the learning path.\nDiscussion: Impact of technology on how customer-facing professionals learn\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how customer-facing professionals (CFPs) created learning paths to adapt to changing customer needs in a digital environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two groups of CFPs were created from a previous single-case study to examine the learning paths of the two groups. Both groups were digitally competent yet differed in their ability to adapt to the increased usage of digital technologies by their customers: adaptive or conservative CFPs. Research questions addressed perceived learning needs, learning strategies to meet needs and factors that helped or hindered success. Transcripts were coded based on the five elements of a learning path, described within the learning network theory (i.e. motives, learning themes, learning activities, social context and facilities), using the Dedoose coding software. Group findings were compared to identify similarities and differences in their learning path elements.\nFindings: CFPs learning path elements varied individually and between adaptive and conservative CFPs. Individually, they varied in learning themes: digital or traditional customer-facing competencies and learning activities such as learning from experience, self-directed learning and learning from others. Drive and ambition emerged as a learning motive for several CFPs in both groups. Although small samples, adaptive CFPs saw a need for digital competencies and engaged in self-directed learning (e.g. solving problems and using digital technologies), more so than conservative CFPs. A positive work environment (e.g. healthy relationships and support from others) was perceived as necessary for success for both groups.\nOriginality/value: This study sheds light on how one's approach toward technology influences the creation of one's learning path. It shows the increased importance of digital competencies for CFPs in a digital world and how CFPs who embrace technology develop technological savviness, solve problems using online resources and experiment with technology and systems, strive for self-sufficiency and rely on self-directed learning.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Education and teenage childbirth in Uganda: Understanding the links from the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey	[ "Uganda", "Education", "Teenage childbirth", "Natural experiment", "Fuzzy regression discontinuity design" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Teenage childbirth is linked to numerous adverse outcomes on women and their children including implications on labor market participation, earnings, and general health (Angrist and Evans, 2012; Chevalier and Viitanen, 2003). Globally, reducing teenage childbearing has been cited as a vital step toward the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of promoting maternal health, food security, reducing chronic poverty, ending hunger, empowerment of women, meeting the nutritional requirements of adolescent girls, and ensuring inclusive and quality schooling prospects for all people (United Nations, 2015). Also, many studies have established that teenage mothers have an elevated risk of experiencing child mortality compared to their older counterparts (Hobcraft, 1993). Expanding schooling opportunities for the population has widely been quoted as one of the important developmental instruments across the globe especially in low-income nations (McMahon, 1999). However, very little is known about the causal connection between schooling and teenage childbirth including the probable paths through which schooling might propagate in low-income countries. Given the unequal portion of diseases and fertility rates in low-income nations (World Health Organization, 2015), understanding the fundamental connection between schooling and fertility outcomes becomes imperative.\n2. Universal primary education in Uganda: Uganda is amongst the early adopters of the UPE program, having adopted in 1997 (Ssewamala et al., 2011). The enactment of this education policy led to a significant rise in the total primary school enrollment from about 3.1 million pupils in 1996 to nearly 8.7 million in the year 2014 (Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2015). The UPE's central mandate was to ensure that every child in Uganda had an equal opportunity to enroll and graduate from primary school (Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2004). To achieve this objective, the government had to make sure that a capitalization grant, also called the UPE grant, was put in place in schools (Suzuki, 2002). The requirement to pay tuition fees was suspended or dropped for all primary-school pupils beginning on the first of January in 1997 (Deininger, 2003; Kattan, 2006). However, the UPE grant arrangement did not cover other school-related expenditures such as food, stationary, school uniforms, and transportation which were the responsibility of the parents (Grogan, 2009). To ensure equal schooling opportunities to every Ugandan child, the government embarked on an advertising drive through the Ministry of Education that targeted remote areas of the country and mostly targeting or encouraging girls to enroll in primary school (Deininger, 2003).\n3. Methods: 3.1 Data source\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Discussion: This study examined the influence of increased schooling on the probability of having a first child at 15 years or younger, 16-17, 18-19, and 20 years or older in Uganda. Using exposure to the 1997 education reform in Uganda as a source of exogenous change in education for identifying education effects, we tested the causal nature of schooling including the plausible ways through which schooling might propagate. The results clearly suggest that additional years of schooling lower the prospects of childbirth during the teenage years and increases the chances of first childbirth at ages 20 years and older in Uganda. These estimates are weakly robust to alternative sample sizes and model specifications. Also, the empirical findings here corroborate the findings in earlier studies especially for low-income nations (Gunes, 2016; Breierova and Duflo, 2004; Duflo et al., 2015; Zanin et al., 2015; Behrman, 2015a; Lavy and Zablotsky, 2011; McCrary and Royer, 2011; Osili and Long, 2008; Monstad et al., 2008). The finding that increased education lowers the prospects of childbirth during the teenage years suggests that educating girls in low-income countries might significantly help lower the high adolescent fertility rates observed in several low-income nations today especially in SSA. Commitment to reducing teenage births should be prioritized since teen births have long been allied to numerous negative pregnancy outcomes (Hobcraft, 1993; McCrary and Royer, 2011).\n6. Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence that increased schooling helps to lower the likelihood of teenage pregnancies in Uganda. The finding that increased schooling might work through information access through the media, improved literacy, and prenatal care utilization suggests the need for governments to stress the importance of a multi-sectoral approach to tackling pressing public concerns. More importantly, making education more accessible to the younger generation, particularly women, might go a long away. Also, since education enhances literacy, it is critical to incorporate fertility-related issues in the school curricula for every child (not only females) to learn and not as optional subjects.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The role of increased schooling on teenage childbirth has been expansively studied especially in developed countries. However, caveats remain in the case of low-income countries especially Sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the impact of increased schooling on the probability of first childbirth at 15 years or younger, 16-17, 18-19, and 20 years or older, in the important context of Uganda - a country with one of the highest adolescent fertility rates in Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical analysis uses recent data from the nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey for Uganda conducted in 2011. The authors then adopt a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, estimated using instrumental variables techniques that exploit the exogenous change in schooling impelled by the universal primary education policy enacted in 1997 in Uganda. The empirical approach compares the fertility outcomes for women born in 1984-1992 (i.e. exposed to the policy) to those born in 1973-1981 (i.e. non-exposed).\nFindings: The authors find that a one-year increase in schooling lowers the probability of first childbirth at age the age of 15 years or younger, 16-17, 18-19, and 20 years or older by nearly 8.2, 9.2, 9.4, and 9.5 percentage points, respectively. Also, pathways through which education impacts teenage motherhood included information access through the media, increased literacy, prenatal care utilization, marital status, and unhealthy sexual behavior.\nOriginality/value: The paper uses nationally representative survey data to scrutinize the causal influence of schooling on the probability of first childbirth using the 1997 universal primary education in Uganda as a natural experiment to identify the impact of schooling. The study recommends that expanding primary schooling opportunities for girls may be an effective strategy toward accelerated reductions in teenage fertility in Uganda.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Relationship between strategic human resource management and firm performance: A contingency perspective	[ "Human resource management", "Organizational performance", "Taiwan" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Rapid environmental change, globalization, competition to provide innovative products and services, changing customer and investor demands have become the standard backdrop for organizations. To compete effectively, firms must constantly improve their performance by reducing costs, enhancing quality, and differentiating their products and services.Recent studies have examined strategic human resource management (SHRM) as a means of enhancing organizational competitive advantage. Scholars and practitioners have widely adopted this approach to organization strategy planning. The underlying assumption of SHRM is that firm performance is influenced by a set of HRM practices. This assumption has been supported by recent empirical evidence (Arthur, 1994; Huselid, 1995; MacDuffie, 1995). However, important questions remain, including whether SHRM guarantees positive firm performance outcome, the effect of different levels of SHRM implementation on firm performance, and the influence of the market environment in moderating the relationship between SHRM and firm performance.A critical unresolved debate involved whether a universally superior approach existed for managing human resources. Some scholars suggested that such an approach existed (Huselid and Becker, 1996; Pfeffer, 1998). Meanwhile, others noted that the effectiveness of human resource management practices depends on the specific organizational and environmental context (Mayer et al., 1993; Venkatraman, 1989). Accordingly, a better understanding of the role of the implementation of human resources management in creating and sustaining organizational performance and competitive advantage should be achieved through further theoretical development and empirical evidence.This study focused on Taiwanese firms, which are in one of the most significant emerging markets in the world. Taiwan is currently experiencing a critical industrial transformation. Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2002. Additionally, owing to its lower labor costs and strong potential for the development of a high technology industry, China gradually took away the traditional advantages of Taiwan in manufacturing. Both factors intensified the competitive environment for Taiwanese firms. Firms must increase their access to markets and knowledge by correctly reading changes in external markets. Consequently, the main purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of product market strategy (PMS), a key contextual factor, on the relationship between SHRM implementation and firm performance in Taiwan.\n2 Theoretical background and hypothesis: 2.1. SHRM\n3 Methodology: 3.1. Sample\n4 Results and findings: 4.1. Results\n5 Conclusion and discussion: This study examined the impact of PMS on the relationship between SHRM and firm performance. The findings of this study do not support the universal perspective, suggesting that SHRM is the best practice and a source of sustainable competitive advantages in any context. In contrast, this study supported the contingency perspective indicating that a fit between SHRM and PMS contributes to firm performance. Additionally, unlike most previous studies conducted in western settings, this study examined the data from Taiwan, which is a very different cultural, institutional environment (Bae and Lawler, 2000). Consequently, the results further confirmed the validity of the contingency model in an Asian society.5.1. Implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Previous studies suggest that strategic human resource management (SHRM) is beneficial to firm performance. This study seeks to investigate the moderating effect of product market strategy (PMS), one of the contextual factors, on the relationship between SHRM and firm performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study conducted a survey on 235 Taiwanese firms and hierarchical regression analysis was performed.\nFindings: - The results failed to support the \"universalistic\" SHRM perspective. Only the interaction between an innovative PMS and SHRM exerted a significant effect on firm performance, which supporting the argument of the \"contingency\" perspective. The findings of this study confirmed the validity of the contingency model in an Asian society.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Different from most previous studies conducted in a Western context, this study examined the data of Taiwan, and thus examined a very different cultural and institutional environment. Although this study obtained valuable results, the limitations of the subjective data, number of measurement items and the cross-sectional design were discussed. In a future study, more work on revealing the influence of other unexplored factors to better understand the determinants of firm performance should be done.\nPractical implications: - Coping with innovation needs, the degree to which traditional human resource management (THRM) is transformed into SHRM determines how well a firm is able to sustain and enhance growth. This will enable firms to keep pace with the rapid environmental changes associated with globalization.\nOriginality/value: - Investigates the moderating effect of PMS on the relationship between SHRM and firm performance in a Taiwanese context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Wisdom of crowds: the effect of participant composition and contribution behavior on Wikipedia article quality	[ "Online community", "Wikipedia", "Wisdom of crowds", "Cox regression", "Knowledge collaboration" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Online communities for knowledge collaboration have introduced a new knowledge generation model. This is, typically, exemplified by Wikipedia, wherein many people participate in writing a wiki article, and everyone can supplement and revise the content contributed by others (Aaltonen and Seiler, 2015; Arazy et al., 2011; Park and Park, 2016). The superposition of the work of many participants leads to the generation of knowledge (Majchrzak et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2018). This kind of application generates knowledge leveraging on wisdom of crowds (Greenstein and Zhu, 2018; Kittur et al., 2013; Mollick and Nanda, 2016).\n2. Related research: 2.1 Wisdom of crowds in online communities\n3. Research scope and research issues: 3.1 Research scope\n4. Empirical design: 4.1 Sample and data\n5. Test results and discussion: Results of Cox regression are exhibited in the Table II.\n6. Conclusion: This study explores the effect of participant composition and behavior on the quality of articles in wiki article editing. The study presents the following main conclusions:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the effect of participant composition and contribution behavior of the different types of participants on the quality of knowledge generation in online communities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study samples all the featured articles in Chinese Wikipedia and performs a Cox regression to reveal how participant composition and contribution behavior affect the quality of articles in different contexts.\nFindings: The results show that an increase in the number of participants increases the possibility of either enhancing or reducing the article quality. In most cases, the greater the proportion of core members (people who frequently participate in editing), the higher the possibility of enhancing the article quality. Occasional participants' editorial behavior hinders quality promotion, this negative effect weakens when such editorial behavior becomes more frequent.\nPractical implications: The findings help to better leverage the role of online communities in practice and to achieve knowledge collaboration in a more efficient manner. For example, an appropriate centralized organizational form should be established in online communities to improve the efficiency of crowd contributions. And it is worth developing mechanism to encourage participants to frequently participate in editing the article.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the research on the organizational forms of online communities by showing the effect of participant composition and behavior in the new form of organizing on knowledge generation. This study also contributes to the research on wisdom of crowds by revealing who in a group of participants, in what context, and by what means influence knowledge generation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Managing environmental building performance through IT systems	[ "Environmental building performance", "Sustainability", "IT system", "IWMS", "EMS", "BMS" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Sustainability and environmental building performance: Sustainable buildings, green buildings, smart buildings. Nowadays, many terms try to communicate that some buildings are better performing than others, when it comes to their environmental sustainability. Yet, statistics show that the buildings and building construction sector combined consume 36 per cent of global energy consumption and induce nearly 40 per cent of the total CO2 emissions (International Energy Agency, 2017). Moreover, a deeper look at buildings' environmental performance in a lifecycle perspective shows that the use stage of older buildings is typically responsible for 80-90 per cent of environmental impacts, while newer, more \"sustainable\" buildings have lower operational impacts at the expense of higher embodied impacts during building construction indicating burden shifting tendencies between lifecycle stages (Sharma et al., 2011; Cabeza et al., 2014).\n2. Information technology in facilities management: 2.1 Information and knowledge management\n3. Methodology: The research studied four different organisations to answer the research question:\n4. Findings: 4.1 Case presentations\n5. Discussion: The article studied how EBP is managed through various IT systems by applying maximum variance case study approach. This methodology was chosen for generalisation of results and delivering new knowledge from the practice. Thus, the selected cases provide a general overview of the current situation and do not reflect in-depth studies of each sector. The selected Danish cases were all accessed through KMD, providing unique insight into their IT systems and organisations, but this approach also limited the access to other organisations using competing systems.\n6. Conclusion: EBP can be managed through three types of IT systems: simple systems, single-point systems and cross-functional systems. There is a great variance how these IT systems are used for managing EBP in practice and to which extent they cover different environmental categories.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to disclose the role and features of various IT systems for environmental building performance (EBP) in facilities management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study focuses on IT systems used for facilities management in four organisations. The study is based on a maximum variance case study in which the selected organisations have different organisation type and portfolio size. Three organisations are from Denmark and one is from the UK.\nFindings: Several IT systems can be used for managing EBP. EBP in IT systems is primarily reflected through energy management, with specific focus on monitoring and reporting electricity, heating and water consumption. Furthermore, greenhouse gas emissions related to energy consumption can be calculated in some IT systems, while other environmental categories like building materials and recycling potentials are not adequately supported by the systems covered in this study. Some IT systems offer additional features relating to EBP, such as waste management and space management, but the study shows that these features are not demanded at the current point.\nPractical implications: The results can be used to support decision-making in organisations to improve EBP in facilities management by IT systems.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes with new knowledge on how IT systems are used in different organisations for managing EBP. The paper also shows how various IT systems can add value to real estate organisations and facilities management departments and support their business processes relating to EBP.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Interactive Network Branding: demonstrating the importance of firm representatives for small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets	[ "Croatia", "Small- and medium-sized enterprises", "Emerging markets", "Corporate branding", "Business network", "Interactive Network Branding", "SME" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concept of Interactive Network Branding (INB) has recently been introduced (Koporcic, 2017; Koporcic and Halinen, 2018; Koporcic and Tornroos, 2019a, 2019b). As a novel concept, INB has its roots in the relationship marketing and network literature of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group (Hakansson, 1982; Axelsson and Johanson, 1992; Hakansson et al., 2009), as well as in corporate branding literature (Hatch and Schultz, 2003; Melewar et al., 2012; Biraghi and Gambetti, 2015).\n2. Small- and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets: EMs are characterized as countries undergoing rapid economic, political and institutional change, which are moving toward a free market system and economic liberalization (Freeman and Sandwell, 2008). They have a strong and unique background, which, in most cases, differs significantly from that of a typical developed country (Burgess and Steenkamp, 2013). In addition to the process of transition and fundamental changes in the infrastructure, EMs often face a lower income per capita, a lack of financial capital, shortage of resources and, at the same time, a shift in purchasing behavior toward increasing consumption (Nakata and Sivakumar, 1997). This results in the intrinsic value of EMs often being neglected (Sheth, 2011). However, at the same time, this gives researchers the opportunity for discovering novel practices in business marketing.\n3. Interactive Network Branding: To examine the corporate branding process as part of business networking, the concept of INB is elaborated upon (Koporcic, 2017; Koporcic and Halinen, 2018; Koporcic and Tornroos, 2015, 2019a, 2019b). As an alternative to neoliberalist ideology, INB is rooted in the interaction and network approach of the IMP Group (Hakansson, 1982; Axelsson and Johanson, 1992; Hakansson et al., 2009), as well as in business marketing and organizational studies on corporate branding (Hatch and Schultz, 2003; Abratt and Kleyn, 2012; Melewar et al., 2012; Biraghi and Gambetti, 2015). These theoretical approaches draw on social exchange theories, among others, highlighting the importance of formal, informal, as well as interpersonal and inter-organizational relationships in business networks. The phenomenon concerns the process of interpersonal interaction, which results in corporate identity and reputation creation that SMEs ultimately use to influence their network positions. As Koporcic and Halinen (2018, p. 394) describe, INB is \"an intertwined process of networking and branding, in which companies develop their corporate identity and reputation while aiming to create a desired position in the network\". The INB process is, therefore, purposefully planned but, also, organically created and implemented through individuals who act on behalf of their companies. INB highlights the individual human actors who interact with other individuals from a business network. The network presents a B2B setting where companies create their positions while interacting with each other and where INB comes into existence. In addition, branding, being an inherent part of networking, presents purposeful and emergent activities of INB that influence the creation of firms' identities and reputations in a network setting. The INB process is, therefore, not linear (Koporcic and Halinen, 2018); instead, it is unfolding over time in its context (Figure 1).\n4. Research methodology: The purpose of this paper is to explore INB as a new approach to understanding the importance of firm representatives for SMEs operating in fast-changing EMs. To provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 1989) and its complex processes, a qualitative case study approach was adopted. As Halinen and Tornroos (2005, p. 1286) argue:\n5. Case description: This section presents the historical reconstruction of critical events and INB processes that unfolded over time in the business network of Ivy Commerce. The business network of this case study consists of four SMEs: Transport Ltd., acting as a supplier; Ivy Commerce, as the focal company and distributor; and Vital and Pivovara SB as business buyers (Figure 2). Finally, end users are consumers, who have an influence on the business network but are not in the focus of this research. Instead, the focus is on interactions between SMEs and their representatives.\n6. Findings: After setting the scene of the case study with historical reconstruction, empirical findings are presented, based on the elements of the analytical model (Figure 1). By focusing on interactions between individuals and the outcomes of these processes, the holistic nature of the INB phenomenon is presented. At the same time, the following research question is answered: How can individuals, as representatives of SMEs, ensure a successful INB in an EM?\n7. Discussion and conclusions: This study is one of the first empirical studies on INB. It offers insights into the role of firm representatives in INB processes for a fast-changing, emerging business market and answers the question How can individuals, as representatives of SMEs, ensure a successful INB in an EM? As such, the study provides theoretical and managerial implications, as well as future research suggestions, which are all presented below.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore Interactive Network Branding (INB) in an emerging market (EM) context while focusing on the importance of firm representatives for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The INB corresponds to the process of interpersonal interaction which results in corporate identity and reputation creation that SMEs ultimately use to influence their network positions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This single case study presents four Croatian SMEs embedded in a business network. A research model of INB serves as an analytical tool for analyzing the phenomenon in its context. The key unit of analysis is an SME represented by its manager(s).\nFindings: Contrary to large multinational firms that have financial capabilities for branding departments and recruitment of brand managers, SMEs in EMs tend to focus more on creating long-term relationships with their fundamental business partners. Through INB and interactions between firm representatives, corporate branding becomes an inherent part of networking. Thus, the study acknowledges the importance of INB, being implemented through firm representatives, as it plays a crucial role in the survival and success of SMEs in the EM context.\nResearch limitations/implications: Based on the chosen research approach and the focus on the Croatian EM, the findings might lack generalizability. Hence, further research is necessary to examine the applicability of INB in different empirical contexts.\nPractical implications: This paper provides implications for practitioners coping with networking and branding processes of SMEs that are operating in fast-changing EMs.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a deeper understanding of INB while focusing on the importance of firm representatives and their interactions that have an influence on the networking and branding processes of all the parties involved.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A thematic exploration of human brands: literature review and agenda for future research	[ "Literature review", "Human brands", "Brand management systems", "Celebrity branding", "Celebrity brands" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As part of a consumer phenomenon, \"human brands\" (sometimes equated with celebrities) are a vital part of both contemporary culture and the contemporary market economy\" (Parmentier, 2010 p.1). Kylie Jenner earned $166.5m in 2017, mostly from her namesake beauty brand, Kylie Cosmetics. She was the highest-paid woman in 2018 on the Forbes The Celebrity 100, a list of top-earning entertainers (Robehmed, 2018). Her example depicts the growing business of human brands, making them a relevant area of study in the marketing domain.\nConceptual framework: Branding by individuals\nSystematic literature review: The purpose of a systematic review of the literature is to provide a complete insight into existing research on a specific topic (Ngai, 2005). This study has been structured to enable other researchers to replicate the literature review process and ultimately reproduce the same results. The transparency of a systematic literature review offers research that is objective and clear and summarizes the results while minimizing the search and analysis bias (Chan and Ngai, 2011; Peloza and Shang, 2011). To develop the literature review, the researchers followed the steps recommended by Kitchenham et al. (2009) and Baumann et al. (2002), as follows:\nResults: Strategic brand management model\nDiscussion and future research agenda: Overview\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is threefold. First, human brands are conceptualized and the distinction between them and personal brands is established. Second, human-brand research is reviewed in light of a strategic brand management framework and gaps in the knowledge that may suggest new research pathways are identified. Third, the extent to which a brand management model designed for products could be applied to human brands is explored.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was conducted in this study. The content analysis of the selected set of papers allowed the assessment of the state of this field of brand management and the identification of proposals for future research.\nFindings: Substantial research exists on different aspects of human brands. However, these studies are fragmented in nature, thus highlighting the need for specific and complete human-brand management models.\nResearch limitations/implications: A limitation of this literature review is that it is based on a sample of papers collected by one specific criterion; furthermore, the way the papers were classified may be challenged. However, this study provides a comprehensive picture of studies on human brands available today.\nOriginality/value: A parsimonious distinction and connectivity between human and personal brands suggest a branding-by-individual continuum. Additionally, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first identifiable one that summarizes the growing literature on human brands, reveals important gaps in the knowledge and calls for the development of particular human-brand management models.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Nonprofit branding: a bibliometric analysis	[ "Nonprofit sector", "Brand management", "Bibliometric analysis", "Not-for-profit marketing", "Nonprofit branding", "Brand", "Nonprofit" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The nonprofit landscape has been changing substantially. In the USA, approximately 1.5 million nonprofit organizations were registered with the Internal Revenue Service in 2015, representing an increase of 10.4 per cent in relation to 2005 (National Center for Charitable Statistics, 2019). As the number of nonprofit organizations increases, competition is also intensified (Hopkins et al., 2014). Alongside this, longstanding social organizations already face other challenges, such as a decline in direct donations (Peacock, 2000) and weakening the government and public support and reducing the availability of financial resources (Hibbert and Horne, 1996). In face of these challenges, the nonprofit sector has been diversifying its activities, recognizing the importance of becoming more market-driven and using for-profit marketing concepts and values to achieve competitive advantages over competitors (Apaydin, 2011; Ewing and Napoli, 2005). One of these concepts is nonprofit branding.\n2. Literature review: After conducting a chronological analysis of nonprofit marketing and branding, nonprofit marketing studies were identified as being initially focused on the principles of marketing that could be applied in the nonprofit sector, the influence on increasing donations and the relationship between the nonprofit organization and the donors (Weir and Hibbert, 2000; Bennett and Sargeant, 2005; Ewing and Napoli, 2005). After these, later studies explored the differences between the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, from both the consumer's and organization's point of view, and examined how marketing strategies could be adapted from the for-profit to the nonprofit sector (Aaker et al., 2010; Apaydin, 2011).\n3. Methods: To achieve the objectives of the study, two methodological approaches were carried out in sequence: a SLR and a bibliometric analysis. The source used to search for articles for the SLR was the Scopus database, which is considered the largest database of abstracts and references of peer-reviewed scientific literature (Anees-ur-Rehman et al., 2016; Valenzuela et al., 2017; Wang and Waltman, 2016). The bibliometric analysis was performed using the articles from SLR and generated network maps with the aim of facilitating a visualization of the relationships between the proposed elements (Borner et al., 2003; Waltman et al., 2010).\n4. Results: 4.1 Keywords\n5. Discussion: The papers in this review date from the early 2000s to 2019. Thus, over almost 20 years of studies, we identified that brand concerns in the nonprofit sector begin to develop from an organization's worries about communications with its stakeholders and about its reputation (Mitchell and Mitchell, 2001; Padanyi and Gainer, 2003). Then, the research begins to study the adaptation of for-profit brand concepts (such as brand orientation, brand equity and brand personality) in a nonprofit context, developing measurement scales of these concepts for nonprofit organizations (Faircloth, 2005; Venable et al., 2005; Ewing and Napoli, 2005; Voeth and Herbst, 2008). Going forward, Waters et al. (2009) and Waters and Jones (2011) studied how social media can be used to build nonprofit brands and relationships with stakeholders.\n6. Future research agenda: Because of the development of the theory, many researchers have applied qualitative methods; thus, future research can further explore these findings as well as test the proposed models through quantitative methods. Also, small nonprofit organizations are a relatively understudied area, including in developing economies, where, given their economic condition, there is a great need for social organizations, perhaps even more so than in developed countries (Ernst et al., 2015; Sheth, 2011). As an example of research gaps, Garg et al. (2019) proposed a metric for brand effectiveness that encompasses the concepts of brand image, brand identity and brand performance. They based their findings on a sample of nonprofit organizations from northern India, but they did not explore the barriers to implementation of this approach in nonprofit organizations.\n7. Conclusion: In conclusion, the size and complexity of the nonprofit sector result in studies that are unlikely to be representative of all nonprofits (Lee and Bourne, 2017). Thus, as a main theoretical contribution, the study identified six research avenues in nonprofit branding that emerge from our data, named brand and donation, brand management, brand orientation, nonprofit and for-profit partnerships, communication strategies and stakeholder management. The development of each research avenue was analyzed, and a future research agenda was proposed.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine articles on nonprofit branding over an 18-year time span to develop an overview and better understanding of the subject.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used the Scopus database in a search for studies that deal, regardless of the approach, with branding in a nonprofit context. Subsequently, through a systematic review, a database with 84 articles was generated and 77 articles were submitted to bibliometric analysis.\nFindings: This study identified six main research areas (brand and donation, brand management, brand orientation, nonprofit and for-profit partnership, communication strategies and stakeholder management), which were analyzed and discussed, seeking to identify the relationship between research in each area. In addition, this study presents the limitations of the research and thus verify that, although this body of literature is growing, the complexity of the nonprofit sector offers several opportunities for future research, which are pointed out at the end of the study.\nPractical implications: This study contributes to the academic literature on the topic by providing a systematization of knowledge about branding in the nonprofit sector and also offers insights about nonprofit branding to institutions and managers in this industry.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study, to the authors' knowledge, to evaluate and quantify the progress of brand literature in the nonprofit sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Efficient and effective implementation of people-related projects	[ "Learning", "Human resource development", "Change management", "Project management", "Communication", "Team working" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: With many initiatives we find that the idea is strong, the planning exhaustive, the reporting in overload and somehow it does not quite produce the results expected.\nSix elements of effective implementation summary: The six elements is a guide or aide-memoire about how we should approach the organisation of a learning-related project. It can be applied to wider people related projects.The activity should have a clear purpose and a focus on results (top line, Figure 1).There are four key steps to any activity. Each step needs to consider an appropriate and relevant blend of media utilisation for both communication and measurement coordination.1. Initial learning/contact\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of implementation thoroughness on the achievement of expected results from people development initiatives and to provide a framework of consideration to improve levels of success\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on experience from working at senior levels within FTSE100 companies over the past 20 years, wider experience gained from benchmark groups and association and institute roles. The paper is a result of a review of past programmes implemented by the author and his team and learning gained from good practice in change and people initiatives in other benchmark group organisations. It offers the conclusions drawn through a suggested simple model for future consideration when implementing change or people-based initiatives.\nFindings: - The paper finds that few people-based change initiatives realise their maximum potential, difficulties arise in the timing of specialist involvement, wasted time in areas of responsibility overlap with negative debate, communication is often cited as having been poor or incomplete, measures and intent are often not well aligned and considered late in the process, thoroughness and blend is often restricted to single elements of the change or learning process.\nPractical implications: - The proposed model of consideration offers the framework within which clear consideration may be given to minimise the impact of the issues identified in findings and maximise the potential of the specific initiative.\nOriginality/value: - A framework of operation to maximise contribution from change and people-based initiatives and to realise the intended benefits is provided in the paper. The rationalisation of roles within the process and the positive power to be gained from areas of responsibility overlap through collaboration in each aspect of the framework. The paper is useful for anyone involved in the management of functions or specific initiatives/projects within learning and development, human resources, change, communication and project management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A dynamic model of an insurer: loss shocks, capacity constraints and underwriting cycles	[ "Dynamic model", "Capacity constraints", "Property-liability insurance market", "Underwriting cycle" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the property-liability insurance market, the variation of underwriting capacity and capital surplus affects the insurance pricing and profitability (Winter, 1988, 1994; Gron, 1994, Gron and Winton, 2001; Cummins and Nini, 2002; Doherty et al., 2003). When insurance price and underwriting coverage diverge from the equilibrium, the hard and soft markets are defined. During the soft market, insurance premiums are low and the capital base is high. Low insurance premiums and ample access to capital may lead to an increase in competition and thus to more aggressive behavior among insurers, including the relaxation of underwriting standards and the expansion of coverage quantities. These policies usually result in unexpected large loss payments, which in turn cause severe capital deficits. In this situation, poorly performing insurers may face financial distress or even exit the market, and some experienced and better-performing insurers may hold less capital. Inevitably, the market hardens, premiums rise rapidly, insurers revert to more stringent underwriting standards and the coverage is reduced accordingly. Previous researchers have referred to one period of insurance underwriting cycles as consisting of one hard market and one soft market. The underwriting cycle period is traditionally assumed to behave like a cosine curve (Venezian, 1985; Cummins and Outreville, 1987; Chen et al., 1999). However, with more frequent and severe catastrophic events occurring in recent decades, ups and downs of the underwriting cycles are no longer observed as smooth and predictable curves. Instead, they tend to be more asymmetric and random. For example, significant destruction in the property-liability insurance market can be found after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the 9/11 Attacks in 2001 and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. These catastrophic events significantly decreased coverage capacity and increased premiums. This effect was unpredictable and persisted for several years (Kunreuther et al., 2009). This phenomenon challenges the existence and predictability of the so-called underwriting cycles in literature. Although some empirical studies appear to support the predictability of underwriting cycles (Venezian, 1985; Cummins and Outreville, 1987; Chen et al., 1999; Harrington and Niehaus, 2001; Meier, 2006; Lazar and Denuit, 2012), the duration of underwriting cycle period estimated in the various studies differ, and there is little evidence that insurers are able to reliably forecast underwriting cycles to make profits (Boyer et al., 2012; Boyer and Owadally, 2015). Therefore, it is important to find a way to explain new patterns of underwriting cycles observed in the recent years.\n2. Relevant literature: Academic research studying the property-liability insurance market does not offer a consensus opinion on the existence and rationale of underwriting cycles. Stewart (1984) implies that underwriting cycles are caused by the lack of pricing discipline, and insurers may price below the cost to maintain and increase their market shares. Venezian (1985) indicates that underwriting cycles might arise from ratemaking methods and forecast errors in accounting and regulation. This rationale predicts that insurance underwriting cycles should follow a cosine wave-like pattern. Nevertheless, Harrington (1984) fails to find the underwriting cycles' sensitivity to several related possible reasons including future loss expectations, adjustment lags, risk attitudes, and forecast errors. Venezian (1985) further predicts the average years of one cycle of underwriting profits in single line of coverage by applying a second-order auto-regression model. Following Venezian (1985), the autoregressive estimations are widely applied to estimate the average duration of underwriting cycle periods in both the USA and the international insurance markets (Cummins and Outreville, 1987; Chen et al., 1999; Harrington and Niehaus, 2001; Meier, 2006; Lazar and Denuit, 2012). These studies generate different estimates, ranging from five to eight years. In addition, the widely accepted theory of underwriting cycles of about six years in length no longer holds globally and even in the US insurance market. Boyer et al. (2012) argue that the naive inference on the period of underwriting cycles based on the point estimates of autoregressive models is biased, and they cannot find any evidence of cyclicality after correcting for the bias. Boyer and Owadally (2015) admit that insurance price and profitability are truly affected by external and internal shocks, but they claim that these shocks are nothing but random unpredictable occurrences. Other studies which cause skepticism of the cyclicality assumption include Harrington and Yu (2003), Jawadi et al. (2009) and others. Leng (2006) and Leng and Meier (2006), in particular, cast doubt on the specific technique of unit root analysis used in most studies that find the support of cyclicality theory. In this paper, we attempt to identify a scenario in which the so-called underwriting cycles are unpredictable through a simulation of the random and unpredictable output changes in underwriting coverage and external capital for an insurer experiencing unexpected loss shocks.\n3. A dynamic cash flow model: In this section, we develop a dynamic model for an insurer with loss shocks and capacity constraints. In the model, loss shocks have a dual impact on the insurer's cash flows: in addition to directly affecting loss payments, they also affect the cost of external capital. The interaction between these two effects turns out to be an amplifying transmission mechanism, which persistently spreads the impact of a one-time loss shock on the subsequent cash flows.\n4. Simulation of the benchmark model economy: In this section, a linear quadratic approximation is applied to simulate the insurer's optimal decisions of underwriting coverage and external capital over time. The simulation helps demonstrate the amplifying effect of a series of loss shocks on output markets because of the interaction between underwriting and access to capital. This effect can generate a non-cyclical behavior of output changes in underwriting coverage and external capital.\n5. Comparison of results in different economies: In this section, we compare output fluctuations in three experimental economies with those in benchmark and explore the factors that can determine the level of fluctuations in the model. The first experimental economy in Table III has higher loss ratio volatility, s, with an increase of 0.003 from 0.003 to 0.006. As a result, the fluctuation of outputs in underwriting coverage and external capital is significantly larger than the benchmark as the amplifying effect of loss shocks is larger with a more significant loss shock. The second experimental economy has a higher capital cost elasticity of loss ratio, tha, an increase of 1.25, from 1.25 to 2.50. Table IV shows that the output fluctuations in this case are much greater than the benchmark as the amplifying effect of loss shocks is larger if the external capital market is more sensitive to loss ratio. Finally, the third experimental economy is developed to examine the importance of capacity constraints to output fluctuations in the model. We decrease the cost of external capital, re, from 1.2r to 1.05r and also reduce the external capital cost elasticity of capital amount, the, from 1.25 to 0.20 so as to generate a soft capital market with no capacity constraint. In this model economy, the insurer could resort to enough external capital to expand its underwriting business and reserve for future loss payments even with a positive loss shock. Figure 4 shows that, in contrast with the benchmark economy, external capital turns out to be positively correlated with loss ratio and the fluctuation of external capital is almost the same as that of the loss ratio. It is implied that the amplifying effect of loss shock on output markets discussed in previous sections only exists under capital constraint. Simulation results for the three different economies lead us to conclude that the level of output changes in underwriting coverage and external capital in the model is determined jointly by the insurance market and the capital market.\n6. Conclusions: Historically, insurance economists looked at insurance underwriting cycles in a relatively theoretical way, focusing solely on descriptions of data. Our research aspires to bring the insurance underwriting cycle literature within a more testable and rigorous framework similar to that found in the real business cycle literature. This paper contributes to existing literature by developing a dynamic cash flow model to simulate the insurance output when an insurer experiences unexpected loss shocks. Specifically, we propose a dynamic cash flow model with capacity constraints to simulate an insurer's optimal responses, in the form of changes in underwriting coverage and external capital, to a series of stochastic loss shocks. The model results indicate that the dynamic interaction between the insurer's underwriting coverage capability and ability to raise new capital can spread out and be magnified over time because of loss shocks under capacity constraints. The generated insurance output movements are non-cyclical and unpredictable, attributed to this dynamic interaction mechanism in the model. Our research, therefore, indicates that unexpected loss shocks can disturb the output dynamics under capacity constraints and suggests that the unpredictable and asymmetric pattern of underwriting cycles is a product of temporary responses of outputs to loss shocks. The determinants of the level of output fluctuations are also explored in this study, including the size of loss shock, the extent that the capital market is sensitive to loss shock and the tightness of the capital market.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to revisit the assumption of the cyclicality of the property-liability insurance market and identify a scenario in which the so-called underwriting cycles are unpredictable, according to a dynamic cash flow model which generates non-cyclical output dynamics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is on the intersection of real business cycle models and financial cycles. The authors construct a dynamic model of an insurer's cash flows with stochastic loss shocks and capacity constraints, in which loss shocks have a dual impact on both underwriting profits and access to external capital. They simulate the insurer's optimal output responses to loss shocks, including output movements in underwriting coverage and external capital, to explore the source of unpredictable underwriting cycles through linear quadratic approximation in the model economy.\nFindings: The authors find that the effect of loss shocks on the insurer's cash flows could spread out and amplify over time because of the dynamic interaction between its underwriting capability and ability to raise external capital. This dynamic interaction can generate a non-cyclical pattern of changes in underwriting coverage and access to external capital in the benchmark economy. Applied to different experimental economies, the simulation results reveal that the determinants of the level of output fluctuations include the size of loss shocks, the sensitivity of capital market to loss shocks and the tightness of capital market.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, there has been no attempt to study insurance output cyclicality with a dynamic cash flow model based upon the real business cycle literature, in which the dynamic interaction between underwriting and access to external capital because of loss shocks has an amplifying effect on output markets. This paper contributes to the current body of research by being able to simulate and show the insurance output dynamics resulting from the amplifying effect under capacity constraints.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of national culture on the adoption of environmental management standards: The worldwide diffusion of ISO 14001	[ "ISO 14001", "Performance orientation", "Institutional collectivism", "Instrumental-based concerns", "Legitimacy-based concerns" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent decades firms have faced mounting pressure to assume responsibility for the environmental impact of their activities (Shrivastava, 1995; Colwell and Joshi, 2013). One of the means by which firms respond to this pressure is by implementing environmental management systems (EMSs) (Auld et al., 2008). EMSs are sets of internal organizational practices that make the environmental impact of the firm more transparent and manageable. The implementation of such practices is expected to eventually lead to an improvement on the environmental performance of the firm, for instance, by reducing the emissions of CO2 or improving waste management. Several voluntary management standards have been put forth to enhance the efficacy of EMSs and to monitor the environmental commitment of adopters (Auld et al., 2008; King et al., 2005). These standards assist firms in the implementation of EMSs and can be certified by an accredited certification body. Certification is meant to verify that firms develop their activities according to the requirements established by the standard. From the perspective of firms, adopting one of these standards and certifying their EMS allows them to achieve the double target of controlling and improving their environmental impact and signaling environmental commitment. From the perspective of society, the diffusion of environmental standards allows constituents to evaluate the commitment of firms and adjust their perceptions of the firm accordingly.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 The international diffusion of ISO 14001\n3. Hypotheses development: Our theoretical framework first discusses how national culture determines the extent to which managers in a country are sensitive to instrumental concerns (grounded on economic and operational considerations of the environmental standard) and legitimacy-based concerns (based on the desire to fulfill expectations from stakeholders) when making a decision about the adoption of ISO 14001. Then, we discuss how the effect of national culture on the adoption decision varied over time as the ISO 14001 standard matures.\n4. Empirical analysis: 4.1 Research setting\n5. Results: Table III shows the results of our estimations. The first column is the baseline model. The second column adds the variable performance orientation and the third column adds the variable institutional collectivism. In the fourth column, we include the two cultural dimensions jointly and, in the fifth column, we interact them with the time trend. We discuss our hypotheses with the results of this last model.\n6. Discussion: A deeper understanding of the determinants of the diffusion of environmental proactivity among firms can help policy makers and other stakeholders to work toward a more effective protection of the natural environment. ISO 14001 is one of the most important examples of environmental proactivity. Scholars have devoted significant efforts to understanding the factors behind the irregular diffusion pattern of the standard. Previous research has highlighted the role of the government, the pressures from social movements and public opinion, and the demands from international customers and trade partners (Albuquerque et al., 2007; Delmas and Toffel, 2004; Delmas and Montes-Sancho, 2011). In this paper we discuss a different type of influence; the informal norms and values that characterize national cultures.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how national cultures contribute to explain the uneven diffusion of ISO 14001 across countries. The paper focuses on two of the cultural dimensions developed by the global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness (GLOBE) project, namely, performance orientation and institutional collectivism.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A database containing information about the diffusion of ISO 14001 in 52 countries during the period 1999-2016 was built to carry out this research. The countries considered in this study represent about 90 percent of worldwide ISO 14001 certifications. The information was gathered from publicly available data sources: the ISO Survey, published every year by the International Organization for Standardization, the world development indicators of the World Bank, the cultural dimensions of the GLOBE project and the Index of Economic Freedom provided by The Heritage Foundation.\nFindings: This research finds that both performance orientation and institutional collectivism influence the diffusion of ISO 14001. Whereas performance orientation slows down the diffusion of ISO 14001, institutional collectivism speeds it up. Additionally, this research shows that the slowing effect of performance orientation decreases in strength over time, while the accelerating effect of institutional collectivism becomes stronger.\nOriginality/value: The study adds to the understanding of the influence of national culture on the diffusion of environmental management standards, with an emphasis on ISO 14001. A key contribution of this research is that it explores how the influence of cultural dimensions change over time as a result of the development and maturation of ISO 14001.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Influence of virtual CSR gamification design elements on customers' continuance intention of participating in social value co-creation: The mediation effect of psychological benefit	[ "Psychological benefits", "Continuance participation intention", "Game reward mechanism", "Social value co-creation", "Virtual CSR game" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With the increase in awareness of environmental protection and social welfare among consumers, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a very important tool to improve the public image and brand reputation of enterprises. Meanwhile, with the prevalence of social media and network platforms, many companies have initiated online CSR projects to increase social welfare through social media and network platforms, which has engaged customers in CSR projects and has gained significant economic and social benefits (Korschun and Du, 2013). Nevertheless, customers' resonance and continuance participation intention are weak, due to the ignorance of customers' participation environment and psychological needs in the design of these projects. In order to solve the above problems, some international enterprises have taken the lead in applying gamification, which is the application of game thinking and game mechanism in the non-game background (Deterding et al., 2011; Zichermann and Linder, 2013), to the design of online CSR projects and have developed gamified online CSR projects (e.g. virtual CSR games) (Korschun and Du, 2013). For example, Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) in the Action project, and United Health Group's Optimize Me and Charity Miles App (Yoon, 2017), which are characterized by the provision of a gamified experience environment. In China, Alibaba, Tencent and other internet companies have launched virtual CSR games, such as Alipay's Ant Forest program and Tencent's Donate Steps (sports donation of WeChat and QQ), and have achieved great success. Statistically, by the end of April 2019, the number of users of Ant Forest had exceeded 500m with the planting and conservation of 100m real trees. The above practice highlights that gamification is an effective method to enhance customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation. Therefore, it is of great practical and theoretical significance to explore the influencing mechanism of the gamification experience in a virtual CSR game on customers' continuance participation.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Virtual CSR game and social value co-creation\nCustomers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation: Social value co-creation is beneficial to the public, and customers continuously participating in social value co-creation activities is an effective method to solve some social problems and to promote the progress of society. Therefore, how to engage customers continuously participating in social value co-creation activities has become an important research topic (Jiao and Fan, 2019). Continuance participation intention is a person's psychological intention to do something consistently. The current mainstream interpretation of continuance participation intention derives from Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior, an established socio-psychological conceptual framework used to examine and predict human intentions and behavior. It employs the three central constructs of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control predicting human intentions and behavior. These constructs are apt to explain continuance participation intention from the perspective of rational man before participation, but neglecting the influence of customers' positive psychological emotion (i.e. psychological benefit) after participation in their continuous participation intention. Yet, participating in social value co-creation brings customers more psychological benefits than other gains. Moreover, the previous studies focused on virtual communities, question-and-answer communities and crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing (Al-Debei et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2013; Zheng et al., 2013; Hajli et al., 2015), discussion on continuous participation intention in social value co-creation is seldom. Therefore, this paper attempts to interpret the continuance participation intention from the perspective of psychological benefit in social value co-creation.\nHypotheses and conceptual models: The impact of game reward mechanism on customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation\nOverview of the experiments: In order to verify the above hypotheses, the authors conducted three scenario simulation experiments. They designed Experiment 1 to be a single-factor between-subjects experiment, so as to examine the influencing mechanism of game reward mechanism on customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation. Experiment 2 examined the moderating effect of game narrative mode on the relationship between game reward mechanism and customers' psychological benefit with a between-subjects design of 2 (game narrative mode: emergent vs embedded) x2 (game reward mechanism: behavior-based vs outcome-based). Experiment 3 explored the interactive effect of game placement background, game narrative mode and game reward mechanism on psychological benefit and customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation with a between-subjects experiment design of 2 (background of game placement: life scenes vs consumption scene) x2 (game narrative mode: emergent vs embedded) x2 (game reward mechanism: behavior-based vs outcome-based).\nExperiment 1: the influence of the game reward mechanism on customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation and the mediation effect of psychological benefit: Pretesting\nExperiment 2: the moderating effect of the game narrative mode: Pretesting\nExperiment 3: the moderating effect of the game placement background: Pretesting\nDiscussion: Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of gamification design elements of virtual corporate social responsibility (CSR) game on customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation and the mediation effect of psychological benefit.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three scenario simulation experiments of the between-subjects design were conducted to examine the influencing mechanism of reward mechanism of virtual CSR game on customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation.\nFindings: The findings indicated that: there are significant differences between the effect of behavior-based reward and result-based reward on customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation; the psychological benefit plays a moderating role between game reward mechanism and customers' intention to continuously participate in social value co-creation; the game narrative mode plays a moderating role in the influence of game reward mechanism on customers' intention to continuously participate in social value co-creation; the background for game placement moderates the interactions of game narrative mode and game reward mechanism on customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation, namely there is significant interaction of gamification design elements on psychological benefit and customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research has the following limitations. First, restricted by research conditions, the game scene, as the experiment material, can only be exposed to the participants in the form of text, thus customers' psychological benefit (especially the entertainment experience) may be affected. Second, theoretical argument and literature support were not enough when the authors put forward the research hypotheses, due to the lack of research on the application of gamification in the CSR field. Third, considering the complexity, the authors took the psychological benefit as a unidimensional variable, in this research; it may be funnier to divide it into three variables. Finally, because the game design elements form into a virtual customer environment that jointly influences customers' psychological benefit, the method of qualitative comparative analysis can be considered in future research.\nPractical implications: It provides insights for marketers on the planning and design of a CSR strategy. The conclusions of this research have a certain guiding significance to the formulation of CSR strategy and the practice of social value co-creation. First, enterprises can apply gamification to the design of virtual CSR projects to promote customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation. Second, on the consideration of customers' psychological benefit, enterprises should reasonably match such game design elements as game placement background, game narrative mode and game reward mechanism, when designing a virtual CSR game, so as to promote customers continuously participating in a virtual CSR project.\nSocial implications: Virtual CSR projects are in fact the activities that enterprise co-create social value with their stakeholders. So, the research on customers' continuous participation in virtual CSR projects is helpful for increasing social welfare.\nOriginality/value: This study confirms the effect of reward mechanism of a virtual CSR game on customers' continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation from the perspective of customer psychological benefit. It also provides insights for marketers on the planning and design of a CSR strategy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Change of mind: How organization theory led me to move from studying educational reform to pursuing educational design	[ "Information technology", "Organizational theory", "School reform", "School organization" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: I have been teaching a seminar on educational reform in the USA for a couple of decades. A few years ago, something unprecedented happened. About halfway through the course, the students had read Tyack's The One Best System. During a class discussion, Amy, a doctoral student in psychology, burst out, \"I got it!\" When I asked what she got, she explained, bearing the unmistakable look of a person for whom the proverbial light had gone on: \"I took this class to learn how to fix schools so that they would do a better job of teaching students from low-income, minority communities. What I get is that schools don't need to be 'fixed;' they're not broken. They do exactly what they were designed to do.\"\nResearch on educational reform: institutional theory as an analytic framework: I explain to colleagues outside of education that my research, for the most part, has examined how schools, as complex organizations, respond to their external environments. Specifically, this has meant studying how schools have responded to educational policy aimed at reforming public education to improve overall academic performance and to close the so-called \"achievement gap\" between more affluent white and Asian students and students from low-income and culturally and linguistically non-dominant communities.\nApplying organization theory to design: Systems for learning and teaching\nConcluding remarks: The point of this essay is that, informed by my attempts to apply organization theory to improve educational opportunities for students from so-called \"underserved\" communities, I have had a change of mind. My research applied organization theory, institutional theory in particular, to examine different forms of educational reform to identify and understand ways to improve the academic performance of schools. Institutional theory explains that organizations shape themselves to conform to general societal rules (Meyer and Rowan, 1977) to gain and maintain legitimacy, enabling them to attract resources and survive (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Meyer and Rowan, 1977). When institutional environments lack clear technical rules and means to assess outcomes, organizations decouple formal structure from activity to avoid potential losses of legitimacy if structure and activity do not match (Meyer and Rowan, 1977; Rowan and Miskel, 1999). Institutional theory, thus, helped to explain the findings of my research that, while districts and schools \"restructured\" their administrative organizations in response to shifts in their policy environments, little changed in the instructional practices of teachers. Even when we found that a district's response to state accountability pressures resulted in the enforcement of strict instructional protocols which directly impacted teachers' instructional practices of teachers, these practices were more traditional than innovative.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is for the author to recount how his use of organizational theory to understand educational reform in the USA led to a change of mind.\nDesign/methodology/approach: My shift resulted from my conclusion, derived from the new institutionalism, that only marginal changes can be made in schools and, thus, fundamental change requires the design and construction of new systems.\nFindings: I moved from applying organization theory to find ways in which schools could improve academic outcomes for students, generally, and students from underserved communities, specifically to using organization theory to develop conditions that support efforts to design new systems to support learning.\nOriginality/value: This paper's contribution is that it encourages students of school organization to consider applying their theoretical perspectives to designing innovative social arrangements to foster learning and teaching.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding dynamics of intellectual capital of nations	[ "Intellectual capital", "Group dynamics", "Knowledge creation", "Countries" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: Over the last ten years, intellectual capital (IC) has been the subject of several interesting developments, which led to its establishment as a recognised field of research and action. Yet, in spite of the already observed effort IC research is still in its infancy, and there is a need to consider to what extent it contributes in a sufficient way, to problematizing managerial and policy issues of the knowledge economy. One of these challenges lies in considering the dynamic aspects of performance, and how IC research can address it in a proper way.To consider further this question, we briefly review the genesis of the IC perspective as a field of research, over the last 15 years. The first wave started earlier-mid 1990s and adopted mainly a microeconomic perspective. It was for the most focused on how intellectual capital can be modelled, measured and reported on. Here, different models and taxonomies have been proposed (Edvinsson and Malone, 1997; Sveiby, 1997; Stewart, 1997; Bounfour, 1998a, b; Roos et al., 1998; Canibano Calvo et al., 2002; Mouritsen et al., 2001; Lev, 2001; Gu and Lev, 2001; among others). These contributions were useful in two ways. First they made evident the importance of intellectual capital for companies' competitiveness in the knowledge economy. And second, they help to establish a relatively homogeneous taxonomy by breaking down intellectual capital into three main blocks - human capital, structural capital, and relational capital, that is among those the most frequently used. Some of these taxonomies have extended to the analysis of intellectual capital performance at national level (Bontis, 2004, 2005).Quite simultaneously, several scholars, taking a strategic management perspective, addressed the issue of IC management from a dynamic perspective. These scholars put forward the argument that we should go further the first generation of taxonomies, and instead of focusing on rather static categories of IC they emphasised that different elements of IC play different roles in different contexts, for specific types of companies or for specific types of organisations. The dynamic aspects of IC appear here as closely related to the idiosyncratic nature of performance.The dynamic approach to intellectual capital has been developed by IC strategist scholars. Its roots can be found in the resource-base view of the firm (RBV) as well as in the dynamic capability approach. RBV considered the firm as a bundle of resources - mainly intangibles (Barney, 1991; Grant, 1996; Peteraf, 1993; Wenerfelt, 1984). From this framework resources that are of high relevance for competitive advantage are specifically those which are valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable (the so-called VRIN attributes). This framework has been the subject of many critiques, related notably the difficulty of defining and identifying VRIN resources.The dynamic capabilities approach aimed at addressing some of the RBV weaknesses, especially by providing a more operational analytical framework. Teece et al. (1997) defined dynamic capability as \"the firm's ability to integrate, build and reconfigure internal and external competencies to address rapidly changing environments\". A concept similar to the \"combinative capabilities\", as defined by Kogut and Zander earlier (Kogut and Zander, 1992). This definition has been criticised by Zollo and Winter, as they consider it \"as troublesome near-tautology in defining a capability as ability\" (Zollo and Winter, 1999, p. 4), and from their perspective the conditions of formation of capabilities are not explicitly defined by Teece et al. They connect capability with routine, especially in the context of what they called \"knowledge evolution cycle\". Therefore, the authors defined a dynamic capability as \"a learned pattern of collective activity through which the organization systematically generates and modifies its operational routines in pursuit of improved effectiveness\" (Zollo and Winter, 1999, p. 10). In a later paper Winter (2002) addressed in more details the issue of dynamic capabilities. He made a distinction between ordinary \"zero level\" capabilities, (i.e. those capabilities that \"permit to the firm to make living in the short term\") from dynamic capabilities that contribute to the extension, modification or creation of ordinary capabilities. These have been named elsewhere \"high-order capabilities\" (Collis, 1994).Einsenhardt and Martin (2000) defined dynamic capabilities as a set of identifiable and specific processes (development processes or alliance processes etc.) dedicated to articulating resources and competencies within companies, e.g. Toyota's system for product development or Cisco's approach to competences building and web-based articulation or Nokia's development processes. These processes are endowed with commonalities in key features and idiosyncrasy in details. Recently Leoncini et al. (2003) proposed an interesting literature review on dynamic capabilities from two perspectives: the organisational lens (strategic and evolutionary) and environmental lens (milieu innovateur, industrial district, regional system, new industrial space approaches). They also suggest a system approach for analyzing dynamic capabilities. A system-based dynamic IC view has also been developed in Finland by Stahle (Stahle and Gronroos, 2000; Stahle and Hong, 2002; Hong and Stahle, 2005, Stahle et al., 2003a,b) and its practical applications have been widely implemented in the country. Kianto (former Poyhonen) has further developed this Finnish approach on dynamic IC (Poyhonen, 2004) and she notably put forward the lack of a shared understanding with regards to this dimension. Kianto concludes to the importance of developing a roadmap for intellectual capital dynamics in the research area and praxis (Kianto, 2007).All these dynamic approaches have concentrated on IC at organizational level, and it is still an open question to what extent the organizational IC approaches can be extended to national levels. We think that organisational and microeconomic frameworks should be used and interpreted with care in the context of national levels (Bounfour, 2003; Bontis, 2005; Pulic, 2005; Stahle and Stahle, 2006). However, some statements of the issue can be made. First, the performance of an organisation/a nation is mainly based on the deployment of a \"combinatory function\". Such a combinatory function is for the most organisation/nation specific and distinctive by nature. This is a fundamental basis in the current IC literature. And second, there is a clear opportunity to mobilise IC based resources for supporting an organization's/a nation's performance, provided that the effective IC drivers are properly identified. On the other hand, since there is no established framework for national IC, respective research must be deployed on experimental bases. Such a set of experimental approaches should constitute the hub of the analysis of country specific dynamic capabilities.\nII. How to tackle IC dynamics of nations?: When moving to national level IC dynamics, the organization level definitions of IC can be partly taken as a point of departure. The presented taxonomies help identify IC indicators, idiosyncrasy and systems perspectives refer to interdependency of various indicators, and dynamic capability approach emphasizes the strategic dimension of IC - all these are important also on national level analyses. However, the tools and methodologies presented by these IC approaches as well as the respective definitions of IC dynamics are still as such insufficient for reliable national level analyses. In this paper we mean by dynamic perspective simply the influence and impact that different elements of IC have on economical (or otherwise desired) performance. We argue that the focus on national level analyses must be put on the real effects of IC, and for basic analyses these need to be identified on national statistics and numerical data. The perspective of the analyses must be focused more on dynamic IC drivers than dynamic capabilities or IC taxonomies. In this paper we make an exercise towards a framework and principles for an analyses that could tackle IC dynamics of nations.The point of departure\nIII Conclusions: Intellectual capital is no doubt a major factor for economical growth. Even if not all IC components boost economical growth, they are still necessary components of developed economies. Some IC components function as pillars, some as drivers for economical growth in developed economies, and these pillars and drivers are different in economies on dissimilar economic levels. These facts make IC analysis complex, since the results cannot be projected into different contexts without meeting developmental resemblances of the economies.The analysis further shows that not all economical drivers can be regarded as IC in its original meaning, e.g. trade openness or utilization of natural resources. This makes the identification of IC rooted economical effects even that more difficult. Our study outlines how analysis that focuses on the dynamics of IC (=time dependent and driver specific relations) gives new insight into how IC effectively is linked to national economical growth in different situations. This insight, though tedious to accomplish, sharpens insight on how to measure the real value of IC and how national specifics are to be acknowledged in the measures.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper aims at creating understanding on the dynamics of intellectual capital (IC), which has emerged recently as one of the major issues on the research agenda. The theme is studied from a national point of view.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The analysis has been conducted using data from the IMD Competitiveness Report covering the data of 51 countries from the years 2000-2005. Data analysis is aimed at analysing time dependent relationships between intellectual capital and GNP growth. The research provides parameters of four types of effects for a nation's GNP growth: sustaining effects, boosting effects, linear growth potential and exponential growth potential. Based on the developmental stage of the countries they were grouped to: developing; transitional; and developed countries, and the effects of IC was studied within and between these groups.\nFindings: - The analysis specifies the types of IC factors that have important effects on economic growth on different level of economics. The analysis also provides an analytical framework for designing the context in which IC of nations can be adequately considered in the mid-long term perspective.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research has to be considered as exploratory. It has been conducted using only one database with certain limitations. Further research is needed especially by integrating other components of intellectual capital, e.g. reputation, decision-making processes, and cultural dimension.\nPractical implications: - From a practical perspective the findings also provide important guidelines and framework for policy makers.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides a new view on the dynamics of IC at national level by relating IC ingredients to economic performance and specifying under which circumstances IC has important effects on national GNP growth.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Room to grow: business location, global expansion and resource deficits	[ "Emerging markets", "International business" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Companies considering a realignment of their global business platform face a more complicated set of business choices than ever before. Not only are many of the most popular investment locations at, or close to, saturation but is often difficult to know if resources are oversubscribed in the early stages of site evaluations. Local authorities have become very sophisticated at promoting the positive features of their markets while downplaying the negative.\nMyths about foreign locations: Some 50-plus countries today are looking to expand their global businesses. Executives often struggle with identifying those most suited for their proposed expansions because they often are not equipped to navigate the international market. They may base their initial recommendations assumptions such as these:developing countries have a relatively unlimited supply of land appropriate for industrial development;developing countries have a relatively unlimited supply of low-cost and compliant labor;developing countries are so eager for foreign investment that land-use zoning and environmental permitting will not be a problem;labor availability, transportation systems and utilities are all available or can be purchased with ease;developing countries have lower environmental standards than industrialized nations;the value proposition of a developing country is without limits; andlocal management and other professionals will move to a remote or undesirable location if a job is available.\nThe reality of physical expansion: Governments throughout the world have a wide range of attitudes on foreign investment. Some countries insist on maintaining direct responsibility for acquiring and developing land as well as planning approvals and issuing promotion incentives. At the other extreme are countries that defer all aspects of the development of industrial sites to private developers. Across this spectrum, there exist varying and complex arrays of stakeholders in each country whose approvals and endorsements are required for the establishment of an operations business. While some countries have seen the emergence of \"one-stop-shop\" organizations that provide a link to all stakeholders and authorities, others lack such integrated investor assistance services. Without help, it is quite common for investors to find themselves bogged down for months, or even years, in obtaining appropriate permits and approvals. The challenges faced by foreign investors entering emerging markets are shown below.Land availability\nChina - everything in short supply!: China is the most active country for new manufacturing projects. What receives less publicity is the shortage of just about all the resources that a manufacturing operation requires to convert raw materials to finished product.On the popular Eastern Seaboard where the Chinese government has focused its infrastructure investment, finding a location that provides all the resources necessary to the manufacturing process is getting tougher. In and around Shanghai, few sites capable of supporting large-scale investment remain. The same is true of the Pearl River Delta area in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Water availability is increasingly a \"hot button\" issue for government, investors and the population in general. Electricity, historically very problematic in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province, is now more readily available yet high-pressure steam remains in short supply and natural gas is not yet available in many areas.Significant issues facing foreign investors in China also include:land is at an all-time premium;quality sites can be difficult to find;the need to optimize the utilization of land is resulting in greater pressure on governments to increase investment density requirements (the amount of capital investment required on each square meter of land);phasing an investment over an extended period of time is out of the question;there is no longer an ability to reserve land for future use;skilled talent and management remains in short supply; andissues of pollution are enormous and likely to affect both the willingness of expatriates to locate in China and buyer perceptions in home countries.\nThe upside of scarce resources: Companies tend to solve the problems that exist in their markets. German car companies design cars for autobahns with no speed limits. Japanese car companies are very successful with high-quality, high-mileage smaller cars. Companies in high-energy-cost markets develop more efficient products. Firms operating in markets with strict legislation in areas such as recycling develop innovative products that address requirements.Extending operations to countries with different constraints than the US has also offers a multinational investor some less obvious upsides. The management approaches, technologies and processes developed for these demanding markets can be adapted for the US, becoming a portfolio of resources, knowledge and skills that can reduce risks around resource constraints and energy prices. In many cases, innovations developed for these markets translate into superior manufacturing processes - consider Toyota's emphasis upon just-in-time inventory, or innovative consumer products from Japan, where home living space is very much at a premium.\nSteps to assess suitable locations: 1. Understand and gather \"as is\" situations. Gather comparative data and metrics for all global operations, including locations, functions supported, processes, languages, costs of ownership, supply base, operating conditions, and taxes.2. Model scenario-based \"to be\" situations. Develop five-to-seven-year, scenario-based projections for operating and financial requirements based on:revenue growth and margin requirements;function and process requirements (business process, technology, voice);customer requirements;language requirements;time zone coverage; andglobal taxation.1. Develop a strategy to fill gaps between the \"as is\" and \"to be\" footprint:identify gaps between capabilities and current/projected future requirements;determine optimal geographic locations to fill short- and long-term voids;identify appropriate balance of emerging vs. established markets; anddevelop short- and long-term deployment strategy to address business, operating, and financial needs.1. Modify the footprint:determine the sequence of initiatives to emerge from assessment;develop implementation and transition plans;develop a project execution plan; andexecute.When reconfiguring the global business platform and making investments in emerging markets it is important to recognize that the initial specifications and parameters developed for the investment will nearly always require revision. If you are not considering the issue of oversubscription of resources and are inflexible with project requirements, you will likely incur large time delays finding appropriate locations for operations and in the start-up and long-term sustainability of operations. In some cases, a lack of flexibility may result in failure for the project. An oversubscription situation may require direct investment or sponsorship in infrastructure development and human resources in order for an operation to be successful.Issues of oversubscription will undoubtedly grow as companies continue to globalize operations and as countries industrialize, adding stress on the resources required to support development. Increasing demands on the environment and oversubscription of resources is also likely to attract the attention of ethical investors and lobbying groups. Managers need to develop a strategy of not overtaxing local resources and seek credit for investment in local infrastructure and training.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Building a sustainable global business platform is increasingly a fundamental requirement for success in today's marketplace. What is less well understood by many companies is that international locations can bring with them concealed business establishment and mid- to long-term operational risks that are specific and unique to each micro-geography. This paper discusses some of the challenges and risks associated with the oversubscription of local resources.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article discusses some of the issues a company is likely to encounter when establishing business operations in emerging markets. Observations and viewpoints have been derived from working in emerging markets and assisting companies select locations for business operations.\nFindings: - This article examines the hidden risks of international expansion. We find there are at three common challenges that are often encountered: labor market issues, land availability, and provision of utilities.\nOriginality/value: - Executives charged with determining where to expand the company operations should be aware of the challenges associated with the over-subscription of resources in emerging markets and plan accordingly. If you are not considering the issue of oversubscription of resources and are inflexible with project requirements, it is likely that the project will likely incur significant time delays identifying appropriate locations for operations, delays in the start-up and challenges with long-term sustainability of operations. In some cases, a lack of flexibility results in failure for the project.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
ILL transactions - a next step? The Danish experience and new possibilities	[ "Interlending", "Standards", "Denmark", "Libraries", "Document delivery", "Library automation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the last ten years it has become well-known, that the ISO ILL standards (ISO, 1997a, b, c) in real life are obsolete. For example Mary Jackson in 2005 wrote an article (Jackson, 2005) about the cessation of development of these standards.The main problem with the ISO ILL standards is not that they were made before the world-wide-web, but that the basic model for these standards is:* a borrower has some reference to a book or an article;* a librarian makes a qualified guess about which other library/libraries have a reasonable chance of owning it; and* then the librarian sends a request to this best-guess library.But that is no longer the real world.Nowadays the borrower normally searches and finds - and asks for it. And if not: a librarian searches and finds - and sends a request. Search will normally be through some general user interface with holdings from several library collections: regional union catalogues, article vendors' database, national union database or maybe world-wide in WorldCat.org.So the model of ISO ILL - to send the request to a library that a librarian guesses has the title in its stock - is out of date. But that is not all. The standards intend to solve all problems - even problems that would normally not be handled using a protocol other than an email or phone call librarian to librarian. The technicalities in the standard are old but not old-fashioned, just old.The ISO ILL standards were developed in the framework of Open Systems Interconnection, which in real life has been replaced by TCP/IP as the basis for the Internet. The ISO ILL model has a global level \"ILL-transaction state\". This includes prescribing that the two ILL databases should be synchronous. This implies that a status request shall result in restoring the transaction which seems to be lost. This is rather complicated. More about this issue will follow after a description of the development in Denmark.\n2. ILL technical processes in Denmark: In Denmark we have over the last 12-14 years developed a continuous system from search to delivery. This article focuses on the technical aspects of ILL itself: but first a few sentences about the workflow.As a starting point we decided to base, if possible, the format of the messages on XML to ensure future interoperability and general usefulness. After some discussion at a ZIG-meeting (The Library of Congress, 2000) it was decided to use XML as the encoding method for the (The Library of Congress, 2002) and later an XML schema for ILL transactions was registered at the Z39.50 Maintenance Agency (The Library of Congress, 2003).The handling of search, holdings requests and ILL requests between Danish libraries is described in the danZIG-profile specification (Danish Library Agency, 2007). This profile was developed and maintained by the danZIG - a working group appointed by the Danish Agency for Libraries and Media. The group consists of representatives from the Danish vendors of integrated library systems, other relevant companies and some systems librarians.The specification of ILL transactions in the danZIG-profile was based on which transactions were asked for by Danish libraries. Together with the Danish ILL user group of that time we ran some studies of practice and, based on this study, the relevant transactions and code values were selected.Nowadays the work flow in general terms is:* a search in the national union catalogue;* a holdings request to libraries with the title in their collection; and* an ILL request to the most relevant library.The search is conducted either in bibliotek.dk (English user interface: library.dk) by an end user or in DanBib by a librarian.The holdings request can be done in several ways. Today most end users just ask for the material and let the system handle the details. The end user can request in the bibliotek.dk user interface and the librarian in DanBib. See more details in Brink and Andresen (2011), another article in this issue.The holdings requests are sent using the Z39.50 Holdings Schema. Based on the response, the most relevant library is selected - and the request is forwarded to this library (using an extended service in Z39.50 carrying an XML version of ISO ILL messages). In the response the library also gives the unique identifier for the requested bibliographic item (monograph, serial or article).The specified transactions in danZIG are:* ILL-REQUEST.* STATUS-QUERY.* ILL-ANSWER.* STATUS-OR-ERROR-REPORT.* CANCEL.* CANCEL-REPLY.* RECALL.* OVERDUE.* RENEW.* RENEW-ANSWER.* SHIPPING.So the Danish specification is limited: it only consists of some of the transactions and code values in ISO ILL standards. But the implemented part of the transactions is even more limited:* ILL-REQUEST.* ILL-ANSWER.* CANCEL.* CANCEL-REPLY.* RENEW.* RENEW-ANSWER.* SHIPPING.Five years ago in this journal a detailed, and still valid, exposition of the use of Z39.50 for holdings requests and ILL was given (Petersen and Lose, 2006) in Denmark.\n3. The ILL transactions in practical use: The mentioned transactions in practical use are described in more details. The purpose is to illustrate how simple the well functioning Danish implementation works (Tables I and II).The used part of the possible elements ILL-request is very limited. The reason is that most requests today are made with the knowledge of holdings in a specific library. There is then a very short step to obtaining the unique identification from the remote system - and to reuse this identification in the ILL request. More information is only necessary for requests for parts of the bibliographic item. For example articles in printed journals, where the reference is the journal, need more information (article title, author, pages etc.) (Table III).The intended function is that the requested library sends an immediate ILL answer based on the information in the library database. If this answer is \"unfilled\", the case is finished. If the answer is \"will-supply\" and \"hold-placed\" and the requested library can later find the item on the shelves, a follow-up ILL-answer will be sent.Cancel: no specific data (Table IV). Renew: no specific data (Table V).To include item identification in SHIPPING gives great value when a library receives books, CDs etc: just read the item identification and the request in the local ILL-base is identified and the borrower is identified (Table VI). An e-mail to the borrower is sent automatically and a slip for the book is printed. The result is an interaction between systems with high levels of automation. Recalls are sent to libraries by email just like recalls to the local borrowers.\n4. Connection to the ISO ILL standards: The specification is tied to the ISO ILL standard; which has resulted in a much more complicated function than is needed, even though transactions like DAMAGE, LOST and MESSAGE are not part of the specification. There is no reason for a specific transaction like DAMAGE. Of course an item can be damaged, but an email or a phone call is simpler. Encoding the possible handling into a system, send a transaction and let the system de-encode the information at the other end - so a librarian can read the information is to make a simple interaction far too complex.The set of transactions STATUS-QUERY and STATUS-OR-ERROR-REPORT will never be implemented. The transaction STATUS-OR-ERROR-REPORT is extremely complex and would make it possible for the requesting library to ask for all the information sent earlier, so that the statuses in the data base could be updated and reflect the information in the remote database. That is a beautiful idea, but not realistic in real life.The Danish library system vendors would have implemented STATUS-QUERY if the response has been as simple as:* NO: no pending request with this transaction-id.* YES: a transaction will be send reflecting the actual status.And if YES one of these:* ILL-ANSWER with expected day of delivery - or status \"unfilled\".* A SHIPPING if the material is sent - with date.\n5. Other initiatives: The fact that ISO ILL is not up to date and does not use the main stream XML for data transport has, of course, been discussed in different forums.One relevant initiative is the request transfer message (RTM) (OCLC, 2008) which is a simple mechanism compatible with our method for requesting. The OpenURL RTM is for direct requests for loan, copy, access to lookup or digitisation of an item - to be used for directing requests to resource delivery systems and/or electronic resolver systems.RTM was developed after the introduction of XML based ILL in Denmark and is only for requesting - not for the administrative transactions afterwards. On the other hand RTM is interesting because it also covers digital documents.At the 10th Interlending and Document Supply Conference in Singapore Janifer Gatenby presented an idea to develop Request Notification and Request Enquiry by extending the openURL Request Transfer schema (Gatenby, 2007).Request Transfer Message and the proposed notification message have been discussed in Denmark in the danZIG working group. These initiatives seem to be a good platform for further work. However in Denmark ILL transactions flow unhindered between systems from different vendors, so we do not have an actual need for an update. But we are aware of the development in the rest of the world and know that a next step will come one day.\n6. A next step for ISO ILL standards: Danish libraries do not have an actual need to update from the ISO ILL stage. We have already taken the next step of upgrading to XML and it works well. But we are happy to contribute our experience. The keyword in our development is effectiveness and simplicity!And of course: if the rest of the world takes another next step, the Danish libraries will need to keep up with such a development.The responsible organisation - ISO TC46/SC4 - Information and documentation. Technical Interoperability - decided at the May 2011 meeting to have an agenda item on the May 2012 meeting on the future for ILL standards and an ad hoc group[1] to prepare this has been established. This is an obvious point at which to discuss the successor for the ISO 10160 and ISO 10161 standards.Everything would be simpler if the condition of being synchronous is dropped. Then we just can replace the ISO ILL with some messages and code values and separately define protocols for the exchange of the transactions.To support the needs identified for Danish libraries a request and answer is needed. But all the relevant messages between libraries can be described very simply:* The header: transaction-id, date and time, requester-id, and responder-id.* Date-of-service: date-due, date-shipped.* Answer: yes or no.To make sure a future standard can work world-wide this attitude maybe too simple. Nonetheless I am sure that it can be done more simply than the current set up.There is still a need for making the interactions betweens systems to handle ILL for physical material more automated to make our job more effective. Many requests can now be fulfilled with digital access, but not all.For the digital age the main problem is the handling of requests for (mostly) articles, for which the user library does not have a licence. Fortunately many licences have conditions, where different kinds of ILL are possible. The unfortunate part is that these conditions include very many constraints and variations imposed by the publishers.In Denmark we have several different licence conditions for ILL: from e-mail delivery of pdf-files to printed copies to be collected by the end user at the local library of the user. We plan to handle this on a national level as described in another article in this issue (Brink and Andresen, 2011). But this will only be a national Danish solution; so a new ILL-answer transaction needs to have possible values of delivery methods to describe this.One question can be: what about all the possible notes in ISO ILL? The answer is simple: notes are not for automatic handling. We can include notes, but the handling of notes is asking for human interaction for the message receiving library. Only use notes when absolutely needed.For requests for parts of the bibliographic item, more information is necessary. Articles in printed journals, where the reference is the journal, need more information such as article title and author. But with qualified handling of elements like year, issue and pages more automatic functions can be possible.\n7. Conclusion: The Danish implementation shows that a simple solution can work and can work effectively. On the basis of this and the mentioned initiatives about request and notification transfer messages in XML format it will be possible to develop an ISO standard with a new generation of ILL.The keywords are efficiency, simplicity and XML.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to show a new route for inter-library lending (ILL) standards.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper describes the Danish ILL solution, and on the basis of this, suggests a proposal for further work.\nFindings: - Focussing on simplicity gives better service.\nOriginality/value: - The Danish ILL implementation has a high level of automation based on simple transactions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Market potential of lignans and omega-3 functional cookies	[ "Purchase intentions", "Functional", "Consumer preferences", "Flaxseed", "Lignans", "Omega-3 fatty acids" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Functional foods can be developed from practically any food through enrichment, fortification, alteration, or enhancement of its specific components. The most popular among those are probiotics, prebiotics, drinks, cereals, bakery products, spreads while foods considered \"fun foods\" such as candies, snacks or other confectionaries, are perceived in a nutritionally negative way and considered no to \"add good to your life\" (Siro et al., 2008; Kraus, 2015). Nevertheless, confectionery foods can be important factor on the rising functional food market (Siro et al., 2008), since by default they have a good taste and large consumer market, a key factor for achieving the market success (Pickford and Jardine, 2000; Kraus, 2015). Consumers' acceptance of functional foods has been extensively researched (Verbeke, 2005; Siro et al., 2008; Vella et al., 2014; Kraus, 2015), but studies on the perception of the specific confectionery functional food were not often reported. Thus, this research looked into the market potential of functional cookies from the viewpoint and preferences of Croatian consumer as a member of the EU food market. Cookies were chosen as a carrier product due to apparently huge popularity. Namely, in 2015 Euromonitor International reported cookies and snack bars surpassing chocolate confectionery, to be the second biggest snack category globally. Over 2010-2015, cookies were the fastest growing snack category, and will continue to grow strongly over 2015-2020. Additionally the \"Biscuits and cakes market update 2014\" by Research and Markets stated that in the cookie sector the best performed area were healthy cookies. Demand for cookies \"in general remains high, as consumers still like to treat themselves regularly\", while authors of the report \"forecast total market growth of 14.8 per cent between 2014 and 2018\".\n2. Materials and methods: 2.1 Questionnaire\n3. Results: Participants were observed through following categories: gender, age, occupation, education level, and size of residence. Only significant differences within categories will be mentioned.\n4. Discussion: 4.1 Consumption of cookies\n5. Conclusion: Croatian consumers showed moderately elevated interest for functional cookies enriched with omega-3 fatty acids and lignans, especially older women. This conclusion was driven by the data showing that 93 per cent of participants ate cookies regularly. On the other hand, natural source of omega-3 and lignans, flaxseed, was rarely consumed. Indeed, consumers could be more encouraged to eat flaxseed through education and raising the nutrition awareness, but one should also not neglect the potential and popularity of confectionery products to be a vehicle for delivery of limited nutrients in the everyday diet. In that sense, cookies could be enriched with flaxseed and used as a pathway for introducing flaxseed to the wider public, especially to the younger population which is more prone to consume sweet products, but were not particularly health-conscious and able to reach the flaxseed by itself. Nevertheless, when considering this approach employment of social marketing campaigns should be considered by the cookie producers, since a high percentage of participants were not sure about the purchase of the functional cookies, so they might need persuading. This was well aligned with the fact that nutritional knowledge about omega-3 and lignans positively correlated with the interest for the functional cookie. So it might be a prudent investment to finance educational campaigns (recruit new consumers and advertise products at the same time), and use food labels to deliver messages about functionality of the product. For purchase, cookies should be appealing with a pleasant taste. The price margin might be up to 10-20 per cent higher than for conventional cookies that could account for the expenses of marketing campaigns. However, producers should also state the recommended daily amounts for cookie consumption in order to avoid overconsumption of calories. This is necessary since consumers may be distracted by the positive effects of the cookie consumption, thus forgetting the potentially high intake of lipids, sugars and other caloric content.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Cookies were not generally viewed as functional contributors to well-being as they are primarily perceived as confectionery products. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential of flaxseed-enriched cookies as carriers of lignans and omega-3 fatty acids - functional compounds that are lacking in the western diet.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online questionnaire collected data from Croatian consumers (n=1,035). The majority of the samples were women (73 per cent) in the age range 15-65 years (97 per cent). Most participants were employed, had a higher education degree, and lived in urban areas. Questions examined the consumption of cookies and flaxseed, interest for functional cookies, nutritional knowledge, and awareness.\nFindings: Majority of subjects consumed cookies (93 per cent), while 61 per cent did not eat flaxseed or ate it less than once a month. The consumers showed elevated interest for the functional cookies with flaxseed, among which elderly women with higher nutrition awareness, and nutrition knowledge were the most interested. Functional cookies with flaxseed could be used for delivery of lignans and omega-3 fatty acids in everyday diet, but in order to reach wider range of consumers producers might benefit from employing nutritional educational marketing campaigns.\nOriginality/value: Data from the study decreased scarcity of information on consumer behaviour related to flaxseed consumption and on potential use of cookies as a functional food. Reported findings will be useful to dieticians, food industry, and food researchers in countries with a high prevalence of cookie consumption.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Teachers as reform leaders in Chinese schools	[ "China", "Organizational structure", "Teacher leadership", "Middle leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper analyzes the influence of middle and teacher leaders on the enactment of educational reforms at three schools in southeastern China. It does so by examining the layers of leadership roles and development structures that enhance their impact on the reform process. In the literature, teacher leaders lack official hierarchical authority, yet their professional practice influences other colleagues (Fairman and Mackenzie, 2015; Muijs and Harris, 2006). Middle leaders have formal positions within schools' organizational hierarchies, link senior leaders with teachers and, typically, have teaching responsibilities (Bennett et al., 2007; Irvine and Brundrett, 2019).\nThe potential influence of teacher leadership: Research in educational leadership has recognized the crucial role of principals of effective schools on the shaping of teaching conditions and the design of schools' organizational structures (Day et al., 2008; Leithwood et al., 2008). An aspect of school design concerns the distribution of leadership to formal and informal leaders (Spillane, 2006) and the deliberate structures, or architecture (Murphy, 2013), that are put in place to facilitate this distribution (Hopkins et al., 2013).\nSchool leadership structure: The formal leadership structure in Shenzhen is familiar across China. It includes senior leaders, principals and vice-principals. Under China's Principal Accountability System, principals are ultimately responsible for implementing reforms in schools (Zheng et al., 2013). Vice-principals for teaching and learning report to the principal and directly supervise two directors, also referred to as Department Heads. The Director of Teaching Affairs is responsible for instruction for the whole school, and the Director of Teaching Research for professional development and school-based research. The directors supervise subject heads, who, in turn, work with subject area teaching teams. Both lead departments that interact with all subjects, but with different foci. Although the directors usually do not teach, they report to senior leaders, the vice-principals and principals, and as such are middle leaders, albeit at a higher tier than subject heads. The subject heads also have leadership and classroom teaching responsibilities. Figure 1 illustrates the formal leaders found in Chinese schools' organizational hierarchy.\nResearch design: In addition to Shanghai, Shenzhen provides an appropriate point of access to understand the influence of middle and teacher leaders on school reform in China. Shenzhen is an important jurisdiction due to its status as a national leader in economic development and an early adopter of educational reforms. However, many other cities in China are following Shanghai and Shenzhen in experiencing rapid economic development and implementing education reforms initiated by central authorities. Shenzhen's experience, coupled with that of Shanghai, provides a microcosm for understanding the potential of engaging middle and teacher leaders.\nFindings: The findings analyze three cases of schools engaged in curriculum reform. They articulate the direction for reform as envisioned by principals and then analyze the role and influence of middle and teacher leaders. For each case, a table summarizes participants who have influenced reform efforts, their position in the school, subjects that they teach, their years of experience as educators, their role in reform and the influence that they have had. The number of times participants identified leaders as influencers of reform is included to indicate the perceived influence of each leader. Pseudonyms begin with the same letter as the school name so that readers may readily associate individuals with schools.\nThe scope and influence of middle and teacher leaders on educational reform: This research examined the influence of middle leaders and teacher leaders on reform efforts. Middle leaders included directors of teaching affairs and teaching research, and subject heads. At Lingfu and Hushi, the directors were viewed as administrators of reform but not as leaders who influenced the reform direction or adoption by teachers. At Muti, the directors' recognition as master teachers and their resulting influence over subject heads enabled them more directly to influence reform adoption. The influence of subject heads also varied across schools. In Lingfu, subject heads were not actively engaged in leading reforms. In Hushi, subject heads were influential over members of their subject teams, whereas in Muti, subject heads were recognized for their expertise and acted as pioneers of the reform. Their work with cross-disciplinary collaborators carried their influence across the school.\nConclusion: This paper has examined the roles of middle and teacher leaders in the reform process in three schools in Shenzhen, China. The schools each identified specific reforms or innovations to meet the aims of district and national reform frameworks. The findings showed that across schools, middle and teacher leadership roles were established to support reform efforts. However, only in one school did teachers identify middle leaders having strong influence in enacting reform. Middle leaders were recognized as influential when they worked closely together and with teacher leaders.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of teacher leadership on the enactment of educational reforms in southeastern China. It considers how the work of middle and teacher leaders in schools is structured to support reform enactment at the school level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research was conducted in three case study sites in one school district in Shenzhen, China. Low, moderate and high academic achieving schools which had engaged teacher leaders in instructional reforms were selected. A combined total of 34 senior, middle and teacher leaders participated in semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed through a comparative coding process.\nFindings: Across the three schools, teacher leaders without positional authority strongly influenced the instructional reforms. Their influence was strongest when bolstered by a combination of formal recognition systems, opportunities to lead projects that were directly related to the reform efforts, and mentorship systems that skilled novice teachers in reform-related skills and experienced teachers in leading reform enactment. Mechanisms and structures embedded in schools, when coherently focused on selected reforms, supported the efficacy of teachers without formal authority. And, middle leaders' impact was enhanced when working collaboratively with formal and teacher leaders.\nOriginality/value: This research yields insight on teacher leaders' influence of reform. It considers how the work of middle and teacher leaders can be structured as a collective that impacts on reform enactment at the school level. And, it illuminates teacher leadership in a Chinese context other than the scrutinized Shanghai school system.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Interlending and document supply: a review of the recent literature: 86	[ "Public Libraries", "PDA", "Open access", "CHORUS", "Readcube", "SHARE" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nOpen access: This review has often observed that Open Access (OA) publishing is having, and will continue to have, a profound effect on ILL and all those who work in it - opportunities and threats abound. Hence, I cover developments in some detail. However, peering into the future is hard, let alone making reasonable predictions, when so many momentous initiatives are playing out - Finch/OSTP/FASTR/Horizon 2020, etc. - all familiar to regular readers of this review. Therefore, this section starts with an admirable overview of the current state of play - one that tries to bring into balance the technological advances, their \"Wow\" effect and the hard reality of a researcher's life and, hence, their publication routines. Some quotes alone give a good impression of an article that if you read just one as a result of this review - make it this one.\nJournal usage: This review has often commented sceptically on the astronomical size of hits recorded on electronic journal databases - they are used to justify the high prices of subscriptions and particularly Big Deals. A short piece describes the problem and it refers to a new development called Crazy Egg which would certainly enhance the information gathered from a user's viewing experience - worth a read (Thompson, 2014.) We still await more detailed studies of journal usage as a result of the increase in material available from repositories as well as the proportion available in OA journals in different disciplines - where are you CIBER when we need you?!\nPublic libraries: One little noticed recommendation of the Finch report on OA was that publishers would be encouraged to offer free access to their electronic content to UK citizens via the public library system. A two year project has now been launched:\nDocument supply: OCLC arranged 9.2 million interlibrary loans in 2011/2012, so ILL is still alive and kicking, although 400,000 down on the previous year. Records are still growing exponentially and are at 274 million in 2012 (OCLC, 2013).\nPublishing: The viable business models for journals are going through a period of great uncertainty. An article:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the literature concerning interlending and document supply.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study included the review of over 130 journals and related material.\nFindings: The race to build and deliver a system for dealing with the vast increase in OA-deposited manuscripts in the USA continues. Public access to publishers' e-content is being made available in UK public libraries as part of the Finch report agreement. More developments in Patron-Driven Acquisition are described and much else.\nOriginality/value: Represents a useful resource for librarians and others concerned with interlending and document supply and such related matters as resource sharing and open access.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Lateral transshipments: an institutional theory perspective	[ "Case study", "Institutional theory", "Supply chain management", "Blood", "Horizontal collaboration", "Inventory pooling", "Stock sharing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Traditional inventory systems are organized on a hierarchical basis with transportation flows from one echelon to the next (Waters, 2003). More flexible systems also allow lateral transshipments, an example of horizontal collaboration, where inventory is shared between organizations on the same level in the supply chain. Lateral transshipments support organizations in dealing with demand variability and stock outs (Evers, 1997) and can lead to a more balanced inventory system (Diks and de Kok, 1996). In a recent review of the use of lateral transshipments in inventory management, 94 models were reviewed and classified (Paterson et al., 2011).\nLiterature review: Lateral transshipments\nMethodology: In order to answer the research questions we employ the case study research method and apply institutional theory as a theoretical framework.\nResults: Within case analysis\nDiscussion: This paper has investigated the practical application of lateral transshipments in the blood supply chain context. Up to this point the results have been presented thematically, in order to fully analyze the findings and extract all the possible commonalities and differences in the experience of the case study hospitals. Our focus will now shift to look at how external pressure impacts the ability of lateral transshipments to help the blood supply chain to efficiently supply safe blood. We will use the lens of institutional theory to interpret the findings to answer the research questions directly:\nConclusions, implications and limitations: This research with 16 case studies aimed to evaluate how lateral transshipment processes are structured in the blood supply chain, identifying potential benefits and barriers. The research has shown how lateral transshipments represent an important organizational structure to enable the blood supply chain to fulfill the requirements of the institution of efficient and safe operation. Many of the benefits of lateral transshipments previously identified in the literature are also applicable in the blood supply chain. The major difference to other commercial supply chains is that patient safety and product quality are critical and hence the coercive pressure of government enforced regulation is significant and the potential consequences severe. Blood requires strict storage regimes to ensure safety, therefore cold chain validation is absolutely critical. The research showed that this is seen as a major challenge by hospitals independent of whether they are currently transshipping blood. Trust between hospitals is absolutely essential to overcome this barrier and guarantee a flawless maintenance of the cold chain. These requirements ensure the necessary processes are developed.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Are lateral transshipments an effective instrument to ensure the safe and efficient supply of blood? This paper will use the lens of institutional theory to determine how the blood supply chain can benefit from lateral transshipments and what requirements are necessary for their implementation. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design comprises two stages. First, 16 case studies clustered into two case groups were conducted with transfusion laboratories in UK hospitals resulting in the derivation of eight key themes which were tested using a follow-up survey.\nFindings: The blood supply chain acts under the influence of significant institutional pressures. Coercive pressures result from regulations enforced to ensure the safe supply of blood, normative pressures are imposed by society, demanding wastage is minimized and mimetic pressure from other hospitals fosters efficient supply chain operation. Lateral transshipments offer a powerful organizational tool to allow the blood supply chain to conform to these pressures.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper offers a novel institutional perspective on a complex supply chain issue where additional external pressures are seen to complicate the context. Due to the special characteristics of the blood supply chain, generalization of the findings to other industries must be done with care.\nPractical implications: The paper confirms the benefits of lateral transshipments in a perishable product context. Special requirements for the blood supply chain/health care services are identified.\nOriginality/value: The key contributions of this paper are five propositions which offer an institutional theory perspective on the application of lateral transshipment relationships in the blood supply chain.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Motivations of tourists in wine regions: the case of La Rioja, Spain	[ "Tourist motivation", "Push and pull theory", "Wine tourism", "Survey research", "Segmentation analysis", "La Rioja", "Spain" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Wine tourism is a relatively new branch of tourism with considerable importance in the development of certain businesses and destinations (Gomez et al., 2018; Lavandoski et al., 2018). In an increasingly globalized world, people have become more sophisticated consumers, as their incomes have increased. Indeed, many people want to know where their products have been produced and under what conditions (Hall et al., 2000). Regarding wine, for instance, the experience extends far beyond merely tasting it (Asero and Patti, 2011). Indeed, wine regions can largely be viewed as \"escape\" destinations (Brown and Getz, 2005; Brown et al., 2006; Bruwer et al., 2013), and winery operators relatedly need to improve their knowledge about visitors' motivations and preferences to ensure their business' financial success and long-term sustainability (Alonso et al., 2012).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Wine tourist motivations\n3. Wine tourism in Spain and La Rioja: Despite its long wine history, Spanish wine tourism development has lagged behind many other wine-producing countries (Back et al., 2018). However, since the mid-2000s, Spain has been boosting its promotion of wine tourism, in turn driving the development of research on wine tourism. In this context, La Rioja region and its attractions have increasingly become the subject of investigation (Back et al., 2018; Bufquin et al., 2018; Marzo-Navarro and Pedraja-Iglesias, 2009; Park et al., 2019a, 2019b).\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 The survey\n5. Results: 5.1 Socio-economic characteristics\n6. Conclusions, implications, limitations and future research: The clustering of motivations proved to be a valuable tool in understanding which segments of tourists can be identified in the La Rioja region. The segmentation proposed in this paper can be useful in defining the image of the region for marketing purposes. With this knowledge, tourism developers may be enabled to understand the reasons why people come to the region, and create promotional campaigns oriented to each segment. As the study has shown, there are two clearly identifiable clusters of tourists, one of which presents a highly wine-oriented purpose of visit, and another with motivations more related to active tourism and local attractions. The results of the factor analysis showed that there are five clearly identifiable motivation factors among visitors to the La Rioja region: local attractions, wine-related motivations, adventure and sports, price and distance and nightlife and shopping. Both local attractions and wine-related motivations tended to be strong motivation factors for different groups of people. The five motivation factors were used to identify clusters. According to the agglomeration criteria, two clusters were identified, termed \"wine tourists\" and \"other tourists.\" In this sense, our study departs from other studies that have segmented wine tourists based on motivations, such as Charters and Ali-Knight (2002), Johnson (1998), Gomez et al., 2018, and Molina et al., 2015, all of which have found at least two segments of wine tourists. However, it reinforces the conclusion of Marzo-Navarro and Pedraja-Iglesias (2010) that there are visitors to wine regions who are \"non-wine tourists,\" even though these authors used interest and knowledge about wine products as segmentation variables, instead of motivations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper addresses the motivations of tourists who visit the region of La Rioja, Spain, which is well known for its internationally recognized, high-quality wines, yet remains understudied as a wine tourism destination. The paper aims to ascertain whether tourists are attracted to La Rioja because of its famous wines and wine-related activities or if other motivations exist.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were derived from 217 questionnaires regarding tourists' motivations. A tourist survey was applied in La Rioja's capital city, Logrono, and segmentation analysis was undertaken. The data were first grouped into five factors regarding motivations for one's visit. These factors were then used to create two clusters: \"wine tourists\" and \"other tourists\".\nFindings: The results enabled us to detect different segments of tourists. The existence of two clusters suggests that tourists are motivated to visit the region for various reasons that are not necessarily wine-related. Thus, the region should be marketed to tourists beyond the theme of wine, as there is a demand for diverse experiences.\nOriginality/value: Using the push and pull theory, this study contributes to the literature on the profile of visitors to wine tourism destinations by identifying differences in terms of motivations and other personal characteristics between \"wine tourists\" and the \"other tourists\". It also adds to the few existing studies on wine tourism segmentation in Spain through its focus on La Rioja, which is one of the most famous Spanish wine tourism destinations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Hotel heat pump hot water systems: impact assessment and analytic hierarchy process	[ "Heat pump", "Hot water system", "Emission multiplier", "Energy saving", "Carbon audit", "Analytical hierarchy process", "Hotels", "Heating equipment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: While the Hong Kong hotel sector has performed very well, with average room occupancy about 80 percent, and brought associated economic benefits to the society in the past three decades, hotel operations indirectly create substantial amount of pollutants. These pollutants include tonnes of air pollutants, solid wastes, waste water and discard newspaper. Together with the pollutants generated by all different sectors of the expanding economy, the pollution problem in the city leads to intense pressures on the environment.To mitigate the environmental pressures, local hoteliers established environmental management systems and green certifications in the early and mid-2000s (Chan and Wong, 2006; Chan and Ho, 2006; Chan, 2009). At more or less the same time, a study revealed that nearly 80 percent of hotels had been aware of the importance and benefits of using energy-saving equipment (Chan et al., 2005). Most energy-reduction in this period was derived from energy saving from energy-efficient equipment such as energy-saving light bulbs, electronic ballasts and the hot water systems -heat pump.Main hot water systems of hotels in Hong Kong have evolved continuously in the past few decades, featuring diesel oil-fired boilers in the 1980s and town gas-fired or electric boilers in the 1990s. Beginning in the 2000s, the electricity-driven heat pump has emerged as a new and popular option. However, there is a paucity of information about the environmental impact produced by these hot water systems.On the other hand, driven by the momentum of environmental technology fashion, many manufacturers have developed greener products and facilities in the market. Despite the availability of greener water-heating options, hotel owners' response to energy-saving facilities and decision-making criteria for the selection of new energy-efficient water systems may not be consistent with those of the government or suppliers. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the decision-making model of hoteliers so as to convince them on the adoption of the new green facilities and technologies.In light of this development, the objectives of this study specifically focus on the following:* estimating the energy saving and corresponding emission reduction;* calculating the change in energy cost; and* creating a model for the decision-making criteria for selecting hot water systems.The present study is structured in four sections. In the first, a comprehensive literature review is presented comprising areas about conventional water-heating systems, evolving heat pump and decision-making model for purchase. In the next section, the methodology illustrating energy estimation, emission prediction and analytic hierarchy process is described. The following section discusses the results regarding energy consumption, economic savings, emission reduction, scenario forecast and decision-making criteria. In the conclusion section, we present the finding's implications for hoteliers and managers. This is followed by a final section about limitations and future research directions.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Energy used in water heating\n3. Methodology: To have a better understanding of the environmental impact of these hot water systems, and the hoteliers' decision-making criteria for selecting these alternatives for hotel hot water systems, a survey and interviews were conducted.3.1 Unit of analysis and procedures\n4. Results: The survey reveals that the 24 hotels, which account for about 22 percent of the total number of hotels in Hong Kong, adopted the heat pump as their water-heating system. The survey identified that eight hotels used heat pumps to replace either diesel-fired boilers or electric boilers. Eight hotels adopted heat pumps as replacement of older-generation boilers, and the remaining eight are new hotels, which chose heat pumps as their main water-heating systems.4.1 Energy consumption\n5. Conclusion and implications: A survey was conducted to identify hot water heating systems in deluxe hotels. A projection of their energy requirements and associated emissions brought by current water-heating facilities options, such as heat pumps, diesel oil boilers, condensing boilers, and electric boilers, was made. As quantitative data about the exact quantity of hot water consumption may not be available in most situations, a suggested model has been used to predict energy required under these four types of water heaters. The present study is the first of its kind to analyze the current trend of water-heating technology in the lodging industry. This model will be particularly useful for hotel project planners in assessing hot water demand and decision making on the selection of hot water systems.The prediction derived from the three scenarios provides a relatively objective and reasonable estimation of the impact of the heat pump technology for the reference of industry leaders. Scenarios 2 and 3 particularly give industry leaders a better grasp of the quantified positive and negative impact of greener water-heating devices, the condensing hybrid gas boilers and heat pumps. The latter has been hailed by the local government as an innovative energy-saving technology. Industry leaders and hoteliers can even use these findings as reference to devise their response strategies. For instance, the request for subsidies or incentives to replace diesel oil-fired boilers can be presented to the government to mitigate the environmental impact.While this survey estimated that energy saving by heat pumps can reach up to 30 percent, emissions attributable to electricity usage of heat pumps can also be significantly lower than those emitted by diesel oil-fired and electricity-driven boilers. Nevertheless, due to the partial shift to natural gas as fuel for town gas production, the emitted pollutants derived from gas consumption in heating water have drastically decreased. As a result, heat pumps created more air pollutants than town gas boilers, especially in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalent. Assuming that all hotels replaced their hot water systems to heat pump, the total energy saving achieved by the industry will reach 52,683,463 kWh. However, the compensation is an estimated rise of 42 million kg of CO2-E.5.1 Implications for hotel owners\n6. Limitations and future research directions: The current study found that the precision of emissions multiplier for diesel oil combustion is limited due to the unavailability of testing results. Thus, it is important to conduct some experiments to measure emissions using major imported diesel oil. Furthermore, the hot water delivery mode by truck is still in the pilot stage, and it is necessary to commit more resources to further investigate this promising almost zero emission green option of water heating. In addition, the relatively small number of hotel owners' and leading officers' participation in the AHP survey affected the representativeness of the results of their decision-making criteria.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Water heating is one of the major energy-consuming operations in the lodging sector. The purpose of the current study is to estimate the energy consumed and emission associated with hot water usage, to predict the energy cost required under different hot water systems in hotels; and to create a model for the decision-making criteria in selecting hot water systems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 24 hotels, which use heat pumps as their main water heating systems, were investigated. A tailor-made model for estimating the energy requirement of the water heating system was employed. Comparative studies on the energy consumption and energy costs of various types of water heating systems, including heat pumps, diesel boilers, gas boilers, and electric boilers, were conducted. Moreover, an analytic hierarchy process was used to analyze hoteliers' and lenders' selection criteria for water heating facilities.\nFindings: - The energy output for water heating by heat pumps was estimated at 15 GW in the lodging sector. The use of heat pumps can achieve substantial energy savings and reduction of air pollutants when compared with the energy requirements under conventional boilers. The latter accounts for 13 percent of the hoteliers' total decision weight on choosing water-heating systems. Whereas the air pollutants generated by gas-fired boilers are remarkably lower than those emitted in the power plants due to the use of heat pumps. Both bankers and hoteliers consider seriously the energy saving potential of hot water supply by trucks.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Due to the small number of decision-makers in hotels participating in the analytic hierarchy process, the result can only provide an indication of the overall picture of the selection criteria adopted by hoteliers.\nPractical implications: - The analysis provides hotel owners and managers with an objective and scientific investigation of the emission prediction and energy cost estimation based on the use of different hot water systems. Hotel operators and owners can use the analytical results as reference for making green purchasing decisions.\nOriginality/value: - The current study, which is based on the operational experiences of existing hotels, is a collaborative work between hospitality industry practitioners and educators. It is also the first of its kind to indicate the emission impact of various types of hotel water heating systems and the perspectives of hoteliers and bankers on these systems.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The social life of the novel idea: what did social psychologists ever do for us?	[ "Innovation", "Design", "Performance", "Project teams", "Group working", "Social psychology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper explores the social dynamics at work in the development of innovative designs within built environment design teams. It presents and summarises the existing body of literature in relation to innovative design in construction projects, and analyses literature in the field of social psychology which offers further expansion and consolidation of existing knowledge in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) field. Key themes explicit within the literature relating to the study of behaviour within small groups are explored: their applicability to the AEC sector as areas for future research are discussed, and the creation of methods which may manipulate social interaction to enhance opportunities for the production of innovative design work in construction project teams.\nTheoretical background: The design of buildings is a multi and interdisciplinary design process. Whilst it requires a complex array of related skills and knowledge, simply asking architects and engineers to work alongside each other has often been considered insufficient. It is, therefore, inappropriate to assume that such teams know how to collaborate towards a favourable or optimal solution, and simply putting creative people in the same room, does not necessarily yield creative results (Leonard and Swap, 1999). Moreover, it is advocated that the AEC disciplines must collaborate as a highly interdependent group.In the latter part of the twentieth century, the catalogue of construction reports (Figure 1) observed that, within practice, such collaboration was fraught with challenges; the success of the constructed outcomes was considered to be highly dependent on the effective management of the social processes within the team environment (Murray and Langford, 2003). Despite this, many have noted that research into AEC collaborative performance improvements have centred upon operational improvements or technological advance, with scant attention paid to behavioural approaches (Dainty et al., 2006; Shelbourn et al., 2007; Kululunga, 2009; Gorse, 2009; Love et al., 2011).Whilst behavioural aspects have been explored widely in design and creative thinking, research in this field, historically, tends to be weighted towards exploration of design activity as an individual and cognitive process (MacKinnon, 1965; Goldschmidt, 1995; Goldschmidt and Badke-Schaub, 2010; Pour Rahimian and Ibrahim, 2011). More recently, design has been explored theoretically as a social and collaborative process too, notably in Pryke's (2004, 2005) mapping of social networks in construction projects and in Bucciarelli's (1994) description of design as a social process of interaction and negotiation. Further, it is considered as aspects of Cross's (2011) design thinking and in the outcomes of the recent Design Thinking Research Symposia (DTRS). Of particular interest within the DTRS7 proceedings (McDonnell and Lloyd, 2009) is Matthews's statement that which asserts that:The very identification of designers' normative orientations (e.g. to the local relevance of talk) is one important step towards the creation of formats of interaction that might be able to 'tamper' with social order, in similarly mild ways, so as to be more conducive to design objectives (Matthews, 2009).This paper seeks to develop an understanding of how this \"social order\", at work in built environment design teams, influences their ability to produce innovative design ideas. It searches within the field of social psychology to see what it can offer in assistance towards the creation of formats for design, which may be more conducive and supportive of innovative performance.\nMethodology: This paper is the first to bring together the existing theory relating to the social aspects of innovative design performance and to examine the literature in the AEC and social psychology fields in order to connect social interaction and innovative design performance and creative thinking in small groups. Literature is presented in the form of a comparative analysis between the two disciplines: first, aspects of social processes of innovation which are already present within the AEC field are established and concepts/ideas in social psychology that are likely to be important in understanding group processes within the field of AEC are examined; second, elements of social psychology which may be used to expand, consolidate and develop our understanding of built environment design teams, and identify gaps in AEC-specific knowledge are identified. Ultimately, then, key areas for future research are presented.A thematic approach has been adopted in presentation of the literature. Three main themes from social psychology that are important for understanding small group social processes within AEC are considered: social climate, risk attitudes and motivation and reward. These three themes are important concepts within social psychology and help explain creative decision-making (social) processes in small groups. In the current paper, these ideas are applied to small groups within the AEC field. Social psychology theory also identifies a fourth heading, which relates to issues of leadership. Our decision to consider only three main themes with the omission of leadership is that the study of leadership deals with personality characteristics and attitudes and not the direct social processes within small groups (Davis et al., 1976). Whilst there are many reasons to believe that team leaders can be important in creating a shared and task-adaptive understanding (van Ginkel and van Knippenberg, 2012), discussion of this large area of empirical study is beyond the scope of the current paper. The focus, instead, is on the social processing of information within small groups within AEC.\nInnovation and ideas in the design team: The nature of innovation specific to the construction industry is described by Slaughter (1998) who distils a set of models of innovation which respond to sector activities. She identifies five types of innovation: incremental innovations, radical innovations, modular innovations, architectural innovations and system innovations.These typologies are arranged on a scale of change as a way to enhance companies' awareness of innovation opportunities and the likely impacts of innovation on resources and outcomes (Slaughter, 1998). The applicability of this is relevant in a sectoral and organisational capacity, but requires further discussion in relation to the conception, presentation and adoption of the innovative idea within the multidisciplinary design environment. Whilst there is an increasing body of work which considers social influence as a driver or limiter of innovative design (Agars et al., 2008; Runco, 2008; Wong et al., 2009), this still to be transferred and applied extensively within the AEC research field (Kululunga, 2009).The Construction Research and Innovation Strategic Panel (CRISP): Motivation Group (1997) offer a valuable definition of innovation as \"the successful exploitation of new ideas where ideas are new to a particular enterprise, and are more than just technology related - new ideas can relate to process, market or management\".This definition offers a separation of the \"new idea\", which becomes an \"innovation\" when implemented successfully. This is further explained by Amabile et al. (1996), an influential writer in the field of social psychology and creativity. Amabile describes creativity as \"the production of useful and novel ideas\" and innovation as \"the successful implementation of ideas\". In light of this definition, when discussing the social aspects of innovation in the design team, this paper will focus upon the extent to whether social interaction can hinder or facilitate the presentation of the \"novel idea\" within the collaborative design space, to use the vocabulary of the co-evolution design model (Maher et al., 1996; Dorst and Cross, 2001). This is supported by existing observational research which notes the generation of novel ideas being limited, or design direction being steered, as a symptom of implied and normative social interaction (Matthews, 2009; Barrett, 2010).\nThe social life of the novel idea: Research in the field of social psychology has expanded and gathered impact since the 1930s when Elton Mayo's Hawthorne studies linked the industrial performance of engineers to social issues within groups (Mayo, 1949). Social psychology as a field for scholarly exploration may be traced back to Aristotle and Plato who acknowledge the existence of group-level processes (Aristotle, 384-322 BC; Plato, ca. 380 BC), but it is the development and acceptance of a scientific approach to group research in the early twentieth century that enabled it to gather momentum and deliver insights into how the behaviour of one person might impact on that of another. More relevant here, is the application of these studies to work-based teams, which led to a large body of work linking social behaviours to productivity and performance. Such is the legacy of scholars at the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Forsyth and Burnette, 2005).Whilst studies in social psychology may not specifically consider their application to design process, it is assumed that the human condition remains constant and the social behaviours which influence creative performance also do so within the AEC sector. A number of studies, notably the recent analyses of the DTRS7 data set (McDonnell and Lloyd, 2009), seek to analyse communication (drawn, written, gestural or verbal) in the design process as a tangible representation of the mutual expectations and shared understandings of the design team (Cross and Clayburn Cross, 1996; Dong, 2007; Emmitt and Gorse, 2007; Matthews, 2009; Visser, 2009; Oak, 2011). These studies can provide us with some valuable knowledge about what happens during collaborative design and how it may be analysed, providing us with the foundations to carry out further research which will address the behavioural themes presented in the social psychology literature and apply them to the resultant design outcomes - in this case, innovation in building design, performance and process. These include studies of \"design moves\" as in protocol analysis (Cross and Clayburn Cross, 1996) or studies in communication in construction teams which draw their methodology directly from the social psychology field, through Bales's (1950) interaction process analysis (Emmitt and Gorse, 2007). Deeper observation also acknowledges the relevance of informal talk and interaction between design team participants to establish role allocation and transfer of normative values which facilitate the ability of design team participants to gain a comprehensive understanding of the shared and \"imagined\" building and their ability to move and explore its innovative possibilities (Goldschmidt and Eshel, 2009; Lloyd, 2009; Luck, 2009).The social climate\nDiscussion: By analysing the social psychology literature in parallel with the extant research from the AEC field, it is apparent that there has been a groundswell in the AEC literature since the latter years of the twentieth century relating to social interaction and its influence on the innovative performance of AEC design.However, it is evident from the analysis of literature from both fields, that the field of social psychology can offer a significant theoretical resource, with significant areas that remain under-explored, yet have clear relevance, for the AEC sector. Using the thematic approach gained from the social psychology literature, three areas emerge as having special and specific significance for built environment design teams: the social climate, attitudes to risk, and motivation/reward structure.Figure 2 shows that, from the relevant theoretical framework within the social psychology field, the AEC sector has supplanted some key elements in its exploration of the innovative capacity of built environment design teams. There is clear evidence of discussion relating to effects of social climate, for example, and this focuses on the effects of cohesiveness and this is linked to the focus upon the definition and implementation of the \"integrated team\" in response to government direction. This cohesiveness is further explored through effects of conflict and \"groupthink\" and the need for psychological safety through trust, respect and loyalty on creating the appropriate environment for creative thinking and shared innovative response to the design problem.Theories of motivation and reward are also well represented within the AEC field. These are explored particularly in relation to the intrinsic motivators, extrinsic barriers and reward structures which may limit or hinder the novel idea within the design environment and frequently in relation to procurement and selection methods.Furthermore, a more quantitative analysis, expressed chronologically and thematically in Figure 1 shows that this research is a relatively recent phenomenon and, whilst these aspects of social psychology are present on our understanding of how AEC groups work towards innovation, there is still some significant work to do to embed these principles firmly within our understanding of the social process of design.There are also further aspects of social climate and motivation and reward that still require consideration in terms of our own discipline. The influence of team climate, how teams support innovative thinking and the influence of cultural norms still require consideration. Similarly, the effects of social tuning and social comparison also remain unstudied in relation to AEC teams. Theories of motivation and reward also require further development, particularly in relation to the factors that motivate teams to innovate as well as an application of the theory of co-operation and competition within the design process and how this affects design outcomes.Most notably, however, is the limited presence of research relating to the effects of shared risk attitudes in design teams. Whilst the construction industry has embraced risk as a critical element of management in design and construction, it would appear that the behavioural facet of this term has been neglected. It would also appear that the ability of design teams to take risks as a fundamental part of creative thinking is also limited within the AEC field. In particular, our understanding of design decision making would benefit from further exploration into how teams might share risk responsibility; the nature of the \"risky shift\" in design teams as well as the application of the theories of risk adjustment and acceptance in design interaction.\nConclusion: This paper has reviewed, connected and synthesised the relevant and significant work in the field of social psychology and AEC to derive a theoretical framework which can be used to direct further research towards development of the behavioural facet of design management. Whilst, some aspects of social processes are well represented in the AEC literature, the social life of the novel idea is not yet fully understood in the management of built environment design teams. The comparative analysis of the social psychology literature and that represented within the AEC has been invaluable in yielding some key areas which would benefit from further research. Development of these behavioural facets is imperative if we are to balance the operational improvements and technological advances already achieved in relation to building innovation. Development of these behavioural facets is also critical if we are to strengthen our understanding of how teams may be better designed and managed to capitalise on individual creative currency, and work towards a collaborative environment that allows innovative thinking to thrive.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present the extant literature relating to the social processes of innovation in built environment design teams. The paper connects the relevant and significant work in the field of social psychology and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) to derive a theoretical framework which can be used to direct further research, towards development of the behavioural facet of design management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First, the paper establishes which aspects of social processes of innovation are already present within the AEC field and examine concepts/ideas in social psychology that are likely to be important in understanding group processes within AEC, applying three emergent themes of social climate; risk attitudes and motivation and reward. Second, the paper identifies which elements of social psychology may be used to expand, consolidate and develop our understanding and identify gaps in AEC specific knowledge.\nFindings: - The paper suggests that whilst the AEC literature has supplanted some key elements of social psychology, this discipline offers a further and significant theoretical resource. However, whilst some aspects of social climate and motivation/reward are well-represented in the AEC field, these have not yet been fully explored. Furthermore, how collective attitudes to risk can influence design decision-making is identified as having a limited presence.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is the first to bring together the two disciplines of AEC and social psychology to examine the social aspects of innovative design performance in built environment teams. The paper fulfils an identified need to examine the social processes that influence innovative design performance in construction\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementing organizational learning initiatives: insights from Singapore organizations - Part II	[ "Learning organizations", "Singapore" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: How many organizations can boldly claim that they are learning organizations? Not many. But the truth is that a great many organizations realize the intrinsic value of organizational learning and the long-term benefits it brings. As a result, many have put in place some policies to institutionalize organizational learning. In 2003, I interviewed 24 policy-makers from four Singapore organizations (two government ministries and two private consultancy firms) to find out how they implemented organizational learning programs. The following are interpretations of that data collected.\nCritical factors influencing different levels of learning: The following factors are ranked in order of importance by the four Singapore organizations. These factors are grouped in three levels - individual, team and organization.Level 1: individual learning\nConclusion: There are three main factors common to all three levels of learning. They are:1. A reward and recognition system.2. Clear understanding of goals.3. Clear direction from leaders.Although they are important to all levels of learning, the way they influence each level is different. This can be seen in the variation in terms of the ranking presented above. At the core of all factors is the alignment of goals between the three levels that will propel the organization forward to meet greater business demands. It is only when the larger goals of the organization are considered that the right mindset will follow.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Following from part I, this paper further explores key issues in organizational learning and their contributions to practice and policy. It elucidates the various critical factors that influence each stage of learning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Four Singapore organizations were studied, from which a total of 24 organizational learning practitioners representing both the private and public sectors were interviewed.\nFindings: - Qualitative data was presented in the form of excerpts from the respondents in support of the key research objectives as well as key factor variables ranked in order of importance based on the number of mentions, an uncommon technique useful for an exploratory study.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research was limited by the single geographical context that might not be totally representative of the Asian perspective. However, the paper provides room for continuation as the author introduces part III (for subsequent issue) that will further detail implications for practice and policy based on the same study.\nPractical implications: - Data revealed that the three factors common to all levels of learning are: a reward and recognition system; clear understanding of goals; and clear direction from leaders.\nOriginality/value: - Of considerable value to practitioners is the list of comprehensive factors that affect each level of learning. They are given a ranking order to help practitioners prioritize their organizational learning action plans more effectively.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An organisational framework for analysis of crowdsourcing initiatives	[ "Crowdsourcing", "Innovation", "Organizational models" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The term crowdsourcing was first coined by Howe (2006) in an interview in Wired magazine, and used to refer to the outsourcing of activities by companies to individuals through the use of the internet. Since that moment, the literature on crowdsourcing and all related activities has grown considerably. Literature on innovation has also reflected an increasing interest in the idea of an innovative ecosystem based on the crowd participating in problem solving, as a more efficient mechanism for value creation than the organisation itself or customer-integrating models (Hammon and Hippner, 2012). The analysis carried out by different authors in the initial stages included both business cases with different uses and variations of crowdsourcing and its application at different parts of the processes by the companies, such as Threadless or InnoCentive (Brabham, 2010). This led to the emergence of basic models that proposed dimensions for the analysis of these initiatives. In a second stage, the literature presented more complete models and classifications of crowdsourcing activities, and these models were then used to develop taxonomies to review crowdsourcing processes, actors and their interests and motivations (Estelles-Arolas and Gonzalez-Ladron-De-Guevara, 2012; Geiger et al., 2011; Hosseini et al., 2014, 2015; Nakatsu et al., 2014; Saxton et al., 2013). These models and taxonomies identified additional dimensions for the characterisation of existing crowdsourcing activities.\nMethodology: The research study followed a qualitative approach, with the objective of analysing existing models to present a new model that provides an original approach for the analysis of crowdsourcing initiatives. In terms of qualitative approaches, the synthesis relies heavily on pattern recognition and can broadly be characterised as aggregative, configurative and integrative (Booth et al., 2016). Hence, this was the appropriate methodological approach to undertake first the review of crowdsourcing models and the use of a framework model initially to select them and then a detailed model afterwards to classify them. The research study carried out was then designed in three steps.\nLiterature review: As the objective of the research is to present a framework that links the elements of crowdsourcing models and the levels of analysis of organisations, the review of the literature carried out is divided into two parts, one for each of the areas that will be compared later in the analysis.\nResults: The different elements included in the three organisational levels of the work by Palacios et al. (2016) were then used to analyse the dimensions identified in the crowdsourcing models reviewed and to identify the level to which they were assigned. The results of that initial review facilitated the further analysis of the set of dimensions to establish the final list of elements in which the three organisational levels are divided. With those elements identified, the final classification of the dimensions is carried out, which allows for the identification of the level at which crowdsourcing activities can have an impact on organisations.\nDiscussion: A survey was conducted among scholars and practitioners to validate the general approach proposed in the research. From one perspective, the survey was distributed to scholars involved in research projects or with publications in the area of crowdsourcing. By contrast, it was sent to among participants in open innovation courses within an executive MBA programme. Both profiles were considered possible users of the conclusions of the research. The survey was created through the Survey Monkey platform and distributed through emails to scholars, and participants in the open innovation courses. It was also posted on the authors' LinkedIn pages.\nConclusions: This paper offers contributions for approaching crowdsourcing both for the research and practitioner communities. In this field, scholars have examined crowdsourcing activities through practice, business cases and examples from different industries, and on this basis, produced a now significant literature proposing various models and classifications of crowdsourcing activities, processes, actors and their interests and motivations. Some authors have also sought to identify organisational theories that may serve as the frame for crowdsourcing (Afuah and Tucci, 2012; Jeppesen and Lakhani, 2010). Therefore, the approach for this new paradigm in problem solving cannot overlook the impact of these models on organisations, which is the subject of this paper.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Since Howe (2006) first used the term crowdsourcing to define the outsourcing of activities by companies to individuals through the use of the internet, a growing literature has developed on the subject. Its emergence as a new paradigm in problem solving and value creation in the digital innovation ecosystem has produced significant publications in the management field, but publications about some aspects of organisations are still missing. Such is the case regarding the impact that these crowdsourcing initiatives have on organisations. This paper advances in that direction by proposing a new approach for the review of these activities through a detailed model of the elements of organisational levels that describe the crowdsourcing processes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Crowdsourcing models in the literature are reviewed to propose the new model, complemented by a survey of scholars and practitioners to validate the approach introduced.\nFindings: The results provide a detailed link between the two fields: crowdsourcing models and organisational levels, developed through the connection of the elements of organisational levels and the dimensions of different crowdsourcing models. The identification of the elements that constitute each organisational level, their inclusion in a new model and the order of relevance of the different elements in the crowdsourcing initiatives could have an implication for academics and practitioners involved in implementing crowdsourcing.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this research is the introduction of a new approach for the analysis of crowdsourcing initiatives, establishing a new framework model to connect crowdsourcing models and organisational levels for new organisations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of customer readiness and participation in non-technology-based service delivery	[ "Customer satisfaction", "Consumer perceived service quality", "Customer participation in non-technology-based service delivery", "Customer readiness", "Customer willingness to recommend" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Customer readiness has already attracted considerable attention in studies of technology adoption and the adoption of technology-based products. For instance, customer readiness has been of interest to users who chose to use self-service technology (SST) rather than non-technology-based services such as a checkout stand. Customer readiness is one of the crucial factors determining adoption behavior in the diffusion of governmental electronic services (Omari and Omari, 2006).\nConceptual framework: This study seeks to extend previous research (Kotze and Du Plessis, 2003; Meuter et al., 2005), by:\nMethodology: The 13 proposed hypotheses focusing on customer readiness and customer participation and their relationships in the context of non-technology-based services are tested using measurements, factor analysis, correlations, regressions and structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The first results pertain to the validity and reliability of the constructs. Table I shows the results of the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and CFA for all constructs including loadings, reliability coefficients and construct validity measures. Cronbach Alphas range from 0.812 to 0.972, thus demonstrating construct internal consistencies (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). Composite reliability is similar to the Cronbach Alphas and confirms the internal consistency of the constructs (Chau and Lai, 2003). Each construct's composite reliability is higher than the recommended value of 0.7 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988; Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct ranges from 0.588 to 0.961, thus satisfying the recommended threshold value of 0.5 for convergent validity (McDonald and Ho, 2002). In addition, the square roots of the AVEs are all above the inter-factor correlations (see Table II), a proof of discriminant validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Table II display the means, standard deviations, correlations and squared AVE of all constructs.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influential role of customer readiness in customer participation in non-technology-based service delivery, and the subsequent effect of customer readiness on perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and customer willingness to recommend. In addition, customer readiness mediates the influence of key consumer antecedents (consumer previous experience, consumer perceived risk, consumer desire for control and customer organizational socialization) on customer participation in service delivery.\nTheoretical implications: There are valuable theoretical implications in recognizing the importance of customer readiness, measured in three dimensions, and its role in customer participation in non-technology-based service delivery, and subsequent impact on consumer outcomes such as consumer perceived quality, customer satisfaction and willingness to recommend the service to others.\nManagerial implications: Valuable implications emerge from the results of this study. The positive role of customer readiness in non-technology-based service delivery is beneficial to both customers and companies. Customers can experience high service quality, which leads to high satisfaction and a strong willingness to recommend the services offered by the company to other customers. The latter consequence is crucial for service providers. Consumers are inclined to spread impressions of their experience with a service by word of mouth, and word of mouth is an effective form of advertising for the service provider (Dellarocas et al., 2007; Liu, 2006).\nStudy limitations and suggestions for future research: Some limitations of the study are related to sample size and use of a type of services. The research tested 13 hypotheses with a limited sample size in one context. A better representation of the population and a more generalizable outcome require more representative samples and studies in various contexts such as banking, hotel services or health-care services.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to answer the following question: How can customer readiness be instrumental in non-technology-based service delivery?\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a field study, this research examines the role of customer readiness in customer participation in non-technology-based service delivery and its indirect effects on such customer outcomes as perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and customer willingness to recommend.\nFindings: The results show that customer readiness is a second-order construct. It has a significant impact on customer participation in service delivery, which in turn impacts three key service outcomes: customer perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and customer willingness to recommend. Four factors influencing customer readiness (consumer previous experience, consumer desire for control, consumer perceived risk and customer organizational socialization) are also empirically evaluated.\nResearch limitations/implications: Some limitations of the study are related to sample size and use of a type of services. The research tested 13 hypotheses with a limited sample size in one context. A better representation of the population and a more generalizable outcome require more representative samples and studies in various contexts such as banking, hotel services or health care services. This study demonstrated the importance of customer readiness for effective participation in non-technology-based service delivery; it does not address the impact of customer readiness on participation in the context of technology-based services. Future research may also shed light on when and why customers choose technology-based services versus non-technology-based services.\nPractical implications: Effective customer participation in service delivery can, and should, benefit from boosting customer readiness.\nOriginality/value: This research shows the impact of customer readiness on non-technology-based service delivery, more specifically, the impact of customer readiness on customer participation in this type of service delivery. Customer readiness has been found to be beneficial in the provision of technology-based services; yet, its role in the provision of non-technology-based services has not been thoroughly evaluated.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Creating successful lives and companies: enabling foundations for consistent success	[ "Employee development", "Business performance", "Business improvement", "Corporate strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Economies will always change and fluctuate. When they do take a down turn companies come under increasing pressure to maintain their performance and shareholder value. Costs are cut and people often see this as a threat to their own job security. As the pressure builds personality traits can change and move towards negative tendancies. This negativity can spread through an entire company very quickly, much like a virus destroying morale and rapidly impacting performance. The challenge for companies is to ensure that additional pressure turns to success (Figure 1).\nConsistent optimum performance: The lower foundations required to function optimally are structured across several levels and vary according to our individual traits. These levels cover our work, personal and family lives - an imbalance in one will impact the others.The foundations for a successful company or organization are built on the people within it. For employees to thrive and have consistent performance they need to understand their own foundations. They need to be able to manage and maintain their own performance in line with the company's objectives and priorities (Figure 2).Most people are unaware of the foundations or values that support them and the significant role they play in making them the person they are. Much like an iceberg or tree, these foundations or values are hidden and play a key part in supporting what is visible above the surface. If the foundations are affected then what is visible will also be affected.Foundations are created by the experiences people have. Each experience has the potential to create a memory and an emotion. These memories and emotions then contribute to how we react and conduct ourselves through life.\nConfidence: A key part of the lower foundations is confidence. A lack of confidence can lead to the creation of comfort zones and limiting beliefs. This can hold people back from achieving their own personal goals and objectives and those of the company.If people remove their limiting beliefs and habit forming comfort zones they will be able to grow their confidence. This will allow them to deal with pressure more easily and be less affected by the daily challenges that occur in their work, personal and home lives. They will be able to start to function at their optimum levels.We have all met people that are self-confident. They project a positive energy around them that becomes infectious. It has a motivating and uplifting effect. On the reverse we have all met people that lack certain confidence who almost seem to drain energy from us.It is in the understanding of the interplay of this energy with confidence levels and stress that enables people to work at their optimum.\nEnergy: For people to draw on the experiences that their memories and emotions have created the body stores them as energy. This energy has been recognized for thousands of years, primarily in the Far East. It is only now starting to be recognized and discussed in the Western world.People project this energy from themselves all the time. It's how atmospheres are created, both positive and negative. The more relaxed, stress free, confident, fit and healthy a person is the more positive the energy they project.As pressure changes to stress, so does the quality of the energy that is projected. This energy is contagious. It will impact the people around them much like a virus and can spread through teams and departments. Eventually it can impact a whole organization affecting morale, performance and ultimately shareholder value.We assume that we can continue to work normally through constant pressure and even stress but to maintain optimum levels of performance under these conditions is impossible. Eventually something has to give. Throughout the process of growing pressure and the onset of stress, the quality of the energy that we project will be affected. It will become more negative, changing the way we feel, communicate and present ourselves to other people.\nSuccessful companies: The quality of the energy people project depends on the confidence and stress levels of the person projecting it. This energy will contribute to the work place environment. The more people who project positive energy the more positive the workplace environment will be.Business success is when the correct levels of pressure are applied to people with the correct foundations in place. This is when optimal performance can be achieved (Figure 3).\nEnabling foundations: People's foundations are created from their experiences as they proceed through life. Experience, which is unavoidable, creates memories and emotions that allow people to learn and develop, to gain knowledge and wisdom. This process forms part of peoples' conditioning. However, memories and emotions can also contribute to comfort zones and limiting beliefs which can reduce people's confidence and hold them back from functioning at their optimal levels.Memories are events that have happened; emotions are often the consequences of these events and a key element that holds people in their comfort zones preventing them from performing optimally by creating limiting beliefs.A good example of this is public speaking, in which the prospect of doing so has the ability to terrify many people. Potential symptoms when asked to present to an audience can range from \"butterflies\" in the stomach, shortness of breath, sweating to a wavering voice. All of these symptoms can be created from invoking emotions linked to previous memories simply through the power of thought.Understanding that thoughts are linked to emotions is the first step in understanding how our body uses energy to store and recall them. Being able to keep the thought but sever the tie with the emotion is the second part of the process that allows people to expand their comfort zones, remove limiting beliefs and create stable foundations in which to work from and succeed.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to discuss how organizations can benefit from empowering employees to understand and develop their own personal foundations to create a stronger organizational platform from which to develop a successful business.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is the view of the author and is based on methodologies developed over a number years and used in a corporate training program.\nFindings: - With businesses and organizations subjected to increasing amounts of pressure, maintaining positive performance becomes more challenging. The impact on some employees of increased pressure can lead to stress and the creation of negative workplace environments which can impact an entire company or organization. Peoples own personal foundations start to crumble when pressure becomes excessive. By educating people to understand what their foundations consist of, how they have been created and how they impact their own performance you can empower people with techniques to strengthen their foundations.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides insights and guidance in how to enable employees to function at their optimum levels consistently.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Knowledge translation mechanisms in open innovation: the role of design in R&D projects	[ "Design", "Open innovation", "Knowledge translation", "R&D project" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In a world of ever-changing corporate environments and reduced product life cycles, organizations working in R&D and technology-intensive industry cannot always afford to innovate on their own (Chesbrough, 2003; Gassmann, 2006; Gassmann et al., 2010). The complexity of contemporary production pipelines - articulated across multiple sectors and oriented toward fast-changing and somewhat unpredictable market conditions - calls for a new approach based on collaboration and interchange. Hence, organizations open their innovation processes to incorporate knowledge flows originated from or co-produced with external stakeholders (academia, research centers, industry, government, non-governmental organizations [NGOs] and public institutions) that interact in specific organizational, social, economic and cultural contexts (Chesbrough and Bogers, 2014; Dahlander and Gann, 2010; Huizingh, 2010; Enkel et al., 2009; Ardito and Messeni Petruzzelli, 2017). Characterizing knowledge in terms of flows means looking at knowledge as \"a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information\" (Davenport and Prusak, 2000, p. 5). In the past 20 years, scholars have proposed various models that study how knowledge flows across the boundaries of a single organization, for example, being produced by multidisciplinary teams brought together to respond to real-world problems and challenges (Nowotny et al., 2001; Gibbons, 2000; Gibbons et al., 2011, 1994) and by the intersection of multiple reciprocal relationships across academia, government and industry (Etzkowitz, 2008; Carayannis and Campbell, 2012). Open innovation occurs where knowledge flows beyond the boundaries of a single organization and where a high degree of cross-border organizational collaborations take place (Chesbrough and Crowther, 2006; Grimaldi et al., 2013; Rippa et al., 2016). In the specific case of R&D contexts, this would favor knowledge co-production processes where, for example, end-users, policymakers, industry and academic institutions work together to advance scientific knowledge or to develop new solutions and prototypes. Collaboration among distributed partners allows the creation of something new starting from what already exists (Hargadon, 2002), and innovation occurs as a process of searching and recombining existing knowledge elements (Ardito and Messeni, Petruzzelli, 2017; Savino et al., 2017).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 A knowledge-based perspective of open innovation in R&D projects\n3. Research methods: This paper adopts an extreme case study approach (Eisenhardt, 2002; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Yin, 1994) which allows to develop a holistic and contextualized analysis. This method is properly suited for the exploratory nature of this research, considering its novelty and complexity (Dell'Era, 2010) as well as the contribution to theory building (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). The focus is an R&D project where design is used as a translational mechanism. The use of case study method allows the identification of key insights through the investigation of a number of examples (Pettigrew, 1990), in a situation where \"how\" or \"why\" questions are being posed within some real-life context (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Yin, 1994). This is specifically the case of our research focusing on questioning the \"how\" and \"why\" of the use of design as a knowledge translational mechanism. Focusing of a real-life case study of an open innovation within an R&D project offered the opportunity to gather managerially relevant knowledge (Amabile et al., 2001; Leonard-Barton, 1990). This is consistent with Yin's (1994) view postulating that case-based study approach enables to accommodate single cases or situations with small numbers of cases; to capture process and outcomes in a causal logic model; to gather useful and intermittent feedback to program officials; to adapt to the availability of different types of evidence; to assess outcomes and test causal theories and rival theories; and to develop lessons generalizable to the major substantive themes in a field. These are all elements characterizing the investigated context of open innovation where a number of various stakeholders interacted by transferring and combining complex knowledge dimensions.\n4. Presentation of the case and findings: 4.1 Open innovation processes in 3D Tune-In\n5. Discussion: Open innovation relies upon knowledge flows across the boundaries of single organizations (Benkler, 2006; Chesbrough, 2003; Perkmann, and Walsh, 2007; von Hippel, 2001). The knowledge transfer which takes place between two or more actors (individuals or organizations) requires appropriate mechanisms to align the potentially different needs, language and interests of these actors (Acha, 2008).\n6. Conclusions: Prior studies have indicated that an important opportunity to broaden the scope of open innovation is to take into consideration the contexts of R&D-intensive industry and R&D projects (Kogut, 2000; Kim et al., 2015). Effectively managing transfer, acquisition and co-creation of knowledge among different stakeholders and partners is, therefore, pivotal to make open innovation a valid practice (Lichtenthaler et al., 2011; Natalicchio et al., 2014), thus requiring effective knowledge transfer mechanisms. This study meets this gap by integrating the open innovation and knowledge transfer literature through a contribution deriving from design research. The concept of translation allows looking at the strong complementarity that exists between these three research fields.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the role of design as a knowledge translation mechanism in R&D-oriented open innovation. In particular, the paper intends to look at how design can be used as a means of knowledge transfer among various stakeholders who speak different languages and have divergent needs and interests in a process where knowledge openly flew across the boundaries of a high number of organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper combines the insights from theory with the empirical evidences gathered by adopting an extreme case study approach: the detailed analysis of a case study related to an R&D project funded by the European Commission and aimed to investigate and produce innovative serious games in the area of healthcare. The project gathered a large number of stakeholders and deliberately adopted design to support an open innovation approach.\nFindings: The paper provides insights into the use of design outputs such as artifacts, sketches, visual representations or prototypes to translate ideas, theoretical and technical requirements, documents and outputs into formats that can be more easily understood and appreciated by various stakeholders. This supports and favors coordination in open innovation projects where many different stakeholders are engaged in.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the adoption of an extreme case study approach offers important implications to understand the role of design in R&D-oriented open innovation, the use of a single case study represents the basis both to explore hypothesis and to provide first evidences that need to be further tested with other qualitative and quantitative analysis.\nPractical implications: The paper offers practical implications about how design can help individuals and organizations involved in R&D activities to better communicate and share knowledge among various stakeholders by aligning their different needs, interests and languages along the various phases of their project development.\nOriginality/value: The originality of the paper lays at the intersection of three different fields: open innovation, knowledge management and design for innovation, thus integrating mature, but so far isolated, research streams. It provides insights for theory building by explaining the use of design as knowledge translational mechanism as well as it informs the practice by highlighting the power of design as a mean to support knowledge flows into open innovation-based R&D projects.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Income inequality and shadow economy: a nonparametric and semiparametric analysis	[ "Income inequality", "Shadow economy", "Nonparametric analysis", "Semiparametric analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Income inequality has been an increasingly important topic of research in recent years. Its importance is discussed in global economic forums and it is directly linked to several Millennium Development Goals by United Nations such as eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education and gender equality. However, most studies on income inequality only focus on its relationship with formal economic variables such as trade openness (Bahmani-Oskooee et al., 2008) and growth (Kuznets, 1955) while its linkage with shadow economy is largely ignored. With over 30 percent of world economy operating in the shadow economy (refer Hassan and Schneider, 2016; Schneider, 2012; Elgin and Oztunali, 2012; Alm and Embaye, 2013), and the nature of income inequality itself, the nonlinear relationship between income inequality and shadow economy should be studied for all countries as well as for developing and developed countries.\nData and methodology: The Gini coefficient (Gini) is used as the proxy for income inequality, obtained from World Bank project \"Inequality around the World.\" These data are compiled and adapted from three data sets: the Deininger-Squire data set (1960-1996), the Wider data set (1950-1998) and the World Income Distribution data set (1985-2014). The key variable chosen from the database is \"Giniall\" that gives the values of Gini coefficients from household-based surveys for 1,067 country/years. The observations are comparable in principle[2]. This study chooses the Gini coefficients sample of country/years with \"Di=1,\" where the dummy variable Di refers to the welfare concept of the Gini coefficient indicated either by income (=1) or by consumption (=0). Countries with at least two years data are selected to suit the nonparametric estimation.\nEmpirical results: Parametric and nonparametric/semiparametric analysis\nConclusions: Income inequality and shadow economy have been a major issue in the contemporary global economy. Reducing income inequality and shadow economy has been an important objective for all countries. Previous studies on the relationship of these two variables had only limited to linear analysis and without taking into account the difference in the level of development for countries studied. This study attempts to investigate the nonlinear relationship between these two variables globally and distinguish such relationship according to the level of development of countries (developed vs developing countries) using panel data from 2000 to 2007. Parametric analysis yields relatively clear positive nonlinear relationship between income inequality and shadow economy. However, both nonparametric and semiparametric analyses suggest a possible trade-off between these two macroeconomic problems with two threshold points at 18 and 65 percent of shadow economy. Shadow economy is positively related to income inequality only within the range of these two threshold points while they are negatively related outside the range, thus, forming an inverted-N relationship.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nonlinear relationship between shadow economy and income inequality and determine whether the size of shadow economy can influence the level of income inequality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Both parametric (panel OLS) and nonparametric/semiparametric regression suggested by Robinson (1988) will be used to capture the dynamic nonlinear relationship between these variables using unbalanced panel data of 154 countries from 2000 to 2007. Additionally, the relationship between income inequality and shadow economy on both developed and developing countries will be analyzed and compared.\nFindings: First, semiparametric analysis and nonparametric analysis are significantly different than parametric analysis and better in nonlinear analysis between income inequality and shadow economy. Second, income inequality and shadow economy resemble an inverted-N relationship. Third, the relationship between income inequality and shadow economy is different in developed countries (OECD countries) and developing countries, where OECD countries have similar inverted-N relationship as before. However, for developing countries, income inequality and shadow economy show an inverted-U relationship, similar to the original Kuznets hypothesis.\nPractical implications: This study suggests that there is a possible trade-off between income inequality and shadow economy and helps policy makers in solving both problems effectively.\nOriginality/value: Despite the growing importance of income inequality and shadow economy, literature linking the two variables is scarce. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no literature that nonlinearly links these two variables. Furthermore, the dynamics of the relationship between these two variables in developed countries and developing countries will be explored as well.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Determining motivators and hygiene factors among excellent teachers in Malaysia: An experience of confirmatory factor analysis	[ "Management", "Education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Towards achieving Vision 2020 of becoming an education hub and targeting high human capital the Malaysian Government has taken the issue of high-quality education seriously by emphasizing the need for teachers to infuse quality in teaching for learning effectiveness. To underpin these goals, a higher budget of USD15.5 billion (56 billion Malaysian Ringgit), was allocated for education in 2015 to develop human capital and further strengthen the education sector in line with the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2015 (Bernama, 2015). By affirming the infusion of quality teaching in the classroom and teacher welfare, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has taken responsibility for the Teacher Education Division, Aminuddin Baki Institute, the School Inspectorate and Quality Assurance Division, and the Malaysian Institute of Teacher Education. These sectors were created to assist the government in their mission to achieve quality teaching by providing training for teachers and professional development activities (Resources, 2015).\nExcellent teacher scheme in Malaysia: In Malaysia, excellent teachers are defined as \"master teachers\" who are expected to be different than that of non-master teachers (Ibrahim et al., 2013). The Excellent Teacher Programme (ETP) was collaboratively developed in the 1990s by the Human Resource Division, and all departments under the MoE with the enrolment of a few teachers (Awang, 2014). In the 2000s, the ETP in Malaysia witnessed the registration of a huge number of teachers, and produced more than 15,000 excellent teachers. The programme was initially introduced in Malaysia to develop teacher career paths and reward the outstanding teachers. In addition, it was developed along with a high salary to encourage teachers to pursue the programme in order to instil quality in teaching and contributions beyond the classroom. Under this scheme, excellent teachers were expected to help or contribute to other schools, especially in terms of policy, curriculum, and teacher development (Awang, 2014). Moreover, excellent teachers should be masters of their area of specialization and possess outstanding classroom management skills, as well as good character (Ming-Ming, 2007).\nJob satisfaction, organizational commitment, and productivity: As this study strives to examine the factors that constitute intrinsically and extrinsically to the excellent teacher satisfaction and sense of dissatisfaction, it will be appropriate to take a quick glance at the meaning of job satisfaction and how it is defined by some authors. Job satisfaction has been defined authors around the world as having certain similarities. Arguably, all authors believe that job satisfaction has something to do with an employee's perception, attitude, feelings, and emotion towards their job (Locke, 1983; Spector, 1997; Lu et al., 2004; Coomber and Barriball 2006; Pillay, 2009). It describes an employee's feeling, perceptions, and behaviour towards their job. In addition, it describes the level of satisfaction among employees and their sense of commitment to the organization (Mustapha, 2013).\nTheoretical framework: This study is guided by various theories which support the argument that this paper is putting forward. These theories have proven the importance of motivation on job satisfaction and the role that hygiene factors and motivators play in reducing the sense of dissatisfaction among workers in the workplace.\nResearch conceptual model: Figure 1 presents the research conceptual framework. From this figure, it may be conceptualized that the motivator and hygiene factors lead or affect excellent teachers' job satisfaction. In addition, it is also conceptualized that these may identify which among the factors lead or determine excellent teachers' motivation and hygiene needs. Furthermore, it explores whether there are interpersonal relationships between motivators and hygiene factors. However, this conceptualization is based on the theoretical framework explained above, in which all motivational theories hold that human beings need motivation and satisfaction. In the workplace, workers need to be either intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. The theories also stated that organizational managers need to be aware of what motivates their workers to perform better and care about employees' hygiene needs.\nMethod and design: Population, sample size, and procedure\nInstrumentation: In terms of instrumentation, this study uses a well-established instrument, \"Teacher's Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (TJSQ)\", which was developed by Lester (1982) based on the theories of Herzberg and Maslow. This instrument was also used by Hughes (2006) for her PhD dissertation \"Teacher evaluation practices and teacher job satisfaction\"; Amzat and Idris (2010) in their research on \"management and decision making styles with job satisfaction of academic staff in a Malaysian Research University\"; Sung et al. (2010) in \"Leadership Styles and Teachers' Job Satisfaction in Taiwan Higher Education\"; and Knox's (2011) PhD dissertation \"Teachers' perceptions of job satisfaction and school climate in an era of accountability: a mixed methods study of two high schools on Tennessee's high priority list\".\nFindings: Demographic data\nDetermining the motivator and hygiene factors: This section tries to determine the motivator and hygiene factors by looking at the item factor loading. Figure 1 shows that item 4 \"Working conditions for excellent teachers in my school are good\" (R2=0.94, y=0.89) under working condition factor that seems to have the highest item loading, followed by item 2 \"I am well paid as an excellent teacher in proportion to my ability\" (R2=0.93, y=0.86). Under the salary factor, item 1, \"I am responsible for planning my daily lessons\" (R2=0.89, y=0.79); under the responsibility factor, item 1, \"My Head/principal offers suggestions to improve my teaching\"; under the supervision factor, item 1 \"Being an excellent teacher provides opportunity for personal growth compared with non-excellent teacher\"; and item 4 \"Ministry of Education conducts professional development programmes for excellent teachers\" under the personal growth factor show the lowest item loading for both motivators and hygiene.\nPrediction: In relation to the main motivator factors, Figure 1 and Table IV show that \"responsibility\" is considered to be the main motivator factor followed by recognition and advancement, while personal growth tends to be the lowest factor. This is an indication that the Malaysian Government should consider the personal growth of excellent teachers. Hence, as teachers or workers are human, it is human nature to want to benefit personally in one's workplace, and to improve and progress as the organization progresses and advances. However, in a situation in which one's progress and personal growth are denied or minimized, their effort within the organization will be reduced. In addition, if this happens to excellent teachers, their enthusiasm to improve their schools and others, as well as their loyalty, might be affected. The government should work on improving excellent teachers' personal skills and plan a better future for them. They should provide opportunities for each excellent teacher in Malaysia to do things on their own and be able to achieve their aims, personal goals, in order to maximize their potential and capacity.\nInterpersonal correction between motivator and hygiene factors: Table V presents the interpersonal correction between motivator and hygiene factors. It is both amazing and logical to see a strong interpersonal relationship between supervision and recognition. In addition, this is an indication that recognition comes from supervision, as in the context of school and excellent teachers, the school principals can only recognize excellent teachers' efforts when they are closely supervised. In addition, Table V also shows a moderate strong interpersonal relationship between working condition and supervision, while the rest shows low and moderate interpersonal relationships. However, it is important to ask why some factors have few or poor interpersonal relationships, while from the logical perspective they are interpersonally related. For example, in looking at the poorest or lowest interpersonal relationship found between \"responsibility\" and \"salary\", the logical explanation is that a higher salary increases responsibility, or that gaining more responsibility might be due to being the highest paid. However, according to this study, excellent teachers' responsibility might be higher even without a salary increment.\nDiscussion: As this research aimed to determine motivator and hygiene factors among excellent teachers in Malaysia, some findings of this study tend to support the previous studies' findings while others were contradictory. This study has confirmed some interesting findings, such as finding that excellent teachers were happy with their work conditions, salary, and policy factors. In addition, it is interesting to see them take responsibility and be accountable for their daily planning and student's learning outcomes, while it is very sad to see them dissatisfied with the supervision provided by their school principals, as well as the minimal opportunity for personal growth. However, the findings of the present study concerning excellent teachers' satisfaction about the government policy and salary may be due to the increments in salary and different allowances allocated by the government for excellent teachers' grade. This might help in increasing the satisfaction and motivation among excellent teachers in Malaysia. Therefore, the findings support those of Wang and Tran (2015), who found satisfaction among teachers in terms of school policies, administration, working condition, and professional development.\nImplications and recommendations for future research: In this study, there are some crucial implications that the MoE in Malaysia need to be fully aware of. Since the excellent teachers' scheme was introduced to uplift the standard of teaching in Malaysia, and the recipients of this scheme or status (excellent) are considered to be the \"cream of the crop\" in the teaching profession in Malaysia and for non-excellent teachers to emulate, it is vital to consider their well-being as well as their growth. With the results of this study, it may be said that the implications for practice touches many aspects of the professional and personal development of Malaysian excellent teachers. Specifically, it is imperative that both the factors which intrinsically and extrinsically motivate excellent teachers in Malaysia and the causes of dissatisfaction are identified. In addition, implications also emphasize paving the way for the personal growth of excellent teachers and providing leeway for them to pursue their own personal happiness. Furthermore, the implications of the lack of proper supervision of school principals on excellent teachers should be avoided. In general, hygiene factors may be used as positive implications to improve excellent teachers' teaching practices and performance.\nLimitations: This study has some limitations to be considered, especially in terms of sample size. The low number of excellent teachers participating in this study is due to the scarcity of face-to-face data collection, in that an online survey was deemed to be the only means to reach the excellent teachers. This is due to the lack of a list of excellent teachers in some state districts, making it difficult to determine those schools which have excellent teachers. In addition, it is also due to logistical and geographical difficulties in reaching certain schools and meeting the excellent teachers. In recognition of such difficulties in undertaking research on excellent teachers in Malaysia, the researchers in this study urge the Malaysian MoE, as well as state districts and regional offices, to update the profile of excellent teachers by creating records and a list of all excellent teachers in Malaysia to facilitate future research. In this scenario, the findings of this study should be used with caution and not be generalized to other contexts, schools, regions, or states.\nConclusion: In this study, both hygiene and motivator factors were found to contribute to the excellent teachers' job satisfaction and motivation. Specifically, \"personal growth\" tends to be the leading factor among motivator factors, while \"supervision\" was found to be the most dominant factor under hygiene. Therefore, in general, when it comes to the comparison between motivator and hygiene factors, this study revealed that hygiene factors were the leading variable. This is an indication that priority should be given to the personal growth and supervision of excellent teachers. There is always room for improvement. If excellent teachers have a chance to grow personally with their teaching and are given the ability to pursue their own careers without being occupied with government work, they will further embrace teaching. In addition, if teaching or government work were able to provide personal gain and elevate their standards, there will be a possibility of seeing teachers continue teaching due to their feeling of personal belonging. This is because personal growth is where they can maximize their potential and personal gain.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In a world in which successful learning is believed to rest on the methods of teaching and the performance of students is determined by teacher quality, it is clear that teachers are the backbone of student learning attainments. In such a scenario, teacher development, welfare, motivation, and satisfaction are crucial for better teaching performance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine the motivator and hygiene factors among excellent teachers in Malaysia and to explore factors that lead to satisfaction and cause dissatisfaction among excellent teachers in Malaysia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses quantitative design to determine the motivator and hygiene factors among excellent teachers. For the sample size, 306 excellent teachers participated in this study and data were analysed using principle component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to determine the dominant factor among Herzberg's motivator and hygiene factors.\nFindings: From the findings, the results showed that the satisfaction of excellent teachers was low in terms of \"personal growth\" (motivator) and \"supervision\" (hygiene). The paper concludes by calling upon the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MoE) to consider both motivator and hygiene factors, and what causes satisfaction and dissatisfaction among excellent teachers.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has some limitations to be considered, especially in terms of sample size. The low number of excellent teachers participating in this study is due to the scarcity of face-to-face data collection, in that an online survey was deemed to be the only means to reach the excellent teachers. This is due to the lack of a list of excellent teachers in some state districts, making it difficult to determine those schools which have excellent teachers. In addition, it is also due to logistical and geographical difficulties in reaching certain schools and meeting the excellent teachers. In recognition of such difficulties in undertaking research on excellent teachers in Malaysia, the researchers in this study urge the Malaysian MoE, as well as state districts and regional offices, to update the profile of excellent teachers by creating records and a list of all excellent teachers in Malaysia to facilitate future research. In this scenario, the findings of this study should be used with caution and not be generalized to other contexts, schools, regions, or states.\nPractical implications: To be fully cognizant about the excellent teachers' scheme was introduced to uplift the standard of teaching in Malaysia, and the recipients of this scheme or status (excellent) are considered to be the \"cream of the crop\" in the teaching profession in Malaysia and for non-excellent teachers to emulate, it is vital to look into their well-being as well as their growth. With the results of this study, the authors can say that the implications for practice touch many aspects of the professional and personal development of Malaysian excellent teachers. Specifically, it is imperative that the factors that intrinsically and extrinsically motivate excellent teachers in Malaysia and the causes of dissatisfaction are identified. In addition, the implications also place emphasis on paving ways for the personal growth of excellent teachers and to provide leeway for them to pursue their own personal happiness. Furthermore, the implications of the lack of proper supervision of school principals on excellent teachers should be avoided, and, in general, hygiene factors could be used as positive implications to improve excellent teachers' teaching practices and performance.\nOriginality/value: This research is original as it calls MoE attention to the well-being of excellent teachers in Malaysia. As excellent teachers in Malaysia are selected and promoted among teachers in Malaysia in order to improve teaching and learning in Malaysia. They are appointed to be a role model for other teachers to emulate. With this position, excellent teachers are expected to contribute to the development of their schools and others and they can be posted anywhere as well as called at any time for help. Therefore, it is worthy to know how satisfied those excellent teachers are regarding government policy. Hence, it is important to know what motivates and satisfies them.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The linkage between knowledge management practices and organization based projects for better learning outcome: A conceptual framework	[ "Knowledge management", "Higher education", "Organization-based projects" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Knowledge is by far one of the most crucial assets for any organization (Almatrooshi Singh and Farouk, 2016). Moreover, appropriate and well-timed information and knowledge are necessary for organizations to make sound decisions (Pradhan et al., 2017). Learning and knowledge that do not get comprehended and exchanged all throughout the organization remain useless. This is particularly true for knowledge-intensive organizations (KIO) like institutions of higher education. However, knowledge management (KM) practices are thriftily used in educational institutes to fine-tune academic curriculum. The capability to share valuable insights from business processes can be an important means of introducing aspects of creative thinking and problem solving into the pedagogy of institutions of higher education. Once that gets done, such insights can get channelized into relevant knowledge creation and KM. Effective KM can be instrumental in creating sustainable competitive advantage in new and competitive markets. Elements of KM practices can be drawn into existing markets as well to sail through turbulence or overcome stagnation. Thus, this process can help in developing dynamic pedagogy for institutions of higher education those that automatically evolve according to the needs of the hour through knowledge assimilation and transfer.\n2. Theoretical background: The significance of KM and its advantages to business has been extensively reported in the published literature. While distinguishing the importance of KIOs, the European Commission defines a wide gamut of organizations as knowledge-intensive services (KIS) (Eurostat, 2014; Bozionelos and Singh, 2017). There is a concept of knowledge-intensive service (KIS) together with that of KIO. Knowledge-intensive services organizations have also been defined as those organizations where knowledge is the main production factor and the good they offer. There are different types of knowledge as well as organizational forms (Singh, 2017). According to Polanyi (1966), in this respect, tacit (intangible) knowledge also needs particular attention along with factual/data knowledge.\n3. Methodology: For developing a framework based on insights and their analysis, a qualitative case study approach was adopted in this study. This approach looks to clarify and decipher associations with the phenomenon. In this spirit, we began our examination to identify activities used by knowledge workers in their execution of knowledge practices (Johnson et al., 2003; Jarzabkowski, 2003). Such methodology has been used earlier in the literature as well (Ambrosini et al., 2007; Perrin, 2012). We narrowed down into our final research inquiry through the iterative process of hypothetical reflection (Suddaby, 2006; Glaser, 1978; Glaser and Strauss, 2009).\n4. Discussion and theoretical implications: Despite studies on knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge (Nonaka and Von Krogh, 2009), the research on knowledge workers and knowledge sharing throws up distinctive questions (Gardiner, 2016). These individuals are exceptionally independent; however, their specific ability and expertise has a tendency to create silos of communication. Knowledge sharing may still be difficult to achieve even if enterprises provide necessary infrastructure (Gardiner, 2016). Researchers (Al-Ali et al., 2017; Pradhan et al., 2017) likewise recognize that enterprise-wide knowledge sharing cannot be accomplished just through arranging and giving infrastructure or institutional help. It is through every day individual or group exercises that socialization can unfurl (Gardiner, 2016) that can facilitate such sharing. Szulanski's system on the stickiness of learning contends that information is hard to get exchanged and shared among various members. Factors, for example, low levels of ability and entangled connections and hierarchy, among others, can restrict expertise sharing in organizations. For our situation, KIOs posture particular difficulties while examining the sticky knowledge structure, at the back of elevated level of aptitudes and experiences of their human capital (Starbuck, 1992). Prominent individuals in KIOs have a tendency to have formal education and experience proportionate to a doctoral degree manifesting large absorptive capacities (Pradhan et al., 2017). Moreover, different viewpoints, for example, the level of indistinctiveness surrounding the standard, distinctive differences of inspiration levels of those executing standard and social connections can in any case influence the level of knowledge exchange amongst members in the same group. Our examination centers around these components.\n5. Conclusion, limitations of this study and scope for future research: In the presence of idiosyncrasies pertinent to the education sector, we believe that similar questions like that faced by the educational institutes (referred to in this study) are also relevant to business organizations in sectors such as that of management consulting, companies in the engineering domain and information and technology services. Though in this study we have highlighted the results from a single case study analysis, future researchers can take input from the rich insights provided in this study and further investigate in a setting other than a business school. Also, future research can also explore the difference in approach in context to the public and privately funded institutions to gain deeper insights into the dynamics those are affecting KM practices in KIO.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to understand and reflect upon issues, which can help in producing better industry-ready students graduating from business schools.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper examines research conducted in the area of knowledge management (KM) and proposes a conceptual framework that can be used by academic institutions to engage students and prepare them for industry needs so that they are better industry-ready graduates. A case study based approach has been adopted in this study.\nFindings: In line with the literature-based analysis, a framework for better industry ready students has been proposed, illustrating the linkage between KM, learning from organization-based projects, industry feedback and inputs from international accreditation bodies in higher education.\nOriginality/value: This paper has provided a comprehensive framework that contributes to the understanding and refining the academic processes in a business school setting with the help of learning from academic KM process. Such a framework has not been previously developed by previous researchers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How school leadership development evolves: crossing timescales and settings	[ "Workplace learning", "Cultural-historical activity theory", "Interaction analysis", "Multiple-time analysis", "School leadership development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The focus of the research reported in the present article is school leadership development. There is a large body of research on the preparation of aspiring school leaders and the development of school leaders (Bush and Jackson, 2002; Lumby et al., 2008; Hallinger, 2003; Huber, 2004; Young et al., 2009). Many of the studies are generated from interviews and surveys of individuals. This body of research provides robust knowledge regarding what type of leadership development is offered and how school leaders perceive the programs and their opportunities to learn; however, some aspects require further attention (Jensen, 2014). One aspect that lacks attention is the fact that leadership development is taking place not only in homogenous settings within workplaces but also across workplaces where professionals representing different workplaces interact with each other, which was the case with the team under study. The extent to which these workplaces are made relevant and impact the collaborative work is an empirical question. Another aspect that lacks attention is that leadership development implies interactions with different tools, such as cases, books, PowerPoints and problem-based learning. Therefore, there may be a need to spatially include the tools in the analysis unit to make sense of the data in addition to including the participants. The tools may have their own trajectories because they are developed over time. A third aspect that lacks attention is the fact that leadership development is not a one-time project but rather a continuous project that requires scrutiny of the evolving processes over the programs based on longitudinal data. A fourth aspect that lacks attention is that leadership development may imply work on several problem-spaces. As such, there is a need for tracing objects within shorter units of time, such as moments and/or episodes.\nPrevious research on temporal and spatial aspects of development: Examining how leadership development evolves includes both spatial and temporal issues. Spatial and temporal aspects of learning are often overlooked in cognitive theories of learning, while researchers within a socio-cultural tradition account for these aspects in different ways (Ludvigsen et al., 2011). Thus, this section presents selected studies dealing with issues of temporality and spatiality from the socio-cultural tradition.\nAnalytic framework: CHAT offers an explicit set of analytic concepts for studying organizational phenomena as emerging constituents of object-oriented activity, giving virtue to the understanding of the complex relations involved in their origin. Hence, a CHAT approach provides an opportunity to study in-depth how evolving leadership development is constituted in the interplay of individuals, purposes, and tools to the affordances and constraints of the context (Vennebo, 2015).\nThe methodology of the study: The present study is built on a larger study (Jensen, 2014). The larger study is designed as a longitudinal so-called panel study (Bryman, 2012; Cohen et al., 2008) because it sought to examine how leadership evolves in a particular team consisting of the same people over two years. The larger study partly consisted of ethnographic documentation in the form of 25 h of audio and video recordings from the ten workshops of the team. Video and audio data constitute ethnographic data, a documentation of what happens in situ (Heath and Hindmarsh, 2002), which provides us with an opportunity to take an analytic approach beyond observation and field notes. The present article uses the entire data set to answer the research questions.\nHow leadership development evolves over two years: First, this section empirically shows and theorizes what characterizes the evolvement of objects within the two-year trajectory of the team and then focuses on what characterizes the evolvement of objects within episodes. Finally, this section theorizes what characterizes the evolvement of objects within episodes in the context of the team's trajectory.\nExcerpt 1: In Excerpt 1, we can see how Tony (1) argued that evaluation is double-sided. He adopted the perspective of the Norwegian educational authority and contrasted it by showing what the authority perspective looks like from a school's perspective. He made his school's perspective explicit by referring to his experiences when arguing that the needs are different (Table I):\nExcerpt 2: We can see how the researchers, Rachael (1) and Casper (2), viewed the mid-way report in the context of the principles of research. Casper (1) drew attention to the need to make the premises of the analysis explicit, while Rachael (2) drew attention to the relationship between the data and knowledge that could be generated from the students' statements. Here, the researchers are questioning existing practices and \"teaching\" a methodology to the team members based on the mid-way report as a tool. Eileen (4) conceptualized the report as \"semi-academic\", which may indicate that she was devaluing the report or admitting that producing scientific reports is beyond the expertise of the administrators. Billy (4), one of the principals, began to search for what was \"wrong\" with how the data were gathered. He wondered if that issue was related to the way in which the questions were raised (Table II).\nExcerpt 3: When Casper, the researcher (1), challenged the participants to gather new data, the principals and administrators did not seem to resist, even though collecting new data takes time. Instead, Tony (2) re-analyzed the situation by referring to past experiences and drawing attention to reliability and validity. The team was in the process of identifying more reliable and valid ways to collect data to evaluate the first phase of the local project. Tony (4) suggested collecting data from students to determine whether they used strategies, while Eileen (5) suggested asking in another way. The team is in the process of modeling a new practice (Table III).\nExcerpt 4: As shown in Excerpt 4, the team began to discuss and evaluate the unexpected results of two of the students. Casper (2, 4), the researcher, asked questions about the logic of the categorization and the results of the observation. The team was in the process of evaluating a new evaluation practice (Table IV).\nDiscussion and conclusion: This article aimed to reveal the ways in which school leadership development evolves in a team by empirically showing the evolvement and theorizing about it from different zooming levels. The study examined what characterized the evolvement of objects within the two-year trajectory of the team, within episodes and across episodes and the trajectory of the team.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to address workplace learning in terms of investigating school leadership development in an inter-professional team (the team) in which principals, administrators and researchers work together on a local school improvement project. The purpose is to provide an enriched understanding of how school leadership development evolves in a team during two years as the team works on different problem-spaces and the implications for leadership in schools.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a larger study with a qualitative research design with longitudinal, interventional, interactional and multiple-time level approaches. Empirically, the paper draws on tools, video and audio data from the teams' work. By using cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), school leadership development is examined as an object-oriented and tool-mediated activity. CHAT allows analyses of activities across timescales and workplaces. It examines leadership development by tracing objects in tool-mediated work and the ways in which they evolved. The object refers to what motivates and directs activity.\nFindings: The findings suggest that the objects evolved both within and across episodes and the two-year trajectory of the team. Longitudinal trajectories of tools, schools and universities seem to intersect with episodes of leadership development. Some episodes seem to be conducive for changes in the principals' schools during the collaboration.\nResearch limitations/implications: There is a need for a broader study that includes more cases in other contexts, thus expanding the existing knowledge.\nOriginality/value: By switching lenses of zooming, it has been possible to examine leadership development in a way that is not possible through surveys and interviews.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
What professionals consider when designing a modular service architecture?	[ "Service modularity", "Professionalism", "Design process", "Elderly care" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A modular service architecture could be an attractive option for professional service organisations that operate in environments with varying degrees of competition. Modularity refers to the unravelling of a complex offering into multiple often simpler parts that function independently and which in turn can be recombined in many different ways (Ulrich, 1995; Schilling, 2000; Voss and Hsuan, 2009). Modularisation promises enhanced flexibility in delivering more coherent and transparent services to diverse customers at comparatively low costs (Pekkarinen and Ulkuniemi, 2008; Voss and Hsuan, 2009; Bask et al., 2010; de Blok et al., 2014). However, in practice, constraints are encountered in devising modular service architectures, especially in professional services (e.g. Brax and Toivonen, 2006; Bask et al., 2010; Dorbecker and Bohmann, 2013).\nModularity: functional feasibility and appropriateness in professional services: Functional requirements: three modularity principles\nMethod: Research design\nFindings: Here, we identify the particular design choices that were made, and analyse the arguments the professionals enlisted to legitimise these choices. We also analyse what can be learned from these design choices about the functional feasibility and appropriateness of the three modularity principles within this research context. An overview of this analysis is provided in Table II. To guide the reader, references to this table are provided between parentheses in the text.\nDiscussion: We have studied the process followed by professionals designing a modular service architecture for the delivery of specialised care for ambulant elderly people. Our basic question was:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how functional and appropriateness arguments influence the adoption of modularity principles during the design of a professional service architecture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Action design research was conducted to examine the design process of a modular service architecture for specialised elderly care by a multi-professional group. Data collection methods included, partly participatory, observations of the interactions between professionals during the design process, interviews and document analysis. Data analysis focussed on the emerging design choices and the arguments underlying them.\nFindings: A wide range of both functional and appropriateness considerations were enlisted during the design process. The three core modularity principles were adapted to varying degrees. In terms of the design outcome, the interdependencies between the modularity principles necessitated two trade-offs in the modular design. A third trade-off occurred between modularity and the need for professional inference where services were characterised by uncertainty. Appropriateness was achieved through the professionals reframing and translating the abstract modularity concept to reconcile the concept's functionality with their professional norms, values and established practices.\nOriginality/value: The study adds to service modularity theory by formulating three trade-offs that are required in translating the core modularity principles into a functional set of design choices for a multi-professional service environment. Moreover, the inherent intertwinedness of the core modularity principles in professional services requires an iterative design process. Finally, the authors saw that the ambiguity present in the service modularity concept can be used to develop a design that is deemed appropriate by professionals.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
You are crazy! A classroom experiment to enhance creativity among management students	[ "Active learning", "Alternative teaching‐learning methods", "Classroom experiment", "Crazy ideas", "Creativity", "Development and learning policies", "Knowledge‐driven social‐economic change", "Management students", "Strategic attitude", "Training", "Innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Acquiring managerial competences for fulfilling high-responsibility roles in business requires substantial practical training or \"learning by doing\". Unfortunately, fully practical training activities around these aspects are scarce in most university curricula. A strategic attitude and related managerial competences are essential for successful higher education in management. Furthermore, as graduates become managers, they can help transform the social-economic environment through high value-added, knowledge-based activities - a crucial challenge for Spain.In this paper, we present our experience with an active learning initiative to promote strategic attitude and creativity-related competences among management students. We aim at fostering alternative teaching-learning methods that complement existing mainstream courses. A key purpose of this research is that original and \"crazy\" ideas resulting from this classroom experiment can be directly applicable to (business) organizations. The experiment itself can be also adapted as part of organizational development and learning policies - whereby employees can take the role assigned below to students.\nExperiment preparation: An invitation email was sent in advance to target classes including the authors' own (undergraduate and postgraduate) students on different courses. Participation in the activity was voluntary and developed under a non-academic, informal environment. A 400 euro prize was also announced to be awarded to the best \"crazy\" idea presented. Out of the 22 participants:* fourteen were students of the (European Higher Education Area adapted) International Business degree (from the first and the second years);* five were students from the (old Spanish system) Business Administration degree (in their later years); and* the remaining three came from other degrees (Labour Relations, double degree in Law and Management, and Master's in Business Strategy).This resulted in a relatively diverse group, both in academic background and also in age (18 to early 30s).\nClassroom dynamics: A seminar room was booked, off-campus, at the innovative and futuristic Valencia Convention Centre, for a four-hour evening session in March 2012. The activity consisted of three parts: introduction and preliminary collective discussion, team working, and team presentations.First, students publicly introduced themselves. Then the purpose and dynamics of the activity were explained. Students had to propose creative, even \"crazy\" ideas to be implemented at the workplace (or at the university). These ideas were to help solve real business (or educational) challenges and require an effective application of essential managerial competences (e.g. strategic attitude, leadership, flexibility ...). They had to be highly innovative and as much fun as possible on the premise that more fun always leads to more motivation! Simultaneously, they also needed to be relevant and feasible.A real-life illustration of how fun, creativity and feasibility act synergistically to meet relevant goals, the \"piano staircase\" podcast (The Fun Theory, 2012), was shown. This is an interesting example of how a fun idea can successfully change people's behaviour (more people use the stairs instead of the escalator after the former is \"converted\" into a foot-activated giant piano). Businesswise, some examples were shared from the \"Out of Your Mind!\" committee developed by the Brazilian company, Semco (Semco, 2012).Immediately after this brief, intentionally theory-free presentation, the concept of strategic attitude was collectively constructed. Students spontaneously proposed features that would define such an attitude in managers, written in paper sheets and randomly placed in the classroom. Some examples were \"initiative\", \"no fear of failure\", \"getting away from conformity\", \"anticipation\", \"open mind\", or \"everything is possible\".The second part started with team formation, randomly assigning students to teams, and then making adjustments so that no team had more than two students of the same degree and year. Five (four or five-member) teams were created, and were given some time to prepare their ideas. Each team freely chose the place to meet and work. Some went outdoors (it was a warm evening) to find inspiration in the convention centre gardens; others remained indoors, either in the classroom on in the hallways. All enjoyed the \"battery recharging\" free refreshments available.The third (and final) part of the evening consisted of the team presentations. Each team had to present their \"crazy\" ideas and persuade the rest of the class about their fun, relevance and feasibility. Presentations were video recorded. A synthesis of selected \"crazy\" ideas is outlined next.\nExperiment results: The first presenting team proposed many ideas, some intended for the university and others for businesses. The first ones included \"open classrooms\" where students could teach each other, or class-wide team examinations (equal mark for everyone resulting from the class average mark). Regarding the workplace, a \"department of non-achieved dreams\" was suggested, whereby the employer would help the employee fulfill his/her \"dream\" (e.g. traveling to an exotic destination), also requiring some type of special work from the employee in return (e.g. working some time at a subsidiary in that destination).The second team proposed a university-wide simulation project, as a kind of \"virtual world\" inspired - according to this team's students - in Habbo virtual community (Habbo, 2012). There would be a legal framework, a central bank, financial institutions, shops, professional services, schools, hospitals, real estate agents, etc. (students carpeted the floor with paper sheets representing these concepts and institutions). Students could get \"virtual loans\" to develop business projects, which would be rewarded with academic elective credits.The third team proposed two ideas for the university context. First, a \"business farming\" project: a simulation through which students would have to be in charge of a virtual business for a whole semester. Second, an optional course based on theatralization and role-playing: students would have to creatively solve especially difficult challenges (e.g. \"going to the beach and selling a raincoat\").The fourth team - which presented from the back of the room to highlight their \"craziness\" - proposed many ideas, mainly for businesses and some for the university. Among the first: department rotation linked to the obligation of proposing ten new ideas at every new position, implementation of an \"upside-down day\" at work (e.g. exchanging jobs and boss-subordinate roles), or a monthly \"costume day\" (i.e. everybody going to work in fancy-dress). As for the university-oriented initiatives: a students vs. lecturers collective chess game (one alternative move per person of each group as they pass by), or a \"points programme\" for students, rewarding certain goals and/or behavior (getting in exchange elective credits, discounts at university shops, etc.).The fifth team proposed an initiative for businesses: a social network where employees develop their virtual avatars in a personal \"dream\" (e.g. balloon globe circumnavigators or pop-stars). There would be help forums, personal spaces to share experiences, \"like\" buttons, event announcements, tools aimed at better understanding the business and strengthening corporate culture (e.g. simulation games), and also means to help employees eventually fulfill their dreams in the real world.\nConclusion: In this experiment, five teams of (mostly undergraduate and with no professional experience) students proposed very interesting and original ideas (some \"crazier\" than others, many highly relevant and feasible) applicable to the workplace or to the university. All proposals shared a common assumption: employees/students who have fun will be more committed to their job/studies, involving \"win-win\" outcomes. Further research may be inspired by this experiment, expanding the scope of the inquiry to other student profiles and/or to actual initiatives involving organizational development and learning dynamics.Finally, the university-related proposals can be easily adapted to a workplace context (e.g. the students vs lecturers chess game could be converted into a managers vs non-managers or department/team A employees vs department/team B employees game). Definitely, these \"crazy\" ideas are invaluable in societies needing radical social-economic change (e.g. Spain) towards new, knowledge-based models. Beyond the most immediate benefits for them (e.g. employee motivation and innovation), private and public organizations can crucially contribute to knowledge-driven social-economic change by embracing these \"crazy\" ideas in their development and learning policies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to focus on fostering a strategic attitude and creativity-related competences among management students, through alternative teaching-learning methods, whereby students propose \"crazy\" ideas that can be applicable to (business) organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach taken was an active learning classroom experiment. In total, 22 participants volunteered among the authors' own students, enrolled at different management-related degrees at the University of Valencia (Spain).\nFindings: - Five student teams proposed very interesting and original ideas (some \"crazier\" than others, many highly relevant and feasible), aimed at tackling relevant challenges at the workplace or at the university.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Further research may be inspired by this experiment, expanding the scope of the inquiry to other student profiles and/or to actual initiatives involving organizational development and learning dynamics.\nPractical implications: - All proposals implied that employees/students who have fun will be more committed to their job/studies, involving \"win-win\" outcomes. Moreover, the university-related proposals can be easily adapted to a workplace context. On the other hand, the experiment itself can be also adapted as part of organizational development and learning policies - with employees taking the role here assigned to students.\nSocial implications: - These \"crazy\" ideas are invaluable in societies needing radical social-economic change (e.g. Spain) towards new, knowledge-based models.\nOriginality/value: - Beyond the most immediate benefits for them, private and public organizations can crucially contribute to knowledge-driven social-economic change by embracing these \"crazy\" ideas in their development and learning policies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Fraud score analysis in emerging markets	[ "Fraud", "Emerging markets" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The world that we live in today has been built, and is sustained, by our global financial systems. In these systems, billions of dollars of wealth and capital are bought, sold, and exchanged on a daily basis (Zakaria, 2008). Complex systems of checks and balances have been put in place to prevent people from using illegal manipulations of these systems to benefit themselves at the expense of the general populace. Unfortunately, managers have time and time again found ways around these safeguards in order to unethically promote their own welfare (Prasch, 2006)[1]. Accounting manipulation, a type of fraud whereby executives of a firm distort or change financial statement information to portray a falsely positive image of their company, has proven to be particularly damaging to our capital markets system. In fact, financial statement fraud cost market participants more than $500 billion in the late 1990s alone (Rezaee, 2002). Ernst & Young's 9th Annual Global Fraud Survey commented that \"While occurring less often than other types of fraud, financial statement fraud frequently does the most harm to organizations\" (Ernst & Young, 2006). Well-publicized cases of such fraud, like Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco, have rocked the USA's financial system, eroding investors' trust in the capital market system.At the same time, the USA has been going through a severe economic downturn. This is evidenced through the decline of the dollar, rising unemployment, and the current downward trend of the stock market, among other indicators (Whitney, 2007). Concurrently, many other countries are experiencing expanding markets, increased financial stability, and overall boom economies[2]. This dichotomy of the global economy is causing many American investors to begin to look outside the USA in their continual search for higher returns (Wasik, 2008)[3]. However, in foreign investments, this potential for higher returns can sometimes be negated through unforeseen risks such as political turmoil, currency fluctuations, and fraud. While all of these issues can damage an investor's foreign portfolio, it is the problem of fraud that we wish to address in this paper.As indicated above, domestic corporate fraud has caused a great deal of damage and received large amounts of publicity in the USA over the last decade. Foreign corporate fraud, though, due to typical culture bias, tends to receive less media attention in the USA. Accounting frauds such as Parmalat in Italy (Institute of Internal Auditors, 2004), Daewoo in South Korea (Turnbull et al., 2008), and multiple others, while just as financially damaging as American fraud cases, are not common knowledge to the average American investor. However, 70 percent of senior managers in large, multinational corporations believe fraud is more likely to occur in emerging markets rather than in developed ones, and a majority of these same managers feel that current internal company controls and policies are not strong enough to prevent this from happening (Ernst & Young, 2006). Additionally, many countries have far laxer standard-setting and policing systems set in place than the USA (Barth et al., 2006). Companies in these countries would therefore theoretically have a much easier time committing accounting manipulations without being detected until it is too late for the shareholders. This creates a difficult situation for the American investor: there is an irrefutable possibility of higher returns abroad, but these elevated returns come with the potential for an acute amplification of risk as well.Therefore, in this paper, we propose that by using the Fraud Score Model as set forth by Dechow et al. (2007), we can determine mean F-Scores and their standard deviations for various countries and different industries within these countries. Investors considering placing capital into areas with higher average F-Scores and standard deviations will want to exercise greater caution in ensuring that the firms they will potentially be investing in are not committing fraud. This analysis can therefore provide prospective foreign investors with a powerful initial screening tool, and lead to a more overall efficient placement of global capital.Using ten years' worth of data (1998-2007) obtained from the Compustat Global Industrial/Commercial File database, we develop F-Scores for 17,873 domestic and 27,566 foreign firm-years. Next, the foreign scores are averaged out over a range of local industries, and standard deviations are computed. This data is then compared to that of the USA in order to give us an overall picture of the level of fraud potential in various industries internationally[4].The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides a brief overview of relevant fraud prediction literature. Section 3 contains our sample selection and a description of the research design. Section 4 presents empirical results. Section 5 summarizes and concludes.\n2. Relevant literature: The ground-breaking research on which this paper is based was performed by Dechow et al. (2007) and presented in a paper entitled \"Predicting material accounting manipulations\". It is within that paper that a scaled logistic probability known as the Fraud Score (F-Score) is presented; the F-Score Model is then designed, tested, and proven to be an accurate indicator of material accounting frauds. This model, then, is the foundation for our research, with our goal being to apply it, with some minor modifications, to an international setting.Research presented in articles such as Turnbull et al. (2008), Hoopes et al. (2007), and many others, makes clear the importance of examining accounting fraud from an international perspective. As the global community becomes more interconnected, and, as discussed in the Introduction, investors seek out higher returns in emerging foreign markets, the significance of this international outlook will continue to increase. Barth et al. (2006) finds that International Accounting Standards (IAS) firms tend to exhibit lower overall accounting quality relative to US GAAP firms, especially in the areas of earnings smoothing, timely loss recognition, and correlations between accruals and cash flows. This lower level of accounting quality is shown by Hoopes et al. (2007) to correlate very strongly to increased corruption. They further demonstrate that various measures of accounting quality are significant in explaining corruption, even when controlling for other variables.Clearly then, if foreign investments are growing in popularity, international accounting standards tend to be lower than those of the USA, and corruption is shown to be higher in areas with lower standards, a mechanism for early detection of international accounting fraud would be an extremely useful investor tool. In the USA, while accounting fraud is obviously still a vital issue that needs to be more fully addressed, there is an infrastructure in place to protect investors. Organizations such as the SEC, the PCAOB, the FASB, and even the financial media, all play an important role in preventing, detecting, and reporting accounting manipulations (US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2008). Unfortunately, some foreign markets either completely lack comparable institutions, or their effects are negligible.How, then, does an investor determine the level of potential for corruption in a foreign company? Regardless of the different reporting standards and policies of their various countries, almost all major companies worldwide provide the public with some form of financial statements. A steady stream of reputable research has shown that the information found within these pronouncements can provide indications of potential accounting manipulations. For example, Beneish (1997) linked a company's sales and assets growth to fraud. Research has also indicated that return on assets (ROA) is significantly different between fraud and no-fraud firms (Summers and Sweeney, 1998). Additionally, Dechow et al. (1996) showed that when a firm has adequate funding, fraud is less likely to occur; this can be seen in the financial statements by using free cash flows as a measure of adequate funding. Lastly, DeAngelo et al. (1994) showed that the extent of leverage in a company has been associated with income increasing discretionary accruals. Skousen and Wright (2006) combined many of these financial statement variables to produce one of the more accurate fraud prediction models[5]. In summary, information gleaned from a company's financial statements can be used to indicate the probability that the firm is potentially engaging in fraudulent manipulations of its numbers.This stream of thought was taken one step further with the development of the F-Score Model by Dechow et al. (2007). This model uses information found in a company's financial statements to provide the user with a score indicating the potential for fraud within that company. Using a cut-off score of 1.0, the model correctly identifies manipulating firm-years over 60 percent of the time. The F-Score can therefore be used as a first-pass screening device for detecting possible manipulations. The idea behind this paper, then, is to apply the F-Score Model to an international setting, with the goal of giving market participants a straightforward starting point in investigating potential foreign investments for fraud.\n3. Sample selection and research design: 3.1 Data sample\n4. Results: Our findings will be discussed in three parts:1. by country;2. by industry; and3. by both country and industry.However, before doing this, two significant caveats should be noted. First, our results were not winsorized; outliers were specifically included in the means. The reasoning behind this decision is that investors will not be investing in statistically sound averages; they will be placing their capital, and their trust, into specific companies. If a few outlier firm-years are negatively skewing the data in a particular local industry, market participants need to be aware of this and exercise greater caution when approaching said industry, even if the skewing is caused by a relatively small number of companies. The second caveat is that while our discussion up to this point has centered mostly on the F-Scores themselves, the analysis of our findings will center on the standard deviations of those scores. Again, this is done so as to provide the user with the most helpful information possible. A particular industry within a country may have a low mean F-Score, but if it has an extremely high standard deviation, then there are still companies in that industry that are likely committing fraud. An investor can therefore use these broad generalizations as a springboard to further analysis of individual companies. That being said, here are our findings.4.1 Country results\n5. Discussion: What do the results imply? First and foremost, the F-Score is an indicator of fraud risk, but not an outright signal that fraud exists. Where companies and countries have higher fraud scores, greater analysis and care should be taken in determining whether to invest in a company or not. For an auditor, this means that additional tests should be performed on a client that has a high F-Score.Further, when there is a large standard deviation among fraud scores for a country, or within an industry, this implies greater risk or uncertainty as to the validity of F-Scores. For example, the USA generally has a fraud score around 1.00 (this is considered good). However, the standard deviation F-Score for US firms is often quite large. This larger standard deviation is an indicator that there are outlier firms - firms with a greater likelihood of fraud or firms with a less likely chance of fraud. Analysis should then be performed on individual firms within an industry to determine those outlier firms that causing the high standard deviation.In breaking down an industry with larger standard deviations, the firms with larger F-Scores are considered to pose a greater risk of fraud. Within the transportation industry, the USA has a high F-Score and a very large standard deviation. This implies greater risk than just a high F-Score or standard deviation alone. This industry should be carefully studied and analyzed prior to investment or performance of an audit. The outlier firms should be thoroughly scrutinized prior to investment in or accepted as an audit client.Further, as an early indicator of fraud risk, the F-Score signals that greater risk or care should be taken before investing in countries or industries that have high F-Scores and high standard deviations. For the most part, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Turkey have high F-Scores and standard deviations. In the case of Turkey, this may be caused by a small sample size, but in any event the results imply greater care should be taken.The F-Score does not indicate why a country or industry might have high F-Scores. However, it is easy to postulate that countries that have strong internal controls (such as the USA with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) should have lower fraud risk.\n6. Conclusion: Financial statement manipulations can cause millions of dollars in losses and destroy investor trust in the marketplace. The more checks and safeguards established to prevent and detect such fraud, the safer and more efficiently the global economy can function. Using information from companies' public financial documents, the Fraud Score Model assists in the process of fraud detection, and thus provides market participants with a valuable resource. Our research adds to this model and can be used by investors, auditors, and regulators as an initial screening tool in investigating foreign investments for accounting fraud.As an example of the practical application of this research, suppose an American investor desired to place her capital in the utilities market, and she further decided that due to the recent poor performance of the US stock market, she would invest her money abroad in an emerging market. Using our data, she could determine which country's firms are more likely to be engaging in accounting manipulations, and conversely, which country's utility industries are less risky so far as fraud is concerned. For instance, she would be hesitant to place her capital in Turkey, due to their utilities industry's tremendously high mean F-Score of 49.490 and soaring standard deviation of 119.843. Taiwan or Thailand, however, would both be suitable alternatives due their relatively risk-free investment environments. Of course, further investigation would be required before she could move forward with her investment decision, but our research would provide a suitable starting-point from which she could begin her analysis.This study provides an overview of fraud risk in emerging markets in comparison to the USA. It provides an indication of which countries might pose the greatest financial statement fraud risk. However, there are limitations to this study. It only provides a high-level indication that fraud or risk of fraud is present within a country/industry. Therefore the authors suggest additional research be conducted on a firm level. This would provide investors, auditors, and academics greater understanding of fraud risk in emerging markets at the firm level.Additionally, the F-Score study does not provide insight into the firm characteristics of fraud risk beyond country and industry. We recommend additional research into firm characteristics beyond country and industry, such as firm size, board characteristics, legal system, banking system, etc.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to determine the likelihood of financial statement manipulations in companies throughout a variety of emerging market countries and compare this potential wirh that of firms within the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors utilize the Fraud Score Model, as set forth by Dechow et al., to determine the likelihood of financial statement manipulations. By adjusting their model to work in an international setting, the authors are able to study nine industries across 23 countries, including the USA.\nFindings: - The results vary from industry to industry, with some countries performing extremely well in one industry, only to prove remarkably risky in the next.\nOriginality/value: - The findings may be used by a variety of market participants, especially investors, to determine the risk levels of potential foreign investments. Therefore, this research can help lead to a more overall efficient placement of global capital.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing an SME based six sigma strategy	[ "Pareto analysis", "Taguchi methods", "Small to medium‐sized enterprises", "Manufacturing industries" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Six sigma can be considered both a business strategy and a science that has the aim of reducing manufacturing and service costs, and creating significant improvements in customer satisfaction and bottom-line savings through combining statistical and business process methodologies into an integrated model of process, product and service improvement. In six sigma, customer focus becomes the top priority. Six sigma improvements are defined by their impact on customer satisfaction and value (Pande and Holpp, 2002). From an internal perspective, six sigma provides a way of improving processes so that the company can more efficiently and predictably produce world-class products and services. Traditionally a five-phased DMAIC methodology is applied by six sigma teams that tackle specific problems to reach six sigma levels of performance (Breyfogle, 1999). These phases are:1. (D)efine. Who are the customers and what are their priorities?2. (M)easure. How is the process measured and how is it performing?3. (A)nalyse. What are the most important causes of defects?4. (I)mprove. How do we remove the causes of the defects?5. (C)ontrol. How can we maintain the improvements?At the heart of the six sigma approach is the application of DOE techniques. These techniques help to identify key factors and to subsequently adjust these factors in order to achieve sustainable performance improvements. It is the complexity of these DOE techniques that are often cited by companies as to the reason why they are unable to employ six sigma. A short overview of the DOE techniques is now covered.\nBackground to DOE techniques: The statistical approach to design of experiments and the analysis of variance technique was developed in the 1930s (Fisher, 1935). The technique provides a very powerful and economical method to determining significant factors and factor interactions that affect variability within a product. This classical approach to the design of experiments was further developed in the late 1980s when Genichi Taguchi developed his own form of statistical design of experiments. The Taguchi (1987) method suggested that the design process consisted of three phases namely; system design, parameter design and tolerance design. The latter two being based on statistical design of experiments.Both approaches provide a very powerful means to understanding the process behaviour and hence the key factors that influence the performance of any system or process. Whilst the work of both Fisher and Taguchi is relatively well known in modern manufacturing industry, the work of Dorian Shainin receives less acclaim but his non-academic statistical technique is gaining greater prominence. The Shainin DOE technique (Shainin and Shainin, 1988; Antony, 1999; Bohte, 2000) permits the luxury of considering as many variables as can be identified. The subsequent grouping of these variables into \"families\" and identifying the most influential variables based on statistical significance as opposed to assumptions provides a greater chance of identifying the major factors of variance (Bhote, 1991). Shainin identifies and categorises the major factors contributing to variance as Red X, Pink X and Pale Pink X (Goodman and Wyld, 2001). Red X being the major factor causing variance, Pink X being the second factor and Pale Pink X being the third.This paper develops both the Taguchi DOE and Shainin's components search technique (CST) by conducting experiments on identifying the influencing variables that affect the critical to quality (CTQ) issue identified by Orangebox. The DOE techniques are applied through using the six sigma DMAIC approach and are shown in the following sections of this paper.\nThe requirement for an SME based six sigma methodology: There is much debate as to whether formal quality enhancement approaches can be effectively implemented and subsequently utilised by SMEs. Thomas and Webb (2003) in their work on analysing quality systems implementation in SMEs highlight the lack of intellectual and financial capacity within small companies as being the primary issues that lead to poor systems implementation. They go on to state that the uniqueness and complexity of SMEs manufacturing operations often hinder the implantation process. Husband (1997) on studies with Australian SMEs identify similar problems and go onto identify a series of issues that affect the ability of an SME to implement formalised quality enhancement techniques. The main issue is one of developing a rigorous model that is both suitable to the wide range of SMEs but is not so generic that it fails to provide adequate direction and guidance to the company. In order to do this, a series of objectives need to be identified so as to allow for the development of a suitable strategic framework for implementing six sigma into SMEs. These are:* A cost-effective approach that aligns itself with the specific SME issues and will have relevance and purpose for all types of SME.* A system to allow integration of the model into the strategic and operational frameworks of SMEs.* A model that can adopt specific quality methods and techniques that best suit SMEs and which directly attack CTQ problems.Husband and Mandal (1999) also identify the uniqueness of an SMEs manufacturing operations as being a limiting factor to quality enhancement implementation and provide a series of dimensions that are unique to SMEs and suggest that if these dimensions are not integrated into the model then an SMEs ability to achieve significant outputs from the application of the model will be compromised. These dimensions are:* Core - products and/or services.* Structural - size, location, age, ownership and legal entity/structure.* Fundamental - systems, people and measures.* Sustainability - leadership and planning, risk and change, and technology and innovation.* Integrative - customers, suppliers and partners.* External - competition, stakeholders, government and economy.Furthermore, Deleryd et al. (1999) identify that SMEs need to make decisions and improve their processes based on accurate and timely information relating to the performance of their manufacturing process. To manufacturing companies this is crucial not least within the design and production areas. This means that a deeper understanding of the concept of variation, identification of causes of variation and handling of these causes are important factors within SMEs. It, therefore, follows that the development of process control theory, experimental design concepts and issues relating to product reliability cannot solely remain in the domain of the larger industries in which resources are available to train the workforce to apply these concepts. These statistical concepts have a major part to play in SMEs and the application of such principles must come from continued training and development of the company's workforce.The resulting problem shows the lack of application of statistical theory to identify and solve problems within a manufacturing context. There are several reasons for the relatively low application of statistical methods in SMEs. Management in small companies, in general, do not have the sufficient theoretical knowledge to see the potential of using statistical tools. In many cases, they and their employees, even become frightened when statistical tools are discussed.Small companies also lack resources in the form of time and personnel. Small organisations tend to have a lean organisation and, therefore, they find it difficult to appoint a facilitator or co-ordinator for the implementation process. In addition, they also have limited resources to provide internal training. Lack of resources in these aspects leads to a need for a careful analysis of which strategy to use when implementing statistical methods in order to succeed (Husband, 1997).Having an array of specific tools and techniques available to the SME can allow the company to develop what can be termed the \"quality enhancement\" issues relating to systems and product based quality. These issues are essential to the company's continued development and include amongst other things; problem solving, benchmarking, continuous improvement, etc. These techniques prove to be far more effective when backed by statistical data and can achieve greater success when implemented within a systems approach that is designed to suit SMEs.The primary focus for any SME, therefore, that intends to adopt the six sigma methodology is to undertake the project in the most cost-effective manner and, to be able to recoup the initial project costs quickly after the completion of the project. At the heart of this cost-effectiveness is the need to undertake the six sigma project in-house with the minimum of costly consultancy support. This, therefore, calls for a simple six sigma approach that utilizes powerful yet simple statistical and DOE tools to aid in the process.The following work highlights the tools and techniques that were used by Orangebox UK in their development of the six sigma programme.\nIntroduction to Orangebox: Established in 1985, Orangebox Ltd an SME based in Hengoed, South Wales has grown to become a world leader in the design and manufacture of office seating and furniture. This unique position has been achieved due to an unstinting attention to quality, cost and delivery and through ensuring total customer satisfaction.The market sector is highly competitive and any possible advantage competitors can get to obtain increased market share will be mercilessly exploited. Orangebox has achieved ISO 9000 certification and has implemented company wide lean, TQM and TPM initiatives to good effect. As an SME the company is unique in the fact that they have been able to implement these initiatives so well. Teamworking and the ability to attract highly skilled engineering staff to drive these initiatives forward have been cited as key issues in this success.The move towards six sigma was instigated through a need to directly tackle customer concerns much earlier in the process. The company found that the TQM process and its associated systems were too slow in responding to such problems primarily, since they were developed to obtain long-term strategic direction and focus. Six sigma was, therefore, adopted in order to tackle customer CTQ issues immediately before relationships suffered and customers were attracted elsewhere.The company is highly sensitive to customer quality issues and reacts quickly to problems they consider to be CTQ. This allows them to keep ahead of the competition, however, until the introduction of the six sigma strategy, the company attended to quality problems in an often ad-hoc and unstructured manner. The following section shows how the company followed the six sigma methodology in an attempt to provide a structured approach to solving CTQ problems within the company and to achieve enhanced customer satisfaction and internal financial benefits.The company invested in training a senior engineer in the principles of six sigma to black belt level. On completion of the training programme, the engineer was given a small process enhancement team in order to apply the six sigma methodology to highly sensitive, high value product lines. The following work provides a case study of one particular project undertaken.\nDMAIC at Orangebox: The six sigma process concentrates on a simple five phase methodology called DMAIC. DMAIC is an anagram of the major steps within the methodology namely; define, measure, analyse, improve, control. The company followed this approach and each stage is explained in detail in the following section of the paper.Define\nConclusions: * An experimental study was undertaken in order to identify the optimum parameter settings and predicted CTF values for the joint. The results of the experimental study enabled a change to be made to the parameter settings resulting in a 53 per cent increase in CTOF. This equates to approximately 115,000 CTF and well above the design requirement of 100,000 CTF.* Through the use of ANOVA, it was also possible to tighten the variability of failure between the chair arms by approximately 47 per cent thus indicating a more reliable wear out rate and a more reliable service life interval.* The use of Shainin's CST allowed the engineers to focus quickly on the components that were deemed important to the process. Through a more rigorous approach than the simple Pareto study, CST also allowed the engineers to pick up essential product knowledge from the study.* This relatively simple application of Taguchi's experimental design technique should allow for increased use of the methodology for tackling many process quality problems. Likewise, the results can also provide the stimulus for the wider application of the technique to create process improvements at relatively lower costs.* The application of the six sigma approach to a CTQ problem at Orangebox achieved savings in excess of PS60,000 for an initial outlay of less than PS5,000 in experimental and project costs.* The development of a six sigma model developed a culture towards continuous improvement and the systematic implementation of the approach throughout the organisation.* The application of the Shainin and Taguchi DOE techniques allowed the company to develop advanced statistical techniques and to become generally more \"technical\" in their approach to problem solving (Thomas and Antony, 2003).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The effective implementation of the six sigma strategy within UK manufacturing industries, in particular SMEs, can be considered to be poor. SMEs cite high costs and complexity of implementation as being the major limiting factors as to its widespread use. This paper aims to describe the application of six sigma in an SME and to show how the company applied a cost-effective six sigma methodology to eradicate a critical to quality (CTQ) issue. The paper seeks to conclude by developing a strategic framework for the widespread use of six sigma in SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper applies the six sigma strategy in an SME in order to eradicate a major CTQ issue. It identifies the approach employed, the tools and techniques used and shows the savings that were made through the structured application of the DMAIC procedure, which is at the heart of the six sigma approach.\nFindings: - Through the correct application of experimental design approaches, this paper identifies the optimum parameter settings that enabled the company to eradicate the CTQ issue and achieve significant improvements in quality and cost from a modest financial outlay.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The design and implementation of an SME-specific six sigma strategy and its application to a real engineering problem will enable companies to apply the techniques and to attain improvements in terms of cost and quality.\nOriginality/value: - The application of the six sigma strategy and the resulting conclusions as to its effectiveness for industry are the real value of this paper. This paper will be valuable for quality professionals, design engineers and manufacturing specialists in a wide range of industries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Surface-acting outcomes among service employees with two jobs: Investigating moderation and mediation effects	[ "Employees", "Emotional exhaustion", "Surface acting", "Work", "Dual employment", "Organizational identification and commitment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One aspect of employee behaviour and well-being to which service research has given substantial attention is employee organizational commitment, a resource that is valuable to the employee and organization (e.g. Chen and Yu, 2014). However, service organizations commonly struggle to develop and maintain a sense of organizational commitment among customer-contact employees (Ellinger et al., 2007; McClean and Collins, 2011). This underscores the need to examine the mechanisms by which employee organizational commitment is influenced. Affective commitment, a job attitude that concerns emotional attachment to the organization (Meyer and Allen, 1991), is particularly valuable for employers because it is associated with increased job performance and customer loyalty, and with decreased withdrawal and counterproductive work behaviours (e.g. Reichheld, 1993; Riketta, 2002; Tepper et al., 2008). However, service jobs introduce many role stressors that may detract from employees' job attitudes, especially the performance of emotional labour when interacting with customers (Morris and Feldman, 1996).\nLiterature review and hypothesis development: COR theory and organizational commitment\nMethod: Participants and procedure\nResults: Measurement validation\nDiscussion: Interpersonal service delivery is an interactive process characterized by an organizational setting that demands the display of emotions from employees towards customers (Wieseke et al., 2012). Generally speaking, the \"always smile\" approach of surface acting is considered emotionally draining for service employees because it creates feelings of dissonance, emotional exhaustion, and job dissatisfaction (e.g. Abraham, 1999; Brotheridge and Grandey, 2002; Cote and Morgan, 2002; Lin and Lin, 2011).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Service firms increasingly hire employees that work two or more jobs. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory and the notion that employees have finite emotional resources, the purpose of this paper is to examine the consequences of emotional labour among employees who simultaneously work in two service jobs. The authors posit that emotional labour requirements from the primary job (PJ) and secondary job (SJ) interact to emotionally exhaust employees through a process of resource depletion. Specifically, building on extant work, this research tests a theoretical mediation model of surface acting predicting organizational commitment through emotional exhaustion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Employing a predictive survey approach, 171 frontline-service employees with two jobs from a variety of service industries are surveyed in two waves. The hypothesized model is tested using a bootstrap procedure for testing indirect effects. In addition, the authors investigate first- and second-stage moderation.\nFindings: Results confirm full mediation of the relationship between surface acting and organizational commitment by emotional exhaustion, confirming that the effect of surface acting on organizational commitment is indirect through emotional exhaustion. In addition, results reveal that surface acting in the SJ moderates the link between surface acting in the PJ and emotional exhaustion, and that employees low on organizational identification congruence display lower levels of organizational commitment with the PJ.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study contributes to the literature that relates emotional labour to organizational commitment by investigating contingent factors. The key contribution thus pertains to identifying contingent factors based in COR theory and social identity theory that influence the triadic relation between surface acting, emotional exhaustion, and organizational commitment.\nPractical implications: Results reveal that surface acting in a second job not just simply adds to the level of employee emotional exhaustion. Instead levels of surface acting in a first and second job interact with each other to affect emotional exhaustion. This finding suggests service managers must take into account if and how employees are enforced to perform surface acting in the other job to prevent high exhaustion.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to investigate emotional labour among dual job holders, a growing segment of the service workforce that poses unique challenges to organizations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Can HR leaders excel as company chief executive?	[ "Leadership development", "Chief executives", "Performance", "Leadership", "Performance management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: \"HR should not be defined by what it does but by what it delivers - results that enrich the organization's value to customers, investors and employees,\" says Dave Ulrich, author on leadership.\nChallenges for HR leaders: HR leaders may not demonstrate either the technical or business acumen needed to become a chief executive. If they want to step into the shoes of the chief executive, they must develop a broad mindset with a mixture of soft, hard and conceptual skills.Many HR leaders work in the specific HR area for so long that they become unsuitable as candidates for chief executive.\nWhat is chief-executive acumen?: Chief executives must often adjust rapidly to changing situations. They have to be all-rounders. They must know the length and breadth of everything and depth of their core domain. They must be troubleshooters, crisis managers, communicators, strategists and, above all, visionaries.HR leaders are usually strong in their core area, but often lack certain technical, operational and other skills. Nevertheless, this should not become a barrier to ambitious HR leaders becoming chief executives.If HR leaders want to succeed as chief executives they must be able to take risk and thrive on uncertainty and complexity. They must develop a broad perspective and learn about other areas of the business.\nHow to acquire chief-executive acumen: To become a chief executive, the leader must acquire technical and business acumen, possess hard and soft skills and apply hard and soft power. Aspiring chief executives also need fire and ambition; Jack Welch became chief executive of GE from a background in chemical engineering.In order to excel as chief executives, HR leaders must:declare their ambition to become chief executive, aim high and learn the functions of other departments to widen their knowledge base and understand the whole picture of the organization;build their chief-executive brand consistently and excel as well-rounded professionals;learn to manage volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity;develop the patience, tact and diplomacy to manage organizational challenges and changes;possess strategic vision and knowledge and be able to see the big picture;think out-of-the box and develop skills in troubleshooting, decision-making and visioning; and*recognize that their future lies outside HR department.Chief executives deal with governmental agencies, financial institutions, marketing organizations, suppliers and clients. They must be able to manage both the internal and external environment.They must remember that chief executives are made, not born. Hence, they must demonstrate their passion and ambition to excel as chief executives. They must craft their vision while in the early stages of their career and work towards that aim.\nChange mind-set to excel as chief executive: HR leaders are basically people-oriented. If they want to become chief executive they must learn how to become task-oriented leaders, without forgetting the people orientation.HR leaders must come out of their comfort zones and core domains. They must become involved in job rotation and take part in cross-functional areas including finance, production, operations, sales and marketing. They must close the gap between theory and practice.\nAbout the author: Professor M.S. Rao, founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India, has more than three decades of experience in leadership development. He is the author of 18 books - including 21 Success Sutras for Leaders - and more than 250 papers and articles in international publications. An experienced leadership educator, editor, speaker, consultant and practitioner, his areas of interest also include learning, leadership development and coaching. Professor Rao serves as an advisor to, and board member of, international organizations including AIOBP, USA and Global Leadership Awards, Malaysia. He has been listed among the leading achievers in the world in Marquis' Who's Who in the World in 2013 (30th Pearl Anniversary Edition). E-mail: msrlctrg@gmail.com; Blogs: http://profmsr.blogspot.com.pitt.idm.oclc.org; http://professormsrao.blogspot.com; http://professormsraoguru.blogspot.com.pitt.idm.oclc.org; Speaker Mix: http://speakermix.com/professor-m-s-rao\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to present a blueprint for HR leaders to excel as chief executives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper highlights some of the challenges that HR leaders encounter in their quest to succeed as a chief executive.\nFindings: - The paper emphasizes the need to acquire chief-executive acumen by developing a particular mindset, toolset and skill set, among other things. It explains the importance of understanding other departments, including marketing, finance, operations, legal, IT and strategy.\nPractical implications: - The paper stresses the importance of entering into line organizations rather than staff organizations for quick career advancement for HR leaders.\nSocial implications: - The paper illustrates the realities of leadership development, with examples of a wide range of successful leaders.\nOriginality/value: - The paper closes the gap between theory and practice in the quest to become a good chief executive.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The implementation of palm oil plantation business licensing	[ "Qualitative research", "Business licensing", "Palm oil plantations", "K2", "L0", "M2" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Production of palm oil in Indonesia synonymous with Riau Province. Siak Regency's potential lies in palm oil plantations, with vast 217,715 ha of palm oil plantations and 20 units of palm oil mills. The production of palm oil in Siak Regency today has reached 4,227,028 tons, with an average of 23,697 kg/ha. Palm oil plantation crops have significantly increased, while rubber crops have decreased. This means that half of the existing plantation, including rubber, has been converted into palm oil ones, because the data from forestry and plantations state that no palm oil crops have been reduced. Palm oil plantations in Siak Regency have scope for further development. Some of the palm oil plantations use licenses issued by regents/mayors for operating in the field. Before the release of forest area and before obtaining forest land use license from the Minister of Forestry, these plantations were falling in the category of non-procedural forest land usage. Another problem for Riau Province is that formulation of land use system (RTRW) has not been legalized by the Ministry of Forestry. Temporarily, forest land use (TGHK) is being used. Meanwhile, TGHK is not meant to help determine the forest area. In addition, it also divides the forest land on the basis of ownership, functionality and purpose.\n2. Literature review/state of the art/research background: Grindle in Wahab (2002, p. 45) suggested that policy implementation is not just concerned with the translation mechanism of political decisions into routine procedures through bureaucratic channels; it is more than that. It concerns conflicts, decisions and who will gain what from the policy implementation. Therefore, it is not too wrong to say that policy implementation is an important aspect of the overall policy process. No matter how good a policy is, it will be useless if it cannot be implemented in accordance with the plan. Implementation is a not a simple process.\n3. Methodology: The explanatory research method was conducted with qualitative research approaches, explaining and exploring deeper into the subject and object - a person, institution or community. It is based on observations and interviews performed, and provides an analysis of what were found in the field and were connected with the concept of relevant theory. Qualitative studies' research processes form a cycle, which means that data collection and analysis of data were direct and simultaneous. Therefore, theoretical sensitivity was needed in the process of data collection and data analysis in the field, and the researcher himself acted as the main instrument. The informants of the research were Head of Mapping Section and Forest Inventory in Forestry Service of Riau Province, Head of Plantation Business in Forestry and Plantation Office (Dishutbun) of Siak Regency and Head of Inventory Section, Forest and Land of Forestry and Plantation Office (Dishutbun) of Siak Regency.\n4. Case studies/experiments/demonstrations/application functionality: Broadly speaking, the researcher divides these licensing procedures into four stages, namely, forest area licensing, location licensing, plantation business licensing and land use licensing. The reason is that among all the licensing procedures, these four licenses implementation in the field have encountered problems that are not in accordance with the applicable mechanisms and rules, previously arranged according to the respective licensing mechanism. The implementation of licensing in the field with non-procedural arrangement is commonly found.\n5. Conclusion: The implementation of business license for palm oil plantations in Siak Regency has yet to run optimally. It means that implementation on the field has not been effective or good in its implementation process. It is seen from the presence of palm oil plantation companies that have not obtained land use rights despite having been in operation; thereby, without land use rights, they do not pay for land and building tax which has become a source of regional revenue. In the regulation, palm oil plantations are able to only perform cultivation after obtaining land use right from the National Land Agency. The government, in this case the Forestry and Plantation Office of Siak Regency, must optimally conduct socialization to provide sufficient access to the surrounding community, provide opinions and supervise licensing process conducted by them. Socialization of licensing is confined to only a particular place and is located far away from the plantation location, despite the fact that socialization is the key to the most important issue of all processes that have been passed.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to describe and dig deeper into the subject and object, a person, institution or community, based on observations and interviews conducted, and to provide an analysis of what was found in the field and connect it with the concept of relevant theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An explanatory research method was conducted using qualitative research approaches to explain and explore in depth the subject and object, which are a person, an institution or a community.\nFindings: Results of research show that the implementation of the palm oil plantation business licensing in Siak is not optimal. Factors that affect the implementation of palm oil plantation business licensing in Siak need to be addressed in a stepwise manner, to increase dissemination to the target and transform information that is clear and consistent. Develop SOP clear so that law enforcement can work and improve the quality and quality of the apparatus implementing policies.\nOriginality/value: A quality research approach has been used to assess the implementation of palm oil business licensing at the Forest and Land of Forestry and Plantation Office (Dishutbun) of Siak Regency, Riau, Indonesia.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Supplier selection in pharmaceutical industry: An analytic network process approach	[ "Supply chain management", "Decision making", "Suppliers", "Supplier relations", "Pharmaceuticals industry", "Greece" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Recent trends in global production have both increased supply chain complexity and reinforced the notion that logistics strategies and practices are essential elements of business strategy (Kannan and Tan, 2003; Perona and Miragliotta, 2003). Logistics complexity has increased as organizations have moved from centralized, vertically integrated, single-site manufacturing facilities to geographically dispersed networks of resources that collectively create value for their customers (Tatsiopoulos et al., 2004). In many business environments, networking is almost an inevitable solution to help companies respond rapidly to market changes (Hallikas et al., 2004). A common framework of enterprise networks appears to be the formation of enterprise clusters. Clusters can be defined as:[...] geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialised suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions (for example, universities, standard agencies, and trade associations) in particular fields that compete but also co-operate (Porter, 1998).Clusters are generally built up spontaneously by the local business players, who want to take advantage of the synergy of several factors existing in their geographic area, such as the presence of suppliers and customers, the access to information and know-how, the availability of resources, low transactions and communication costs due to geographical proximity (Vonortas, 2002).In addition, research and development in information and communication technology have made it possible to integrate a cluster's partners in such a way that the links among suppliers, producers, third parties and customers are now easier to establish (Kelle and Akbulut, 2005). Essentially, this new business model concerns the coming together of collaborators using Information Technology (IT), such as the internet, to integrate a company's business processes with those of its customers and suppliers and exploit opportunities as they arise. Being able to integrate their needs, companies achieve economies of scale and establish a powerful and competitive advantage in the bidding processes vis-a-vis their suppliers. As a result, this process leads to the creation of an additional category of orders (negotiated orders) along with the traditional buyer and seller orders (flow orders).In such a complex partner ecosystem, the decision-making process is a complicated issue and as organisations become more and more dependent on their suppliers, the direct and indirect consequences of poor decision making will become more critical (Chan and Kumar, 2007). In particular, selecting the best offer submitted by various suppliers is an important component of production and logistics management in many companies and it is further complicated by the fact that individual suppliers may have different performance characteristics for different criteria. For example, a supplier offering the lowest per unit price may not have the best quality or service performance among the competing suppliers. Often, the decision-making process is complicated for the buyer due to the presence of price discounts that depend on the total value of sales volume (Xia and Wu, 2007), additional value-added offers or relationship issues and preferences among the partners. Selection of suppliers' offers is therefore a multicriteria problem, in which it is necessary to make a trade-off between conflicting tangible and intangible factors in order to identify the best offer.Evidence to date suggest that extensive delays in the planned schedule, serious quality problems and cost overruns frequently happen to big and small enterprises. To improve this situation, analytical models are needed to improve the current practices of supplier selection (Lau et al., 2001). In this context, this paper provides a method for offers evaluation in the Greek parapharmaceutical industry. The parapharmaceutical supply chain comprises a cluster supported by IT systems, as defined above. The proposed method utilizes the analytic network process (ANP) in order to cope with the multicriteria decision problem, with dependencies and feedback. Although it is highly customized for the parapharmaceutical industry, due to the specific nature of the products, its framework and general concept can be applied to various regions and industries which face the complex problem of evaluating and selecting suppliers' offers.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The next section provides a literature review of the supplier selection process in terms of criteria and methods that have been identified and utilised by various researchers. The third section provides a framework for the selection of the most appropriate decision-making methods and justifies the selection of the ANP for the parapharmaceutical case study. The fourth section describes the problem context and is divided in two subsections. In the first one, the parapharmaceutical supply chain is presented and the main players are identified, along with the related transactions and the IT involved. The second subsection introduces the core concept of the negotiated activities and justifies the need for offers evaluation. The following section describes the application of the ANP method in the parapharmaceutical supply chain and is further divided in three subsections, concerning the complexity resolution, the theoretical framework of the ANP method and the purposed parapharmaceutical ANP model. The final section presents the results of the method, outlines some future research directions and concludes the paper.\nSupplier selection literature review: Benchmarking is the systematic comparison of elements of performance in a company against those best practices of relevant companies, obtaining information that will help the observing company to identify and implement improvement. Benchmarking is recognized as an essential tool for continuous improvement of quality. The generic process of benchmarking consists of four main steps, namely: plan, collect, analyze and adapt. A major part of the \"plan\" step is the benchmarking partner/supplier selection phase (Lau et al., 2005). This is arguably one of the most crucial factors for success. Since a qualified and reliable supplier is a key element in reducing material costs and achieving on-time deliveries, supplier selection is increasingly recognised as a critical decision in supply chain management (Dahel, 2003; Millington et al., 2006). Therefore, supplier selection and evaluation are very important to the success of the supply chain process (Chen and Huang, 2007). In the supply chain literature, several papers for supplier evaluation and selection have been published and most agree that it is a complicated matter because of the large number of criteria needed to be considered (Choy et al., 2002; Yang and Chen, 2006; Teng and Jaramillo, 2005; Hu and Su, 2007; Bayazit, 2006). Hence, evaluation and selection of suppliers is a typical multicriteria decision making (MCDM) problem, involving both qualitative and quantitative criteria. The ones considered as most common by scholars are related to costs, quality, delivery time and flexibility (Gonzalez et al., 2004; Krause et al., 2001; Lee et al., 2001; Svensson, 2004; Yan and Wei, 2002).More than half of the papers reviewed for the aims of the current study examine the use of the different decision-making methods and tools for supplier selection. The decision-making methods reported for supplier selection can be clustered into five broad categories: traditional MCDM techniques, mathematical programming, artificial intelligence, expert systems, and multivariate statistical analysis. Owing to strategic importance and involvement of various uncertainties and risks associated with the supplier selection process, the purchasing activity is usually carried out by teams rather than individual purchasing managers. The supplier selection process also concerns several departments other than purchasing such as production, finance, and marketing. Hence, the personnel from these departments may be involved in the decision-making process of selecting suppliers along with the purchasing manager. Despite the method used by the researchers, they seem to agree that the supplier selection problem is further aggravated due to the need for multiple criteria, the conflicting objectives of the criteria, the involvement of many alternatives (due to increasing competition and globalisation) and the numerous internal and external constraints imposed by the purchasing process (Choy et al., 2007; Hang Honga et al., 2005; Jayaraman et al., 1999; Leopoulos and Kirytopoulos, 2004; Wadhwa and Ravindram, 2007; Weber et al., 2000). The next section explores the problem of choosing the most appropriate MCDM method and justifies the choice of the ANP method for the parapharmaceutical supply chain.\nChoosing the most appropriate decision method for the parapharmaceutical supplier selection problem: The most common methods used for the supplier selection problem are the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and ANP, the outranking methods, such as the ELECTRE, Multiattibute Utility Theory (MAUT), fuzzy sets and mathematical programming models. They all require the definition of options, of criteria, and most of them demand a measure for assessing the relative significance of the criteria (Belton and Steward, 2002; Peniwati, 2005). They differ, however, in terms of how they combine the data (DETR, 2002). Choosing one method out of all the existing ones is itself a multicriteria task, as different aims are involved (appropriateness of the data and the structure of the problem, method applicability, acceptance of the decision, etc.). Hanne (2000) suggests that this problem should be solved with MCDA method while other researchers argue that such an approach leads to vicious circle. In order to address this problem, Guitouni and Martel (1998) propose a framework to aid the choice of the appropriate MCDM method. They give a good overview of 29 commonly used methods, divided into elementary methods, single synthesising criterion methods, outranking methods and mixed methods. Others suggested using a typology tree, addressing questions on the operational approach, on the form of the information and on the decision problematic in order to arrive at an appropriate method (Laaribi et al., 1996). Zak (2005) in his study, used four different well-known MCDM in order to solve the same problem and then reported the preferences of the people involved in the decision-making process. His results showed that the models should be easy to understand, combine both graphical and numerical results, be friendly to use and match the human thinking.Based on the above, the authors developed a framework of eight questions that need to be answered in order to choose the most suitable MCDM method for each decision problem:1. Is the set of the alternatives discrete or continuous?2. Is the decision environment certain or uncertain?3. Does the decision-making problem allows trade-offs among criteria?4. Is the structure of the problem hierarchical?5. Which is the form of the data (quantitative, qualitative, mixed)?6. Is the method easy to apply and to understand?7. Is there a possibility of graphical and numerical representation of the results?8. Is the method in accordance with the human way of thinking?Answering the above questions for the parapharmaceutical case study, ANP proved to be the most appropriate approach. The parapharmaceutical supplier selection problem concerns a discrete set of suppliers under certainty and trade-offs among criteria are allowed. In addition, it does not concern an hierarchical problem since the criteria, which are both qualitative and quantitative, are interdependent. In short, MAUT and fuzzy set methods were eliminated by questions 1 and 2, since they refer to problems with a continuous set of alternatives and presuppose an uncertain environment (Figueira et al., 2006). Accordingly, the mathematical programming methods were excluded as they usually consider only quantitative criteria (Yang and Chen, 2006; de Boer et al., 2001). In addition, AHP proved to be an inappropriate method because of its hierarchical structure. Finally, the two most dominant methods were the ELECTRE and the ANP, which both allow graphical and numerical representation of results. Considering the fact that ELECTRE does not allow trade-offs among criteria and on the other hand, ANP is believed to be in accordance with the human way of thinking (Saaty, 2005), while it is easy to apply and understand (Zak, 2005), the latter was selected for the parapharmaceutical case study.\nProblem context: The parapharmaceutical supply chain\nMethodology: Complexity resolution and proposed approach\nConclusions: The contribution of this paper is the adaptation of a comprehensive method for the selection of the best offer provided by various suppliers in the parapharmaceutical industry. In addition, the supplier selection process is adapted so as to incorporate the enterprise cluster structure, under which the particular industry of the case study operates in the decision process. This innovative approach can directly assist clusters' managers. Its value expands further as it achieves to make available a basis for evaluation of potential and existing suppliers, provides a unified procedure for all companies to fully exploit the results within an supply chain, deepens the knowledge about each supplier, acts as an improvement tool for suppliers, assists the decision-making process and gives basic data for running suppliers' reward projects.The ANP approach, as part of this method, enables the decision maker to visualize the impact of various criteria in the final outcome and documents the evaluation results in such way that they can be communicated to various stakeholders.For the parapharmaceutical example, the results indicate that supplier Brand Co. is the first choice for the service provider. This is attributed to its high-quality specifications and low-risk profile. In addition, the method revealed the priority values of the criteria, which influence the decision. From the limit matrix (Table VII), it is observed that supplier's profile (raw priority 0.088) is the most important criterion in the selection of a supplier's offer. It is followed by the risk of low quality of delivered product (raw value 0.080) and market share (raw value 0.072). However, this does not imply that the service provider pays less attention to the other criteria such as cost and service. The dominance of those criteria is interpreted by the fact that, for the parapharmaceutical products, the restrictions and specifications are very tight and thus quality criteria should be the first to be addressed. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis performed for the dominant criterion (supplier's certification) proved that the model is very stable to priority changes and the best choice is unaffected.Although the model has been illustrated for three distinct suppliers, it is capable of comparing more than that number, but then at the cost of complexity. In addition, the ANP approach takes into consideration both qualitative and quantitative criteria and incorporates interdependencies and feedback among them. The proposed model is highly customized for the parapharmaceutical industry since it integrates the priorities and relative weights concerning its specific needs. Similar ANP-based models may also be developed in other contexts as well, but they will need significant time and effort from the decision makers in the formation of the pairwise matrices. However, the criteria set here may be used for nearly every similar industry consisting of active clusters (such as apparel industry). Additionally, although the technique is computationally intensive, software tools might ease the mathematical complexity and in any case, the benefits of risk reduction will outweigh the cost and time.The ANP approach proposed by this paper bears also a few limitations. The most important is considered to be the fact that the outcome of the model depends on the inputs provided by the service provider managers. Moreover, the formation of the pairwise comparison matrices is a time-consuming and complex task. Finally, inconsistency may also occur, leading to doubtful or wrong results.This study raises several important issues that could spark further research. The most important is the evaluation of the model and its implementation at additional case studies in related industries. Such an endeavour might be beneficial and result in developing a complete system that could support the decision makers and reveal the significance of certain alternatives, criteria and elements.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Evaluating and selecting the best among the offers provided by various suppliers is a complex problem that takes into account both tangible and intangible criteria, which incorporate interdependencies and feedback. The decision making is aggravated by the complexity of supply chain relationships and enterprise strategies especially within enterprise clusters. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive method for the evaluation and selection of suppliers' offers in parapharmaceutical industry clusters.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The proposed approach consists of two parts. The former is the comprehension of the supply chain processes within the parapharmaceutical industry in Greece, and the latter is the use of an analytic network process (ANP)-based method for the selection of the best offer.\nFindings: - The proposed approach enables the decision maker to visualize the impact of various criteria on the final outcome and documents the evaluation results in such a way that they can be communicated to various stakeholders. The results indicate that quality-related issues dominate the decision-making process in the parapharmaceutical industry.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The outcome of the model depends highly on the inputs provided by the decision maker. Moreover, the ANP method is computational intensive, but this limitation can be alleviated by appropriate software tools.\nOriginality/value: - The proposed framework is considered to be an innovative approach for the parapharmaceutical industry as well as enterprise clusters. The criteria set here may be used for nearly every similar industry consisting of active clusters (for example, the apparel industry).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Brand communities' relational outcomes, through brand love	[ "Word-of-mouth", "Loyalty", "Brand communities", "Advocacy", "Brand love" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Currently, organizations use several tools to keep customers motivated and committed to their brands. Relationship marketing is one tool that seeks to create and maintain long-term relationships with consumers and is considered a strategic resource for a company, a trend toward modern marketing and successful relationships (Laroche et al., 2012). Obviously, it is not always easy to maintain long-lasting relationships with customers, and brand communities are a strong tool for reinforcing these relationships. These communities were introduced as a solution for integrating and serving customers in their relationships with the brand. Brand communities perform important brand-name tasks: sharing information, perpetuating a brand story and culture and providing customer service (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001).\n2. Conceptual development and research hypotheses: 2.1 Brand community\n3. Method: The proposed model presents the set of hypotheses developed (Figure 1). These hypotheses express the means to achieve the proposed objectives of this investigation.\n4. Sample and data collection: 4.1 Sample selection\n5. Findings and discussion: AMOS 21 was used to perform confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the proposed hypotheses. The final model shows a good fit (incremental fit index = 0.927; Tucker-Lewis index = 0.917; comparative fit index = 0.927; root mean square error of approximation = 0.074; chi square/degree of freedom = 3.788; Goodness of fit index: 0.848; chi square: 1272.697; degrees of freedom: 336). Table II presents the final results for the overall sample.\n6. Conclusions: The main objective of this study is to understand how brand communities may contribute to establishing long-lasting relationships with customers, namely, through loyalty, advocacy and WOM, based on the mediating role of brand love. To answer these objectives, a cross-sectional study was carried out based on a structured questionnaire with 510 respondents. Structural equations modeling was used to test the hypotheses developed in this investigation to achieve the proposed objectives.\n7. Contributions and limitations: 7.1 Theoretical contributions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to identify the impacts of brand communities on relational outcomes such as word-of-mouth, advocacy and loyalty through the mediating effects of brand love.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 510 valid questionnaires were collected from Portuguese consumers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses.\nFindings: This investigation shows how brand communities may contribute to reinforce the bonds between brands and customers by introducing love in these relationships. The results of this study show that the identification dimension of brand communities has an important effect on brand love, word-of-mouth, advocacy and brand loyalty. Building on the foundations of previous studies, this research also highlights the role of brand love on word-of-mouth, brand advocacy and brand loyalty and the impact of brand loyalty on word-of-mouth, brand advocacy and brand loyalty.\nOriginality/value: This investigation makes two major contributions: first, investigating the impacts of brand communities, and second, using the mediating effects of brand love on relational outcomes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Degree of environmental stringency and the impact on trade patterns	[ "Environmental regulations", "Pollution", "Export markets", "International trade" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The literature on the relationship between trade liberalization and the environment is rapidly growing since the beginning of the 1970s. International trade is becoming an increasingly critical driver of economic development, and a growing number of developing countries consider trade and investment as a central part of their development strategies. The links between trade and environment are multiple, complex and important. The extent to which environmental problems might affect many facets of trade, or vice versa, has been the subject of considerable debate over these years. At the most fundamental level, trade and environment are related because economic activities and particularly production is based on environment, as such: the environment provides the basis for all essential inputs and the energy needed to process them as well as the capacity to absorb the produced waste. At another level, environment and trade represent two distinct bodies of international law. While international environmental law increasingly defines how countries will structure their economic activities, international trade law increasingly determines how countries should make their domestic laws and policies in areas such as intellectual property rights, investment policy and environmental protection.In a world of augmenting economic activity induced by international trade, it is argued that environmental degradation will be accelerated unless environment is protected taking the necessary measures both at domestic and international borders. Since the early 1990s, after the implementation of various regulatory multinational agreements, discussions concerning the effects of changing environmental policies on production technology, international trade patterns and investment flows have been increasingly growing. One particular focus of attention has been the issue of whether environmental regulations are influencing patterns of international trade. If the degree of stringency of environmental regulations vary across countries, then the differences in the environment-related costs for firms may be sufficient to have an effect on international competitiveness and on countries' export and import patterns.The differences in the degree of stringency in a wide variety of countries from various development categories, have brought the hypotheses of \"pollution havens\", \"industrial flight\" and \"race to the bottom\" again into the research agenda. For instance, there has been speculation that developing countries may possess a comparative advantage in pollution intensive production as the stringency of such regulations increase with economic development. This \"pollution haven hypothesis\" may also manifest itself in the form of dirty industries relocating from developed to developing countries (industrial flight hypothesis). These hypotheses suggest that, with the trade liberalization, the activities of the countries seeking to increase their share in the global markets cause a race to the bottom in the environmental standards which they consider to be incentive-creating for international capital flows and to change investment patterns. Nevertheless, both theoretical and quantitative analyses regarding the effects of environmental regulations on competitiveness and location decision are needed in order to be able to derive some policy recommendations.The theoretical analyses of these linkages were presented in the context of traditional and new trade theories and also in the context of Kuznets effect. However, empirical evidence of the linkages between trade, environment and development is less convincing. Overall, the results from the empirical research are mixed which is mostly due to the intensity and type of environmental measures that vary across issues and countries. Furthermore, data availability and the absence of direct measures of environmental stringency appear to be the other major factors behind the lack of empirical information on the trade, development and environment linkages. In this respect, the literature on the measurement of environmental pollution and efforts of economic agents to improve environmental quality, and also on the analyses of economic linkages between environmental sensitivity levels and international trade and development patterns, does not seem to provide sufficient information on a cross-country single quantitative tool that can be employed in empirical models.Based on these considerations, the aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, an index (index of environmental sensitivity performance - IESP) which is constructed depending on the pressure, state and response environmental indicator framework of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and which is used to measure the environmental stringency of various developing and developed countries is introduced. Secondly, the index is used in a cross-country trade model in order to analyze the effect of various degrees of environmental stringency on the trade patterns, and especially on the export performance of developed and developing countries. The main focus of the IESP is industry based environmental pollution and the econometric analysis concentrates on the most polluting industries.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The following section analyzes the linkages between environmental regulations, international trade and development. After reviewing the previous approaches attempting to measure environmental stringency performance of the countries, Section 3 presents IESP which will be used to investigate the effects of various degrees of environmental stringency on the export performance of the developed and developing countries in Section 4. As usual, the last section elaborates the main findings of the current study.\n2 Environmental regulations, international trade and development: With the integrating world economy and associated reduction in the tariff barriers to trade, environmental concerns have become one way of restricting trade with either \"real\" environmentalist or protectionist purposes. Therefore, it can be argued that countries may use environmental policies for protectionist purposes rather than targeting environmental objectives (Panayotou, 1999). In other words, countries may hide behind environmental concerns to protect domestic industries and the environment-related trade barriers, in that case, may not reflect true motives. Low and Safadi (1992) indicate that the satisfaction of protectionist economic demands on environmental grounds never guarantees effective action to protect environment and welfare costs of restricting trade represents a net national loss.However, it is difficult to assess whether specific trade restrictions have protectionist purposes behind. One country may restrict trade on real environmental grounds, while another country may interpret this restriction as \"green protectionism\". To make a meaningful assessment, Fontagne et al. (2001) suggest that when a sizeable proportion of international trade is affected by such regulations, it implies a wide consensus on the negative environmental impacts of the product that is subject to regulation. If a single country or a limited number of countries enforce barriers to trade on environmental grounds, it is more likely that this is non-tariff barrier to trade.In fact, trade has broad implications not only for environment, but also for real income, output, employment, economic growth and development, which in turn have bearings on structural change and adjustment. In this section, the complex interactions between environmental regulations, trade and economic development is investigated both from theoretical and empirical perspectives.2.1 Environmental regulations and competitiveness\n3 Measuring environmental stringency: This section firstly reviews previous attempts to measure environmental stringency, and then presents an index, which is called as IESP, constructed depending on the pressure, state and response environmental framework of the OECD. This index will be employed in the following section in a cross-country trade model to investigate the impact of various degrees of environmental stringency on the trade patterns of the countries.3.1 Literature review on the measurement of environmental stringency\n4 Empirical analysis: 4.1 The model\n5 Conclusion: This paper introduced an index which is constructed depending on the pressure, state and response environmental indicator framework of the OECD and which is used to measure the environmental stringency of various developing and developed countries. IESP values are consistent with the disputes emphasizing the growing sensitiveness of the developed nations towards the industrial pollution relative to the developing countries. With a few exceptions, developed countries seem to be stringent in the pursuit of the industrial environmental regulations.IESP is also used in the gravity model of trade in order to explore the effects of various degrees of environmental stringency on the trade patterns, and especially on the export performance of developed and developing countries. The main results of the empirical analysis show that environmental stringency has an important impact on the export of the countries. The impact of the degree of environmental stringency on the exports is significantly negative suggesting an inverse relationship between export values and relative environmental sensitivity performance of the nations.Furthermore, the results of the empirical study support the argument that the environmental stringency level differential between developing and developed nations is a crucial criteria in terms of explaining shifts in the trade patterns and international specialization of the countries.Finally, it should be emphasized that the rise in the relative environmental stringency of the countries affects production structure of the environmentally sensitive commodities by increasing production costs, and therefore, diminishing export performance of the countries.As a conclusion, it can be stated that the current study contributes to the evidence supporting that the degree of environmental stringency has a significant impact on the change in the trade patterns of the countries. This statement is particularly valid for the export performance of the developed countries.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To construct an index (index of environmental sensitivity performance) to be used in a cross-country trade model in order to analyze the effect of various degrees of environmental stringency on the trade patterns, and especially on the export performance of the countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The gravity model of trade is used in order to find the effects of environmental stringency on the variation in trade flows.\nFindings: - The study shows that environmental stringency has an important impact on the export of the countries. The impact of the degree of environmental stringency on the exports is significantly negative suggesting an inverse relationship between export values and relative environmental sensitivity performance of the nations.\nOriginality/value: - This study supports the argument that the environmental stringency level differential between developing and developed nations is a crucial criteria in terms of explaining shifts in the trade patterns and international specialization of the countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Replication strategies, knowledge and attention: a study of coffee chains	[ "Organizational planning", "Corporate strategy", "Knowledge management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The replication or chain strategy is increasingly important in service industries. Recent research has studied various aspects of these strategies, for example, the use of franchising, (Altinay, 2004), learning (Baum et al., 2000), service quality (Daskalopoulou and Petrou, 2005), and social capital (Grangsjo and Gummesson, 2006), while leaving the role of knowledge management in these situations largely unexplored. This gap is significant because service businesses implementing replication strategies - like McDonalds or Starbucks - are characterised by extensive knowledge transfer to enable the creation of large numbers of similar outlets that deliver relatively standardised products and services in a competitive and efficient way. A single outlet of a chain organization needs a tremendous amount of knowledge in order to operate successfully: In the case of food services the organisation needs knowledge of production, customer services, sales promotions, marketing, sales, location selection, among other functional areas. The key to competitiveness is effectively to gather, select, use and retain the relevant knowledge from the varied types of internal stakeholders and external sources.\nCognitive limits - knowledge filters: Because the complexity and uncertainty that is involved in strategic decision making can overwhelm the cognitive ability of any individual who has to cope with them alone, strategic decisions tend to be made by groups rather than by individuals (Vennix, 1996). Making decisions by groups is thus a way to overcome these cognitive limits. However, the complexity and multidimensionality of both micro- and macro-organizational problems impose cognitive barriers, which limit the organization's ability to process all the relevant knowledge needed for decision making. The strategic and knowledge literatures discuss several mechanisms that act as filters, and limit the organization's ability to process and exploit all the available relevant knowledge (Simon, 1955; Nelson and Winter, 1982; Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Yaniv and Schwartz, 2006; Zahra and George, 2002).One of the basic knowledge filters is bounded rationality. The bounded rationality problem (Simon, 1955) is the inability of firms to maximize over the set of all conceived alternatives when dealing with real-life decision problems that are often too complex to comprehend. Based on the bounded rationality problem, Nelson and Winter (1982) focus on the evolution of simple stable routines that are used to guide action. Because of the bounded rationality problem, these routines cannot be too complicated and cannot be characterized as \"optimal\", since they are taking into account only partial information. However, Nelson and Winter (1982, p. 35) claim that \"they may be quite satisfactory for the purposes of the firm given the problems the firm faces.\"In our model, the organizational attention acts as a knowledge filter, as it determines to which knowledge sources the organization will react and allocate time and efforts, and which sources will be ignored. In the next section, we will thus discuss the concept of \"organizational attention.\"\nOrganizational attention: \"Attention\" is a term commonly used in education, psychiatry and psychology. According to Sternberg (1996), attention can be defined as an internal cognitive process by which one actively selects environmental information (i.e. sensation) or actively processes information from internal sources (i.e. visceral cues or other thought processes). In more general terms, attention can be defined as an ability to focus and maintain interest in a given task or idea, including managing distractions.Ocasio (1997) developed a framework for an attention-based view of the firm. He defines corporate strategy as \"a pattern of organizational attention, the distinct focus of time and efforts by the firm on a particular set of issues, problems, opportunities, and threats, and on a particular set of skills, routines, programs, projects and procedures\". Simon (1947) describes organizational behavior as a complex network of attentional processes. Ocasio (1997) argues that since the environment of a firm's decision is of infinite complexity and firms are bounded in their capacity to attend to all environmental stimuli, decision makers are selective in those aspects of the environment of decisions that they attend to. Different environmental stimuli are noticed, interpreted, and brought into conscious consideration. Durand (2003) investigates organizational attention in terms of the firms' investment in internal and external information, and finds that a higher relative investment in market information appears to reduce errors and bias in forecasting.Discussing attention issues, we propose to consider two dimensions: capacity and selection. Capacity is the number (or amount) of subjects that can be processed at the same time. Selection refers to the subjects that were actually selected and processed. Organizations differ in both factors. They have different attention capacity and they select different subjects to deal with.Our model deals with the influence of organizational attention on knowledge transfer. Organizational attention enables processing some of the available knowledge, while blocking other available knowledge; hence, some knowledge is being lost in this process. First, however, we provide a strategic context within which the model and further aspects of learning theory will be placed.\nThe replication strategy: The chain form of organization implementing a replication strategy - sometimes called the \"McDonalds approach\" - is one of the most important, yet under-researched, contemporary organizational phenomena (Baum et al., 2000; Bradach, 1997; Greve and Baum, 2001; Winter and Szulanski, 2001). Apart from fast-foods and retailing, replication strategies are common in such diverse service industries as hotels, tax preparation, day-care, nursing homes, and video rentals. Because these organizations are experienced in extensive transfer of knowledge (Winter and Szulanski, 2001), they are excellent contexts for knowledge transfer research.\nConceptual framework: The proposed model is illustrated in Figure 1. This model is concerned with two levels of analysis: the outlet and the firm (the chain). The accumulated knowledge, based on the experience of the outlet's staff, can be of great value for the firm's knowledge, if it comes to the attention of the firm's decision makers. On the other hand, the outlet actions can be built upon the template provided by the firm and on other knowledge sources (e.g. customers, competitors, fellow outlet). The firm's knowledge will be examined by investigating the template, as it is conceived from different points of view (firm's management and outlet's staff). The outlet's knowledge will be represented by the final outcome of the replication, as it is perceived by customers. A comparison between firm's knowledge about the template and the actual replication is valuable. It can allude to tacit knowledge that the replicator cannot articulate but is transferred to the replicated outlet. On the other hand, it points to a lack of attention of the firm's management to knowledge owned by the outlets. This knowledge might be of great value, but as the firm's management is not aware of its value they do not include it into the knowledge base of the business model or the template.Hypotheses development\nMethod: The analytical approach used in this research is a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 10) defined qualitative data analysis as composed of \"three concurrent flows of activity: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification\". The three activities are designed to create three types of knowledge: reduction activities select raw data; display activities convert data into information about the case; conclusion-drawing/verification activities transform information into knowledge that has implications for theory and practice.In practice the three activities occur as \"an interactive cyclical process\" (Miles and Huberman, 1994, p. 12). In the present research, most data were collected using quantitative instruments. Both dependent and independent variables are based on numeric data. Differences between chains in the dependent variables as well as in the independent variable were analyzed using traditional statistical tests (see details below). However, the relationships between the dependent and the independent variables could be analyzed using qualitative methods only. Since the unit of analysis was the single firm (the chain) and since the sample was only three firms, it was impossible to implement quantitative statistical tests, in order to investigate the influence of the independent variable on the dependent variables. Myers (2000) argues that qualitative methodology is rebuked because studies are often difficult to replicate. However, in our case, where most of the data to be analyzed is quantitative, it is very easy to replicate. Most of the data were collected using structural instruments. The same tools can be used in future studies. The qualitative part is the interpretation of the relationships between independent and dependent variables.The sites\nResults: H1 was concerned with whether the respective chains had different attention profiles. Table II exhibits the attention profiles of the three chains. The dimensions of the matrix are knowledge domains (products, service, etc.) and knowledge sources (management, staff, etc.). Each columns is divided into three sub-columns, each of them contains the values of one firm (c1 for chain 1, etc.). It is apparent that each firm has a unique profile. For example, chain 1 has relatively high attention scores for customers (29 percent) and low for staff (19 percent) chain 2 has very high scores for management (34 percent) and very low for staff (15 percent); and chain 3 has high scores for staff and customers (both 27 percent), and low for competitors (22 percent). A one-way ANOVA test was carried out. High significant differences (p<0.001) were found between firms in 15 parameters out of the 16 combinations.Finally, to illustrate the varying between-chain attention profiles predicted in H1 we used discriminant analysis - see Figure 2. This plot combines the three groups' graphs, which represent the three chains. The predictor variables are the 16 combinations of knowledge sources and type of knowledge. It shows clearly that the two canonical discriminant functions discriminate between the three chains. Stepwise variable selection method finds that we do not need to include all 16 variables in the function. Nine variables provide the coefficients of the linear discriminant functions. These variables are: the four variables dealing with inputs from customers, inputs regarding products, service and general provided by staff, and inputs regarding products and services provided by competitors. Consequently, none of the variables relating to inputs from management is needed for the canonical discriminant functions. All the above methods thus indicate support for H1.H2 was concerned with limited capacity of organizational attention and consequent tradeoffs needed. A negative correlation was hypothesized between different sources. As can be seen in Table III, most (four of six) of the correlation coefficients between sources are negative. Interestingly, the correlation table depicts two pairs of sources with significantly positive correlations: management-competitors and staff-customers. These two pairs are the main external-internal combinations: management naturally tends toward competitor sources and staff naturally attend to customers. Thus, these are two pairs for which trade-offs are not likely to exist. These results are this interpreted as broad support for H2.Replication analysis\nDiscussion, implications, and future research: The primary contribution of the paper is in extending prior understanding of the knowledge-based view of the firm, organization, learning, cognitive limits, attention, and templates into an explanatory model of the process of knowledge flows, selection, and effectiveness in implementing replication strategies in service firms. The attention variable enables us better to understand knowledge selection, sources, and use. We can also add to prescriptive managerial understanding in terms of understanding the effect of variables like structure and capacity on knowledge selection and use. This leads us to the contribution of these concepts and our model to understanding of decision making, specifically in the strategy arena, more specifically the replication strategy. We intend that this theory development will provide both a building block and an impetus to remedy the dearth of research on this pervasive business strategy (Winter and Szulanski, 2001).There are several positive and promising contributions. First, the present research is the first attempt to operationalize organizational attention, and we believe our presentation of attention profiles will be an important advance for the field upon which future research will build. Further, we present strong evidence that attention profiles vary across chains. We present several analyses of this variability, and are also confident that other data and analyses within this same project will further expand in this area.In addition to the demonstration of difference between firms we used the attention profile to exhibit the limited capacity of organizational attention. Decision makers use attention economically. According to our findings, when decision makers have high confidence in a certain source, they pay attention to this source and avoid other sources that provide the same kind of inputs.Our analyses of the variability in the three facets of the dependent variable are promising as they stand, but we are equally confident that further strides will be made in the near future. Finally, our qualitative analyses that attempt to link attention with implementation of the replication strategy at the very least show a way forward for this avenue of research. In general, the chain that attended more to top managerial knowledge rather than that from staff or customers performed well on the uniformity and distinctiveness criteria. And the chain that attended more to staff knowledge excelled in terms of accuracy. Further work is clearly indicated to strengthen these analyses as well as to reconcile them with related organizational literature.The question of why differences in organizational attention pattern evolve was not in the scope of the current research. Although these differences were found and different attention patterns were exhibited, we didn't discuss the reasons for this development. We can only assume that these differences are stemmed on top management's perception, organizational history, organizational culture, external competitive environment, etc.Further research should focus on larger samples of chains, in order to investigate causal relationships between organizational attention, knowledge exploitation, and firm's behavior. In the present research we did not refer to questions of performance. Investigating performance and its relations to organizational attention can be of great importance. Relying on casual relationships between attention and performance can yield prescriptive ideas, which might be very useful for practitioners and researchers.Further research in empirical testing of the more comprehensive theoretical model developed by Brock and Yaniv (2007) is needed, with emphasis on understanding the development and evolution of the knowledge resources (template) - both intended and unintended - including incorporating the \"Arrow core\" concept (Winter and Szulanski, 2001). The Arrow core (named after Nobel Prize winner, Kenneth Arrow) specifies the attributes that are replicable and worth replicating, and how these attributes are created. This empirical work should be linked to our prior theoretical work that shows how the attention concept helps understanding of the exploration and uncovering of the Arrow core, and as such influences successful implementation of replication strategies in services.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model that uses \"organizational attention\" as an explanatory factor of knowledge transfer, and apply it to firms pursuing a replication strategy - like McDonalds or Starbucks.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected from three coffee chains, empirical findings that operationalize and illustrate their different attention profiles are presented, and differences in their replication outcomes are demonstrated. The paper concludes with some qualitative analyses of the linkages between attention and replication success.\nFindings: - Each chain has a different attention profile, reflected in varying attention to knowledge sources and domains. These profiles are found to be consistent with each three outcome measures of each chain's replication strategy - namely uniformity, accuracy, and distinctiveness.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper extends prior understanding of the knowledge based view of the firm, organization, learning, cognitive limits, attention, and templates into an explanatory model of the process of knowledge flows, selection, and effectiveness in implementing replication strategies in service firms.\nOriginality/value: - The proposed model is a pioneering examination of the influence of organizational attention on exploiting knowledge as a strategic resource; and specifically on three indications of the success of the replication strategy, namely accuracy, uniformity, and distinctiveness.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Transforming healthcare: a study in practical wisdom	[ "Business ethics", "Leadership", "Health services", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Transforming healthcare in the USA will require leaders and associates (all employees and caregivers) to tap deeply into their discretional energy. Improving access and quality, while reducing costs and delivering healthcare that is more preventative and holistic presents healthcare systems with a revolutionary challenge. How can we engage our caregivers in responding to this obvious need for transformation? How can our faith tradition inform today's healthcare applications? Ascension Health, the largest Catholic not-for-profit healthcare system in the USA is addressing these challenges through several mechanisms. This paper will focus on two: an innovative application of a model for workplace spirituality, and a system for measuring our commitment to our \"Catholic identity\".\n1. Creating an integral model for workplace spirituality: Ascension Health's integral model for mission integration and spirituality was initiated in 2003, when the system began to develop a framework for what we mean by \"a spirituality of work\". Our model of spirituality is designed to be open enough to accommodate a pluralistic workforce and engage people of multiple faith traditions, while at the same time offering opportunities to strengthen our identity as a Catholic ministry. It begins with describing a framework for understanding workplace spirituality - one that is marked by several characteristics: diverse, inclusive, relational, life-giving, rooted in reality, discoverable in awareness, and effective in service. The integral model (Figure 1) maps how these characteristics flow through the various components of an associate's work-life, from how associates are selected and oriented, to what developmental opportunities are made available to them. We believe that infusing these components of organizational and community life with the defined characteristics of spirituality will empower associates in their response to our \"call to action,\" thereby leading to the transformation of healthcare.After developing the integral model, we made it a system priority by placing its implementation on our organizational scorecard. For five years spirituality joined measures like budget, mortality rates and supply chain compliance as a key indicator of success for the system. Ascension Health's work with this model was recognized in 2004 by The International Spirit at Work Award in Zurich, Switzerland. In order to demonstrate how the model works and the nature of the tools that Ascension Health has put into place to animate this model, we will describe two of its components: weaving spirituality into decision making and providing vital formation.1.1 Spiritually centered decision making\n2. Creating a system for measuring Catholic identity: Measuring the transformative impact of workplace spirituality, discernment and formation is perhaps the greatest challenge to our application of practical wisdom. For example, deciding whether to put spirituality on our organizational scorecard was hotly debated. Some felt that it was inappropriate to try to measure spirituality; others felt that spirituality, though perhaps not directly measurable, would nevertheless be enhanced if leaders were held accountable to some measurable outcome. The latter argument was persuasive. During its five years on the scorecard, many proven practices in spirituality were documented and shared throughout the system. These proven practices include: the introduction of potential hires to the Ascension Health values in order to determine a good fit; celebrating our 400 year heritage of the healing ministry on special feast days; and the integration of spirituality into operations through the study and use of the discernment process.In addition to its high-level organizational scorecard and in response to a request by its religious sponsors, Ascension Health initiated the design of another values-based measurement tool, to assess its effectiveness in achieving its \"call to action\". This tool is known as the Catholic Identity Matrix (CIM). As shown in Figure 2, the CIM is used to assess how six principles (or virtues) on the vertical axis are expressed throughout the organization using a maturation framework in the horizontal axis. The Sponsors were pleased with the design of the CIM assessment but asked for further rigor in how the assessments in each cell were conducted. This led to a collaboration between Ascension Health and the Self Assessment and Improvement Process (SAIP) Institute at the University of St Thomas in Minnesota. The SAIP Institute had developed a means of conducting in-depth assessments for how organizations operationalize their values. The SAIP process uses specific questions and seeks measurements in each cell of the matrix to determine a level of maturation, which is expressed on a six-level scale. For example, the \"measurement\" of holistic care is determined by the level and trend of reported patient satisfaction with emotional and spiritual care.We have found the CIM to be an effective tool in assessing the impact of workplace spirituality, discernment and formation. The impact column in particular has stimulated our assessment of our progress toward the transformation of healthcare. After the collaboration with the SAIP Institute, the CIM assessment was administered again at the Ascension Health System Office in 2007 using the new process, and it greatly assisted the determination of value-driven strengths and opportunities for transformation.Ascension Health's Integral Model for Mission Integration and Workplace Spirituality and the Catholic Identity Matrix are examples of how the assessment of values and principles can be integrated into an organization's metrics to support transformative efforts. They are arguably at a nascent stage of development but offer promise and a method for proponents of our values to enter the operational dialogue.\n3. Conclusion: Ascension Health has been on a journey to engage the spirituality of our associates to achieve the transformation of healthcare in the US. We have created an Integral Model for spirituality that describes the various ways in which associates can better identify and deepen their spirituality in the workplace, within the context of our healing ministry. This model was incorporated into Ascension Health's scorecard. We have described how the model is brought to life through Leadership Formation and the Organizational Ethics Discernment Process. In order to measure the ultimate impact of this approach, we designed the Catholic Identity Matrix as a tool with quantified measurements of the degree to which key characteristics or principles of the Catholic healing ministry are implemented in our policies, practices and outcomes. Through these interventions, we believe practical wisdom is becoming key to the transformation of healthcare.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Ascension Health has developed a leadership formation program and decision-making process specifically designed to tap into the inner spiritual strengths of its religiously pluralistic workforce in order to foster leadership that is more effective in initiating organizational cultural changes necessary for making successful quality improvements vital for the transformation of healthcare. This paper aims to focus on this initiative.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a case study, describing how Ascension Health designed a quantified measurement tool used to test the degree to which key characteristics of its mission, vision and values are implemented in its policies, practices and outcomes. Applying principles of decision-making theory from Lonergan, Harrison and Nutt, Ascension Health also created an organizational discernment process designed to habitualize best practices of decision making that support the organization's mission and transformational goals.\nFindings: - The authors describe how their organization's interventions have strengthened the practical wisdom of its leaders, helping it to improve on its faith-based mission and transformational goals. Case examples are included to illustrate the transformational effects of these interventions.\nPractical implications: - Applying formation practices that engage a spiritually diverse workforce and adopting disciplined processes of decision making can be adapted to any complex organization willing to dedicate itself to the inner transformation, participation and empowerment of its leaders and associates.\nOriginality/value: - The formation program, decision-making approach and measurement tool are all original. Business leaders and leadership development programs will find the experience of Ascension Health to be a valuable reference for their own organizational change initiatives.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Background and rationale of collective bargaining around work-family issues in Italy: The duality of the business case argument	[ "Human resource management", "Family-friendly organizations", "Industrial relations", "Workplace-level bargaining, Italy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Despite some recent developments, work-family issues have not been a major public policy concern in Italy over the past decades (Blom, 2016; Graziano and Madama, 2011). Social and family policy has been built on the male-breadwinner household model and the extended family is still largely expected to provide different kinds of support along intergenerational lines, from financial to care aid (Naldini and Saraceno, 2008; Riva, 2016). Therefore, statutory provision for the reconciliation of paid work and family life - in terms of childcare infrastructure, leave policy and flexible working - is still inadequate, while social, demographic and economic changes call for a substantial reform of the national policy framework (Ascoli and Pavolini, 2015). Against this backdrop, and in the light of aggregate budget cuts in social policy public expenditure, collective bargaining could be a factor for implementing labour market entitlements that may help employees in managing work and non-work demands. In fact, industrial relations play a crucial role in determining the terms of the employment relationship and protecting the workforce against a broad set of social risks (Gunnigle et al., 1998; Ozaki, 1999), and namely, the difficulties in combining work demands with family obligations (e.g. Baird et al., 2009; Berg et al., 2013; Ravenswood and Markey, 2011; Rigby and O'Brien-Smith, 2010).\n2. Work-family arrangements in Italian organizations: Data from the European Company Survey on Working Time and Work-Life Balance (Riedmann et al., 2006) show that, in the mid-2000s, Italian companies scored relatively low in terms of flexible working arrangements and were the least likely in Europe to provide their employees with training programmes after a period of leave or with special services to cope with care and domestic tasks, such as company kindergarten or creche and professional help for household management. Other comparative studies reveal that companies and managers in Italy displayed comparatively lower commitment to improving employee work-family balance. In particular, a minority of companies reported offering family-friendly policies, such as flexible working (e.g. flexible daily or weekly working hours, 45.8 per cent), parental support (e.g. reintegration programmes, 20.9 per cent) and childcare policies (e.g. additional support for childcare, 3.5 per cent); furthermore, Italy had the lowest median number (i.e. 4) of work-family measures implemented in the workplace (e.g. Cologne Institute for Economic Research, 2010). A national-level survey (Istat, 2008) produced similar findings and also revealed that less than 1 per cent of the employees could benefit from telecommuting.\n3. The move towards decentralized bargaining in the search for productivity and profitability: In Italy, there is a two-tier bargaining structure (Locke and Baccaro, 1996; Molina and Rhodes, 2007; Regini and Regalia, 1997): national/industry-level bargaining outlines the baseline conditions of the employment relation (e.g. working hours, pay, holidays, health and safety); company-level bargaining deals with a range of issues related to working time flexibility, employee benefits, variable pay, mechanisms to stimulate productivity and innovation, and such. Since the mid-2000s there has been a clear move towards company-level bargaining, following greater importance assigned by social partners to increasing labour productivity and flexibility and enhancing organizational effectiveness. Several agreements envisioned bargaining decentralization as a key mechanism to fuel competitiveness and productivity, increase real wages, and also better deal with the negative consequences of the post-2008 economic downturn (for a review see, e.g.: Colombo and Regalia, 2016; D'Amuri and Giorgiantonio, 2014; Fulton, 2015). Furthermore, as part of these moves towards decentralized industrial relations targeted to improved performance, the national government has been providing tax and social security concessions for variable pay policies. These specific incentives, which were first introduced in 2007 and then were made permanent in 2012, now include any company-level bargained variable pay linked to gains in productivity, profitability, quality and efficiency/innovation.\n4. Data and methods: Research hypotheses are investigated by drawing on a unique archive, the National Collective Bargaining Observatory (OCSEL), which is held by CISL, the second largest confederation of trade unions in Italy. This archive has a collection of hundreds of full-text copies of collective agreements that were signed, since the 1990s, at workplace and district level in all sectors of activity. Agreements are filed electronically and are also coded on the main variables (sector, region, bargaining domain and type of entitlements introduced) in order to provide summary information. They remain online for consultation and reference purposes for the trade union confederation members and representatives. Hence, they are not accessible to the general audience. As for the contents, very few information is available (either stored in full-text documents or coded) on the main characteristics of the companies and the profile of their workforce. Nonetheless, full-text documents usually have references to the economic and competitive environment, industrial relations arrangements and practices, and organizational human resource management policies. Therefore, these documents may provide insights on the background, rationale, and outcomes of workplace-level bargaining.\n5. Findings: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Conclusions: This paper, which is based on data derived from a unique and restricted access repository of company-level bargaining in Italy, offers empirical evidence on the characteristics of a large sample of collective agreements in work-family-related domains that were concluded over a four-year period (2012-2015), in the aftermath of the great recession. By using a qualitative methodology, it also contributes to disclose the factors that affect the nature of decentralized bargaining in the field. In particular, selected company-level arrangements are investigated as a function of the industrial relations context. Attention is also paid to the impact of both the economic downturn and human resource management strategies. In fact, it has previously been observed that contextual factors shape collective bargaining and its outcomes (e.g. Baird et al., 2009; Berg et al., 2013; Ollier-Malaterre, 2009).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to outline and assess the role of industrial relations in introducing work-family-related policies and investigate the drivers, nature and scope of contract provisions that were bargained in the following domains: flexible working arrangements, leave schemes, care services and other supportive arrangements. Analyses draw on information filed in a unique and restricted access repository, the SEcond-level Collective Bargaining Observatory (OCSEL) held by Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori (CISL), one of the major trade union organizations in Italy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper presents and examines, by means of descriptive statistics and content analysis, available information on 285 company-level agreements around work-family-related issues that were signed in Italy between January 2012 and December 2015, in the aftermath of the great recession.\nFindings: Work-family issues do not seem to be a major bargaining concern. The availability of specific arrangements is mostly limited to the domain of working time flexibility and it is not quite innovative in its contents. Besides, there is little evidence that the mutual gains rationale is embedded in collective bargaining in the field. However, mature and well-established labour relations result in more innovative and strategic company-level bargaining that is also conducive to work-family-related arrangements.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample is not representative. Thus, the results obtained in this study cannot be extended to make predictions and conclusions about the population of collective agreements negotiated and signed in Italian companies in the period under scrutiny.\nOriginality/value: Research on the industrial relations context that lies behind the design and implementation of work-family workplace arrangements is still limited. Furthermore, the evidence is inconclusive. This manuscript intends to address this research gap and provide a much more nuanced understanding.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The enterprise system as a part of an organization's administrative paradox	[ "Manufacturing resource planning", "Information systems", "Organizational development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Enterprise resource planning systems (ERP systems) or enterprise systems (ES) have become a major force in an organizations' use of information systems[1] in recent years (Beard and Sumner, 2004; Davenport, 2000; Holland and Light, 1999; Hakkinen and Hilmola, 2008; Lee and Lee, 2000; Newell et al., 2003; van Fenema et al., 2007). Enterprise systems are often marketed as the solution for organizing a firm, and promise huge benefits expressed in terms of a high degree of integration, information commonality, and dramatic gains in an organization's and even business relations/networks efficiency and bottom line. Enterprise systems can also be seen as an answer to several problems with \"ordinary\", often in-house developed, information systems, such as low level of integration, disparate data formats and separated databases. But, even if adapted to a certain organization, the enterprise system is a commercial commodity (standardized) product made by suppliers, for several companies, often in a certain line of business. A tension between the commodity product and the organizational processes often exists (Kremers and van Dissel, 2000; Wagner, 2003; Wagner et al., 2006; Walsham, 2001) and can for example be expressed in terms of Enterprise systems being in serious conflicts with business strategies, causing delays and cost overruns (Kansal, 2006; Chen, 2009). This tension leaves an organization mainly with two choices:1. change the business processes to fit the system with minimal customization; or2. modify the system to fit the processes (Buonanno et al., 2005).This article will take the identified tension as a point of departure. Especially with enterprise systems or other packaged information systems, it is obvious that actions that constitute the information system are consequently separated from the actions that are constituted by the system (Orlikowski, 1992). Enterprise systems contains standardized processes and a business logic offered as \"best practice\" (Davenport, 2000; Kremers and van Dissel, 2000, Wagner et al., 2006 - often surrounded by \"promises\" of positive impacts, such as structural, communicational, economical, etc. But what kind of impacts is positive for a unique organization? Flexibility? Transaction based stability? (see Beard and Sumner, 2004).Stability and flexibility can be seen as two sides of the same coin when administering (coordinating) an organization, an enterprise system, and their dialectic relationship. This relationship is a classical one when discussing organizations and organizing. Thompson (1967) discusses the stability and flexibility dilemma in terms of an organization's administrative paradox[2]. The paradox describes the contemporaneous striving for stability and flexibility when organizing (Thompson, 1967). Stability can be defined as a holding a fixed position - not likely to move or change and flexibility can be defined as to be able to change or be changed easily according to a situation. An initial thesis in this article is that that an organization's enterprise system becomes a part of this paradox. This thesis will be further investigated in the present article. Stability in organizations is important, for example regarding production processes, interaction processes (Leana and Barry, 2000; Pfeffer, 1998). Other aspects of stability are for example to be able to sustain competitive advantage, to handle social capital, to create predictability and to reduce uncertainty (Leana and Barry, 2000). Aspects of flexibility are for example to create adaptability, cost containment and competitive advantage (Leana and Barry, 2000). These aspects will be further elaborated below.In order to capture the subjective and objective aspects of social structures, human actions, and information systems Orlikowski (1992) and Orlikowski and Robey (1991) will be used as points of departure to analyze the case of an engineering firm[3], their implementation, and use of an enterprise system. Orlikowski (1992) and Orlikowski and Robey (1991) draw heavily on Giddens's (1979, 1984) theory of structuration. Information systems are, based on this, a social product of subjective human action and have a constitutive role. An information system embodies interpretative schemes, provides coordination facilities and is deeply implicated in linking social action and structure and interaction (Jones and Karsten, 2008; Walsham, 1993). Enterprise systems seem to be no exception, rather an interesting example of the former utterance. This makes the field even more interesting and important to develop more knowledge within.The main purpose of this article is to analyze and discuss whether the enterprise system is a part of an organization's administrative paradox. The question raised here is: What is the role of the enterprise system in organizing, focusing aspects of flexibility and stability? A case study is performed in order to identify if an enterprise system is a part of an organization's administrative paradox, and if identified; how this is illustrated.The article is arranged in the following way; in the next section the research approach is presented. Then some theoretical work on enterprise systems will be discussed, organizing, and especially the relation between information systems and organizing after that. After presenting the Engineering Firm and its use of an enterprise system the duality of the enterprise system will be analyzed together with the administrative paradox. Finally an analysis and discussion follow together with conclusions and a discussion of limitations and future research.\nResearch approach: The empirical part of this article is based on a longitudinal and interpretive, single, case study (from 1998 until 2001, with follow-up interviews in August 2005) of an Engineering Firm (the firm is further described below) and their implementation and use of an enterprise system (Movex, version 11.3, from intentia [now M3 from Lawson Software]). The interpretative and qualitative case study approach were chosen in order to get as close as possible to the enterprise system and the organization. Another argument is that context was important to understand in order to interpret the organization's achievements to handle the situation of flexibility and stability.The longitudinal case study is based on 23 interviews within the firm, working seminars, and studies of documents (business- and IT-strategy, internal documents, annual reports etc.). The different, multiple, sources of empirical data were used in order to get a more varied and truthful view of actors' perspectives and the implementation and use of the system. This is as a kind of triangulation (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994; Eisenhardt, 1989; Klein and Myers, 1999) that can be described as data triangulation. The triangulation used in this study is an attempt to generate a rich picture of descriptions and impressions of for example how to deal with tensions connected with the implementation and use of the present enterprise system.The interviews were performed on site, audio recorded, and the average interview lasted for one hour. Interview guides were used, with a mix of pre-defined open questions and issues (covering themes generated from the theoretical lenses used; structuration theory and relations between implementation and use of information systems and organizing (Giddens, 1979, 1984; Orlikowski, 1992; Orlikowski and Robey, 1991) and open ended questions, topics and informal communication (Patton, 1980))[4]. Ongoing, upcoming, interview themes generated by the context and by the interviewees were also included when applicable. The interviewees are mainly people with different management positions. Examples are the managing director (MD), the central information officer (CIO), the sales unit coordinator and key account managers. Managers' sense making and experiences of the enterprise system and organizing are focused and put in the foreground in this article, even though system users where interviewed in the case study as a whole. Users' opinions are rather exemplified in this article and are put in the background.The work performed corresponds to central concepts and ideals in interpretive and qualitative research, such as interpretation, pre-understanding and the use of multiple methods for data collection (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994; Stake, 1994; Walsham, 1995). The interpretative tradition in the information system field is suitable in the present paper because the kind of research purpose and questions raised here and will show images of how the actors in the study \"struggle\" with the present system, both strategically and in daily work. The interpretative approach also follows the theoretical perspectives dealt with in this paper trying to capture the interwoven relation between implementing and using information systems and organizing work. In order to capture these issues a close and interpretative approach is needed. A more distant and positivistic approach would not have capture the issues investigated in the present case study, but may have covered other interesting issues instead. The multi-perspective approach, however, often used in interpretive and qualitative research is not so distinct in this case study due to access challenges.As stated above the interviewees interpretation of the enterprise system when organizing is important when analyzing empirical data in this case study. An important point of departure in the interpretation of information systems is that reality is a social construction by a human actor (Berger and Luckmann, 1967; Walsham, 1993). Interpretivism can be seen as an epistemological position concerned with understanding reality and a position that all knowledge is a construction and therefore subjective. \"In the interpretive tradition, there are no correct and incorrect theories but there are interesting and less interesting ways to view the world\" (Walsham, 1993, p. 6). Theories (as stated above) have been used as guide for analyzing the interviewees' interpretation of the enterprise system in the present case study when organizing and an essential part of an iterative process of data collection and analysis (Walsham, 1995; Walsham, 2006).\nEnterprise systems: Enterprise systems are enterprise-wide application packages that tightly integrate enterprise functions (Davenport, 1998; Kremers and van Dissel, 2000; Lee and Lee, 2000; Newell et al., 2003; Weir et al., 2007). According to Davenport (2000) enterprise systems have several characteristics, such as a modular construction (contains a selection of application modules), which are based on a client/server architecture and allow configuration. Configuration of tables according to business needs is one example of the latter aspect. Enterprise systems also make use of a common, usually relational, central database, and have variable interfaces. A variable interface can contain for example different languages and currencies used by a company. Enterprise systems are distinguished from \"ordinary\" information system by the fact that enterprise systems have a high degree of integration (see Sammon and Adam, 2005) and information commonality.The term integration means to \"combine or be combined to form a whole\" (Oxford Concise English Dictionary, 1999). In the information systems area this often means that different systems can exchange data. A high degree of integration means that systems can easy exchange strings of data. This is considered as an important change in the area compared to often historically isolated information systems in organizations. Information systems usually had disparate operating systems, data base structures and formats based on disparate technical specifications and were delivered by free-standing suppliers. Tapscott and Caston (1993) maintain that modern organizations demand integrated information system in order to communicate across functional and organizational borders. This has become even more important in the recent years (Weir et al., 2007). If we consider this picture it is easy to understand why the promises of enterprise systems seem to be so attractive:[Enterprise systems] allow companies to replace their existing information systems, which are often incompatible with one another, with a single, integrated system. By streamlining data flows throughout an organization, these commercial software, offered by vendors like SAP, promise dramatic gains in a company's efficiency and bottom line (Davenport, 1998, p. 121).An organization's efficiency, if we follow Davenport, is primarily based on its ability to coordinate input and actions into results. The fact that an information system supports or even obstructs coordination among people in, and between organizations and provides procedures for accomplishing inter-personal change should probably be especially interesting in the case of enterprise systems.Enterprise systems are created in different steps: the supplier of the system, the modification of the system, and the use of the system (above).The point, partially following Orlikowski (1992), is that the enterprise system is constituted in at least two steps: by the system supplier and by the system implementer, followed by constituting actions (e.g. for humans in the using organization). This line of thinking can be related to the duality of technology (below).\nInformation systems and organizing: In this section the relation between information systems and organizing will be further investigated. This process takes its point of departure in classical organizational theory, that later is combined with Structuration theory. This section serves as a basis, a theoretical lens - a perspective, for analyzing the case.The administrative paradox in organizing\nThe engineering firm: This section presents the case called \"the Engineering Firm\", their organizing process, and implementation and use of an enterprise system.The case - the engineering firm\nAnalysis and discussion: In the two following sections the case will be analyzed and discussed based on theories covering the duality of technology and the administrative paradox, presented above.The duality of the enterprise system in use\nConclusions: The implementation and use of the enterprise system in the case study shows that information systems can maintain, and even reinforce, existing administrative organizational structures. In line with this the case study also shows that the enterprise system is an interwoven part of the organization's administrative paradox. These conclusions will be presented below.Maintaining and reinforcing organizational structures\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The main purpose of this paper is to discuss whether an enterprise system (ES) is a part of an organization's administrative paradox. The paper aims to question which role the ES has in organizing, focusing aspects of flexibility and stability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a qualitative, longitudinal, case study of how an ES maintains, and even reinforces, existing administrative organizational structures. The theoretical lens used is mainly structuration theory.\nFindings: - An ES can take the part of an organization's administrative paradox. An administrative paradox is two sides of the same coin when coordinating organizations - the concurrent striving for flexibility and stability. The studied ES even centralizes control, creates norms, and enhances power for actors in positions of authority (top management). Because of its structure and configuration the ES is a powerful tool to coordinate. The ES is considered to be organizationally ungainly, but at the same time indispensable.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides valuable insights on how the studied organizations try to deal with standardization/stability and flexibility that can be valuable for other system users or implementers to learn from, as well as the analysis as a whole.\nOriginality/value: - The paper combines structuration theory and theories covering the administrative paradox and aspects of coordination in order to analyze and discuss the implementation and use of an ES.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Nonlinear antecedents of customer satisfaction and loyalty in third-party logistics services (3PL)	[ "Service quality", "Kano model", "Customer defection", "3PL services", "Customer dissatisfaction", "Failed service quality" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The present paper focuses on better understanding the relationship between service quality dimensions, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty for third-party logistics (3PL) companies and their service offerings.\n2. Research method: 2.1 Collecting data\n3. Results: 3.1 Profile of respondents' companies\n4. Conclusions and final considerations: 4.1 Research findings\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the nonlinear impact of quality dimensions of third-party logistics (3PL) services on customer satisfaction and loyalty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By interviewing 167 small-size companies, and using penalty and reward contrast analysis, the paper explores the nonlinear impact of seven dimensions of 3PL services (safety, fault's recovery, reliability, speed, flexibility, communication, and friendliness) on customer satisfaction and loyalty.\nFindings: The results confirm the existence of the dimensions' nonlinear impact on customer satisfaction. It also shows that some quality dimensions have a direct and nonlinear impact on loyalty. The dimension \"friendliness\" has a direct impact on loyalty if the company has a below market average performance, which may lead customers to switch service providers. \"Flexibility on collection and delivery\" has a direct impact if the company has a higher performance, contributing to customers' intention to continue using the service. Another finding is that, if the company delivers good service recovery after the customer found faults in the service, and if customers trust the company service, they say they intend to continue to work with the company.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present research focused only on small companies in one country (Brazil). Further studies should be carried out to explore different countries, with different realities, and different size of companies.\nPractical implications: 3PL companies should not only deal with customers' satisfaction, but also with other quality aspects that directly affect customer intention to continue doing business with the 3PL service provider. These are friendliness, flexibility regarding time and frequency of collection and delivery and faults' recovery.\nOriginality/value: The present research confirms that the personal relationship is a crucial aspect to be managed in order to keep customers in the long term. In addition, as opposed to most research looking for the antecedents of satisfaction and loyalty of 3PL customers, the present research shows that there is a direct nonlinear impact of the dimensions' performance on customers' loyalty, what should be taken in consideration by 3PL managers. It also shows how penalty-reward contrast analysis may reveal nonlinear antecedents that could be used for better understandings companies' success in the long term.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Toward a public service management: past, present, and future directions	[ "Value", "Co-creation", "Public sector", "Service logic", "Co-production", "SDL", "Public service-dominant logic", "Goods-logic" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The service management literature has largely neglected the public service context. This is surprising given its importance and impact on the everyday lives of citizens, for instance, public expenditure on health services is almost three times that of private citizens, private companies, and not-for-profit organizations (OECD, 2017), with similar contrasts found in the areas of education and welfare. Moreover, managing public service delivery is very different to the management of services in the private sector. Public services are typically more complex, encompass a broader array of service providers and stakeholders, and require higher levels of transparency and accountability (Osborne et al., 2013). The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to advance understanding of service characteristics within the public setting, and to highlight the need for special theoretical treatment of this important context.\nApproach: Drawing on the work of Ravishankar et al. (2011), the paper adopts the approach of soft positivism[1]. This allows the analysis to be conducted with certain expectations based on prior theory, while also allowing for unexpected themes and explanations to emerge, as is more typical of interpretivist approaches. First, existing research on public services is examined to trace the progress of public service management and the corresponding developments in how public services have been addressed. This aspect of the analysis implies a positivist approach in deciding, in advance, expected factors. Second, in contrast the softer stance gives the freedom to develop themes and theoretical categories without having to force data into existing themes. The interpretivist dimension is used specifically to capture emerging themes, identify current shortcomings in the field, and set directions for future research.\nFrom GDL to SDL: the public sector journey: Traditionally, the public sector is recognized as a provider of public goods, informed by management theory that has been derived from research conducted in manufacturing rather than the services sector (Osborne et al., 2013). Under GDL, value is embedded in an organization's offering of products (Akesson and Skalen, 2011) and this has dominated public service management thinking. This has been evidenced in the performance measurement of public services, reducing the potential for customer-oriented delivery (Enquist et al., 2011). Public transport, for instance, has typically been understood as a \"public good\" evoking an internal cost orientation at the expense of a market orientation (Gebauer et al., 2010).\nA public goods-logic: This section addresses how public services have been characterized over time by tracing the development of public service management research as examined in the public management field, addressing RQ1.\nA public service logic: This section addresses the recent developments in public service management, uniting both the public management and service management fields. In doing so, this section examines how public service management has transformed in recent times, in response to RQ2.\nFuture research on public service management: This section directly addresses RQ3. There is an important distinction to be made in how \"service\" is viewed in the public sector, which concerns whether the focus is indirect or direct benefits to citizens, both individually and collectively. This distinction is important since the application and implication of service logic - the provision of value-supporting processes (Gronroos, 2008) - may be contingent on the perspective taken. For example, would an imprisoned citizen view their service experience in the same way as that of a citizen using public transport? It is very unlikely. Adopting the latter view affords greater conceptual clarity by establishing appropriate parameters to investigate service management in the sector. This presents a clear opportunity for theory development. For instance, Professor Zoe Radnor emphasizes the lack of engagement with the service concept in the public sector:[...] public sector organisations should recognise that they are a service organisation so should engage with service operations management theory and frameworks [...] I have noted that operations management methodologies are \"context specific\" and this means that the discipline needs to adapt [...].\nConclusions: Theoretical contributions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In providing a fine-grained analysis of public service management, the purpose of this paper is to make an important contribution to furthering research in service management, a body of literature that has tended to regard public services as homogenous or to neglect the context altogether.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Integrating public management and service management literatures, the past and present of public service management are discussed. Future directions for the field are outlined drawing on a service-dominant approach that has the potential to transform public services. Invited commentaries augment the review.\nFindings: The review presents the Public Service Network Framework to capture the public value network in its abstraction and conceptualizes how value is created in public services. The study identifies current shortcomings in the field and offers a series of directions for future research where service management theory can contribute greatly.\nResearch limitations/implications: The review encourages service management research to examine the dynamic, diverse, and complex nature of public services and to recognize the importance of this context. The review calls for an interdisciplinary public service management community to develop, and to assist public managers in leveraging service logic.\nOriginality/value: The review positions service research in the public sector, makes explicit the role of complex networks in value creation, argues for wider engagement with public service management, and offers future research directions to advance public service management research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The influence of visual packaging design on perceived food product quality, value, and brand preference	[ "Food products", "Visual product packaging design", "Perceived quality", "Perceived value", "Brand preference", "Consumer behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Most impulse buying occurs because of product display, and attractive packaging plays an important role in product display (Ghani and Kamal, 2010). Point-of-purchase decisions heighten the potential for product packaging to communicate information to consumers and influence product choice (Clement, 2007). Previous studies have indicated that packaging is a marketing communication vehicle (Silayoi and Speece, 2007; Hellstrom and Nilsson, 2011) used to capture consumer attention (Thalhammer, 2007), which affects the product selection process (Hall et al., 2004). Therefore, product packaging provides an opportunity to communicate with and influence the consumer at the point of purchase (Atkin et al., 2006; Wigley and Chiang, 2009). DeBono et al. (2003) argued that attractive product packaging indicates a favorable product.\n2. Literature review and research hypotheses: Packaging is not only a means of logistically ensuring safe and efficient delivery to the consumer at minimum cost, but is also one of the most important marketing tools for communicating the brand message to the consumer (Hellstrom and Nilsson, 2011). From a marketing perspective, product packaging is an extrinsic cue (Chung et al., 2006), and consumers are first exposed to the product packaging, and then experience the product (Orth and Marchi, 2007). Product packaging is therefore a means for the manufacturer to communicate subliminally with the consumer (Thalhammer, 2007) for product evaluation (Chung et al., 2006), brand differentiation and identity, and consumer brand influence (Underwood, 2003). Because product packaging reaches most buyers at the crucial purchase-decision moment (Ampuero and Vila, 2006), researchers have further suggested that product packaging is one marketing communication tool that continues to grow in importance (Wells et al., 2007; Insch and Florek, 2009). Market competition forces food firms to continually market their products to obtain the largest market share (Matsatsinis et al., 2007). Because food packaging visual stimuli form consumer attentions and their product perceptions (Venter et al., 2011), visual packaging plays a decisive role in the food product market (Brommer et al., 2011). Previous packaging-related research focused on visual packaging features (Mensonen and Hakola, 2012), and suggested that visual packaging attributes include colors, graphic shapes and images, typography, and illustrations (Venter et al., 2011).\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research environment, sample, and data collection\n4. Analysis and results: 4.1 Measurement accuracy analysis\n5. Discussion and conclusion: By integrating the role of consumer attitudes toward visual packaging, this study built a conceptual framework to explain how visual packaging affects consumer perceptions and brand evaluations of a product. In this study, the hierarchical impact of visual packaging on perceived food product quality, perceived food product value, and brand preference was investigated. The study results revealed that attitudes toward visual packaging directly influence consumers' perceived food product quality and brand preference, and indirectly influence product food value. Perceived food product quality also indirectly and positively affects brand preferences through product value. In summary, the results show that visual packaging design generates positive product and brand evaluations. Visual packaging design, therefore, is an important predictor of the consumer evaluation of food products and brands.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Although the increase in point-of-purchase decisions heightens the communication potential of food product packaging, empirical research on understanding how visual packaging affects consumers' subsequent product and brand evaluations and perceptions is scant. This study seeks to develop a theoretical model to show the effects of consumer attitudes toward visual food packaging on perceived product quality, product value, and brand preference.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A self-administered questionnaire developed from the literature was conducted, and 315 undergraduate students participated in the study.\nFindings: The empirical results show that attitudes toward visual packaging directly influence consumer-perceived food product quality and brand preference. Perceived food product quality also directly and indirectly (through product value) affects brand preference.\nOriginality/value: This paper offers directions for understanding the effects of visual packaging on positive consumer product and brand evaluations. Based on the study findings, food firms should emphasize the visual packaging design factors such as color, typeface, logo, graphics, and size to form consumers' positive perceptions and brand preference.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Buying association and its impact on promotional utility	[ "Advertising effectiveness", "Promotional methods", "Product management", "Buying behaviour", "Retail data processing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Consumers usually patronizing multiple grocery stores, although they concentrate their visits to their most preferred one (Cort and Dominguez, 1977; Arnold et al., 1983). In this scenario, the main issue for food retailers is to acquire the highest share of customers disposable income. Sales promotion is a key tool used by hi-lo retailers to attract consumers to their stores, while the EDLP strategy proposes the lowest prices every day without promotions. Many studies have tried to understand the impact of these two pricing strategies, hi-lo and EDLP, on retailer performance (Hoch et al., 1994), but the implementation of these strategies has not been too much tackled by researchers so far.Hi-lo performance is based on building consumer traffic and market basket composition. Even if a sales promotion attracts consumers to the store, the hi-lo performance will be uncertain if these consumers buy only promoted categories. For example, Khan and Schmittlein (1992) found that consumers buy more featured products on fill-in (occasional) trips to the non-favorite store, which is probably related to opportunistic behavior that can reduce hi-lo efficiency. This issue is probably more relevant to grocery stores, where a set of categories tends to be bought on a regular basis through multiple shopping trips. Retailers need to pay attention to the product category selection to avoid featuring items that are frequently bought together in the same promotion. Failure to do so may lead to a strong redundancy effect in the promotional action (e.g. home-delivered brochure, newspaper insert, store flyer), which means that the categories on sale are usually bought together without any promotional stimulus.Sales promotions are used in different ways by food retailers around the world. In North American retailers included a limited set of categories in a newspaper insert. In France and other Southern European countries, grocery stores feature a large set of categories and use home-delivered brochures to communicate with their customers. A French consumer will receive about 10kg of home delivered brochures per year from food retailers, and each brochure may have hundreds of categories on sale (Walters and MacKenzie, 1988; Mulhern and Leone, 1991; Riste, 2002).This paper proposes a method to decrease redundancy effect without reducing overall promotion utility (and store traffic). The basic idea consists in composing promotional assortments with categories that share weak conjoint probabilities (they are seldom present in the same market basket) and verify its impact on the overall consumer promotional utility. The results suggest that grocery stores may avoid redundancy effects by introducing categories with weak buying association in their promotional assortment, resulting in a higher share of full priced products in the consumer baskets without reducing the global utility of the promotion.\nDefining a promotional assortment: The success of hi-lo strategy depends on customer market basket composition. The one stop shopping principle suggests that consumers responding to promotions will buy other full-priced products, which contribute to the overall profitability of their baskets and therefore for the store. Research indicates that hi-lo could be more profitable for retailers than EDLP (Hoch et al., 1994). Hi-lo has two main goals: building up traffic by attracting consumers from other retailers; and improving store performance by managing the customer's basket composition. The first goal is still subject to discussion, since the effects of the sales promotion on store traffic remains difficult to demonstrate (Walters and Rine, 1986; Walters, 1991; Bucklin and Lattin, 1992). The second goal has received little attention in the sales promotion and retailing literature.Consumer traffic versus opportunistic behavior\nMethodology: We carried out three conjoint analyses, two based on promotional assortments composed by real product categories (studies 1 and 2), and one based on a description of the attribute levels (study 3). Each study tries to overcome the limits generated by the previous one. These studies are described below.Conjoint analysis is usually performed for new concept identification (Wind, 1973), but also for pricing, market segmentation and advertising problems (Cattin and Wittink, 1982). It has also seldom been used for distribution purposes and only once for promotional utility assessment to be introduced in a MCI model (Cliquet, 1995).Studies 1 and 2\nResults: Table III summarizes our results from studies 1 and 2. Most of the hypotheses seem to be verified. However, surprisingly, H7 was rejected. The average importance of the price reduction (19.10 per cent and 18.95 per cent) is smaller than the width (42.29 per cent and 46.07 per cent) and the depth (24.70 per cent and 24.76 per cent) respectively on studies 1 and 2. There are at least two limits that can explain it: the use of a hardly perceptible variable in a conjoint analysis technique (buying association); and the overload information, which could over-estimate the utility of width and depth.Conjoint analysis is based on consumer judgments delivered more consistently through full knowledge about the product attributes (Hair et al., 1995). Subjects were not able to identify directly the buying association on the previous studies, because it was \"implicit\" through the product categories. Even if other conjoint analysis use this kind of variable (e.g. the salt quantity in a food test, or the brand size in the packaging test), we will introduce another conjoint analysis to overcome this problem.The second limit from studies 1 and 2 is the overload information. Experimental promotional flyers give much more space to the product categories (width) and brands (depth) than for price reduction. These variables may create higher levels of stimulation on the consumers than they would be if the flyers space were organized in another way.Table IV reports the results of the three studies. H1 is confirmed by all three studies. The relationship between width and promotion utility seems to be positive. Moreover, the part-worth utility from study 3 seems to indicate a linear relationship between these variables. H2 is also confirmed by all three studies. The relationship between depth and consumer promotion utility is positive. Furthermore, the shape of the relationship seems to fit a logistic function, which can have important consequences for retailers. In fact, it suggests that retailers should keep some variety inside each category (number of brands) but that such variety should not exceed a threshold (in our study the ideal point was three brands inside each category) since the marginal utility is negative after this point.Mixed results were produced to H3, which was confirmed by studies 1 and 3, but rejected by study 2. Since interviewees were aware of the nature of buying association in study 3, it is easier to accept confirmation of this hypothesis. Further research needs to be carried out to corroborate this relationship.H4 implies that width is more important than depth for promotional utility. Studies 1 and 2 accept this hypothesis, while study 3 shows no clear result, with both width and depth sharing almost the same part-worth contribution to promotional utility (respectively 20.21 per cent and 23.81 per cent). Three main reasons seem to justify the acceptation of this hypothesis: the more realistic situation in studies 1 and 2; a possible semantic problem on the ACA methodology; and the overlapping contributions in study 3.The artificial environment of study 3 is open to other sources of bias. There could be a misunderstanding between product category and brand as a signal for \"variety\" to consumers. The notion of brand is more prevalent in the mind of consumers than category leading to an overvaluation of depth.The overlapping contributions of width and depth as well as their function types could let us suppose that these contributions can be reversed on larger sets, which is the case in the real market. New research should introduce this more complex scenario and verify our results.H5 was accepted by studies 1 and 2, and mixed results came from study 3. As the same justifications apply to the acceptance of H4 as H5, we can say that the buying association is the promotional assortment variable that yields the smallest amount of utility for the sales promotion.All three studies support H6. Price reduction has a positive relationship with the promotion utility. This corroborates a well-known phenomenon in marketing and it is one of the most important reasons for short-term promotion success (Lichtenstein et al., 1995; Mulhern and Leone, 1991).However, results of H7 seem contradictory. Studies 1 and 2 reject this hypothesis, while study 3 accepts it. These results have two possible explanations. The first one relies on the emphasis put on product categories and brands, which could make consumers pay more attention to these factors than they would do in the real market. In this case, studies 1 and 2 are biased and H7 should be accepted. The second possible explanation is that consumers are more interested in \"variety\" than in price reduction. This research does not allow us to answer this question.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Promotional assortment concept enables retailers to manage sales promotion more efficiently and more effectively. Knowing the implications of promotional assortment on the promotion utility, retailers can propose promotional actions that increase store traffic and develop the price image of the store. There is greater efficiency because by managing buying association, retailers can reduce redundancy effects and produce more profitable promotional actions.Since the buying association impact over the global promotion utility is weak, retailers should use this variable to compose promotional assortments avoiding redundancy effects. The categories that share weak buying association will probably impact on the average market basket (more impulse purchases) with little or no effects on consumer traffic.The results show that consumers prefer some level of variety in the product category. However, the number of brands included in the promotional assortment should not exceed a certain threshold, after which marginal brands will not increase the consumers' promotional utility. Even if our studies show that three or four brands per category produce the highest utility, we strongly recommend further research on this.Our research suggests that retailers should concentrate on width when they make promotional decisions. Since width has greater impact than depth on promotion utility, retailers that face trade-offs between brands or categories should focus on width, maintaining some variety in each category.Promotional assortment design also takes manufacturers' proposals into account. The products selected for promotional assortment may result from subsidies paid to the retailers by manufacturers. The space allocated to featured products in a brochure depends on the sums paid by manufacturers.While our analysis excluded the role of manufacturers on promotional assortment composition, our conclusions are still valid. Retailers should take a more proactive role in the composition of their promotions by offering partnerships to manufacturers whose products have weak buying association. This proactive role will enable retailers to compose better promotional assortments and manage their promotion more efficiently.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Even if a sales promotion attracts consumers to the store, the hi-lo performance will be uncertain if these consumers buy only promoted categories. Retailers need to pay attention to avoid promoting categories that are frequently bought together in the same promotional action, or be faced with a strong redundancy effect. This paper proposes a method to decrease redundancy effect without reducing overall promotion utility (and store traffic).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Three conjoint analyses were carried out, two based on promotional assortments composed by real product categories, and one based on attribute description.\nFindings: - The results suggest that grocery stores can avoid redundancy effects by introducing categories with weak conjoint probabilities, resulting in a higher share of full priced products on the consumer baskets without reducing the global utility of the promotion.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Real promotion contains large number of category/brands, and we strongly recommend further research on this.\nPractical implications: - Retailers can propose promotional actions that increase store traffic and develop the price image of the store. By managing buying association, retailers can create more profitable promotions.\nOriginality/value: - The idea of building promotions that take into account the redundancy effect as well as measuring its impact on consumer promotional value and store image are the main value of this research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Explaining socially responsible consumption	[ "China", "Theory of planned behavior" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Values-based consumption practices are often associated with a belief that the marketplace is the most efficient and effective arbiter of social values (Pennington, 2005), and through their consumption, individuals can affect social change (Carfagna et al., 2014; Thompson, 2011). Consumers are becoming more socially conscious and are including ethical considerations in their purchase decisions. This is facilitated by consumers having more product choices and, therefore, having more opportunities to reveal their social preferences when making purchase decisions (Auger et al., 2010). But what drives socially responsible consumption (SRC)?\nTheoretical development and hypotheses: Theory of planned behavior (TPB)\nMethodology: The survey\nResults: The reliability of the variables was examined by looking at the factorial structure of each scale separately. Each of the scales was individually subjected to a principal components analysis. A varimax rotation yielded a one-factor solution for all of the scales. On the basis of that result, all of the items were retained for further analysis. Cronbach's alpha for the scales ranged from 0.77 to 0.96, thus indicating good internal reliability (Nunnally, 1978).\nDiscussion and public policy implications: Previous research has tended to focus on the socially responsible behavior of companies. In more recent years, increasing attention has been paid to responsible consumer behavior - mainly in relation to ecologically friendly consumption. Building on and broadening the scope of this prior work, this research applied the TPB to explain and predict three categories of SRC. Understanding what drives SRC is of considerable importance. Many firms are likely to be socially responsible only when it is in their financial interest to do so. One way for social responsibility to pay off financially is if consumers use CSR as a purchasing criterion (Webb et al., 2008). In this way, the social consciousness of consumers is having a profound impact on the way organizations market their products and services (Auger et al., 2010).\nFuture research: The conceptualization of SRC has been evolving over a period of 40 years. SRC is a relatively new construct that extends beyond the environmental domain and is currently of interest to scholars. This research has served to bring together previous research in the area and offered a theoretical explanation which might serve as a springboard to take SRC research forward. The TPB was applied in an unashamedly frugal manner so as to seek the most parsimonious useful explanation of SRC. Looking ahead, while the models used in this research showed good predictive power, previous applications of TPB have sometimes included a range of moderating variables. Such moderating variables should be considered in future research on this topic. For instance, past behavior has been used to predict changes in direction and strength of the relationship between attitudes and behavioral intentions. It has been shown to explain variance over and above that accounted for by the TPB variables (Conner and Armitage, 1998). In addition, the relationship between perceptions of behavioral control and intentions has been shown to be moderated by behavioral knowledge (Chiou, 1998), so an understanding of that variable would help further in developing appropriate strategies for promoting behavior change (d'Astous and Legendre, 2008). Apart from adding moderators to models predicting SRC, an alternative theory might be considered. Social dilemma theory has been widely applied in related situations, yet no published study has yet applied it to studying SRC.\nConclusions: If consumers were more inclined to take into account social responsibility when making their purchasing decisions, then firms would presumably be more willing to integrate social responsibility into the marketing of their product offerings. It is therefore important for both firms and public policy makers to understand the factors that drive socially responsible consumption. Yet no research published to date has used a robust, parsimonious theoretical framework to explain and predict the categories of SRC. This study has used models grounded on the TPB to reveal that for the three primary categories of SRC (purchasing based on a firm's CSR reputation, recycling and choosing products based on their environmental impact), attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control are all significant predictors of intention to engage in SRC. In turn, intention to engage in SRC is a significant predictor of responsible consumption behavior. Theoretically, this research has served to elucidate the various categories of SRC, tested for any gaps in intention and behavior and has extended the long list of successful applications of the TPB to a new domain. Practically, public policy makers and firms can now have a deeper understanding of how consumers integrate social concerns into their purchasing behavior and devise ways to shape consumer behavior to facilitate more responsible consumption.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Consumers are becoming increasingly socially conscious when making their purchasing decisions, which in turn is providing an incentive for firms to integrate social responsibility considerations into their product offerings. Explaining the various categories of socially responsible consumption (SRC) is therefore important. The purpose of this paper is to explain the various categories of socially responsible consumption.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Grounded in the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this paper surveyed a sample of 1,202 Hong Kong consumers.\nFindings: The findings indicate that attitude towards the behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control are all significant predictors of three categories of SRC (i.e. intention to purchase from firms based on their CSR performance, intention to practice recycling and intention to try to avoid or minimize their use of products based on their environmental impact). Intention to engage in SRC was then shown to be a significant predictor of SRC behavior.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper relied on only the single-factor test as a measure of socially desirable responding. Furthermore, while the quota sampling was designed for broad representativeness, it is difficult to verify if the well-controlled quota controls entirely removed the possibility of a biased selection of respondents within each cell.\nPractical implications: Recommendations are made for public policy-makers and marketers to devise ways to shape consumer behavior to facilitate more responsible consumption.\nOriginality/value: Previous research relating to SRC has not explained the various categories of SRC and often failed to test the relationship between intention and behavior, representing a considerable gap in the literature. This paper applied the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain intention and behavior with regards to the various categories of SRC.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing optimal scaffolding erection through the integration of lean and work posture analysis	[ "Turnaround maintenance", "Value stream mapping", "Work posture", "Scaffolding", "Health and safety" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Natural gas, as cleaner burning fuel, is becoming increasingly important in many countries and regions to accelerate economic growth. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018) stated that liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, which will reach nearly 63 million tonnes valued at US$30.4bn in 2018, are an ongoing source of strength for Australia's economy. In addition, Australia has almost US$80bn worth of LNG projects under construction (APPEA, 2017). To maximise the production capacity and ensure reliable and safe operation of all equipment, the LNG industry needs periodic maintenance on site, during which the LNG plants need to be shut down for inspections and repairs. According to Ben-Daya et al. (2009), turnaround maintenance (TAM) projects have short duration and high intensity. A four to five weeks of TAM may cost the entire year's maintenance budget. TAM is also a costly affair in terms of lost production and labour costs. According to a survey by ManpowerGroup (2011), the workers in the Australian LNG industry are among the highest paid in the world, earning about US$140,000 per year compared to a global average of US$76,000. In reality, the duration of turnaround projects in LNG industry always exceeds the scheduled time due to delays of maintenance activities (Liu et al., 2008; Shou et al., 2015). According to Hansen (2016), two-thirds of TAM projects exceed their budget and schedule delayed more than 30 per cent. Human errors is a major contributor to delays and planned cost escalations during TAM work (Mhlanga et al., 2016).The LNG industry has, therefore, spent much effort on improving maintenance processes and gained extensive experience over the past 20 years, but it is found that there are still many problems predominately caused by delays. Complex structures of LNG plants require ever-changing of scaffolding construction for maintenance purposes. Onsite erection and dismantling can negatively impact production activities (Moon et al., 2016). Scaffolding, as temporary structures, has a significant impact on construction operation and maintenance. The unique requirements of these temporary structures can often lead to delays caused by poor scaffolding planning and scheduling, time and spatial constraints, including unnecessary rework and long travelling between activities, which will directly affect the productivity of the plant (Moon et al., 2016). In addition, due to time-space conflicts and hazards, scaffolding activities are not always safe for onsite assembly workers (Kim et al., 2014). Shou et al. (2015) analysed the TAM project of a selected LNG refinery plant using work sampling study and found that scaffolding modifications for a facility lift are key to meet project schedule, and there is a clear indication for improvement in terms of the reduction of lead-time.Lean maintenance has been successfully used in the turnaround management to increase profitability and improve productivity (Anderson and Kovach, 2014; Mostafa et al., 2015). Instead of focusing on specific production or maintenance processes, the entire value stream of the process is mapped in lean (Rotherand Shook, 2003). In addition, the lean method motivates employees, as employee involvement is considered as one of the most important values in the lean concept. Lean techniques and tools, such as value stream mapping (VSM), bring in a new way of helping identify customer values and eliminate non-value-added activities (Zhang and Chen, 2016). By using VSM, Heravi and Firoozi (2017) investigated the production processes in prefabricated construction and found that a VSM application is effective in time reduction and cost saving. In addition, Riddell (2017) examined how, when and where scaffolding should be utilised through lean in a construction project. It appears that lean provides useful value in TAM and scaffolding erection.However, it should be noted that health and safety in construction operation is always a critical issue in the LNG industry (Forte and Ruf, 2017). Health and safety issues such as ergonomic analysis of the construction workers have been recognised as a key contributor for improving productivity in construction industries (Kyaw-Myint et al., 2015) According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), about 2.3 million construction workers work on scaffolding regularly, and accidents related to scaffolding cause 4,500 injuries and US$90m in damage per year in USA. Previous studies, which have adopted lean to improve TAM process, predominately use time and cost savings as performance indicators. For example, Kovach et al. (2014) demonstrated that the lean method can help the project team reveal the underlying links of activities in each phase of maintenance project to identify value adding activities and waste. Kuhlang et al. (2011) developed the methods-time measurement (MTM) approach to reduce lead time and increase productivity. It is necessary to integrate health and safety considerations into the process so that a balanced improvement on productivity, as well as health and safety can be achieved.This study aims to: investigate the combined applicability of lean and work posture analysis in scaffolding erection and develop an optimised solution to achieve a balanced improvement on both productivity and health and safety of onsite workers. This paper is organised in the following structure. Section 2 provides a literature review on VSM and work posture analysis in construction. Section 3 presents the research method, including case description, data collection and data analysis. The results of the study, including the current state map, future the state map and the optimised improvement strategy are presented in Section 4. Section 5 discusses the implications of this research, and Section 6 concludes this study.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Value stream mapping in construction\n3. Research method: To better understand of the combined effect of lean and work postures on productivity improvement and health and safety in a scaffolding erection, a case study approach was adopted in a typical LNG site where there was scaffolding erection work for LNG trains. According to Yin (2017), the method of case study is suitable when the investigator has little or no capability of controlling the event by examining an event in a real-life context. The case study was selected because of the importance of a scaffolding erection to TAM in LNG projects. In addition, the scaffolding erection process is a repetitive process, meaning that the findings of the case study can be usefully generalised for other similar projects. 3.1 Case description\n4. Results: 4.1 Value stream mapping: current state map (CSM)\n5. Discussion: The lean philosophy has been rapidly recognised in the building and construction industry because it is believed to be effective in reducing operation waste and achieve improved productivity. Longoni et al. (2013) argued that most studies on lean considered the operational performance implications of lean and because of the importance of occupational health and safety, it is imperative to understand the occupational health and safety implications of lean implementations.This study aims to investigate the waste and occupational health and safety issues in the scaffolding installation process in TAM projects. In accordance with Shou et al. (2015), it is found that waste, in terms of unnecessary rework, long travelling, communication and waiting represent almost 30 per cent of the overall PT of scaffolding installation, indicating great potential for lean improvement. Such improvement is important because scaffolding installation and dismantling have a significant impact on the tool operation, i.e. the physical engineering operation of TAM activities (Shou et al., 2019). In addition to the identification of waste, the case study also demonstrates that waste elimination not only affects scaffolding operation process improvement, but also the health and safety of onsite employees who are responsible for scaffolding installation. For example, eliminating unnecessary rework in stair lifting for scaffolding installation can reduce some safety hazards that could cause potential muscle strains and harmful work postures. In addition, such elimination can also reduce travel distance and decrease fatigue and tripping hazards. An optimised strategy exists for a preferred waste reduction target. However, it should be noted that although there is a general declining trend, i.e. as reduced waste time increases, the risk level declines, such trend is not linear. The reason is that some activities do not include potentially harmful postures. In addition, only full removal of waste in each activity is assumed. Therefore, at higher waste removal intervals, a completely different combination of activities may be needed. For example, to improve work efficiency by 37 min during the construction, the optimal combination of action is to eliminate the waste activities in A4 and A9, which the OWAS risk index is 240.54. For 55 min, the optimal combination of action is A6, but 258.97 risk index is higher than 240.5.The responses from industry participants on the results of this project were generally positive. All participants agreed that the classification of waste categories in terms of unnecessary rework, long travelling, waiting and communication is adequate. However, the interviewees also pointed out that such classification is based on the contractors' point of view. Other stakeholders, such as clients and suppliers, should also be involved. It should also be noted that interviewees suggested that the implementation of the approach can be improved by providing the guidelines for improving working conditions. The current approach considered the improvement in six activities. However, it does not mean that other activities do not incorporate harmful postures, even though these postures are not identified as waste activities.Compared with prior studies, which argue that the adoption of lean has positive impact on operational health and safety (e.g. Nahmens; Ikuma, 2009; Gambatese et al., 2016; Ikuma et al., 2010), this study provides an empirical evidence related to the relationship between one lean tool, VSM and occupational health and safety. The results have two distinct implications. The first is related to the question whether the implementation of VSM can help achieve improvement in health and safety of onsite workers. From this case study, it is apparent that the implementation of VSM can help eliminate waste in the installation process, therefore eliminating potential health and safety risks corresponded to the waste. This finding is in accordance with previous studies such as Ikuma et al. (2010). However, it is also found that although the implementation of lean is beneficial, health and safety of onsite workers does not always improve as the implementation of lean intensifies, i.e. more sources of waste are eliminated. This finding suggests that lean attributes and health and safety attributes are two distinct sources of attributes of onsite assembly and installation activities. While some waste activities (e.g. activities that involve the lifting of unnecessary heavy components) contain both attributes and the elimination of these waste activities can achieve improved performance in both productivity and health and safety, there remain many other waste activities that have very limited health and safety attributes and the eliminate of these activities will have no implications on the health and safety performance of onsite assembly. This finding is in contradiction to previous studies, such as Gambatese et al. (2016), which only identified the alignment relationship between lean and health and safety.The second implication of this study is the development of an optimisation method to identify wastes that should be prioritised to be eliminated. The three-step process of determining the activities that can have an impact on the OWAS risk category once the waste within the activities is removed, determining the potential waste time removal intervals and identifying the combination of activities in each waste removal interval and updating the risk value of process once waste is removed provides useful reference for practitioners to identify an optimised lean improvement solution within an improvement target. Compared to previous studies, which rely on qualitative assessment of lean and health and safety, this study is more readily to be implemented at the site level for simultaneous improvement in lean and health and safety. The findings of this study can be usefully integrated into the existing training programme to help onsite managers and employees understand the implications of onsite scaffolding installation activities. The results suggest that the potential improvement areas include reducing rework, improving site layout and onsite communication. The results can also be integrated into the emerging training platforms built through virtual reality. A follow-up study will be conducted to investigate the effectiveness of an integrated training platform built upon lean and virtual reality.\n6. Limitations and future research: This study has some limitations. The case study is a relatively small project. Only the removal of waste in six activities has a direct impact on the risk value. As such, the waste removal time interval is permutation of these six activities. For larger projects, there will be more than six such activities and the permutation will be more complicated. However, this does not restrict the use of the optimisation approach. In addition, health and safety in construction industry covers a wide range of issues related to working environment, excessive stress, human error and ergonomics. This study uses work posture as a proxy indicator for health and safety. It is, therefore, recommended that more performance indicators should be used in future research, which can help improve the discussion related to the complex relationship between lean and health and safety.\n7. Conclusion: Scaffolding construction is an important task in the LNG industry, considering the relatively low productivity, high labour shortage and cost in the process. Poor design, planning and scheduling of scaffolding often lead to issues such as idling, rework, unnecessarily long travelling time between activities, which substantially reduce productivity and pose health and safety risks. Given the higher priority of productivity improvement and health and safety in TAM projects, there is a strong need to integrate lean and work posture analysis. This study, therefore, aims to develop an integrated approach to improve productivity and health and safety in scaffolding erection by integrating work postures into the traditional VSM approach. The results show that waste activities account for 30 per cent of the PT of scaffolding installation. As for the relationship between reduced waste and improved health and safety performance, there is a general declining trend, i.e. as reduced waste time increases, the risk level declines, but such trend is not linear. The contributions of this study to knowledge are twofold: a quantitative examination of the relationship between lean implementation and its impact on health and safety is conducted and the optimisation method, based on the combinatorics of permutations theory, is able to help onsite managers to develop customised best waste reduction strategy based on varied improvement expectations. Through the optimisation approach and the validation of the approach in a case study, it is found that lean attributes and health and safety attributes are two distinct sources of attributes of onsite assembly and installation. It can be generally concluded that the implementation of lean can have positive health and safety impact. However, higher positive impact may not be observed as lean implementation intensifies. In addition, there is an optimised solution for a combined improvement in lean and health and safety, which can be achieved through a three-step process of determining the waste activities that have health and safety impact, determining the waste removal intervals and determining and updating the removal scenarios.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Facility structures in liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants require tremendous amounts of scaffolding to facilitate relevant industrial operation and maintenance. As such, the productivity of scaffolding operations in turnaround maintenance (TAM) has attracted much attention in recent years. In addition, health and safety issues have been recognised as a key contributor along with productivity improvement in the LNG industry. This study aims to integrate work posture analysis into value stream mapping to achieve an optimised and balanced improvement in both productivity and health and safety.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study approach is adopted to integrate lean and work posture analysis in a TAM site. The lean improvement is conducted through value stream mapping, and the work posture analysis is conducted through the Ovako Working Posture Analysis System method. A three-step optimisation strategy is then developed for achieving optimised performance in waste reduction and work posture improvement.\nFindings: It is found that the implementation of value stream mapping can help eliminate waste in the installation process, therefore eliminating potential health and safety risks. However, health and safety of onsite workers does not always improve as lean implementation intensifies. There is an optimised erection schedule that has the lowest health and safety risk within a waste reduction target.\nOriginality/value: In contradiction to previous studies, which rely on qualitative assessment to identify the a positive correlation between lean and health and safety, this study reveals the distinct difference between lean attributes and health and safety attributes through a quantitative assessment and is more readily to be implemented at the site level for simultaneous improvement in lean and health and safety.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Service packaging: key to successful provisioning of ICT business solutions	[ "Communication technologies", "Customer service management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\nIntroduction: The importance of business services based on information and communication technology (ICT) has been increasing dramatically since the commercialization of internet and mobile technologies. Successful operation of companies in almost all industries is becoming highly dependent on their ability to harness the breakthroughs in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, supply chain management (SCM) systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems; all these systems are either based on ICT technologies or utilize them extensively. For example, the exceptional growth and cost reduction in airline services could not have been achieved without comprehensive application of ICT services (Buhalis, 2004). In other words, ICT services play a strategic role in the business processes of most firms. This observation is reflected in the steady increase of the demand for ICT services (IDC, 2003a, b, c; Sarissamlis, 2003).Considering the relevance of business-to-business ICT services we have only scant knowledge of their development and marketing as most research has been technologically oriented. The production and marketing aspects of ICT services are, however, becoming increasingly important and challenging due two major trends. First, rapid technological innovation has led to a significant increase in the complexity of ICT services (Kallinikos, 2005) influencing the design and production processes, and customer interface of the services (Chapman and Hyland, 2004). Second, because of the strategic character of services, the customer expectations have become more demanding. Reliability is taken for granted and customization is needed to differentiate from competitors (Johnson and Ettlie, 2001).From an ICT service provider's point-of-view, this creates many challenges concerning service development, marketing, and implementation. Development becomes more difficult, as the variety of different software technologies concerning the actual service increases, and marketing and selling become more challenging, as the customers' requirements are more and more unique. If a service provider cannot manage this complexity it will lead to increasing production costs, systems failures resulting to serious problems in customers' business processes, and to customer dissatisfaction and defection. We argue that service design is a critical phase in addressing the described complexity as design influences service production, implementation, and customer perceptions and satisfaction.The purpose of this study is to present three service design and development methods - service industrialization, tangibilization and service blueprinting - and to describe how they can be used to reduce the complexity of ICT business services. The study draws on an action research oriented case study of a large Finnish ICT company and comprises five sections. In the next section, we will discuss the characteristics of business services and outline the methods suggested for reducing the complexity through service \"packaging\". This develops the conceptual basis for the empirical part. The third section focuses on the adopted methodology providing a description of the case study concerning TeliaSonera, Finland, a major ICT company. The fourth section describes and discusses how service packaging methods were employed in reducing the complexity of the ICT services provided by TeliaSonera. A discussion on the theoretical and managerial implications concludes the study.\nComplexity of ICT services and service packaging: Characteristics of ICT services\nManaging the complexity of services - service packaging: One of the central themes in developing service marketing and management theory has been the issue of trying to control and manage the problems caused by the characteristics of services for their efficient production and marketing. In the following we present three key propositions or methods for service packaging: service industrialization, service tangibilization, and service blueprinting.Industrialization of services\nMethodology - a case study of packaging ICT services: This section discusses first the selection of research approach and describes then the chosen case company and its service packaging project, and concludes with the data collection methods.Research approach\nPackaging of complex ICT business services: At the start of the project available methods for reducing service complexity were looked for and examined. Based on the authors' experience and knowledge from the field of service marketing and management and involvement in the project, service industrialization (Levitt, 1972), tangibilization (Levitt, 1981) and service blueprinting (Shostack, 1984) were chosen as the appropriate methods. This section describes how these three methods were employed in practice and how the analysis resulted in the construction of a new Service Architecture framework.Applying service industrialization: building a modular service architecture\nConclusions: The importance of ICT business services has been increasing dramatically. Company performance is becoming highly dependent on their ability to harness the breakthroughs in the ICT services in business processes. ICT services are, however, becoming increasingly complex due to the continuous development in their underlying technologies. Together with more unique customer needs, driven by the raise in the strategic importance of the ICT services, this creates great challenges for ICT service providers. If a service provider cannot manage this complexity it will lead to increasing production costs, systems failures, and customer dissatisfaction and defection.We have argued that service design is a critical phase in addressing the described complexity as design influences service production, implementation, and customer satisfaction. Based on this suggestion the paper reports results from a major case study illustrating how complex ICT services can be redesigned through methods - industrialization, tangibilization, blueprinting - tailored from service marketing literature. These results contain several theoretical and managerial contributions.Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Business services have an important role in the development of global knowledge-base economy. This is particularly clear in the field of ICT services where business customers are requiring an increasing amount of complex services in order to support their utilization of advanced ERP, SCM and CRM solutions for boosting their business processes and competitive advantage. The complexity of these services and customers' requests for special adaptations form a critical challenge for service providers. This paper seeks to develop solutions for managing this complexity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Three service design and development methods - service industrialization, tangibilization, and service blueprinting - are introduced and then analyzed as to how they can be utilized as an integrated system to reduce the complexity of ICT services. This is carried out through an action research-based case study of an ICT service provider.\nFindings: - The results include a service architecture framework, which can be used for creating a modularized offering and implementation system for complex business services. It reduces the complexity of services while allowing their customer specific adaptation.\nPractical implications: - Key aspects are the identification of service modules and interfaces in a multi-actor service offering setting and the providing of adequate resources for the design phase of the customized service project. This is essential in order to be able to simultaneously respond to customer specific needs and to reduce the number of existing technologies and overlapping functionalities, seemingly contra dictionary aims.\nOriginality/value: - Findings of the paper offer significant theoretical and managerial implications for the design and production of complex business services.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Legitimacy profiles of women directors on top French company boards	[ "Gender", "France", "Human capital", "Corporate governance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Following Norway (Hoel, 2008) and Spain (Mateos de Cabo et al., 2011), France was the third European country to establish gender quotas for corporate boards[1]. In January 2011, a law setting up a gender quota for corporate boards was passed by the French government. By 2017, the proportion of women on a listed corporate board must reach 40 percent, with an intermediate level of 20 percent to be reached by 2014. This event has wider international implications, as the European Union (EU) debates possible quotas for gender balanced boards. According to a French report issued by the Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities Delegation[2], compliance with the new law should open up between 550 and 1,350 new positions within the coming years. This large number of new directorships leads to questions about the feasibility of these requirements (e.g. finding suitably qualified candidates when every other firm is doing the same), and, more importantly, the legitimacy of the profile of the potential board member candidates.\nWomen on corporate boards of directors: The lack of women on corporate boards has been of increasing international research interest (Vinnicombe et al., 2008; Terjesen et al., 2009). Individual, organizational as well as political factors have been examined (Sheridan and Milgate, 2005; Singh and Vinnicombe, 2006; Hillman et al., 2007; Terjesen and Singh, 2008). There are still many barriers to female advancement into the corporate boardrooms (Singh and Vinnicombe, 2004).\nLessons from the Norwegian quota experience: It may be useful here to look back to the experience of Norway, now in its post-quota phase. Huse (2012) reported that despite an earlier intervention that all public sector boards should have 40 percent female representation, between 1990 and 2002, the proportion of female directors on listed company boards remained around 5 percent. However, from the initial quota law concerning public listed boards in 2002, the increase of female representation on corporate boards moved from 6 percent to almost 40 percent by the quota non-compliance penalty deadline in 2008.\nWomen directors in France, and the introduction of the quota law 2011: In contrast to many countries such as the USA and UK, no regular surveys of female directors in French top companies have been reported in the research literature. The few studies concerning the presence of women on French corporate boards show that their proportion is relatively low (Maclean and Harvey, 2008; Moulin and Point, 2012) compared to other countries (Terjesen and Singh, 2008) and, more particularly, to the Anglo-Saxon countries (Daily et al., 1999; Arfken et al., 2004; Terjesen et al., 2009). In 1998, there were only 44 women (4.4 percent) on the top 100 French corporate boards, compared to 1,100 male board members. In 2003, among the top 40 French companies, the proportion of women on boards was close to 4.5 percent (Maclean and Harvey, 2008), reaching 9 percent by 2008 (Moulin and Point, 2012). Thus their proportion had doubled over six years, although this significant rise might be partly explained by the number of female employee representatives elected to boards (Maclean and Harvey, 2008). Among the companies listed on the SBF 120 index[3], women on boards represented 7.2 percent in 2004 (Nekhili and Gatfaoui, 2013), reaching 8.3 percent in 2008 (Moulin and Point, 2012).\nLegitimacy for female appointments on boards: In the French system, the profile of male board members has always been attributed to elitism (D'Iribarne, 1994; Maclean et al., 2006). The profiles of French top managers reflect an emphasis on intellect, fast track careers and elitism. This derives from their education as graduates from the Grandes Ecoles (Evans et al., 1989; Barsoux and Laurence, 1990) and/or their legitimacy from personal backgrounds and network ties (Bauer and Bertin-Mourot, 1997; Burt et al., 2000). However, most of the studies were undertaken at a time when almost all top managers were male. Further investigations are necessary to understand the profile of current female board members. Legitimacy is important because women appointed to corporate boards who are perceived as token members due to quotas run the risk of having their legitimacy as directors challenged (Kanter, 1977; Konrad et al., 2008; Elstad and Ladegard, 2010; Torchia et al., 2011; Doldor, 2012).\nMethodology: We collected our data from 2003 to 2009, gathering detailed data from the biographical details given for each female director in the SBF 120 index companies' annual reports and online pages. We also examined the internet for biographies of these women as they conducted their public lives, e.g. as conference speakers. External databases (such as the \"Who's Who\" or the \"Guide des Etats-Major\"[6]) were also used to retrieve biographical information and personal characteristics of the women. Over this period, our sample encompasses 149 different companies, all listed on the SBF 120 index in at least one-year over the period of study. Totally, 30 companies were discarded due to mergers with and acquisitions by other companies. We could not collect enough information for four companies (ASF, Elior, Gemalto and ST Microelectronics). In total, our sample includes 115 companies quoted on the SBF 120 index over the period 2003-2009. In these 115 companies, 144 different women were appointed to these corporate boards. However, we could not gather all information for seven of them. Consequently, our database encompasses 137 female board members. We constructed variables for possession of five different legitimacy assets, using the first four from the typology of Bauer and Bertin-Mourot (1997), and the fifth which we added. These were coded as 1=Yes, 0=No:\nFindings: Our results highlight that over a quarter of female board members appointed to the top 120 French companies over the period 2003-2009 had strong ties to owning/founding families. Totally, 35 women (26 percent) in our census of 137 female directors have close family relationships with the founder/CEO of the company, being a successor (a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister or a niece for 25 of them) or the spouse/partner (for ten of them).\nDiscussion: Following Bauer and Bertin-Mourot's (1997) typology of legitimacy assets, our results clearly show that two assets (\"family\" and \"academic excellence\") are particularly salient in explaining the legitimacy of women directors who sit on top French corporate boards. Our results confirm recent research emphasizing the link between the proportion of women on French corporate boards and family ownership (Moulin and Point, 2012). Even though family ownership is declining, it is still a strong force within the SBF 120 firms. Given the fact that the top 15 French families control a third of the common equity in listed French companies (Faccio and Lang, 2002), the prevalence of the \"family\" asset is not surprising.\nConclusions: We undertook this study at a time when quota laws are already in place in Norway, Spain and more recently, France. Many other countries are watching closely the quota implementation experiences and outcomes as they also consider how best to tackle the very slow progress of women to corporate boards in their countries. This is an important issue for the EU, including the UK where resistance to quotas is strong. The recent French law requires top French company boards to reach a minimum proportion of 40 percent female members by 2017. Given the large number of women that will need to be appointed on boards over the coming years, and the risk of tokenism and stereotyping that is likely to take place against the women appointed to fill the quota, the legitimacy assets of current female board members merited our research attention so that future research can establish whether and how that might change before the quota compliance deadlines (2014 and 2017) in France.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to question the profiles of female directors on top French company boards. It explores the legitimacy attributes of current female directors to identify the profiles sought recently, as firms approach the need to make many new appointments to fulfill gender quotas for supervisory boards, given that the proportion of women on a corporate board must reach 40 percent by 2017, with an intermediate level of 20 percent by 2014.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors gathered numerical and qualitative biographical data on all SBF 120 (French stock exchange index) firms' female directors from annual reports and web sites over seven years (from 2003 to 2009). The authors constructed an SPSS database to categorize the individuals into various orders of legitimacy.\nFindings: Drawing on director bio-data, the authors extend previous work on four legitimacy assets (family ownership; academic excellence; strong ties to the State; and top career), by adding a fifth asset (representative director), and contribute a gender dimension to the literature on personal legitimacy. Owning-family ties and academic excellence are still particularly salient in explaining legitimacy of women directors. A new source of female directors since 2005 is the pool of foreign women, outside the elite Grandes Ecoles system.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors had data for directors of 115 companies out of the SBF 120 firms. The authors also lacked data for seven women out of 144 appointed during the period, despite efforts to track down data from public sources.\nPractical implications: These legitimacy profiles present different challenges for management development as those responsible for appointing several women to their boards in a short space of time will find out.\nSocial implications: The authors highlight that with the diminishing role of family members on large corporate boards, more women directors need to be found, developed and mentored. If this approach is followed, new female directors with solid achievements can be appointed, without having their legitimacy as directors challenged by resistant males. Women will thus be able to take their legitimate place in French boardrooms and contribute their diverse experiences and knowledge.\nOriginality/value: This paper questions the legitimacy assets of female directors, which can be clustered into three groups: combined elite education and top corporate career; owning-family membership; and representative directors. These legitimacy profiles present different challenges for management development as those responsible for appointing several women to their boards in a short space of time will find out.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Healthy schools and colleges: what works, what is needed, and why? Part II	[ "Health education", "Schools", "Colleges", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Current evidence suggests quality health education programs delivered in schools can improve the wellbeing and health of children and youth (The American Cancer Society, The American Diabetes Association, and The American Heart Association(2010), National Center for Chronic disease Prevention, 2010). This includes reducing the vulnerability of young people to poor health behaviors and poor health outcomes in later life, thus impacting their health across the lifespan in a positive way (Centers for Disease Control, 2004). In addition, mounting evidence shows that school-based health interventions, plus school staff and partners, policies, procedures, and \"environments\" that promote healthy behaviors are critical components for improving student health (Dilley, 2009). To provide high quality school-based health education, a socio-ecological perspective that includes multiple players, careful planning, adequate resources, services, policies, and instruction has evolved (Hoyle et al., 2010).\nThe contribution of this special issue: In this special issue some factors that speak to the complexity of organizing, implementing and sustaining both the health promoting school approach and selected school health initiatives are examined. Factors that may need to be in place to foster significant health promotion practices are also discussed. Collectively, these studies reveal several new insights, innovative approaches, and suggestions, as well challenges for achieving long-term school health goals. The five papers presently selected were derived from submissions that had their origin in the Australia, The UK, Ireland, Guernsey and Wales and thus represent diverse, as well as some consistent features. There were many more submissions, some of which will appear in subsequent volumes, and several that could not be processed due to time factors, suggesting this is a very important topic.The topic areas covered by the present body of research include:* A study designed by Rowe et al. to better understand the factors that characterize school-community partnerships in a school setting in South-East Australia.* A school-based survey by Amey to examine progress in anti-smoking behaviors among school youth in Guernsey.* A study of context in the implementation of a social, personal and health education initiative in Irish schools by Nic Gabhainn et al.* A single case study by Rothwell et al. to examine the implementation of the Welsh Network of Healthy School Schemes using a systems approach that draws on the Ottawa Charter.* A study by Speller et al. designed to examine outcomes of efforts to enhance teachers' potential role to promote child health and wellbeing using three different phases to ascertain what trainees need to realize their public health potential.Although the papers presented here employed a range of different approaches, and all examined different research issues, in different time periods, and geographic locations, all suggest that efforts of health educators to foster the concept of the health promoting school in all its complexity are of immense import.However, to achieve the goal embodied by the health promoting school concept, there is also support for the view that such efforts are not simplistic. First, they need to involve the entire school, as well as the community partners who can support the school's intent and goals. Policy makers, administrators, and related outside community members, as well as those doing the teaching must be on board. Rowe et al. is a very insightful study in this present edition which uses case study methodology to capture responses of 16 deputy principals, school staff members, and community-based partners, along with observations and a documentary analysis of five secondary schools in South-East Queensland. It found four factors were consistently of import in mediating health-promoting school programs, although temporal variations were evident. Thus, before one can envision the WHO vision of the health promoting school as a sustainable entity, developing effective collaborative partnerships between the school and community is key. Alternately, without a shared understanding of a set of mutually agreed upon health goals between the school personnel and its community partners, it is very unlikely that sustained positive school-based health promotion outcomes can be achieved. In particular, the authors suggest that because of their ability to increase resources, skills, funding, and availability of programs, fostering strong school-community partnerships is paramount to promoting the effectiveness and sustainability of the health promoting school, and for ensuring long-term population health and wellbeing.In the paper by Amey, the goal was to gauge how the perception of smoking by children has evolved since the last primary schools survey in Guernsey and to investigate whether there is an increase in the percentage of smoke-free homes since the last survey. During the academic year, 293 smoke free sessions were delivered to schools from year 5 to Year 12. Lessons focused on different aspects of smoking and were designed to fit the aims of Personal, Social, and Health Education and Citizenship education. After surveying 377 Year 6 (aged 10-11 years) primary school students, the data arising from this survey was compared to that obtained in a similar survey in 2007. Despite the multidimensional lesson approach and high frequency of delivery, findings showed very little forward movement, with the exception acknowledging the dangers of smoking. In particular, some parents appeared to be in need of education about the dangers of second-hand smoke, and this occurred even though the curriculum appeared quite well supported and included opportunities for partnerships and related community projects. It was recommended that efforts be continued in order to protect children and raise awareness about the dangers of second hand smoke at home, but the need to empower and inform parents and maintain optimal input from external agencies as well as teachers suggests continued collaborative multi-pronged efforts are indicated.In the Irish School system described by Nic Gabhainn et al. the Social, Personal and Health Education program mentioned above, which was introduced as a compulsory subject in 2000 is addressed. This syllabus comprises the aforementioned topics and associated supports and was designed to be consistent with the whole school approach to health promotion. The authors report on a study designed to examine the value of this approach in the context of the experience of Junior Cycle students. They sought to specifically identify facilitators of successful curricula implementation using a case study approach. It was concluded that the majority of parents, students, and staff members perceived the value of the curriculum to be high. The challenge however, was to promote its value in the context of the school focused on academic success. The most important facilitators in achieving their goals as noted by the researchers were the use of teachers who volunteered to teach the curriculum, versus being told to teach this, without consultation. The authors also implied training was of immense benefit and emphasized that the role of the curriculum coordinator was vital. Also influential were school policies, time-tabling and organizational support. Finally, identifying the role of school context and stakeholders views was deemed essential for creating sustainable efforts, as were meaningful partnerships between teachers, pupils, and parents, implying an important role for a broad inclusive socio-ecological perspective in achieving desired programmatic goals.In this regard, the salience of understanding the socio-ecological model and adopting a systems approach to examine the implementation process in the context of Health Schools initiatives was reiterated in an additional report in this volume in the context of Welsh Schools by Rothwell et al. Using a single case study approach that involved a documentary analysis, interviews with Healthy Schools Coordinator and stakeholders, this group assessed the implementation of the Welsh Healthy Schools Schemes. Consistent with the use of a multiple dimensional programmatic approach, their results suggest programs can be strengthened - both locally, as well as by advocacy and mediation. Along with this, coordinator commitment and local education and health partnerships appear essential as well and need to be promoted and encouraged. This study further stressed the importance of comprehending the prevailing context as well as the stakeholders' viewpoints in order to impact the school health programmatic implementation process and its effectiveness. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding the nature of the organizational climate if sustainability is the programmatic goal.Last, health education curricula are only useful for guiding health practices if the teacher has both knowledge and skills to impart this. In the paper by Speller et al. an exploration of teacher training courses in the south-east of England using a three phase study approach, observed teacher training varies, teacher knowledge is low after training, and a minority of trainees thought health was not a topic they should be teaching. The data were gleaned from a survey of initial teacher training courses, a longitudinal survey to capture trainees' knowledge, skills, and attitudes to health, and a process of mapping curriculum content to teacher standards and public health competencies. These data revealed that teachers who are in a position to strongly influence the health of school aged youth might require knowledge and skills as well as incentives possibly to maximize their health promoting potential.When viewed as a whole, these present ideas and research thus clearly indicate the importance of careful planning and partnerships in the design and implementation processes of sustainable as well as efficacious school health programs. They also indicate the important role of fostering shared understandings between school staff and community-stake holders concerning the value and desirability of school-based health education. Engaging school-based health and education leaders, as well as parents, policy makers and community leaders is equally crucial to the development, implementation and evaluative processes needed to ensure programmatic successes. Conversely, schools that focus solely on academic achievement and ignore health related issues or ignore the current process evaluation data from some of the present case studies, ignore at their peril both the facilitators of the health promoting school as well as the national wellbeing of its citizens.In contrast, well designed collaborative programmatic applications conducted by professional educators, and/or trained community members, plus careful modifications of state of the art programmatic efforts, can foster the attainment of the desired optimal health and high quality life outcomes as anticipated by the \"Health Promoting School\" concept. Conducting careful needs assessments, employing comprehensive curricula taught by well-trained staff, and fostering a positive school and community ethos is highly desirable as well (Gold, 1990). Strong health promoting leadership, commitment, good management, organizational capacity and managerial structures are also indicated as discussed by Eriksson et al. (2010). Moreover, a wide participation of local and community stake holders in the planning and design of the programme is desirable (Eriksson et al., 2010).\nFuture directions: There are clearly many highly relevant topics regarding school and college attendees' wellbeing and development, as well as to their overall academic achievement that can be studied. The health promoting school framework similar to the Coordinated School Health Framework and designed to strengthen capacity and delivery of health curricula in the school is however, a topic of high merit that warrants consideration because of its immense albeit presently unrealized potential (Hoyle et al., 2010). Moreover, sustained outcomes have yet to be realized because the attainment of a consistently safe and healthy school environment is a complex and continuous process requiring attention to changes in underlying conditions (Mooney et al., 2010) and needs to constantly be evolving. In addition, schools need to have explicit plans for how they will respond to the wide range of crises that can threaten the safety and healthfulness of the school and larger environments, among other elements (Mooney et al., 2010), and planners must be cognizant of the role of ecology or complex interrelationships that must be accounted for to promote success (Lohrmann, 2010).In this regard, the relative values of all stakeholders' needs to be specifically stressed and examined further in the context of efforts to develop and realize sustainable health promoting schools. Especially needed are comparative studies to examine best practices as well as mixed methods approaches to tease out factors that impact schools and colleges both positively and negatively in the context of a variety of school-related policies, and fiscal situations. Also needed is continued information on what programs and conceptual models should be put in place to ensure a school is continuously health promoting. The role of parents, teachers, principals, program staff, support services, community members and organizations and school boards also needs to receive more attention in the relevant literature.Clearly, schools today may be the only venue where youth can learn those life long skills that are cross-cutting and essential in the adult workplace for ensuring economic security and high levels of mental, social and physical wellbeing. In addition, to learn optimally, youth must be afforded ample and consistent high standard skills based learning opportunities to meet their highest potential. Learning approaches that accommodate contemporary youth are especially indicated, as are adequate teacher training, resources and whole community participatory collaborations in a socially and physically conducive and safe environment.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview and brief commentary concerning the present contributions to this third special issue on \"Healthy schools and colleges\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Authors working in the field of school or college health education were invited to submit their work to Health Education for purposes of review by their peers. After undergoing the traditional peer review process, five submissions that fulfilled the basic criteria relevant to this issue were selected for publication.\nFindings: - While reasonably diverse, these five contributions all confirm that, while the evidence base as well as the support for using the school as a venue to promote health are increasing, multiple considerations as well as approaches are required in order to successfully implement health-oriented programs in the school and/or college setting. In addition to careful planning, and allocation of resources, in line with the first part of this 2010 series, all authors concur that multiple rather than single strategies are needed at all phases of program planning and implementation if sustainable efficacious programs are sought. Key strategies include having a socio-ecological perspective, adequate teacher training, effective partnerships, policy support, and parental \"buy-in\".\nOriginality/value: - While more research is needed, the ideas embedded in this special issue can assist stakeholders who wish to develop or improve the sustainability of school- and college-based health promotion programs. The data specifically provide some direction about what is needed to do collectively to foster the health of the young people in the context of the health-promoting school or college.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
British Energy generates power workers of the future: Apprenticeship program taps into Royal Navy expertise	[ "Nuclear energy industry", "Apprenticeships", "Skills training" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The UK's largest electricity supplier is using the Royal Navy's spare capacity to help to train nuclear power-station workers of the future. With the UK Government recently inviting applications to build the country's first new nuclear-power stations for a generation, British Energy has signed a PS10 million partnership contract with the Royal Navy's training partner, Flagship, to deliver its apprentice program for the next seven years.\nTrade-specific training and the completion of academic qualifications: British Energy recruits around 50 new apprentices each year. Each intake will spend the best part of two years undertaking the Flagship program, followed by an additional two years at their home power stations until they are fully qualified. Apprentices are appointed into the maintenance departments at each of the company's sites. They work with teams of maintenance technicians covering both the conventional and the reactor side of the plant.Apprentices undertake a training program covering electrical, mechanical or instrumentation skills. Following successful completion of their first year, all apprentices are streamed into their three separate engineering disciplines and focus on trade-specific training and the completion of academic qualifications.On completion of the four-year apprenticeship, they are awarded a modern apprenticeship as well as a National Vocational Qualification or Scottish Vocational Qualification level 3 and a National Certificate qualification, which may lead to the option to continue to Higher National Certificate (HNC) level.David Barber, British Energy head of technical training, said: \"This is the first time that we have brought all of our apprentices together under one training regime, and we think the benefits for them and for us as a company will be tremendous.\"The training experience they get ensures that the technicians we return to our stations will be a real asset. Our world-class safety standards, values and expectations are built into the program. We are developing mature and capable employees who will come back to our power stations to make a major contribution both in the stations we operate today and in any new nuclear-power stations we run in the future.\"\nFull life-skills program: Flagship's managing director, Ron Sams, said: \"By integrating the necessary technical training with a full life-skills program, we are delivering a total training package that will help British Energy to attract and retain the high-quality personnel needed in its industry. This ensures that the company's future technicians will be equipped to maintain the wide range of original design equipment and emerging technology.\"Commodore Al Rymer RN, HMS Sultan, said: \"The program is an excellent example of the public sector and industry working together for the benefit of the country as a whole. These apprentices are taught using the Navy's custom-built engineering training facilities.\"Flagship Training Ltd was formed in 1996 when a 15-year contract was signed with the UK Ministry of Defence for partnering the Royal Navy. Flagship's initial role was to market the Royal Navy's training capability to overseas navies, related maritime customers and to industry as a whole. This later grew to encompass the provision of a range of support services to the Royal Navy training establishments.Today, Flagship delivers training technology solutions, support services, facilities management and construction services. A joint venture between BAE Systems and the VT Group, it has a workforce of around 1,600.Based at HMS Sultan, employees at Flagship's nuclear department have first-hand experience in the operation, maintenance and decommissioning of nuclear plant. Working as an integral part of the UK's nuclear propulsion program, the nuclear department offers almost 50 nuclear-training courses, ranging from one-day introductory programs to a one-year full-time MSc in nuclear technology and safety management.\nThe example of Mark Gorry: One former apprentice, Mark Gorry, is now station director at Hunterston B. Located south of Largs, Ayrshire, on the west coast of Scotland, the two-reactor powerstation is capable of supplying the electricity needs of more than a million homes.He joined the former Central Electricity Generating Board from school in 1975 as a technician apprentice, and was moved up to the professional-engineer training scheme (honors degree) at University of Aston, graduating in 1981. He worked in various operations and engineering positions at Heysham 1, Wylfa, and Heysham 2, becoming senior electrical engineer at Heysham 2 in 1990 then senior production services engineer and later change leader.After spells as human resource manager, technical and safety manager and engineering manager, he became a station director, at Dungeness B, in 2001. In addition to his honors degree in energy technology, he holds an MBA, and is a chartered engineer, and a fellow of both the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Institution of Nuclear Engineers.\"There is nothing to prevent any of our apprentices from going on to emulate Mark's success,\" Sue Fletcher concluded.\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest editor, wrote this article.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to describe a programme that will see some 250 British Energy apprentices trained at the Royal Navy's training partner, Flagship, over the next seven years.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper details the background to the contract, the organization and content of the programme and the prospects for the apprentices when they are qualified.\nFindings: - The paper reveals that each intake will spend the best part of two years undertaking the Flagship programme, followed by an additional two years at their home power stations until they are fully qualified. Apprentices are appointed into the maintenance departments at each of the company's sites. Their training covers electrical, mechanical or instrumentation skills, plus life skills. Following successful completion of their first year, all apprentices are streamed into their three separate engineering disciplines and focus on trade-specific training and completion of academic qualifications. Upon completion of the four-year apprenticeship, they are awarded a modern apprenticeship as well as a National Vocational Qualification or Scottish Vocational Qualification level 3 and a National Certificate qualification, which may lead to the option to continue to Higher National Certificate (HNC) level.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides a good example of a partnership working.\nOriginality/value: - The paper emphasizes that the programme is as much about apprentices' ability to make judgements and to challenge things as about the technical side.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Intention to implement a smoking cessation intervention in Dutch general practice	[ "Cigarettes", "General practice", "Health education", "The Netherlands" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Advice from general practitioners (GPs) has a significant positive effect on smoking cessation rates, even if this advice is brief (Lancaster et al., 2000). GPs recognise the importance of smoking cessation activities and indicate that these activities at least partly belong in the general practice (McAvoy et al., 1999; McEwen and West, 2001). Nevertheless, GPs report barriers such as time constraints and concern about damaging the doctor-patient relationship with health education activities related to smoking cessation (Hoving et al., 2006; Yarnall et al., 2003). They prefer to discuss cessation only with patients with smoking-related problems or patients already motivated to quit smoking (Coleman et al., 2000; Coleman and Wilson, 1999; Helgason and Lund, 2002; Senore et al., 1999).These implementation barriers suggest that an innovation with a self-help nature and a minimum of effort from the GP will be of practical use in the general practice and is therefore most likely to be implemented on a larger scale. Computer-generated tailoring is an expert system that meets these recommendations. It offers general practices an opportunity to provide their smoking patients with an individualised cessation method without a specific role for practice staff. Dijkstra et al. (1998) tested the impact of an expert system in a randomised control trial. This expert system, based on the I-Change Model, was developed by the University of Maastricht in cooperation with the Dutch Foundation on Smoking and Health (Stivoro, 2006). Results indicated that the expert system had a significant positive effect on smoking cessation rates in a sample of self-selected subjects. Smoking patients who use the expert system filled in a questionnaire containing 54 personal questions on smoking and smoking cessation. This questionnaire acted as a screening instrument. Smokers sent their filled-in questionnaire by mail to the national processing centre. There, answers from the questionnaire were entered into the expert system. The expert system consisted of a feedback library with messages related to the topics in the questionnaire. Only messages relevant for the individual smoker appeared in their feedback, a written letter consisting of three to five pages. This feedback was then sent to their home address.In order for the expert system to reach smoking patients, it has to be implemented by GPs and their staff. As this study was partly focused on cognitive factors of intention to implement an innovation, a model in which these factors are more prominently present was used as the theoretical framework for this study: the I-Change Model (De Vries et al., 2003). This model incorporates several cognitive models, such as the Transtheoretical Model (Prochaska et al., 1997) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). The I-Change model states that the intention to change behaviour is determined by predisposing factors (behavioural, psychological, biological, social cultural factors), awareness factors (knowledge, cues to action, risk perception), information factors (message, channel, source) and motivational factors (attitude, social norm, self-efficacy). The intention to change in combination with an individual's abilities and experienced barriers influence the likelihood of accomplishing the desired behaviour change. Its predecessor, the ASE Model (De Vries et al., 1988) has been used previously in studies concerned with the implementation of health education programmes (Paulussen et al., 1995).The I-Change Model recognises that offering an opportunity to try out the expert system (trialability) could encourage the transition from adoption (planning to start using an intervention) to implementation (embedding an intervention into daily practice). This research aimed to study factors related to this transition among Dutch general practices after a trialability opportunity.\nMethods: Respondents and recruitment\nResults: Sample\nDiscussion: GPs had a more positive intention towards implementing the expert system than practice assistants; eight GPs versus 19 practice assistants were not inclined to further implement the expert system. Lock et al. (2000) also found that GPs involved in an alcohol screening programme had more positive attitudes towards the programme than the primary health care receptionists involved (Lock et al., 2000). This could be due to the fact that contact persons in most participating practices were practice assistants. The delegation of this task to the practice assistant might be involuntary, thus influencing the practice assistants' attitude towards the expert system. Also, as the recruitment for participating practices in the trial was focused on GPs, practice assistants may have felt overlooked. In combination with a perceived, possible involuntary, increase in workload this might have caused a less positive attitude towards the expert system and therefore less motivation to continue using the expert system after the trial in the group of practice assistants, compared to the group of GPs.A more positive social norm towards smoking cessation activities in general practice and stronger self-efficacy expectations to use the expert system appear to positively influence the intention to use the expert system in the future as well. These findings are in line with the outline of the I-Change Model, which states that attitude, social influence and self-efficacy have an influence on the intention to change or maintain certain behaviour, in this case, the continuation of using the expert system. The high percentage concerning explained variance of the model supports this hypothesis. Practices that actively pointed out the possibility of using the expert system to their smoking clients were more likely to intend to keep using the expert system. It might be that a somewhat active role of practice staff increases involvement with the expert system.This study is subject to some limitations. First, although the sample described in this paper is representative for the population of 75 general practices that were involved in a trial concerning the expert system, all practices had already agreed to adopt the expert system for the period of the trial and practice staff might therefore have viewed the expert system more positive than the average Dutch general practice would have. However, it would be more likely that the differences between intenders and non-intenders would increase or multiply rather than the other way around. The characteristics of non-intenders we found in this study are also likely to be applicable for general practices that did not even want to adopt the expert system for as long as the trial period; all the more reason to take notice of these characteristics. Second, it is possible that staff members were influenced by each other. In 33 general practices, opinions of GPs as well as assistant could be assessed. However, in those practices, no significant correspondence between responses of GPs and assistants were found. Third, this study focused on the intention to further implement the expert system, rather than the action of implementation itself. Even though the theoretical model we used for this study assumes that behaviour follows from the intention to perform this behaviour, it is also recognised that barriers can prevent intention to develop into action. However, the expert system was set up to diminish at least practical barriers, such as time restraints and GP's reluctance of addressing all smoking patients as much as possible.\nConclusion: This study has identified a number of determinants important in the decision whether or not to implement a smoking cessation expert system by general practice staff.It seems that a somewhat active role of general practice staff positively influences the intention to continue using the expert system in the future. Therefore, bypassing the practice staff entirely does not seem prudent, especially since research has shown that the GP's health advice increases smoking cessation rates. However, these investments in time and effort might have their limits. Further research could determine investments by general practice staff needed to create some degree of ownership, but does not exceed the extent of investment staff is willing to make. Also, the specific role of the GP in the effectiveness of general practice-based smoking cessation advice should be studied, in order to determine whether the delegation of tasks to other staff members within the general practice might influence the positive effect of an advice concerning smoking cessation through general practice (Lancaster et al., 2000).General practice staff willing to continue using the expert system can be characterised as having a more positive attitude towards the expert system, as well as a higher confidence in being able to use the expert system in the future. When we assume that the expert system is an innovation worth using by GPs, it is desirable for the expert system to be implemented by the entire population of Dutch GPs. Rogers indicates that social influence through members who have already implemented an innovation is important for the continuation of the process by the entire population (Rogers, 1995). This is in line with the finding in our study that intenders perceive a social norm more towards engaging in smoking cessation activities than non-intenders.Overburdening staff could mean that the expert system will be rejected before it is even seriously considered for implementation. If discussing these and other barriers during the development or adjustment of smoking cessation methods with the persons who will actually be responsible for implementing these methods, motivation to work with the method can be increased and the base for ownership can be created.Although there is a difference between intention to perform certain behaviour and the actual behaviour, if intenders continue to implement the expert system, they are in the position to motivate and stimulate other general practices to start using the expert system. If the trialability of the expert system is increased, a more positive attitude towards the expert system can be established, as well as an increased confidence to eventually implement the expert system into daily practice. By inviting their peers who have not yet implemented the expert system for a demonstration or by sharing their experiences with the expert system, implementers might be able to increase non-implementers' interest and self-efficacy expectations and provide a forum to address misconceptions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper seeks to identify determinants of general practice staff's intention to further implement a smoking cessation expert system, a computer-generated tailored intervention, following their participation in an effectiveness study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Written questionnaires based on the I-Change Model, a socio-cognitive model, were left in general practices where the expert system had been trialled. Respondents intending to continue their use (intenders, n=62) were compared to those who did not (non-intenders, n=27).\nFindings: - Eighty-nine individuals from 55 practices responded (73 per cent). GPs were more often intenders than general practice assistants. Responses from the same practice were not significantly related to each other. Intention to continue using the expert system was determined by a more positive attitude towards the expert system, a social norm towards engaging in smoking cessation activities, and higher self-efficacy. Practice staff who had actively offered the expert system to their patients were more likely to be an intender.\nOriginality/value: - Cognitive factors and trial involvement determined intention to further implement the expert system. Discussing barriers with practice staff could increase motivation to implement and ownership. Intenders can aid the implementation process by sharing experiences with non-intending peers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Organic companies' business models: emerging profiles in Italian bio-districts	[ "Benefits", "Business model", "Districts", "Organic companies" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organic production is defined by the European Commission Regulation 834/2007 as: \"an overall system of farm management and food production that combines the best environmental practices, a high level of biodiversity, the preservation of natural resources, the application of high animal welfare standards and a production method in line with the preference of certain consumers for products produced using natural substances and processes.\" The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) defines organic agriculture as a \"holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity\" (IFOAM, 2005). Thus, organic farming is not only a sustainable method of production but also a holistic approach that can create multiple benefits, which can potentially contribute to territorial development (Franceschelli et al., 2018; Vincent and Fleury, 2015).\n2. Business models in agriculture: literature overview: For the purposes of the current research, it is valuable to start the analysis from the general characteristics of BMs, as it is a useful tool for understanding the structure and consequent value chain of the studied companies, with a specific focus on the agricultural sector.\n3. Research on organic companies' BMs: the literature gap: In this section, the main goal is to understand the state of the art in terms of research about organic companies' BMs and the role of districts.\n4. Peculiarities of organic companies' BMs: empirical analysis: 4.1 Research design and methods\n5. Discussion and conclusion: Due to the relevance of the organic companies for the local economy and sustainable development, the research took these kinds of agricultural companies into consideration, specifically those belonging to organic districts, as such districts can empower organic companies, enabling them to achieve competitive advantages and an integrated approach to sustainable development toward shared objectives. However, despite the relevance and the growth of organic companies, these companies are not particularly investigated in the literature, especially from the economic and managerial points of view. Indeed, from the literature analysis a gap emerged; no results were found about the BMs of organic enterprises or organic districts, underlining a twofold gap in the literature.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the \"organic\" phenomenon within a sample of companies and try to depict the main business model (BM) features and profiles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology used for the current research is twofold: first, a literature analysis has been conducted in order to highlight the gap in the existing literature. Then, the different BM profiles were investigated through a survey questionnaire conducted among a sample of Italian organic companies and organic districts. The evidence from the literature review supported the researchers during the empirical phase.\nFindings: From the literature review, it emerged that studies on the BMs of organic companies and organic districts need a deep analysis and a literature gap on this topic has emerged. From the BM point of view, clustering sheds light on proactive companies, which are characterized by a higher level of education among entrepreneurs, greater investments in the business and the sale of products within and outside of the domestic market.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations include the number of answers collected through surveys and the focus on a single country.\nPractical implications: The main practical implication focuses on the regulatory bodies that should better understand the BMs characteristics implementing adequate policies for the development of organic companies and districts.\nOriginality/value: The main practical implication focuses on the regulatory bodies that should better understand the BM characteristics and implement adequate policies for the development of organic companies and districts.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
FLM to select suitable maintenance strategy in process industries using MISO model	[ "Fuzzy logic", "Maintenance", "Modelling", "Process management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The global competition characterized by both a technology push and a market pull has forced the companies across the globe to achieve world-class performance through continuous improvement in their products and processes. Today, various innovative techniques and management practices such as total preventive maintenance (TPM), total quality management (TQM), business process reengineering (BPR), materials requirement planning (MRP), enterprise resource planning (ERP), just in time (JIT), etc. are becoming popular among the business houses. However, benefits accrued from these innovative practices have often been limited because of unreliable or inflexible equipment. Therefore, the management of many companies (such as Procter and Gamble, Dupont, Ford and Eastman Chemicals) have looked towards adoption of effective and efficient maintenance strategies such as condition-based maintenance (CBM), TPM and reliability centered maintenance (RCM) over the traditional firefighting reactive maintenance approaches (Tagiri, 1992; Coettzee, 1999; Carter, 2001; Swanson, 2001; Wayenbergh and Pintelon, 2002).According to study reported by Mobley (1990), 15-40 percent of total production cost is attributed to meet maintainability requirements (spares, labor, and material costs). As such many companies think maintenance as an inevitable source of cost. For these companies the maintenance operations have a corrective function, which are to be normally executed in emergency/fire-fighting conditions. This practice not only increases the total down time but also hampers production. In the present time due to automation and increased sophistication (put forward by CAD, CAM, CIM, JIT, FMS), this form of maintenance intervention is no longer acceptable. The maintenance function has undergone a sea change, which has forced the maintenance managers to pay more attention towards adoption and practice of suitable maintenance strategies for each piece of equipment or system. It is particularly difficult for them to choose the best mix of maintenance polices as selection criteria involves several attributes such as investment required, failure cost, MTBF and MTTR, environmental and operating conditions related to the facilities. Many of these factors are not easy to evaluate because of uncertainties associated with estimation of the failure/repair characteristics of the components/units. Further, age, adverse operating conditions and the vagaries of manufacturing/production processes affects each part/unit of system differently. However, it may be difficult or even impossible to establish rational database to accommodate all operating and environmental conditions. In the absence of accurate data, rough (approximate) estimates of probabilities can be worked out. The estimates provided by experts or engineers are inherently subjective and to establish a rational method for reliability assessment, such subjective estimates should be merged with statistical randomness. The field of approximate reasoning provides necessary help in coping with above discussed situations. Among the inexact reasoning methods fuzzy methodology acts as one of the most viable and effective tool as it helps to cope with imprecise, uncertain and subjective information in more consistent and logical manner.Recently, fuzzy methodology has been widely applied in fault diagnosis (Hura and Atwood, 1988); structural reliability (Brown and Yao, 1983); software reliability (Cai et al., 1991); human reliability (Onisawa, 1988); safety and risk engineering (Ruxton and Wang Jin, 2001; Keller and Kara-Zaitri, 1989); and quality control (Liang and Weng, 2002; Cen, 1996).In the words of Cai (1996), \"Undoubtedly fuzzy methodology in system failure engineering is noticeable and growing area and is still lying in speculative research period and is premature. From a speculative research period to an engineering practice period lot of work has to be done. As such the use of fuzzy methodology lacks online engineering research. There are various kinds of problems, which need fuzzy methodology to help\".To abridge the gap between theoretical and practical online research, the author has used the fuzzy linguistic modeling (FLM) - an innovative approach, to identify and select the most informative and efficient maintenance strategy by translating imprecise, vague, incomplete and subjective information (obtained through historical records, maintenance log books, expert judgments) regarding the component failure/repair characteristics into precise numerical terms using the principles of fuzzy logic.\n2 Maintenance strategies: The section presents a brief account of various aspects of maintenance strategies, which are investigated using FLM approach in the study.2.1 Reactive or breakdown maintenance (BDM)\n3 Basic notions on fuzzy approach: The section presents only those basic concepts related to fuzzy set theory, which are relevant to study.3.1 Crisp versus fuzzy sets\n4 An illustrative example: To assess and identify the effectiveness and efficiency of various maintenance strategies, using FLM an illustrative example concerning process industry is considered. The failure causes of gears (which are used as a means of power transmission in rotating as well as reciprocating equipments centrifugal pumps, motors in process or chemical industries) were identified. The failure of gears depends upon:* operating conditions;* environmental conditions; and* nature of maintenance practices followed.The operating conditions include loading modes for instance, continuous or intermittent, partial or full load (rpm), and temperature and pressure levels. The environmental conditions include parameters such as ambient temperature, humidity level, lubricant temperature and presence of dirt or dust in the surroundings. The maintenance activities include, operating and maintenance (O&M) staff skill, their expertise to diagnose and rectify the faults, quality and availability of spares and lubricants used.4.1 Evaluation methodology\n5 Conclusion: The main objective of the paper was to select the best maintenance strategy or policy-using FLM. From the results it is observed that aggressive (TPM) and proactive (CBM) maintenance strategy gives high score for PI as compared to traditional, reactive (BDM) maintenance strategy. This necessitates the importance of CBM as one of the most effective and efficient maintenance strategy for detecting failures with the help of data acquisition systems which allows the maintenance personnel/process engineers to administer or exercise necessary controls before a failure can occur. Also the implementation of TPM which includes company wide approach to plant equipment and asset care with the involvement and active participation of all to continuously improve the performance - effectiveness as well as efficiency provides valuable information by OEE computation, which is product of availability, speed and quality.As there are number of equipments associated with industrial process facilities such as compressors, evaporators, pumps, air coolers, heat exchangers, etc. and maintenance managers are always confronted with the dilemma of adoption and practice of suitable maintenance strategy. The proposed approach can be extended to assist the maintenance managers/experts to identify the most informative and efficient maintenance strategy for each piece of equipment or system. Further, a company wide maintenance plan can be made by clustering the components, machines or parts in homogenous groups on the basis of their maintainability requirements. Hopefully, FLM - a knowledge-based approach used to select suitable maintenance strategy will not only help the organization(s) to improve availability of equipment by minimizing the number of failures but also reduction in operation and maintenance (O&M) costs through planned maintenance actions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To help the maintenance managers/decision makers to select a suitable maintenance strategy for the components/parts associated with the system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An approach based on fuzzy linguistic modeling is used to select the most effective and efficient maintenance strategy. Three input parameters, i.e. historical data (I1), present data (I2) and competence of data (I3) related to failures of a component (gears), were taken to judge the effectiveness of the nature of maintenance strategies. These parameters are represented as members of a fuzzy set, combined by matching them against (if-then) rules in rule base, evaluated in fuzzy inference system (Mamdani, min-max type) and then defuzzified to assess the capability or effectiveness of maintenance strategy.\nFindings: - The results show how the fuzzy logic approach translates vague, ambiguous, qualitative and imprecise information into numerical/quantitative terms, which helps to identify the most informative and efficient maintenance strategy. From the computed performance index values for each maintenance strategy it is observed that proactive (CBM) and aggressive maintenance strategy (TPM) are far better compared with traditional, reactive (BDM) maintenance strategy.\nOriginality/value: - The paper integrates fuzzy logic modeling - a knowledge-based approach with database obtained through maintenance logs, historical records, equipment manuals and expert judgement, which might prove beneficial for maintenance managers/engineers/practitioners to select a suitable maintenance strategy for each piece of equipment associated with the systems.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of social media in negotiating identity during the process of acculturation	[ "Surveillance", "Technology", "Identity", "Social media", "Interview", "Acculturation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: I love and I hate Facebook. I love it because I can keep in contact with my friends back home, join lots of groups and societies that I am a member of now, and post the amazing stuff that I am doing in London. But I hate it because my mum, dad and aunties back home are watching everything I do. They once phoned me up angry that there were pictures of me drinking alcohol when I should be studying. I am constantly worried about what they will see so I make a lot of effort to control the photos of me that are posted and tagged.\nTheoretical background: Identity\nMethodology: This study explores connections between identity and social media use among transient migrants in the UK. Participants came from various countries and had been in the UK between one and eight years. Most of the participants came from developing countries, which may shape their experiences of the acculturation process to the host culture. Thus, for life-stage and location reasons, identity issues, including \"possible selves\" (Markus and Nurius, 1986), are likely to be particularly salient for transient migrants. Furthermore, their identities are likely to be played out on social media, given their greater tendency than older individuals to be social networkers (Pew Research Center, 2016). For these reasons, international students' accounts of their experiences may offer rich insights into the role of social media on the identities of acculturating migrants making the transition to adulthood.\nFindings: First, we illustrate how social media as a crucial Information Technology serves as a medium, enabling transient migrants to manage and express their identities during the acculturation process. Social media offers the opportunity for identity outcomes aligned with maintenance of the home culture, assimilation of the host culture and also integration of the two cultures. Second, we show how social media is a determinant of identity issues, in that participants' identities become contested as they are subject to simultaneous surveillance by diverse acculturation agents. Third, we then show how social media use is a consequence of these identity negotiations and challenges, identifying four strategies for identity management that were evidenced by the participants.\nDiscussion and conclusion: ICT has been known to play a crucial role in users' identity projects. However, to our knowledge, no research until now focussed on the role of social media in the identity negotiations of acculturating users. In the context of transient migrants, we address this gap. Specifically, we provide three contributions to knowledge on the study of identity within IS. First, the usage or cognition of social media is all a medium, determinant and consequence of identity.\nImplications: Several implications for practitioners arise from this study. The findings highlight the essential role social media plays in identity negotiation of its users. Managers of such technologies are quick to acknowledge the opportunities their tools provide for identity maintenance and increased well-being of users, though are more reluctant to concede the challenges that threaten positive identity activities - such as the multiple-audience problem, an issue of social privacy (Joinson et al., 2011). This issue has become more pressing with recent announcements by Facebook that their algorithm will favour social over commercial content more than before (Wong, 2018). Managers should consider the dynamic role of social media in the identity projects of users, not just as a medium, but also as a determinant and a consequence. By taking a step back, and considering holistically how their tools interplay with user identity and privacy, they can help design tools to mitigate the negative effects of social privacy invasions, which could increase the usage of their technologies.\nLimitations and future research directions: As shown, a wide range of factors shape migrant identities and acculturation experiences. Our findings may be limited to migrants who are young adults, with high levels of education and are therefore experienced social media users conscious of the need for identity management through such platforms. We invite future research to attend to other forms of migration and migrants from different socioeconomic backgrounds where identity may not be viewed as so intrinsically associated with social media.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to an understanding of the role of social media in negotiating and managing identity for transient migrants relating to the home and host culture during the acculturation process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Focussing on international students in the UK, this paper reports on findings from a qualitative study involving interviews with 27 transient migrants about their social media use and the negotiation of their identity online.\nFindings: This paper highlights the multifaceted role that social media plays in the identity negotiations of transient migrants and it offers three theoretical contributions. First, the authors show that social media serves as a medium, consequence and determinant of identity. Second, provide four strategies for identity management are provided: boundary management, access management, online content management and offline content management. Third, contextualised support is provided for a reciprocal relationship between the different identity-related roles played by social media.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper highlights the complex role of social media for identity within the acculturation process for transient migrants. Identity contestation may be salient for young student migrants, especially where there is a large cultural distance between the home and host culture. Identity negotiations and struggles may not be salient with older migrants or migrants who have migrated for different reasons or where there is a small cultural distance between the home and host culture.\nPractical implications: This paper offers recommendations for social media site designers for enhancing the users experience during acculturation by guiding the navigation with identity management strategies as well as to highlight the possible predicaments of not managing their identity online.\nOriginality/value: Based on qualitative research with transient migrants using social media during acculturation, the paper provides a theoretical model of the role and reciprocal relationship of social media for identity, serving the role as a medium, consequence and determinant. The paper incorporates four identity management strategies that migrants can use on social media.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Temporal experiences of e-learning by distance learners	[ "Higher education", "E-learning", "Online learning", "Distance learning", "Temporal", "Temporal culture", "Time preferences", "Polychronic" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The introduction of technology enhanced learning alters the use of both teachers' and learners' time (Laurillard, 2007) and yet the role of time is rarely highlighted in educational research into e-learning (Thorpe, 2006). This is surprising given that the literature concerning the use of technology in e-learning is replete with references to time in the form of synchronous and asynchronous interaction. Where time is discussed it is often in the form of time management (Kordaki, 2011) or the time it takes to learn new skills and manage new forms of communication (Salmon, 2000). Barbera and Clara (2012) in their systematic literature review highlight that time has been neglected in e-learning research even though it is often noted as a key requirement in general teaching and learning, and that the use of technology is frequently offered as a solution to temporal difficulties. Many e-learning tasks are described in terms of their temporal characteristics (synchronous or asynchronous) and the temporal flexibility afforded by e-learning programmes is often promoted as a benefit to the learner. However, Allan (2007) argues that the flexible approach that e-learning offers may be undermined if the concept of time is overlooked or not made explicit.\nIndividual temporal perceptions: The distinction between monochronicity (doing one thing at a time) and polychronicity (doing more than one thing at a time or in parallel) was first examined by Hall (1983) who used these concepts to describe the \"temporal personality\" of individuals, and even of entire nations. Hall (1983) argued that polychronic individuals view time as an infinite resource and interpersonal relations are at least as important for them as the task to be performed. They undertake to do several things at a time and are strongly oriented towards the present. They are less bound to a timetable or a procedure. In contrast monochronic individuals view time as a commodity that can be wasted and therefore must be spent wisely. Their extreme concentration or dedication to one particular task reduces in importance the need for interpersonal communication.\nTime and online learning: Online learning removes individuals and processes from traditional spaces and times (Giddens, 1992), so that space and time become \"distant\" from each other (Lash and Urry, 1994). In its use of technology, e-learning disrupts the temporal order by altering the ways in which individuals structure their study patterns. It highlights a move towards more \"task-oriented\" learning where work is focused on the learning task, not the time taken to carry it out. Rather than fixed study hours based on clock time, study time lengthens or shortens according to the learning tasks undertaken. This presents a challenge to the western perspective of time as increasingly time is seen as subjective and a social construction of the actors in the organisational universe (Benabou, 1999). Those learners working monochronically would seek to structure activities and plan for assessments by allocating specific slots of time to each assessment and learning activity whereas learners working polychronically would place less value on temporal order, accept assessments and other activities as they arise and engage in multiple activities simultaneously (Barley, 1988).\nThe study: The study focuses on research conducted in early 2011 on the experiences of e-learners studying their first module on an undergraduate top-up degree programme in business and management with a modern UK university. The research was a pilot for a larger research study into the temporal experiences of e-learners. The programme was delivered through distance learning using online resources, with most learners studying their course materials at home.\nFindings and discussion: Analysis from assignments revealed that all learners were focused on time as all of them identified time and its management as a key to their learning. In their discussions of time the learners outlined their intention to plan and manage time through a clock time vision where they had commodified time (Lee and Liebenau, 1999). Referring to the need to \"save time\", \"not waste time\" and to \"spend time wisely\" all the learners discussed the need for time management and a plan of how they would spend their time. However, there were examples in the assignments and discussion boards of two learners moving to a more subjective temporal perspective (Benabou, 1999) where students expressed their own reflections such as \"getting lost in some interesting reading and realising I had spent ages just on one aspect\" and \"noticing how boring lectures seem to last an age\". As Barley (1988) noted the learners acted monochronically by planning and specifying set times that they would spend studying and most referred to this time as \"college time\" or \"uni-time\".\nConclusions: Although this research is only a small exploratory study it has highlighted that new technologies have prompted a change in the temporal culture of learning and therefore educational institutions need to carefully consider the design and delivery of e-learning programmes. Online learning alters the temporal culture from discontinuous to continuous where tutor led learning activities are moved from a specific place and clock time to task-based activities where spatial location, timing and temporal duration become the responsibility of the learner. This has a number of implications for both the e-learner and the educational institution. If individual learners have different time preferences ranging from monochronic to polychronic and therefore different temporal approaches to e-learning, then higher education institutions need to consider how all e-learners can be supported. Learners with a polychronic time perspective and a tendency to unintentional or blended approaches to e-learning will need to be given different types of support and guidance than those with a monochronic view and a preference for a more rigid planned approach. Recommendations for the future design and delivery of online programmes and in particular for the module studied in this research have been made by the researcher. Module tutors have been asked to make explicit the time to be spent on learning activities. In particular the timing and duration for discussion board activity has been incorporated into all modules. A recommendation to include some discussion of temporal preferences during course induction has also been suggested.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore experiences of e-learners in relation to their time preferences, and to examine how technology changes temporal culture in e-learning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A pilot study using multiple methods of data collection to provide a rich picture of the experience of e-learners in relation to temporal flexibility. Taking a narrative approach it analysed data from a survey, time tracking data as well as data from online discussion boards, learners' assignments and short telephone interviews.\nFindings: The study found e-learners may experience temporal culture shock when starting to study online for the first time. It highlights the need to explore an individual's time preference and to consider the temporal culture of the e-learning programme.\nResearch limitations/implications: It highlights that the issue of time is still missing from educational studies and suggests that temporal aspects are included in e-learning research studies. This is a small exploratory study but it indicates the need for further research to explore the potential for temporal culture shock and influence of e-learner time preferences.\nPractical implications: Designing an e-learning environment for learners needs to consider learner time preferences to ensure that temporal flexibility is a realised benefit, not a barrier to learning. The temporal culture of the online learning environment also needs to be made explicit so that learner expectations can be managed.\nOriginality/value: It contributes to the literature on e-learning in the higher education context by providing a temporal lens to explore learner experiences. It is of value to educationalists and learning technologists designing, delivering or evaluating e-learning programmes. Online learners may also benefit from its findings.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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